Lines of Gear and Go Bags/ Assault Packs/ Get Home Bags

Alexander Wolfe wrote an excellent post today discussing Go Bags and Bug Out Bags. I am going to talk about my thoughts on 'lines' of gear. In doing so we will talk about go bags/ assault packs/ get home bags and such. 

First line gear is the most basic survival and defensive gear. You really shouldn't be leaving home without it.
Military- Survival gear (knife, fire, etc) and weapon with reload. For most deployed personnel the weapon is an M4 variant but that doesn't really matter.
Civilian- EDC/ Survival gear and potentially CCW pistol with reload. You can see mine here and also a lot of other peoples.

Second line gear is your 'fighting load'. It stores ammo, water, basic first aid stuff, a small radio, maybe a more substantial knife, etc all.
Military- Old school would be your LBE or whatever and a rifle if your first line gun was a pistol. The contemporary equivalent would be body armor, a chest rig if your pouches aren't mounted strait to the vest.
Civilian- There are a lot more options but the basics are the same. Ammo, medical, maybe a more substantial knife, water, etc. This could be a direct or linear descendant of some military system of a smaller lighter setup designed to more closely suit civilian needs. War belts and Active Shooter kits fall into this category.

Third line gear is for sustainment over a longer period. Depending on how your stuff is set up and the conditions the second line is good for a short operation or up to a day or so.The third line is for sustainment beyond that time frame.
Military- Ruck Sack with food, water, warm clothes, hygiene stuff, batteries, maybe ammo, etc all. Set up to sustain an individual within their current environment for a reasonable amount of time.
Civilian- Large bag with food, water, warm clothes, hygiene stuff, batteries, maybe ammo, etc all. Set up to sustain an individual within their current environment for a reasonable amount of time. This is where the BOB AKA 'Bug Out Bag or INCH "I'm Never Coming Home Again" type systems fall.

We could quibble about what exactly should go where and other minutia. However it's basically the way our military operates these days so I do not think many folks would disagree with the general concept.

So now we are back to the Go Bags/ Assault Packs/ Get Home Bags. I will briefly discuss my thoughts on them then move forward.

The 'Go Bag' is pretty much set up to supplement your fighting load. More mags, medical stuff, food, batteries, etc all. It typically stays in a vehicle and is grabbed to resupply or if you need to bail out on foot.

The 'Assault Pack' is used to carry equipment beyond your fighting load needed for a particular mission. Potentially that could include bino's/ spotting scopes, batteries, clothes, food, additional ammo, explosives, breaching gear, land mines, signaling equipment, etc all.

The 'Get Home Bag' is a bag designed to have sufficient stuff to get a person from where they are to back home. Generally set up smaller and lighter than the 'bug out bag' though one mans BOB might be another's GHB.

So where do the Go Bag/ Assault Pack/ Get Home Bag fall into this general system?

We could analyze the exact composition of every single kit or just make it simple and call them level 2.5. That is sort of awkward but since these kits are typically a split between supplemental fighting load and short term sustainment I think it's the best fit. This is further made awkward because many civilians do not have a 'fighting load' in their general commonly carried systems. They may have a hodge podge of stuff floating around their vehicle or a few spare mags in their level 2.5 system. Also I find the conceptual level 2.5 useful because the level of sustainment is generally for a shorter period of time than the more traditional Ruck/ BOB 3rd level of sustainment.

Yes I categorize these systems in the same range. Furthermore I would go as far as to say they are just variations of the same kit adjusted to different circumstances. A soldier or contractor operating out of a vehicle will probably have a go bag. Inevitably some chow and supplemental clothing plus life's random junk (paperback book, MP-3 player, gum, flashlight, etc) can slip in there. Really while the bag might vary that isn't any different than an Assault Pack. These kits exact composition varies in part based on your fighting load. I've seen contractors who wore 2-3 spare mags for their rifle and 1-2 for the pistol (often in a ghetto made war belt from some pouches and a spare rigger belt) then carried a bag with more of each plus smoke/ grenades/ etc. If for whatever (IMO foolhardy) reason a person in a highly kinetic situation goes with way their  2.5 line is going to have a lot of ordinance in it. On the other hand a guy carrying 8-12 mags on his body has more room for a spare sweater in the 2.5 line.

To me the 'Get Home Bag' is a civilian equivalent of the same kit. It is a fairly small purpose built kit designed to help you with a specific mission, in this case getting home. They tend to be far lighter on ordinance than a soldier or contractor's Go Bag/ Assault Pack. The reason for this is simple. Despite some folks Red Dawn or whatever militia porn fantasies the odds Joe Everyday is going to need a first aid kit, some chow, a coat and a flashlight are a whole lot higher than that he will need an AR with a dozen magazines. Now if you want to carry a dedicated fighting load plus a 'Get Home Bag' type setup good for you but as a survivalist do not carry the ammo instead of the sustainment stuff.

So anyway those are my thoughts on that. I am eager to hear yours.

 

Solo Pot, Perfect to go With Your Solo Stove

The good folks at Solo Stove have got a pot to go with it called the  Solo Pot. They look like a solid piece of kit which is to be expected considering the source. Aside from being stainless steel and generally well made another big plus is that the Solo Pot can nest with the stove inside it. The capacity is 900 ml AKA just a bit less than a liter. Right about perfect for 1-2 person cooking of simple dishes. The pour spout and volume markings in ounces and liters are also nice touches.

I really enjoy using my solo stove and am looking forward to testing the companion pot in the near future. Maybe I will use it test some more survival food. Likely the pot will go right alongside the stove in my bug out bag. Anyway I figured you all would want to know about this cool product.

Go Boxes- An Open Discussion

One of the failures fun little surprises of my road trip down here was that somehow or another I left with a camera but no charging cable. To compound matters the camera only had 1/4 charge. After taking pics throughout the trip and of our new place (to send to Wifey) it finally kicked the bucket; right when I went to take the pics for this post. So I failed and there will be no pics.

The basic goal of this project is to have ammo cans that are loaded up to grab and go in case we need to evacuate or whatever. These are designed to feed the weapons we would rely on in a disaster which if you are too lazy to click on the link are as follows: M4agery, Remington 870, Glock 9mm, .38 Special and a Ruger 10/22. Somewhat arbitrarily I included ammo for the 30.06.

Initially I figured that what I want would take 2 cans. Decided to pack them the same just in case something happened. The cans are M249 SAW boxes.

Can contents is as follows:
.223- 200 rounds
30.06- 60 rounds
12 gauge- 20 buckshot, 20 slugs, 60 game shot (I went light on buck in favor of small game shot, some choices had to be made as shotgun ammo is really bulky. Likely the bag of 50 rounds of buck and 10 slugs that sits on top of the safe would come along which would help things in that department.)
.22- 550 rounds
9mm- 100 rounds JHP
.38 Special- 50 rounds JHP
PMAGs- 2
Glock 17 mags- 2
Ruger 10/22 mag- 1 (just saw this gaping hole this morning. Since it isn't exactly tactical these would be super easy to miss.)

Can A also includes holsters for the G19 and Wifey's .38 as well as an old USGI M16 ammo pouch and a basic cleaning kit. Can B includes a pouch that can hold shotgun shells. Note this stuff is for backup purposes. It is not our primary gear, just something to have just in case life happens and something is forgotten.

Note when looking at numbers remember there are two cans each of which have the same ammo and mags so we actually have 400 rounds of .223 not 200 and 120 rounds of 30.06 not just 60, etc.

I wanted to do these for a broad based scenario. Like the weapons they feed the goal is to be able to protect ourselves and if needed harvest a variety of game. Now that cans are more logically organized it is easy enough to grab all the .223 to go fight the Chinese from the hills or whatever if a situation calls for it.

Anyway I am curious about your thoughts and if you have done something like this. I know Alex Wolfe from TEOTWAWKI Blog did something similar.

So please tell me what  you think.

Am I on the right path here?

Should I consider changing anything?

Tuesday Group Discussion

I stumbled onto a new (to me anyway) blog called Preparing Your Family. They seem like good folks.

A recent discussion of groups (1, 2) got me to thinking about group dynamics. Specifically the whole "retreat" host and guest thing. I had a nice post mostly put together then realized I wrote it awhile back in response to Bayuo Renaissance Man's discussion of hosting a bunch of people displaced by Katrina. So I guess if you aren't up on what we have been talking about then read the links.

Anyway that is all I have for now.

Random Thoughts on Kits

I have pretty much pulled everything we have lying around or locally available for my GHB. Everything else will get ordered today or tomorrow. Stuff is chosen and funds are available but I am on the fence about a couple things that may go in the order. These new "sawyer"  water filtration systems look promising and for the price I may give it a shot.
I have noticed a few things about kits lately that seem worth discussing:

The name a person uses for a specific kit almost meaningless but we have covered that already. It's purpose is probably a lot more meaningful anyway.

There seems to two sort of schools when it comes to kits. There is the "generic" kit school and the specially designed school. The generic kit folks would say that a get home bag aka GHB should have these things. The specially designed folks would want to know a bunch of stuff like where you live, how far you are trying to go, what your plan is, etc. I think they are both sort of right. The generic kit folks are right in that they probably give a 75% solution for most people. Kits need stuff like a knife, fire, water and water purification, shelter (clothes and or sleeping), etc in varying quantities. The specialized folks are (outside of a rare person with terribly unrealistic plan) right in that kits should be driven by your skills, situation and plans. More often than not, excluding a rare person with a really unique situation, the specialists just end up adding and/ or subtracting a few things from the generic kit lists anyway.

In putting things together I have definitely realized you need redundancy in common items. I do believe in a sort of modular nesting concept where your EDC blends into a sort of survival kit, which flows into a get home bag, maybe all this contributes in some way to a BOB, etc. However life doesn't always work that way and each kit should be able to stand alone, certainly in key areas.

That means you probably need stuff like knifes, flashlights, water bottles, etc in some quantities. Not necessarily the same exact items but broad areas to fit different kits. The perfect flashlight to be on your key chain is not the one you want to use to set up camp at midnight. This means you probably want to think about the roles and expectations of tools in different kits.

To further complicate things you really want stuff in kits to be dedicated equipment. To me the whole point of a kit is having a thought through and organized set of stuff ready to go and in the right place when you need it. Otherwise you don't have a kit so much as a bunch of good stuff strewn all over your house, car, storage area, etc all. This means you either need to be really good about borrowing and replacing stuff, which nobody ever actually does, or have additional redundant stuff for common use.
The exact bar for what to get a spare of and what not to is based on our situation. For most people I think something like $50 or so makes sense. So that means the knife/ flashlight/ socks/ waterbottle/ etc all in a kit need to stay there. Certainly in the case of big ticket items like GPS's, guns, sleeping systems, etc common sense dictates some things may have to be added to the kit before taking it out or borrowed as needed. A big prominent tag on the front of a bag that says what to add and where it is located is a good way to make sure you remember those items.

Since most of the stuff we are talking about here is fairly inexpensive this redundancy really isn't a big issue. Also it is helpful with overall redundancy in that if you have 4 good knives the odds you will end up losing or breaking them all is slim. The process of figuring out what works well for each nitche could help the old "equip a friend" stash. A knife/ flashlight/ pouch which is slightly less than perfect for your situation is a lot better than no knife/ flashlight/ pouch.

Another thing that it is worth remembering is that you don't have to get the absolutely perfect best stuff on the market right away. I certainly do not recommend junk as it is alwys false economics. The thing is that you can replace servicable stuff with better stuff piece by piece over time. A $40 knife can be replaced by a better (or maybe just cooler if we are being honest) $85 knife around your birthday or a $75 on sale pack can be replaced by a perfect $400 pack when you have taken care of some other things and have the ever rare surplus cash lying around. This will also help with the whole redundancy thing and the "equip a friend" stash.

Even if you are not so worried about getting home or bugging out or whatever putting together kits is a pretty good way to really look at what you need in context instead of just a bunch of stuff on some big list.
In terms of general themes on the short term you are mostly looking at disposable stuff. You are carrying food to get you to wherever. Water is sort of an exception because it is so darn heavy. For just about any sort of plan you need to be able to make questionable water safe to drink. TP, baby wipes and generally stuff that is going to be consumed is the short term answer. All kits need some of this stuff if just for emergencies and convenience. However at some point a plan just cannot be supported by stuff on your back and you need to transition to things to get food, make shelter, etc.

Maybe you have a ridiculous cross country bug out planned. Of course you hope to use a vehicle and may even have some caches but the odds of that failing or needing to take substantial detours are high. In any case for this type of situation stuff like a .22 rifle, fishing gear, some traps, etc would probably be good to have. Even if you are super duper prepared and live at your "retreat" having a "grab in case of being overrun" bag is probably smart.  Anyway that is all I have to say about that.

Thoughts?

Reader Question: SHTF Hygiene and Clothes Washing

Hi,

I have an idea for a blog article-or several- that I think you may be uniquely qualified to expound on. There are a vast majority of us that have never, or are unable to, serve in the military.

You're active duty military; what I and many others would like to know, is how you do your day to day maintenance while out in the field, away from all the comforts of home.

I think it would make a good read if you could tell us the necessities of our life if TSHTF and we are suddenly without water, electricity or heat. We know much about sponge bathing, washing in tubs with a wash board and making our own soap, but how do you do it while trying to stay out of the field of fire/ being discovered?

How do you wash your personal clothing(skivvies, socks, BDU's, etc.) when out in the field?

If you do these things, what do you use to wash them in and what do you use for detergent? How do you clean yourself, and with what?

So please give this some thought and see if it is an idea you would be willing to tackle.

Thanks,

Iron Tom Flint

TOR here, I wrote a couple posts that give us a place to start. This post on field hygiene covers part of the topic pretty decently. Also this post on Dysentery, while a bit light hearted is worth checking out. Also here is one on primative laundry.  Now onto the specific questions.

Q: We know much about sponge bathing, washing in tubs with a wash board and making our own soap, but how do you do it while trying to stay out of the field of fire/ being discovered?

A: Staying out of the field of fire is easy, if people are shooting at you or immenently going to shoot at you it is not the time to do laundry. Sorry if that was a bit short, from here forth I will try to answer the questions as I believe they are intended, not word for word.

For short term stuff I would use my field hygiene advice from above. Typically military operations are short enough in duration that laundry isn't a huge issue; though that is a relative term as I have worn a single uniform for a month without washing it. Another option is that things are so crazy that you have bigger stuff to worry about. Delaying washing is easier when weather is relatively cold. You would be pretty nasty after wearing the same clothes in the South or Middle East in the summer.

As to avoiding being discovered. If I was really worried about someone discovering me I wouldn't be doing laundry. I definitely wouldn't do laundry in some sort of escape and evasion situation, a hide or a patrol base.  That being said a really small fire made of dry wood (especially in the woods or down in some micro terrain) is pretty hard to see from beyond 50-100 meters. All you would really need is enough to heat up some water which doesn't take a bonfire.

However to make it easier lets say you are in a fairly quiet but non permissive enviornment. Maybe you and the spouse are trying to get somewhere on foot or using forest service roads and obviously don't want any attention. Maybe you are some sort of G and folks are sort of passively patroling your area, doing recon patrols to check out movement, signs of people like fires, etc. Whatever, it really doesn't matter. The point is that you aren't imminently worried about people trying to kill you but do want to keep a low profile.

One simple and old school option is to take a bar of soap and your clothes into a body of water and wash them. This has the benefit of washing your body. Obviously your situation would have to be reasonably secure and this is a lot more fun in 80 degree sunshine than 30 degree snow. I have seen socks washed in canteen cups, I suppose the same could be done with underoos. Also the good old bucket or a dedicated water jug (the military ones have pretty big mouths) works.

Q:How do you wash your personal clothing(skivvies, socks, BDU's, etc.) when out in the field?

A: Often the answer is to stash the dirty stuff and wash in after the operation is over. Other times we scrounge up some big tubs or whatnot. I have seen organizations where leaders bought some old school type laundry stuff to fill urgent needs.

Q: If you do these things, what do you use to wash them in and what do you use for detergent?

A: I have seen and used normal commercial detergent and plain old bar soap.

Q:How do you clean yourself, and with what?

A: Baby wipes are a great way to go. If heating up water is practical a washcloth and a bar of soap is nice and makes you feel a bit more human. As to how it is pretty much laid out here.

Anyway I hope that is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions. If you remember one thing take care of your feet.

-Ryan

Lessons Learned- Katrina Bug Out Host

While catching up on my favorite anarcho liberterian Claire Wolfe's blog I saw a real gem. Bayou Renaissance Man lived through the general disorder in the Gulf during Katrina and Rita and more significantly hosted some folks who bugged out from the coast and New Orleans. I strongly suggest that you read it.

My thoughts and or things I want to emphasize in no particular order, are as follows:

1. If you are in a place where you could end up hosting folks bugging out from a natural disaster, riot or whatever I would be absolutely crystal clear about what you can/ will offer. Can you take the Tom Smith nuclear family, the nuclear family plus Granny or host an entire Smith reunion. Same for pets, if you can take the cat and dog but not their 7 draft horses then make that clear. Also it would be good to tell them what you can offer in terms of accomodations and resources so they can make appropriate plans.

As a potential visitor I would plan on being able to be as self sufficient/ able to contribute as possible. I would also want to be sure that whatever people/ animals/ etc I am bringing are fine with my host. Coasting into the farm on fumes to find out that they aren't cool with Granny or your draft horses would be quite bad. I would also want to know if there were any particular things that it would be especially helpful for me to bring, either in general or if possible by talking to my host before leaving. Coordination is a good thing. If they have 30 cords of wood cut I probably don't need to cram any into my vehicle and that space might be more useful for dried goods or fuel or ammo or tools or whatever which the farm is a bit light on. I would also plan to help out in a variety of ways while I was there and at least offer and be ready to compensate for any supplies I used.

2. Have physical cash on hand. I typically suggest a month's worth of cash living expenses which is probably sufficient. It is worth considering that your friends/ family/ the folks whose place you go to might not have been prudent enough to keep cash on hand. For a loan of a couple hundred bucks you could really help out somebody close and gain some favor. That is a much easier decision if it isn't taking proverbial food off of your table. In other words you might want to stash some extra to share.

3. Priority of packing vehicles would vary for a short term disaster or something more serious. Off the top of my head: people and pets, bug out type bags, personal defensive weapons (at least a pistol per adult, a defensive rifle, maybe a shotgun and or a second rifle) with ancillary stuff, emergency food, small momento's like a couple photo albums and the family bible or whatever, cash and precious metals, essential documents, additional food and camping equipment, high value compact items like guns and then entertainment stuff and whatever you want to take and still have space for.

4. Plan for entertainment, particularly for small children. Stuff that doesn't require batteries like books, toys, coloring books, etc.

5. Google maps lets you select to avoid freeways and bridges. Most other services seem to have similar options. If the one you use has the politically incorrect "avoid ghetto" option use it also.

6. While it is not nice or sensitive to say I would recommend that you do not live in a place with a large disenfranchized welfare population.

7. Even if the place you are in allows open carry I would plan on concealing my handgun while out and about. Some idiot LEO might think that all of a sudden the laws don't apply and it is just not worth dealing with. So no I would not be rolling around wearing body armor and a chest rig carrying an M4 and rocking a drop holster. Lets be honest, if things are really that bad I don't plan to be walking around anyway. A concealed pistol is discrete which is a good thing.

Commander Zero On Avoiding Disasters and Katrina

 "The folks who sat through Katrina had a couple days notice that things were going to get ugly. “Oh, but they were the poor and underprivileged. They had no way to leave!” Sure they did. I guarantee you that if I put a gun to your head and told you that if you cant find $50 in the next three days Im going to kill you, you’ll come up with fifty bucks. Those people could have taken a bus, a train, or just bought a cheap bicycle and gotten far enough inland in three days that they weren’t stuck on rooftops baking in the sun waving at Coast Guard helicopters."