Survival Manual

Chapter 1: Overview

Survival is the state of or fact of continuing to live or exist in spite of an isolating event. The end goal is to return to friendly forces with honor. This chapter discusses survival skills and situational understanding needed.

PERSONNEL RECOVERY

1-1. Army personnel recovery is the military efforts taken to prepare for and execute the recovery and reintegration of isolated personnel. (FM 3-50) Personnel recovery aims to return isolated personnel to duty as well as to sustain morale, increase operational performance, collect information, and develop intelligence. Army forces work with unified action partners to recover individuals and groups who become isolated. Isolation refers to persons separated from their unit or in a situation where they must survive, evade, resist, or escape.

1-2. All Soldiers, Department of Army civilians and supporting contractors must understand how Army survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) relates to personnel recovery. Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape is defined as actions performed by isolated personnel designed to ensure their health, mobility, safety, and honor in anticipation of or preparation for their return to friendly control (JP 3-50). Army SERE represents actions that enable isolated individuals to survive and return to friendly control as soon as possible. SERE focuses on the actions of the isolated person or group of isolated persons.

SURVIVAL

1-3. Table 1-1 identifies the four SERE actions and their related proficiencies. Survival begins when a Soldier executes their isolated Soldier guidance (ISG) or evasion plan of action (EPA). The survival proficiencies include protection, sustenance, survival medicine, and navigation. Units and individuals train on these proficiencies to improve and sustain individual task proficiency.

1-4. The recovery of isolated personnel and their return to friendly control is dependent upon their ability to employ relevant knowledge and skills of the survival proficiencies tailored to their operational environment.

SURVIVAL MEDICINE

1-5. Survival medicine is characterized by remote and improvised care of isolated personnel with routine or exotic physical or psychological illnesses or trauma, limited resources and labor, and delayed evacuation to definitive care. There are four fundamentals common to survival medicine: prevention, recognition, mitigation, and treatment. Assess these fundamentals during planning and preparation activities and include relevant physical and psychological factors. Additionally, they form the basis for effective organization, training, and equipping efforts by the commander and staff, unit recovery force and the individual. Planning is the art and science of understanding a situation, envisioning a desired future, and laying out effective ways of bringing that future about (ADP 5-0).

Sustenance

1-6. Sustenance includes procuring, preparing, and storing adequate food and water to enable the isolated person's normal body functions and to provide strength, energy, and endurance to overcome the stress of survival. Isolated personnel must be prepared to use a variety of both native and domestic food sources, obtain water using various methods, and be able to prepare and preserve food and water throughout the duration of their isolation. Assess life-sustaining food and water needs during planning and preparation activities and integrate into organization, training, and equipping considerations by the commander and staff, unit recovery force, and the individual. Preparation are those activities by units and Soldiers to improve their ability to execute operations (ADP 5-0).

Protection

1-7. Protection includes wear and care for protective clothing and equipment, the ability to build appropriate shelter and fire and the application of basic security measures. Protection needs are assessed during planning and preparation activities and integrated into organization, training, and equipping considerations by the commander and staff, unit recovery force, and the individual. Army forces are typically equipped and prepared to survive for up to 96 hours of isolation subject to recovery force capabilities, threats, and environmental conditions. ATP 3-50.20, chapter 2 provides an in-depth discussion on duration of isolation.

Navigation

1-8. Navigation requirements for isolated personnel are met through planning and preparation efforts that focus on a combination of (Global Positioning System) GPS, map and compass, and field expedient techniques in a specific operational environment for the purpose of surviving, avoiding capture, and facilitating recovery. Navigational limitations and opportunities relating to terrain and illumination are identified and analyzed to subsequently organize, train and equip personnel to conduct precise movements to desired locations such as recovery areas, recovery sites and rally points to enable link-up with recovery forces. Assess navigation needs during planning and preparation activities and integrated into organization, training, and equipping considerations by the commander and staff, unit recovery force, and the individual.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SURVIVAL

1-9. It takes much more than the knowledge and skill to build shelters, gather food, build fires, and move without the aid of standard navigational devices, to survive isolation and possible detention or captivity. The key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the isolated person involved. Having survival skills is important; having the will to survive is essential. Without a desire to survive, acquired skills serve little purpose and invaluable knowledge goes to waste.

1-10. During isolation, isolated personnel will experience numerous stressful moments that will shape them for the remainder of their lives. Stress is not a disease that you cure and eliminate. Instead, we all experience a condition. Stress is our reaction to pressure. It is the name given to the experience we have as we physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually respond to life's tensions.

1-11. Stress compels one to act or prepare to respond to any given situation. Humans need stress because it can have many positive benefits. Stressful situations provide humans with challenges and give them chances to learn about their values and strengths. Stress can show them their ability to handle pressure without breaking. It tests their adaptability and flexibility, and can stimulate and motivate them to do their best. The goal is to have stress, but not in excess. Too much stress leads to distress. Distress causes an uncomfortable tension that a person tries to escape or avoid. Here are a few of the common signs of distress that isolated personnel will encounter during isolation:

• Difficulty making decisions.
• Forgetfulness.
• Low energy level.
• Constant worrying.
• Propensity for mistakes.
• Carelessness.
• Trouble getting along with others.
• Withdrawing from others.
• Angry outbursts.
• Hiding from responsibilities.
• Thoughts about death or suicide.

1-12. Stress can encourage or discourage, move us along or stop us dead in our tracks, and make life meaningful or seemingly meaningless. It can inspire us to operate successfully and perform at maximum efficiency. It can also cause us to panic and forget all common sense and training. One key to survival is the isolated person's ability to manage the inevitable stresses that they will encounter.

SURVIVAL STRESSORS

1-13. Once the body recognizes the presence of a stressor; it protects itself and/or address the stressor. Often, stressful events occur simultaneously. In response to a stressor, the body prepares to either "fight, flight or freeze." This causes the following coping reactions that cannot be maintained for long periods:

• The body releases stored fuels (sugar and fats) to provide quick energy.
• Breathing rate increases to supply more oxygen to the blood.
• Muscle tension increases to prepare for action.
• Blood clotting mechanisms activate to reduce bleeding from cuts.
• Senses become more acute (hearing becomes more sensitive, pupils dilate, smell becomes sharper) so that you are more aware of your surroundings.
• Heart rate and blood pressure rise to provide more blood to the muscles.

1-14. The cumulative effect of stress and stressors can add up if not managed properly. As the body's resistance to stress wears down and the sources of stress continue (or increase), a state of exhaustion arrives. At this point, the ability to resist stress or use it in a positive way gives out and signs of exhaustion appear. Anticipating stressors and developing strategies to cope with them are two ingredients in the effective management of stress. Therefore, it is essential that isolated persons are aware of the types of stressors that they could encounter. Injury, illness, disability, and death are real possibilities that one may have to face.

PREPARING YOURSELF

1-15. The isolated person's mission is to stay alive. The assortment of thoughts and emotions isolated persons will experience in a survival situation can work for them, or against them. Fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, guilt, depression, and loneliness are all possible reactions to the many stressors common to survival. These reactions, when managed in a healthy way, help to increase the likelihood of surviving. They prompt people to pay more attention in training, to fight back when scared, to take actions that ensure sustenance and security, to keep faith with their fellow team members, and to strive against large odds. When isolated personnel cannot control these reactions in a healthy way, they can bring them to a standstill. Instead of rallying their internal resources, they listen to their internal fears and which causes the isolated person to experience psychological defeat long before they physically succumb. Remember, survival is natural to everyone; being unexpectedly thrust into the life-or-death struggle of survival is not.

BE REALISTIC

1-16. Isolated personnel should not be afraid to make an honest appraisal of the situation. They should see circumstances as they are, not as one wants them to be, while keeping hopes and expectations within the estimate of the situation. When going into a survival setting with unrealistic expectations, one may be laying the groundwork for bitter disappointment. Follow the adage, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst." It is much easier to adjust to pleasant surprises about unexpected good fortunes than confronted with unexpected harsh circumstances.

ADOPT A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

1-17. Isolated personnel should learn to see the potential good in everything. While looking for the good not only boosts morale, it also is excellent for exercising their imagination and creativity. While trying to take ordinary objects and figuring out different uses for them in a survival situation, everything is a potential tool.

TRAIN AND PREPARE

1-18. Through military training and life experiences, begin today to prepare to cope with the rigors of survival. Isolated personnel capable of demonstrating their skills in training today will have the confidence in their ability to call upon if the need should arise. The goal of preparation is to build confidence in your ability to function despite your situation and fears. Failure to prepare yourself physically and psychologically to cope with isolation leads to reactions such as depression, carelessness, inattention, loss of confidence, and poor decision-making. Remember that your life and the lives of others who depend on you are at stake.

SURVIVAL PATTERN

1-19. The survival pattern is a tool that enables isolated personnel to mitigate the effects of being an in an isolation situation. The survival pattern includes the manipulation of applicable sustenance, protection, navigation and survival medicine skills placed in order of priority. For example, in a cold environment, fire would be the first priority to get warm; followed by a shelter to protect from the cold, wind, and rain or snow; access to or the ability to procure potable water; traps or snares to get food; and survival medicine to maintain health. In all isolation situations, survival medicine has top priority.

1-20. In figure 1-1, the word SURVIVAL is a useful memory tool to aid isolated personnel in making sound decisions on what has to happen to meet their needs and appropriate actions.

1-21. Building and maintaining situational understanding is essential for isolated personnel to understand their isolation situation, develop effective plans, make quality decisions and execute their ISG or EPA.

1-22. The typical isolation scenario includes the occurrence of an isolating event and the typical movement of personnel to their designated rally point. Once at the rally point, they assess their situation in relation to the mission and the isolation criteria specified in their ISG/EPA. The isolation criteria prescribes the set of circumstances under which a Soldier/isolated person may execute their ISG/EPA. The assessment of isolation criteria includes the operational political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and time (PMESII-PT) and mission variables mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations (METT-TC) and comprehension of the factors of isolation, individual capability (i.e. physical and psychological condition, proficiency of training, equipment), effects posed by an operational environment and the potential duration of the isolation situation. If the isolated person determines that they have met the isolation criteria stated in their ISG/EPA, they will report their isolation and begin appropriate movements and techniques detailed in their ISG/EPA.

1-23. Isolated personnel continue to adjust their plan to meet survival medicine, protection, sustenance, and navigation needs in order of priority and update their situational understanding as key tactical factors change while making appropriate adjustment decisions.