SEAL Survival Guide (47 page)
Read SEAL Survival Guide Online
Authors: Cade Courtley
• Stock the safe room with necessary emergency items and a way to summon aid or defend yourself. This includes a cell phone, a flashlight, a first-aid kit, food, water, and defensive weapons.
• Install an alarm panel, a direct-dial phone or a cell phone, and an electrical outlet for cell phone charging.
• If possible, install a secret escape hatch with a way to get to the attic, the basement, or an alternative escape route.
You are home,
it is the evening, and suddenly you hear a very loud crash in the other part of your residence. You should:
1. Call 911.
2. Initiate security plan.
3. Yell code word.
4. Exit residence or move to safe room.
5. Wait for the police to arrive.
If unable to call 911:
1. Initiate security plan.
2. Yell code word.
3. Exit residence or move to safe room.
4. If inside safe room, attempt to call 911 again.
Do not leave.
If outside,
move to prearranged location for help, such as a neighbor’s house, while calling 911.
If unable to exit residence or move to safe room:
1. Make an immediate threat assessment.
• Why is this person here?
• Are they going to harm my family or me?
• Can I overpower this person to subdue them or allow for my escape?
2. Allow them to leave if possible. Never risk life for property.
3. Fight or comply, based on your threat assessment.
4. Keep a cool head. Sometimes fighting and screaming works, especially if there are neighbors who will intervene or call police. But it makes no sense to risk fighting if you
are physically incapable of doing so effectively, especially if the invaders are armed and you are not.
5. If you do decide to strike a blow, do it fast, suddenly, and forcefully to the nose, eyes, or throat without concern for the damage you will inflict. (See also “Fighting,”
page 146
.) While the assailant is momentarily stunned, make your escape. Don’t stand there waiting to throw more punches or gather family members.
6. Alternatively, total compliance sometimes works. At first there may be no chance for escape, but after a while you may see an opening. The invaders could just leave without harming you. However, compliance may increase the duration of the invasion and therefore increase the potential for molestation. Continue reevaluating the situation as it evolves.
When Violence Comes
The modus operandi of home invaders is to gain control of you and your family, regardless of your family members’ ages, instantaneously. Once they get into your home, they will become extremely aggressive and threatening. The greatest violence of a home invasion occurs within the first minutes; success depends upon instilling shock and fear in the victims. Frequently, in addition to weapons, home invaders bring handcuffs, ropes, duct tape, or plastic bands to bind the home’s occupants. It is not unusual for the home invaders to pick one family member to physically assault, for the purpose of rendering all witnesses absolutely submissive. If this happens, and the surprise has made it impossible to fight back, the victim should curl up into a ball and try to protect their head and face with their arms. Feign that you are more injured than you really are, and perhaps even consider appearing unconscious.
At this point, do not look directly at the attackers, or talk or argue with them. It’s important to defuse their initial rage and adrenaline rush by acting in a nonthreatening manner. They will likely divide family members and place them in separate areas of the house, as another
means to gain psychological manipulation. These professionals know they must show dominance and control, so at this phase, let the intruders believe they have executed this part of the assault successfully. This will not only limit physical violence but will give you more time and allow for an opportunity to escape.
While it will be difficult to be assaulted, or watch a loved one be assaulted, this is the time to remain alert and gather intelligence that can be used against your attackers. This information will be valuable as you form your plan for survival and ultimately for your escape.
• Identify the leader of the group and who’s who in their chain of command.
• Consider why you were targeted: Is it access to money or valuable information?
• Who is valuable among your family members, and whom would the attackers consider expendable? Are they here to make one of your group a “human key”?
SERE: Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape
The first course of action in a home invasion is to have at least one family member escape so they can summon police. Everything you do is geared toward achieving this goal.
Now that you have survived the initial violation of your home and person, you must use your intelligence to outwit the attackers. When you’re bound or captured, the idea is to gain time. An opportunity will arise to get away, as long as you keep your cool and stay alert. There are ways to establish a bond with your captors. The more personable and calm you are, the greater the possibility of establishing communication with your assailants. It is ideal to attempt to humanize the attackers, such as by calling them by name. Again, this is for the purposes of buying time and making it through the ordeal.
BEING A POW
One of the many grueling aspects of SEAL training is the two weeks we prepare for what I would consider to be the worst-case scenario in war: getting captured. We must pass two horrendous weeks of being a POW. The skills learned from this can help if you find yourself bound and subdued during a home invasion. When I went through it, I lost twenty-two pounds and came out looking like a different person, though hardened and more experienced. POW training stresses what we call SERE, which stands for “survive, evade, resist, escape.” Remember this acronym as your plan of action. All of these techniques could save your life in a home invasion. Our training included being placed in a three-by-three-foot concrete box for one of the weeks without food and nothing more than a coffee can to urinate into. We were taken out and interrogated, beaten, and worse. Our simulated captors tried to make us tell them the secret we were told, and in so doing we learned how to survive, giving up only pieces of information at a time. This makes captors think we are useful and keeps us alive another day, which is actually giving us another opportunity to escape. Time is your friend.
HOW TO ESCAPE RESTRAINTS
Rope, Tape
•
Cutting method:
Search for any object with an edge, such as a piece of broken glass or a vase shard that smashed during the initial assault. Secretly attempt to get this into your bound hands.
•
Friction method:
If left out of view of your attackers, you might have time to escape bondage using friction. For example, you can make a friction saw with shoelaces by looping each end, running the length over your restraints, and placing a foot in each loop. Bicycle your feet, causing the laces to cut through the rope or tape from the friction they create.
•
Burning method:
Use matches or a lighter to actually melt through the restraint.
•
Wiggle method:
With the exception of metal handcuffs, many restraints have a certain degree of elasticity. It will greatly improve your ability to use this technique if you take a deep breath and expand your chest and upper body while you are being bound. Once you exhale, you will already have a little slack, making it easier to get free. Attempt to use constant movement to establish enough slack to get out.
Flex Cuffs
Flex cuffs are increasingly popular with both law enforcement and hostage takers due to their strength and low cost. These plastic ties are usually more durable than rope or duct tape, but you could escape using:
•
The shim method:
Find an object to wedge into the latch. Flex cuffs have small plastic teeth that can be worn or broken. If you can get a shim into the tie slot, it could be
possible to prevent the one-way catch from activating and allow you to pull one end free.
•
Break:
Flex cuffs can also snap if jammed against something hard enough. If there is nothing to strike against, escape flex cuffs by using your own chest as a ramming board. This will hurt but is often effective: Try to stretch your arms out directly in front of you, then, in a powerful motion, drive your arms back toward your chest. Keep doing this until the band lock latch is breached.
Handcuffs
Handcuffs work using a very basic one-way locking mechanism. The arm of the cuffs has a series of teeth on it known as a ratchet. As the ratchet travels through the pawl, or the locking pin, it allows the arm to tighten, but the pawl will not allow the arm to loosen due to the one-way nature of the teeth.
The best way to defeat handcuffs is by using a handcuff key you have stashed on your body. I always carry a plastic one taped to the underside of my watch. If, however, you don’t have a spare key, there are two other methods for removing handcuffs.
•
The bobby-pin method:
Remove the plastic from the tip of a standard bobby pin, place the pin an eighth of an inch deep into the handcuff keyhole, and make a 90-degree bend at the end of the bobby pin. Then take the bobby pin and place it directly into the keyhole about an eighth of an inch deep. Rotate the bobby pin so the bent end pushes the spring-loaded pawl down far enough so that the teeth on the ratchet clear the pawl, allowing the arm to swing open.
•
The shim method:
Take a bobby pin with plastic tip removed or another, thinner piece of metal, and place this in the slot just below the ratchet arm. Shim the space between the teeth of the ratchet and the catch of the pawl
so the one-way lock is defeated, allowing the arm to swing open.
ONCE YOU’RE FREE OF RESTRAINTS
Now that you are free, don’t squander this small opportunity. If you escape your restraints, keep a cool head and act as if you are still in your restraints. You have the advantage of not being in the condition in which the invaders think you are. Fighting may not be wise; however, the attackers may let their guards down once you appear to be restrained.