As soon as I heard about Emergency by Neil Strauss, I wanted it. In fact, it was the first book I pre-ordered on Amazon in a long time. It's 414 pages, but a quick read because it's pretty entertaining. There are some solid, positive messages in the book, too, such as Strauss' description of how he changed over the years he spent researching. According to Strauss, when he set out on the journey to survive just about anything, he was mainly concerned with making a quick exit from a disaster situation, but by the end of it, he'd become the first responder in a time of crisis--actually becoming an EMT.
Emergency is chock full of amazing resources. The kind of things you'd learn if you'd spent a lifetime as a cowboy or Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild." And since I've always been fascinated by those shows where people are dropped into the jungle and have to find their way out, this sounded like the book for me, and it was. But please keep this at the forefront of your mind: these tactics and firearm training are for survival situations, not mindless violence. It's the kind of stuff you want to know when you have no other choice but to make your own "good luck."
If you don't feel like reading the book, I've compiled a list of the resources Strauss outlines. If you have read the book, this list pulls out the major outside resources referenced. This excerpt got my attention and maybe will do the same for you.
"Today I can draw a holstered pistol in 1.5 seconds, aim at a target seven yards away, and shoot it twice in the heart. I can start a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together. I can identify seven hundred types of footprints when tracking animals and humans. I can survive in the wild with nothing but a knife and the clothes on my back. I can find water in the desert, extract drinkable fluids from the ocean, deliver a baby, fly a plane, pick locks, hot-wire cars, build homes, set traps, evade bounty hunters, suture a bullet wound, kill a man with my bare hands, and escape across the border with documents identifying me as a citizen of a small island republic."
Education
- Gunsite, AZ - Firearms training facility
- CERT - Community Emergency Response Team training
- Tom Brown's Tracker School - Tracking, nature and wilderness survival training
- onPoint Tactical - Urban survival, escape and evasion
- Krav Maga training - Israeli self-defense
- Volunteer Search and Rescue
Resources & Books
- The Sovereign Society
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
- The Passport Book
- The Laundrymen by Jeffrey Robinson
- Nitro-Pak
There is a ton of information in the book and Strauss is an engaging writer. Maybe I will take one of these classes to satisfy my "learn two new things every summer" requirement. if I missed something or you have a better resource, let me know.
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