Survival Theory: One Soldier's Notions on Common-Sense Preparedness and Post-Disaster Survival by Eugene Randall

Author:Eugene Randall [Randall, Eugene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Sports & Outdoors, Hiking & Camping, Instructional, Outdoors & Nature
Amazon: B00KCT1H2Y
Published: 2014-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

13. Darkness

“Fights are not won by the best—fights are lost by the worst.” –Training Proverb

As an infantryman, almost everything we trained to do during the day, we waited until night and did it again in the dark. Around 40% of our training was at night. It was tedious but I learned early on why we spent the time doing it. Everything is much more difficult in the dark. Something that takes 60 seconds in daylight can take 5 minutes to do in the dark. Also, the only way to know if your equipment and techniques works in certain conditions is to use it extensively in those conditions.

Fighting is hard work. Fighting in the dark is even harder. And whoever is more proficient at night fighting has a colossal advantage over anyone not proficient at it. And it is not just about fighting. Everything from navigation to first aid is harder in the dark. Routine tasks become challenging efforts.

It shocked me when I began to associate with civilian survival and combat training. (Civilian includes law enforcement too, because police are also civilians. They can turn in their badge and go home anytime they choose.) I do not exaggerate; it really shocked me. Around 99% of the civilian training I have encountered is during daylight or in high visibility situations.

Civilians treat night training like an alien concept. Please understand I am not putting down anybody. I am not trying to insult anyone or say anyone is better than anybody else. I am only saying what I honestly have seen and thought.

What good is 99% of your training in daylight if 50% of the time in a survival/disaster situation will be at night? That is like learning to swim in a pool without water. Roughly half of our lives it is night. That will not change just because a catastrophe changes society as we now know it.

It would be nice to believe that in the onset of a catastrophe we can go to bed that night and then deal with the new world the next day, but that is not likely. If we have that luxury then it is not that much of an emergency. No, when the sun sets we will still be in harm’s way.

As society already is, statistics say violent crime between strangers increases when the sun goes down. (But if you get murdered, overwhelming odds say it will be by someone very personally close to you…food for thought.) Some predators always have come out at sunset and that will never change.

One thing I learned in Third World countries was that the position of the sun in the sky has little influence on whether or not you must work in the dark. When the power goes out manmade structures become darker than night inside. Even at high noon, a stairwell, hallway, garage, basement, utility room, etc of almost any structure (especially large structures) gets very dark.

Planning- Not planning to survive is planning to die. Planning is our most powerful tool.

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