Fight to Survive

Rule 4: Survival Takes Practice

The ability to make fire is an absolute lifesaver, says Don McKay, who retired from Special Forces after 17 years and works as a SERE instructor. "It's going to cook your food, sterilize your water, and keep you warm," says McKay. "All the things we need to survive we can get from fire."

Assuming, that is, you can build one. In the rain. Ringed by enemy troops. Alongside a buddy with hypothermia. McKay, SERE's fire-making expert, reminds students of the basic materials (tender, kindling, and fuel) and the various types of fires (teepee, lean-to, and pyramid). Many have heard about them before, but he reminds students not to take fire for granted.

Watching McKay start fires is a little like watching a magician at work. Using a knife, he strikes a long piece of flint and throws enough sparks to light a small pile of magnesium shavings on the first try. He touches steel wool to the battery of a broken light, and instantly, the coils ignite and burn bright orange.

The class culminates in a fire test. Students have 15 minutes to build a fire and boil water using three matches. It sounds easy until a match blows out or a fire fizzles because of insufficient ventilation. "It comes down to who rehearses it and who doesn't," says John. "All of these techniques bear practicing now instead of waiting until you're in a situation where you have to build a fire in 10 minutes to stay alive."

McKay prides himself on using primitive methods to create fire. He takes a handmade bow, loops the wire around a hardwood stick, and proceeds to saw back and forth. The end of the stick swivels rapidly, like a drill, against a board of soft wood. "When you're at this level, life is bad," McKay says. "But you have to remember that you can still make things better."

Making fire the old-fashioned way is quite a workout. After 15 minutes, though, a string of smoke curls up from the board. McKay pounces, adding a dash of tender and -- presto! -- fire. To McKay, of course, it's no trick. The ability to make a fire in any given situation represents something larger and empowering: It's the ultimate demonstration of self-sufficiency. "I have young daughters, and they have been making fires since they were five years old," he says.

Rule 5: You Can Live off the Land

Part of the SERE course is about as appetizing as an episode of Fear Factor. Students eat whatever their instructors scrounge up: grub worms, crickets, acorns, fresh (and not so fresh) road-kill. How do you know if a rancid, flattened raccoon is okay to eat? Smith has a simple test: "Shake it, and whatever falls to the ground, you leave for the buzzards." If the carcass is several days old, boil the meat to be safe, then put it on a spit over the fire to improve the taste (a bit). "You can eat some pretty nasty stuff," he says.

The most common survival entrée is snake, which is why soldiers in other branches of the military refer to the Green Berets as "snake eaters." In the wild, snakes are as ubiquitous as fast-food joints in a city. "Very few countries don't have snakes -- they're pretty easy to catch, they're a good source of protein, and they're easy to cook up," says Smith. "I've eaten rattlers, cottonmouths, copperheads -- they all taste the same." (And not like chicken.)

In the plant class, Smith and McKay cover about 60 varieties: edible plants such as plantain, wood sorrel, and thistle; poisonous plants such as oleander, water hemlock, and chinaberry; and plants that can be used for medicinal purposes, such as garlic (for indigestion) and cactus (for burns). Since there are far too many plant names and characteristics to memorize, students learn the universal edibility test, a lengthy and methodical procedure. First, you touch a small piece of plant to your inner arm and look for irritation. Each subsequent test increases the exposure as you carefully monitor for adverse reactions. "We teach them plants that are indigenous to this area, not because you're going to be fighting a war here in North Carolina but because of the survival principle," says John. "Before you are deployed to an area, you need to study the flora and fauna there."

Rule 6: Survival Takes Imagination

Survival not only requires mental toughness and sound technique, but also a healthy dose of creativity. Just as there's more than one way to start a fire, there is more than one way to live off the land. SERE instructors encourage students to customize their survival kit and to pack their supplies as cleverly as possible. Soldiers sew a button compass onto their shirt and hide wire (for snares and fire making) and aluminum foil (for cooking and signaling) in the seams of their clothing. They lace their boots with heavy-duty parachute cord and wrap extra cord around their ankles.