AT HOM E IN THE INHOSPITABLE
In the turbulent world we all experience these days, too many people are finding themselves in survival situations that require knowledge or a skill that they haven’t yet acquired. Disrupted supply chains, extreme weather events occurring with increased frequency, and violent civil unrest have pushed millions of humans into scenarios where they discover a startling gap in their knowledge. Unfortunately, that realization may come too late, and the knowledge gap may lead to injury or even death. However, if you know where to look, there are instructors who have extensive training and experience in survival situations who are happy to pass along that life-saving wisdom. Jerry Saunders — Marine veteran, bladesmith, and founder of Corvus Survival — is one such individual.
Jerry has an extensive background in a myriad of survival situations and is responsible for implementing the most comprehensive survival training course in the U.S. Marine Corps. When RECOIL OFFGRID connected with him, the opportunity to pick the brain of someone with such a distinguished background on the topic of staying alive was too fortuitous to pass up. Upon arrival to an undisclosed location in a nondescript building, we captured a glimpse of Jerry’s extraordinary accomplishments.
RECOIL OFFGRID: Tell us about your time in the service and what you did.
Jerry Saunders: My time in the military as a Marine was very eventful. I foolishly wanted to get right to the war part, but I didn’t know any better, so I got sold into Security Forces — fortunately as part of the Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team. Its acronym was F.A.S.T, so naturally we referred to it as the Fake Ass Seal Teams. You get a lot of good gear and damn good training, but at the end of the day, you’re doing expeditionary security anywhere in the world in 48 hours. I got shipped down to Cuba and did the famous fence line mission from A Few Good Men.
Our team was sent to Bahrain then into Turkey, where we were keeping an eye on Hezbollah. We ultimately ended up performing non-combatant evacuation operations with cruise ships and decommissioned ferries to help evacuate Americans from Lebanon in the early 2000s when they were getting into it with Israel. We sailed and cross-trained in Ireland, Spain, Jordan, Egypt, and provided security for ships in the Suez several times. In 2010, when the earthquakes decimated Haiti, our sniper team spent three months living
