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1. I’m enjoying reading this. I work at a hospital where many of the guys that get evacced wind up at.
   Pneumonia, exposure, Rhabdo and high altitude sickness are frequent problems. It’s surprising how fast an outdoor exercise can tear down healthy, fit young soldiers! Any prepper that thinks they are going to have an easy time in the woods had better think again.

   1. Thank you!

      To all preppers I certainly recommend GETTING OUTSIDE. Put your skills to the test. Things are always easier in thought than action.

2. Next time use the Siberian log fire, small or large Siberian log fires all work the same way, once setup they will burn for 8 to 10 hours, also very effient at reflecting heat back to the user.

   1. I had never heard of this before. Looking at videos it seems like it would work, but I would be cautious of the fire burning along the log away from me. The entire area I was in was a massive fire hazard.

      But another tool for the toolbox. Thanks for the tip! Always good to learn new techniques to staying alive and WARM.

      1. E.T.

         Thanks!, two points, the fire doesnt burn away from you because you end up waking during the night, remember no one sleeps for 8 hours straight in the wilds do they ? noises wake you etc , animals move around , birds chirp etc, your brain is quickly alert,so you would check your fire, correct ? plus fire prep the area ! I have used this fire in Australia snow,rain all seasons for years, its been used in the taiga for centuries, nothing worse than freezing at night is there ? by the way,for instant shelter I use a Russian Plash Palatka, beats the brush/ debris shelter in dozens of ways, look it up.

         Enjoyed your article.

         Siberian log fire
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdcyIr3skbM

3. Awesome article. Made me laugh. Leaned much. Thank you.

   1. Thank you very much! I’m glad you learned and got some laughs!

4. This has been an interesting read. I like the humor he has added to his story.

   1. Thank you Tracy!

      I have an odd sense of humor for sure…

5. A Dakota fire pit will save enormously on firewood. A modified one using a 3-4 ft long trench. Large flat stones over the middle, sealed with mud makes a good “stove”. I have used one in pouring down rain under a tarp. Use the exit end to dry the wood and cycle through. A flat stone there to cook on too. Not as visible as a traditional fire which may be a plus in a combat environment.

   1. My biggest concern at the time was warmth, but that is certainly something to keep in mind. This looks like something an E-Tool would be perfectly suited to dig out.

6. Adding a few small animal snares would reduce food hunting time quite a bit. Why was there not training on them and adding them to your kits? several small ones weigh very little and cost very little?

   1. We were trained on them and we had brass snare wire included in our kits. Later we found the mountains cross-crossed with lots of old Comm Wire that could also be used. We had some success in this, which I chronicle in later articles.

      Absolutely worth having.

      A ‘Force multiplier’ of sorts in your ability to acquire game.

7. 1) Did the course cover any techniques for excape and evasion? Trying to survive in cold weather but being unable to build heating fires because they will be seen by the enemy seems like a difficult job to me– especially with today’s FLIR night vision.
   2) Also, does the aluminum in the space blanket make it a major radar beacon? Which would be good for attracting rescuers in peacetime but bad for attracting the enemy if evading.
   3) But conversely, does the space blanket shield your body heat from FLIR providing it isn’t touching your body surface? Would plastic work as well for a shield?
   4) Some of us older guys have what Mel Tappan called a “cleverly contrived modular food storage unit” around our waists and might survive starvation longer than lean and fit young men. At least, that is what I tell my wife over the second helping of pie.
   5) I was impressed by what I saw on the Internet re the courses in Nordic skiing that the Marines have at Bridgeport and the Army has at Ft Wainwright in Alaska. Old School technique (christy, telemark turn) but far more practical for backcountry travel than what we civilians do at Alpine ski resorts and with skinny Nordic skis suitable only for groomed Nordic courses.

   1. 1. While the Instructors were graduates of SERES schools and some very brief mentions about their course (everyone I’ve met tends to be pretty tight lipped on it), we never went in depth on that. The only techniques that came to mind is stuffing our clothing with as much ‘insulation’ type material as possible and trying to get out of the elements. I remember reading books about kids holing up inside haystacks during blizzards, but I don’t know if that’s just fiction or possible. Later parts of this article will discuss what happened when the temperatures went sub-freezing.

      2 and 3. From what I gather the Mylar Blanket will defeat FLIR. But I don’t know enough about this to give an educated opinion. It will certainly attract attention though!

      4. Those of us who put on extra weight leading up to the course were certainly glad we did. The fat stores helped, but we were still very mobile and agile. If you can’t touch your toes…well… in the wild the fattened calves get eaten first! (And at home…hmmm)

      5. They did offer a Winter Survival Course in January after mine. I’m not sure how it went, but I suppose it was pretty miserable. I know the winter before I arrived a training battalion had a guy INTENTIONALLY give himself frost bite on his fingers (stuck them in his canteen with water for long periods of time) to get out of the field. That was just regular training. A couple of the Snipers had taken the Mountain Skiing Course in Bridgeport and had some stories to tell!

8. Time to schedule a fire-making competition among our group. It’s raining again. Ever watch the first two seasons of Alone? It’s five degrees warmer and wetter in our Puget Sound area. Very hard to find anything that isn’t either growiing green full of moisture or dead wood soaked full of water. In our case the teepee shape fire burns better than laying pieces in a square, but sometimes we build a layer of wood like a scaffold over the fire to get it to dry.

   I really appreciate the author mentioning a heat reflector. Laying up rocks is good but you can even make a wooden wall- or better yet a two-angled wooden wall- to reflect the heat. Stacking sodden wood next to the fire to both act as a reflector and dry out can be beneficial. I love the dry wood the author mentions. In our wet area, smoke abounds! Thanks for this article…it’s a great series!

9. I’ll have to look that show up!

   All areas certainly have different challenges. For example I recall reading about wagon trains on the prairies burning ‘buffalo chips’ for cooking fires. (I bet THAT gave off an interesting smell – it’s dried buffalo dung)

   Thank you for taking the time to read it!

   1. The chips are just dried grass when dry enough to burn so not much smell. Far less than a diesel fueled feces fire during a shift of ‘stir the pot’. Still, the chips are easy to gather and burn well. Tibetans live that way currently on yak chips.

10. This grandma had a good snicker over the mental image of you fellas trying to get a boot on the head of a lively rabbit or chicken! Try laying a stick (the size of a broomstick) over the neck of a small animal to pin it to the ground. Then set your feet on the stick to either side of the neck. A firm jerk on the legs will snap the neck and easily pull off a chicken’s whole head. You only need to use a knife or hatchet for furred animals. Toss the body aways off to flop, and it will bleed out well. This method requires the least skill for children to learn or for old folks to use who are not too nimble on our feet.

    1. This method was shown and used by a SERE instructor from Warner Springs at a private class I took. Humane and quiet. Nothing worse than a class of screaming rabbits (another class).

    2. Thank you Elspeth for the tip. I’d much rather use the method that is most likely to be quick and humane!

11. Great article. I met a couple of NCOs from Bridgeport and they knew their stuff. What was your primary method of water purification? I’m also adding salt to my kit. It goes with me on any hike outside my local AO.

    1. Primary method was Iodine Tablets included in the Military Survival Kit. As those ran out we all turned to boiling our water.

       After the course I found out that Iodine Tablets are questionable when it comes to killing off microorganisms in water. I’m unaware of anyone contracting any water related issues after the course. But it is certainly something to keep in mind.

       Best option would be a small portable water filter as compact as funds will allow.

       The salt is an excellent idea. I discussed this in a comment on Part 1. For both flavor AND fluid retention. Water was passing through us during our movements and we were certainly feeling the effects of low hydration.

       1. Thanks for the reply and thanks for sharing. There’s new tablets out there that are bleach based and I have first hand experience with them. No flavor issues and they claim to be good for cryptosporidium as well. Looking forward to more.

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