This will sound like a bit of a reach, but bear with me. I think (Lt. Col.) Paddy Mayne and (The Outlaw) Josey Wales may be two of the best possible choices to explain the CARVER Matrix and Joint Target Cycle, specifically in the context of self-defense.
Hear me out.
Paddy Mayne (real name Blair Mayne) and Josey Wales (called the “Gray Rider” by Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche) each demonstrated an excellent sense of what the Germans call Fingerspitzengefühl. Clausewitz referred to it as Coup d’œil – basically, we’re talking about the military or tactical version of what they call “field sense” or “court sense” in various versions of sportsball.
Though they didn’t spend hours and hours watching PowerPoint slides to determine target priority, their philosophy of reading terrain and OPFOR not only put them well inside their adversary’s OODA Loop, but it also gives us another way to explain the modern Carver Matrix and Joint Target Cycle. Particularly (but not limited to) close combat and what we now refer to as MOUT, FIBUA, or FISHing.
Well, ~Ish.
Take a look.
“When you burst into a hut full of enemy soldiers, you must remember the drill evolved for such occasions. Shoot the first person who makes a move, hostile or otherwise. His brain has recovered from the shock of seeing you there with a gun. He has started to think and is therefore dangerous. You must then shoot the person nearest to you, because he is in the best position to cause you embarrassment. Then deal with the rest of it.” ~ Paddy Mayne SAS, DSO (3 Bars), Légion d’Honneur
Now compare that to the passage from Gone to Texas below. A passage, by the way, that is sufficiently similar to one of Clint Eastwood’s excellent quotes as outlaw Josey Wales that I have to wonder if the original author’d read about Paddy Mayne sometime.
“I was set to work on my end of the blues…but godamighty, I never see sich greased pistol work. How’d ye know which one would go fer fit first?:
There was genuine awe and curiosity in Lone’s [Lone Watie] voice.
Josey holster his pistol and spat, “Well…the third one from my left had a flap holster and wa’an of no itchin’ hurry…one second from left had scared eyes…knowed he could make up his mind ’til somebody else done soemthin’. The one on my left had the crazy eyes that would make him move when I some thin’. I knowed where to start.”
“How ’bout the one nearest me?” Lone asked curiously.
Josey grunted, “Never paid him no mind. I seen ye on the side.”
That same scene is played out here in the movie version of the novel.
The CARVER Matrix
Okay, so what does that have to do with the CARVER Matrix and the Joint Targeting Cycle? A surprising amount, by the way, as long as you look at it through and individual lens – like armed citizens defending themselves against armed carjackers at a gas pump, or a deputy whose “COS for unknown disturbance” call turns into a mutually unexpected encounter between him and a trio of ORC thieves.
Simply put, the CARVER Matrix is a target analysis and vulnerability assessment tool used by military personnel, law enforcement teams, and the like.
Matrix Explanation
The purpose of the CARVER Matrix in this context is to prioritize targets for attack. It can also be used in reverse as a way to prioritize defensive measures, but we’re not addressing that meaning here.
- Criticality: how important is the target to our opponent?
- Accessibility: How difficult will it be to reach the target?
- Recuperability: How quickly can the target recover?
- Vulnerability: Can it be destroyed by available assets?
- Effect: What is the impact of damage/destruction of the target?
- Recognizability: How easily can the target be identified?
“[Mayne] had a marvellous battle nostril. He could really sense precisely what he had to do in a situation. It wasn’t sheer courage, it was sheer technique.” ~Colonel David Stirling
Joint Targeting Cycle, INDIVIDuAL CITIZEN STyle
Now, obviously that’s not 100% applicable to a defensive shooting or potential deadly force example, but I reckon it does get you thinking along those lines, including the very most important one (listed at the top below):
- Is this fight absolutely necessary or is there a way to avoid it? The best way to survive any deadly force encounter is not to be in one.
- That part 🡡 of the determination is arguably even more critical if the fight in question isn’t self-defense, but the defenense of someone else.
- Are there defensive measures that can be taken before going to guns, i.e. cover or a tactically advantageous position?
- Who is the greatest immediate threat to you (or your family/friends)?
- Am I prepared to use deadly force and take a life?
Those are just some of the questions you’ll need to answer, but especially the one about determining the greatest threat, i.e “immediate lethality.”
If we stipulate that you’re already committed to using deadly force, then this should be your primary concern. And keep in mind this comes after you’ve worked through one of the triads and concluded you have no choice but to resort to social work. (Note: there ae a handful of different deadly force triads, including Ability Opportunity, Jeopardy or the old Intent, Opportunity, Capability, etc.)
We’ll go further into all of this into a future post, including the flip side of it – how to you evaluate your home or personal habits to make you a more difficult target or victim? Hopefully we’ll get some insight from a few folks who understand this more thoroughly (and more importantly, can articulate it better) than me.
Check back for that later on.
DR
Additional Notes
One of the British Special Air Service, Paddy Mayne (Robert Blair Mayne) was one of the most highly decorated (and arguably controversial) soldiers of the British Army, not just during WWII, but of all time. He was real. Josey Wales was one of the most dangerous (and arguably most popular) gunfighters of the 1970s era Western. He was not real.
Mayne’s exploits were often so devastating that accounts of them may appear to exaggerate. He seemed to have a charmed life, but possibly some part of his ‘luck’ was his amazingly quick reaction. Those who fought with him and knew him well said that he was born in the wrong century. ~ Philip Warner The Special Air Service 1971
Coup d’œi is a French term for “stroke of an eye.” In a fighting/warfare context, it’s the ability of someone to quickly, if not instantly, grasp the tactical advantage of terrain, enemy activiity, etc. It is an innate, perhaps instinctive, blend of intuition, experience, pattern recogniction, and situational awareness that enables a warfighter to make rapid, decisive decisions under pressure. This often results in getting well inside an adversary’s OODA Loop. There are some in the Army who refer to it as “adaptive tactical expertise.”
Fingerspitzengefühl is a German term that means, literally, “fingertip feeling.” It refers to the qualities that give a warfighter the ability to anticipate enemy moves, or to react to them so quickly as to turn them to his advantage (and get inside their OODA Loop. It’s been referred to as a “preternatural sixth sesne” that lets someone make quick and effective decisions under stress without conscious analysis.
Both of those phrases have been summarized as getting a feel for things. I would argue that working to develop that sort of expertise should be a part of someone’s self-defense training, just like marksmanship and first aid.
ORC Thieves are criminal actors participating cooperatively in “Organized Retail Crime” (aka organized retail theft).
Joint Targeting is the “process of selecting and prioritizing targets and mathing the appropriate response to them, consideering operational requirements and capabilities.” (JP 3-60 Joint Targeting)
Now if you liked that article (or maybe, more accurately, if you didn’t), maybe it’d be worth checking out some of my other blog posts.
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