Month: January 2015

Lessons on Prepping From an Afghanistan Deployment, by A.K. – Part 2

We are continuing this article, from a Marine Sergeant, about lessons learned while living in a remote region of Afghanistan, Marjeh district, which seem similar to a possible TEOTWAWKI environment. Food After two months of eating nothing but MREs, I began to get sick of them and started losing weight. Many of my fellow Marines experienced the same thing. We started to barter batteries for food that the ANA ate. They had a cook and bought bread every morning from the Bazaar. They had chickens for eggs and meat, and occasionally they had a goat. Eventually we bought 12 chickens …


Letter Re: Theology and Prepardeness – Some Thoughts

Mr. Rawles, First, Mr. Wesley, I want you to know that I’m deeply thankful for the work that you do. Sound theology is what drove me to preparedness in the first place, and your commitment to the application of sound theology to the subject of preparing for the times ahead has been a tremendous blessing and personal inspiration to me. I love you for your dedication to Christ, your love for His law, and your faithful witness. I’m sending this message in the hope that it will encourage you and provide you with some profitable reflection. The Scriptures are clear …



Odds ‘n Sods:

Why Is The Fed Hiring An “Emergency Preparedness Specialist Familiar With DHS Directives”. – G.G. o o o From the guy who turned a shovel into an AK47: Takedown Saiga 12. – K.R. o o o An interesting story from Turkey: ‘Thief’ is not Just a Five-Letter Word o o o Military hardware still flowing to local police after Ferguson. – B.B. o o o Georgia. police chief says he accidentally shot wife – Twice. – T.P.



Notes for Thursday – January 01, 2015

John Cantius Garand (January 1, 1888 – February 16, 1974) was born in St. Rémi, Quebec. John Garand designed one of America’s best known battle rifles, the M1 Garand. General Patton praised Garand’s design, writing to Chief of Ordnance Lt. Gen. Levin H. Campbell, Jr., (January 26, 1945): “The M1 rifle is the most deadly rifle in the world.” o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 56 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or …


December in Precious Metals, by Terrence Campbell of Gainesville Coins

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover the price action of gold and silver and examine the “what” and “why” behind those numbers. Gold continued to sputter throughout the month of December, hitting a high of just 1,230 per troy ounce on the 10th, and slowly sinking to a low of 1,175 over the next two weeks, ending on the 25th. Market analysts are again attributing the weak performance of gold to continually sagging crude oil prices globally, lower than expected inflation, …


Lessons on Prepping From an Afghanistan Deployment, by A.K. – Part 1

My experiences as a Sergeant in a Marine Infantry battalion have ultimately changed my philosophy towards prepping. Living in a remote region of Afghanistan, Marjeh district, was very much like living in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. There were no roads, other than small cart paths, used by civilian and Taliban alike. There was no running water and no electricity. Locals pumped water from wells, if lucky, or drank from the canals. Electricity was a luxury and power came from a generator. Many of the locals were so poor they had never owned a single piece of any currency; barter was a …


Letter Re: Prepper Digital Security

Mr. Latimer, I read the article “Prepper Digital Security“, by A.B. and would like to offer a couple of comments. The article mentions the use of TrueCrypt. I was a serious user of this software package until June of this year after Microsoft ceased support of Windows XP. When that happened, the development of TrueCrypt was ended with very little explanation. I run Ubuntu Linux and used TrueCrypt. Now that development has stopped, I cannot get updates so am no longer protected if NSA finds another exploit. The website has the following to say: WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure …


Economics and Investing:

Why You Should Be Prepared for Both Inflation and Deflation o o o From the desk of SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large, Mike Williamson: Corn ethanol is of no economic use o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: Russia Says Ruble Crisis Over as Reserves Dive, Inflation Climbs Japan Struggles to Escape Recession as Production Drops U.S. Bond Sentiment Is Worst Since Disastrous ’09 – It is my opinion that the Fed won’t ever raise rates but will always pretend or let the markets believe they will, and use just use the excuse du’ jour to put it off. Perhaps I …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Hackers can steal your fingerprint from a PHOTO: Copycat print could be used by criminals to fool security systems. – D.S. o o o License Plate Reader Technology Looks At Faces. – G.P. o o o Der Spiegel Reveals Loose Standards Needed for Drone Assassination. – RBS o o o 28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps. – B.B o o o Be American . – B.B.