A couple days ago I read an [old] post by Tim Ferriss on how to be Jason Bourne: Multiple Passports, Swiss Banking, and Crossing Borders. Who wouldn’t want to be Jason Bourne? I mean, aside from people hunting and wanting to kill him.
The post was centered around Neil Strauss’ Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
Graphic from OnPoint Tactical.
First, OnPoint Tactical trainers are trained in a variety of tactics and have experience in places like Iraq.
The class is geared toward international travelers going places where bad things might happen. I travel where bad things might happen (Heck, I’ll be in Cairo next week!), so naturally, I was interested enough to check out the website.
The topics they cover include:
- Covert movement (day vs. night)
- the judicious use of caches
- understanding urbane baseline movement and urban awareness training
- the use of disguises and false papers/identification
- lock picking
- escpaping from unlawful custody
- obtaining and driving local transportation
- the use of “specialized urban gear
- instruction on how to develop urban escape and evasion go-bags
For a three day course, that is a lot of material. They further describe the schedule as 2 days of 11 hour “classroom” time, and what I would call a “capstone” exercise on day 3, that puts the lectures into practice.
OnPoint Tactical Urban Escape and Evasion
They describe the capstone as:
You will be “kidnapped”: hooded, cuffed and taken somewhere dark and uncomfortable to start your day. You will be expected to escape, find your own transportation legally using your social engineering skills, and make your way to the first cache location, where directions for a series of tasks using all your new skills await.Meanwhile, expert trackers will be hunting you down, and if they catch you, you will have to start again from a more distant location.
In all candor – it sounds like a pretty exhaustive 3 day course. The cost is $799, but they offer a 7% discount if you pay two weeks in advance. It’s too steep for me, even though I’m quite tempted… with some of the places I will be traveling. Given the fact that I was in Bangkok when the Thai military first declared martial law and then a full out coup d’etat, I kind’ve feel like maybe this sort of training would be useful. But hey, I just travel for fun and adventure (preferably from seat 1K).
What do you think? Would you take a course in Urban Escape and Evasion?
In my opinion, unless you make a point of going to places where kidnapping is common, you probably aren’t going to need training like this. However, just because you probably aren’t going to need it doesn’t mean you won’t. If you’ve go the cash, go for it. That really isn’t a bad price. One thing to keep in mind though, all those skills degrade with time. If you go to training like this, you need to keep in practice so if you ever need them you can still execute them. Otherwise the whole thing is just an opportunity for you to have some gee wiz story to tell to your buddies later.
@John – I make it a point to avoid going to places where I’ll be concerned for my or my wife’s safety. But, I’m “overprotective” as my wife says, I plan for the worse. When we were in Thailand, I had multiple routes out of the hotel, and the area, because I was concerned. Luckily, the Thai Military was peaceful in their martial law, then coup d’etat. I’m just starting to realize that there are more unstable countries on our list than stable countries. Even Cambodia isn’t as stable as one would like.
I completely agree with you – if I were to take the training, I would definitely need to keep things fresh. I’m still not sure if $800 is doable… I think of how many trips that is, and its hard to justify. That said, its a cool opportunity, and I think it could be valuable for some folks.
Yeah, I hear you on SE Asia. I actually found myself in the middle of a few large protests during the 2012 Parliamentary Elections in Cambodia. Luckily, it was not me that anyone was mad at and I moved on or hunkered down depending on the situation. Anyways, you are right, avoiding those places is your best bet. You can apply that at a macro level (region/country) or a micro level (province/neighborhood). I think it is a good bet to always do an “area study” of whatever cities one will be in and whatever towns are around them. So much valuable information can be gathered from the internet and a few tourist maps if only people would look at them for a while before arriving. It also helps to understand the threat in your particular area. A little research goes a long way towards making sure work and play end happily.
Sounds really interesting. I’m not sure I’d go for it, the third day sounds miserable (but important, obviously). I don’t have as adventurous of a travel schedule as you.
Speaking of being “overprotective”, though, whenever on a plane, I always count the rows to the exit (i.e. how many seatbacks would my hand touch in the dark on the way to the exit), and I also tell my husband his number and make sure we are clear on who would take which child in case of emergency. It goes something like this…Your nearest exit is three rows behind you. If something happens I’ll take H, you take S.
I also make the children practice unbuckling their seat belts since they are so different from the ones in cars.
Have fun in Cambodia! Sounds exciting.
@Jamie, that is a really good technique. I had never thought of it but in a dark or smoke filled cabin that could be the difference between a happy(ish) ending and a sad ending. Your emphasis on accountability of your children is solid too. The same could be said for around the house. Many a parent has perished going back into a burning house for a child that they either forgot to bring out or who they didn’t realize was already outside. Best wishes and I hope you never have to use your plan.
@Jamie – Practice and planning are huge… especially with kids involved!
This sounds like it would be kind of fun actually. Good luck in Cairo!
@PFDigest – Thanks! Heh – maybe they could offer us a Saverocity Team discount?