Situational awareness is vital to preparedness; if you do not have an awareness of the world around you how can you possibly recognize and react appropriately to emergency situations?
The Cooper Color Code system was popularized by Colonel Jeff Cooper, and is designed to allow a person to understand their personal awareness level so that over time they can train themselves to stay in the appropriate level as needed and to understand situational cues so that they can rapidly respond as situationally appropriate.
Colonel Cooper believed that the most important means of surviving a lethal attack was not a person’s skill or tools, but was their combat mindset.
White: Unaware and Unprepared
If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be, “Oh my God! This can’t be happening to me.”
A quick internet video search will show hundred of assaults in which the victim had no idea they were about to be attacked, when the aggressor had several indicative behaviors that could have been recognized if the victim was more aware.
No judgment is made concerning the morality of staying in condition white; it is normal to be in this awareness level when in a safe place like one’s home. However, if you desire to be prepared to react, you need to understand this level is the slowest to react from.
Yellow: Relaxed Alert
Condition yellow implies there is no specific threat present. Your mindset is that “Today could be the day I may have to defend myself.” You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.
Condition White is when you are unaware of your surroundings.
By PublicDomainPictures.net.
Condition Yellow is aware and alert but unafraid.
Photo courtesy of Pexels.com.
In Yellow, you use your eyes and ears, and realize that “today may be the day.” You don’t have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don’t know.
Like condition White, you can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to “Watch your six.” (In aviation, 12 o’clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft’s nose. Six o’clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.) In Yellow, you are “taking in” surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360-degree radar sweep. As Cooper put it, “I might have to shoot.”
Orange: Specific Alert
Yellow implies no threat, but Orange means you picked up on something that is not quite right. This feeling has your attention. In Orange your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat.
Your mindset shifts from “I may have to defend myself today” to “I may have to defend myself from THAT person today.” Orange means focusing on the specific threat which has caused the escalation in alert status.
Condition Orange means your “spidery sense” is tingling.
Photo courtesy of PeopleImages /iStock.com.
In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger: “If that person does ‘X,’ I will need to stop them.” Your pistol usually remains holstered in this state. Staying in Orange can be a bit of a mental strain, but you can stay in it for as long as you need to. If the threat proves to be nothing, you shift back to Condition Yellow.
Red: Condition Red Is Fight
Your mental trigger (established back in Condition Orange) has been tripped. “If ‘X’ happens I will shoot that person”—‘X’ has happened, the fight is on.
It is vital to understand that when condition Red is entered it is vital to DO something. Hesitation during times of crisis and conflict results in death.
If you see a tornado coming, flood waters rising, or a crazed man with a knife approaching—DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Some, Including the USMC, Have Added Condition Black
Condition Black is a breakdown of mental and physical performance. Studies have shown that when the heart beats faster than 175 heartbeats per minute, this increased heart rate becomes counterproductive.
Condition Red means you are in a fight.
By VargaA via Wikimedia Commons.
In Condition Black, the shooter probably has stopped thinking correctly.
Condition black often occurs when a person is forced to go from Condition White or Yellow immediately to Condition Red.
Anyone serious about personal protection, including the defensive use of a pistol, should study Col. Cooper’s work, which has influenced much of what has become state of the art in defensive shooting.
Increasing Disaster Awareness
The best way to increase any kind of capability is to practice doing it. Becoming more disaster aware is the same way. Too often we think of disaster as something that happens to other people.
We rarely internalize threats and act proactively. Humans seem to be programmed to be reactionary.
This makes sense as we all have limited resources and we need to spend them for things we are dealing with in the here and now. Unfortunately, this can cause future problems, as little prior preparedness and the required disaster awareness can be a lifesaver.
One thing that hurts our disaster awareness and ability to appropriately respond is normalcy bias.
Normalcy Bias
The idea of normalcy bias is that people underestimate both the possibility of a disaster, and the effects of a disaster. Most people have a bias against disaster preparedness because disasters are something that hasn’t happened to them. The idea is that if it hasn’t happened it can’t occur. Most humans have difficulty reacting to things that they have not experienced before. We also tend to interpret warnings the most optimistic way possible.
Normalcy bias is real, but you need to understand it and defend against it. Don’t be in the herd when the lions attack.
By Deerstop via Wikimedia Commons.
I once interviewed “Selco,” a survivor in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He told me how normalcy bias caused otherwise intelligent people to refuse to interpret warnings to evacuate, thinking they were too smart/good/wise people to devolve into civil war. His father believed the UN would never allow things to get so bad. By the time they broke out of the normalcy bias, it was too late to get out of the war zone.
Combating Normalcy Bias Is Done Through Increasing Your Disaster Awareness
• Acknowledge that disasters can occur and can impact your life.
• Identify the most likely threats to your area.
• Create a list of pre-event indicators—trigger points for action.
• I.e., if all electronics die unexpectedly, I will assume it is caused by an electromagnetic pulse and I will immediately leave and start walking home.
• Understand that bad things happen to good people, and that no one is immune to disaster.
• Avoid overreaction and worst-case thinking. Being Chicken Little is almost as bad as having your head in the sand.
The key to increasing your disaster awareness is to make the conscious decision to be proactive and aware so that you are not a victim of your surroundings, but rather someone that is aware and conscious of the world around you.
Keep your face out of your phone in public and pay attention to your surroundings.
Don’t be content to look, actually see. Ask yourself what your observations mean.
For example, it is not just cold and sleeting, and because the weather has been below freezing for weeks, the roads are more likely to develop ice. It’s not just raining, it’s raining steadily and has been for days, and the ground cannot absorb any more water and your home is near a creek so be prepared for it to flood.
It takes effort and practice to see and become aware, but if you practice this, your life will be richer and you will see connections most others do not.