Posted on 12/24/2015 10:22:01 AM PST by Baynative
About 20 years ago we were camping at a family reunion. Late one nth gas we were at the fire, a drunk driver came driving out of the cornfield and through our campsite.
Out of 10-15 people, only my brother and I were able to provide any description. My brother gave a good description of the car including plate number. I concentrated on the driver. Age, appx height by how he sat, hair color, shirt etc.
The cops found him and reported back to us. Unfortunately since he was at home when they got to him, he couldn’t be charged but they put some fear I him. They were impressed at how good our descriptions were.
“One good trick is, when you are in a restaurant or public place, is to try and get the “gunfighter’s seatâ€. Sit with your back to a corner, where you can see everyone who enters, and nobody can approach you from behind.
That’s not a trick....seasoned LEOs and soldiers are taught to do this. I remember walking into a restaurant and seeing a couple of local police sitting in the middle of the restaurant. When I told them I was surprised they weren’t seated in a corner, they said they had forgotten about that momentarily. Are you kidding me?
An active memory helps, but it has gotten a bad name called flashbacks. I am now trying to be uncured of that to the extent I can apply the skill to current environments. This article and website will help.
My son was a member of Marine Presidential Security Forces, and is now with the Federal Protective Agency. I remember one of his sound bites was, “Always be courteous, always be professional, always be prepared to kill anyone you meetâ€.
hey...tell my wife I’m not nuts !
I used to date a man who always did that; but he was guarding against a loony ex-wife ;-)
-JT
I recently had a VERY suspicious person approach me in front of my house. He stopped his car, in the rain, with the window down and wanted to talk to me about his cheating wife, their pending divorce and if I had any work done in my house recently. He looked like a body builder. I had no idea what he was talking about and, after about 5 minutes and several hints that it was time for him to go, the hair stood up on the back of my neck, adrenaline started to flow and I made a conscious decision to start memorizing details. When I finally told him I believed he was there to rob me or worse and that he REALLY needed to get back in his car and leave, he paused, noted my hand in my pocket and left. I went in the house and typed every detail. Then I called the police with everything from the make, model and plate number of his car to the color of his eyes and hair style. He told me his name and I found him on facebook. Even I was amazed at how accurate my recollection of him and his car were.
I’ve never been in the military but I’ve always been interested in knowing what was gone. I’ve also worked some jobs that really required situational awareness like a sawmill.
I just ordered a kindle copy. It’s only recently I’ve started using Kindle and have learned to love it.
Same here. Pick a spot where you can see people coming in and practice profiling them inconspicuously.
I grabbed the ebook. Good reading and reminders and a few things I never really considered.
Smith training?
5.56mm
You’re right. Calling awareness a manly skill does sound farfetched. But that’s because our culture has destroyed men and their natural role as defenders. A shiny city on a hill without men is a city without walls, watchtowers or gatekeepers. That’s the outcome of the global communist conspiracy (and the feminist movement). It’s here and now.
I just typed in “funny texting while driving images” in the search engine I use (Goodsearch) and scrolled through a bunch and found that one.
Interesting.
I recently saw the Jason Bourne movie, which is why this thread interested me. I watched the movie, and that part just stuck out at me. It isn’t a very long part of the movie, but as I watched it, the concept just hit me, and I realized that we all do it to some degree, however small or well.
I thought about that one scene a lot afterwards, and realized that it was something that could be developed and honed by doing it often and thinking consciously about it.
It isn’t hard to conceptualize, but...it isn’t easy to reliably develop, in my opinion. Unless you are someone whose livelihood depends on it (such as a cop or a pilot) the OODA loop isn’t a natural thing because...most of us are easily distracted. Like a lot of things, to be successful at it, and find utility in it, you have to habitualize it, and that isn’t a natural thing.
But you can develop it no matter who you are, of that I am certain. That is why the linked article (from a website that experience has shown me sometimes has good stuff, and...sometimes insanely stupid stuff!) was so interesting. It gave some tips.
I was one of the last people I knew to get a cell phone. I had to, for professional reasons, being on call all the time. On my ride home, and driving around in a 25 mile radius, I had a good understanding of where every single pay phone was. Not only that, I knew the kinds of places that *might* have a pay phone.
I used to joke that pay phones were, for me, like trees probably were to our ancestors who walked the earth with a lot of predators that like to make meals of them. As they walked in that primitive landscape, they probably knew, without even consciously thinking of it, where every single tree that could be climbed was within their field of view, and how fast they could get to it if they had to.
They had situational awareness.
I think it is harder for us in many ways, because the threats to us are not as immediately obvious as a saber-toothed tiger appearing within our field of view. But that can be developed.
Just talk to any GI or Marine who rode around in vehicles in Afghanistan or Iraq. They got to the point where they nearly developed a sixth sense about things as they drove. The orientation and shape of a dog carcass on the side of the road. Types of roadways, structures, and curves or hills that were innately dangerous. Cars occupied and unoccupied on and around the road. Terrain features, mounds of dirt, pipes going under the roads. Many of those guys got to the point they almost couldn’t help seeing things that jumped out at them. They could glance at a car sitting near a road, and something about the way the tires were would scream a warning at them involuntarily, sharpening their focus. (I wasn’t there, this is what I have read and heard from those who were, and it really stuck with me)
It is a wonder any of them could even come stateside and enjoy simply driving down a road after all that. Habits die hard...
Chris Kyle’s father put it well: Are you a Sheepdog, a Sheep, or a Wolf?
Our culture has tried as hard as it can to destroy the masculine virtues of being a sheepdog (because at its core, it IS a masculine virtue).
I presume it is because the people eroding those values want everyone to be sheep...
...so they can be the wolves.
I’ve managed to find 3 - 4 titles on situational awareness for the Kindle, and if you time it right, you can often pick them up free.
I just looked up Smith Training and found a summary at Penhall:
THE 5 KEYS TO SPACE CUSHION DRIVING
Key 1: Aim High In Steering
Key 2: Get The Big Picture
Key 3: Keep Your Eyes Moving
Key 4: Leave Yourself an Out
Key 5: Make sure They See You
That's an excellent list. I was always taught to know everything around you at any second and know exactly where you will head when trouble arises (Key #4).
I’ve always liked a seat near an emergency exit.
They can usually only be opened from the inside so no one can surprise you and its only a couple steps to an escape.
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