New American Truth

It was in the year 2000 (if I remember correctly) that I attended a Low Light Instructor’s course.  The instructors were Ken Good, Vaughn Baker and a couple of associates.  It wasn’t the first time I’d ever been introduced to Boyd’s Cycle, otherwise known as “OODA Loops” – or the human decision making cycle, but it was the first time I’d had the impact of efficient OODA Loops demonstrated so effectively.  Since taking that class I’ve included at least brief information about OODA Loops in every officer survival and defensive tactics class I’ve taught.  Why?  Because winning the decision making race means winning the fight – and if you don’t understand the race you’re in, you have less chance of winning it. Read the full story

Long time readers know that I have, in the past, written several articles about Bugout Bags, Go Bags, Trunk Kept Go Bags and assorted other articles on related topics. This past week I was presented with an interesting hypothetical: what if you couldn’t take a bag? What if all you had was what you were WEARING and your guns. What would that consist of? Naturally this is radically different depending on what environment you are, or you expect to be, in. Still, it seemed an interesting enough challenge to contemplate that I thought I’d share. Read the full story

First let me say this:  We at New American Truth are horrified and distraught at the loss of life in Newtown, Connecticut.  The history of violence in or against our schools in the United States predates our country’s founding.  It should shame us all that we act so aggressively to prevent accidental deaths by fire or physical injury but we so completely neglect the prevention of violence in any realistic manner.  Instead of arming willing and capable teachers and training our students to never accept being a victim, the educational leadership mouths meaningless platitudes about “zero tolerance” and “teaching individual responsibility.”  The only way to survive a violent attack and emerge victorious against evil is to train for it and respond to it with greater justified and completely moral violence.  Until that reality becomes accepted and spread through our schools, violence will continue; the loss of innocent lives will continue; and politicians will continue to use such horrific events, leveraging them for their own power-grabbing agendas. Read the full story

It is quite entertaining at times to be in the company of those who know firearms. Everyone has an educated opinion and we type A personalities don’t tend to be tactful in how we represent our opinion. I’ve enjoyed listening to some truly great minds in the firearms field debate the pros and cons of the .45ACP versus the 9mm. In the past few years the debate has grown to include the .40S&W, the .357Sig and now the .45GAP. Being highly presumptuous and arrogant, I’m going to way in with my two cents worth on the pros and cons of the various calibers and loadings and offer my outlook on what I believe the best is.

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As I read various articles and blogs about survival preparation, planning, preparedness, etc. it occurs to me that each writer, including myself, holds a greater expertise in certain areas of preparedness and survival than in others. I know… “Duh!” right? What would I expect? Everyone has that which they have mastered to a greater extent and those skills that they still need to practice. It is human nature, I believe, to prefer to practice that which we are already good at and to neglect, to some extent, the things we aren’t as good at. Why? Because we naturally don’t like failure and when we practice the things we’re not as particularly skilled at, we don’t do them as well… leaving us feeling a greater sense of failure than when we efficiently and neatly accomplish another skill set we’re far better at. Read the full story

Let me start out by saying that I grew up in the era of the first couple Rambo movies and was firmly embedded with the thought that a good survival knife had to be big, have saw teeth, a hollow handle, a lanyard and in general look mean enough to take down a Cape Buffalo.  I have, since then, matured some (read “gotten older”) and have realized that where field knives are concerned, bigger isn’t always better.  Of late it seems that some manufacturers are agreeing with me. Read the full story

Everyone has a different idea of what a “tool kit” is and you can find a plethora of articles on “every day carry.”  My wonderment, as brought up by a conversation I had yesterday, is what preppers or survivalists carry each day that they consider essential for their survival.  The bigger question, for me, is what they think they should be carrying but don’t due to legal restrictions (weapons), convenience (bulkiness) or perception (how would people look at them). Read the full story

“I have two trauma kits,” my friend told me.  “One for making trauma and one for treating it.”  The “making trauma” kit was his Glock Model 19 9mm handgun.  The “treating trauma” kit was a package he put together himself, having actually cut and stitched the pouch he used out of an old canvas bag he had.  He filled it with gauze, a tourniquet, a couple pressure bandages and some QuikClot.  While that’s not what many combat veterans and/or medics would consider a complete trauma kit, it was what he deemed necessary to treat bullet wounds to his extremities.  The point he was very clear on was that it was as necessary and important to be able to treat wounds as it was to create them – possibly even more so. Read the full story

In my book, “Personal Disaster Planning Handbook,” I describe a layered and redundant system of preparation that includes both a backpack/bug out bag and a load bearing vest.  In the book I’m very clear that you have to make the choice whether you load your vest to support survival, defense (combat) or both.  Recently I had a friend of mine point out to me that combat is entirely about survival so if you load your vest to support defense/combat then, in his opinion, you ARE loading it for survival.  This gave me pause and forced me to consider a few things. Read the full story

The creativity level of people who are trying to sell something never ceases to amaze me.  Manufacturers, vendors, bloggers, etc… they all seem capable of coming up with a new spin on why you need something they’ve got.  I’m as guilty as the next guy: I try to sell my books and certainly this website makes a few dollars from advertising (enough to keep us up and running anyway).  For all that, I still believe that basic preparedness and survival starts, first and foremost, with YOU and your knowledge.  I also firmly believe that survival and preparedness are two different things. Read the full story