From the Art of Manliness:
Can You Undress in 20 Seconds or Less?
Saving someone who is drowning is more difficult and dangerous than many people think (heck, even realizing someone is drowning is hard — the signs don’t look like you think they would.) A person who’s drowning can be panicked and clutch, kick, and grab at you as you try to rescue them, dragging you both underwater. And simply carrying someone through the water to safety who isn’t fighting you is more physically arduous than you’d imagine. For this reason, the first recourse to saving a drowning victim should be to extend a rope, oar, or stick to them from the shore, or from a boat, rather than getting in the water yourself.
If the victim is too far from shore to be reached with an implement, you’ll need to jump in to get them. It’s best to disrobe before you jump in, especially if they’re in open water, and a ways away. Clothes and shoes will only weigh you down, and make a difficult task much more difficult. The weight of your soaked garments may end up sinking the both of you. Of course every second matters when you’re trying to save someone, so you have to be able to undress with lightning speed.
The 1952 edition of the Handbook for Boys (the Boy Scout manual), admonishes young men to be able to strip down to their underpants or swim trunks in 20 seconds or less, holding up 15 seconds as the ultimate goal....MOREAnd should you have to reverse the procedure:
The Tactical Order of Dressing: An Illustrated Guide
If you were suddenly awoken in the middle of the night and needed to go outside to fight off a threat or evacuate from your home, in what order would you don your clothes? Does it matter?
Military and emergency personnel are often taught a specific order in which to put on their clothes that is most efficient and effective. On ITS Tactical, Bryan Black shared the order of dressing he picked up in BUD/s: First you pull on your pants, because you’re going to need something to protect your lower body from brush, debris, hot shell casings, and what have you. Then you’ll put on your boots....MORE
...Like this soldier in Afghanistan who was roused from sleep by enemy fire on his post in eastern Afghanistan, and took on the enemy in his pink “I Love New York” boxers:
When this photo was featured on the front page of The New York Times, the soldier was initially embarrassed and even worried he might be reprimanded. Instead, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates praised him, and even noted that such a get-up might actually be used as a tool of psychological warfare: “Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage. I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban....
