Suburban Survivalist wrote something today that hit close to home. Not like a low blow or anything but more of a darn I should think more about that. So I did some thinking.
I guess I do what I do. They might be a truck driver or a loan shark or an insurance adjuster but people are sort of where they are; generally for some kind of reason. In some ways my overall situation would be easier if I was an insurance adjuster but well I am not. The good parts of my job are that I have learned all sorts of cool nasty things. Without getting into excessive details I do for a living what many survivalist types claim to somehow have mastered from a downloaded PDF manual or two. While lots of folks pay money for ammo and range time I stay familiar and comfortable with my rifle of choice by just showing up at work. The kind of stuff some people pay a lot of money to do I just do for work; even better instead of some guy who has shot in a couple competitions and owns some nicely pressed 5.11 pants (I've gone to the sites of a lot of schools and read the instructors bio's. There are at least a dozen schmoes for every one who is legit) doing the instructing it is guys who get into gun fights for a living.
Of course with anything there are down sides. This job moves us all over the country and even the world. I would live in the inland northwest but well I do this for a living so I don't. My schedule is just short of completely ridiculous. 60-70 hours is a normal average week. If something is going on more like 80 is not abnormal. Then there are the times I randomly leave home. For numerous reasons leaving home station for a month or two a year when not deployed is probably pretty normal. Also if you have not been following the news we are fighting a couple wars so we deploy a lot.
Suburban Survivalist brought up the point of leaving our families when we go to the various sandy hell holes for long periods of time. To be honest I am not too worried about this. Maybe it is because I am more of an economic collapse/ slow slide/ regional SHTF sort of guy than a full on Mad Max type. In any case Wifey will either be in a military community or with family. Really military bases/ communities stick together and if we are anything the military is full of paranoid people who have legitimate and thorough worst case scenario plans for all kinds of situations. Seriously we have whole groups of people whose entire jobs are to think of crazy things that could maybe happen and then we prepare for them. Admittedly that money isn't a concern helps greatly. A rigid hierarchy full of well trained individuals and a ton of guns and ammo probably helps too. If Wifey is with family she is in a good situation, especially since her crazy husband stockpiles stuff.
Either way I am pretty confident that her (and the upcoming Walker Texas Ranger's) needs will be met and she will be safe. I would certainly like to be there and would likely improve the overall situation but all ego aside I am not sure quite how much.
I suppose it is like any other situation. If the start point isn't what you like then figure out how to get to a place you do like.
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So, I read his article and here are my thoughts. I was once in the military and understand his point.
Seriously, just read Alas Babylon and it's easy to recognize that some soldiers will not find their families at home should there be a major disaster.
Having said that, the soldier might not come home either. In addition, life happens. One of my instructors in the Officer Advanced Course lost his wife and one of two children in a car accident while they were PCSing.
Life is not easy. You do the best you can. I will say this...if TSHTF I would like to have guys like you serving. I have a feeling you would not be a part of gun confiscation, shooting peaceful protestors or entering homes to seize food! That kind of stuff might be mostly from novels, but I am glad that I still have faith in the U.S. Millitary (maybe the last institution I have faith in).
Thanks for what you do!
Our organization was born out of an urgent need for Disaster Preparedness and Readiness. People are unintentionally unprepared for the worst. We strive to bring knowledge, training, and other resources to those in a position of prioritizing the every day basic needs instead of tomorrows self sustainability.
Movement for a Prepared America http://movementforapreparedamerica.viviti.com/
I agree that the most likely issues to be faced in the near-term are regional disasters and the like. But the slow vs. fast collapse issue may be a false one, since a slow economic collapse (we're in one now) is likely to trigger a total one, eventually. When? Who knows, predictions are a fools game.
Just consider that an event (whatever type) does not have to take down the entire system, it only has to degrade it to the point it can't function. You may be familiar with battle damage assessment (BDA). What percent of a bridge needs to be damaged before it's considered useless for it's intended purpose? Varies, but it's always a lot less than 100%.
We live in a system of systems that have become so reliant on just-in-time type delivery that rather than being more robust, they've become alarmingly interdependent. Degrade a few key areas enough and the entire house of cards can come down.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
So for those of us who don't have your background or training where do we really start to get by the schmoes? Some of us cannot afford the time and money to attend workshops by Vickers Tactical but need real skills to make it day-to-day in what may arrive at our doorstep. So if we're not LEO, military or have large training budget we're just screwed?
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