The Green Beret Survival Guide (Roger's Rules) by Bob Mayer

Uncertainty and lack of control How do you deal with uncertainty? If you don’t do well with it, start wrapping your brain around the fact that a survival situation is uncertainty to the max. Are you a control freak? Accept that you will have little control and little information in such a situation other than your immediate circumstances.

Extreme environment Later in this book I’ll describe specific survival issues for extreme environments. One out of every six people who go up Mount Everest in an attempt to summit, die. Few people have ever experienced a night out in nature at 15,000 feet and minus 60 degrees. Or a desert at 120 degrees and a blasting sand storm.

Ever wade chest deep through a swamp filled with snakes and alligators? All of those can be additional stressors. As I write this, I can see a Coast Guard helicopter and boats coming to the rescue of a capsized boat in Puget Sound. There was a small craft advisory out this morning, but it’s the first day of boating season. There are people in a survival situation, in cold water and high waves right now. Were they prepared? Did they have their life vests on? It appears not, as the water is dotted with dozens of life rings and vests thrown from boats racing to the rescue.

Hunger and thirst What’s the longest you’ve gone without eating? Do you know how much water you need to intake in your current climate every 24 hours to survive?

Being hungry and thirsty not only debilitates you physically, it stresses you because you will get more and more consumed with preserving and gathering water and food.

Fatigue People have literally fallen asleep into death. They become so tired and dispirited, that they curl up in a ball. There are situations where you simply cannot afford to fall asleep, such as when you are on guard duty for your team.

In the movie, The Way Back, you can watch as some of the members of the