If you are reading this you have already come to the conclusion that you need to be prepared to handle whatever comes your way. It should be said that solutions are not found in equipment or supplies, they are found in the skills that allow you to use them. Don’t misunderstand me, we need the supplies and equipment. But, we must first and foremost get training and education that will empower us to use them.
We don’t get to decide when or where a disaster or emergency will strike. The best we can do is prepare ourselves and be ready for it when it comes. It is important to assess your given needs and activities in order to build the appropriate skillsets. There are constants that apply to every given situation and our survival will always be dependant on certain basic needs. The rule of 3’s addresses these basic needs to maintain life.
These are general guidelines, of course, and your mileage may vary. When you consider these it becomes easier to prioritize what skillsets you need to foster and develop. It also becomes clear that you should have some minimum basic supplies at all times. One thing that is often overlooked is the need for PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) we need to protect our physical assets first, it will be difficult to survive without them.
Basic PPE
Wraparound Safety Glasses – if you wear prescription lenses get the kind that fit over your glasses. Dust mask (N95) – you need to protect your lungs Gloves – both leather and nitrile Sturdy footwear – you will be dependant on your feet to get you to safety.
Get your First aid/CPR/AED certification
You can never have too much training especially when it comes to first aid. More times than not your immediate care will depend on you, your skills and equipment. The more prepared you are to handle medical issues the better, for you and those around you. So get the training and the equipment to match your skills.
The Great Outdoors
It is important to remember we don’t get to choose when or where a disaster strikes. You could potentially find yourself in an outdoor survival situation. Take the time to develop at least a basic set of survival skills. Consider what season you are in and adjust your kit to match. Carry extra clothing including socks and underwear. Think about shelter, if you can put a tent in the trunk, do it. Carry potable water in a sturdy container. Put a yoga mat in your trunk it is a great insulator. Simple things that can make all the difference.
I want to make sure you understand there is no substitute for education in all its various forms. We must always keep learning. I consider myself a student for life, I will never stop seeking knowledge and skills. That being said, let us get to it.
So, why is learning not knowing? To get the answer we first must define what I mean by each of these terms. Learning is acquiring new information or skills. Knowing is the mastery of information or skills. This is an important distinction that becomes evident to anyone paying attention.
Student for life
I am a student for life which means I am constantly taking classes or going to training. When you start to adhere to this same paradigm you begin to notice the difference between learning and knowing. It is very much like the difference between intelligence and wisdoh5.
My Point
My main point here is that taking a class to learn a skill is only the first step. We must spend the time training with this new skill to know it. Then we must continue to train using this knowledge to maintain it. All skills and knowledge are perishable. The old adage if you don’t use it you lose it is absolutely correct.
The path to knowing
So, if your only source of education is watching videos you might be learning, but you do not know. As I often say and hear, real life is not a flat range. The only way you can master (know) a skill is to use it in the real world. Get dirty, train hard and get out there and practice what you have learned, often. This is the path to knowing.
I use the term field expedient triage because it needs to be differentiated from clinical triage. Triage in the field, whether it be in a disaster situation, in the wilderness, or a major car accident, is much different than clinical triage. Let me take a step back and define triage for you. Triage is the art, and I use the word art because science seems too rigorous for something that is so fluid and subjective, even though it is based entirely on science. Where was I? Oh yes, triage is the art of sorting mass casualties based on the severity of injuries, the likelihood of survival, and available resources. Field expedient triage is different because of the severe lack of resources. There is no supply chain, little or no equipment and few human resources. You must do what you can with what you have as best as you can.
Statistics indicate that rapid assessment and medical care can save as many as 40% of disaster victims that require medical assistance. That being said, the primary focus of field expedient triage is to provide the greatest good, to the greatest number, in the shortest amount of time. This will often put you at odds with yourself, and given enough time and exposure you will run into a situation where there is a victim that needs help that you must decide not to help. This is a challenge for all of us. Let me elaborate so as not to sound callous.
Here is the scenario: you come upon a group of people that were just overcome by a rockslide, there are multiple injuries, there are only two in your group, and you are 30 minutes from any help. It is chaotic, as all disasters are, you do a quick count and find that there are 8 victims. The rockslide is stable, so you do a quick triage. This means you can spend 30 seconds to a minute assessing each person, any more than that and someone might die. I will talk about how to triage later. So, you quickly determine that there are three broken legs, a crushed skull who’s not breathing, a dislocated shoulder, a large deep cut to the upper arm with arterial bleeding, and one trapped under a large boulder with rapid breathing and no radial pulse.
How do you prioritize these victims? In the field where resources are limited the three primary killers are airway obstruction, bleeding, and shock. Without immediate assistance, these will lead to death. Always remember that only one thing is guaranteed in life, change. No matter how you find your victims they will do one of two things, they will get better or they will get worse. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you can save everyone, in fact, the odds are often against it. You must be able to rapidly assess your victims based on these three killers.
If a victim presents any of the three killers they are REDor Immediate. If the injuries do not jeopardize the life of the victim they are YELLOWor Delayed. If you have victims that have only minor injuries but are still functional they are GREENor Minor. If the victim has no respiration after two attempts to clear the airway they are BLACK or Expectant. And you would treat them in that order, RED, YELLOW, GREEN, and BLACK. How would you triage the victims based on the information given? Will you be able to deal with a situation that requires this kind of training?
Field Expedient Triage
Here is a general guideline for conducting triage:
Step 1: Stop, Look, Listen, and Think Before you start, stop, assess the situation, look around, and listen. Ask yourself, is it safe to help? Do I have the capability? What are my limitations? If you decide to help, make a plan and make sure your group knows what it is.
Step 2: First things first, clean the greenDo a voice triage, announce yourself and ask anyone that can hear you, to come to your voice. Hopefully, this will be most of them. This will immediately give you most of your greens and get them out of the way. Remember, this is about time. You can also use these survivors to assist you by having them do simple tasks.
Step 3: Start where you are and follow a systematic patternStart with the closet victim and work your way outward in a systematic pattern.
Step 4: Evaluate each victim and tag them as quickly as you canTag or label each victim according to the guidelines.
Step 5: Treat RED or Immediate, immediatelyClear their airway, stop the arterial bleeding, or treat for shock as needed. Remember, in field expedient triage we do NOT administer CPR, it is too resource intensive. We are trying to do the most good for the most people in the shortest time.
Note, this is NOT training, it is only a small little piece of insight into what you might need to know if you want to be prepared to assist those in need during a disaster. Everyone should seek professional instruction.
Hello everyone, As I sit here at my desk this morning I am reflecting on an incident that occurred just yesterday. I was in the shop working on some holsters for an order when I received the call. My neighbor Luke was calling and I didn’t get to it quickly enough because of my gloves. It’s unusual for him to call in the middle of the day so I stripped off my gloves and called him back straight away. He answers on Bluetooth from his car, it’s easy to tell because of road noise. He is with his brother Jonah and they are searching the neighborhood for someone they say just pilfered something from in front of my garage.
This sends me into overdrive, what in the hell, it’s broad daylight. I go to my office and check the security cameras and sure enough, a young woman walks right up to my garage door and snatches the two car batteries I have sitting there waiting to be returned for the core charge. Bold and audacious to say the least. My garage is a good 40 feet off the road. I have her recorded on three separate cameras from different angles.
And I get the call, this is Deputy Smith, name changed to protect the innocent, I have two people in custody can you describe the person and the property. Well, it turns out that Luke actually found them in the neighborhood and followed them home while on the line with 911, what a neighbor. Just to be clear I told him earlier that I appreciated his effort but I didn’t want him to put himself at any risk.
So, back to the phone with the deputy, I tell him what I know and that I have videos of the incident. He asks me to burn them to a disk and send him a screenshot via text so he can arrest the proper person. I sent him before and after pictures. 45 minutes later, a deputy shows up at my house with the batteries in tow and collects the evidence.
If not for the quick action and tenacity of my neighbors I can say that I would probably never had noticed in time to do anything about it. It is proof that we are all in this together. A community is vital to our survival and together we will make it.
When times are desperate, people will act in desperation!
Let me start my story with a little background. Every since my Sophomore summer, when I grew 7 inches, I was a slender man. When I joined the service I was probably 175 pounds and 6’ 1”. I met what was then the standard for a healthy height/weight combo. The service, however, put some meat on my bones and hardened me a bit.
Through this process and the 25 years that followed, I developed an internal image of myself as a strong and capable man. One that was fit and dynamic aside from smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes a day. Which had been a constant companion since the early age of, let’s be conservative and say, 11 years old. Everyone is known for something, I was the smoker. But I was fit, I played on softball teams and volleyball teams. I went on long distance backpacking trips with friends and by myself. I was always unstoppable, indomitable.
When I was 46 years old I decided to quit smoking at the behest of all my loved ones, but mostly my constantly dogged daughter, Samantha. It wasn’t an easy road, but I prevailed. As in most things, I refused to fail permanently. This, and my now near 15 years of working a sedentary job started taking its toll on my body and fitness level, even though I spent a great deal of time golfing. No, not riding in a cart, but carrying my clubs on my back and walking the 7+ miles. It was such a gradual, almost imperceptible process, I didn’t even notice. In fact, my own internal image of myself had remained unchanged.
BEFORE
The awakening came during the summer of 2016. Just before my daughter Samantha’s 25th birthday in May, I asked her, “If you could have anything for your birthday, what would it be?” Now mind you, in my genetics lies a small unusual defect that has been the death of my father, his brother Ray, and their father Lloyd. It is to this point unknown exactly what it is, as the three led vastly different lives, as have I. But, the three of them died instantly from cardiac arrest at the age of 54. My father having recently, within 6 months, been given an A+ rating on his Cardio Pulmonary workup. My next birthday was my 54th, this probably added to her impetus.
Her answer was simple, “I want you to take me into the wilderness, to those magical places you have told me stories about my whole life”, this was very emotional for me. We had gone on adventures before, this would not be the first. But, it had been a long time since she had shown an interest in the wild and it stirred me greatly that she wanted me to take her there.
We had a bit of time to prepare, sort our gear, and plan our meals. It was exciting! We were going on a grand adventure into the wilderness that I had called home so many times. It is there that I truly feel at peace, it is there that I belong. My internal self-image, you know the one I mentioned earlier, failed me at this point and I did little physical preparation. After all, I was a strong and capable man! This was my folly.
Our adventure started with the excitement that is usual for such an endeavor. We laughed and talked excitedly about the days ahead and the wonders we were anticipating. When we got to the ranger station to get our passes we were blindsided and found that what we thought we needed to do to get the permits for where we wanted to go, was totally wrong, and we wouldn’t be going there. But, we found an alternative, and after much grumbling, and a few tears, we set ourselves against the adversity and made the best of it. But, that is another story.
Through this adventure, my internal self-image was destroyed. I was humbled and humiliated by my sheer lack of fitness and my inability to perform at the level I was used to. My will had not suffered the same fate as my physical ability and I managed to push through, but not without a large serving of embarrassment. I was supposed to be this larger than life man of the wilderness taking my now grown daughter out to show her the wonder that I was fond of. Instead, I was this broken down old man that was having difficulty keeping up. Barely managing not to be a burden on her and the others. It was a rude awakening, one I don’t care to have again.
When we got home from our adventure, which turned out to be wonderful, despite my failures, I resolved myself to fixing this problem and getting myself realigned with my self-image. I was not ready to acquiesce to the ravages of time and accept my lot as a broken down old man. I spent the next 6 months trying to find my way back there with little or no progress. Until March of the next year when I was watching a live feed from ReadyMan and Josh Tyler was talking about how he used a Ketogenic diet to maintain his muscle while burning the fat, all while eating bacon, among other things.
AFTER
I spent the next month doing research and preparing myself to convert to this new dietary paradigm. I had a complete blood panel and cardiac workup for a baseline and started my journey on April 1st, 2017. With the support of my family, and a lot of longing for all those things we are used to eating, like bread, potatoes, and the hardest for me, ice cream, I persevered. It was not without stumbles and cheat days or cheat months, but I kept coming back to it and have made much progress. Over the course of the last year, I have lost 47 pounds, more than that if you count the weight I lost more than once! I still have further to go, but I wanted to share this with all of you. Partly to reinforce it with me, but also to maybe give someone else some hope.
At the beginning of this year, I started swimming to get more cardio fitness and am swimming 1 ½ miles, 3 times a week now. I feel better than I have in nearly a decade and I am looking forward to this years adventures in the wilderness.
“Still unknown to much of the U.S. population is the fact that they reside within a “Constitution-Free Zone,” as it has been dubbed by the ACLU for many years. In fact, it is estimated that 200 million people (2/3 of the populace) are likely to have their 4th Amendment protections completely disregarded by border patrol, as well as to encounter other routine violations unbecoming to a land of the free.”
Working with people under stressful circumstances is tumultuous. It is important to communicate your strengths and weakness or a lot of time will be wasted arguing over task assignment. In survival situations, every moment is crucial and should be used wisely. While you read this article, I am asking you to take a deeper look into the type of person that you are. The Myers-Briggs personality test and a healthy dose of self-reflection will give you a better idea of how to excel during these critical times.
The Myers-Briggs personality test
is an inventory that applies Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types. This theory states that people’s behaviors are actually quite consistent. and I’m here to tell you that by determining your personality type you are giving yourself a better chance at survival. This Continue reading “Would Myers and Briggs survive?”
It’s time for our winter training update, we spent 3 days and 2 nights out in the Mt. Washington wilderness close to Big Lake. We had a great adventure snow shoeing in just over 2.5 miles. There was four of us on snowshoes pulling a sled of supplies in through the woods and over the hills.
As I sit here surrounded by nylon, fleece, Gore-Tex and wool, all in varying degrees of clean and dry, I reflect on our journey and all the ups and downs with fondness. Two of us had never been on snowshoes or snow camping, so we had lots of learning going on.
Our camp was on an 84 inch base of snow, and we received an additional foot during our stay, this gave us an opportunity to find ways to manage accumulation and set up additional shelter outside of our tent.
We practiced getting water from a frozen lake and discussed many ways to do it. We built a fire in camp to get a little extra warmth and build those skills. We had decent weather until the last morning, which is always a bit of a downer just because we have to leave.
Send-off sunrise
The last morning greeted us with a phenomenal sunrise, to give our spirits a boost. unfortunately it turned as quickly and chased us out with freezing rain and substantial wind, often biting our cheeks with the sting of the rain, it is these times that challenge your fortitude both physically and mentally. All of us are stronger for the experience.
We will be posting individual write ups on fire building, water retrieval, selecting a good spot, cooking in the snow and perspectives from a first timer.
Stay tuned for all these great write ups, until then.
It is time again for winter training. The NW Survival crew is headed out to the wilderness for some winter weather survival training. We will be practicing all the basic winter survival skills and reviewing some new gear. We have been cleaning, testing and preparing our gear for the trip.
Our 4-season Igloo
We will be snowshoeing 3.5 miles into the Mt. Washington wilderness with only what we can carry and fit on our sled. The weather forecast says the night-time temperatures will be in the 20’s so it will be relatively mild. This will be nice for the rookies, a great way to expose them to the wonders of winter camping.
We will be practicing our water management skills. How best to find water, gather it and keep it from freezing before we use it. We will be practicing the art of building a fire on the snow and improvised shelter.
It is very important during the cold weather to remain hydrated, it is very easy to not drink enough water. The cold weather is sneaky at stripping the moisture from us without being warm, so we don’t think about hydration. When you get dehydrated it is very difficult to keep warm.
We are looking forward to a great trip, with lots of training and skill building. Stay tuned for our update after our return.
OK, with a good portion of the NW buried under snow, your weekend workout is, Snow Camping!! Now is when you can get creative, setup your snow camp in your yard, test out your equipment and skills with extremely low risk or commitment.
So, get out there and have some fun, build some skills and test your equipment.
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