The tactical industry is inundated with methodologies for improving the “hard skills” of the combative disciplines, from marksmanship and weapon manipulation to tactical application of those skills in a scenario-driven environment. Far less training time, and often far more lip service, is devoted to the “soft skills,” particularly situational awareness and behavioral analysis. Oftentimes it is assumed, by students and teachers alike, that people know how to observe and interpret their environment and the people within it. This flawed perspective can often result in an individual who is a rock star when triggered, but who has difficulty recognizing any trigger that isn’t accompanied by the sound of a pro-timer. In Left of Bang, Van Horne and Riley provide a systematic approach to upgrading the mental software associated with situational awareness and human behavioral analysis. The title is a reference to a timeline used by the military to describe activities surrounding a critical event, or bang, with actions occurring either left (before) or right (after) of the incident.
Left of Bang compiles material from the United States Marine Corps’ “Combat Hunter” program of instruction and adapts it to a broader audience by focusing on the most relevant information: how to observe an environment, note anomalies, and make an actionable decision based on limited situational data. The authors accomplish this by detailing a formulaic approach to situational awareness: first, observe the sights, sounds, smells, and social behaviors of the environment to develop a baseline. Next, use universal human behavioral cues to determine anomalous behavior and other deviations from the baseline. Finally, make an actionable decision based on up to three observed anomalies, with the action taken being driven by context.
As an introductory text, Left of Bang shares similarities with Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear in that both books provide the reader with empirical evidence supporting the validity of the intuitive aspects of situational awareness and pre-incident indicator recognition. Both books cite anecdotal accounts, published case studies, and aggregated research on universal human behavior to support their theses. Both are widely considered to be foundational “book learning” on the traditionally “street-learned” subject of situational awareness, and in this respect Left of Bang is a superior book. Due to its roots in a military professional development course, Left of Bang not only provides the baseline information needed to understand the subject, it also provides a suggested situational awareness training progression that the reader can immediately implement in everyday life. The authors eschew the overuse of technical military jargon to ensure their points are understood by the lay reader, and the writing style is both instructional and engaging.
This is not to say that Left of Bang is without flaws, the biggest of which is its use of Dave Grossman’s disproven “humans are naturally averse to killing” thesis to prescribe a decision-making matrix for active duty servicemembers and others who are frequently exposed to violent situations. While the authors do emphasize the importance of proper mindset and visualization prior to an event, their citation of Grossman’s work undermines their reasoning and makes that section of Left of Bang read more like the pity party of On Killing, and less like a performance-based instructional text for a serious practitioner of martial disciplines. Additionally, the authors cite factually incorrect information concerning the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan from 2001-2002, which renders their points about military decision making during that timeframe moot. Had the authors sorted out the sequence of events of both the Battle of Tora Bora and Operation Anaconda, they could have found very cogent examples of both “left of bang” and “right of bang” thinking on the part of key leaders in both campaigns.
Left of Bang is more relevant today for the average civilian than it was at the time of its publication. As the recent protests-turned-riots have shown, seemingly benign events can escalate violently in seconds. Being able to recognize the indicators of such a shift “left of bang” will enable heuristic decision making, assist in risk mitigation, and increase personal security in these uncertain times.