U.S. Air Force Survival Handbook

by U.S. Air Force

Written for use in formal United States Air Force survival training courses, the U.S. Air Force Survival Handbook iis the bible for pilots who want to stay alive—no matter what. Assuming, as the Air Force does, that flight personnel may be faced at any time with a bailout or crash landing in hostile territory without supplies, the advice here is superlatively practical, but also surprisingly readable and interesting. Detailing specific survival threats at sea, in the tropics, in the desert, in Arctic conditions, and the psychological perils of imprisonment and torture, this handbook is replete with fascinating and useful (if unsettling) information. Precisely written, profusely illustrated, and completely authoritative, this is an essential book for anyone—soldier or civilian—looking for knowledge that could prove to be the difference between life and death in a dangerous situation.

Genres: Survival, Reference, Military Fiction

592 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nick Eager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful if shot down or a prisoner of war, but most of us aren’t.
An extensive list skills is shown such as how to cut wood, and making things you need. Trapping: many types of snares shown. Finding water anywhere. Complete rope tying and rope making instructions are shown. The skills are farfetched based on how long a pilot needs to care for self alone.
3/5 for most people.
5/5 for A.F members.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, incredibly, I did at least skim this entire book. Hyperfixations are wild!

My issue is that, speaking as an instructional designer myself, nothing about this book was conducive to learning the material. The wordy and overly general introductions, the images that were unhelpful or incredibly difficult to see or situated pages away from the information they were intended to accompany, the overly complicated descriptions of things like how climate works instead of quickly getting to the point as one would expect from a “handbook,” the outdated sources, the frequent spelling mistakes and grammar oddities and formatting inconsistencies… the list goes on and on.

Maybe I would give this book an extra star if I was in the AF and it came with some sort of training that took center stage while this book served as a reference, but that’s obviously not the case here. I imagine they have something better now, but unfortunately we members of the public are stuck with this, so I would recommend using a different survival resource.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The USAF Survival Handbook [AFR 64-4] deals mostly survival situations resulting from an aircraft crash although there are sections on escape and evasion and conduct as a Prisoner of War. It presumes that the survivalist will be have a variety of equipment to aid them and is light on the primitive methods.

[Christopher Duemmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on the basics of survival and evasion. Written for the military, there are applications useful to the civilian community.