My sincere thanks to the 83 readers who responded to my post yesterday, requesting Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions. Several folks sent $100, one sent $200, and one sent $365–presumably as a “catch-up’ payment for a decade of reading the blog without previously subscribing. Your generous support is greatly appreciated!
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January 5th, 1855 was the birthday of King Camp Gillette (pictured), who invented the safety razor.
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Today is also the birthday of actor Robert Duvall (born 1931.) His roles in Open Range and Apocalypse Now are unforgettable.
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This is also the birthday of General Courtney Hodges (born 1887 – January 16, 1966). Kicked out of West Point for low math scores, he enlisted as a private but soon became a maverick officer and went on to a distinguished career.
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Today’s feature article was written by the newest member of our staff, Thomas Christianson. He will become Field Gear Editor, when Pat Cascio semi-retires, to become our Field Gear Editor, Emeritus. Pat plans to gradually reduce his writing schedule. Since it was staff-written, today’s Review article is not part of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest judging.
Tom provided this biographical sketch and introduction:
My motto as Field Gear Editor is taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
I grew up in a small town in a semi-rural area in the Midwest, where everyone was acutely aware that food came from a farm before it ever came from a grocery store. We learned gun safety in school, and on the first day of hunting season, all the young men were absent from school.
I began writing as a stringer for a local newspaper while still in high school, and have enjoyed writing ever since.
After college and seminary, my wife and I spent a decade overseas as missionaries. We then returned to my hometown where I joined the staff of my sending church. One of my responsibilities there is to care for our missionaries. Sometimes I have opportunities to test field gear while on trips to work with our missionaries.
If you happen to know of any field gear that would be helpful to SurvivalBlog readers, please contact me at ThomasKChristianson at gmail dot com to tell me about it.