100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation

100 Deadly Skills is an engaging, eye-opening guide that goes beyond just military tactics—it’s about situational awareness, survival, and preparedness in real-world scenarios. Written by a former Navy SEAL, this book breaks down skills and techniques in a way that’s easy to understand and practical, even if you’re not in special ops.I originally picked this up because I work across a lot of different fields (from private investigations to philanthropy to meditation and shamanic journeying—I know, I’m well-rounded!). But this book really tapped into the importance of being aware and prepared no matter what world you’re operating in.The illustrations are great, and the step-by-step explanations make even the most intense tactics feel accessible. It’s a mix of serious survival skills, security tips, and fascinating strategies—stuff you might not ever need, but it’s cool to know you could.Amazon delivered it quickly and in perfect condition, as always.If you’re into self-defense, preparedness, or just enjoy learning skills that could make you feel more confident in unexpected situations, this book is definitely worth the read. It’s fascinating, fun, and makes you think differently about the world around you.

My husband is a former Marine and he requested two of these small guides for his birthday. They're cute little books and once he's done reading them I'm like to read them, too. They're pocket-sized, but only if you wear men's pants.

Interesting book

The writing style is easy to follow and absorb. It is abundantly clear that between the lines, real compelling, brutal, heroic stories live. But they remain between the lines so tight that the publisher and writing assistants are unaware.Of the one hundred skills discussed in the book, about half are immediately useful. Things like securing your hotel room, checking to see if your room or luggage has been disturbed, how to blend into your environment, simple things to do and not do to increase your personal security, listing of items you should carry with you at all times, making improvised body armor that works, and how to determine if you are being followed, are all useful skills that give you heightened situational awareness when traveling overseas or when other circumstances call for heightened alert.Most of the information, however, is not necessarily new information, or likely to ever be needed, they are all good bits of information that keep you in a good mindset, to be aware of your surroundings but it would be a full time labor to maintain.About thirty skills I would consider highly unlikely to ever use. I mean sure, if push comes to shove I can steal a small plane and probably take off fine, its the landing, and other complications that make it so unlikely. Many of these skills are useful if you are part of a trained team, not me, and can stay in place for extended periods of time. Some are simply fun to read about but will never be employed, like body disposal, the tried and true Molotov cocktail, using the rectum for short term storage, and waging your own small scale psychological war. About fifteen skills would require considerable practice and/or planning to become proficient at executing and planning for.And just to be clear, to me, much of the book reads like the bibliography of spy novel. There is no classified information in this book except for some very vague references to basic activities that may have or be part of a procedure or drill to help keep things in order and sequence to someone trained but outside of the complete drill or sequence they hold no significance. The copyright date on my copy is 2015, the technology discussed was available on the web with a little searching more than ten years prior to the publication and one of the methods of communication via the internet without plain text was being used by a friend fifteen years ago. I would like to see an updated version but I am afraid that is the limitation of the author and all similarly trained and skilled men. Once they learn a skill, even if it is a non-classified skill, they cannot talk about it, and they don't.

I saw the author, ret. SEAL Clint Emerson, discussing this book on television and after seeing him elaborate on a sample of “skills”, I immediately ordered it. 100 DEADLY SKILLS offers a wealth of common-sense techniques used by elite military operators that can be applied for civilian use (for the most part). I found the book’s value centered more on making the reader smarter, more aware and more prepared; not as a tool to instigate trouble.I like (“American Sniper”) Chris Kyle’s simplified view of people: there are the sheep, the wolves that prey on the sheep and those who take on the wolf to protect the sheep … the sheepdogs. 100 DEADLY SKILLS’ purpose is to provide readers with enough necessary information to become sheepdogs. The method is simple, provide the sheep (easy victim) with the same tools and know-how wolves (criminals, terrorists, etc.) use on their prey … fighting fire with fire.The simple presentation of the material is particularly effective. There are no long, laborious chapters of text to sift through. Emerson generally uses a two-page technique for each of the 100 skills he presents. The left page provides a brief, easily understood explanation of a particular skill and the right page offers a simple step-by-step graphic presentation of the skill. This one-two punch makes a solid impression that is easy to remember. The range of skills covered in the book is diverse and some of the skills are a little extreme (hopefully, most readers will wonder why they need to know how to dispose of a body). But, again, I sense that the purpose of this information is less about actually USING each and every skill as it is making people understand that most of the skills presented are already commonly used by those with ill-intent … the power is knowing what they know and finding ways to avoid or effectively counter their methods. Emerson calls the understanding/use of these skills characteristic of the “Violent Nomad” (or, in Chris Kyle’s world, the tools of the sheepdog).So, for those of us who don’t really have a need for knowing how to: Dispose of a Body (skill #86), Steal a Plane (#26) or Cross Enemy Boarders by Sea, Air and Land (#11, #12 and #13) … what does reading such a book offer? Quite a lot, actually. First of all, I read this book while on a vacation and it provided several practical tips pertaining to everyday travel: how to hide things in a room and how to discover whether or not your suitcases have been opened. Additionally, it revealed how unsecure you really are in your hotel room with instructions on how to bypass hotel room doors and unlatch door locks. The section on surveillance techniques probably won’t come in handy for most, but understanding how to detect and lose those who may be sizing you as a potential victim certainly may be useful. Educating people on personal, cultural, situational and third-party awareness (#17 Blend into Any Environment) is probably one of the most important skills presented in the book because it’s the one skill that can be employed to avoid using most of the other skills (by having the presence of mind to avoid a potentially deadly encounter). 100 DEADLY SKILLS is filled with useful instructions on weapon improvisation, defense and safety techniques that certainly could be useful in dire situations; as well as common inconveniences, like being locked out of your home (#50 Defeat a Padlock or #53 Discretely Open a Garage Door).100 DEADLY SKILLS is a tremendous source of USEFUL information that gets readers out of their comfort zone. Most everything presented is based on common-sense and uses common household items with a little ingenuity. Some may see such a book as equivalent to “giving the fox the keys to the henhouse”, but the author asserts most all of the items discussed in the book are commonly used by criminals/terrorists; we just don’t realize it. By giving us a better understanding of the criminal-mind’s ingenuity, we are better prepared to avoid/survive a negative encounter (especially for those who travel to less-than-friendly parts of the world).