prepping right now – underwear of the apocalypse

Posted by on March 10, 2012 No comments

don't be caught short, like these guys

So, let’s say disaster has struck. It could be something regional… a tornado or hurricane, or perhaps it’s systemic, like the collapse of the dollar. I’m out of touch, maybe for a very long time. I’ve gotten together with my network and we’re getting along as best we can, getting drips of info about “the outside world”. Every day is a challenge just to get by. We’re tuning the shortwave, posting watches at night, and our diets are readjusting to a new reality.

One thing I’m not doing is laundry.

At least that’s what I’d like to imagine, but I’m sure that’s not true.

If my foray into emergency and disaster medicine has taught me anything, it’s that hygiene and cleanliness are very crazy important. And part of this extends to your clothes, most definitely to your underwear. In a temporary grid-down situation, like most of you I could ride things out without having to do much laundry, having enough clothing on hand so that I didn’t have to worry during the disaster and then just do a massive load when the power was back on. But in a bigger, system-wide situation “the damn laundry” moves onto a huge list of things that are all Really Important.

How’s that laundry thing going to go?

Options would include using a bit of juice and the generator to wash them like you wash them today ( if you have a generator/washer/dryer ) that is….  but that sounds like a pretty big waste of energy. On the other end of the spectrum there’s this big rock down by the creek… though this also sounds not-so-appealing. A middle ground would be a contraption like this one, made of a 5-gallon bucket, and truthfully would be the most likely for the most people.

Another thought is that now, when access to such marvels is as easy as an Amazon click, you might consider performance clothing. Performance underwear, in particular. Exofficio makes a variety of underwear that is designed to be worn by world travelers or expedition members. It’s specially constructed/treated to wick sweat, kill bacteria, protect against the sun, repel pests ( ewwww ), resist odors, and keep the frank and beans comfortable under expedition ( I read this and thought “grid down” ) situations.

The idea is that with two pair, you could go on close to indefinitely by wearing one pair and simply handwashing ( with whatever water and bit of soap that happened to be on hand ) and let it dry for a couple hours. By all accounts and my own experience this is totally doable, and these beauties are in it for the long haul with you, a silent partner on your team giving you a leg up after the balloon goes up.

So why wait for the apocalypse? This is something you can do right now, prep-wise.

Get two pairs ( or sets ) of undies and try this for a while. Do less laundry. Have awesome underwear. Resist pests ( ewwww ). And know in a private way that you’re taking yet another baby step towards being prepared. I am not for a moment proposing something unsavory, or that you do anything at all less hygienic than you’re used to right now. But these little beauties are made to wash sparkle clean with a minimum of fuss while you’re out exploring the hostels of Eastern Europe, or the wastes of Antarctica. I think they can stand up to your trips to the mall, or back and forth to the kids’ soccer practice.

A caveat – you might not want to brag about this at the mall, range, or the MeetUp, or wherever. Keep it to yourself ( OpSec, you know ) and just rest easy with the knowledge that you’re that much closer to being prepared. If you have to share, when you see me walking down the street, just smile and give me a thumbs-up. I’ll do the same to you, and we’ll both know what we’re really signaling:

Clean underwear for the apocalypse.

some additional benefits of prepping

Posted by on March 9, 2012 No comments

Prepping, the act of becoming more prepared for disasters of different scales that may be relevant to your life, seems to have a number of beneficial side effects besides actually making you better placed to handle tough times. If you adopt Prepping as a hobby ( or as some do, an avocation ) you will likely see these benefits in your life.

You will be:

  • more detail-oriented
  • more committed to follow-through
  • more practical
  • more durable
  • less of a couch potato
  • better at detecting BS or various flavors
  • developing a heightened sense of safety and well being
  • more self-confident
  • more inclined to spend quality time with your family, friends, and neighbors

I’m sure there are other benefits that I am missing; these are the ones that occur to me off the top of my head, and that have definitely expressed themselves in my own life.

Some people you talk with about prepping in a general way will believe it is a waste of time. Mostly I think this is a gut reaction fueled by an inner fear, a refusal to take up or even examine  the idea that “winter is coming”. Another negative reaction might be along the lines of “What do you get out of all of the buying, storing, list making, skill-building, time in the garden, time in the gym, time at the range, time talking to your family, time spent…”

But even here, it seems the value of the time is self-evident, way beyond just having “more stuff”.

Pet Go Bags

Posted by on March 8, 2012 No comments

"No time for love, Dr. Jones"

Have a dog? Have a go bag?

Have a dog go bag…?

In my local CERT chapter we have about three times as many people turning out for the Pet Shelter Issues class than the regular, boring, human-centric Shelter Management class. I read a survey somewhere that said during a disaster if forced to make a choice between being evacuated from a disaster zone without your pet or staying behind an astronomical nine out of ten respondents would stay behind.

I’m probably one of the nine.

This line of thought was born out during Katrina, when we saw a huge number of would-be evacuees refusing transport. Brutal stuff, having to make that decision on your rooftop. I don’t have kids yet, and the buddy I live with and I are fairly resourceful and at least moderately prepared; all of this goes into the decision to stay in place, leave with the dog, or leave him behind. As I’ve indicated while I understand circumstances exist that would cause a loving family to ( very painfully ) decide to leave a pet behind, I’ve taken steps to never have to make that call.

With all this in mind, a post about pet go bags seemed overdue.

A few things to keep in mind right off the bat: in America, the attitude of the Red Cross on allowing pets in their shelters is changing, favoring you bringing fido along. I’m focusing on dogs for this article, but if you plan to evacuate with your pet, you should have a go bag for that pet. Also, I’m a firm believe in the idea of every go bag having a particular mission; the dreams of some magical bag packed with Everything I’d Ever Need Ever ready for me to grab and go when the balloon goes up is pretty… much wishful thinking. As with all prepping, consider what you’re prepping for, what is most likely for you, and fulfill that mission to the best of your ability.

Dr. Jones and his Go Bag

I help care for an M-sized shepherd-collie mix named Dr. Jones. Because he’s of a size that can handle it, he has his own backpack. He’s gotten used to wearing the backpack because we’ve taken him hiking with it, so when push comes to shove the worst day of my life won’t be the first time I’m trying to get him to wear his backpack.

He carries most of his supplies himself. The mission for his particular bag is “Get to the ( human, disaster ) shelter and spend 4 days there, as comfortably as possible.”

The contents of his pet go bag:

  • collapsable water bowl
  • leash
  • extra collar and tag set
  • a few chew toys
  • a small roll of blue clean-up bags
  • doggie booties ( just in case we need to walk over sharp ground )
  • pet tranquilizers ( never necessary before, but a few tabs might be a lifesaver in a shelter )
  • small bottle of pet shampoo ( baby shampoo works as well )
  • hard copies of his documentation ( vaccines, etc )
  • muzzle ( never needed it before, but again just in case )
  • small can opener
  • additional meds ( for a slight condition of his )

In my own go bag I have a few things for him:

  •  a small mat
  • a ziploc freezer bag with food for about 4 days
  • worn tshirt ( not actually in my bag; I’d grab it on the way out, if I remember )

The tshirt would be one out of the hamper or gym bag, one heavy with my smell with the idea that wherever Dr. Jones was bunked up I could put that tshirt with him and he’d have the doggy equivalent of a snapshot of me.

When the SHTF

If I ever found myself in a situation where evacuating to a shelter seemed a better idea than remaining in place, I’d spring into motion. If had time, I’d grab the pack and put it on Dr. Jones, grab my own, and we’d be outta there. If I had presence of mind I’d also grab some bottled water, but if we were going to a shelter I knew had been stood up I’d make a quick judgement call as to whether this was necessary or not.

If your pet can’t handle his or her own go bag, then as The Human you’ll have to hump it for them. I recommend a separate bag with MOLLE attachments, so that bag can bolt right on to your own. Of course this increases your load, which is hardly ever a good thing.

If you have to leave your pet behind during a disaster, keep some common sense things in mind:

  • leave a large amount of water in a non-spillable container; either buy one for the exact purpose as part of your prepping or know in your head what you’re going to improvise long before the sirens start blaring
  • Food should be available, for days, and from a dispenser that will not allow over-eating.
  • Give your pet run of the house while you’re gone; you can put some newspapers down and be hopeful, but the mess you might have when you get back will likely be an easy trade for your pet being there waiting for you.
  • Also as you leave the house use a marker of some sort on your door ( or paper visible in the window ) stating what kind of pet you have inside, your cell number, and any relevant info a rescuer might need.

some words

Building a library

Posted by on February 13, 2012 No comments

In my way of breaking down the things that are important to prepping well, skills are second only to mindset. Things you’ve stored, networks you’ve developed, the location you choose ( or find yourself ) are all important but I believe skills are more so.

Knowledge takes up no space, has no weight, and you can’t forget to bring it along. You need to refresh it, sharpen it, but it’s hard to beat the usefulness of knowledge ( practical skills ) from an effort-to-benefit point of view.

Take classes. Read books. Practice, practice, practice. Skills improve your chances to survive and flourish in tough situations, contribute to agile mindset, make you more valuable to your network and others, and bolster your confidence.

Not a bad deal.

I first came to prepping with the realization that my own skills, while serving me pretty well in the world of Google, 911, and relatively cheap energy, would not help me much in a grid-down situation lasting more than a few days. I had an epiphany, and started reading, then learning, then practicing.

A library helps preserve and extend your skills.

You can’t remember everything, you can’t know everything. A collection of recorded knowledge can help you preserve your skills, learn new ones, and help others the same way… making it a resource that’s valuable beyond even your immediate needs. The training manual you got a FrontSight, your EMT textbook and worksheets, the information sheets that came with your FRS radios, all of these go with traditional books to preserve and extend your knowledge and abilities.

To do:

  • Save useful information – instruction manuals for your gear
  • print out / make hardcopies of important documentation – your ability to do so will likely be compromised in a grid-down situation
  • collect books on topics which you have useful skills

if your means allow…

  • collect digital resources ( PDFs and ebooks ) and put them on storage media that transport well ( thumb drives work well )
  • invest in a digital reader ( Kindles are cheap, Nooks allow for removable memory cards, iPads have many other uses )

Books ( or whatever ) detailing skills you don’t have that might be useful might still be -way- valuable in a grid-down situation. Like surgical implements – you might not be able to make use of it, but in the right hands, that book on raising cattle or loading your own cartridges might make all the difference.

And the value of fiction, a story that inspires, that provides solace or inspiration?

That’s a whole other blog post.

TWD – season2ep1

Posted by on October 17, 2011 No comments

The Walking Dead is back on AMC, Sunday nights. I started doing “survivalist reviews” of the show when it first came on, and those have by far been my most popular posts. “Are you going to write up the new season?”  Of course I am. Deputy Grimes and his group of survivors continue to stumble through a SHTF world; let’s break down some things we saw.

 

observations – just saying
–
Suicide, and making decisions for other people. This episode was pretty dense with this theme, the idea that in a world gone to hell some people are going to “opt out”. I can only imagine things being so rough that suicide was an option, but the story certainly presents a rough world, and I have no doubt people like the ones I know in my daily life would be at the edge of that cliff. Do you have a right to opt out? My thoughts are that it’s a personal choice, but what I know for sure-positive is that it would come up in a dire situation, and like any crisis it’d better to think beforehand about it then get caught off guard. Someone you care about “can’t do this anymore,” and thinks it’s time to check out. What’s your plan? Remember, zombies and death are everywhere; if a person has lost their will to fight, do you think it’s right that they need to be bitten and turned before they can check out?

Morgan, and faith. Even in his absence, Morgan continues to be one of the strongest characters in the show, if only through his inspiration of Rick. Morgan is a stand-in for Christ in some ways, for Rick – having just come out of a coma, Rick stumbled in a hospital gown into a world destroyed and overrun with the walking dead. Morgan plucked him up out of his shock, shook him off, calmed him down, and bonded with him. Now Rick wishes his friend well, speaking to him through the radio in something very close to prayer. This kind of faith and friendship is very powerful, and an important factor in survival. Rick has several reasons to live, people he cares about. His wife and son and friends are near at hand, but Morgan is transcendental, that thing that gives him power, purpose, and hope beyond his reach. In this episode we also saw Rick talk to an image of Christ in a church. Without commenting on the spirituality, it is very important to be able to express your feelings, verbally, in times of crisis. Keeping them in all the time is a sure way to meltdown.

Looting “a graveyard” Rick and his group come upon a traffic jam on the highway, where many vehicles full of supplies and corpses choke the way forward. One of the group says they feel very uncomfortable “looting a graveyard”. In a grid-down situation where the environment is full of predators, they’re confronted with a moral quandary. My own opinion is this: clothes, food & water, tools and such are not doing the previous owners any good, and there’s effectively no chance related owners might claim the remains. I’d be mindful that it’s important to be respectful of the dead, but I’d take the time to speak to this, and then see if the dead had anything useful for the group. It’s a much more finders-keepers kind of world, in the show…  and a personal decision for the starving, huddled masses. I’d never deprive someone living of what they’d gathered, but the dead? Surely.

Cuts and scrapes These will kill you in a disaster situation, just as surely as a zombie bite or a bullet wound. Just more slowly. I’m not just talking about post Z – Day; in any grid-down situation hygiene is probably going to be much different than it is today, and taking care of every cut and scrape is going to be very important. Learn how to do that -now- and plan accordingly.

The “right” to bear arms In this episode we saw the group come around to thinking that maybe it’s not a good idea to give everyone a gun, for several reasons. Lack of training, suicide, or maybe even shadiness of character. Every situation is different, and of course we’re talking TEOTWAWKI. Even in that world, ( especially in that world ) it’s always better to have training with weapons than not. In my opinion it’s a logical inconsistency with the show that during a month of downtime all “civilians” were not taught gun safety and marksmanship. But let’s let that pass for a moment. Do you give an untrained, stressed-out person a loaded handgun? Do you let them keep one they own? Myself, I’m probably not taking anyone’s guns away, unless the demonstrate harm to themselves or the group. But it’s also a very high priority of mine to get them trained. If they refuse training or demonstration of skill, I’d cut them loose; not worth the extra shooter ( maybe ) to me to have an unknown or unskilled person wielding a deadly weapon in times of stress. Overall, anyone ten and older would get straining as soon as possible, and would be armed with what I could get for them. I’ve had civilian training with kids this age, and done properly they can be very competent.

weapons with reach Beyond guns, it’s natural in a post Z-Day setting to find and use melee weapons. In this episode the group finds a wonderful product-placement cache by Gerber, consisting of a few machete-like implements. Better than nothing, better than ( perhaps ) a baseball bat, but if you’re going to be dispatching Zach by hand, it’s much better to use something with some reach, so as not to get splashed with icky stuff when you strike, and to not have the zombie right -on- you if you miss.

good things we saw
–
gas in approved containers – gas is still dangerous to gather and store after Z-Day, using safe containers is never a bad idea.

motorcycle use - motorcycles can go places cars can’t. An even better option might be an off-road vehicle, though the motorcycle can squeeze through some pretty tight spots and takes way less gas than a car. If you can’t find a motorcycle and a car isn’t an option for some reason ( clogged roads, can’t drive ) then a bicycle is a very good alternative to walking everywhere.

cleaning guns – It was used in this episode as a plot device, but in truth maintaining your weaponry is -very- important, because when you need it you absolutely need it to work perfectly. One way to insure that is through regular cleaning. Shooting a gun and not cleaning it is just asking for trouble next time.

sling use – We saw very good marksmanship form from Rick, who presumably has had training. When readying a shot with his scoped long gun he utilized the strap to help support his aiming platform. It’s hard to over-communicate how valuable this can be. If you’re a prepper and think there might be some situation where a life you care about is on the line with a shot you make, please get some training and learn to be effective. The Appleseed Shoots are very very good for this.

calm in the chase; having a plan, being rational - always, always better than freaking out. Utilize the times of stress in your life now to take note, and practice coming at solutions in a calm way. This trains you for calm under fire. Panic kills.

work gloves – these are worth their weight in gold, whether you’re working around sharp edges, or performing zombie autopsies. Get a pair. And then get another pair.

bad things we saw
–
no socks – always wear socks, even if you have to loot them. Blisters are bad, infections are worse.

bad times to learn to re-assemble a gun – again, we saw this mostly as a plot device, but it’s very very important to learn your weapon -before- you need it. Not in the middle of an emergency. You’d hate to be stuck in an RV toilet with a disassembled gun in your lap, Zach banging at the door, right? Especially when there was a whole bag of put-together guns in the RV you could have grabbed one from.

everyone not armed – everyone should have a weapon, if only a melee weapon. It’s true someone clumsy or incompetent might hurt themselves, or someone else, but this is balanced against the fact there are Zombies Everywhere. Give grandma a baseball bat. Give little Timmy one too.

silent is better than not-silent – this goes to training; train everyone in your group to STFU in stressful situations. It’s dramatic and natural to scream, but doesn’t help you or your loved ones at all.

no plan for being separated - ugh. Again, bad planning and bad use of downtime. Always have a few things going in your head; in a Zach world you should always be in Condition Yellow – have a way to escape your current location and a plan for what to do if separated from the group.

disabling the churchbells – hands down the dumbest thing we saw in this episode. A little girl is lost, and the group is drawn to a church with loud bells ringing. It turns out the bells were a timed recording, and in anger one of the members ripped the circuitry out. And stopped the ringing. If your goal is to draw a lost little girl to you, timed church bells are a very good thing, even if they’d also draw zombies. Your milage may vary, but I’dve kept them ringing.

prepping right now – camping

Posted by on June 9, 2011 No comments

from Flickr poster LoimereCamping exercises a lot of the same muscles, mental and physical, that you’d use in an actual disaster or TEOTWAKI situation. And you don’t need to go all Castaway; even just “car camping,” where you and the brood pile into the family truckster with that huge tent, 3 coolers and 10 bags worth of gear only to spill out into a camping space within walking distance of the parking space. Let’s use that as an example, and riff on it a bit.

  • the logistics of planning the move, the whole family from where you live to where you camp, involves organizing a multitude of details. Preparing lists of what you’ll bring, gathering it all together, making sure the kids are provisioned with food & snacks, clothes, all the things to keep them occupied, sunscreen, hats, and so forth. Get all of that on a list, packed, and in the truckster.
  • detaching from your wired world. You’ll undoubtedly bring your cell phone, but perhaps you’ll leave the laptop, the fax ( old school ), and the flat panel behind.
  • adapting to all the important things you forgot: charcoal, tent stakes, rain gear, a water bowl for the puppy, and so on.
  • Handling those medical situations on the fly. Little Johnny bumps his head when he trips over a tent wire, sally cuts her finger unpacking gear, and their friend Jenny throws up from all the excitement. Or was it from something else?

How much effort does it take to get your family off the grid for a weekend? The planning, logistics, supplies, coordination, stress, and raw energy required is substantial when you think about it. But all of this sounds like very good practice for prepping.

But Pete, it’s just camping

Well, sure. You have your cell and car, and the immediate care clinic might not be a long drive…  but you’re starting to develop a keen awareness of what it’s like to be in a situation where your normal life is gone and you’re building an echo from bits and pieces. Dipping your toe in the apocalypse.

In time and with multiple outings you’ll be a bit more high-speed, low-drag. Getting good at taking the family camping might not seem the same as prepping, but getting practice in at paying attention to the details, moving the family on a schedule and turning on a dime, improvising when problems arise, and keeping a cool head when Murphy comes to visit – handling problems like medical issues or forgotten gear…

…all that sounds like the very -essence- of prepping to me.

Hank the Gun Guy is no prepper

Posted by on June 9, 2011 No comments

“All I need to do to prep is keep guns and ammo.”

How many of you have heard this line before, or something like it? A recent conversation with Hank on the train about prepping brought this lovely thought to light, and I was repulsed. Pretty much what this thought means is “When things get rough, I’ll take my gun and use it to get what I need. It’s easier for me to do this than to actually go through all the work and expense of prepping.”

Ugh.

The more I get into prepping, the more I come across this thought. More than any other single phrase or sentiment I can think of, It’s an affront to the whole prepper mindset. It’s an acknowledgment that things can happen, a refusal to adequately prepare, and an admission that someone is much more likely he’d be a violent parasite all bundled into a tight little package of dumb.

Don’t be this person, please.

If you keep guns but don’t know the first thing about storing or filtering water, if you rely on the GPS in the car because you’re not good with maps, if you have an inability to rig a shelter, build a fire, or move up your own stairs without wheezing at the top you’re really not a prepare…   you’re a gun guy.

Why do people get into Prepping?

Posted by on June 6, 2011 No comments

from jma.work, at FlickrPeople get into Prepping ( or Survivalism ) for lots of different reasons, and at different levels. The commuter who won’t sit in the train cars immediately next to the locomotive, grandma teaching the kiddies how to preserve peaches by canning, and the suburban homeowner who realizes it’d be a great idea to plant fruit and nut trees to augment other preps… all of these people are Preppers. the Prepper mindset pokes out in lots of different ways; you never know when circumstances will strongly favor the prepared person. Ben Franklin tells us that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Along these lines, if you’ve never read the fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant, please take two minutes and do so now. Consider it an easy Prepper exercise. We’ll be here when you get back.

“Why are you so paranoid, ant?”

In discussion with non-Preppers I hear this question every so often. Assuming the person isn’t just trying to raise my ire on GP, it can seem like a strange thing, being the ant in a world full of grasshoppers. In our culture, our lifetime of plenty and ( relative ) peace, Prepping for trouble seems to raise the hackles of some people. The underlying assumptions of many people are that the water would never stop flowing, the lights would always come on, and WalMart would always have everything you might need, in a pinch, the the cops/firefighters will always come when you dial 911. These are basic assumptions, and when you start questioning people’s basic assumptions, they start to freak out a little. When Galileo suggested that perhaps the Earth might indeed revolve around the sun, the world back then rose up and tried to smash his square peg-ness back into a round hole. “Heliocentricism? What, are you crazy?”

Anyone who’s ever been laid off, had their house burn down, their town knocked around by a tornado or hurricane, lost power for a few days after an ice storm, or gotten a must-boil order for the water knows differently than the peeps who think everything will always be all right. These personal or local kinds of disasters can be amazing teaching tools, opening the eyes and creating new Preppers with just a dash of kick-in-the-pants-reality. As it turns out, the people who laid in some extra food, bought that generator, had resources and a plan for safety that didn’t depend just on their home…  those people, the Preppers, had a very different experience in the above disasters.

“Ah. Well, that’s just once, right?”

I only need to be mugged once to keep my eyes open for the rest of my life. I only need to be denied 911 service one time where I -really- needed it to have a whole new view of how the world works. I only need to pay for my basement re-do once to know that flood insurance is a good idea. Keeping all of us fed, lighted, hydrated, gassed-up, and protected is a circus act of many plates spinning int he air at once…  and thinking the system is going to always keep all those plates in the air is kinda silly. The reasonable person, especially the one with responsibility for a family, transitions from grasshopper to ant. Maybe this doesn’t happen over night, but it happens.

Preppers are reasonable people

So the reasonable person understands that Things Can Change at a moment’s notice, and that being prepared for that change only makes sense. Your neighbor Maggie might believe ( hope ) that most of the time, most things will be juuuust fine, so why bother to expend energy or pennies to plan for just in case? To the reasonable person, the Prepper, Maggie seems a bit silly. And sad. Or maybe just misguided. A new gi-normous flatscreen would be sweet, and Maggie would never spend hat money instead of an extra few weeks of food for her family.

As it turns out, people become Preppers for a very basic reason. They don’t want to be devastated somehow when fate throws them a curveball… be it personal, local, or systemic. There’s more to it than this, but this is probably at the core of it. Other benefits of prepping such as confidence, peace of mind, situational awareness…  I’ll cover those in another post. Be prepared for it.    ;   )

EMT-B

Posted by on June 2, 2011 No comments

The other week I finished my state’s Emergency Medical Technician ( Basic ) curriculum. I was fortunate to have blindly wandered into the most rigorous  program in the state, and it definitely felt like an accomplishment. I’ve had Ph.D level coursework that was nowhere near as demanding as that class.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, EMT-B is the entry level of certification for work as emergency an responder on an ambulance, or in the ER as a tech. The next step in some states is “Advanced” EMT, although in my state the next step is “Paramedic” ( we do away with the intermediate AEMT here, for some reason ). Some police officers and other first response personnel are trained as “Emergency First Responders” which is the level “below” EMT-B.

What does this have to do with Prepping, Pete?

Before I completed EMT-B, I had a fairly decent understanding of first aid. CERT training upped this a bit, but if CERT has ten basic skills the volunteers learn, medops was my weakest. I knew enough to apply direct pressure to a bleeding wound, and that sticking something in a seizing person’s mouth was foolish, but that was about it. As far as my own Prepper skillset went this was a gaping hole. Regardless of whether my disaster was a tornado or something systemic, if my medical emergency went beyond stopping moderate bleeding or confidently directing people not put anything in the mouth of the guy that was seizing in front of us, I’d have a problem.

So I manned up and took the course. Giving up four months of Friday nights.

Class was 3.5 hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights for four months. I had to do ride time in ambulances and clinical time in the ER in addition to all the coursework. Beyond all of this I did a -lot- of studying. And at least in my program, you really couldn’t afford to miss a day as everything was important.

So what’s the payoff?

Now I can’t think of anything trauma- or medically-related that could happen where I wouldn’t know at least how to start to respond. I might not have the gear I’d eventually need, but I wouldn’t stare like a deer caught in the headlights. I’d react, with skill.

EMT-B is definitely not a replacement for more fully-trained, skilled and experienced medical practitioners with technology. A paramedic, a nurse, a PA, all have more ( in some cases astoundingly more ) knowledge than the most skilled EMT-B…   but the sweet spot Emergency Medical Technicians live in are handling the first few minutes of most anything medical or trauma, with very little equipment on hand.

Does this sound desirable to any Preppers out there?

It did to me. I wholeheartedly recommend the EMT-B class to anyone serious about Prepping. It’s a definite commitment, and if you can’t put up that kind of time, knowing CPR and basic first aid are certainly helpful skills. But the competence and capability you receive while studying the EMT-B course far outstrips even advanced first aid.

And also…  in any kind of situation where your Prepper skills might come into play, I imagine the phrase “I’m an EMT” might be pretty useful, to you and your family.

Falling Skies ep 1 – survivalist analysis

Posted by on June 1, 2011 No comments

Rolling out of bed this morning I had no idea that tonight I’d even meet actor Noah Wyle, much less be giving him, and 500 of our closest friends, a critique on how his latest pilot “Falling Skies” depicted survivalist techniques.

It turns out that it was inevitable. At my nerdy day job I work right next to -the- @rodrakic, a guy who’s just skittering north of a “50″ Klout score in the Twittersphere. TNT was running an early screening of their new post-apocalyptic show and tapped Rod and a few other noted influencers in Chicago to come take an early look. Rod asked if I’d care to be “+1″

Post-apocalyptic… how could I refuse? See? Inevitable.

And it’s also inevitable that I’d seize on the opportunity to watch the pilot of “Falling Skies” with a critical survivalist eye. While not exactly famous here at NewPrepper we seem to exert a certain charm that draws people and spammers alike with our discourse on Prepping. So in the finest tradition of our “work” before, let’s take a look at the show of apocalypse and alien invasion.

The Setup

The series is set six months after the hammer came down from the sky. Military and government assets world wide destroyed, EMP-like pulses burning our electronics into junk. To weave some sci-fi analogy goodness together, Skynet is out for extinction, and the rag-tag fleet of refugees is making it’s way through, er, Massachusetts  and away from the colonies, one jump at a time.

Noah Wyle plays Tom Mason, former BU History Professor turned XO with Will Patton reprising a role as the PA my-way-or-the-highway military commander named Weaver. Together the two are barely holding the 2nd Massachusetts ( a shaky post-military unit consisting of 200 civilians and 100 fighters ) together by scouting and plundering, living from one cache to the next.

The Critique

Logistically keeping 100 armed combatants and 200 civilians fed, warm, clean, and in serviceable clothing and gear is undoubtedly a nightmare. Let’s assume for a moment that all the intrigues, illnesses, and irritants that’d normally tear such a happy rave apart have been dealt with or set aside in focusing on the Main Goal, which is “retreat, regroup, return, and revenge” if I recall correctly.

On the plus side

There’s a chain of command, with a clear leader in charge with a prioritized list of objectives; hard to overstate how important this is in groups larger than you and two drinking buddies.

Most people are armed. Everyone seems to be picking up and maintaining weaponry. Also a good sign when invading enemies are looking to extinguish us.

School is in session. Teachers gather kids together on a regular basis. In rough times when stress is high, pressure and movement are constants and there are kids along for the ride, some kind of schooling kills many birds with one stone, and not just for the students.

There’s a doctor, regularly seeing to the ills of PA life.

The 2nd Mass is a true guerilla force, gathering intel on the alien’s vulnerabilities and positions, using their own potential weaknesses ( lack of tech, lack of central command, diversity of skillet ) as assets all while running away from stand-up fights. Also in keeping with this ethos, kids old enough to manage weapons and receive training are in the fight.

The combatants ( and presumably the civies ) maintain real interpersonal relationships with family members, friends, and lovers. Even though it’s the end of the world, holding hands keeps us human.

On the minus side

The only military tactics seem to be at the battalion level, and not so much at the squad level. In fairness it might be that in the pilot we’ve only seen the one squad. But as I look around the compartment of the commuter train I’m writing this post in, I see a few individuals I’d peg with military experience. I know the according to the story the active army is decimated, but the people I’m looking at now probably aren’t in the active army. In a group of 300, you’d have some small unit tactics experience.

Civilians sleep in tents, combatants sleep in houses and get much better rest. Weaver the commanding officer tells us this is because the fighters need sleep, and it’d be too much of a hassle to quickly muster civilians out of the houses should the need to amscray arise. This sounds ridiculous, as anyone who’s tried to break camp “in a hurry” will tell you. It also makes poor tactical sense, as tent city is easier to spot from a casual look-see than everyone quartered in now-vacant housing. Even if the invading aliens can’t get a good scan on a group of 300 ( setting this aside, remember? ) the first ep shows us that other humans are also a problem, and presumably can identify a tent city pretty easily. As we’ve seen in other shows, this wrinkle is probably more for drama and to show class distinction and less because someone with military expertise thought it was a winning tactic.

The refugee shuffle. If your goal is to insure the safety of 200 non-combatants and you have enough downtime to teach the kids biology, you probably have enough time to drill everyone that can talk and walk on how to spread out and move as squads, instead of as a huge grenade-friendly snake-like cluster target shambling up the road. Or across the bridge.

and to nitpick a little- if it’s cold enough to risk burning fires indoors, it’s probably cold enough to wear a hat. Hypothermia isn’t fun now, and likely sucks more after the balloon goes up and aliens are shooting at you.

Worth noting

Wyle and Patton are great from “go,” as is the outlaw leader, though most of the other characters need a little more fleshing out to feel 3 dimensional. I liked the analogs to our own country’s history, and the metaphors that were brought out. I’m looking forward to more episodes, and understanding a bit more about the aliens’ method of fighting, and how the human’s adapt.

Thanks Rod, for the invite. Thanks Noah, for remembering me in a sea of Many.

“What makes this show different from others ( in this particular genre )?” one audience member asked after the screening.

“Well, we haven’t been canceled yet,” quipped Noah.

True enough. My fingers are crossed for many more episodes.