Jim,
Some friends and I were out on a hike several weeks ago with our bug out bags, and we were talking about how we could easily identify non-threatening travelers or [perhaps even] fellow SurvivalBlog blog readers. Maybe a flag of some type? Being able to identify [“friendlies”] would be especially helpful in a TEOTWAWKI situation. I’m just wondering if anyone else had suggested anything along those lines. Thanks, – Steven
JWR Replies: Your chances of meeting a fellow SurvivalBlog readers are slim. (There are only about 282,000 SurvivalBlog readers in the US, scattered in a population of more than 305 million.) However, recognitions flags, banners, standards, or guidons carried by military units have a history that stretches back to ancient times, for good reason. In the modern military context, that emphasizes camouflage, they are an anachronism. (Guidons are now only used for formal, in-garrison occasions). Nowadays, in the field, the only thing that is analogous are ground marking panels–like the multi-color VS-17 Signal Panel Markers–designed to prevent friendly fire accidents. But in a post-collapse group defense (or community defense) context, distinctive flags carried like Pilgramager’s banners might be a good idea for particular circumstances:
1.) If it is for a group that is large enough to easily defend itself (i.e., so they need not travel stealthily), and
2.) Banner SOPs are established well in advance, and
3.) The group is traveling through territory where they are likely to encounter both friendlies and bad guys, and
4.) If the flag is something quite distinctive, and hence not easily copied by malo hombres. (Perhaps using a couple of triangles of very unusual and scarce fabric colors sewn together into a square. “All hail the Mauve and Chartreuse banner of the Warlord!”)
I surmise that a Japanese sashimono-style battlefield banner attached to a backpack frame (hence, that would not require someone’s hands to be occupied) would be the the most appropriate.
Perhaps some other readers would care to chime in with suggestions.