Back Online: Update + Book Recommendation
I’ve been moving house. Still am. I didn’t have any internet until today, when they hooked up the satellite. Most excellent.
Here’s an update and a candid admission on stupid: Knife safety.
We all carry those little folded pocket knives right? Great. Well, a few months back, I stabbed myself in the thigh with mine. How? Opening packages. Went in a couple of inches. It seems as I get older, and busier, I hurt myself more often. When our kids were just babies, it was the same. Not enough sleep, too much going on, and you suddenly have no short term memory. Everything is done in a rush, and you forget stuff or do stupid things. We called it ‘baby head.’ Think about that under the stresses of an SHTF situation – worse if you are not physically in shape and are even more exhausted than you needed to be.
An illustrious student, a trauma Doctor, who I will not mention unless he chooses to name himself, cut open the outside fleshy part of his hand on the first morning of a CTT class a while back, over a year ago before we had the pavilion. It happened in the parking lot, with a pocket knife that malfunctioned in his pocket when he put his hand in. He had a retired Navy corpsman stitch up his hand as a training exercise, and soldiered on through day 1 of the class.
Well, while moving (in a rush), I was trying to open a packet of ratchet straps at the back of my truck. Like trying to break into Fort Knox. As I applied force with my pocket knife in my right hand, it suddenly gave and I stabbed myself right on the inside of my left wrist, with some force. Yes, right where you cut yourself if you are trying to end it. Well, there was massive venous bleeding. It wasn’t pulsatile, so I hadn’t cut the radial artery, but there was no stopping it. I had a tourniquet on the inside of my truck door, so I threw that on. Bingo, no more bleeding – well, that isn’t the complete story – being a bit of a pussy, I tried to put the CAT on above my wrist, to save my arm the pain. Oh no, that doesn’t work – because we all know a TQ should go on ‘high and tight’ on the long bone. So I reapplied it high up over the bicep, pressuring the brachial artery, and then – bingo!
I had my wife drive me to the ER. Getting stuck at the level crossing as the 10 minute train went past didn’t help. Yes, tourniquets do hurt. However, I did enjoy explaining to the triage nurse that my laceration was no longer bleeding, but pointing out the tourniquet and asking her if she wanted me to take it off to show her how much it was bleeding….got seen pretty quick.
Anyway, I got fixed up in the ER, and as punishment for my stupidity, I also caught the flu. Or Ebola. I’m not sure, but I seem to be getting better – but I did wonder why they were all wearing face masks at the hospital.
None of it helped moving, which has continued.
This leads me on to this: violence. It reminded me of the fact that if you get involved in a knife fight, you will be cut, even if you ‘win’/survive. Simple ‘defensive wounds’ such as mine to the wrist/hand/forearm area would be the best outcome. Have a plan to stop yourself from bleeding out.
Which leads me nicely to this:
While I was without internet, I read a book. It was excellent: ‘Facing Violence’ by Rory Miller.
I really liked this book. I think he hit the nail on the head. It’s not a martial arts technique book – it’s a mindset book. I’m thinking of putting it up in the sidebar on the forum, it was that good. This book should be read as a companion to ‘Contact!’ because it simply supports and embellishes with such expertise the concepts I try to push about denial, and training, and the freeze, and mindset.
I get a little jaded with the FM warriors and blowhard keyboard commandos who really have no idea what they are talking about. There is a line in the book, to paraphrase: ‘If you thought about what violence would be like, you looked at a realtors listing for a house. I live in the house.’ Yet he is not arrogant, and does not write with arrogance. Yet, there is so much the ‘story’ people have of themselves tells them what they will do when faced with violence, and then there is actually what they will do.
There is so much in there that translates across from his focus largely on hand to hand/close combat style violence, to our focus on small unit tactics and general survival both now and SHTF. This book will help you if faced with violence under the current rule of law, and if we find ourselves without it.
Such as when he talks about beating the freeze, and the types of freezes and their causes.
He talks about the reality of the OODA loop and how to short circuit your initial freeze with operant conditioning. When you read about operant conditioning, think about the immediate reaction drills that we teach you at MVT, in the form of the RTR drill: the immediate return fire yelling “Contact (Direction)! and moving to cover.
When he talks about alertness, avoidance, mitigation, routes, how you carry yourself, I ws thinking about what we teach at MVT on the Combat Team Tactics and Combat Patrol Classes.
____________
Final point: I also just happened to read this, after I cut my wrist:
This is the official citation for Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry, awarded the Medal of Honor:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:
Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy in the vicinity of Paktya Province, Afghanistan, on May 26, 2008. As a Weapons Squad Leader with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Staff Sergeant Petry moved to clear the courtyard of a house that potentially contained high-value combatants. While crossing the courtyard, Staff Sergeant Petry and another Ranger were engaged and wounded by automatic weapons fire from enemy fighters. Still under enemy fire, and wounded in both legs, Staff Sergeant Petry led the other Ranger to cover. He then reported the situation and engaged the enemy with a hand grenade, providing suppression as another Ranger moved to his position. The enemy quickly responded by maneuvering closer and throwing grenades. The first grenade explosion knocked his two fellow Rangers to the ground and wounded both with shrapnel. A second grenade then landed only a few feet away from them. Instantly realizing the danger, Staff Sergeant Petry, unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his safety, deliberately and selflessly moved forward, picked up the grenade, and in an effort to clear the immediate threat, threw the grenade away from his fellow Rangers. As he was releasing the grenade it detonated, amputating his right hand at the wrist and further injuring him with multiple shrapnel wounds. Although picking up and throwing the live grenade grievously wounded Staff Sergeant Petry, his gallant act undeniably saved his fellow Rangers from being severely wounded or killed. Despite the severity of his wounds, Staff Sergeant Petry continued to maintain the presence of mind to place a tourniquet on his right wrist before communicating the situation by radio in order to coordinate support for himself and his fellow wounded Rangers. Staff Sergeant Petry’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service, and reflect great credit upon himself, 75th Ranger Regiment, and the United States Army.
Rangers Lead the Way.
Reading that, it puts my stupid scratch into perspective!
Go read that book.
Max
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You sound really off the grid if you have sat internet.
I have a load of scars on my hands from stupidity with knives. The last spiffy looking scar coming from a turkey day fight with a sweet potato. Thank god for quik clot and my many training sessions including your TC3. Come SHTF a stapler would be handy.
The spirit of the knife, regardless of which knife I use, calls for my blood. I still complain but not as loudly as I once did.
I prefer crazy glue and tape for skin repairs. I recognize that CG does not meet the medical standards for sterile application but it is what I usually have on hand. It has worked out for me on many occasions.
:D
You know, I think there may be some truth to this… in the past, every time I’ve gotten a new knife I’ve cut myself within 5-10 minutes of opening it.
Of course new shiny things need to be fondled properly upon receiving, so, there is that…
But it is a bit uncanny of a repeat occurrence.
ok, I confess…
It bought me a repeat trip to CRCD, which I needed
When you fight, you will get hurt
It’s why we train to automate those reflexes
Cheers
Had a similar thing happen with an automatic opening knife a friend gave me. Stuck my hand in my pocket and the knife had opened and I cut myself. Felt like a dunskie for it!
Book looks interesting will have to buy it ASAP.
Be careful of the usage/bandwidth limitations with satellite internet. They often don’t disclose that but it’s there. Where we are at it’s the only option also.
Stay warm brother.
Also, aside from checking your usage allowance (which BTW if you can’t get at least 10Gig for the base package, you will be sorry), be sure to find out if your allowance resets at the end of the month, or if it’s rolling.
If it’s a rolling usage (like Wilblue) you are SOL once you max it out, because it never goes back to “0” unless you literally do not use the internet for a month…
Excede I believe resets at the EOM.
They also have free/unlimited usage around 12 or 1AM until somewhere between 7-9 AM, then it goes back to normal.
If you go over your usage with any of the satellite internet providers, it’s like going back to dial-up speed. Want to watch a 30 second video on youtbue? Nope. Have to wait til it resets. Want to bring up a simple page with text? Go make a sandwich and come back in a half hour or so…
Oh, and pray it doesn’t rain.
Or get windy. Or sunny and clear. Really it doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, just expect the internet to randomly crap out on you for no reason from time to time.
Yes dear readers, all this amazing performance can be yours for only double what other “regular” ISP’s generally charge!
Bunch of damn robbers, these internet guys….
Anyway, now that I’ve brightened your day…. :D
I have a folder with a pocket clip that carries tip-up. Great blade, came shaving-sharp from the factory. Used to carry it in my front pocket along with way too much other crap. This combined to achieve two things for me:
1) Compelled me to develop a habit of ramming my hand with gusto into the constricted pocket opening because patience is a virtue and I am less than entirely virtuous.
2) One fine day my mess of keyrings caught on the thumbstud and shifted the blade just enough to expose the tip ever so slightly.
Woohoo! Subsequently found a sale on tactical pants with pockets galore, and wear them exclusively so that now the folder shares space with nothing, ever.
Not only has this failure mode not recurred since, I believe I will never get tired of saying “tactical pants”.
#OREGON HOBO#
I like Rory Miller’s books a lot. Like you said, Max, he provides a ton of insight gained from experience without coming off as arrogant or condescending. Meditations on Violence and Drills: Training for Sudden Violence are the other two. Drills is okay; it’s more of a martial arts technique book. But Meditations on Violence is another mindset book like Facing Violence. The way they kind of go is that Meditations is just general thoughts about violence so that you can understand what it is, Facing Violence is about getting your mind right to deal with what you read in Meditations, and then Drills is about the actual hard skills.
This is one of the primary reasons for keeping a blade sharp! I get so much value out of this thing it ain’t funny: http://www.amazon.com/DMT-ADELUXE-Aligner-Deluxe-Sharpening/dp/B000FKM41S
try stropping the blade on a leather belt after working through the super fine block, and keep a sharpie handy to check your progress and water to keep the diamond wet.
The first rule of being a combat vet who almost accidentally stabbed himself to death with his pocket knife is that you don’t talk about being a combat vet who almost accidentally stabbed himself to death with his pocket knife.
5 weeks out from coming to MVT in september last year, was my wifes’ sous-chef for the evening meal. the instrument of terror, a japanese chef knife of ungodly sharpness. Was so sharp that I never felt it….suddenly blood all over the cutting board. 1 inch long, 1/2 inch deep wound on my thumb of my non dominant hand. Stiches were required, bled for 2 hours before realizing a trip to the ER was actually in the cards ( I’m a hard sell sometimes ). The agonizing thought was that having waited 5 months for class, might miss it. Surprisingly, I think due to the sharpness of the blade and clean cut, and copious use of aloe vera sap among other things, healed up and attended class. Take away?….gotta be mindful of tools. Heal well Max.
recently had to cut some thick branches off a tree, so bought a medium-size handsaw; came in a flat cardboard cover with a cut-out so you could see some of the teeth. I decided to touch it to find out if it was sharp enough. I found out
The Rory Miller book(s) are great. One of the big takeaways I got from his ‘Meditations’ book was that shit will happen “Closer. Faster. Harder. With Surprise”. As Max says, read it.
Concerning knives, a story in the same vein (no pun intended)…
Running a martial arts sword/knife cutting seminar one weekend. Arrived with weapons and gear loaded into car. Opened back door, reached in and grabbed cardboard box with medical supplies. Set on ground. Reached into car (without looking) to retrieve next item to be unloaded. Right edge base of pinkie finger contacts cold steel boar spear minus sheath. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Blood. Dripping. A lot it. Reach down into medical box (thankfully unloaded first), commence disinfect/bandaging of finger. Lots of guaze/tape/etc. later seminar begins with safety lecture by man with bandaged finger saying to be careful with knives and swords. That and a minor scratch by another fellow were only injuries of the day.
Lessons learned from this/other knife related injuries over the years:
– ALWAYS keep sharp objects in sheaths/ containers/folded up etc.. until use. If you don’t, cuts WILL happen — just a matter of time.
– ALWAYS look when reaching into places that might contain sharp objects. (including kitchen drawers/dark places, etc.)
– ALWAYS go slow with knives. Go even slower with big knives. And slower still with swords. Don’t be in a damn hurry.
– ALWAYS check your knives before use. Folder mechanisms break or become weak.
– ALWAYS keep knives clean. Less crap to go into the wound.
– ALWAYS remember that knives (like guns
) don’t care how long you’ve trained or how smart you are. They have no mercy. They do what they are designed to do.
and finally…
– ALWAYS unload your medical supplies first!
Just finished the book…well put together. I agree the mindset…. before, during, and after a confrontation. Thanks for the recommendation.