Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps' Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life

by Patrick Van Horne

No matter the race, religion, nationality, sex, or age, people share a common physical language that can be learned and interpreted by anyone. The Combat Hunter program teaches us to do that.

Getting left of bang requires two things. The first is a mindset and mentality to actively search your area for people that don’t fit in. The second is the knowledge to know what causes someone to stand out from the crowd.

“The basic aspect of recognitional decision-making is that people with experience can size up a situation and judge it as familiar or typical.”

Combat profiling is a practice based on a proactive mindset that incorporates many specific skills. Four of these are situational awareness, sensitivity of baselines and anomalies, critical thinking, and decision-making.

Heuristics are ways of making a decision with limited time and information.

OODA, stands for • Observe, • Orient, • Decide, and • Act.

The key is that any significant color change in a person’s face is a clear indicator that the person is experiencing a significant emotional response.