Category: G. O. O. D.

Bugging Out: Taking Your Home and Gear with You, by Bob. H.

I am a 23-year veteran of the Recreational Vehicle (RV) industry. I have been in survival mode since the early 1980s after seeing the movies Mad Max and Red Dawn. I started selling RVs in 1984 and thought they were really cool. As the world changed and my concerns grew I started looking at them as a great survival tool. RVs have changed a lot since then. any RVs are fully self contained, meaning you have on board water for drinking bathing and cooking, toilet, climate control, refrigeration and sleeping. Many have onboard generators, deep cycle batteries, power invertors, AC …


Two Letters Re: Freeway Gridlock and G.O.O.D. Route Planning

Sir: In response to the article you posted titled: “Nightmare on Schuylkill: A first-hand account.” I can tell you first hand exactly how awful that highway is. I’ve lived in the Philadelphia region my entire life, and from the earliest memories of driving on that highway as a passenger with my mom, I can remember her calling it the “Sure Kill”, but I was too young to understand why. Now I know and understand all too well. Planning a Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) route in this area is extremely difficult, let me tell you. My current job has me …


Letter Re: A Learning Exercise with “Get Out of Dodge” Applicability

Dear Jim, I thought I’d relay an exercise I learned from last year. Every year, I do a large historical re-enactment in Pennsylvania. I take two tents totaling 300 square feet, my forge, tools, clothing and gear for a family of four down to a four poster bed, tables, chairs and workbench, plus merchandise to sell. This fills a conversion van with rear seat removed and a standard kit-built trailer. It’s great rehearsal for bugging out. Packing takes about 8 hours. Before I left, I realized the brakes were a little soft. I made a point of leaving lots of …


Two Letters Re: Bug Out Vehicles

Hi Jim, More food for thought, this time regarding vehicles. I’m hoping to someday do some expedition type of travel. This link to Expeditions West discusses and rates a few vehicles best suited for the purpose. These are not necessarily for the purpose of getting the family and supplies out of the city, hauling a huge trailer, but are more intended for long cross country unsupported ‘expedition’ type of travel. If I seriously needed to bug out and hide deep in the Yaak [River Valley of western Montana] for example, my restored 1985 short bed Toyota [pickup] with 235/85/16’s would …


Letter Re: Advice on Survival Retreats and Bug Out Vehicles

Hi Mr Rawles, I saw the letter from someone that was considering an Isuzu Rodeo as a BOV. That is an awful decision. They do not get “30-35 MPG”. (Look up the EPA ratings). They are not reliable, they are cheap because of their poor quality, and parts are rare. If I were buying a BOV (which I’m not, because I’m in college at the moment.) I would aim for a 1997 Ford Explorer with the V-8, which is compatible with the Mustang’s 302 for after-market parts (however, transmissions on the V-8 were upgraded in 1998 because of an issue …


Letter Re: Digitized Data for Your Bug-Out Bag

James: JN is absolutely right about TrueCrypt, it’s an excellent tool. Be aware, however, that you can be compelled to disclose your encryption keys in the UK legally, and you can always be compelled to do so via extra-legal means. If you have any data that you truly wish to keep secret, a good start is to use a second TrueCrypt volume containing important data inside the primary volume which contains data that is less crucial. Regards, – PH


Letter Re: Digitized Data for Your Bug-Out Bag

Sir: Regarding the SD card idea, I have been doing something similar but with a few improvements: 1. Instead of a camera flash card, get a USB keychain drive [also known as “thumb” drive or “jump” drive]. These are cheap, available in at least 4GB [capacity] and are darn near impossible to break. The USB models can be read by nearly any PC or Mac. For encryption, I recommend using True Crypt. This program is free and has been well-tested in the computer security community, as its code and design are open source. One nice thing about this program, is …


Letter Re: Digitized Data for Your Bug-Out Bag

Jim, First, thank you for the work you have done. Your blog site will surely save many lives. Also, thank you for your books. I’ve just started on “Patriots” and am thoroughly enjoying it. I’m very new to ‘long-term’ survival and much of the political and economic machinations that are going on that potentially may lead to SHTF. Living in hurricane country (Florida) I’ve always been better prepared than the average family and I’ve maintained my preps year round due to fears of terrorist attacks and bird flu pandemics. However, I’m completely shocked, horrified actually, about what I’ve learned over …


Letter Re: A Security Contractor’s Convoy Experience in Iraq

Dear Jim, A friend of mine who is a contractor sent this. It’s been posted elsewhere. Foul language warning. – Michael Z. Williamson Info from Iraq From Someone Who is Doing the “Run and Gun“ Yesterday a friend of mine who runs a small security company here in Iraq emailed me. He is standing up a protection detail and wanted my opinion on tactics and equipment running the roads of Iraq; Tactics, SOPs, hard car or soft? I have been giving it some thought and here is where I am at. I am willing to speculate I’m as well traveled …


Letter Re: Peace of Mind Through Systematic Preparedness

Dear James and SurvivalBlog Family: Thank you for this tremendously vital preparedness forum. It has been the direct impetus for me to seriously prepare to survive various natural disasters that could assail the New England area, but more importantly, to be prepared for the inevitable TEOTWAWKI situation, which I expect, we will face within a decade, as soon as the oft-predicted Winter Solstice of 2012–Which still leaves us plenty of time to prepare, if we only make that crucial decision to begin (or to enhance) our preparations and remain steadfast in our intentions to survive whatever may come our way. …


Letter Re: Hawaii-Specific Disaster Preparations

Jim, Greetings from another SurvivalBlog newbie. I discovered your site back in the spring of this year and all I could say then was “Wow! I think I’ve found a home!” I’ve been lurking here ever since. I’d been wandering in the wilderness of flame-filled newsgroups and not-quite-filling-enough survival/self-reliance publications since the days of “Survival Tomorrow”, nearly thirty years ago. Back then, I mostly spent time just collecting information on various survival topics while making only small, half-hearted preparations. At last, here is a site that has revived my slumbering interest in the disaster preparedness movement and inspired my wife …


Letter Re: Surviving Major Changes in the Political Landscape

Jim, I’m a believer in being prepared for the worst. However, how do I (we) survive 4+ years of an extreme left wing political take over of our system? Right now it looks like Hillary or Obama will win the Presidential elections in ’08. With either of those two in and a left wing house and senate, I have to believe that we’re doomed. You have to know that firearms will probably be banned similar to Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Are you going to give up your means of defense? When times get tough and food gets scarce, the …


“Zeroing In” Your Bugout Bag, by SF in Hawaii

Last week my wife told me that another couple had gotten reservations at the cabins at Haleakela State Park for the Labor Day Weekend. We would hike across the crater floor, then down the Kaupo Gap. These are hard to come by and since we were invited, I felt we had to go. Great, a chance to try out my bug out bag. I gave my feet a liberal and prophylactic spraying of anti-fungal medication (a ritual I would end up doing every morning on that trip) and put on my Bug-Out Bag (BOB). Before we left, I unscrewed the …


Letter Re: A Commercial Fueling Network (CFN) Card Lock Account as a Preparedness Measure

Mr. Rawles, I have been considering sending you this note on fuel, so I’ll tag on now. I work for a very large pipeline/oil company and I am in management. My family & I have been in this business for nearly 30 years. I run diesel pickups and use a CFN card as well. The real point I want to share is that when we may no longer get gasoline or diesel fuel, there are hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles around in which fuel can be “obtained” with a hose or pump [in the cited absolute worst case situation.] …


Letter Re: A Commercial Fueling Network (CFN) Card Lock Account as a Preparedness Measure

Sir: I work for a truck company and came up with an idea that may be useful to others out there. We fill our trucks up with diesel at Commercial Fueling Network (CFN). We do this for a couple reasons such as it is more cost effective and low key. From a city survivalist point of view its a great location to acquire fuel in two situations. One would be the natural disaster scenario where one is trying to flee the city only to find that regular stations are out of fuel. At this point they could divert low key …