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A Navy SEAL Wife’s Guide for College Safety – 10 Learning Points for College-Bound Students

Posted on August 12, 2021 by admin
College Students Spending Time Outside

Image by York College of PA via Flickr

Even though I have a Navy SEAL as a husband, a Rottweiler as a personal bodyguard, and a fair amount of defensive firearms training, my parents still tell me to be safe every time I’m about to head out on a work trip. My parents know what I do for a living, but they are still my parents. They naturally will always worry that they haven’t told me everything and that I haven’t listened to what they’ve been telling me all these years. But, it makes them feel better to tell me to be safe, so I tell them I will. The benefit in my parents’ case is that I have been proactive to learn how to be safe past what they have known to tell me. This gives me a distinct advantage when I am out there alone, and I want to give this advantage to other people who go to school alone, travel alone or work alone.

Every single parent has these same worries when they leave their child alone for the first time on a college campus. To address this concern and in honor of National Campus Safety & Awareness month coming up in September, I wanted to write a blog to help parents who are sending their children off to college for the first time and who already have their children on a campus: 17 million young adults nationwide.

I’ll never forget the day that my parents dropped me off at Georgetown. I’ll never forget it because front page on the Georgetown University paper was a story about a young nursing student who had been found dead in the woods near the university. My mother saw the title and immediately wondered what she may have forgotten to tell me about safety that she could squeeze in to our last few minutes together. I’m sure she left with a nervous knot in her stomach rather than a relaxed feeling of ease that she had prepared me with the very best knowledge.

Most parents do not like to think that the unexpected might occur at college - their child being hurt, assaulted, raped, mugged or attacked. But the unfortunate reality of the college campus is that it is not as secure as many parents believe.

While most university rules require all dorm room doors to be locked and non-residents of a dorm to sign in when entering campus buildings, there are always loopholes. In fact, the most recent statistics show that there are more than 35,000 crimes on U.S. college campuses in one year.

SO, WHAT CAN YOU AS A LOVING PARENT DO TO BEST PREPARE YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER?

Here are my top 10 points of learning for parents to help prepare their children for the ultimate college experience: a safe one.

The first 5 points will be covered this week and the next 5 points will be covered next week, so stay tuned!

(1) Enroll your daughter or son in a DEFENSIVE FLASHLIGHT CLASS: Why a Defensive Flashlight class rather than mace, pepper spray or a rape defense class?

We as human beings are limited, which means we need tools to help us stay safe. But, we need tried and true tools that work with our lifestyles, not aggressive tools that do not fit who we are as students. A defensive flashlight (NOT from Costco!) is the best tool my Navy SEAL husband and I have found to stay safe for those individuals who do not feel comfortable carrying a handgun, but want more distance and security than mace/pepper spray provides.

A flashlight is easy to learn and use, no matter what age or physical size.
A flashlight can be carried on a plane, train or anywhere in the U.S.
There is no prior self-defense training needed to be effective.
It creates distance better than pepper spray and mace.
You can momentarily blind, distract and confuse from a distance.
NO legal repercussions for its use!

If you would like to know what flashlight I carry, call me at: 619.302.0262 and I can tell you what I’ve found to be the best of the best and why.

(2) Explain TRANSITION AREAS to your daughter or son and why these are the areas where they need to be more aware.

Transition areas are areas in between safe locations where your risk is higher, for example the area between your office and your parked car (the parking lot), the area between your class and your dorm (side streets), or the area between the mall and your parked car. In these situations the only priority should be personal safety, so no talking on the cell phones, no texting friends, no earphones with music.

(3) Teach them how to SEE A THREAT FROM A DISTANCE

The only way to tell from a distance if someone is a threat is to figure out ahead of time if a person has the capability to do you harm and the intent to do you harm. But how do you recognize this in others? Sealed Mindset has a list of more than 20 different criteria within our “15 Seconds to Safety” online program to recognize capability and intent from a distance, but the two best ones I use every day are to look at someone’s hands (window to capability) and their eyes (windows to intent). If someone’s hands are large, calloused, scarred, holding something and/or hidden from view, that allows me to notice possible capability. If someone’s eyes are shifting away from mine or shifting away when a person of authority walks into a room, that allows me to notice possible intent. If you have both at work, you can see a threat.

(4) Teach your son and daughter how to SEE DANGER AT NIGHT when they walk back to their dorm rooms.

What this means is that your child should learn how to use his or her natural night vision (and some other night vision skills too!) to reduce risk when moving from a well-lit area to a darker area and visa versa. I have used these easy night vision skills at least once every day since I learned them 7 years ago. I use one of the skills each evening when I leave my office to walk to my car. Before I leave the office, I turn out the lights in the hallway and I let my eyes adjust to the dark for 5 minutes before walking out into the night to get to my car. I do this because I want the added advantage of seeing better in the dark (when your eyes adjust) so that I will be more likely to notice something lurking in any shadows than if I had not taken those important five minutes to let my eyes adjust.

These night vision skills are the single most important skills young adults can learn to stay safe after they learn how to use a defensive flashlight. Lesson 6 in our 15 Seconds to Safety online course teaches this, so check it out:

http://www.sealedmindset.com/awareness-training/online-course

(5) Teach your son or daughter the 7 aspects of normal life that limit their security and then help them learn how to BREAK BAD HABITS so that they can limit their risk when they are alone.

Learning how to break myself of the 7 aspects of normal life (what we refer to as “social conditioning” at Sealed Mindset) that negatively impact my ability to stay safe, has changed my life more than anything else I have ever learned from my Navy SEAL husband. The first one I will mention here, but if you would like to know the other 6, shoot me an email and I will share them with you: anne@sealedmindset.com.
1 – How We Think About Our Environments

We limit ourselves in how we look at environments, everything from a coffee shop to a gym to an office space. We see signs that say “Employees Only” and tell ourselves we cannot go into those areas. Rather than seeing signs and reiterating the negative limitations that those signs impose on us, look at signs and think, “If something bad happened right now, where could I go to stay safe? What could I use to give me an advantage?” I always look at “Employee Only” signs as guidance rather than the rule, because if I can use those to my advantage to stay safe, I will.

When you enter a new place, look for the entry and exits, look for the safest place to sit, look for what you can use to create a barrier between yourself and someone else so that you have avenues of escape wherever you are. This is not paranoia; this is prior planning, and it makes you SMART. If you are a college student who knows this, it gives you the ultimate safety edge.

In my mind, 2 hours of online prevention to reduce the risk for a young adult is a small price to pay for peace of mind and to quiet those nervous knots. If my mother could have given me that gift when she dropped me off at Georgetown, she would have without hesitation. What are you waiting for? Now’s the time!

ADDED BONUS: For any young adult who takes our online course, we give him or her the direct number to SEALED MINDSET so that they have a Navy SEAL on their speed dial for any safety questions they might have when they are away from home – how many kids can say that these days?

Those are the first five techniques, but the best five are to follow in NEXT week’s blog! Make sure you check it out on Friday, August 19th. For more information on Sealed Mindset’s pre-college safety training, please email me: anne@sealedmindset.com.

FAMILY COLLEGE SAFETY RESOURCES

Security On Campus (Non Profit) Information on Sexual Assault, Homicide, Assault, Robbery, Weapons Violations, Threat/Alerts, and Other Crime on College Campuses:

http://www.securityoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=63

Campus Safety Magazine:

http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Channel/University-Security/Articles/2011/04/Clery-Reporting-Whose-Job-Is-It-Anyway.aspx

NEWS

Michigan Campus Attacks:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-29/justice/michigan.fbi.probe_1_michigan-campus-attacks-composite-sketch?_s=PM:CRIME

ABC Primetime Special: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1319608

Posted in awareness training, college planning, college safety, dorm safety, personal protection, sealed mindset, self defense training, student safety, study abroad safety | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

My First Self Defense Class

Posted on July 22, 2021 by admin
We Can Do It poster for Westinghouse, closely ...

Image via Wikipedia

When people meet me and learn I like to shoot handguns or that I carry a defensive flashlight, I hear many of the following questions:

What are you afraid of?

Why on earth would you carry a gun?!

What happened to you that made you want to carry a defensive flashlight?

You must feel SO SAFE with Larry and Fluffy, why do you need to carry something?

Many of those same people are shocked when they discover that NOTHING bad has ever happened to me, that I am not paranoid, that I have never been attacked, never been mugged, never had any safety related issues - even when I am by myself without Larry or Fluffy to protect me.

The reason why I believe I haven’t experienced anything traumatic (other than very protective parents), is that I am proactive when it comes to my safety. Never have I wanted to say to someone that I wished I had learned more or done something different. Never did I want to have to tell my parents that something bad had happened to me because I didn’t listen to what they told me about safety.

But, how confident and informed I am now is not always how I was when it came to daily safety skills. Before Larry, I walked around with my head in the clouds a bit, running through my “to do” list in my mind, thinking about everything else I had going on with my day. Most women are just like me and do this too!

When I looked through blogs I had written years ago when we first started Sealed Mindset’s online awareness training to help families be more proactive with their safety, I found this - my first experience in a self defense class.

For other women out there who want to know what a self defense class is like before you attend one, here is my story. But remember, the class you attend is only as good as the teacher’s practical experience and whether or not the tools they give you have been passed through the filter of actually being used in the real world.

Before I arrived at the first self-defense course I ever took, I was aware of the following statistics:

  • 1 out of 6 women will become a target of sexual assault.
  • Eighty-seven percent of women who fought back when they were assaulted said it made the circumstances BETTER.
  • 75% of sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim

 

I went into the self-defense course wondering what someone could teach me in three hours that might do more than just boost my confidence. The course was well executed, engaging, and the instructor had invited two women doctors to provide emotional support to all of the ladies attending.

Sitting in the class, I learned something I had not previously considered about criminals:  a criminal would know how to protect himself from a woman’s initial reactions because when a criminal strikes, it is rarely the first time he has done it. He is practiced, he has planned and he is prepared. More likely than not, he has been watching you and your habits, which is why it is so integral to change up when you go to the gym, when you go to the grocery store, etc.

We also learned the following tips:

  • Sit on the outside seat on planes, trains and buses with your belongings on the inside seat – much easier to escape from a bad situation if you can reach the aisle
  • Don’t travel without your cell phone in your car
  • Keep contact information, but not personal information in your wallet
  • Carry the bulk of your money in your bra
  • Always have ¾ of a car length in front of you and another car so that you are never boxed in.

 

We learned the following skills to try to prevent us from being taken to the ground:

  • How to pinch effectively in the most tender places
  • How to get out of a grabbed wrist
  • How to back away at a 45 degree angle
  • How to get out from under a man if he was sitting on top of you, pinning your wrists
  • How to get out of a choke hold
  • How to get out of a bear hug grab

 

We learned that predators typically look for the following in a victim:

  • PASSIVITY:  How passive are you? How close can a criminal get?

    What will you allow a criminal to get away with?

    How you react judges what will come next!

  • LOW SELF ESTEEM:  How do you carry yourself?

  • ASSERTIVENESS: How easy is it for you to say no and move away from unwanted attention?

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line for everything I learned was that a woman must become more aware of her surroundings.  But, no one explained how I could become more aware – just that it was important to do so. Also, the focus was on “acting confident.” What I discovered from watching the other women in the class when they practiced “acting confident” was that you can’t fake confidence. Despite all of these good first learning points, I wanted more. This class inspired me to develop a class that taught more than tips and quick skills. Where this class stopped, the Sealed Mindset curriculum begins.

 

PRACTICING WITH LARRY

When I returned home and went to practice my new found protective skills on my husband, I was in for a bit of a shock. Not knowing what I had learned, he immediately picked me up in a big bear hug (with my arms at my sides since it happened so fast!) and threw me down onto the couch, pinning my arms with his forearms and my body with his body. He was not up in the position we had practiced in the self-defense course; instead, he was lying prone against me. My special ‘trick’ to put pressure on his knee to get out of a ‘man on top’ situation was useless, but I felt better knowing that I could fight. This mental strength made me determined not to give up. That didn’t mean that I eventually won, just that I knew I had more in me than I had before the class. I also realized very quickly how FAST an attack can occur, if you don’t know how to see it coming to avoid it.

 

KNOWLEDGE

At the end of the day, I was more confident in my ability to protect and defend myself  because I had gained knowledge.

Knowledge made me understand that I was stronger than I thought. It made me realize more than ever that ALL women need more knowledge, more techniques and the specialized skill sets that can typically only be found in the military or federal training world. The most important thing I learned that day, however was that learning about being safe is a lifelong journey and a progression. It is also nothing to be afraid of! We have reserves of energy inside us that we barely ever use - gaining knowledge helps us tap into these reserves so that they are ready when we need them.

So, remember when it comes to personal safety or self-defense, there is always another tool to add to your personal safety tool kit and always something new to learn. Find a trusted resource for your questions, find an experienced instructor with real world defensive experience who integrates role playing to help you develop the right skills, and if you ever have questions, CALL ME.

And, after you make that first call to learn more, give yourself a congratulatory HUG. You have made the choice that will set you apart from all others as a stronger, more independent and prepared woman.

Now that is a woman I want to know.

 

 

 

Posted in awareness training, family protection, family safety and prevention, sealed mindset, self defense | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

The Name of the Man Who Shot Osama Bin Ladin

Posted on June 16, 2021 by admin
US Navy SEAL team member in Afghanistan 2002

Image via Wikipedia

Everyone wants to know the name of the SEAL who shot Bin Ladin. People cannot believe that he is not being honored on every news channel. Others cannot imagine being that man and having to keep it a secret when you were the one to finally bring justice to the world’s worst terrorist.

Unfortunately, unless you have been one of these warriors, it will never make sense why there must be silence, and more importantly, why that is exactly what you as a SEAL would want.

The need for silence comes from two places: operational security and family safety.

Operational Security or OPSEC refers to the efforts that must be taken to ensure that the enemy does not gain any knowledge that can benefit them. The public may see this as one of the biggest military victories of recent history, but to the SEALs on this mission, it was just another effective day at work.

These warriors will return to their base to debrief the After Action Report (AAR), which will go over every detail of the operation, both good and bad. Each member (both senior and junior) will share their point of view of the events and offer criticisms of each other’s actions. All of these lessons will be collected and distributed to as many other SEALs as possible, so that all of us can benefit from the lessons learned to never make the same mistake again.

Then these warriors will go back to work to train for the next mission. The training is never ending. This training is what enables these warriors to perform the impossible. They will be itching to get back into the fight to continue to make a difference. In order to continue deploying and protecting this country, these good men must remain anonymous. If their identities were to be paraded about on television, then their operational careers would be over.

This ties into the next reason why identities of these men must remain a closely guarded secret. The enemies that we are fighting against are evil people that will go to any means necessary to hurt us. In our modern society of social media and public identities, it would not be hard to take a name and find the families of these warriors. These terrorists would not think twice about targeting a school or an elderly care facility to kill the family members of the warrior or warriors who finally brought Bin Ladin to justice.

But, the most important point to keep in mind is that this secrecy is exactly what these warriors want.

We are not like you. That is obvious by the fact that the majority of individuals never try to become a SEAL and of those few that try, 80% will not make it. If you go to BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL) training because you want outside recognition, you will not last long.

The only men who make it through training must be motivated from deep inside. It must be a calling; you must be a sheepdog through and through. All SEAL training accomplishes is to sharpen the teeth you already had.

SEALs pride themselves as being “Silent Professionals.” Unless you know what to look for, it is very difficult to pick out a Navy SEAL in the crowd.

We do not leave our loved ones for an average of 300 days a year for a mention in the paper.

We do not sacrifice our bodies and our souls for medals or commendations.

We do not suffer the loss of our friends and teammates for an appearance on television.

We do savor the respect given to us by our fellow teammates for our actions in combat. We do thirst for the feeling of excitement and accomplishment that comes from a successful mission.

But, most importantly every day we feel a hollowness deep within us that reminds us that we have still not done enough to protect our teammates, our families, and the country that we love.

This feeling is what drives us to remain anonymous and to throw ourselves back into the breach, ready to fight against evil in whatever forms it takes.

As always, thanks for reading.

Larry Yatch

Posted in Navy SEAL Team, Osama Bin Laden | Tagged , , | Comments Off

AR-15, CAR-15, M16 and M4: Making Sense of the Popular AR-15 Rifle

Posted on June 1, 2022 by admin
AR-15 rifles showing their configurations with...

Image via Wikipedia

I often get questions about the very popular AR-15 Rifle. This happens even more often now that Sealed Mindset is coming out with a completely custom, hand-built  rifle.

Just as the popularity of this weapons system rises, so do the questions and the confusion.

With this post, I will give you a basic understanding of the history of this rifle and the naming conventions, so that the next time you are at a dinner party and conversation shifts to sporting rifles, you can be the star.

The AR-15 is a fully automatic or semi-automatic, magazine-fed rifle.  The AR-15 traditionally shoots a .223 caliber round.

I can imagine the comments already!  “Larry you are wrong, the AR-15 shoots a 5.56 round!”

Actually, the .223 caliber round and the 5.56mm round are the same thing.  Both refer to the diameter of the bullet that leaves the rifle, one is a standard (caliber) measurement and one is a metric (mm) measurement.

gas system, direct impingement

Image via Wikipedia

There are now many different AR-15 style rifles that shoot calibers from .22LR to .308 caliber / 7.62 mm.

Traditionally the AR-15 was a gas blow-back, direct impingement design.  This means that the gasses that are pushing the bullet down the barrel are redirected and used to directly push the bolt of the rifle toward the rear.

Some AR-15 rifles are now gas pistol or operating rod designs.  This means that instead of the gasses hitting the bolt directly, the gases are used to press a gas piston to the rear.  This design can improve reliability by not pushing dirty, hot gasses into the bolt.

Let’s get into naming confusion now…

The name AR15 comes from orig manufacturer ArmaLite and stood for ArmaLite Rifle model 15. Colt bought the rights from Armalite around 1959.

The CAR-15 designation was a reintroduction by Colt to try to associate the name of the rifle to their brand - hence Colt Automatic Rifle : CAR15. It didn’t really stick.

Now a CAR15 is generally understood to refer to a carbine version of the AR15.

The term carbine traditionally refers to a shorter / smaller variation of a full size rifle.

There are no official specifications as to what separates a AR15 from a CAR15.

What I mean is that if you have a 20″ barrel on your rifle, that does not mean it is a CAR15, and if you have a 21″ barrel you now have an AR15.

Then to muddy the naming waters even more, enter the U.S. Military.

When Colt first sold AR-15 rifles to the U.S. Military, their designation was M16.

The main difference between a AR-15 and a M16 was that the military version had selective fire from semi-automatic to fully automatic.

The M16 is being replaced with the M4 which is a carbine (shorter) version of the M16.  There are a number of other upgrades that have occurred over the years to improve the M4 over the M16.

There you go, a beginner’s course in the awesome AR-15 rifle. If you have one and want to learn how to use it, let us know. Sealed Mindset is considering hosting an AR-15 course in July, but we want your feedback on interest levels.

Posted in family protection, family safety and prevention, Firearms, Larry Yatch, navy SEAL, Navy SEAL Team, permit to carry, personal safety, Personal Safety Training, sealed mindset, sealed mindset training, self defense, shooting, Violent crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

I see London, I see France…I see 4 guys coming out of a SUV with a lead pipe.

Posted on May 22, 2022 by admin
Beach

I’m lucky enough to be the person at Sealed Mindset who receives emails from our past clients who are willing to share their stories about how our training has affected or changed their lives. Many write in to tell me that they no longer live with nagging concerns or the feeling of vulnerability that can arise when we walk from our offices to our cars at night. Their emails inspire me every day because I see the impact and proof that what we teach builds a stronger, more aware person who isn’t fearful or paranoid.

One of our first clients ever has taken the time to share her story with us. She doesn’t worry anymore that she wouldn’t know what to do if something unexpected were to happen.

Here is her story.

Jeanine, Online Student in our 15 Seconds to Safety Course

I didn’t even notice that it was that dark until a chill ran through my spine and my “Sealed Mindset” switch flipped on almost simultaneously.

I pulled back my hoodie and looked around.  Two men were approaching me from the left.  I turned right and started walking down the sidewalk.  I kept moving my head so I could see them.  Then I stopped at a corner in the path and turned to look at them directly.

They stopped, turned away and went up the street.  All the while talking in soft voices to each other.  I decided to walk a little further along the cliff to where there are some parking spaces.  They were empty of course, and so was the beach (beach patrol was not allowing people on the beach).

Again I was alone, now just a little further away from the harbor.  The men were gone and I tried to go back to looking at the ocean waves and relaxing with the sunset.  My gut seemed uneasy though and I thought I should probably head back.  As I was thinking this over, a large SUV sped into the space closest to me and jammed on the brakes.  I took off in a full sprint when the car sped into space.  Four men jumped out after me, two of them were the same men as before.  When I turned my head to look, the guy closest to me was almost  6 feet away with a long pipe of some sort in his right hand.

I ran as fast as I could.  I have never run that fast in my whole life and I didn’t turn around again.

I got to the down slope part, hoping that I would see some people.  No one was there.  No one was in their houses along the cliff either b/c of evacuation warnings.  As I approached the upward slope part, I heard one of them yell “forget it, forget it” and it sounded farther away, but I didn’t stop.

I thought it best not to believe their words, so I kept running.  I didn’t stop until I got to the other end of the beach. On that farthest cliff side were some folks hanging out by their cars.  We didn’t see the men who were chasing me from where we were standing.

The training I did in your online class has saved me from many potentially bad situations – this one just the other day.  I am very grateful to you and to all of the Sealed Mindset staff for that.  Not only has it made me a safer person, but it has also made me a more confident person.  Words could not fully express my gratitude. Please thank everyone at Sealed Mindset for their hard work and dedication to making us all safer here in the States.  If I hadn’t been practicing my “Sealed Mindset” for over a year now, it wouldn’t have kicked in almost unconsciously that night to save my life.

Posted in awareness training, corporate safety training, family safety and prevention, personal safety, sealed mindset, self defense, Uncategorized, Violent crime | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

How to Plan a Navy SEAL Mission

Posted on May 13, 2022 by admin
The SEAL on the right is holding an AN/PAQ-1 LTD

Image via Wikipedia

 

How do you plan the mission to kill Bin Laden?

As much as it pains me to admit it, SEALs are not super human. Short of having a higher pain tolerance than most and an over developed need to protect, we are not that much different.

What separates us and what helps us to successfully pull off incredible operations, is our specialized training and planning. This type of training and planning was seen in the SEAL Sniper’s at sea rescue of Capt. Phillips and in the Osama bin Laden raid.

The planning process that is used by Navy SEALs was developed in the muddy jungle during the Vietnam War and has constantly evolved since then. This planning process is referred to as contingency planning and is used to varying degrees across the corporate world as well.

Most planning processes focus on the “perfect operation.” A plan is put together that describes the operation as you would want it to unfold in a perfect world. Once this plan is developed, than you practice it and conduct many dry runs. As SEALs we view this traditional contingency planning process as only the very beginning of the planning process. For those of you who have attended a Sealed Mindset Date Night and have seen our emergency plan, you know what I mean….

In contingency planning we as SEALS not only plan for the “perfect operation,” but we also spend a great deal of time planning for contingencies. Another word for contingencies would be problems. Everyone has heard of Murphy’s Law, “What can go wrong, will go wrong.” As SEALs we want to make it as uncomfortable for “Murphy” as we can.

We do this by breaking the mission down into individual sections. Each section represents one part of the overall plan. For example, we may break a mission down into insertion, actions at the objective, and extraction. In layman’s terms, this means getting there, what you do when you are there, and getting home.

After the mission is broken up into phases, we discuss (as a team) every problem that may come up during that section of the mission. The top three most likely problems (contingencies) will be decided upon and assigned to individual team members. Each person will them be tasked with preparing three plans that solve his assigned problem. After all of these “contingency plans” are finished, the plans are presented to the team as a whole. At that point, responsibilities are assigned and the required equipment is prepared.

Interestingly enough, most of the time the problems that occur during a mission are rarely the same as the problems planned for during this contingency planning process. But, one of the most important benefits of this process is that by working together as a team to find and plan for expected problems, the entire team truly understands the overall intent of the plan. This understanding of mission intent allows the operators to seamlessly work though any problem that may arise.

The effectiveness of this planning process was seen in action during the bin Laden raid. Even with the loss of a helicopter, the SEALs were able to instantly adjust and complete the mission.

This planning process is just as effective in any environment where there is a potential for problems to arise. If you are interested in learning more about the SEAL contingency planning process, or how you can learn to implement this process across your organization for mission success, please contact us at info@sealedmindset.com.

Posted in awareness training, contingency planning, corporate safety training, Larry Yatch, Navy SEAL Team, Osama Bin Laden, safety solution, sealed mindset training | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

In the Boots & Minds of the Navy SEALs’ Assault on Osama Bin Laden’s Compound

Posted on May 5, 2022 by admin

Navy SEAL Larry Yatch

Many of you have emailed, called and written to ask me this question after the recent targeted operation against Osama Bin Laden:

“What was going through the minds of the SEALs as they assaulted Osama Bin Laden’s compound?”

Here is my answer to your question:

The silent darkness of night is violently disturbed with the pounding sound of MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter blades cutting through the thin mountain air.  Within the next instant, 24 black clad figures are silently and purposefully gliding through the darkness with weapons held at the ready.

The minds of America’s most elite warriors at this very instant are clear and prepared.

As a 10-year combat veteran of the Navy SEALs who was lucky enough to be involved in many high risk missions similar to the Bin Laden raid, I wanted to use this post to describe what went through my mind at these moments to give you a glimpse into the emotions and thoughts of a warrior in action.

One emotion that is not present in this high risk moment is the emotion of fear, but not for any of the reasons that you might expect.

A tenant that we live by in the SEAL Teams is: “Courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is the mastery of fear.”  It is true that only crazy men or dead men have no fear.  Even the world’s most elite warriors feel fear.  What separates us from others is the ability to continue to operate effectively despite feeling fearful.

I remember very distinctly a time when I was preparing for a mission where the expected casualty rates were 50%.  This means that I had a coin flip’s chance of surviving.  This knowledge caused me to be fearful in the weeks and days that preceded the operation.  Yet, I was confident in my teammates’ abilities and I knew that I needed to continue to lead them to keep them safe.

As we started the operation, we reached what we refer to as the “drop dead point.”  This point is considered the point of no return, where we are fully committed to the operation and to any danger that might lie ahead.  I noticed that any fear I had felt initially had at this moment been completely transformed into anger.  The anger I felt rose from that fact that I had knew that these bad men that we had to confront were the reasons that my closest friends and my own safety was at risk.  Their choices and actions were the cause of this situation, and that made me upset.

The other reason that my fellow warriors would not be feeling fear is due to the years of intense training we experience.  In these types of operations, I have found that you are in a dynamic, 360-degree environment.  In this type of environment, threat levels are constantly changing, enemy and friendly positions are changing, and this is occurring all around you, above and below you simultaneously.

In that type of situation, you cannot rely on your mind’s ability to make conscious decisions.  You must have been trained to a level that allows you to instinctively react.  With our level of training, I have found that my mind actually becomes very quiet.  All of the background “noise” that usually exists in our minds is shut off.  There are no thoughts of cause or effect, just action and reaction.  It is the ultimate example of being in the moment.

This “in the moment” feeling is unparalleled in life.  I have jumped out of airplanes, surfed monster waves, flown aerobatic airplanes, and mountain biked down mountainsides in search of that single, powerful feeling, yet none even come close.  It is one of the most addictive feelings on earth and part of the reason why operating as a Navy SEAL, where I could protect the country I love, was the best calling I have ever had.

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Learning to Knife Fight With a Navy SEAL, Part 3

Posted on February 11, 2022 by admin
The Karate Kid, Part III

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Back to the dojo…

We spent the next three days working our unarmed knife defense.  By the end of those first four days, all of my fingers were bruised and swollen and at least one was fractured.  Nothing a little athletic tape couldn’t fix. We also had spent every spare minute whittling our training knives or sharpening our carving knives. Our right forearms (both of us are right handed) were completely worn out from the effort of carving and sharpening.

By this time, we were a little frustrated that we had not spent anytime on knife offense.  We came to the dojo on our last day and confronted Kevin about the lack of offense instruction.  He smiled a knowing smile and then made us feel like we were in a Karate Kid movie.

He pulled out a cardboard sheet with a series of numbered circles and lines on it.  He put it on the wall and told us to stand close to the wall.  He put lipstick on our now finished wooden training knife and told us to quickly slash the lines and thrust into the circles upon his calling off numbers.  The quicker he called the numbers and the tighter our movements became, I was amazed at my ability to put the knife exactly where I wanted it to go.  The knife seemed to be an extension of my arm.  It suddenly clicked: carving that wooden knife taught me blade control.  He clarified my realization:

A knife is just a tool and is useless without an artist.  Work with your tools until they become a natural extension of your body, only then can you create works of art.

Then he ordered me to step back and put the knife in my left hand.  He grabbed the end of it and easily twisted it out of my left hand.  He then told me to switch hands and use my right hand instead.  Once again he grabbed and twisted the wooden blade.  This time I was able to resist and counter his force.  Once again, it became obvious that all those hours of carving and sharpening by hand served more than one purpose.  All of that work had strengthened my grip incredibly.   He once again eloquently distilled the lesson:

Your knife or gun is only useful if it is in your hand; hand strength is critical.

Then he told me to square off with him with my wooden knife in my hand.  He told me to attack him and instantly my mind seemed to go blank.  In those few seconds I was standing there the aching of my fingers crept into my mind.  I remembered a thrust feint into a low snapping slash that he had hit me with snapping my fingers time and again yesterday.  I had seen him do it to me at least 20 times over the last two days.  I remembered that I always moved my hand up when he came with that attack.

So I decided to throw that, yet aim 6 inches high with my slash.  I leapt forward and threw the feint and transitioned into the slash throwing it high. As I did this, his hand was already moving upward and my blade racked him on the knuckles.  I saw a grin spread across his scarred face.  I was expecting congratulations, but none came.  Instead I followed his eyes down to my groin where he had a second wooden blade pressed against my inner thigh under which my femoral artery and certain death lay.

My final lesson was the most important and the same as my first:

You will get cut in a knife fight.

Stay tuned for Part 4…

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Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL, Part 2

Posted on February 8, 2022 by admin
Cover of "Indiana Jones and the Raiders o...

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I want to specify here that knife fighting is extremely dangerous and complicated.  I am just introducing concepts here.  This is not a definitive guide to knife fighting or defense.  If you are interested in learning more, find a local expert and start training.  What you will learn here are some solid tenets that you can use to build your knowledge base.  Another “tool for the tool box” as I like to say.

When I last left you, my fingers felt broken and I was off to my room to figure out how to whittle a wooden combat knife.  I spent the better part of the night figuring out a key lesson:

Never cut towards yourself.

This seems obvious, but you have to remember that we were just a couple of young midshipmen that grew up in the city.  Only by the grace of God did we not end up in the emergency room getting stitches.  That is not to say that we didn’t have a new cut or two on our fingers in the morning.

When we showed up for class, we proudly presented the beginnings of our wooden knives.  Kevin immediately brushed them aside and asked to see the Gerber knives we had used to carve the wood.  We pulled them out and he checked their blades.  He turned to us and asked us why they were dull.  Our confused looks resulted in an immediate lesson:

A dull knife is a dangerous knife.

This is a critical point.  If your knife is dull, you have to use more force to get it to cut.  That extra force results in having to over commit and often causes you to over travel.  When you are cutting a cord in your garage, over travel can cost you some stitches.  When you are defending yourself with a knife, over travel can cost you your position and therefore your life, so we immediately went into a review of stance and movement.

Then we learned the two types of attacks that can be used with a knife: Thrusts and Slashes.

Thrusts use the tip of the blade to puncture and generally travel in a line from the attacker towards the defender.

Thrusts can come from any direction: straight ahead from the waistline forward, from down low, up or in the traditional serial killer way - from above downward.

Most thrusts have a starting point and an ending point.  Picture a movie serial killer coming at you with the knife held out the bottom of their fist thrusting downward like he was hammering a nail.

The key to thrust defense is to stay away from the tip of the blade.  This can be done through increasing the distance between you and the attacker or by deflecting the attack through hitting the attacker’s hand from the side.

Slashes use the edge of the blade to cut and generally travel in arcs.

Slashed are very dangerous and very difficult to defend against, because they utilize the larger cutting surface of the blade and can be linked together.  A skilled knife fighter can cut an opponent in multiple places in less than a second.  Slashes travel in arcs; these arcs can move in any direction.

The key to slash defense is to stay outside the arc of the blade.  It is difficult to increase the arc of a slash mid-slash.  It is best to attack the attacker’s knife hand at the end of an arc because that is where the knife has to change direction.  As we learned earlier, over travel kills, big sweeping arcs give you opportunity.

If your opponent is keeping his knife in tight, quickly linking slashes and thrusts, never pausing or over committing while simultaneously decreasing the distance between you, there is only one sure defense:

THE INDIANA DEFENSE

What is the Indiana Defense?  Think back to the scene in Indian Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy is up against the beast with the two swords. What does he do? He smiles, then he pulls his pistol out and shoots the beast.  This leads to our most important lesson:

Never bring a knife to a gunfight.

Thanks for reading - Larry Yatch

Stay tuned for Part 3 on Thursday, February 10th!

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Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL

Posted on February 5, 2022 by admin

Image by mr.smashy via Flickr

Part 1 of 4

I spent the last three days with the Emerson family of Emerson Knives.We were able to tour their production facility and get an inside view of what makes their knives the premier tactical folding knife on the market today (see our pictures on Sealed Mindset’s Facebook page).  Spending this time around knives has reminded me how much I rely on knives for defense, thus the next series of posts will concentrate on knives.

AS HUMANS, WE ARE LIMITED.

If you take a close look at a human being, it becomes pretty evident that we are not the most robust species out there.  We do not boast sharp claws, fangs, or even a tough hide for defense.

There are two reasons that we are at the top of the food chain: opposable thumbs and an incredible intellect.  Having opposable thumbs gives us the unique ability to make and hold tools.  Our intellect gives us not only the ability to learn, but also more impressively the ability to invent; the ability to bring into existence something that never was.

Ernest Emerson and the family of Emerson Knives have put their opposable thumbs and creative intellect into excellent use by creating the best tactical folding knives available in the market today.

Anne and I have had the pleasure of being good friends of the Emerson family for a number of years now.  That is not something a Navy SEAL takes lightly.  Emerson knives hold a special place in the battle-hardened hearts of most special operators.  I still remember fondly the first time I held an Emerson blade in my hand.  There I was standing in my room at the United States Naval Academy . . .

Before I made it into SEAL training I prepared myself both mentally and physically by relentlessly pushing myself.  That self imposed torture came in many forms: refusing to run in anything but a T-shirt and shorts no matter what the weather (nasty Pittsburgh weather be damned) or reading every word published on Navy SEALs.

It was in Richard Marcinko’s Rogue Warrior series in which I was introduced to the lethal efficiency of Emerson steel.  In his books, “Demo Dick” Marcinko clearly stated that the Emerson CQC-6 was the epitome of combat folders.

My mind was made up: if the CQC-6 was THE knife of choice for Navy SEALs, I had to have one and I had to know how to use it.  Getting one would be much more difficult as at the time there was a 5 year waiting list.  I figured the best course of action would be to start saving my money and begin learning the art of knife fighting.

Spring break was coming up during my 2nd Class (junior) year at the Naval Academy; therefore common sense held that it was time to go somewhere warm with beautiful women.

Not being one to follow the herd, and not understanding how chasing women in Jamaica helped me become a better warrior, I hatched a different plan.  I found a close friend, classmate and eventual co-founder of Sealed Mindset and proposed that we go to the back alleys of Pittsburgh to train with an infamous martial artist, Kevin Pegnato, instead of going to a beach.

We asked Kevin to put together a weeklong offensive and defensive knife-fighting course, and he asked us if we liked unbroken fingers. Undeterred, we packed up the car and drove through the night to Pittsburgh.  He also made the strange request that we each bring a 12” x 2” x 1” piece of hardwood.

We spent the night before class awake with scenes of silently dispatching the enemies of our country with fixed blade fighting knives playing though our minds.  When we arrived at the dojo early in the morning, blocks of wood in our hands, our reality was nothing like our dreams.

The first lesson we learned was the most important:

You will get cut in a knife fight.

You readers should feel lucky to have received this most crucial lesson so easily.  Our Instructor was more inclined to provide physical lessons, usually accompanied with pain.  He stood in one corner of the dojo with a beautifully carved wooden knife in his hand.  He asked me to pick a distance away from him where I thought I wouldn’t get cut, when I looked quizzically to his wooden knife he pointed to my block of wood on the floor by my lunch.

I picked up my wood block and stood about 12’ away from him.  He laid the ground rules that he would make one attack and if I was able to parry or move away from his attack the test was over.  I nodded my head in understanding.  Before I could register his movement he made one giant step forward, but I could instantly tell that there was no way he would be close enough to touch my body with his knife.  I responded by stepping back quickly to increase my distance.

At the last instant, his wrist snapped out and the last two inches of his knife struck the index and ring fingers of my knife hand.  The wooden block instantly dropped from my hand.  Then came my favorite lesson concerning knife fighting:

“Not many people want to continue a knife fight when their fingers are laying on the ground in front of them.”

Now I understood his question about my attachment to my fingers.  I also had a whole new understanding of 10 wonderful additional targets.  He explained that the hands were usually the furthest point away from the body and also were critical in our ability to mount an effective offense or defense.

After proving these points, he told us what we could expect for the next 5 days.  This would become our third lesson:

“Anyone with a knife can cut another, it takes a truly skilled warrior not to get cut.”

Unarmed defense against a knife is one of the most difficult skills to learn, and that is what he said we would spend the majority of our time on.  We started with learning how to assume a fighting stance and how to move quickly with balance.  The techniques and lessons I learned in that dojo in 1997 became the foundation of my shooting and fighting career.

As we were leaving that first day, we received our homework assignment.  The instructor told us that he expected our blocks of wood to have the start of a handle by the next morning.  He added that he would not be happy if he saw any signs of power tools on our blocks.  He pointed to the simple Gerber pocket knives that we both had in our pockets and added, “Have fun and don’t put any rings on tonight, your fingers are going to swell.”

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! Larry Yatch

Part 2 to “Learning to Knife Fight with a Navy SEAL” arrives on Tuesday!

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