This PDF is a U.S. Marine Corps Summer Survival Course handbook (Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, California) designed to teach foundational and advanced survival skills for operating in wilderness and hostile environments. It is structured as a formal training manual, covering everything from mental readiness and survival priorities to practical fieldcraft such as shelter building, fire making, water procurement, navigation, and evasion techniques.
A major focus of the document is the psychological and decision-making framework required to survive, beginning with the “SURVIVAL” acronym. It emphasizes critical behaviors such as sizing up the situation, avoiding panic, maintaining orientation, improvising with available resources, and sustaining the will to live. The manual also explores stress reactions like fear, anger, fatigue, isolation, and depression, explaining how these affect judgment and survival performance in extreme conditions.
The PDF then transitions into highly practical instruction on building a survival kit and managing essential resources. It outlines key components such as fire-starting tools, water procurement and purification items, food gathering tools, signaling devices, shelter materials, and first aid supplies. Each category includes examples ranging from matches and lighters to snares, iodine tablets, fishing kits, and medical supplies, reinforcing the importance of redundancy and multi-use gear in survival situations.
Further sections cover core field survival systems, including water procurement and purification methods (boiling, chemical treatment, filtration, solar stills), shelter construction (ponchos, lean-tos, A-frames, natural shelters), and fire building techniques (Dakota holes, teepee and pyramid fires, bow-drill ignition). The manual also teaches tactical considerations such as concealment, group survival dynamics, leadership under stress, and maintaining security in hostile environments, making it both a technical and leadership training resource.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS Mountain Warfare Training Center Bridgeport, CA. 93517-5001 SUMMER SURVIVAL COURSE HANDBOOK