sas survival guide VS us army survival manual
- Thread starter skaterboy
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I have the army one in my VSK...good general read but the SERE section is kind of unnecessary for the average outdoorsman. This is a very general guide, I reccommend getting one specific to your locale. there is a good list of reviewed guides on www.equiped.org. Doug Ritter reccomends the SAS (Wiseman) plus, you can get a condensed version on waterproof cards for a PSK (on my short list) Above all, reading is no subtitute for actually practising your bushcraftskills, but it is a good starting point. Have fun! - DS
I have the US Army guide but have not yet read it properly. Over the years I have tried to read as many different books on the subject as possible. Some are better than others, but there is usually something of interest in all books. When you write the "SAS guide" do you mean the book by John Wiseman?
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For all the good it'll do here and now; "The Soldier's Handbook" by ret. Col. Anthony Herbert is better than either of the choices you have listed, (provided you were smart enough to purchase one for the $100 price tag back in the late 70s when they were available, and yes it's autographed by the author as most were and will fit in your BDU pocket, printed on water-proof and copy-proof paper).
It and an old '40s (mine's a 1943 issue) copy of the Boy Scout manual pretty well cover anything one could possibly have need of in a wilderness or survival situation.
For employment of military platoon or squad tactics in the field I highly recommend the "Vietnam Primer" by ret. Col. David Hackworth which is about the best book on unit tactics I have read for jungle or heavily wooded type terrain. IMO all of Hacks books are good reads, but then not everone's a Hackworth fan.....
(and yes I have read and reviewed both of your choices)
It and an old '40s (mine's a 1943 issue) copy of the Boy Scout manual pretty well cover anything one could possibly have need of in a wilderness or survival situation.
For employment of military platoon or squad tactics in the field I highly recommend the "Vietnam Primer" by ret. Col. David Hackworth which is about the best book on unit tactics I have read for jungle or heavily wooded type terrain. IMO all of Hacks books are good reads, but then not everone's a Hackworth fan.....
(and yes I have read and reviewed both of your choices)
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I'm in the military, and the SERE portion is very outdated compared to modern SERE training, that is why the DoD doesent use this manual anymore. Now a days, given the nature of highly urbanized littoral warfare you are much more likely to be captured and used as a political hostage or JIHAD example killing. Save the last bullet for yourself. Survival is good to know in any case, and that portion of the book is adequate if not excellent. IMHO The SERE portion of the book should be ripped out, and not used as a guideline to save weight in a BOB - It's your call. - DS
darthstrevel, I agree it isn't the end-all for SERE training (there are better and separate TM's for that), and it should be updated. Just wanted those who are not military (I'm retired) to realize it was written with a different focus than straight outdoor survival training.
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I have both, i keep them both in my B.O.B just in case, i like the format of the SAS guide a little better
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ROGER, guess I missed your gist...
Without having read the book in question yet I am still curious about why the SERE section is very outdated? Is it because new technology has come along that you can use to your advantage and that can be used against you, or is it because most operations today are in a totally different scenario? If it is the scenario that is "wrong", do the US military expect they will never again be involved in the type of conflict the book was written for? Or have they simply developed new and much better techniques and training for the scenarios in question? Just curious in general about thoughts, new and old, on SERE and similar things. What was the focus then, and what is the focus now?
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The US military continues to teach wilderness survival and SERE. The field manual was written from a WWII standpoint. The military (or any organization) has a tendency to plan for the LAST war, as it is very hard even with great foresight to prepare for the NEXT war. The Old SERE portion of the survival manual does not take into account any of the present or recent past (ie vietnam) geopolitical events. Specifically, the rise in insurgency based conflicts in the last 30 years - none of these tactics are addressed in the FM. My bet is that assymetrical warfare will be a reality for the near future, and most military planners agree with me.
That dosen't mean that the wilderness survival portion is w/o value however, or even that the SERE portion is obsolete, just that there are better publications on both subjects...DS
I agree to some extent. We do always base our strategy on the last war we fought and I used the FM in question while I was in the Army as a sargent in charge of a scout platoon in an infantry battalion. I still don't know what a god damn breadfruit is and still have only seen one in the supermarket and still don't know what to do with the damn thing if I have one. I found the text to have some useful information but it has to be carefully pried out of the text. There are many better texts on the subject out there which is actually a very sad commentary. Some of the evasion and escape information is still useful. But even countries that are third world toliets and cannot afford to feed thier citizens are buying flir and night vision equipment that can make someone trying to evade a living hell. Knowledge of how to use the terrain to your advantage is still useful.
I do pray that the military planners don't agree with you about asymetrical warfare. China is going to be an ass kicking force in the very near future 5 to 10 years and we had better be very, very prepared because they fully intend to exert their influence in asia and then globaly and they have been sending us not so subtle messages that they can kick our ass. We also need to stop dicking around with Iran and North Korea. Not neccesarily military confrontation, but that is always a possibility.
KR