Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
events that have befallen others. There are only two reasons that it hasn't
happened to you: providence or preparedness. If a life-threatening event
happens to you, expect to be afraid. Simply stated, “Fear is the body's nat-
ural reaction to being put in an unnatural situation.” There is no shame
in being afraid. Everyone feels fear, even your assailant. Not being afraid
is not what makes you brave. True bravery is doing something even when
you are afraid to do it. By realizing that we may be the subject of a sudden
and violent assault, we can mentally prepare ourselves for the reality if it
ever comes.
MENTAL PREPAREDNESS
As a street agent, David had a practice of playing the “what-if ” game with
his partner. Often they would be sitting in their car on a lengthy surveil-
lance in neighborhoods resembling Kosovo on a bad day. David would ask
his partner: What would we do if a car pulled up behind us and two men
got out with guns? How would we respond? What would the partner do?
What would David do? Then they would change the scenario to something
else. By talking about it, they were also preparing themselves for such
emergencies. Each of us must ask ourselves what we would do in a partic-
ular situation. What would we do if we noticed a strange car following us?
Or perhaps hear the sound of someone breaking into our home in the
middle of the night? Or, while we are walking at night, we hear the sound
of footsteps following us down a dark and deserted street? You need to
consider these possibilities and ponder the what-ifs for yourself. There is
a well-known axiom that best sums up this notion. It is known as the “6 P
Principle”:
Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.
We will discuss
more about prior planning when we cover fire drills and evacuation plans.
But for purposes of this discussion, it is sufficient to understand that even
the practice of considering options in advance can allow you to act appro-
priately at the moment of crisis. When a person is under stress, the thought
process becomes quite difficult. By planning in advance, you have, in effect,
already done the thinking. Now all you need to do is act.
The worst thing that you can do is to freeze. Both of us have consid-
erable expertise in the use of small arms and defensive tactics. While David
was a firearms instructor at the FBI/DEA (Federal Bureau Investigation/
Drug Enforcement Administration) Academy in Quantico, one of his favorite
pieces of advice he heard from an outstanding firearms instructor, DEA
