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

You walk into a restaurant and get an immediate sense that you should leave.You are about to step onto an elevator with a stranger and something stops you.You interview a potential new employee who has the resume to do the job, but something tells you not to offer the position.These scenarios all represent "left of bang," the moments before something bad happens. But how many times have you talked yourself out of leaving the restaurant, getting off the elevator, or getting over your silly "gut" feeling about someone? Is there a way to not just listen to your inner protector more but to actually increase your sensitivity to threats before they happen? Legendary Marine general James Mattis asked the same question and issued a directive to operationalize the Marine Corps' Combat Hunter program. A comprehensive and no-nonsense approach to heightening each and every one of our gifts of fear, Left of Bang is the result.

Patrick Van Horne is a former captain in the United States Marine Corps and the founder of The CP Journal, a behavioral analysis training company. His firm provides training support to the U.S. military, federal and local law enforcement agencies, and the private security industry. Patrick lives in Boulder, Colorado.