New American Truth

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

Isn’t it a shame that we can’t get people as excited about preparedness as one author did about a man’s variations in his sexual interests?  I mean… yeah, I understand that almost anything to do with sex is more interesting that preparedness, planning and survival, but if you die for lack of preparedness you’re not going to be around to enjoy sex anyway, right?  That said, the whole “fifty shades” thing got me to thinking that there are probably that many different kind of preppers (if not more) and quite often we’re all lumped together in the same basket in spite of our differences. Read the full story

If you watch enough military movies, particularly if they revolve around special forces and/or explosives handlers, you’ll eventually hear the phrase, “Two is one; one is none.”  With people who deal in such risky work where the success of a mission can make or break a war, nothing can be left to chance.  They can’t count on ONE detonator; they use TWO.  A General may not be able to count on a single A-Team to get the mission accomplished so he sends TWO.  Two is one; one is none.  When we talk about survival preparation and equipment, where living or dying can hinge on what we do or don’t have, can we afford to take a less cautious approach?  I think not. Read the full story

It seems like every time we experience another natural disaster some people have already forgotten the lessons we learned from the last one.  It’s all the more exasperating when you realize how simple some of these basic preparedness “lessons” are.  Let’s review a few of these lessons and contemplate (perhaps) a few new ones. Read the full story

Depending on your background, whether or not you spent time in the military, what type of family you were raised in, etc you may or may not have received any training in the basic necessities of survival. It’s okay if you haven’t received any training because there are only about a gazillion survival kits available for sale through a boatload of catalogue and online companies. But which one do you need? This isn’t a review of which ones are best, but instead a look at what items such a “kit” should contain. Then you can select which one suits your purposes and/or build one of your own. Read the full story

Recently I’ve received a few emails asking me why a standard camping backpack, stocked and ready to go for a weekend outing, couldn’t serve as a “bugout bag.” My answer is this: there’s no reason why it can’t IF you indeed have it packed and prepared for that weekend away – that you leave for without any notice. The biggest differences are intent of use and notification lead time. With that in mind, and since it’s about that time to update information about my bugout bag, I felt this would be a worthwhile article to write. Read the full story

For several years now I’ve written articles about Bug Out Bags also known as Go Bags or Get Out Of Dodge (GOOD) Bags.  The basic bag stays the same and the contents have to be tailored to suit your specific circumstances and needs.  A few weeks ago I was asked a question that made me stop and think – and I thought I’d share both the question and the answer.

The question was two fold:

Do I carry everything my family needs in MY GOOD Bag?

If not, what’s in every other family member’s GOOD Bag?

The answer to the first part of that question was, “No.”  It would be physically impossible for me to carry everything in my pack that my entire family (me, my wife and my son at this point) would need if we had to bail out of our house for whatever reason.  My son and wife both have GOOD Bags of their own; his, oddly enough, put together before hers.  We each share part of the “family burden” and carry our own individual stuff as well.  I thought the division and individual kit might be of interest so here we go… Read the full story

I often joke that my mother-in-law’s idea of “roughing it” is the Holiday Inn – and maybe not having a blow dryer for her hair.  Certainly if she doesn’t have access to immediate hot water at the turn of a tap, she’s hugely inconvenienced and is roughing it.  For others, “roughing it” means having scarce shelter, a sleeping bag on the ground and cooking over a campfire.  Such a situation would also include “bird baths” in creeks or rivers and having only the hot water you can heat up in whatever pot you have over your cook fire in camp.  The two extremes left me wondering:  how do you define “camping”?  At what point does it stop being pleasurable and start being uncomfortable? Read the full story

As I type this I just had a “conversation” with a fellow “prepper” via Twitter.  The conversation began when someone asked, “What are you preparing for?”  The options offered as answers were, “emergencies, weather disasters or the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI).”  I was of the opinion that preparing for one meant being better prepared for any of the others, so prepping in general was prepping for all three.  Others held a different point of view, seeing vast differences between preparing for emergencies or weather disasters (essentially short term survival events) versus preparing for TEOTWAWKI (long term event).  The conversation made me reconsider my outlook, analyzing it for strengths and/or weaknesses as I thought about my preparations with regard to the various events wherein I might need to activate my plan. Read the full story

Each year as spring approaches the itch starts.  By the time the first green starts to sprout the itch if a full-on jones that requires attention.  The first feed for the addiction is pulling out all the camping gear, sorting through it, cleaning anything that needs it, repacking it and making it ready.  The tents get set up and cleaned / aired out.  Sleeping bags get checked for wear spots and zipper function.  Then the books on camping locations and Internet searches begin.  Plans are developed.  Two types of camping get considered: drive-up and backpacking.  For the sake of this article we’re (mostly) going to discuss the drive-up variety, but we’ll also briefly discuss the need to be prepared for unexpected emergencies and what I’ve affectionately come to know as a “go to hell” bag. Read the full story