Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 9, 2020

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July 9, 1956 was the birthday of actor/director/producer Tom Hanks. His acting in the movie Saving Private Ryan is riveting.

And July 9, 1938 was the birthday of actor Brian Dennehy. He is most often remembered for his role as the alien leader in Coccoon and as Sheriff Teasel in Rambo: First Blood, but he was also in the cast of in many other movies and in hundreds of television show episodes.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 89 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.


7 Comments

  1. Some folks remember Dennehy somewhat less than fondly for a different performance that also had a sequel:

    “Dennehy enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, actively serving until 1963. Although he said in numerous interviews that he had spent five years fighting in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, even telling harrowing tales of being hit by shrapnel, it was revealed in the 1998 book Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett that Dennehy had never served overseas at all during his time in the military. Later that year, Dennehy admitted to the tabloid The Globe “I lied about serving in Vietnam and I’m sorry. That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that. I was a peace-time Marine, and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam. I started the story that I had been in ‘Nam, and I got stuck with it. Then I didn’t know how to set the record straight.” Nonetheless, in 2007 Dennehy once again told a reporter that he had served in Vietnam, this time Joanne Kaufman of the Wall Street Journal.”

    https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Brian_Dennehy

  2. The woods are full of wannbes and guys who are neverweres, and as I get older and older, there seem to be more of them coming to see. They didn’t have the guts to get their behinds into Vietnam then, and if they did, they didn’t see any combat, but crave the credit not due. I volunteered for the Army, and Vietnam, as an Infantryman, and so served. Saw some combat, and the Cambodian invasion in ’70. Big deal. Kind of dangerous, but like most of my fellow grunts, came back with some Dengue Fever and a bad attitude about my government. It ain’t stolen valor. It’s showing your yellow streak when you get found out. The total value of my Army service and combat in VN wouldn’t buy a cup of coffee. As per Napoleon, “A soldiers life, is a life of glory. But a dog would not lead it.”

    1. So everyone except the Infantrymen who saw combat is a coward?

      Those Rough Riders whose Unit couldn´t get a ship to Cuba were cowards, those sailors who transported goods to Britain during WWII ´d been cowards(they´d much higher losses)

      Napoleon the guy who used theatrics to motivate his soldiers

      1. For what it’s worth I was in the military for 20 years and during the entire Vietnam war. I only knew one person who wanted to go to Vietnam, everyone else hoped to not go there. The guy who wanted to go was jilted by his girlfriend and joined up to take the most dangerous job he could get. Not exactly a suicide wish but close.

        Having said that almost everyone I knew that served in Vietnam (that’s the past tense) had a more sober and thoughtful opinion of it. Happy they were out but sad for the people they met there and wished that some good could have been done for the people of South Vietnam.

        1. I know of people who volunteered, like the irish deserters during WWII.

          They deserted from the Irish Military to volunteer for the Military of the British Empire, i know of a guy who deserted from the german military to volunteer in a forces fighting against DAESH

  4. Sean,

    Welcome Home, Brother.

    You saw and felt some things over there. You may still carry pain from that time. Yet, here you are, participating. I’m glad you’re alive.

    Carry on, in grace

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