SERE -- Evasion

The second aspect of the SERE system is Evasion. Now before we can begin our investigation of this topic, we must first identify what "evasion" is. Evasion is the art of implementing cunning and deceptive tactics that allow you to avoid being located, tracked, captured, and/or killed. Evasion is the ability to lose your enemies by the use of a particular skillset that allows you to gain the upper hand. Evasion is more of a mental exercise than it is physical, even though physical fitness and endurance is a necessity if you wish to out run and out live your pursuers. Evasion requires the intelligence and presence of mind to be able to think on the run and on your feet. Evasion entails the proper use of camouflage, natural and man-made, the ability to cover ones tracks with the use of brush and natural foliage, and the physical endurance to be able to evade your enemies in the rain, in the snow, in the cold, in the heat, and at night. Each of these particular environments will require a slightly different approach when it comes to evading a hunter force. For instance, attempting to lose a pursuing force in the snow, where your tracks are very obvious, will be much more difficult and time consuming than evading your attackers at night, where your tracks will not be visible without close attention to detail.
Now, the ability to employ survival skills, which we discussed in our first lesson, is the foremost skill to perfect, before attempting to train in evasion tactics, because the ability to survive and thrive in the wild will improve your ability to evade capture in the wild. Now, with that out of they way, let's get into the "meat and potatoes" of evasion.
One of the most basic skills that helps compose "evasion" is the proper use of camouflage. Camouflage can be a number of things; it can be the use of natural vegetation, such as leaves, branches, high grass, etc, that can be located in and around your position in which you are located. This tactic of camouflage is very effective because your camo will be area specific to the location that you are in. There are a number of different methods with which you can attach natural vegetation to your gear, therefore creating an effective camo system. One of these is weaving the vegetation through your belt loops, on your gear, through the loops in your "boonie" hat, etc. While we are on the subject, boonie hats are the best hat for those who are interested in employing good camo tactics, because they come with a series of loops that encircle the cap, therefore allowing you to weave high grass, leaves, small branches, and twigs through your head-wear. Considering that your head is the most distinguishable member of the human body, because of the obvious round shape which is NOT found in nature, a sensible soldier will take extra precautions to break up that shape of the head. With that in mind, the boonie hat is the best choice. This brings us to the number one rule of camouflage. The key to achieving good camo is that you ensure that the natural shape of your body is broken up effectively. The body has many straight lines and round shapes, things which do not naturally appear in nature. Therefore, you need to break up your shape with branches, leaves, vegetation, grass, moss, and anything else that serves the purpose. This is why a ghillie suit is very effective. The best kind of ghillie suit is the home made one. There are some videos on YouTube which cover this in detail, so check them out. So by now you can figure out that going to Wal-mart and buying camo pants and a camo t shirt won't get the job done, because these items do not break up your shape. You need to wear these items underneath your actual camouflage system.
The second aspect of Evasion is the ability to cover your tracks. Trackers can use many tell tale signs you leave behind to follow and locate you. These tracks include the disturbance of vegetation, like broken branches, bruised grass, beat down leaves, etc. There are a few ways in which you can cover and eliminate these tracks. To begin with, when you are NOT being pursued, take extreme caution in where you step, how you walk, etc etc. When you are actually being pursued, you are going to be moving faster, but you still need to cover your tracks. The best way to cover your tracks is move in water, such as a stream, river, creek, even a pond. Any water is good when it comes to evasion. If you come to a pond, enter it and then exit in an unnatural direction that the hunter force will not be expecting, once they figure out what you did, you will have gained ground on them. Remember, a hunting force will be moving slower than you, because they are looking for your tracks, therefore they have to move slower. The key is to not panic. If there is not water available, and sometimes there's not, look for rocks, logs, anything that will not show signs that you stepped on them. As long as you stay in a highly vegetated area, you will leave signs of your being there. Try to stay out of dense vegetation, such as thickets and vines, because your busting throw them will leave a massive trail to follow. Stay in low vegetation, low grass, dirt, and moderately high grass. Even though you will leave tracks, the hunter force will take longer looking for them, therefore giving you more time to haul ass. The number one best time to be on the run is at night, for a number of reasons. First of all, it is demoralizing to the hunters, because they have a harder time seeing, and for a tracker, being able to see the tracks is how they know where you are. They will be moving slower, they will be more cautious, since you could be hiding in a tree just out of their sight with a sniper rifle, and they may even stop for the night, but don't count on that. However, night time is where you can gain your most ground, especially if you utilize water, rocks, logs, dirt, low vegetation, and other things that will make locating your tracks difficult, considering the hunter force can no long utilize natural light. If your hunters are utilizing tracking dogs, there is one outstanding tactic that always confuses them. Simply take a branch of leaves, a bundle of grass, even an article of your clothing, and rub it in your armpits and on your ass, then throw these articles in different directions. When the dogs reach these points, they'll be insanely confused, and the hunters will be equally frustrated. If you can use all of these elements to your advantage, you will be able to outrun, and more importantly outsmart your hunters.
The third and final aspect to Evasion is physical fitness. The ability to evade your hunters for days on end require a certain level of endurance, considering the fact that you will probably have a backpack, some gear, and maybe a weapon. The ability to run all day and all night, while being fully alert and aware of your surroundings is a must for being able to evade the enemy effectively.
If you can put these three aspects of Evasion together effectively, you will be a force to reckon with out in the wild. Considering that you should have your survival skillset already down pat, and then coupling that with your evasion skills, even the tracking dogs will be stumped.

SERE -- Survival

SERE. This is a military term which stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. It is not only a term, but it is an actual course that all elite military teams must endure, ie, the Navy SEALs, the Army Special Forces, and Marine Force Recon. The course covers the four basic skills that are described in the name, SERE. First, Survival. This entails bushcraft, primitive fire starting methods, shelter construction, and how to thrive and survive in the elements of rain, snow, wind, and blistering heat. Second is Evasion. This section covers the different tactics that are implented to escape from behind enemy lines, cover your tracks, and avoid capture and/or death. Thirdly, Resistance. Resistance entails, in case of being discovered, the techniques of eliminating your hunters whilst being on the run, by implementing guerrilla tactics of warfare. This section also teaches the student how to resist interrogation techniques that are brutal and painful in their nature, if in fact you are captured. Finally, Escape. Escape covers how to break out of an enemy camp, if you have been captured. This entire course of training makes up SERE school. Now, we will take each of these subjects and cover them extensively in a four part lesson. This is part 1.
Survival. Survival is the first part of SERE school. Survival is an interesting topic, for it calls upon many different skills and mindsets that the student must perfect before he is ready to live in the wild. To be able to survive effectively, we should first take note on what "survival" means. Survival is simply the ability to keep your ass alive, pure and simple. Whatever you have to do to live, THAT is survival. If that means cutting back on a utility bill or a cable bill so that you can spend that money on food for yourself and your family, that is survival. If it means killing a group of individuals that are coming for your food and/or your family, then that is survival. Survival is basically me first, you next. It is the basic premise of the animal kingdom, and it used to be the code that human beings lived by, but no longer. Humans have become soft, sensitive, gentle, and merciful to the "rights" of animals. What a complete load of crap that is. Now since humans have become this way, this makes survival an extremely difficult skill to acquire. If animals have "rights", then you can't kill them for your food. If you can't kill them for food, then you can't eat meat. You see where this train of thought is going. So from birth, Americans are taught that even TREES have rights. I lived in an area once where the people of that city literally had a funeral for a tree that had to be cut down. Un-frickin-believable. But that, that is what prevents people from getting in touch with their inerrant survival instinct. Therefore, to survive, you need to eliminate all of the inhibitors that stop you from surviving. Most of these inhibitors are emotional and psychological. For instance, if I gave you a particular kind of meat to eat to survive, and DID NOT tell you what that meat was, you would very likely find that meat to taste good. But then if I told you that it was dog meat, you may lose your appetite. See how it's done? Now, once you remove all emotional and psychological stumbling blocks, then you can begin to train on how to survive. How to construct a shelter using primitive methods, tarps, tents, sticks, rope, etc. How to hunt, how to skin, how to clean game, how to cook game, how to start fires using various methods, primitive and contemporary. How to purify water, stay dry in the rain, stay warm in the cold, and how to stay cool in the heat. All this will be covered, in length, at some point. Another important aspect of survival is this, you must possess a particular set of skills. There is a simple way of explaining this. It is called a survival pyramid, and it is composed of three things. The base of your pyramid, the first thing you must possess, is the WILL TO LIVE. Without this, you have nothing. You can be the most elite military soldier in the world, who has been taught anything and everything about survival methods, but if you do not have the will to live, you might as well lay down and wait for the Reaper. In fact, people who have no skills in survival, but yet have the will to live, these people ADAPT to their situation and in some cases, they make it. Because they have the willpower to survive. So the will to live composes the base of your pyramid. The second item, the middle, of your pyramid, is KNOWLEDGE. The old adage still rings true, knowledge is power. Knowledge is knowing and possessing the skills of survival. These include fire starting methods, shelter construction methods, obtaining water, etc etc. With the will to live and knowledge, you are already "out in front" in the terms of outliving the rest of the population. Now the third and final item in our pyramid, the capstone if you will, is KIT. Kit contains some basic survival items such as fire starting items, like matches, butane lighters, flint and magnesium, and tinder. It may also contain some water purification tablets, a mirror, whistle, compass, folding saw, knife, fish hooks, fishing line, sinkers, an emergency blanket, 550 paracord, a tarp, etc etc. With kit, knowledge, and the will to live, you have an excellent chance of surviving anything and everything that nature can throw at you. So then, Survival is the first and foremost skill to acquire and master in the SERE system. Without the ability to survive, the other three components of the SERE system become obsolete. So get your gear together, psyche yourself out, and study up on the tactics and methods of survival, primitive and contemporary. I will be posting some other articles on this blog that will be more specific as far as the survival knowledge goes, and one of my affiliate sites will be posting an excellent survival kit in the near future, and I will provide the link to that as soon as it comes up. This concludes our segment on survival, and one more thing to remember, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.