About

About these survival pages:

They contain opinion by myself, the Author, American Patriot.  They contain links to various sites.  Sometimes the links will “die”, the sites will shut down, or simply go dark for no apparent reason.  Every link I personally provide I have checked out myself.  Links you might find in the Comments sections are not necessarily checked personally by me thus I can not guarantee their veracity.

About American Patriot:

He is a 50-something(ish) former military NCO serving for 26 years.  His original weapons training was by the Marines; ie his father, who was a US Marine during the Korean War.  He has been a “shooter” since he was about six.  He has been a trainer, teacher, and has worked with his family for 36 years to develop survival skills in the children and now the grand children, spouses and other family and friends.  He is not an expert in all forms of survival but has some Jack-of-All-Trades knowledge having had to “do it yourself” a few times.

Survival is not taken for granted but actively achieved. A survival mindset is one of the main tools for staying alive.  Knowledge is secondary to having a will to live.  But knowledge will, hands-down, keep you alive if you correctly and with common sense apply that knowledge appropriately.

A bag of tools, shiny weapons, nice knives, packs of food, gallons of water are only going to get you so far when thrown into a survival situation.  While they certainly can and will turn the tide in your favor, give you a leg up on others around you, and perhaps see you through to the end your most important tool is your brain.  Your second most important tool is your will to live.  Finally your third most important tool is knowledge of how to find and purify water, build an impromptu shelter (and a more permanent one later if you’re stuck on the proverbial “Desert Island”) and how to catch and kill animals for food – and to survive against the most dangerous predator on the planet…. Man.

In truth, if you’ve ever read “survival stories” (and you SHOULD) you will realize that 99% of all survival stories start out on a nice day in the park and wind up as a blizzard in the mountains, a floating board in the ocean or a fall down a hole into a cave (or something equally absurd) and none of the “victims” (or Survivors) had a pocket knife to their names.  Therein lies the issue.  Preparation.

Preparation is the one thing you can do for yourself to include education, training on your “tools” and various survival skills to give yourself that “edge” you need against Mother Nature – or predators.

If you learn a few skills, say, how to use a map and compass, how to throw together a shelter for the night, how to locate and clean water, how to start a fire with sticks (and/or your shoelaces) and perhaps how to use a “Rabbit Stick” you give yourself a fighting chance to make it to the next day if you’re suddenly in a bad situation.

Don’t forget, there’s wilderness survival, and there’s “Urban Survival”.

You can mitigate a few problems by carrying some “everyday carry items”, say a simple pocket knife, or perhaps a firearm if possible (some regions deem it illegal….), some simple tools like string or rope, extra clothing and so forth.   If you drive in the city, keep a backpack to get you home if you have to walk.  I keep a bicycle handy these days to get me home, and a walking stick, as well as a backpack with food, water, a knife and a few other handy items.  But I live in a town, travel to the country for work and have a 40+ mile round trip to make.  The family knows this and knows that if communications goes down I’ll get home one way or another.  Might take me a few hours, but I will.  I have alternate communications as well – Amateur Radio for one (in case cell phones cease functioning).

There are so many options we can’t cover them all. These pages are for BASIC information.  Finding water.  Protecting yourself against nuclear war (assuming you’re not at ground zero), finding food, getting home, escaping from bad guys and so forth.  Nothing fancy.  Just basics.  Keep that in mind and as you read, study the simple stuff.  Don’t go for the big, heavy back packs and shiny guns, long knives and super-duper survival kits.

Keep it simple, have a plan, use common sense, use your knowledge and you’ll be fine.

Good Luck