THE LIBRARY - essential reading & REFERENCE
MEDICAL
Not everywhere you go will have a med clinic (or one with an actual doctor) nearby. Prep beforehand.
We've carried a version of this book on extended, team deployments around the world, along with the Merck Manual.
No Medic worth his beans will be found without this comprehensive reference. With 3500+ pages of information, it's a valuable resource downrange and at home.
From primary trauma assessment to ingrown toenails, it's a lot packed into a small space. The emergency combat lifesaving skills need learning and hands on practice before you go.
UNCONVENTIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Anyone can be taught to fire a weapon. Those in high demand have learned to employ soft skills.
Very comprehensive book of essays and papers from experts in unconventional and asymmetrical warfare. It's a great overall assessment of what Americans are facing worldwide, including close at home.
Unconventional wars, 'wars of liberation,' 'bush wars.' Call them how you will, unconventional warfare is not going away anytime soon, although the means and technology proliferation will change tactics, strategy and theory will remain largely intact. This is the definitive work spanning 2000 years.
For those in the business of intelligence at whatever level, this should be required reading. Discusses in detail the misperceptions that analysts can easily mistake as fact because of our personal past experiences, cultural values, role expectations, etc., and even when the truth is plainly evident. It's a counterpart to, and supplements, the art of military deception.
For many centuries and in various epochs, there have been military leaders who considered deception in battle something less than honorable. However, from Sun Tzu and others, we have learned how critical deception in war and battle (and perhaps business) truly are. This is an excellent set of essays and studies that will leave you with an in-depth knowledge of tactics and techniques used in 'BAT-D."
SURVIVAL
As a Special Forces survival instructor, I needed to know just about everything there is about survival. After years of study, I realized there was always something to learn.
Before the internet, I found a copy of the SAS survival manual in the Special Operations library at Fort Bragg (similar to the one here, of which I also now have a copy). My secondary instructor and I spent a week in the bush near a secluded WWII airstrip on the big island of Hawaii preparing to teach survival to a group of [redacted] that the government had hosted for some light infantry training. We practiced hands-nearly every technique in the book and came out much wiser for the experience.
Add a footnote if this applies to your business