Special Forces vet exposes tactics of Montana, Washington state survivalists: 'Can't stay hidden forever'

Fox News

11-08-2025

ANACONDA, MT: One of two violent fugitives has been caught and another is still on the run. Both are former members of the U.S. military, with one suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on a Montana bar and the other allegedly against his three young children.
Michael Paul Brown, 45, was on the run after allegedly shooting four people in the Anaconda, Montana, Owl Bar on Friday morning. Thirty-three-year-old Travis Decker has been a fugitive in Washington state after he allegedly murdered his three young daughters on May 30.
In both cases, local and federal law enforcement teamed up to deploy helicopters and ground teams to track the suspects across mountainous terrain.
To better understand the tactical and psychological elements at play, Fox News Digital spoke with retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer Mykel Hawke, a survival expert known for his television work.
"Sooner or later, you're going to leave a footprint that somebody can find," he said.
Although both Decker and Brown served in combat zones, Hawke emphasized the distinction between basic military training and elite-level survival instruction.
"Neither of these guys have that SERE school or our special operations school," he said, referencing the military's intensive Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training," he said. "That tells me a bit of the limitations of their military survival background."
Decker attempted to become an Army Ranger and completed jump school, deploying to Afghanistan with a Ranger battalion. However, he never earned a Ranger tab.
"That says something went wrong," Hawke said. "Somewhere along the line, somebody decided he's not quite right to be a Ranger."
After his deployment, Decker shifted into the National Guard and pursued a military track outside of the infantry, focusing on communications and civil affairs.
That pivot, Hawke explained, further limited Decker's access to tactical survival training, such as the Army's elite SERE course.
Brown served as an armored crewman, with Hawke saying: "They don't spend a lot of time on the ground. They're not digging foxholes and sleeping in hammocks like the infantry guys."
"As an armor guy, they just don't spend a lot [of] time in their whole military experience on the ground," he said.
The Army said Brown was an armor crewman from January 2001 to May 2005 and was in the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009. He was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005 and left the Army with the rank of sergeant.
"This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood – for no reason whatsoever," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Sunday. "So there absolutely is concern for the public."
According to Hawke, surviving in the wilderness, especially while evading an active manhunt, requires more than basic military experience.
"Everybody needs food," Hawke said, explaining that without a pre-packed supply, a fugitive would have to rely on hunting and foraging.
He noted that setting traps and snares typically requires staying "static."
Water, too, is a constant concern.
"They're going to need water. If they don't have a water source, they're going to have to treat that water," he said.
The most common method – boiling – demands fire, which creates smoke and scent, he said. Without fire, fugitives are forced to rely on chemical purification like iodine tablets or risk drinking untreated water.
Shelter is another necessity.
"The nights will still get cold up there," Hawke said, emphasizing that unless they brought proper gear, they'd have to build or find natural cover.
Navigating remote terrain presents additional challenges. Hawke believes they likely wouldn't use GPS devices out of fear of being tracked, meaning they'd need to rely on maps, compasses or local knowledge.
"I doubt they're relying on a GPS, because that would ping them," he said.
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Ultimately, survival comes down to strategy: whether to stay hidden or keep moving.
"You're either hiding or you're running," said Hawke. "And hiding means, sooner or later, you're going to leave a footprint. If you're running, you're going to make all kinds of mistakes and there is a higher likelihood of getting caught."
"It is almost impossible for a human to survive for any period of time without leaving a sign," he said.
A $10,000 reward was available for information leading to Brown's capture. A reward of up to $20,000 is being offered for information leading directly to Decker's arrest. Officials say he is considered to be armed and dangerous.