Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

The priorities of survival put protection from the elements first. The elements, cold, wet, heat, wind, and sun, can kill an exposed person in hours, far faster than thirst (days) or hunger (weeks). After any immediate threats, then, the soldier's first task is to get out of the weather and protect the body.

What protection actually defends is the body's temperature. The body must hold its core temperature within a narrow range; the cold chills it toward hypothermia, the heat drives it up toward heat injury. Either way, the elements kill by pushing the body's temperature out of its safe range. Seen this way, shelter is not about comfort. It is about keeping that temperature where it belongs.

By the end you will be able to explain why protection from the elements is the first survival priority and what it protects; describe the three principles of protection, getting out of the elements, insulation, and staying dry; apply protection against both cold and heat; and protect yourself and others in a survival situation, using judgement.

Key Terms

Protection from the elements: defending the body from cold, wet, heat, wind, and sun; the first survival priority, because the elements can kill in hours.
The body's temperature: the core temperature the body must hold within a narrow safe range; what the elements threaten and what protection exists to defend.
Shelter: getting out of the elements, into or under something that protects from them; the first and most important measure.
Insulation: trapping the body's warmth in the cold, or keeping heat out in the heat, with layers and materials that slow heat transfer.
Staying dry: keeping the body and its insulation dry; wet drastically increases heat loss and is one of the great dangers in cold, wet conditions.
Protection from cold: defending the body against cold, the most common deadly element, by shelter, insulation, and staying dry; taught in depth by the cold-weather course.
Protection from heat: defending the body against heat and sun by shade, limiting exertion and exposure, and managing the body's heat.

Why protection is first, and what it protects

The priorities of survival place protection from the elements first, after the immediate threats, because in harsh conditions the elements kill in hours. Severe cold brings hypothermia; severe heat brings heat injury. Thirst takes days and hunger takes weeks, so neither is as urgent. The soldier therefore attends first to the weather.

What that protection defends is the body's temperature. The body must stay within a narrow safe range to function and live. Cold drives the temperature down toward hypothermia; heat drives it up toward heat injury. The elements kill by forcing the temperature out of that range.

The cold-weather course teaches this for the cold: the body's heat balance, and the hypothermia that follows when heat loss outstrips heat production. This lesson generalises the idea to both directions. Understanding protection as the defence of core temperature tells the soldier what shelter must achieve. The aim is not to feel warmer or drier for its own sake, but to hold the body's temperature in its safe range against whatever the elements would do to it.

The principles of shelter and protection

Three principles apply across conditions: get out of the elements, insulate, and stay dry. The cold-weather course teaches the cold specifics in depth; here we establish the general rule.

Shelter comes first. Getting into or under something that blocks the cold, wind, wet, sun, or heat removes most of the elements' effect on the body, so it is the single most important measure. Shelter can be found, in a natural feature, or made. It need not be elaborate. Even a simple shelter that gets the body out of the weather protects core temperature far better than none.

Insulation comes second. In the cold, layers of clothing and gathered material trap the body's heat and slow its loss; the more insulation between body and cold, the slower that loss and the better the temperature holds. The cold-weather course teaches this in detail. Against heat the principle runs in reverse, keeping heat out, but it is the same idea: use material to slow the transfer of heat.

Staying dry comes third, and matters most in cold and wet. Wet conducts heat away far faster than dry, and wet insulation loses much of its value, so a wet person in the cold loses heat far faster than a dry one and is in far greater danger. The soldier keeps both body and insulation dry against rain, snow, and damp.

The detailed skills of finding and building shelter, insulating, and staying dry are taught and practised in depth in the cold-weather course. A soldier applies these three principles with judgement to the elements actually present.

   PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS (1st survival priority)

   WHAT IT PROTECTS: the BODY'S TEMPERATURE -- the elements kill in
   HOURS by driving it out of its safe range (cold -> hypothermia;
   heat -> heat injury).

   THREE PRINCIPLES (general; FLD 240 teaches the cold in depth):
   1. SHELTER -- GET OUT OF THE ELEMENTS (found or made). First and
      most important. Need not be elaborate.
   2. INSULATION -- keep the body's warmth in (cold) / heat out
      (heat); layers/materials that slow heat transfer.
   3. STAY DRY -- wet drastically increases heat loss; wet insulation
      loses its value. A great danger in cold + wet.

   AGAINST HEAT: SHADE, limit exertion & exposure, manage the body's
   heat (cross-ref the heat teaching of the first-aid course).

   Apply with JUDGEMENT to the actual elements and situation.

Protection from cold and from heat

The elements threaten core temperature in two opposite directions, and the soldier must protect against whichever applies.

Cold is the most common deadly element in many survival situations. Protection from cold applies all three principles to keep the temperature up: get out of the cold into shelter, insulate to hold warmth in, and stay dry to avoid the heavy heat loss of wet. Together these prevent the hypothermia that follows when heat loss exceeds heat production. The cold-weather course teaches the whole of surviving the cold in depth, and a soldier facing it should draw on that course.

Heat threatens in the opposite way, overheating the body toward heat injury, and calls for its own measures. Shade is the equivalent of shelter: get out of the sun and heat. Limit exertion and exposure: rest in the heat of the day, avoid work that produces heat, and stay out of the sun. Manage the body's heat: do not over-insulate, and use what helps the body stay cool. The first-aid course covers the heat injuries and their prevention.

So the soldier judges which element is the threat and applies the matching protection: warmth held in against the cold, heat let out against the heat. The body's temperature can fail in either direction, and the response differs.

Protecting oneself and others, and the right priority

In a survival situation the soldier is often responsible for others, and protection extends to the whole group. All of them are got out of the elements into shelter, insulated, and kept dry in the cold, or shaded and kept cool in the heat. The leadership and welfare teaching of the College's courses applies directly: a leader cares for the protection of those in their charge.

Protection also has to be given its right priority, ahead of water and food, because the elements kill faster. This is the priority that Lesson 02 established, now put into practice. The temptation is to chase needs that feel more pressing, thirst, or simply the urge to do something, while the cold or heat goes unmet. The soldier must resist it. The fastest-killing threat is dealt with first, even when it does not feel the most urgent.

Done well, this is the foundation of survival in the field after the immediate threats: the body's temperature defended against elements that would otherwise kill in hours, for oneself and for the group.

In Practice: Getting Out of the Elements First

A soldier of the Royal Kaharagian Army is caught in a survival situation after a storm, cold and wet, with others in their care.

Immediate threats handled, they apply the priorities of survival and turn first to the elements, before water or food, because the cold and wet can kill in hours. They recognise the threat to core temperature: cold pulling it toward hypothermia, wet sharply increasing the heat loss.

So they work the three principles. First, shelter: they find or build cover to get the group out of the cold, wind, and wet. Then insulation: clothing and gathered material to hold the body's warmth in. Then dryness: body and insulation kept dry, because wet would drive heat loss up and strip the insulation of its value. Together these hold the group's core temperature against the cold and wet.

The protection extends to everyone, not just the soldier, as a leader's care for those in their charge demands. Its worth shows in what it prevents: a group that would otherwise have died of hypothermia in hours is kept alive. The soldier who instead chased water or food, leaving the group exposed, would have lost them to the elements while attending to a less urgent need. Getting out of the elements first, drawing on the cold-weather course for the cold and on these general principles throughout, is the meeting of the first survival priority.

Check Your Understanding

Explain why protection from the elements is the first survival priority and what it protects. Why do the elements kill by driving the body's temperature out of its safe range, and what does understanding protection as the defence of core temperature tell a soldier about what shelter must achieve?
Describe the three principles of protection, getting out of the elements, insulation, and staying dry, and what each achieves. Why is staying dry especially important in cold and wet, and why is even a simple shelter far better than none?
Explain protection from cold and protection from heat, and why core temperature can be threatened in both directions. Then explain why protection must extend to others as well as oneself, and why it must be given its right priority even when it does not feel as pressing as other needs.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): Protection from the elements is the first survival priority because the elements kill faster than thirst or hunger, yet it rarely feels the most pressing. Think about the discipline of attending to the most urgent threat rather than the one that feels most urgent, which connects to the priorities lesson. Be honest about which you tend to chase. Then describe one way you could build the habit of dealing with the fastest-killing threat first, so that in a survival situation you would protect yourself and others from the elements before turning to anything less urgent.

Summary

Protection from the elements is the first survival priority because cold, wet, heat, wind, and sun can kill in hours, faster than thirst (days) or hunger (weeks). What it protects is the body's temperature, which must stay in a narrow safe range and which the elements threaten by chilling the body toward hypothermia or overheating it toward heat injury. Shelter is therefore about defending that temperature, not providing comfort.
The three principles are shelter (get out of the elements, found or made, the first and most important measure and one that need not be elaborate), insulation (hold warmth in against cold, or heat out against heat, with layers that slow heat transfer), and staying dry (especially vital in cold and wet, since wet sharply increases heat loss and ruins insulation).
Core temperature can fail in two directions. Protection from cold, the most common deadly element, applies shelter, insulation, and staying dry to keep temperature up and prevent hypothermia, and is taught in depth by the cold-weather course. Protection from heat applies shade, limiting exertion and exposure, and managing the body's heat to keep temperature down and prevent heat injury. The soldier judges which threat applies.
Protection extends to the whole group, not just oneself, as a leader's care for those in their charge requires. It is given its right priority, ahead of water and food, because the elements kill faster; the soldier resists the pull of needs that merely feel more pressing.
A soldier who protects the group from the elements with judgement, and in the right priority, meets the first and most urgent survival priority and lays the foundation, after the immediate threats, of surviving in the field. This applies the priorities of Lesson 02, draws on Cold-Weather Operations and Survival (FLD 240) and the heat teaching of Combat First Aid (MED 201), and leads into water (Lesson 04), fire (Lesson 05), and the rest of the survival skills.

Shelter and Protection from the Elements