Stories forged by experience. Lessons worth carrying home.

ABOUT

DAVID BURNELL

A life shaped by service, adversity, preparation, and the people encountered along the way.

David Burnell is a decorated United States Air Force veteran, author, instructor, rescue professional, humanitarian, and founder of the Urban Warfare Center. He served more than ten years in the Air Force and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and the John Levitow Award. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, David’s faith in Jesus Christ has become central to how he understands service, adversity, responsibility, grace, and the obligation to help and remember those who may feel lost, wounded, or forgotten.

Throughout his career, David has worked in personal protection, self-defense, combatives, rescue, emergency preparedness, and high-risk operations and training. Through the ​Urban Warfare Center​, which he founded and ran for a decade, he trained professionals from law enforcement, military, and federal agencies. His work has also taken him into humanitarian and disaster-response environments in Haiti, Japan, Burma, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and many other places.

His approach to self-defense is built around a simple principle: preparation should increase capability without increasing fear. Awareness, avoidance, judgment, de-escalation, practical physical skills, medical readiness, and a clear understanding of the consequences of force all belong to the same system.

David writes books on self-defense, preparedness, survival, military history, resilience, service, faith, and personal experience. His writing draws on decades of training, field work, journals, instruction, humanitarian service, and lessons learned in environments where preparation mattered.

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TESTIMONIAL

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MENTOR, FRIEND AND EXAMPLE FOR MORE THAN A DECADE

"David Burnell has been my teacher, mentor, friend, and example for more than a decade. I have sat at his feet, learned, trained with him, and worked beside him. I have never met a man more fit for a life’s calling than David—and this is a calling. He was born to lead, born to teach, born to fight for what is noble and right, and born to be a force for good.

He would charge into a fight or fire all alone, against all odds, to save an innocent stranger. He has done it. I would follow him anywhere. He has been one of the biggest inspirations and influences in my life as a husband and father, a professional businessman, a paramedic first responder, a front-line emergency medicine provider, a Search and Rescue team member, and a man of faith.

If you are striving to be better, or if you have been tasked with helping others strive to be better, David Burnell can and will play a significant role in helping you accomplish your goals. I am a different, much better man because of him, and knowing him is a blessing beyond measure.”

— Corbin Allred