Retired Marine. I understand a little about survival and I am anxious to learn more. Hello to everyone.
Welcome from East Texas. You already know the important rules of survival... ADAPT, IMPROVIZE AND OVERCOME.
Listen Marine, you already are a survivalist. They jist ain't nuthin' mystic in what we do hyar in Survivalism Land. You do not get to call yourself a Marine unless you have been through a bunch of training. For instance, you've been through small arms training and battle techniques and close-quarter engagement and map/compass skills and ... and ... . You are likely FARRRRR too acquainted with MREs. You've gotten camping skills when you went on maneuvers. We could go on and on. What is survivalism? In short form, when "it hits the fan" camping will be imposed on you -- no longer a voluntary affair whatsoever. Poof!, you're going camping, like it or not, you're going camping. World circumstances have suddenly become your sergeant and he is screaming, "You lazy turd, get your ass up and going! Bright eyes, bright eyes, bright eyes, I want to see some bright eyes you bunch of scumbags!!!!!!!" Ask yourself, "Am I ready for that?!" To the degree you can enthusiastically and truthfully say, "Yes," is the degree to which you are prepared. Even if living in your same dwelling, you will be camping. What?! Your electricity goes off. The grocery store is suddenly unavailable. To cook, you are going to have to start a fire. And you are going to have to purify your water yourself. What pre-preppared / packaged food do you have? What can you forage? What can you kill? Can you gather, have you gathered firewood or coal or propane or or or ... . If aggressive people come to take your food and water, are you just going to hand what you have over to them?! A half century ago, you were a teenager, you began to awaken to the adulthood thingy ... like it or not, you just did. Now you realize that there are any number of things that could go wrong and when they do go wrong (they are, 100% chance), they are not going to go a little wrong, they are going to go cactus-up-your-rear-end wrong ... and stay that wrong for far too long. And most people don't handle stress very well. Actually most people can't handle much if any REAL stress at all. You can. Now that you have found our site and have questions, go to the home page and look page right. Scroll up and down. Buddy, every survival topic under the sun (OK, 98% of them) has a category on which a bunch of folk have entered a small mountain of information. First, start off reading the areas in which you have interest. Then, read the topics you should be reading, i.e. areas in which you have insecurities about your knowledge-set. Do that to fill in the gaps. We are human. Humans are all flawed. All humans got gaps, gargantuan gaps. Never apologize, identify the gap and fill it. Anyone who points and stares should have that finger broken off and shoved where the sun don't shine. On the left side of the home page are topics we are discussing (and yes arguing about) right now. If people don't occasionally argue, then they are not truly interested or they are actually brain dead. Welcome to Human Nature 101. You've been here before. You will find here on this site information and community. I want others informed and practiced at surviving dark days. Who has unlimited resources? I don't. You don't. And Lord knows the government sure doesn't. To the degree that people get ready for those days in which nobody is really ready, there will be some attenuation of the mayhem. Mayhem is bad. Welcome, DeanB.
Semper Fi, Agree with olde geezer and his post above. I will pass on something to the membersI learned from a Marine about being out in the field who eventually went on to be in one of these Marine Expeditionary Forces..sea going forces. He taught me that zip lock bags are very valuable out in the field..so too are baby wipes to keep a semblance of clean. I will not attempt to insult you about small arms as every Marine is a trained rifleman. But since learning that from a Marine about plastic bags and baby wipes I keep a small bag of baby wipes in my locker at work and also in my daily BOB/Bug out Bag. I rotate these as needed. I also have a case of them here at home. Doing nuclear work we have access to extra thick plastic bags so that is not an issue as long as one does not select the colour yellow. Yellow indicates the contents are radioactive and or contaminated. It would not do to run about with a yellow bag waving a flag to those who know what it means. I will wear or carry nothing of yellow colour if I can help it. Welcome to the boards Marine. Semper Fi. Watcherchris Not an Ishmaelite
Ain't it amazing how having something seemingly minor actually makes life livable, brings a smile. Stupid matches: Put a bunch of packs of matches in pint jars to keep them dry. If you have oxygen-absorbing packs throw a couple of these little packs in with each jar and screw down the lid. This is a totally easy thing to do. Oxy packs are readily available; can be used for jars of rice, beans, dried food of any sort. Fast forward: Now you are in the middle of weeks/months of having no grocery nor stores where basic supplies are sold ... and all you need is a pack of stupid matches. Are matches now petty? Urban folk will in those days be willing to saw off one of their fingers to have a petty pack of matches. You in that time will have jars of needed items. Those items now not only serve you, but are now barter, they are real money. Someone will pay you a scrap 1953 90% silver half dollar for just one of those packs -- maybe you'll be able to get a Morgan dollar out of him ... for a stupid pack of matches. Me, I put back packs of hurricane matches; they come in convenient little cylindrical plastic containers with a rubber gasket as water and atmosphere seal. Fire starter packs (contain hot burning, long burning materials) come in every configuration imaginable. I've got hurricane matches in all of my vehicles, in my desk at work, here at home. They take up no space. A jar of Tylenol is bigger. I've opened a little bottle of these type of matches that I last opened a decade ago, take out a match and light it. It will light and stay lit. I re-sealed the bottle and tossed it back into my car's console. Ten years from now, those matches will still be good.
