Do you know Situational Awareness?

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 6/11/2018 | D Donchess

[w1n1]

Situational awareness is the perception of environmental elements which translate to being aware of your surrounding.
This is important for being prepared to defend yourself and your family.
Which is becoming more important these days.
Having this edge can make a differences in your decision making while in a fight or avoiding one.
We don’t necessary have to train to be a Ninja to one with nature, but that is the idea.
Don't view this as 007 fantasy or paranoia, but just heighten alertness as part of your lifestyle.

Its true that we train for the worse case scenario to shoot while in a gunfight. But we should train our awareness more which can help us better at employing those shooting skills.
Being aware and observant is using your eyes and hearing your mind is looking for those red flags in your environment.
Many soldiers and combat veterans in general come back still in an "orange" state of readiness, which finds themselves always looking around. Its an adjustment from a war environment to a quiet domestic one.
This situational awareness is ingrained into them while on these hot deployments.

Here’s a primer on security for the newbie and refresher for veterans.
Security Setup
One of the things that is taught at the basic level for soldiers is security. You may find this to be very common to LE and regular security functions.
Soldiers are taught that security is 360 degrees and 100% of the time.
Which means that your entire surroundings are a threat and you need to watch them.
This is to help with spotting a threat before it has a chance to hurt you.
When you are watching your surroundings it is important that you keep quiet and quickly scan your surroundings with intense attention to detail.
Watch the little things like the location of hands, where eyes are pointed, how people carry themselves, what they are wearing, etc. Read the rest of this situational awarness story here.
What about you all? Anyone proactively being aware?

[Big Red Badger]

The Hard Look...

Got Ya Number,Punk.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Soon people will have personal security robots. Sounds far fetched, but where guard dogs aren’t allowed, security-bots will be. And stores and restaurants will have them too.

What’s spooky is that robotic police are already being used in China.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I realize it must be PhotoShopped but...that there is one seriosly huge Great White.

Hooper: "He's a 20 footer."
Quint: "Twenty five. Three tons of 'im."

[buffaloguy]

I always sit in a a position which allows me observe who is entering room or business. Extra seconds count.

[GOP Poet]

I understand. I too can get overwhelmed with stimuli. I've taken to practicing a lot more meditation in the last few years for focus and to calm the mind--which has been a big help in many ways.

But took it up as I'm a performing musician and singer and have to stay somewhat on task on the stage. lol. But a bit of unpredictability and spontaneity is very compelling on stage as well.

I love how you phrased it when you said, "Too much awareness is a form of mental illness." So true.

Although many of us that can ride those edges, can learn how to use it for artistic or intellectual advantage. Sometimes a gift. Sometimes a curse ;D.

[GOP Poet]

Nice! And very true!

[SkyDancer]

Bottom line: When something doesn’t seem right, it is. Even though the Airbus 321 I fly is pretty much all automatic I’m still scanning, still looking outside because you never know. Always be aware of your surroundings, don’t become complacent. As my uncle always says: “Check 6”

[GOP Poet]

Definately. I remember when I first got married. I got into a conflict with my husband as we were in the top of a parking garage late at night just getting out of an elevator. We were walking to our car, when not far behind us came a group of young men out of a separate elevator after us.

I responded viserally with fear. My husband didn't even register fear. I rushed to the car without obviously running and he was super annoyed. That made my fear even worse as I felt these men were a threat to our safety. We fought all the way home. As he had no empathy for my situation and I feared my husband threatened my safety.

A spoke with my mom about this and she mentioned as a woman I probably have a bit of a heightened awareness in situations he as a man might not react to.

I found that fascinating and something I hadn't considered.

As a young lady, I also had been attacked several times. So I also had a history of experiences he hadn't.

Yet. He was street savvy. So I was confused about his lack of concern with this group of men (As my fear about their threat was very real.) until my mom mentioned the possibly difference of gender awareness in certain scenarios.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

God bless you for riding the wave of awareness.

I try to as well.

In the extremes, we are inspired.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

‘I always sit in a a position which allows me observe who is entering room or business.’

Just like Wild Bill Hickock. He also kept his back to a wall except for the last game he played. Shot in the back.

But me, I like to see a view. Even if I have to sit in the car.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Women tend to soak more in than men. Details.

I was trained by my general manager [when promoted] to be more aware, more curious, even nosey. Before that I was highly focused on the job and proud of it.

[Antioch]

When I was younger I rode a bicycle across America and I needed a high SA at all times. 99% of Americans were awesome, kind and generous to me but there was the one percent out there that was scary. I remember being alone way the hell out there on a road in the Blackfoot Indian Reservation when I saw a car full of bad hombres pass by me and pull over a thousand feet ahead of me. I noticed and immediately stopped and just waited with that distance between us. It was a tense waiting game for 15 minutes before they moved on. Out there completely alone, there really isnt any law. You have to be hyper aware.

[Night Hides Not]

I’ve avoided being robbed/beaten/assaulted several times in my life by giving a hard look at my would-be attacker.

I never thought of myself as a physically imposing specimen (5'10", 185-200 lbs), until I my First Sergeant said something to me nearly 35 years ago. This man was Sergeant Rock: 6'4", 200 lbs, negative body fat.

He said, "Sir, there are times when I'm afraid of you, and when I see your eyes look like a rattlesnake's just before it strikes, I warn everybody to stay away from the 'old man'".

For those unaware of military parlance, "old man" is the affectionate moniker for the company/battery commander, no matter the age (I had just turned 30). It was derived from the post Civil War era, when promotions were few and far between in the military. It was not uncommon for men in their 40s & 50s to be Captains.

I applied that lesson over the years, and it's kept me out of potentially harmful situations. Like you, "the look" remains about the only tool in the toolbox.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I lived in Miami for 11 years. You have to be aware. Mr.GG2 is hyper vigilant.

[rlmorel]

I found it interesting that she had access to more information, being a woman, I think she had the following data points I didn’t have:

1.) Young girl on hot day in long overcoat
a-Dance studio nearby, feet in “position 1”, leggings on lower legs, concludes girl taking lessons, three things I didn’t know.

b-Young girl with overcoat-probably wearing dance leotards underneath, self conscious about body, so wearing long heavy coat instead of windbreaker to cover body. That explains it.

As a result, she processed all this immediately and thought no more about it, all in less than probably five seconds (before I asked her) while my unconscious mind was still poking at my conscious mind. I would have never considered she was wearing that long coat because she was probably 15-16 and still uncomfortable with her body, but my wife (being a woman...:) took it as second nature.

I found it illuminating in retrospect...

[rlmorel]

I had a discussion with a former Army noncom about this, and he said (which I already knew) that one of the problems guys have when they come back from combat is being unable to turn it off.

I understand that...it must get very ingrained into you when your life and the lives of those around you depend on keeping it sharp.

[matchgirl]

Recently I was a volunteer a Veterans Standdown event and I spoke with a woman whose husband was a Viet Nam Vet. She told me that he got up several times a night to make sure that all the doors and windows were locked.
When she talked to his psychiatrist, he told her that her husband was still “checking his perimeter”.

[gigster]

I grew up in the City of Detroit and as a habit, whenever I was in a bar or restaurant, I always sat with my back against the nearest available wall and faced the front door, just in case...

[rlmorel]

I would agree for many people we see on the road, that having ears plugged up with music or whatever is not a good thing, but it isn’t for me.

(NOTE: I know this is long, but perhaps you might be able to relate to some of it)

The reason I don’t feel that earphones listening to something are a problem for me is I am focused on my driving. I do, and always have, driven my car defensively as if I am driving a motorcycle. To do that you must be aware of where you are on the road at all times, knowing what is going on around you, and knowing who and what is around you.

As I drive, I constantly scan all three mirrors several times a minute, sometimes more depending on traffic conditions. I know at any time what is around me and in front of me. I have two hands on the wheel, unless one is hanging out in the air...:) If I see a car on a side street, I prepare myself as if they are going to pull out...even if there is no way they would. I maintain my distance and awareness of that distance to the care in front of me. I stay prepared for human unpredictability.

I put a lot of miles on my car, and commute between 2-3 hours a day on average, and do so in a heavily trafficked corridor, so I listen constantly to audiobooks and podcasts...sometimes music. I feel that I am just as safe on the road as I would be if driving a loud motorcycle.

Two things I will not and cannot do: I do not text, and I do not talk on the phone.

Texting speaks for itself. You have to take your eyes off the road and type, so that is a disaster waiting to happen. At 35 mph you are traveling around 50 fps. Every second. In the second or two..or three just to get a word typed, you may have traveled 150 feet!!! I think people who text and drive are stupid and dangerous. I listen to texts if someone texts me, and if I have to answer them, I dictate them. I lose zero SA when I do that.

As for talking on the phone...I have found that something in my brain prevents me from talking on a phone and keeping my situational awareness of the road around me intact. I have thought long and hard about this, and I have concluded there is a processing-related spatial element inside the human brain that is involved. I have no problem talking to someone in the car with me and retaining my SA. I have no problem listening to a text message read to me, nor with dictating a text message. But when I talk on the phone as I have done on rare occasions (I am on call 24x7 and have been for the last 25 years or so...there have been times when I have been paged where I cannot pull off the road) I lose all SA in a snap, nearly instantly. With experience, if I have to take a call like that, I force myself to be hyper-aware of my surroundings, and even then, I keep it to a bare minimum.

I took a call once while trapped in traffic on a two lane rural road with no breakdown area at all, and I got paged. Now, traffic was doing stop and start, with a max speed of 5-10 mph when it did move, so I thought “How dangerous could this be?” So, I took the call, and traffic began moving, so I moved with it as I was talking. No SA, but bubbled between two cars traveling at that speed, how dangerous could that be?

Well...I did not realize it, but my car began drifting ever so slightly to the right. And just at that point, some guy on a bicycle came zooming by on the right, passing the slowed and stopped traffic at top speed. I nearly drifted into the guy’s path, and he let loose with a string of profanity as he zipped by.

When I tell that story, I have people saying “Well, he shouldn’t have been driving his bicycle like that!” and while that is true, it does not relieve me of the personal responsibility of maintaining my SA and driving my vehicle appropriately. And if he had been killed or injured, that would have been on me.

I have thought long about why I cannot talk on the phone and drive, and the answer lies inside the human brain. And I don’t think it is just my brain. All you have to do is watch people talking on the phone in or out of a car to realize that their brain is doing something that is taking over their minds. It is as if there is a spatial/temporal conflict in the brain (not present when talking to someone physically in the vehicle with you) that prevents the brain from processing the spatial situation around you...as if it knows the other person is not there with you, and gets stuck in a loop that blocks incoming information from the eyes, ears, and other senses as it attempts to fix on the person (somewhere) that you are talking to. And I know for a fact it isn’t just me, and this isn’t something new with cell phones.

Have you ever closely watched people talk on land lines? They aren’t there. They are somewhere else. If their phone has a cord, they are diddling around with the cord, or scribbling or doodling things on paper. Their eyes are taking in information, but that info isn’t being processed...and neither is what is coming in over their ears. They are 100% not in that room. So, that is why I think it has something to do with talking with someone who is not physically there with you. Your brain is trying to do something that stops it from doing things the way it should.

So, I don’t don’t text and I don’t talk on the phone. I was driving up the length of the East Coast some years back after visiting a friend in Florida, and I am on the road, and a text comes in. I pull of the road, and it is a text from him, so an answer, and jump back on the road. Then, another one comes in. I pull off the road again, answer the text, jump back on the road and proceed. This happened two or three times, and finally I texted “I am going to be out of touch for a while, I will answer you when I stop...” He just wanted to chat via text. “Where are you?” “What is the weather like there?” and so on. In retrospect it was absolutely ridiculous, pulling off the highway every time...I was being more dangerous just trying not to be dangerous.

With all that said...I readily understand most people do not drive the same way I do. The road is full of people talking and texting, and it bothers me no end. Do I think I am special? I guess I do, but I know what I feel. I am focused in and aware (even when listening to an interesting audiobook) and I am clearly NOT when talking on the phone.

[rlmorel]

I believe that. I have never been in combat, but came aboard a ship only a few months after they had a collision with another ship that killed eight sailors.

They stressed that we had to know how to get out of any space we found ourselves in, and to do it in pitch blackness because out lives could depend on it. And they had very fresh experience to make that point. As a young sailor, I took it very seriously.

That was over forty years ago, but to this day, when we go to a hotel, as we walk to the room, I take note of how to get there, and how to get to the nearest exit to the outside.

I keep clothes and a flashlight next to the bed at all times, and when we went on a cruise a little while back, I made sure that I knew how many doorways and hatches were in a passageway, and how many stairs and levels it took to get to a deck to exit on. I did it a few times, even closing my eyes to make sure. (Heh, I was doing this at 3 AM one night when I couldn’t sleep, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing me with my eyes closed!)

I do the same thing on planes, though I limit that to counting the seats to the nearest exits.

My wife laughs about this kind of thing and jokes with me, but she also knows that even though she might laugh at it, it could save our lives one day. You never know.

Thing is...I can only imagine since there were times I could let up, not think about it, and nobody would die. Someone in combat does this squared, and at all times to stay alive. Letting down can get you killed, something I cannot relate to. I am simply being prepared.