SEAL Survival Guide (58 page)

• A snow melter can be constructed using a large, flat stone placed at an angle
above your fire. Place the snow at the upper end, and with stones, guide the water into a collector at the bottom end.

• A water maker is a framework of branches or a teepee-style construction from which a bag or cloth filled with snow is suspended. Place this near,
never directly over,
the fire. Under this bag, place a collector. As the snow melts, the water will collect below. If a shirt or cloth is used as your water maker, it will also help to filter the melted snow.

5. FIND FOOD

Animals are easy to track in a snowy environment. Start with the smaller ones first. Look for exit and entrance holes made by small animals in the snow. Use anything from wire to shoelaces to make a series of snares. This is done by tying a slipknot at one end of your material to form a loop-end slightly smaller than the diameter of the burrow hole.

Lay the snare so that the loop encircles the burrow hole. Then anchor the other end of the line. The animal will exit the hole, and the snare will tighten around its neck. Dinner!

6. MOVE TO SAFETY

The decision has been made, and it’s time to move. Remember that you are going back out into this very dangerous, potentially deadly environment that may require you to start the list of survival priorities all over again from the beginning. That said, here are some things that will help you on your way.

Improvised snowshoes

Traveling through deep snow can be extremely difficult, with you sinking up to your chest in some cases with each exhausting step. You can make a set of snowshoes that will enable you to walk on top of the snow by gathering several pine boughs and making an X out of them. Then place your foot over the X and tie them to your feet using rope, shoestrings, etc.

Compass: Watch method

You need direction to know where you are going and not end up walking in circles. You can figure out which way is north by using your watch. Take it off and point the hour hand at the sun. Now imagine a line halfway between the hour hand and the twelve o’clock position. In the northern hemisphere that line is south, and opposite that direction is north.

Compass: Needle and water

If you have a needle, you can make a compass. Magnetize the needle by rubbing it on a piece of silk or other cloth, which will generate a static charge. Get a blade of grass or small piece of wood and float this in a container of water, or in a puddle that is not moving. Place the magnetized needle on the float, and it will orient itself so it points north and south. Also use the sun, since it sets in a westerly direction. The sun can help to mark your bearings and determine which of the needle ends is pointing north and which is pointing south.

NUCLEAR ATTACK

The chances of an all-out nuclear war, initiated by any of the world’s superpowers, have diminished greatly since the prospect of instantaneous retaliation would mean global suicide. Nine countries, including the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea, have ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Only the United States, China, and Russia have weapons capable of reaching targets anywhere on the globe. Even if a full-scale assault is less likely than it was twenty years ago, however, the possibility of an isolated nuclear attack occurring in the near future is
good. A nuclear bomb or even a “dirty bomb” would surely be used if certain countries or terrorist groups had the means to acquire one. If the way Iraqi insurgents killed their own women and children is any indication of the type of enemy that’s out there, don’t think for a minute that they’d show restraint if given the chance.

Though we use the words “isolated” and “nuclear” together, there can’t really be anything isolated about a nuclear attack, since even the smallest nuclear bombs available today are many times more powerful than what was used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs used on those cities were equal to 12,000 tons (12 kt) of TNT and killed about 300,000 people. Some modern warheads are 1,000 kt. The deaths and ruinous aftermath caused by an “isolated” nuclear incident would be far-reaching. Any nuclear weapon is absolutely a weapon of mass destruction, but a nuclear attack is a catastrophe that man can survive. Even among the vast devastation of post-blast Hiroshima and Nagasaki there were those who walked among the rubble, those who survived. With the SEAL mindset, survival is possible, even in the face of a nuclear attack—the most vicious kind of destruction we know of.

Preparedness

If you’re given warning, the best place to survive a nuclear weapon’s shock wave, thermal blast, and radiation is below the surface. The fireball and vacuum effects last for only minutes. But, depending on the terrain and whether the bomb exploded on the ground or in the sky above, it will set off fires miles away and will not only blind you but etch your shadow into concrete.

How It Works and How to React

A nuclear bomb’s destructive power can be broken down into three parts. Without getting into the complexity of atomic physics, here is a rundown:

Immediately following the detonation of a nuclear weapon, an incredibly bright and visible ultraviolet light called the
thermal pulse,
or
“flash,”
projects out from ground zero. It may cause flash blindness, so immediately turn away from it and drop to the ground or get behind
a wall or other strong cover. Nearly simultaneously, there is a discharge of
thermal heat,
which, at the epicenter, for the first few moments reaches temperatures of tens of millions of degrees. Anything within range and engulfed in this thermal fireball will be vaporized.