Situational Awareness
LtCol Cooper’s Color Code
The late John Dean “Jeff” Cooper (May 10, 1920 – September 25, 2006) is generally considered the father of modern pistol technique. It can be safely said that he had more impact on modern pistol usage for self-defense than anyone else. He received a commission in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) in September of 1941 and served in the Marine Corps in WW II and Korea. Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute (API) (now Gunsite Academy) in 1976 in Paulden , Arizona. Today, many people regard Gunsite as the premier firearms training center in the world.
Cooper wrote extensively about firearms and personal protection; he always stressed the importance of taking a practical approach. He emphasized that weaponry and fighting skills are less important in surviving a lethal confrontation than having a combat mindset. While he never claimed to have created the color code of situational awareness, he is credited with being the first person to have written on the subject. Cooper used the color code to describe one’s state of mind as it relates to one’s degree of danger and their willingness to act. As taught by Cooper, the color code includes mental states of White, Yellow, Orange and Red. The following description of each state is from “The Carry Book: Minnesota Edition:”
White: Unaware and unprepared. If attacked in Condition White, the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy or ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty, your reaction will probably be “Oh my God! This can’t be happening to me.”
Yellow: Relaxed alert. No specific threat situation. Your mindset is that “today could be the day I may have to defend myself”. You are simply aware that the world is a potentially unfriendly place and that you are prepared to defend yourself, if necessary. You use your eyes and ears and realize that “I may have to shoot today”. You don’t have to be armed in this state, but if you are armed you should be in Condition Yellow. You should always be in Yellow whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings or among people you don’t know. You can remain in Yellow for long periods, as long as you are able to “Watch your six.” (In aviation 12 o’clock refers to the direction in front of the aircraft’s nose. Six o’clock is the blind spot behind the pilot.) In Yellow, you are “taking in” surrounding information in a relaxed but alert manner, like a continuous 360 degree radar sweep. As Cooper put it, “I might have to shoot.”
Orange: Specific alert. Something is not quite right and has your attention. Your radar has picked up a specific alert. You shift your primary focus to determine if there is a threat (but you do not drop your six). Your mindset shifts to “I may have to shoot that person today”, focusing on the specific target which has caused the escalation in alert status. In Condition Orange, you set a mental trigger: “If that person does “X”, I will need to stop them”. Your pistol usually remains holstered in this state. Staying in Orange can be a bit of a mental strain, but you can stay in it for as long as you need to. If the threat proves to be nothing, you shift back to Condition Yellow.
Red: Condition Red is fight. Your mental trigger (established back in Condition Orange) has been tripped. “If ‘X’ happens I will shoot that person” — ‘X’ has happened, the fight is on.
Some people contend that the color code should be expanded. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman (author of “On Killing” and several other books) advocates for the addition of Condition Grey and Condition Black. He describes Condition Grey as one’s heart rate rising above optimal levels into the range of 115 – 145 beats per minute. A heart rate in this range causes substantial deterioration in mental and physical performance. The detrimental effects include tunnel vision, loss of depth perception, auditory exclusion and loss of deterioration of fine motor skills.
Under Grossman’s analysis Condition Black occurs when one’s heart rate exceeds 175 beats per minute. At this level even an experienced well-trained fighter will experience disastrous breakdown of mental and physical performance. In addition to the deterioration found in Condition Grey, Condition Black may add bladder and bowel voiding, extreme vasoconstriction and a shutting down of forebrain functioning.
I will leave an explanation of the detrimental effects of Conditions Grey and Black for an article in the future.
Cooper’s color code has been discussed and written about extensively. It has become dogma in the personal defense community that it is a great TRUTH that people should live their life in Condition Yellow. While I am a true believer in the benefits of maintaining situational awareness and believe that Cooper’s color code, including Conditions Grey and Black, is a great model for analysis and training, I do not believe it is either possible or advisable to be in a steady state of Condition Yellow. In high school, I became deeply immersed (OK, fanatically involved) in traditional Japanese martial arts. I trained, trained and trained seven days a week. My life rotated around acquiring the skills of the old Samurai. The legends of perfect situational awareness were very appealing. It didn’t take long before my friends and I were trying to sneak up on each other without being noticed and touch the other. It did not take much longer for that to escalate to sneaking up and punching or kicking each other (and I don’t mean love-taps). Getting hit established a real incentive to stay aware. We got rather good at avoiding the blows. But, after years of devoted practice, I learned that it is not possible to maintain a steady state of 360 degree Condition Yellow awareness at all times. Each individual only has so much attention to go around. Many things in life require a slice of attention if not total focus. At work, you cannot fail to be attentive to your job in favor of 360 awareness. You won’t have a successful relationship with your spouse or significant other if on date night, you are so focused on awareness that you ignore them.
Every environment has a “normal.” That’s true whether it’s at work, at the local sports bar or on the streets of Kabul. When you transition into a new environment, I recommend a continuous Condition Yellow assessment during the transition. If something isn’t right, switch into Condition Orange. If things don’t look good and you can leave, just do so. If everything is fine, you don’t need to maintain a constant state of Condition Yellow. You can relax and enjoy whatever it was that you went there to do. Even so, it’s a good idea to do an occasional Condition Yellow radar scan to make sure the situation hasn’t changed. If something isn’t right, bump up to Condition Orange for further assessment.
To explain what I mean by a Condition Yellow assessment of a new environment, I’ll use going to a restaurant with your significant other as an example. When you pull into the parking lot, visually scan the lot for potential threats. If you see a potential threat go somewhere else. If you do not see any threats, park in a well-lit area with a clear path to the door of the restaurant. Maintain Condition Yellow during the transition period while you as you walk through the parking lot. Once inside, visually scan for anyone that seems off – out of the norm for that environment. Locate the exits. Sit near an exit where you can also see the entrance. (My wife knows exactly what we’re looking for and has developed a great technique for getting us seated in an ideal location. She scans the area and askes if we can be seated in a romantic corner. Then she’ll usually say something along the lines of, “How about that table?” The maître d generally finds it amusing that people our age want a romantic corner and will go out of their way to fulfil the request.) Once seated, maintain Condition Yellow until you have either identified a reason to transition to Condition Orange, or have determined what’s normal for that environment. If there are no threats, you are free to power down the radar, read the menu and enjoy the evening with your significant other, occasionally doing a Condition Yellow scan to assess if there have been any threats introduced to the environment. After the meal, do another scan before leaving the table and maintain Condition Yellow to the door. Scan the route to your car from the door of the restaurant before starting for the car. Stay in Condition Yellow until you are in the car and have your doors locked.
Strive to make this in and out of Condition Yellow approach a habit. It’s not realistic to think that anyone can maintain Condition Yellow constantly. But, transitions from one environment to another are a time to bring up and maintain the radar. Occasional scans within an environment are easy to do and will detect changes that merit a higher degree of security. Keep practicing and it will become as automatic as checking for traffic before stepping into a road.
Stay safe. Train well.