Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3) for the Survivalist, by Cowpuncher

The SurvivalBlog thread on wound-clotting agents got me thinking about this subject and its apparent lack of dissemination amongst the “survivalist” community. I decided I would write about it. I know the recent military vets will probably have heard about it, and some (most) will have practiced it. Many will have used it in action.

For the record, I received Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC or TC3) training in the beginning of the program, so any new information I have gleaned since 2002 is based on studying the protocols as presented in the SOF Medical Handbook and the Ranger Medics Handbook that have been published in the last three years. Prior to that, I was combat lifesaver qualified in 1994 and 1996, and received my EMT-I license in 1997 which has since not been renewed. Eventually I intend to get my EMT-P.

The TC3 program began in the late 1990s under the auspices of the U.S. Navy’s Medical Bureau for combat first-aid training for special warfare units like the SEALs. It quickly spread throughout USSOCOM and then to the rest of the military from there.

The TC3 is broken down into three areas, or phases, of care. These are Care Under Fire (CUF), Tactical Field Care (TFC) , and Combat Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) Care. I will discuss the first two, since the third is largely the provence of actual medical doctors and surgeons and is beyond my area of expertise.

1) Care Under Fire

The underlying tenet of the CUF phase is that, if you’re being shot at, your focus should be on killing the enemy, not playing doctor. The only real concerns at this point should be returning effective fire at the ABC-type exam as is usually taught in civilian first-aid courses is not conducive to the continued survival of either the casualty, the medic, or the rest of the unit at this time.

If the casualty is capable of continuing the fight, he should be fighting, not worrying about his boo-boo. It may also be critical for the medic or corpsman to continue to engage the enemy. The following quote, from a doctrinal publication on the subject, refers to this need.

“It may also be necessary for the combat medic or corpsman to help suppress hostile fire before attempting to provide care. This can be especially true in small-unit operations where friendly firepower is limited and every man’s weapon may be needed to prevail.” (Emphasis added-a survivalist group certainly falls under that category!)

If hostile fire is not immediately suppressed, it may be necessary to move the casualty to cover though. One of the critical elements of TC3 training then is the importance of expedient casualty transport.

The Basic Management Plan for Care Under Fire looks like this:

1) Expect the casualty to remain engaged as a combatant if appropriate.

2) Return fire as directed or required.

3) Try to avoid being shot yourself (for the medic/aidman/corpsman)

4) Try to prevent the casualty from sustaining further wounds (move him out of the line of fire if he is unable to do so himself.).

5) Defer worrying about airway management tasks until after the fight. (The risk of the casualty choking to death on his own blood or teeth is significantly less than the risk that he will die if the unit is overrun by the enemy. Worry about killing the enemy first.)

6) Stop any life-threatening hemorrhage. Don’t worry about cuts and scrapes (or flesh wounds—said in best Monty Python voice). All wounds should be dressed with a simple pressure dressing initially (I like the Israeli Battlefield Dressings that are issued). If that is insufficient to stop the blood-loss, then wounds on the torso should have a HemCon agent applied, while wounds to the extremities are treated with a tourniquet.

7) Communicate with the casualty throughout the treatment process. Offer reassurance and encouragement (note to self—“Suck it up p**sy!” is not reassurance or encouragement). Explain the actions you are taking (this serves the double purpose of reassuring the casualty and allowing you to remember the proper course of action without skipping anything critical.).

8) Direct the casualty to return to the fight once treatment is “complete,” if this is possible and/or necessary.

Pretty self-explanatory, right? In the middle of the fight, the only concerns should be, finishing the fight, stopping life-threatening blood-loss, and keeping anyone else from being wounded.

2) Tactical Field Care

The first thing to look for in the Tactical Field Care phase is an altered mental state. An armed combatant with an altered mental state is a serious risk to others in his unit if he should employ the weapon inappropriately (such as mistaking the platoon leader for an enemy soldier/combatant…). He should be disarmed immediately.

Under field conditions, there are four primary causes for an altered mental state. These include Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), pain, shock (possibly from blood-loss or simple emotional shock), and analgesic pain medication.

The Tactical Field Care phase is relegated to situation requiring medical attention, under field conditions, when there is no direct threat from enemy fire. Whether during patrolling missions, in a mission-support site, or following the cessation of hostilities on the battlefield, the Tactical Field Care takes over when the bullets are not flying.

As such, for the survivalist, the Tactical Field Care (TFC) phase will be the most commonly applied medical protocol if the TC3 program is adopted as a group’s standard for medical training (a course of action which I highly recommend).

The Basic Management Plan for the Tactical Field Care Phase

1) Casualties with an altered mental state should be disarmed immediately.

2) Airway Management

a) Unconscious without airway obstruction: (i.e. knocked out)

· Chin-lift or jaw-thrust maneuver as taught in standard first-aid courses

· Nasopharyngeal Airway should be inserted if the chin-lift and jaw-tilt are insufficient. (I have discussed this with both an attorney and a medical doctor. Both have assured me that because NPAs fall under Airway Management and are not surgical procedures that, as long as you have been trained in their application, such use is covered under the “Good Samaritan Laws” of most states. I know it is in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah.)

· Place the casualty in a recovery position, as taught in standard first-aid courses.

b) Conscious or Unconscious Casualty with an airway obstruction or an impending airway obstruction (i.e. he got shot in the jaw or mouth and cannot breath through the mouth, throat is crushed, etc):

· Chin-Lift or Jaw-Thrust maneuver as above.

· Nasopharyngeal Airway as above.

· Place casualty in recovery position as above.

· If these are insufficient, a surgical cricothyroidotomy may be indicated, (using a local anesthetic such as lidocaine, if the casualty is conscious). This would fall under the category of a surgical procedure and would not be protected under the “Good Samaritan Laws” even if you received specific training on it during a military TC3 course of instruction. As such, I cannot recommend it as a course of action for survivalists in any but TEOTWAWKI-type situations. However, I will tell you that if it were someone I cared about, in the sort of environment I am typically in, such as 90 miles from town, down a snow-covered gravel or dirt road, and I knew that a surgical “cric” was going to save their life….I’d do the cric. That having been said though, I’ve had numerous classes on the procedure and know how. I would still feel uncomfortable though.

3) Breathing

· Be aware of the risk of a tension pnuemothorax if the casualty has suffered from a trauma injury to the torso and is in respiratory distress. If a tension pneumothorax occurs, treat with a needle thoracostomy, also known as a “chest punch,” (No, it does not involve striking the casualty with your closed fist.)This also involves a surgical procedure and is not protected under the “Good Samaritan Law” even if you received proper formal training during a military TC3 course. The same issues apply to it (across the board) as to the surgical cric.

· Treat sucking chest wounds with a Vaseline-treated gauze dressing, covered with tape. Place the casualty in a seated position and monitor for tension pneumothorax.

4) Bleeding

· Assess the casualty for previously undiscovered hemorrhage and treat any unresolved bleeding injuries.

· Assess for the discontinuation of tourniquet treatments following the application of a HemCon agent and/or pressure dressings.

5) Intravenous Therapy

· Start an 18-gauge IV/saline lock if indicated.

6) Fluid Resuscitation

· Assess for hemorrhagic shock ( altered mental state in the absence of a head injury, and/or weak or absent peripheral pulse along the radial artery are the best field expedient indicators of hemorrhagic shock).

a) If the casualty does not appear to be in shock, no IV fluid resuscitation is indicated. Instead, provide fluids orally if thirst is indicated by the patient.

b) If the casualty is in shock, the .mil response is a 500mL bolus of Hextend, then repeat after 30 minutes if the casualty is still in shock. The doctrinal literature indicates that you should not provide more than 1000mL of Hextend under field conditions. For the survivalist unable to procure Hextend, saline solution or a lactated Ringer’s solution may be an adequate alternative, since both were used prior to the introduction of Hextend into the military care program.

· Continued efforts towards fluid resuscitation must be considered in light of the logistical and tactical concerns of the risk of further casualties when continuing the mission. In other words, don’t waste IV fluid if you don’t think you’re going to be able to save the casualty, because you might need them later for someone who can be saved!

· If a casualty with TBI has no peripheral pulse (but does display a carotid pulse), resuscitate with IV fluids to restore the peripheral pulse.

7) Dress all known wounds with appropriate bandaging. This is an opportunity to remove HemCon agents and/or pressure dressings and tourniquets, in order to care for the wounds with more reliable semi-permanent dressings that may be required to stay in place for an extended duration. Check for additional, previously undiscovered wounds and injuries at this time as well.

8) Provide analgesia pain relief as necessary and available. (Note: providing medication to someone is called “practicing medicine without a license.” It is severely frowned upon by the medical professions, the court systems, and if you do so, you may be setting yourself up for serious legal problems, including imprisonment. Forewarned is forearmed. It may also be frowned upon by the casualty if you provide the wrong medication and they die from it, just sayin’…)

a) If the casualty is capable of continuing the mission and/or fight, the doctrinal response (in my literature, it may have changed recently, do your research) is 50mg of Rofecoxib by mouth and 1000mg of Acetaminophen by mouth, every six hours. Since I do not have access to Rofecoxib, I have discussed the issue with several Special Forces Medics, two SF-qualified physician’s assistants, and three civilian medical doctors. Their unanimous response was, “Give them the Acetaminophen and a couple shots of whiskey. It’ll do.” Thus, my non-TEOTWAWKI solution is just that. Be forewarned however, that alcohol will thin the blood, so individuals with significant blood loss should be provided whiskey only under the strictest of circumstances, if at all. In a TEOTWAWKI-type scenario, I believe I MAY be able to procure Rofecoxib or a similar suitable analgesic if I move quickly and surely.

b) If the casualty is unable to continue the mission, the doctrinal answer for the .mil is to provide 5mg of morphine intravenously, and reassess in ten minutes. Continue providing the same dose every 10 minutes, as necessary to control pain, until the casualty is exfiltrated. Assess for respiratory distress . Treat further with Promethazine, 25mg intravenously or intramuscularly, very four hours. Since there is no way in Hell I can legally procure morphine, I am currently unequipped to provide this portion of care. Should TEOTWAWKI occur, I will either procure morphine immediately, from a pharmacy, or I will procure a similar opium-based product that is regularly available in this country without a medical license (yes, I’m talking about heroin, which will probably still be available…) Please note that I am not, in any way, shape, or form, advocating armed robbery of a pharmacy, even in TEOTWAWKI. I know of three or four licensed pharmacists that have assured me, in the event of a TEOTWAWKI-type of collapse, they would much rather provide me the pharmaceuticals I need/want than have them fall into the hands of recreational drug addicts. The discussion of possible barter, should that occur has already taken place.

9) Splint any fractured bones and recheck pulse. Pretty self-explanatory, although I will note the following. While I do have the knowledge and equipment to improvise splints in the event of a severe medical emergency, my aid bag contains several (five at last inspection) SAM splints. These are a valuable tool that I recommend every survivalist include in their aid bag. It beats the holy living hell out of trying to scrounge up an improvised, field-expedient solution in the midst of an emergency.

10) Prophylactic antibiotic treatment is recommended for all open combat wounds. Even if your bandages and dressings are sterile, I can assure you, neither the surface of the casualties skin, his clothing, or the injury-causing instrument were sterile. Treat any open wounds as infected.

· The latest manuscript I have that recommends a specific antibiotic, indicates Gatifoxacin by mouth (400mg daily).

· If the casualty is unable to take the Gatifoxacin orally, the doctrine calls for a slow push over the course of 3-4 minutes of 2g of cefotetan intravenously, or intramuscularly. Again, I don’t currently have access to these, and disbursing medicine is practicing medicine without a license. However, I have in the past, treated myself with prophylactic antibiotic, using Penicillin G intramuscularly with no ill effects. There is a long history of self-aid amongst agricultural workers in the U.S. using medications packaged for veterinary supply. That may be a reliable source of antibiotics for survivalists, as Ragnar Benson points out in several of his books, including “The Survivalist’s Medicine Chest” and “Do-It-Yourself Medicine.” If this is a course of action you choose to follow, make sure you do your research prior to needing to apply it! For instance, LA-200 is a common antibiotic provided to cattle intramuscularly. Unfortunately, it is an oil-based medication and has been known to cause severe side-effects in humans…So, know your meds and know what you are providing!

11) Communicate with the Patient. The same principles apply regarding this as in the CUF phase. Talk your way through every thing you do. It will assist you in getting it right.

12) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. I suggest that everyone should complete an updated CPR program, as provided by the American Heart Association and/or the American Red Cross. You are far more likely to utilize your medical aid training and knowledge during run-of-the-mill daily activities than you are to provide the TC3 level of care. That having been said, I feel obligated to include the last bit of information in my literature regarding CPR. “Resuscitation on the battlefield for victims of blast or penetrating trauma who have no pulse, no ventilations, and no other signs of life will not be successful and should not be attempted.” While this does not exempt you from the moral obligation to provide aid in daily life, pre-WTSHTF, it may be sensible to consider the implications of that statement when dealing with triage during major accidents and calamities, such as multiple vehicle accidents and/or terrorist attacks/active shooter situations.

For survivalists interested in further TC3 training, several of the major shooting schools, such as Tactical Response and Gunsite (I believe), offer Tactical Medicine courses for non-medical personnel, which rely heavily on the TC3 protocols.

For those interested in developing or purchasing a TC3-type aid bag or blow-out kit, there are several companies manufacturing them. I am personally fond of Tactical Response Gear’s Ventilated

Economics and Investing:

Chad S. spotted this: Lower home appraisals appear to be up; Deals get killed as foreclosures, short sales make valuing property difficult. JWR’s Comment: The continuing waves of house foreclosures are bound to ratchet down both sales prices and in turn assessed valuations. This will lead to more state budget crises. The bottom line: If they can’t raise your home’ assessed value, then they’ll raise property tax tax rates. A corollary exists with income taxes. As more people lose their jobs or have their payroll hours cut back, then states will be forced to raise income tax rates. The 50 states will balance their budgets, because unlike the Federal government, they can’t create money out of thin air! To delay taxation, shelter your assets in tangibles. On a related note, MM sent this:
Montana’s big sky views become bigger tax burdens. The lesson here: Avoid living in a “resort” county with over-priced property!

Reader Keith B. sent a link to a news article that should serve as a warning flag: U.S. Treasuries Post Worst Performance Among Sovereign Markets

GG flagged this: “Mystery buyers” take $500 billion of Treasuries. Who do they think they’re fooling?

Items from The Economatrix:

Iceland bank deal increases national debt by 40% of GDP to 130%

2009 Bankruptcies Total 1.4 Million, Up 32%

Manufacturing Reports Bolsters Hopes for Recovery

Global Bear Rally of 2009 Will End as Japan’s Hyperinflation Rips Economy to Pieces

Bernanke Insists the Financial Crisis Was Not The Fed’s Fault

Odds ‘n Sods:

Panic room saved artist Kurt Westergaard from Islamist assassin. (Mentioned by numerous blog readers.) Every home and retreat should have a stout room that can be a place of temporary refuge against home invasions.

   o o o

Dale W. was the first of several readers to mention this: Court upholds police pointing gun at lawful carrier. [JWR Adds: This is a bad legal precedent, but the main underlying problem is prevailing attitudes. If you don’t live in a region where open carry is legal, and where concealed carry is considered normal, then you are living in the wrong state–or perhaps in an over-populated part of an otherwise good state. Vote with your feet!]

   o o o

JK recommended this piece over at Market Skeptics: 2010 Food Crisis for Dummies

   o o o

Rustlers ride wide open range of Great Basin. (Thanks to G.S. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." – U. S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, in the Public Utilities Commission v. Pollack decision, 1952

Note from JWR:

I post one and only one formal reminder announcement each year about renewing Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions and this is it. I don’t do endless whiney PBS-style pledge drives.

My sincere thanks to the less than 1% of SurvivalBlog readers that have made voluntary subscription contributions to cover our bandwidth costs, and to keep SurvivalBlog running. (The alternative would be me shutting down the blog and going back to a salaried corporate technical writing job, so I am very appreciative of your contributions!)

By the way, if you are a “Secret Squirrel” type, then you can send cash or postage stamps (preferably “Forever” Liberty Bell postage stamps) to:

James Wesley, Rawles
P.O. Box 303
Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845-0303 USA

If you send your donation in cash, then please round down to $36, or round up to $37. If you send $36.50 including two quarters, then the postal service will charge you an extra 72 cents for having an overweight “non-machine sortable” envelope! Oh, and if you do send cash, be sure to wrap it in paper so that it cannot be seen through the envelope. Thanks!

Letter Re: The Bosnian Experience, Part 2

Sir:
The next thing that I would like to cover is mode of transportation. When the society collapses more likely you will have to leave your home. Having a 4×4 vehicle that is equipped with everything that you need to survive would be everyone’s choice for travel but that sometimes might not be possible. In the broken society there is no law. Everyone and everybody is a target. Traveling in the vehicle on the road or off the road is extremely risky. First, vehicles make noise and everyone can hear you. Second, vehicles are big and they can be seen. It is just way too hard to travel in the vehicle and not to be spotted. In a vehicle you will be ambushed by groups and the individuals. One of the reasons for this is that there will not be enough gas and just you traveling in the vehicle will make everybody think that you are a rich target and you will be attacked. If you plan on traveling long distances, you will be ambushed and if you might survive one or two ambushes but you will not be able to survive every ambush that you might encounter. Like I mentioned before, when the society collapses, there are no laws and everyone makes their own laws any way they like it. In Bosnia there were armed individuals and groups that would shoot at the vehicles just for fun to see how quick they can stop it and trust me, two M53s (Yugo version of German MG-42 light machineguns) supported with several AKs will stop most of the civilian vehicles very quickly. Traveling in the vehicle would be easiest way, but this might be putting yours and your family lives in danger but when the times comes, every individuals will have to decide for themselves on how they will travel and they will not have a lot of time to make this decision, so plan ahead.

My preferred method to travel was on horseback. The horse is quiet and it can go across terrain that not even 4×4 can. The horses also don’t require you to carry around jugs of spare gasoline since their food grows all around you. I would also recommend traveling on the horse back in the area that is covered with anti-personnel mines (minefields). Believe it or not, horses are extremely smart animals and sometimes they know where not to step. If your horse does step on a mine, you have a lot more chance to survive since his body will create some buffer between you and the blast and might give you another chance. The horse will also hear way before you any movement or any signs of life and if you know your horse, you will be able to read these early warning signals.

Since I am talking about animals, next thing that I would like to cover is food that they provide. While I was on the move, I was never long enough in one spot to grow a garden, but catching an animal for meal was another story. Good part of Bosnia is mountainous and wooded area, and there was some wild life to hunt at beginning but later on, this has changed and it was harder and harder to find wild life. First thing that I would like to recommend is to have some kind of small caliber weapon for taking small game. Shooting a small rabbit with 8 mm Mauser does not leave you a lot of meat to eat. Also learn to set traps for small animals. In certain parts you could hunt with your firearms but then you might be somewhere where you can’t shoot since you don’t know where exactly you are or what is around you. Another thing that you should learn is how to field dress an animal. I understand that a lot of people hunt and know how to do this but there are also people who have never hunted or seen an animal be field dressed and just seeing this might make them sick. Another reason for knowing how to field dress and animal is that you want to get maximum amount of food from it. You might not get to many chances to take an animal and when you do use everything from it that can be used.

Clothing
The next thing that I want to cover is clothing that you wear. Most of survival oriented people, including myself, would wear some kind of military camouflage uniforms for several good reasons. Some of the reasons are durability, most of the military uniforms are quality made and will outlast a lot of civilian clothing. Pockets to store things since uniforms have a lot of them in the right places. Blending in with natural backgrounds, since military uniforms are not made out of colors that stick out. Recognition of other members of your group by having all of the group members wearing same camouflage pattern. If you will wear military type of uniform, make sure that you have some civilian clothing with you as well. If you are captured by military, militia, armed renegades or anyone else, you will be treated as a combatant just because of the military clothing that you are wearing. Even if you are not armed it won’t help you out. I have personally witnessed a young man pay dearly just because he was wearing old Yugoslavian Army boots. The mentality of you enemy might be that you are a combatant if you show any interested in military equipment. So, if you are wearing military clothing be ready to lose it quickly and change in to something else. If you are captured in the middle of nowhere with any kind of uniform on and no other clothes to change in to, that could be bad for your health.

Another thing that I want to cover is one of the important pieces of your equipment, and that is flashlight. I had a low quality flashlight (I though it was good because there was nothing better on the market) and it died on me the first time it got wet. In the USA there is unlimited number of good quality flashlights so if you are going to have a flashlight make sure that you have a good one. And have backup one as well. Flashlight is a must have item and the cheap one will not last you long. This is true with any other equipment. I understand that times are hard and money is the issue for a lot of people but buying quality equipment will probably save you money in the long run since this equipment will usually last for the long time. One thing that I really wish I had was night vision device. Most people know the area that they live in and can move around that area in the middle of night without any problems, but when you end up in the different part of the country, and you can’t orient your self and is middle of the night, this can become challenging. Night vision would be tremendous help.

Although I previously mentioned bartering with ammunition, one other thing that I would like to mention to have for trading is cigarettes. I did not even think about this before things went bad but I was lucky to have a grandmother who smoked two packs a day and she always had several cartons of cigarettes stored. The smokers become so desperate that they will give you almost anything for a cigarette. I have see people in prison and refugee camps become so desperate that they would pick every leaf of all the trees in the yards, dried them, wrap them in the old news paper and smoke them. A lot of people got sick of this since they were smoking everything they could find.

The one topic that I would like to cover last and I think that this is one of the most important topics is what happens if you are captured prisoner. Humans are some of the worst animals and will commit atrocities that are far worst that any wild beast could do. And the worst part about this is that humans will do it for no good reason and that they will find humor in at while they are torturing someone. Animals kill because they are in fear, protecting their families or hunt for food but we, humans, are the ones that will do it for no good reason. I was captured as a prisoner and have promised to my self that if I survive I will never become a prisoner in a society with no laws again. After the war I have moved to USA and since then have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Balkans both as a soldier with elite unit of US Army and as a private contractor and during my deployments I did not know if I will survive the deployments but I did know that I will never again be captured. This is something that every individual needs to think about. If society collapses and you are captured, you will be at the mercy of your captors, who might not have any mercy. There wont be laws and rights to protect you and nobody will be there that you can call for help or complain to. I hope that I was able to provide at least some useful information for the readers and gave them some ideas. Keep your powder dry. – The Bosnian Survivor

Letter Re: Well, Well–An Amazing Find

Dear Mr. Rawles:
I have owned my retreat for some years and as unbelievable as it may sound, I found a water well that I didn’t know I had. When I bought the land in the 1990s, I knew that there had been an old house there at one time, but assumed that they had either used a cistern, or drew water from the stream that runs through the property. However, I found the well. It had an old Gould’s 1HP pump at the end of 120 ft. of 2″ galvanized pipe. The well had been capped for years, or so it looked when I opened it. Incidentally, there is water at about 60 ft. down. There is no record at the county [offices], nor with the local water management board, for this well. I do not intend to report this find either. They know about the well I drilled a few years ago when we

A question: How can I best develop this well for use and still maintain strict OPSEC? My retreat is shielded from a county road by a large grove of trees, so from the road nobody sees anything, not the house, the barn or anything! The well is about a half mile from the county road in a grove of trees.

One bit of advice: Recruit a veterinarian, physician or even a dentist into your Group if at all possible. They are out there, and are not all of us Liberal Socialists.

Regards, – Robert F., MD

JWR Replies: Congratulations on your find! If you use a poly service line, you can install a well pump by yourself. (The pipe is flexible and fairly lightweight. Since the prices of photovoltaic panels have dropped dramatically in the past two years, you should probably go ahead and put in a PV system, with inverter, to power an AC well pump. (The line loss for a DC well pump hanging at 100 feet would be tremendous.) Bob at Ready Made Resources (one of our advertisers) does free-of-charge consulting on alternative power system specifications. They can let you know how many panels you’ll need, the inverter specifications, et cetera. If you install cistern for gravity flow to your house, you can even install a PV system without any batteries, that is simplicity itself: when there is sun it pumps, and when there isn’t, it doesn’t. (A float switch will stop the pump whenever the cistern is full.)

Letter Re: Using Unusual Camouflage to Deter Burglars

Mr. Rawles:
What I’m about to write about really happened.

In 2003 I had an apartment that got broken into when I was at work. At the time I did not own much at the time and had very few valuables. After much thought and not coming up with any unique hiding places, I decided to keep my Beretta pistol, credit cards, cash, checks and so forth in an old liquor box with a pile of “old but clean” underwear on top of the box. The plan worked. My apartment was ransacked and you guessed it, the only box not touched was the one with the old clean underwear on top on the box. (I only had some prescription medication and $30 in spare change stolen) I do not mean to sound disgusting, but I used the old and clean underwear to clean my pistol with so that there were stains on them, and that just amplified the effect.

If anyone wishes to try this unorthodox operational security technique, I recommend using old school white Hanes Briefs. clean your guns with the underwear too. (it will also discourage friends from wanting to shoot your guns also) Keep the label on the underwear facing outward so its more noticeable.

I have a house now with a monitored security system, reinforced locks and some other modifications including hurricane shutters to discourage and slow down intruders. I have to admit, my brand new Kimber 1911 .45 that I keep near my bed has a couple of pairs of underwear on it just in case my security is breached. – Somewhere on the Gulf Coast

Influenza Pandemic Update:

Ukraine Fatalities Spike to 675

News from China: Survey helps to combat H1N1 spread

WHO: Public health significance of H1N1 mutations unclear

2009-2010 Influenza Season–Most recent synopsis

Economics and Investing:

From G.G.: China provides 97 percent of the global supplies of rare earth elements, most coming from a single mine in Inner Mongolia

I spotted this over at the Dr. Housing Bubble blog: Unlocking the Foreclosure Box – The Most Comprehensive Shadow Inventory Housing Analysis for Los Angeles County.

Items from The Economatrix:

Taxpayers Hit Harder as Bank Shares Nosedive

20 Million+ in US Got Unemployment Checks in 2009

Washington Times Slashes Staff 40%

US Stocks Drop as Crisis Causes S&P 500’s First Decade Loss

US Dollar and Treasury Bonds at Risk Following Fannie and Freddie Debt Monetization

A Year on From Financial System Collapse: Something is Not Quite Right

Gary North: How to Protest Against the Big Bailed Out Bankster Run Banks

Letter Re: More About Post-SHTF Anesthetic Medicine Options

Introductory Note from JWR: Warning! The following article is presented for educational purposes only. As previously discussed in SurvivalBlog, using vinyl ether or chloroform for anesthesia can be very tricky. Both can induce deep levels of sedation much more quickly than desired. Thus, at a minimum can can compromise the patient’s airway, and thereby very possibly kill the patient. So unless you have both the equipment and the regularly-practiced expertise to safely intubate and extubate your patient, then do not use vinyl ether or chloroform. Chloroform is also a known carcinogen. Generally, local anesthetics are the best choices for austere medicine! You should only consider using a general anesthetic when there are absolutely no other options, and when aid from trained medical professionals is absolutely unavailable!

Merry Christmas Jim,
I’d like to add something to your knowledge concerning “do it yourself anesthetics”: chloroform.

Be advised: chloroform is carcinogenic and should only be used if no safer alternatives (including no sedation and no operation) are available. Synthesis should only be carried out with regard to proper safety procedures (ventilation, eye protection, …) and consideration for any pertinent laws. I am not a doctor, I do not have any formal medical training. I do however hold a degree in chemistry, I have synthesized chloroform and used it to carry out extractions of organic compounds.

Chloroform has long been used as an anesthetic as well as being a common chemical in many laboratories. It went out of use in medical practice as its carcinogenic nature became known. Yes, this stuff will increase your risk of contracting cancer and should only be used after due consideration. The decision to go ahead and use this on an elderly person will be taken differently than when dealing with a youth for
instance.

Production
I am not a doctor, I will not advise you on how to use chloroform. I will however teach you how to manufacture it. The easiest way to manufacture chloroform is by reacting a methyl ketone with chlorine dissolved in an aqueous environment. In plain English: by mixing bleach with acetone. “Bleach” being any plain hypochlorite bleach solution, will react with acetone and form Acetic acid and chloroform. Chloroform will separate from the solution and float on top. (Theoretically, methyl ethyl ketone [aka 2-Butanone; ethyl methyl ketone, or MEK] could be used instead of acetone, I have no experience with this)

The purest product can be obtained by taking a small amount of bleach and slowly (while stirring) adding drops of acetone in solution until no more chloroform forms. (this minimizes the loss of acetone through evaporation which poses a potential fire hazard) The top layer can be off quite well, but it will be difficult to get every drop without spilling some concentrated acetic acid over as well. A better separation can be accomplished with a separatory funnel, if available.

The amount of each chemical can be difficult to calculate in advance as the purity/concentration of bleach is not a constant, if it is even accurately labeled. There are differences between sodium- ,potassium-and calcium hypochlorite to take into account. You need (ideal ratios) 3.8 grams of sodium hypochlorite bleach for every gram of acetone, or 30 grams per 10 ml of acetone, this would yield roughly 5 ml of chloroform. You will need a sizable amount of bleach to produce enough chloroform to keep someone sedated for any period of time.

The produced chloroform should be washed with water to flush out as much bleach and acetic acid as possible. Mix chloroform with half its volume of water, stir well and pour off the water. Do this twice and your chloroform is ready for storage or use.

“A text-book of practical organic chemistry” by Vogel Lists a more advanced method of producing Chloroform. A web search on “Vogel chemistry” should allow you to review the book in .pdf format on one of the many sites which host it. I would wholeheartedly advise a couple of decent chemistry books in every survival library (aseptics, medication, explosives, glue, dye, … your modern life is supported by practical chemistry, do you know anything about it?)

Uses
Chloroform can be used as an anesthetic by a qualified anesthesiologist. In addition, it may be used as a recreational drug by those truly daft or already dying and therefore may qualify as bartering tender.
A far better use is its use as an apolar solvent. Ether can be used to extract organic compounds from biological matter. For example: the aroma’s from flowers, natural dyes and alkaloïds. (Alkaloïds including the active compounds from narcotic and/or medicinal plants.) Generally, the chloroform is distilled off after the extraction is complete, preferably under vacuum to preserve the extracted compound.

The acetic acid can be purified by boiling off any remaining acetone and most water. There may be small amounts of bleach present. This concentrated acetic acid can be diluted to make strong vinegar. I suppose this vinegar may be useful as a cleaning agent. I doubt it could be considered food safe and useful for food preservation or preparation. Dehydration to yield acetic anhydride would be a chemists preferred destination, but is highly illegal under current drug precursor regulations.

Hazards
(The following is not an exhaustive list of the hazards associated with chloroform)
Chloroform is carcinogenic and contact should be avoided! Do not inhale the fumes or ingest, avoid skin contact.
Chloroform is relatively fire-safe, making it suited for many extractions as it can be distilled off (though presently largely replaced by alternatives)

Storage
Chloroform must be kept away from light, ideally in an amber glass bottle in a cool room not prone to extreme temperature shifts.

I’d also a bit on chloral hydrate as well, but aside from me not having any practical experience with its synthesis, that sort of information may attract the wrong kind of attention (criminals as well as those who hunt them). Still, if you need a powerful sleeping aid post SHTF, any “lab” chemist should be able to synthesize some for you if you bring alcohol, sulphuric acid, salt and a source of electricity or hypochlorite powder. Happy new year and many a year after! – Hawkins

Four Letters Re: Preparedness for Digital Doomsday

Hello Mr. Rawles,
The article by David W. on data storage raised excellent points, and is sure to get people thinking about an often-overlooked subject..

For the prepper on a budget, there are a number of avenues to secure your data that won’t break the bank. While it may be impractical to have several NEW laptops in your stash of supplies, there are plenty of good, used laptops available that will fit the bill nicely. You don’t need a powerhouse just to read your survival documents, and having one or more spares means fewer eggs in one basket. I’ll focus on laptops as the item to stock, due to their low power consumption and compact size. A laptop is a lot more practical to shield against EMP and store compared to a desktop PC, so you are more likely to accomplish the task.

When you purchase your used laptop, have your computer friend (you have one, right?) perform a clean install of your favorite Operating System after wiping the hard drive, to ensure you have a clean system. Apply all the updates, and install a standard set of programs. My standard “laptop for storage” installation has the free OpenOffice suite for word processing and spreadsheet documents, and the free utilities Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader for PDFs. You might find that your computer friend is open to barter, thus minimizing a potentially expensive activity. I would personally fall over myself to help someone for a fresh Pumpkin Pie or six pack of quality Root Beer.

Once the machine is set up for general use, store it away in EMP-proof packaging as discussed previously on SurvivalBlog.

You may wish to save all of your data, as David W. proposed using several excellent methods. In the case of just storing a laptop to review your survival information, you might get away with just using USB memory sticks, a.k.a. Flash Drives. These will also receive the EMP protection treatment. The storage method you choose will be determined by the amount of space your files take up. If you are just storing a copy of all your SHTF reference documents (saved in PDF form for portability) you might only need a 4 or 8 Gigabyte flash drive per stored laptop. Flash drives are inexpensive enough that you could keep extras in your bug out bags, vehicle, cache, key chain, and retreat. Redundancy is important here too. You can have five copies of your docs at home, and if your house burns down, there goes all your data. Mail flash drive copies of your survival docs to friends or family members for your own safekeeping, as well as quietly providing others with vital information if the SHTF.

If your plans include bugging out or having another secure location in case your retreat is overrun, having a stored laptop with all your reference material could be a lifesaving decision. A copy of your critical reference docs on a key chain might be just as useful as a multi-tool in the right circumstances. Remember, half of knowledge is knowing where to find knowledge. – J.T.C.

Dear James,
Thank you for posting David W’s article “Preparing for Digital Doomsday”. There are two important issues which need to be added to the topic.

1. Conventional hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape all suffer from the same vulnerability — they will lose their data over time even under the best of circumstances. This isn’t a manufacturing defect but
physics. All of these media record data by forcing the microscopic magnetic domains to line up in one of two orientations to signify a ‘1’ or a ‘0’.

Over time, these microscopic domains become randomized through entropy. When this happens, the data is lost. In the case of a hard disk, this is delayed by the data being re-written after it is read. However, if the computer is not used and the data is not re-written, even the data on a hard disk will eventually be lost.

2. It was report a few years back that a large store of information that NASA had gathered from early space probes was “lost” because they no longer had the machines to read the old tapes. The tape machines used to read and write the tapes had become obsolete and were scrapped. No one had given a thought to the data created with these machines, and there no longer exists any off-the-shelf solution for reading them.

Solutions:
The magnetic media problem can be easily solved by using write once CD-ROMs or DVDs. They are simple, cheap, and do not suffer from the magnetic domain problem. The downside to CDs/DVDs is the second issue: will there be machines later that can read them? The only way to address that problem is to keep aware of changing technology and the quantity of data that must be retained. When there is a new, non-magnetic technology, you will need to upgrade and transfer all of the data you need to keep. Best Regards, – Bear in the Sierra

 

Sir:
A couple of minor points:

Netbooks: cost comparative to laptops, and they have a long battery life (lower power CPUs). I’ve not tried, but they could probably be maintained with a photovoltaic panel. There is a wee one with the
[PV] panel built in. Netbooks are about half the footprint of a typical laptop. Consider using SD chips for small form-factor storage.

Archiving the blog: Are you accounting for the noise ratio? I mean, it’s a great site, but not everything written is required. 🙂

I’m putting together a family album using Lulu Press this year. I took the first eight years of marriage and three kids and putting the best shots. That should make for a rugged alternative to ye olde photo
album.

Also consider the options shown here. – Ben

 

James Wesley:
This was a very good article to get people thinking about their digital security preparedness. A couple of other thoughts. Assuming power goes down, the internet will also go down with it. Local backups will be imperative, as anything you have stored remote via network will not be accessible. In the event of EMP, any local computers, hard drives and disc readers (i.e. CD-ROM or DVD) will be at risk, as well. The best backup will be on archival CD-ROM and DVD. These are impervious to EMP and remote access problems. Archival means what it says; these are special discs designed with a gold backing, the CDs should last up to 300 years, the DVDs up to 100 years. The cheaper aluminum discs you buy in bulk at your local electronics store will not last anywhere near as long (i.e. 3-10 years).

If you have valuable digital items that are irreplaceable, i.e. family photos, documents or business records, they should be archived regularly. You should keep multiple sets of back ups and store them off site or in secure, fire and water proof underground storage. Just as you would “cache” supplies in different places, you should cache your data. I send discs with non-confidential data to my relatives in 3 or 4 places around the country — this increases the odds of survival of the data.

Be very careful when you handle the discs, as finger prints, labels and non-archival marking pens can damage the surface. Note: the shiny back of the disc is where the data is written. The clear side is thick to prevent scratches from obscuring the data because the laser focuses at the back where the pits are written, not on the surface that can be scratched. Other than handling by the edges or center hole, discs should be stored in Tyvek sleeves or a jewel case in a cool (40-68F) environment. I recommend waterproof storage boxes, as well.

At some point after TSHTF, the consumers and businesses that remain will want to be able to read these 12 centimeter standard discs, so there is a very good chance you will be able to obtain a way to read them. – CK

Economics and Investing:

GG sent an article link which will not be a news flash to SurvivalBlog readers: What Americans might face next: inflation

CNN: Three reasons home prices are headed still lower. (Thanks to FG for the link.)

Monroe sent us this: Death and Taxes: 2010 Graph of Federal Budget. Monroe’s comment: “Not for the faint of heart… but then if you aren’t using real money…!”

Items from The Economatrix:

US Economic Disaster Worse than Weimar or Zimbabwe
Cities, Counties Take Back Corporate Tax Breaks

China Becomes World’s Biggest Gold Buyer in 2009

Eurozone Credit Contraction Accelerates

The Economic “Experts” Who Stopped Making Sense

Banks Accused of Profiteering in 2009

Odds ‘n Sods:

Bobbi-Sue sent a link to some crunch leading indicators with individual and regional railroads in accessible graphs.

   o o o

GPS-led travel goes amiss; Three Oregon parties rescued

   o o o

Super C. sent a link to some informative text and video about about unexpected immersion in cold water.

   o o o

Reader Mike O. sent us this: Packing Heat in Helsinki; Why do Finns own so many guns? This piece in the liberally-biased Slate, fails to mention several key facts. Among these: 1.) Although firearms ownership is widespread in Finland, its violent street crime rate is lower than in almost “gun-free” England. 2.) The journalist attributes the predominance of gun ownership to the hunting culture. This is partially true, but they failed to mention that many Finns consider private gun ownership “invasion insurance.” I guess the Slate writer never heard about the Winter War, and 3.) The two mass shootings that he mentioned were aberrations. Finns are largely peaceable folk. And whether the folks at Slate want to admit it or not, being well-armed helps keep their society peaceable.