Okay, here is the thread that I was too dumb to find.
I've been a lurker on multiple survival forums for years now. I rarely posted comments on them because, as the saying goes, you learn more from listening (reading) than you do by talking (writing). Besides that, I've witnessed many well meaning noobs finally post a question or comment only to suffer a serious flaming from the "veteran" posters. As if having only a few posts or weeks on a forum means you were born yesterday and have nothing of value to contribute. I joined three weeks ago, read for a few days, subscibed to Jack's podcasts, listened to a few, and immediately joined the Member Support Brigade to get them all. I'm here until someone kicks me out and I've never been kicked out of anything. I want to thank Jack and all the moderators for running a well-disciplined forum that doesn't treat new guys and infrequent posters as children. No one ever treated me that way, but only because I didn't post my opinion.
On this forum, I plan to contribute. Why? Because everybody seems receptive and, having learned a lot from them already, I feel I should return the favor with my humble 2 cents worth occassionally.
I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but I have above-average experience in a few subjects. Some highlights;
I retired from the U.S. Army in 1995. I was a paratrooper recon/LRRP's type for most of my career but, in the Army's infinite wisdom, was assigned as a Platoon Sergeant of a Bradley equipped Scout Platoon with the 3rd ACR in Desert Storm. Jack, I got my JOTC patch in Panama in 1982...remember Black Palm?
Spent seven years with the Knoxville Police Dept in TN. Was also a SWAT team member and instructor for various Officer Survival subjects and Driving.
Tactics Instructor with DOE. Teaching Federal Nuclear Weapons Couriers to protect their precious cargo.
Three years in Iraq with Blackwater. Six months in Fallujah as a driver/team member on a Convoy Escort gig protecting EODT folks while they spun up their own security.
The remainder of the time was on the DSS contract protecting diplomats in and around Baghdad. I rose to the point where I was a member of the Ambassadors Protective Detail for Negroponte (see avatar) and in charge of the entire 67 man detail under Ambassador Khalilzad. Eventually I reached a point where I felt like I was pushing my luck, so I returned stateside to Moyock NC and taught Firearms, Motorcade, PSD, High Performance Driving, Land Nav, etc at Blackwater's Training Center.
Including my time with Blackwater, I have been an Independent Contractor for over six years in both operational assignments and instructor gigs. I still live in East TN and travel to the work I do, sometimes for weeks or months on end.
I am the luckiest guy in the world when it comes to having jobs that were interesting.
One other thing that has not been lucky (unless you consider the fact that I'm still alive being lucky). I have been in deadly force situations where I shot and killed or injured the other guy as a;
a. Civilian (home invasion 1985 - Mossberg 20 ga)
b. Soldier (1991 Bradley 25mm, TOW, 7.62 coax, and 5.56 M16A2)
c. Police Officer (2001 Glock 17)
d. Contractor (2004 no comment)
I hope that anyone who hopes to get into a deadly force situation realizes that it is just that...deadly. Someone usually loses and there are no do overs. I will be happy if I never have to deal with that again. Nor should my children.
I am so glad to finally have a forum that I can read and become a contributing member of. I believe Jack is right when he talks about being prepared for probabilities that are local or regional. I still prep for the zombies and pray that they are vegetarians when they do come.
I'm also writing a survival novel and, being about half done with it, wondered if posting it somewhere on this forum would be okay. In this case, flaming would be acceptable as that is what I seek to improve it.
I do have one question for Jack. With me being, on average, 500 miles away from my family I wonder how to create a bugout plan that works for me. Our BOL is approx 150 miles east of my wife/kids and 350 west of me (crow flies). While I do have my provisions mostly pre-packed at the home, I can't pre-stock the BOL right now because of security concerns. Should I look at getting my hardy, but far over-tasked spouse, to pack the utility trailer to the 4runner, strap in the 4 remaing in-house kids, and negotiate whatever obstacles to meet me at the BOL? Or should I have her bug in until I , and my truck, can get home to help? I realize that this question is situationally dependent, but are there any rules of thumb that you know of?
Sorry for the long post. Thanks!
Goatdog
