We were trying to sprint up the mountainside. But with a 35 lbs. of pack on our backs and our gear, we were actually just inching along.
As tired, hungry, and thirsty as we were, combined with both of us having minor ankle injuries, we were covering about 30 feet a minute up the rugged slopes.
Al dropped to his knees. He said, “Dude, I am done. I can’t take another step. I’ll keep your pack with me. You go. I’ll catch up when I can.”
From my first days in the military, to my final days in clandestine operations, one of the most critical rules has and always will be, ‘Team.’
“No one does it alone.”
If an assignment involved more than one operator, the group of operators were considered one. Which meant that if one operator failed, the entire team failed.
One of our poignant lessons was during water dive training and, later, actual operations.
If one dive buddy gets into trouble, the other buddy feeds him his air until the two can both surface.
You stay close to your dive buddy and communicate with hand signals or lights. You don’t leave them behind.
The same rules apply on every mission.
When Al went down from total fatigue and injuries, I did not go on without him.
However, while we teach and train team, we also train and master solo survival and operations.
Because many times, you have to do it alone.
There are many self-proclaimed survival experts, ubiquitous YouTube channels, books, and articles that claim that lone wolves aren’t real and cannot survive.
They insist that you must have a pack, tribe, community, team, or other multi-person organization if you want to survive SHTF.
That is not true.
And those who scream that the loudest are the least experienced and probably not even professionally trained.
In fact, most of my clandestine missions were solo.
What these self-anointed ‘authorities’ don’t know and cannot teach is how to survive, thrive, and complete any mission as a solo operator.
Yes, it can be done. It has been done. And it’s being done every day around the world.
Most of us would not be alive if our ancestors had not had the drive, intellect, strength, and stamina to survive alone for extended periods of time in the worst conditions.
This is the part most wannabe experts are missing: The more you know, the less you need. The more you train, the more successful you become.
There are just a few essentials that you need to keep you alive in any situation: air, water, body temperature control, food, security, sleep, and self-administered first aid.
Yes, you can extrude this list a bit and create some sub-categories, but whatever other essentials you are thinking of are probably covered in those listed essentials.
The point is that you can survive as a lone wolf with foresight, planning, and the proper resources.
Security is always the first argument I hear from beginners.
They want to know how you can sleep at night without a full contingent of Marine Force Recon operators guarding your hut.
It’s really simple. You do the same things we are trained to do, and you become your own security.
Learn what things in the wild you can eat, how to purify water, how to create low-observable bivouacs, how to build Dakota fire pits, and the list goes on.
The point is, you can survive and thrive as a lone wolf for as long you need to or want to.
One caveat is that you must prepare, train, and acquire the necessary education and resources well in advance of starting your solo mission.
In the deepest parts of us is our own lone wolf, and that part of us was placed there by God for a reason and a time.
So, if you are a lone wolf or expect you may have to become one, know that you will prevail with the right preparation.
