Author Biography

Alexander Stilwell specializes in military history and current affairs and spent six years in the British Territorial Army, where he was trained in survival skills, first aid procedures, and escape and evasion techniques. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction 1 Desert Survival 2 Extreme Cold 3 Mountain Survival 4 Jungle Survival 5 Urban Survival 6 Essential Knots Index Acknowledgments

Review

Let's say you are on a cruise to a distant land and things go horribly wrong on the boat, and the vessel ends up sinking. You make it to shore, but it's a small island and no one is around for many miles. It's dusk. Now what? This is where a survival guide comes in handy. This book will give you the skills to set up a shelter, search for food and water, and survive in most environments, from dense jungle and dry desert to the frigid arctic or rugged mountain range. Skills needed in the various ecosystems are shared, including identifying plants and insects you can eat or should avoid, animals you can trap, ways to be seen by searchers to get rescued ... and sourcing water. It's all here in this small-format book filled with graphics and colourful photos, and written by a former British soldier. The only thing missing is surviving a raging ocean with a sinking boat, although pertinent survival techniques are discussed, like knot tying, navigation, collecting fresh water and fishing.-- "Ontario Sailor" (7/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)
Written by a former member of the British territorial army, Alexander Stilwell provides survival techniques used by special forces units around the world including escaping danger, evading capture and surviving with little or no gear. Detailed instructions and photographs cover building shelters, finding water and surviving in disaster scenarios, making arrows, encountering dangerous animals and navigating by the stars -- with sections tailored to specific terrains.-- "Calgary Sun" (7/8/2015 12:00:00 AM)

Review Quote

Written by a former member of the British territorial army, Alexander Stilwell provides survival techniques used by special forces units around the world including escaping danger, evading capture and surviving with little or no gear. Detailed instructions and photographs cover building shelters, finding water and surviving in disaster scenarios, making arrows, encountering dangerous animals and navigating by the stars -- with sections tailored to specific terrains.

Introduction or Preface

Introduction Special Forces are highly trained army, naval, or air force personnel that take on the toughest missions. They stand apart from regular military forces because of the extent and variety of their training and their ability to master any situation and every environment. Apart from dealing with often complex and demanding missions that require extreme skill and determination, Special Forces must also be able to survive in all weathers. This includes polar, mountain, desert, and jungle environments, with extremes of heat, cold, humidity, high winds, sandstorms, decreased oxygen, flash flooding, and exposure to rapidly changing weather conditions. In order to carry out their missions effectively--operating in the remotest areas to avoid being seen--soldiers need to endure even the most extreme conditions. For this reason, Special Forces are given very high levels of training in survival skills. Tested for Success Special Forces are trained to learn from and respect people who are native to particular environments, whether it is the Inuit people of the Arctic, the Bedouin of the Arabian desert, or the Dyaks of the Borneo jungle. Over the years, Special Forces units serving in areas such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Arctic have adopted some of these native skills in order to hone their own techniques. The methods and approaches in this book are based on tried and tested techniques used by Special Forces soldiers to survive in operational environments in different climatic areas and terrains. The priority for Special Forces is not simply basic survival but successful completion of their mission, which can mean that there are several different types of survival skills required at different stages of a single mission. For example in the preparation and attack phase while carrying out reconnaissance or while approaching a target. In this phase, a Special Forces soldier may have limited access to supplies due to distance from resupply and will need to supplement their supplies. Another typical scenario is the exfiltration or escape and evasion phase. This may be the result of Special Forces operators separating from their team after contact with the enemy or escaping from capture. Whatever the mission may be, survival and living off the land is an essential part of the Special Forces operator''s range of skills. Action Priorities in Survival Scenarios Within the scope of this book it is not possible to cover in detail every aspect of survival in each of the environments included. However, each chapter covers key techniques to explain the main survival priorities--namely water, food, and shelter--in each situation, organized to reflect the key survival priorities in that area. The most urgent priorities differ between environments but are also often remarkably similar across the world''s varied and challenging landscapes. The need for water, for example, is surprisingly as urgent in the polar regions as it is in the desert. However, the methods of finding it will be very different. Likewise, although the snowy environment of the Arctic suggests an obvious need for protection against the elements, the cold desert night can also cause hypothermia. Such extreme environments demand different actions and responses to avoid the same problems. In the desert the priority for avoiding dehydration will be to minimize the effects of the sun by covering up, while in the Arctic, over-exertion in warm clothing may lead to the same end. In all environments, in any survival situation, first aid will always be the most urgent priority. However this book is not an exhaustive guide to first aid, so these topics are placed in the same logical order as other survival priorities. The Importance of Self Rescue and Training In all of the environments covered in this book, finding your own way to safety is often an option and occasionally a priority--such as in the mountains where it may be impossible for a rescue helicopter to land--but the methods differ. Stars always make a reliable navigational guide, but they cannot be seen as clearly from under the jungle canopy as they can in the clear skies of the desert or Arctic. The purpose of this book is to provide a range of skills that can be adapted to different areas and circumstances, based on the hands-on experience and training of Special Forces. For Special Forces, survival field craft is an essential component of their training. In the case of U.S. Special Forces this is part of a 13-week training phase, including a five-day exercise in which the candidates test their survival skills. Once they join their units, Special Forces continue to develop their skills and experience as they are deployed in a variety of environments. Anyone planning a trip in one of the wilderness regions of the world should get professional training in appropriate survival skills and first aid, but the tips and techniques explained in this book will give you added confidence when planning your own adventures in the exciting and challenging world of nature. Alexander Stilwell

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