Checking your Easy 6th Sense

Easy 6 was my radio call sign in Iraq.  Lots of my students ask what it stands for and why I call the company Easy 6 Training.  They ask if there are six easy things to remember to be a better armed self-defense shooter.  I have always had the five W.I.D.T.H. principles, of which I have written extensively.  But, briefly, W is for Weapon: 1) I am the weapon, not the gun/knife/sledge hammer, thus 2) anything can be used as a weapon from a rock to B2 bomber.  I is for Initiative: Combat is a battle for initiative, whoever has it at the end of an engagement is the winner, thus retaking the initiative from an attacker is the most important aspect of winning.  D is for Damage: do not try to cause pain, try to cause damage; shoot for the high center chest, punch for the trachea, stab for the jugular.  T is for Torque: use mass and circular motion to defeat smaller mass and fragile structures.  H is for Head (and Neck): use Torque on the Head to break lethal structures (Damage), target the Head to shut down the central processor of an enemy (Damage). 

Then I got to thinking about situational awareness.  Fighter pilots call it "checking your six o'clock" to make sure nothing is behind you.  I used to include checking your six in Torque, or circular motion to ensure nobody was sneaking up on you.  In fire team tactics, we use 360 degree security to ensure the six is always covered.  But there is more to situational awareness than just checking your six.  It is using all five of your senses in order to increase your sixth sense.  There was research in Vietnam about guys that survived ambushes because their "sixth sense" told them about the danger before the ambush was launched.  That is true situational awareness.  Being attuned to your environment, so you can feel when something is not right or a threat.  Listen to your instincts, to your sixth sense.

I tell a story in my classes about when I did not listen to my sixth sense.  It was my first week of my first tour in Iraq, and I was a new guy.  We were driving by another Forward Operating Base (FOB) and there was a white van parked across the road from the gate.  Something didn't feel right to me, but I didn't want to look like the paranoid F---ing New Guy, so I didn't say anything.  A couple hours later, the gate guards came out and found the van was loaded with high explosives, and they planned to ram it into the gate later that night and get inside the FOB perimeter.  Fortunately, no Americans were hurt, but it taught me a vital lesson about trusting my sixth sense.  Embarrassment is a small price to pay for staying alive.  Learn to trust that "Spidey Sense" when something does not seem normal.  Maybe it means you put the knife up your sleeve, maybe it means you put the gun in your hand, maybe it means you just get out of that situation, but trust it.

So, there it is, six easy things to make you a better self-defender: Weapon, Initiative, Damage, Torque, Head and Sixth Sense: WIDTH-6.  This one was short, because I have another I am working on about lessons from the Annapolis Shooting.

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Soule
Easy 6
www.easy6training.com

Like and Share,
Soule
Easy 6
www.easy6training.com