SEAL Survival Guide: A Navy SEAL's Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster [Paperback]

Dashing ex-Navy Seal Cade Courtley , star of Spike TV's just-launched "Surviving Disaster" show, comes out with his own survival guide. He's the real deal, but there's not much new in the book, if you have read Robert Peltons guides and also Cody Lundin, etc. However, it's still good stuff, and if you don't have one of these real life disaster books, this may be the book for you.

A quote from the author:

"After making it through Seal training and the stuff I did as a Seal, I guess you start to feel like you can make it through anything. When you have that kind of a mindset, there's a certain confidence that goes along with that. The confidence is really helpful when all hell breaks loose," he notes. "We try to teach people, `Yeah, that just happened. Take a breath. Let's get that brain working and we can problem solve our way through this.' It's nothing too advanced where you'd need 20 years experience of hand-to-hand combat."

Entertaining, and perhaps life-saving.

SEAL Survival Guide: A Navy SEAL's Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster is the Go-To-Guidebook for surviving any disaster. Coutley has an impressive background as a Navy SEAL, and has done a great job at providng the right kinds of information. The book is comprehensive, has easy to understand illustrations, and is full of critical information. Every person in America should read this book to develop the right mindset advantage in any emergency. Knowing what to do in a cris is half the battle. I heartily recommend this book.

1)If you put out a survival guide for your fellow countrymen --and if you trade on the name of the Seals --then you owe it to your readers to take the topic seriously. No one should expect Mr Courtley to provide classified info --but his shallow book leaves out much well known, unclassified info.

2) Example 1: Detecting surveillance (p. 280). Courtley says travel around several city blocks in a box (4 right turns.) Which does nothing but tip off the people following you that you are alert and tells them to take greater measures. Courtley says nothing about the fact that his method is easily beaten by a crew of three swapping positions. Or that even your wife can order a GPS cellphone beacon off the internet, hide it in your car and watch you remotely on her laptop -- laughing as you do Courtley's stupid box turns before you head to meet your new girlfriend at the motel. Courtley says nothing about the basic technique -- having a friend watch from several hidden locations (e.g, office window 5 stories up) as you walk through a series of cut-throughs -- an opening in a wall-type barrier that forces a surveillance bubble to close up and go through the same opening in order to follow you. There are a number of counter-surveillance manuals on Amazon that will reveal the shortcomings of this section in Courtley's book.
3) Example 2: Firearms (p.299) In his list of things to do on p 299, Courtley doesn't mention the importance of knowing the law and how you can easily lose your life savings to civil suits if you step wrong. Nor does he mention the possibly of your armed opponent wearing concealed body armor and the need to immediately execute the Failure to Stop drill aka Mozambique drill and the corresponding demand for a high capacity magazine. He does punt and suggest you contact IPSC for actual info on using a gun -- although IDPA would be a better source.
4) Example 3: "Survival Float" p. 216. Courtley briefly describes how to keep from drowning if you have to abandon ship at sea.
He should have noted that his "survival float" is widely known as "Drownproofing" , that learning the technique requires hours of training in advance, that such training is provided by the Red Cross and many swim clubs and that the technique has limited utility outside tropical waters because it accelerates hypothermia. Courtley does warn of the dangers of being even on large ships at sea and the need to know where life jackets and vests are located. But he should have noted the need for extensive training if you go out on smaller boats -- such as is provided by the American Sailing Association -- and the dangers of a sailboat hitting
a floating shipping container at night while traveling at top speed.
5) As a general criticism, Courtley should have done more to explain the high risk and danger in the areas he discusses, the need to avoid them and and the need to TRAIN IN ADVANCE/PREPARE IN ADVANCE if one can not avoid them. Strange because he emphasizes early on how a Seal must train for almost 3 years before being qualified for combat -- and the need for advanced planning before
embarking into a dangerous situation.

6) Example 4: Improvised Weapons (p. 301) Courtley does not mention the deadliness of a 3.5 inch pocketknife --legal to carry
in many places where guns are banned -- or the correct way to grip a knife, correct ways to use a knife, location of arteries, etc. Again, Amazon has several books on the subject of knifefighting.

7) Example 5: Nuclear Attack (p.245) Again, Courtley talks about what to do if a nuclear bomb unexpectedly goes off nearby --
but nothing about preparing in advance. Like knowing where the likely targets are and avoiding them. Like knowing where the deep shelters are and how to get to them. Courtley does not mention the flash bang technique of counting the time delay between the bright flash of light and the arrival of the blast wave (which can take up to 75 seconds to arrive if you are 15 miles away from ground zero) in order to determine the DISTANCE to the nudet. Which is ESSENTIAL in judging if the wind speed will give you time to run parallel to the oncoming fallout cloud to avoid it, as Courtley recommends. Courtley also does not mention the case in which you are UPWIND of the nudet --in which case you need to run directly AWAY from the nudet if you are within range of the fallout deposit. Nor does Courtley note the need to measure the width (degrees) of the fallout cloud 5 minutes after detonation to determine the yield--which in turn will tell you have many miles upwind of the blast you need to be to escape fallout. Nor does Courtley note how to evaluate the mushroom cloud to determine if the nuclear bomb was an air strike (likely
in many cases because of the greater damage) in which case fallout would not be generated/not a concern. Nor does Courtley note
the danger of firestorm and the need to excape from the area where it can erupt because a firestorm will incinderate even people in deep shelters.

Army manuals like 3-11.4 have detailed information/procedures but Courtley doesn't even mention them or refer readers to them even though they are unclassified and available online.

Courtley also does not mention the value of having one or two folded up oven bags in your wallet that you can fill with water so that you don't die of thirst if you have to stay in shelter for two weeks. Or the value of having a cell phone set up to receive text alerts warning 20 minutes in advance that an attack is coming or has already hit other locations. Or the value in having a small transistor AM/weather radio so that you can receive broadcasts telling you when it is safe to come out.