Mental Attitude in others is a difficult thing to predict. Even some of the most apparent tough looking guys just give up in a tough survival situation, whilst the most unimposing types just get on with it and succeed in extracting themselves from the danger.

At the end of the day if you find yourself in a life threatening survival situation it is probably because you have seriously screwed up somewhere along the line – you haven’t prepared well enough or you have just been continually making bad decisions because you have not recognised that you have been making poor decisions previously. This is why a cup of hot sweet tea is so important – it allows you time to reflect on your situation and allows you formulate your own plan to get you out of the survival situation.

This problem becomes even more difficult when group dynamics become involved because if you cannot admit to your self you have made an incorrect decision then the chances are even more improbable that you will admit the error to a group.

In a very strange way people are like the preverbal lemmings. They continually look for someone to take the lead. Inevitably the tough guy feels he will need to step in and take control of the situation. The danger of this of course (depending on the tough guys experience and training) is that this will inevitably lead the group going over the cliff just like the preverbal lemming. This situation gets even worse in the military even though the group dynamics have had a formally introduced hierarchal structure because the military have had a long history of regarding your life as something that is expendable. Be very wary of people who assume a leadership role without fore knowledge of their abilities especially if they are putting your life at risk. If you get that strange feeling that you should be doing something else to extract yourself from danger but are constrained by a formal leadership issue – go with that feeling and act on it despite social constrainment risks.

So to sum up – Believe in your self, believe in your abilities and don’t take to seriously what others have to say because they are more likely to get you killed than any other plan you come with anyway. Oh and don’t give up and if you do die it was probably because it was someone else’s fault anyway. If it wasn't you really don't have much to complain about.