PAMAX Tactical LION: Civilian Flashbang Candidate

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When looking at the continuum of force options available to civilians, as opposed to those used by armed professionals in law enforcement and military service, there’s a small but glaring gap in available technology. They’re known by a slew of monikers like flashbangs, NFDDs (Noise and Flash Distraction Devices), concussion grenades, stun grenades, crashers, or bangers. No matter what you call them, the operating principle is the same: a hand-thrown “grenade” type device with a short time-delay fuse that emits a loud bang and blinding flash of light for the purpose of distracting or disorienting anyone in the immediate vicinity. This allows an attacker (or defender) to expand their OODA loop by disrupting their opponent’s, buying valuable time to attack, counterattack, or escape.

The first known example we could find of a device like this is the military-issue Mark 3 (MK3) concussion/demolition grenade. The design dates back to 1918 and was effective in trench warfare. The original concept was that the MK3 could injure or disorient personnel and destroy equipment without endangering friendly forces with indiscriminate fragmentation. It was simply a lump of TNT housed in a cardboard tube with a pull-ring fuse. 

From there, the design was refined over time, with the next major milestone coming out of the UK in the late 1970s, when the so-called stun grenade first saw use by the Counterterrorist Wing of the British Special Air Service (SAS). Stun grenades typically consist of a steel body with holes cut throughout, which then has a more specialized charge of aluminum or magnesium oxide blended with something like potassium perchlorate to achieve a high-flash detonation. Newer versions of this design feature heavy-duty bodies that can be recovered and reloaded with fresh charges for repeat use. 

PAMAX Tactical LION useAbove: The PAMAX Tactical LION is designed such that even dropping it right at your feet poses no risk of frag or direct injury. Just make sure you’ve got eyes and ears on.

The issue that arises with all of these designs is that they rely on high-explosives, which are highly regulated by the BATFE. Civilian possession is extremely limited and comes with a whole host of required boxes to check, including specialized transportation and storage requirements.

These regulations, coupled with a “civilians don’t need this” perception of such devices, have made them essentially impossible to possess for anyone without agency or unit credentials. But a small company called PAMAX Tactical has come up with a solution that overcomes the legal hurdles, and has allowed us to more deeply ponder the question of “need” and application for lay persons in a defensive context. They’ve named their solution the LION BFD – Low Impact Ordnance Non-lethal, Blank Firing Device.

HOW IT WORKS

The PAMAX Tactical LION consists of a two-part design with a body and detachable base, of which there are two variants. The commercially available version uses a machined aluminum body and base. The body has a weighted, free-floating firing pin and a pull-ring safety block. Inserting the pin physically blocks the pin from impacting the blank. When the pin is pulled and the device is thrown, the floating weight is jarred on impact, causing the pin to punch the primer and detonate the device. The screw-on base has a pocket and removable adapter. The adapter has two different holes, one on each end, that can accommodate either a .209 shotgun primer or a flat-face 9mm blank (crimp-nose blanks will not work). If you remove the adapter entirely, the pocket in the base will accept a 1-inch shotgun blank. The base also has vent holes at the bottom to vent the flash and bang when the device goes off. 

PAMAX Tactical LION disassembled civilian flashbangAbove: The LION Blank Firing Device consists of a machined aluminum body with two detachable bases: aluminum for commercial use and a larger stainless steel one for law enforcement.

Building and labelling the PAMAX Tactical LION as a dedicated blank-firing device serves two purposes. First, it avoids any potential legal and liability issues from ATF, as it’s not intended to be a “grenade” of any kind. It also allows the end user a lot of flexibility to scale the intensity of detonation up and down based on use. 

PAMAX does have a second thread-on base module for the LION body, which they call the V2. The V2 doesn’t have any additional adapters but is made of stainless steel and bored a little deeper to accommodate 2-inch shotgun blanks. Neither base will accommodate full-length 2¾-inch shells to eliminate the risk of inadvertently loading a buckshot round into the LION, which could make everyone in the room have a really bad day if thrown. But at time of writing, the V2 base is currently restricted as a law-enforcement-only item. 

Our biggest concern with the V2 base being a restricted item, from a practical standpoint, is whether or not this will neuter the LION’s capabilities for commercial consumers and limit it to being a novelty item for paintball and airsoft games. But PAMAX Tactical tells us that they’re currently working with an ammo manufacturer to produce blank cartridges optimized for the LION that’ll feature charge levels and powder mixtures calculated to wring every ounce of pyrotechnic potential out of their product.  

BANG-RINSE-REPEAT

We had the chance to spend two days with the owners of PAMAX Tactical at the Deep Woods Ranch in Florida. Deep Woods is a private training facility run by former SEAL Rich Graham of Full Spectrum Warrior. Full Spectrum offers a variety of firearms training courses to civilians, law enforcement, and allied partner nations. The ranch features several shooting ranges and enclosed structures perfect for torture testing the LION. We ran tests indoors and outdoors, in barn stalls and shipping containers, with multiple different types of primers and blanks, including black powder blanks. The central Florida sugar sand was just what we needed to get the LION moist, dirty, and crusty to test the firing mechanism and safety features. 

PAMAX Tactical LIONAbove: Even when we actively packed it with wet Florida “sugar sand,” the LION functioned with 100-percent reliability.

We started with .209 primers, which produced only a token pop. Inflating a brown paper bag and popping it is probably louder. Our initial reaction was somewhere in the realm of “What’s the point of this?” until an interesting scenario was put forth: using a LION with primers to train military and law-enforcements K9s who are attached to entry teams. Primers are cheap, LIONs are reloadable, and the pop is enough to get dogs used to working around hand-thrown munitions without the cost and hearing risk to the dog associated with using full-power flash-bangs. We’ll see if someone else comes to that same conclusion, but it certainly adds to the potential versatility of this product.

Next up was testing 9mm blanks. In a confined space, it’s enough to get your attention if you’re scrolling through your phone, tuned out to the world. But it’s hardly what we’d call overwhelming. This might be a good option for paintballers and milsim reenactors who want to simulate that “bang out!” moment from Call of Duty while making entry without blowing out any eardrums. 

PAMAX Tactical LION demo

Loading the LION with 1-inch shotgun blanks is where things started to get interesting. The results weren’t enough to produce sensory overload, but unsuspecting recipients in a small room are likely to at least suffer a distraction/startle response. Is that enough capability to store one in a go-bag? We’ll get to that in a minute …

Finally, we swapped to the V2 base and ran a variety of 2-inch shotgun blanks. The author volunteered to stand inside a dark, open room with a concrete floor while the PAMAX Tactical LION was thrown in repeatedly with different loads. My level of distraction/confusion was largely nullified by context: I knew it was coming and watched the reps from PAMAX launching this thing at me. Having said that, several of the 2-inch blanks produced a flash bright enough to leave me seeing polka dots, and one of the loads produced enough overpressure that I definitely felt the “thump” of overpressure inside my rib cage when the LION detonated. Does it match up to the intensity of an actual flash-bang or stun grenade? No. But the energy disparity between blanks and high explosive charges is significant. We hope PAMAX is able to close that gap with some purpose-built loads made especially for their device. 

In terms of deploying the device, the PAMAX Tactical LION is as easy to use as the oversized safety crayons we get at chain restaurants with paper place mats, whenever we ask for chicken nuggets and apple slices. Load your blank or primer of choice into the base, screw the base onto the body, pull the safety pin, and throw. We literally packed the vent holes with wet sand before throwing and the LION never choked. We threw it on concrete floors and against every part of a vehicle we could hit: windows, windshields, hoods, wheels, and body panels. We only found one issue and one idiosyncrasy with it.

PAMAX Tactical LION demonstrationAbove: Depending on the size and type of blank used, the LION is capable of producing significant flash and moderate concussion.

Because the device requires a jolt to make the weighted firing pin assembly wobble enough to punch the primer, if the impact surface flexes or cushions the landing impact it could result in a misfire. We noticed this primarily with pockets of soft, dry sand and hoods or body panels of vehicles, which will flex or dent when hit hard enough. In these instances, giving the PAMAX Tactical LION a hard overhand throw that makes it tumble end-over-end added enough force to cause detonation, even on softer surfaces. We could not, no matter how hard we threw it, get the device to go off in our hand or in mid-air by throwing it too hard. While a side-arm lob will be plenty on a hard surface, throwing the LION end-over-end seemed to give the best chance of successful firing on the widest array of surfaces. 

The only mechanical issue we saw with the LION was the pull-pin safety. We handled several different LION bodies over the course of our testing and on all of them, the cross-pin that actually inserts into the body fit incredibly tight. On the sample LION we received for studio photos and personal testing, the pin is so tight that it actually had to be tapped in place with a hammer the first several times we removed it. Pulling it free to arm the device is the closest we’ve ever come to an active game of tug-of-war with ourselves. But PAMAX is aware of the issue and already looking at options to make the safety pin more user-friendly. (Our demo unit did eventually loosen up some.) 

We expect production models will either have a different pin or slightly larger hole machined into the body to make this process easier. In the meantime, there’s an alternate way to render the PAMAX Tactical LION safe: Simply unscrew the base from the body by one half-turn. This creates enough clearance that the pin cannot make physical contact with the primer. In our field testing, we eventually stopped using the safety pin and simply left the base unscrewed by a half-turn. When ready to deploy, just tighten the base down and throw. So, even if your safety pin requires some break-in, you don’t have to risk an AD with a blank-firing device.

PAMAX Tactical LION in vehicleAbove: With black powder blanks, the LION creates both smoke and sound diversion.

As a side note, PAMAX already has a couple of thoughtful accessories for the LION as well. They have a purpose-built Kydex holster available in MOLLE or belt-mount configurations, as well as two lanyards (polymer and braided wire) that can be looped through the safety pin and then attached to a hard point on the holster. The idea is that when you draw the LION out of the holster, the safety pin is pulled out along the way. But with the too-tight fitment we experienced, the pin (or pin hole) needs a little re-dimensioning for this to work as intended.

CONCLUSION

The burning question we had about the PAMAX Tactical LION BFD going into this evaluation was: “Is this applicable to civilians as a legitimate defensive or escape tool?”

The best answer we can come up with at this point is a hard, forehead-scrunching “maybe.”

PAMAX Tactical LION

Our experience with preproduction samples using current commercially available blanks didn’t match anything we’ve ever felt when using true explosive-cored flash-bang grenades. That’s not to say it’s not capable of causing distraction or disorientation, but conditions will have to be ideal. Power factor aside, is there even a scenario where this could cause enough of a ruckus to allow you to escape or evade a bad situation? We came up with a couple scenarios where the LION could absolutely be useful, but also figured other solutions to those same problems.

> In your vehicle, being trapped/surrounded by a growing mob of agitated protestors. Could dropping a LION out your window cause a big enough bang to disperse the crowd? Possibly. But, if mistaken for a gunshot, it could also induce armed parties in the crowd to draw their guns and return fire, escalating the situation instead of breaking it up.

> In an active-shooter scenario, could tossing a PAMAX Tactical LION opposite your planned escape route distract a shooter or draw everyone’s attention, giving you a time advantage to make your escape? Possibly. If you have time to successfully deploy it. 

> Something goes bump in the night in your living room. Could tossing a LION into the next room before making entry to confront the threat buy you some tactical advantage? Possibly. But we think you’d have to have received proper training in the specific tactics of making a room entry in conjunction with a distraction device. There’s also a possibility of disorienting yourself in the process, depending on room size, layout, and acoustics. Stealth might be your biggest ally, versus a dynamic one-man room entry — an incredibly dangerous prospect even for armed professionals. If you can evade or barricade while contacting the police, that would be the far more prudent option. 

> Same scenario, in a setting where guns aren’t available, or perhaps where a family member who is uncomfortable with guns is alone. Could the LION scare off a potential home invader? If it does, great. If it doesn’t, you just exposed yourself while escalating the adrenaline level of everyone involved.

PAMAX Tactical LION in vehicleAbove: We were able to use the LION to shatter this truck’s rear windshield but found that on flexible surfaces like safety glass and auto body panels, throwing technique was a factor for reliable detonation.

In the end, we’re a little hard-pressed to find a situation where the LION, or anything like it, would be the tool for the job in a self-defense context. But it’s a reasonable option to have accessible in a number of different scenarios. The proverbial “tool in the toolbox” to add one more capability to your emergency response spectrum. In addition to the reenactment/simulation value for those who want it, there’s also an opportunity for professional trainers to have a low-cost, low-risk way to introduce added stress to scenario-based training. 

Regardless of what you want it for, an MSRP of $249 for body and base, plus the still-very-reasonable cost of blanks and primers, makes the PAMAX LION an affordable if not niche addition to any training toolbox. 

 Sources 

PAMAX Tactical: pmtactical.com
Full Spectrum Warrior/Deep Woods Ranch: fullspectrumwarriors.com

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Could It Happen Here? Civil War Survivors Recount Lessons Learned

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Over my years as a war reporter and war crimes investigator, I am often left in awe of the individuals I meet who have survived the most unfathomable things humans do to each other. I’ve sat with people who’ve had their body parts surgically removed by aggressors, women who have been raped until they can no longer move, and children whose tiny bones have been cracked and crushed without mercy.

But for those who survive, the silver lining that shines through them is as miraculous as it is tragic. I’ve often been struck by how these ordinary people, with no formal training or skills, are forced to become extraordinary at the drop of a hat — or a bomb. The resilience to withstand the pain (both physical and psychological), to push through the darkness, and to find the thread of hope in the bundle of misery has left me both perplexed and inspired.

In documenting the lives of a few of these individuals, I hope to shine a light on just how strong the human mind can be when it comes to holding on. I hope to illuminate our ability to prepare for and push through a crisis as it dawns. And above all, I hope to instill what it means to rise above being a victim and into the terrain of survivor, and to seek inner peace long after the torment and war has subsided.

Syria

One moment, Samer Scher was one of the multitude of passionate political college students flooding the wide and dusty streets of Modamiyeh, Syria, chanting for free and fair and elections. The next moment, gunfire from forces loyal to the Bashar al-Assad regime ripped through the open air and those he knew and loved fell to the ground.

As panic and lawlessness erupted in the cool spring afternoon, just like that, Samer knew that their peaceful revolution had fallen down the rabbit hole of a violent war — a war from which he and his country would never return.

Samer Scher Civil War SyriaAbove: Samer Scher

“All we wanted was a future. Back then, if you didn’t have a link to the regime, you couldn’t get a good job; you had no future,” Scher, now 29, lamented from the safety of his small home on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany. “Animals had a better life than we did. We did not just want to receive decisions. We wanted to be part of the decision-making process.”

But from that very first barrage of bullets on the first day of their peaceful protests, the bloodshed and distrust only deepened. At any moment, anyone suspected of being part of the cadre opposing the Damascus overlords could be ripped from their homes and never seen again. Scores would be thrown into jails in the bowels of the earth, where they were subject to rape and torture. Many would be burned and blown apart, as bombs slammed into their bedrooms while they slept.

Samer, who was working as a volunteer medic at a local clinic, anxiously accepted that it was only a matter of time before the brutal enforcers came for him too. He had already seen bullets wedged into the eyes of screaming children and shrapnel searing the flesh of babies as they breathed their last breaths. He was left with the memory of a quiet conversation with a close friend, only to see that very friend shredded into pieces the very next day as a result of a shell slicing his body.

After three terrifying days of heavy fighting on the edge of his besieged hometown between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels and Assad’s Army — a conscripted military — Assad’s forces breached the blockade and stormed in. It was August 22, 2012.

Tank Syrian national army near the combat zone in DamascusAbove: A Syrian National Army tank near the combat zone in Damascus, September 2013.

“I stayed in my home; there was nowhere to go,” Samer, who speaks softly with glazed eyes, continued. “It was a matter of chance — maybe the regime would come for your home, or maybe they would go for the home next door.”

Yet after nights of sleeplessness, Samer’s fogged eyes made out the shadows of soldiers peeking through the holes of his thin walls. Then, the soundtrack: gunshots cracking, footsteps, and the sounds of his front door crashing to the ground. He felt boots pelting against his limp body, splintering his bloody mouth, and then the chilling threats that they were going to shoot him.

“They were humiliating me, calling me a dog, a terrorist, insulting my family. Every one of those men — about 25 of them — were all taking a hit,” Samer said as if sifting through a graveyard of memories. “It was an unimaginable fear; I thought they would arrest me and take me to an intelligence branch.”

First, the soldiers carted Samer around the apartment building like a human shield — holding him up in case anyone opened fire as they knocked down a door. At one point, they propelled him into a bathroom, and when he turned around, he was staring down the barrel of an AK-47 at close range.

“I begged them to spare my soul, that I was just a college student,” Samer recalled.

But a bullet catapulted through his rib, another into the bottom of his arm, then another cleaved below his shoulder. Samer said the only pain he felt was the pain of fear. Facedown in a pool of crimson, he counted three more bullets entering his body and a seventh shattering the wall right by his head. He remained motionless for what felt like an eternity until the laughter and chimes of “he’s dead” faded out.

Civil War Survivors Syrian Civil WarAbove: Rebels in the fight against ISIS and the Syrian regime. Photo courtesy Rojava Information Center.

Samer managed to drag himself down a flight of crooked stairs and phone a friend for help. However, his miraculous tale of survival would only become dizzying as the war intensified into chemical attacks and mortar showers — until one day in 2015. He was given passage to flee into neighboring Turkey, an opportunity he felt would be his last chance at life. From there, he boarded a rickety boat to Greece and then moved through to Germany. Today, he’s trying to move on with life and studies, yet not leave behind the Syrian war that protracts into its eleventh year.

“I don’t know why I survived. I would say it is God’s will. I ask myself why me, and still, I have no answer,” Samer said.

Physically, he’s no longer able to lift his right arm. Psychologically, Samer is awash with an unrelenting desire to keep fighting for his country — this time with his voice.

“I’m going to run for parliament in Germany,” he noted, his strained face thawing into a wistful smile. “That’s the best I can do to protect my future family.”

China

Jennifer Zeng’s crumble into suffocating oppression under the fist of China’s Communist Party (CCP) was beleaguered from the beginning. She entered the world in the Sichuan province in 1966, the year that the Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution — the great sociopolitical purge to cement communism — began.

Since her father was part of a secret “intellectual” crowd, he was always on the oust of Beijing’s militant leadership and subsequently ostracized. This meant that Jennifer was born in a clinic where her parents couldn’t afford to pay bribes for the best medical care. As a result, a blood transfusion gone wrong in her first few days of life left her with hepatitis C.

Ironically, it was that liver-ravishing condition that would, decades later, save her life. Her early life was plagued with mandatory “re-education” classes on the fringes of an isolated town, forcibly separated from her mother. Any minor change her father wanted to make, from work to moving to a different house, couldn’t be done without government approval.

Hong Kong Democracy Protest

“My childhood was very lonely. And because my family was looked down on by society, I was discriminated against — even the school would not let me play with other kids,” she said wistfully, her eyes darting off into another world. “We had to be very careful, and life was very hard.”

She didn’t know then just how much harder it would become.

It wasn’t until 1997, when Jennifer was in her early 30s and working in Beijing, that she stumbled upon furtively distributed books about an emerging spiritual adherence called Falun Gong. It was a belief system outside the purview of the authoritarian leadership. For two years, she’d meet other practitioners to pray and meditate under the shroud of secrecy. 

Then, in the summer of 1999 — after hearing that other Falun Gong believers were being apprehended — Jennifer went to the State Appeals Office to plead their case. But authorities abruptly rounded her up too. She was stuffed into a detention center for 48 hours, and her name etched into a black book that would haunt her for many more years. 

Inside the labor camps, time was double-edged. The seconds of torture were elastic — stretching on, with one always waiting for the tenuous band to snap. But the longer she could keep propelling through, the closer she felt to making it to the other side.

Jennifer was arrested for the second time in February 2000. This time, she was dragged out from her workplace — an investment consultant company — and viciously interrogated at a labor camp in China’s Da Xing County. Before officials drew her blood, she informed them that she had hepatitis C. While she was left to starve over the coming weeks, many around her — including her cellmate — dropped dead from forced feeding. 

That’s when Jennifer realized that the organs of Falun Gong practitioners were being nightmarishly harvested to meet the demands of a government-run for-profit organ industry. She was eventually released from this torturous captivity, but not for long. That April, heavy-handed police officers plucked Jennifer from her sleep just after the witching hour with no explanation. 

It was only days later that she learned authorities had intercepted an email she had written to her parents, explaining her zest for the Falun Gong faith despite it being outlawed by the CCP. While some criticize it as being something of a cult, Jennifer maintains that her Falun Gong practice is rooted in meditation and compassion.

But for weeks that swelled into months, Jennifer’s life in yet another labor camp would fall to the hands of that faith. 

“Every day was a struggle between life and death. Most days, we were forced to squat for 16 hours, with our hands behind our heads like dogs. Police would immediately apply electric batons to anyone who fainted to wake them up,” she said. “On the other days, we were made to stand motionless in our cell for those 16 hours.”

When Jennifer refused to renounce her religion as “evil,” prison guards lugged her into a filthy courtyard and whipped her raw with electric rods until she lost consciousness. Yet, the worst pain wasn’t physical. It was watching once bright-eyed humans descend behind the curtain of madness. 

“At night, you would hear the screams of those being tortured. Sometimes, I felt that I would collapse and lose my sanity. That was the most terrible fear for me,” Jennifer continued. “You could see the moment when someone would lose their sanity — when they couldn’t handle the mental torture anymore. Their eyes changed. Their minds went somewhere else.”

As soon as she was set free months later, Jennifer knew that China was no longer home. The only way she would survive was to be somewhere safe enough to tell the world what was happening to the Falun Gong practitioners. She had to make the excruciating decision to leave her 10-year-old daughter and husband behind and flee first to Australia as an asylum seeker in 2001. Years later, Jennifer relocated to the United States, where she has continued her advocacy as an independent writer. 

For now, watching China continue to assault minorities from the Muslim Uighurs to the Buddhist Tibetans from afar is like observing a slow-burning home from behind a frosted glass window. The nightmares haven’t stopped, but Jennifer leans on meditation and deep breathing until the fear fades away. It’s those pillars of benevolence toward all forms of life that pull her through the darkest of days.

“That is the greatest gift, the best skill that I can give myself,” she says with a smile.

Burma

For M Tu Aung, 46, life has always existed as an endless cycle of running — running from danger, running into the unknown, running to lands far away and then running in circles in the hopes someone might hear his cries and prayers.

M Tu Aung Civil War survivorAbove: M Tu Aung outside the Chinese Embassy in DC in April 2021, protesting the military takeover in Burma. Above: Photo by Hollie McKay

“We had to run whenever the military would come in. They would try to kill all the people, they would set fire to the villages and burn down the churches,” recalled Aung. He was raised in the predominantly Christian Kachin State of Burma — also known by its 1989 regime re-title Myanmar — during a time of socialist military governance. “If you could not run, if you were not fast enough, you would be taken by the Burmese Army. Many times, people were killed, and yet we could not stop to bury the bodies — if they caught you, they would kill you. Some of my family members who were running beside me were caught.”

Burma has been burned alive by endless conflicts and persecution since the British handed the country back its independence in 1948. Given the endless wars, Aung never knew his biological parents and was adopted as an infant. He also never knew a life not beset by killing fields.

“They (Armed Forces) wanted all the property for themselves. We always had to run and leave our village and property behind. Everything would be ruined; the Army has no regard for human life,” he continued. “Every day, we lived in fear. We worried, day and night, they would come.”

Civil War SurvivorsAbove: Photo by Hollie McKay

Even if there were peaceful moments inside the threads of the jungle, idyllic in their stillness, they were beset by biting anxiety. There were no warning signs, Aung said, just a crackle of gunfire and howls of panic whenever the troops would force their way in. 

“What I remember most about my childhood is how the soldiers would just come into our villages and take anything they wanted. And they would take the people — sometimes 15 or 16 years old,” he whispered.

Like many from the region, the more painful the topic, the more the survivor laughs — an uncomfortable defense mechanism to mask the invisible wounds nested into memory.

“The Burmese Army would kill and torture — and they would rape,” he said slowly. “I remembered the faces of the young girls and women who they would take away to rape. We didn’t know exactly where they were taking them, but the ladies — most of them — never came back.”

Aung believes he only survived a tumultuous upbringing because his adoptive parents moved him to Rakhine State when he was 15, a state that — back then — was somewhat less butchered.

A decade ago, Aung was granted asylum in the United States with the wild hope for a better life. He studied for an MBA and opened a small business in Maryland. He fell in love with another refugee from Burma, married and had three children, and is heavily involved in the local community of Baptists churches. 

Civil War SurvivorsAbove: Photo by Hollie McKay

But it’s the place he left behind that occupies his mind during most waking hours. He exhibits a dogged devotion in reaching out to the powers of Washington as an active leader in the Nationalities Alliance of Burma, a network of ethnic nationalities organizations based in the United States.

“It has always been about a ‘burmainization’ of the country, of everyone else not in the military circle being treated as second class,” Aung lamented. “The Burmese military wants us out to protect themselves. It is why they are killing protestors and civilians every day.”

Some of Aung’s frustrations have stemmed from the notion that little has been conveyed to the public about the suffering of Christians in Burma. Most of the world is painfully aware of the persecution that the Muslim Rohingyas have endured in recent years in the Rakhine State he settled in as a teen, with many forced to flee into bordering Bangladesh. Aung said Christians have also been slaughtered and have had their houses of worship razed into nothingness, but have been “weak” at conveying the situation on social media.

Civil War Survivors ChurchAbove: Photo by Hollie McKay

“The ethnic cleansing has been happening since long before that of the Rohingya people,” Aung stressed.

Watching his homeland once again be dipped in chaos and blood following the coup in February 2021, in which the military wrestled power back from the first civilian government, Aung feels the urge to keep running. He’s calling for the international community to step in and support a transitional government in that illustrious chase for a free and fair election, calling for the people of Burma to decide their fate.

And despite 10 years in the United States, Aung clings to a life of trauma that reminds him he may never truly know what it is to be safe and secure. He leads a minimalist life with no stockpiling — when all one knows is to run, less is more — and his body is engulfed by chills at the mere sight of any uniformed soldier.

“Even here in the U.S., I just don’t want to see a soldier. It scares me,” he notes with a nervous giggle. “All that is really left, all we can do, is pray for protection. That helps us a lot.”

Egypt

Then, there’s the case of Mohammed Soltan, 33, in which the torture of the unknown still visits him at night. His father “disappeared” months ago into the depths of an Egyptian prison. Last year, intelligence officials informed him that prison guards broke his dad’s jaw and his teeth, yelling that it was his son’s “treachery” for which he must pay the price.

Yet Mohammed, a former Egyptian political prisoner himself, refuses to be silenced. He also refuses to wear the weight of guilt that his dad is suffering because of his vocal activism against the military leadership in Cairo.

“I won’t take that on,” Mohammed said defiantly. “That is on them.”

Civil War Survivors Mohamed Soltan The New York TimesAbove: Mohamed Soltan poses for a photo at his sister's home in Fairfax, Va., on Friday, August 21, 2015. Soltan spent over two years in jail in Egypt including a year on hunger strike. (Photo by Zach Gibson / The New York Times)

His father and five cousins are being housed in the recesses of the very same underground prison Mohammed was thrown into in August 2013.

But his journey of political activism was one of default. He grew up in what he describes as simple, rural American life in the Midwest — white picket fences, sprinkler summers, and frosty winters. But when the 2011 Arab Spring erupted in Egypt, the place of his heritage, Mohammed wanted to experience what he hoped would be real change in the region.

“I remember watching the protests in my history class at Ohio State University and just knowing that I needed to be there,” Mohammed recollects. “I left the airport and went straight to Tahir Square. It was February 11, and longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. It felt like the whole trajectory of my life had changed. It seemed like a dream. The young people of Egypt had spoken, and we had taken our country back.”

Only his dream of freedom fast descended into a nightmare. After completing his studies in the U.S., Mohammed moved with his father to Egypt in March 2013 to build a life working with the newly elected Mohamed Morsi leadership. However, just a few months later, Egyptians poured into the streets to showcase their displeasure at Morsi, setting up a succession of clashes.

After a few days of demonstrations, the country’s former defense minister Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi oversaw a controversial takeover of power. That part of it had been relatively sudden, Mohammed said. There had been no warning signs to get out early. It seemed that the transition would be one decided by the people … until it was not.

“I was very scared that the military was coming back and interrupting a democratic space. We had hoped there might be a referendum,” Mohammed continued.

The summer flared with the heat of protests and confusion swarming the streets, both in support and in objection to the Army’s government overhaul. Mohammed had been live-tweeting about the chaos erupting around him at Rabaa Square when a bullet zipped past his head. But before he could breathe relief at the near miss, another bullet tore through his arm.

While attempting to tend to his wound without access to proper medical care, Egyptian authorities burst through his home. They were initially looking for his dad, who wasn’t there. So instead, Mohammed was taken away in what would amount to months of beatings, cigarette burns melting his unwashed flesh, the cracks of his bones breaking and the gut-wrenching feeling of his left shoulder dislocating from his deltoid muscle. 

He remembers nails being pressed into his wasting frame during regular torture sessions, and the way his angst would spew into anger every time authorities attempted to force-feed him. Each time, he’d immediately tear the IV drip out of his weakening body.

While behind bars, Mohammed launched a hunger strike that stretched from months into more than a year.

As an American, Mohammed had a robust government on his side that was able to demand his release. After 22 months — including 489 days on a hunger strike, wrapped in despair — he was set free into the sunshine on May 31, 2015. But as any torture survivor will tell you, there’s never really a place one can call home. After that, authorities retaliated by arresting five of his cousins and his father.

Along with the deep pangs of knowing that his dad is still out there in the darkness of the dungeons, alone and in misery, Mohammed still frantically jumps at the sound of keys shaking or doors slamming — sounds that signified the guards coming into his cell for another round of caustic games. His stomach violently rejects heavy meals, and being alone comes with a bundle of distressing solitary confinement reminders.

“I have to keep speaking to myself,” he said. “It’s how I can assure myself that I am still alive.”

The work is far from over. Mohammed’s life now is stuffed with pushing for the release of other political prisoners around the planet, in what he characterizes as “paying it forward.”

“I didn’t think that I ever would get out of prison, and I know that any of us can die at any minute,” he conjectured. “But I have this second lease on my life to fight for others, and that’s the lens through which I view everything. That is why I will be forever grateful.”

Uganda

The upheaval of one’s life isn’t always at the behest of one’s own government. Sometimes, the lack of stability and internal corruption of leadership lays the groundwork for external influences to swoop in and unleash havoc on an innocent populace.

That’s an eerie narrative that Victoria Nyanjura knows all too well. She was just 14 years old when insurgents, under the canopy of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), stole her and some 138 other girls from their Catholic boarding school in the Kole district of northern Uganda. These events unfolded in the dead of the night on October 9, 1996.

There had been rumblings weeks earlier that the rebel outfit might invade, yet nothing had come of it. When it happened, it came as a scalding shock — grenades detonated in the dark, wild-eyed fighters rattled the gates until they broke, and then there were the screams. The piercing screams that Victoria will never forget as she glanced up into an abnormally bright sky.

“I tried to hide under the bed, but they found me and took me. I didn’t know what was happening,” she observed, in a small yet stern voice that signified her propensity to push through. “I did not know whether they would let me live or die. But that was the start of all my misery.”

Kony’s name and his trail of terror didn’t become apparent to most Americans until 2012, when the abuses of his self-styled militias were brought to light in a viral video focused on recruiting child soldiers. But for eight years, many moons earlier, it was all Victoria lived and breathed. Thirty of the 139 girls were handpicked and dragged away to be bush wives to the insurgents. Nyanjura was plucked and tied up with banana leaves so she couldn’t run, and immediately she knew with a sinking feeling her life would never be the same.

“Every night, they are having their way with you, and there is nothing you can do. Everything about captivity is about survival. You either survive, or you perish; there is no in-between,” Victoria said. “Often, you would see someone fall to the ground and think they must be resting, but when you get closer, you realize they are gone.”

Victoria Nyanjura Civil War survivorAbove: Victoria Nyanjura

Her years of survival were pockmarked by sucking raindrops and dew for water, secretly gathering wild fruits and hoping that they would not be poisonous, sitting in the sunshine with a body so bruised and swollen, and sobbing to live. Other times, she was sobbing to die.

Victoria’s “husband” was eventually killed in the fighting against Ugandan forces, and for years more, she held her two small children — a daughter and a son — tight and quietly prayed and wept for the will to keep forging ahead. The LRA distinguished itself by slicing off victims’ limbs, lips, and noses — a symbol to instill terror in communities and scar survivors for life, making them forever dependent on others to get by.

“There were times that I begged to God to let me die, that things would be better if I were not there,” Victoria confessed. “I begged if I died; I wanted my children to die too. I wanted us all to perish together.”

One day, Victoria snapped. By that point, she was 22 years old, and much of her life had existed in the confines of captivity, on the tightrope of death and destruction, in the shadow of the grossest miscarriage of justice. She could not take it for one moment longer. With that, Victoria swept up her two children and set off a daring escape that entailed weeks of weaving through a boundless maze of jungle and gray sheets of tropical rain, over hills and into valleys of the dead — praying that she wouldn’t be shot at or re-captured, or step on a land mine embedded in the muddy tracks.

Eventually, Victoria made it to a displacement camp, where she was forced to confront the stigma of surviving sexual violence and shielding her young from the origins of their conception. Now 39, Victoria recently completed a master’s degree in global affairs, focusing on international peace studies, at the University of Notre Dame.

Yet last year, she chose to return to Uganda not only to start explaining to her now-grown children what had happened, but to support other women and survivors of traumas with her own non-governmental organization. Victoria admitted that she struggles to have any sense of a typical romantic relationship and accepts that the healing process is jagged with steps forward and steps back.

But her voice is resilient, with a fierce protectiveness of her children. She will never let happen to them what happened to her.

“In captivity, I called my daughter Hope. There was no other name I could give her because I just had to have hope that God would get us home,” Victoria added. “For anyone in a tough situation, I would say never give up on life. Never give in, never give up. You have to have hope for a better tomorrow.” 

Only Cry for the Living

Only Cry for the Living book cover

Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield

Get your copy of Hollie McKay’s latest book by going to gundigeststore.com/living.

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Gun Maintenance Multi Tool: Pocket Preps

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Most firearm malfunctions are caused by a lack of proper maintenance. Like any other machine, firearms experience wear and tear after prolonged use. Dirt, rust, carbon buildup, and worn-out or broken parts can cause stoppages or even catastrophic failure. Regular cleaning, lubrication, and inspection of a firearm is necessary to keep it operating smoothly and ensuring early detection of damaged components. 

Modern firearm platforms like the AR-15 require specialized tools for sighting, cleaning, and adjusting. Even the 100-year-old 1911 platform requires a special bushing wrench for disassembly. The most basic field armorer kit typically consists of enough punches, wrenches, drivers, bits, and other tools to fill a medium-sized tool bag. 

The expense of a full maintenance kit is more than most gun owners will ever wish to invest. Those who have sacrificed their hard-earned cash to acquire these tools will frequently find themselves stuck at the range in want of a tool they left at home, because their tool kits were too heavy and cumbersome to haul with them. 

One of the best ways to increase productivity at the range is to have all the tools needed to make sight adjustments, tighten loose accessories, and disassemble and clean your gun. A quality gun maintenance multi-tool can provide most of those tools in a compact package that can be conveniently stowed in a range bag. 

In this edition of Pocket Preps, we’ll examine some of the most versatile gun maintenance multi-tools on the market. As we look at the capabilities and limitations of each tool, we hope to provide the reader with the information needed to select the best multi-tool for the job.

Multitasker Twist

Dimensions: 5 by 9/16 inches
Weight: 1.8 ounces (3.7 ounces with included bits)
MSRP: $60
URL: multitaskertools.com

Multitasker Twist Multi tool

The Twist is nothing short of a pocket toolbox packed into the size and shape of a large permanent marker. The rear section of the double-ended, threaded housing holds a pick for scraping stubborn carbon deposits and pulling retainer pins, a 3/32-inch pin punch, and a radial carbon scraper. These three tools attach to the 8-32 thread adapter located on the front cap. Underneath the front cap is a magnetic ¼-inch bit driver with an AR front sight tool installed. The Twist comes with a few Phillips, slotted, hex, and Torx bits, but any ¼ bit can be used with the driver. The rear cap has a two-prong Aimpoint micro sight turret adjuster on the end, making this tool invaluable to any Aimpoint shooter. When the rear cap is removed, the pocket clip becomes a field expedient, lightweight flathead driver.

Multitasker Twist Multi tool

Pros:

  • Marker-style housing is easy to carry.
  • Saves space and weight while offering essential tools
  • Can be used in conjunction with pull-through cleaning kits

Cons:

  • Small number of tools within the unit
  • Aluminum housing doesn’t allow the use of a hammer when using the pin punch

Real Avid AR15 Tool

Dimensions: 5 by 2 by 1 Inches
Weight: 118.4 Ounces
MSRP: $90
URL: realavid.com

Real Avid AR15 Tool Multi tool

This 37-in-1 tactical gun multi-tool on a folding X-frame platform has everything necessary to remove carbon from bolt surfaces, make field repairs, add or remove accessories, and completely disassemble and reassemble a firearm. The AR15 Tool contains needle-nose pliers, carbide cutter, metal file, bolt carrier carbon scraper, 8-32 threaded receiver and post to attach all standard cleaning attachments, 3/32-inch detachable pin punch, 10-function bolt carrier group scraper, cotter pin puller, serrated tanto blade, detachable hook pick, three-position locking ¼-inch bit driver with 12 bits, and a bolt override tool. The MOLLE-compatible nylon sheath has elastic bit storage loops and an A1 and A2 front sight tool storage pouch on the side. Although it’s designed as an AR tool, this beefy device works for pistols too.

Real Avid AR15 Tool Multi tool

Pros:

  • Full-featured multi-tool has everything needed for field maintenance.
  • Convenient nylon case
  • G-10 side-plates increase gripping surface.
  • Very cost-effective

Cons:

  • Heavy
  • The overall size is a bit bulky and makes precise task work cumbersome.

Real Avid Gun Tool AMP – AR15

Dimensions: 5 1/2 by 2 by 1 5/8 inches
Weight: 13.3 Ounces
MSRP: $70
URL: realavid.com

Real Avid Gun Tool AMP - AR15

The Gun Tool AMP is a series of compact multi-tools that come in three platform-specific versions, AR15, Pistol, and 1911. The AR15 version shown here contains a tanto-style knife blade, bolt override tool, takedown punch, retaining pin puller, multi-surface bolt carrier group scraper, carrier scraper, firing pin scraper, and tap hammer. All tools lock in place using a liner lock system. The holster has a fold-out, locking ¼-inch bit driver and a nine-function bit set. Bits include hex, Torx, Phillips, flat, and A2 Front Sight Adjuster. The folding driver arm locks into place with a quick release lever. The holster has a MOLLE-compatible, metal belt clip for convenient stowing and transport. The AMP is a specialized tool, so the user needs to choose the right platform.

Real Avid Gun Tool AMP - AR15

Pros:

  • Case with driver and primary tool separate, allowing the user to work with each independently
  • Each AMP platform has everything needed to perform field maintenance and cleaning.
  • Functional sheath reduces waisted space.

Cons:

  • Specialized platform is weapon specific.
  • Weight

Multitasker Nano

Dimensions: 1.2 by 0.5 inches
Weight: 0.1 Ounces
MSRP: $13
URL: multitaskertools.com

Multitasker NANO multi tool

The Multitasker Nano Tool is a tiny pocket tool intended for making optic adjustments. It’s about the size of an aluminum can flip tab but packs a lot of practical utility despite its tiny footprint. The Nano features a dedicated Aimpoint T1/T2 turret adjuster on one end and a slotted screwdriver with radiused edges on the other. Although the Nano can be conveniently carried on a keychain using the built-in lanyard hole, the Nano has been specifically engineered with winglets on each side, which act as a dovetail for docking into the SpaceFrame storage slot found on the Gen3 MagPod. The Nano is compatible with a wide variety of popular optics and aiming lasers, including the Aimpoint M68 CCO, EOTech EXPS-3, Trijicon ACOG, Trijicon RMR, PEQ-15, and the B.E. Meyers & Co. MAWL.

Multitasker NANO

Pros:

  • Tiny and easy to carry
  • Compatible with the Gen-3 MagPod SpaceFrame storage slot
  • Works with the most popular optics and lasers

Cons:

  •  Functionality is mostly limited to aiming devices.
  •  Easy to misplace or lose due to its size

Gerber Short Stack

Dimensions: 3 by 1.25 by 5/8 inches
Weight: 2.8 Ounces
MSRP: $47
URL: gerbergear.com

Gerber Short Stack Multi tool

The Gerber Short Stack uses a revolutionary three-piece magnetic design to form a compact, weapon-specific multi-tool. The Short Stack has everything needed to disassemble and maintain the AR rifle platform, including a front sight tool, firing pin scraper, bolt and bolt carrier scraper, cleaning cable pull-through handle, castle nut wrench, 4mm wrench/bit driver, 7mm wrench (fits M-LOK fasteners), ½-inch wrench, 3/8-inch wrench, ¾-inch wrench, curved slotted driver, and two double-sided Hex bits (#0 Cross Diver, T10, 1/8-inch Hex, 4mm Hex). This tiny, self-contained multi-tool can fit snugly into Magpul MOE and MIAD pistol grips so it’s always close by when the rifle is in hand. 

Gerber Short Stack Multi tool

Pros:

  • Extremely light and compact
  • Can be stored inside the weapon
  • Cost effective

Cons:

  • Small size reduces leverage.
  • AR-platform specific
  • Doubles as a brain puzzle when returning the tool to its carry configuration

Emissary Development R2-0

Dimensions: 3.5 by 1 1/8 by 5/16 inches
Weight: 0.5
MSRP: TBD
URL: emissarydevelopment.com

Emissary Development R2-0 Multi Tool

The R2-0 (Return 2 Zero) is a lightweight minimalist tool designed through a collaborative effort between Emissary Development and Unity Tactical. The R2-0 is designed to interface with Geissele Super Precision Scope Mounts and snaps in place between the mounting screws using a clamp/hook design. The tool houses a T15 Torx bit that fits into a ¼-inch socket on the undercarriage. An additional ½-inch socket fits standard scope mount nuts and can be used to tighten loosening mounts or make mounting adjustments. The lack of any torque limiter means the R2-0 isn’t ideal for use with precision weapons; however, it’s a handy tool for tightening a loose scope mount on the range or in the field. 

Emissary Development R2-0 Multi Tool

Pros:

  • Conveniently locks into the Geissele Scope Mount for convenient storage

Cons:

  • User must have the Geissele Scope Mount for the tool to interface.
  • The lack of torque limiter makes it impractical for precision use.

Fix It Sticks The Works

Dimensions: 7.25 by 3 by 4.25 inches
Weight: 26.2 Ounces
MSRP: $280
URL: fixitsticks.com

Fix It Sticks The Works Multi Tool

This all-in-one gun maintenance kit contains a variety of tools that come in handy at the range or work bench, including an A2 front sight tool, castle nut wrench, bolt carrier scraper, 1911 bushing tool, Glock front sight bit, universal choke tube wrench, metal pin punch and a non-marring plastic pin punch, bronze scraper, steel pick, set of brass 8-32 thread cleaning rods, set of two 8-32 bit adapters, cleaning brush, and mini pry bar. There are four torque limiters (15, 25, 45, and 65 inch-pounds), a ½-inch socket, and 24 assorted ¼-inch bits for mounting scopes, tightening chassis, and zeroing optics. Every tool pairs with the accompanying ¼-inch T-handle wrench. The entire kit packs inside a compact, MOLLE-webbed soft case. A magnetic Velcro patch on the outside of the case helps keep track of loose screws and bits. The Works has it all.

Fix It Sticks The Works Multi Tool

Pros:

  • Has virtually everything a shooter needs for field maintenance
  • Multi-platform tools for a variety of firearms
  • Standard ¼-inch bits and driver make this multi-tool highly customizable and adaptable.

Cons:

  • Price 

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Stop The Bleeding: A Guide to Hemostatic Agent Choices

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One of the most important skills for the family medic to master is the ability to rapidly stop bleeding (also known as “achieving hemostasis”). In survival scenarios, bleeding can occur from various sources, from a fall on uneven terrain to a hostile encounter with another group. Failure to properly treat bleeding wounds can lead to unnecessary deaths among survivors. A 2013 study reported in Military Times found that close to 25 percent of the combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011 might have been survivable with rapid and appropriate actions. One result is the second look at hemostatic agent options available. 

Certainly, the survival medic can save some lives with the right knowledge, training, and equipment. For example, a caregiver with a tourniquet will be more successful than one without. In addition to tourniquets, there are commercially available hemorrhage control (also known as “hemostatic”) agents that are effective in stopping even heavy bleeding.

The ideal hemostatic agent is one that works quickly, is easily portable, has few complications, and doesn’t interfere with tissue healing. Oh, one more thing: It must be available at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, the most effective dressings like QuikClot, Celox, and ChitoSam aren’t cheap; it may be difficult, financially, for the average citizen to stockpile enough to deal with multiple bleeding wounds.

hemostatic agentsAbove: Even the best-equipped medic can run out of supplies off the grid.

It’s clear that a caregiver in austere settings must improvise once the commercial hemostatic agent options are gone. What options are out there that could help stop the bleed besides just applying direct pressure and hoping for the best? Direct pressure with both hands and your full weight on the wound may be successful, but what if it isn’t? Elevation of a bleeding extremity might help, but what if it doesn’t?

The answer might be growing in your own backyard. Certain plants are known for their blood-clotting abilities; it’s important to either grow them in a medicinal garden or know where they exist in the great outdoors. Some of the items below may not yet have hard scientific proof of effectiveness. Despite this, they might be all you have when the commercial materials run out.

How Blood Clots

Hemostasis is the control of bleeding. As soon as a blood vessel wall is damaged, the body reacts to close the breach: 

Primary Hemostasis: Tiny particles in the blood known as platelets start clumping together at the breach in the vessel, attracting even more platelets and forming a “plug.”

Secondary Hemostasis: Clotting factors in the blood form strands of a material called fibrin, which deposits around the injury and forms a mesh with the platelet plug that seals the wound. 

The whole thing dries and hardens, forming a clot. Over time, the clot dissolves.

Yarrow

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), was known in ancient times as “herba militaris” for its use in staunching the flow of blood from wounds. Indeed, the Greek hero Achilles is said to have carried it during the Trojan War. It’s native to temperate regions almost everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, from sea level to altitudes of 11,500 feet.

hemostatic agents yarrow on gauzeAbove: Yarrow on gauze.

To stop bleeding, yarrow is normally used as a powder made from grinding dried leaves and flowers, but applying fresh plant material in a poultice is also acceptable. Cover the natural hemostatic agent with gauze and apply pressure. Elevate if the wound is in an extremity.

Cayenne Pepper

Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum) isn’t just meant to spice up your meal — the capsaicin in it is thought to have a coagulating effect on mild bleeding as well as some antibacterial properties. To be effective, you have to use a lot of the most potent cayenne you can find in powder form. Pour it directly on the wound, cover with gauze or other cloth, and apply pressure for several minutes. Multiple applications may be needed. 

Won’t cayenne pepper powder burn when applied? Having applied it on myself and seen it applied to bleeding injuries in dogs without a pain response, the answer is not much. 

Tea

For dental bleeding after an extraction, black or green tea (Camellia sinensis) may be used. Teas contain tannins, which are thought to help blood to clot by making vessels constrict. They may also have antiseptic properties. Teas with caffeine are thought to be more effective. 

hemostatic agents teaAbove: Dental bleeding after extraction may be controlled with tea bags and pressure.

Take a tea bag that’s been steeped and allowed to cool, wrap in thin gauze, and place on the bleeding area with pressure. For bleeding after a tooth extraction, have the patient bite down on the tea bag gently but firmly in the now-empty socket. If bleeding is from the inside of the cheek or other area in the oral cavity, place against the bleeding area and apply pressure on the area from outside with the mouth closed. 

Some believe that tea compresses may help with mild external cuts on the skin. Press a dry green or black tea bag against the wound, cover with gauze or other cloth, and apply pressure.

Witch Hazel

Witch hazel is a temperate North American shrub. “Witch” doesn’t refer to practitioners of magic, but the Middle English word for “bendable.” Distilled witch hazel has an astringent effect that tightens skin, constricts small blood vessels, and promotes clotting. Apply a small amount of the hemostatic agent to a compress and press on the wound. Pure witch hazel can be found at most drugstores.

hemostatic agents witch hazelAbove: Witch hazel and gauze squares.

Other common plants that have an astringent effect include plantain, rose, and horsetail. Be aware that people may sometimes be allergic to certain plants, so monitor closely for rashes, itching, or other signs of a reaction.

Non-Plant Hemostatic Agent Options

While a number of plants are reputed to stop bleeding, you might be surprised to know that the two main products used in expensive commercial blood-clotters are actually: 1) a type of clay, and 2) the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans.

Kaolin Clay

Kaolin clay is the main ingredient in the popular commercial hemostatic agent QuikClot. It was once the main ingredient in the anti-diarrheal drug Kaopectate (it’s now Bismuth Subsalicylate, the same ingredient used in Pepto-Bismol). Kaolin is scientifically proven to stop bleeding. Contact between kaolin and blood immediately initiates the clotting process by activating Factor XII, a major player in the cascade of events that stops hemorrhage. 

Hemostatic Agents Kaolin ClayAbove: Dip gauze in water and coat with kaolin powder.

Kaolin is commercially available for purchase in powder form. Apply the clay powder directly to a bleeding wound or onto a dressing and then on the injury. Kaolin dressings can be improvised by dipping cotton gauze or cloth in water and allowing to dry. Like the commercial version, firm direct pressure on the area for several minutes is required for full effect.

Hemostatic Agent Kaolin Clay how to Above: Mix kaolin into a paste.

It should be noted that kaolin doesn’t cause burns when used. This is the reason that QuikClot switched to it years ago after bad experiences with the former main ingredient known as zeolite.

Hemostatic Agent Kaolin Clay how to Above: Spread out wet dressings onto a drying rack.

Hemostatic Agent Kaolin Clay how to Above: Place wet kaolin gauze into a dehydrator at 105 degrees.

Hemostatic Agent Kaolin Clay how to Above: These photos show a few fabrics used to improvise kaolin dressings.

Chitosan

Chitosan is a naturally occurring part of the exoskeletons of crustaceans like shrimp. Processed in a way that prevents reactions in those allergic to shellfish, it’s highly effective as a blood-clotting agent and can be found in products like ChitoSam, Celox, and others. When chitosan products come into contact with blood, they bond with it and form a gel plug that acts as a clot. Unlike kaolin, chitosan doesn’t use up the body’s clotting factors, something beneficial to those who may have a deficiency of these important substances.

Chitosan can be purchased as a powder. Use vinegar to moisten gauze pads and dip both sides into a bowl of the powder just like you would bread a piece of chicken. Use a dehydrator or oven on low heat to make your own hemostatic agent infused dressings. Alternatively, freeze and then use dry ice in a covered container with holes to achieve a similar effect.

Kaolin clay, animal, or botanical products may be the answer to bleeding control in some cases, but certain other common items have the potential to staunch blood loss.

Ice

Like some astringent plants, applying ice to a wound will constrict small blood vessels. In minor bleeds, ice might allow a clot to form more quickly while reducing swelling. Wrap some ice in a clean, dry cloth and place on the wound with gentle pressure to avoid traumatizing skin.

hemostatic agents iceAbove: Ice packs help constrict smaller blood vessels.

Antiperspirants

Some antiperspirants contain aluminum chloride, another astringent that might constrict small blood vessels. Aluminum chloride as low as 5 percent concentration exerted a hemostatic effect through a chemical reaction and was deemed effective in a 2015 study. Aluminum sulfate, the ingredient in styptic pencils to treat bleeding from cuts incurred while shaving, is a related product.

Petroleum Jelly

For shallow cuts, petroleum jelly may be an option to slow bleeding. You may have been a spectator at a boxing match where the manager treats his fighter’s injuries with it. Apply a layer on a minor bleed with direct pressure. Once the bleeding has stopped, blot the jelly off and clean the wound.

hemostatic agents petroleum jellyAbove: Petroleum jelly dressing on simulated wound.

Tactical Tampons?

Another bleeding-control improvisation you’ll often hear about is the “tactical tampon.” There’s a persistent notion that this feminine sanitary product is an excellent addition to your medical kit. There are many, usually second-hand, accounts that these items saved the life of a soldier because a savvy medic made sure to have some on hand. 

Why wouldn’t a tampon work as a hemostatic agent? After all, it might be the right size to plug a bullet hole. When a projectile strikes soft tissue at high speed, however, it creates a channel through which the projectile travels. As a matter of fact, it causes two channels — a permanent one caused by the actual path and a larger, temporary one caused by the energy wave released into the body by the round’s impact. Vessels and organs affected by this secondary shock wave might not be in the direct line of the permanent cavity (and the subsequent tampon placement), but can be damaged and easily bleed.

hemostatic agents tamponAbove: The tampon would just conceal the bleeding, not stop it … Just because you don’t see a hemorrhage doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. A saturated tampon can only hold about 20cc of blood.

Bullets traveling at high speeds go deeper into the body than a tampon can reach. Plugging a hole, even one that looks like it could fit a tampon, doesn’t stop the hemorrhage inside. It just pools internally or finds an exit wound. The tampon would just conceal the bleeding, not stop it. Even the most absorbent tampon can only handle about 15 grams or so of blood. The rest has to go somewhere. Just because you don’t see a hemorrhage doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. “Successes” in the field were, probably, nightmares for the surgical team after evacuation.

Mistakes When Stopping the Bleed

Rapid action by those at the scene can save lives, but some common mistakes can lead to tragic outcomes:

  •  Panic! The shock of seeing a major hemorrhage can cause hesitation to act.
  •  Being timid when applying pressure to the wound (yes, it’s going to hurt).
  •  Failing to pack dressings directly onto the bleeding vessel.
  •  Failing to apply pressure to a commercial hemostatic dressing for three full minutes or longer for improvised dressings.       
  •  Hesitating to apply a tourniquet as a first course of action in cases of heavy bleeding.
  •  Failing to apply a compression bandage over the hemostatic dressing.
  •  Assuming a controlled hemorrhage doesn’t require close monitoring for re-bleeds.

Closing Thoughts // Hemostatic Agent

Are the above strategies as good as having high-tech commercially made hemostatic agent or dressings? Unfortunately, no. None of these improvisations would have the standardized production process and assure sterility as well as a commercially manufactured dressing like QuikClot, Celox, or ChitoSam. Since it’s likely that the infection rates off-the-grid would be higher than in normal times, it’s worth having some in your medical storage. But if the commercial items run out and the options we mention here are all you have, they could still make the difference between life and death. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” 

About the Author

Joe Alton, MD, FACOG, FACS, is an actively licensed physician and surgeon, medical preparedness advocate, and New York Times/Amazon bestselling author on medical topics related to austere settings. He’s a member of the Wilderness Medical Society and a certified Advanced Wilderness Expedition Provider. The third edition of his Survival Medicine Handbook won first place in the 2017 Book Excellence Awards in medicine, and his book Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease won the same award in 2020. His survival medicine website at doomandbloom.net has over 1,200 articles, podcasts, and videos, and has won the Reader’s Choice award on Survivaltop50.com for several consecutive years. The fourth edition of Survival Medicine Handbook is currently available online.

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Bucky Pratt: A Combat Veteran’s Journey and His Mission to Share Lessons Learned

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Few people ever experience actual combat in a war. And of those who do, fewer still turn that experience into something positive. Bucky Pratt is one of these rare individuals who has faced and grappled with his inner demons instead of avoiding them or letting them consume his life. After much introspection, he has turned his passion for traveling and exploration into an example of how others may learn from his hardships.

From a young age, Bucky had a yearning to explore. Growing up in rural Oregon provided ample opportunities to roam the wilderness that he found undeniably enticing. It was a thrill to jump on a bike and pedal over the horizon to a friend’s house or grab his trusty BB gun and wander the edges of farm fields.

Early in his teens, his church provided an opportunity to go on several mission trips. Compelled to see places he had never seen, Bucky was exposed to experiences that changed the trajectory of his life forever. While traveling by bus down the West Coast of the United States to Mexico and witnessing the rich diversity of cultures along the way, Bucky became hooked.

We sat down with Bucky to ask him about what kind of lessons he’s learned about preparation and daily carry after visiting more than 20 countries around the world in less than two years.

RECOIL OFFGRID: What was the catalyst that made you start thinking about traveling the world?

Bucky Pratt: The desire to travel the world has been there since I was a small boy. I was always wondering what was over the next hill or around the bend. It’s what I wanted to do when I got out of the military, but I was not in the right headspace. Going through counseling helped me finally unload some of the burdens of repeated trauma that had been holding me hostage from pursuing what I wanted. For many of us, we have lost so many close friends, people we love. We’ve seen death. We’ve seen the worst of the world. And death is always looming. She’s patiently waiting in the corner. 

Bucky PrattAbove: Enjoying a break on the Koh Nang Yuan viewpoint after kayaking from Koh Tao, Thailand.

During my first deployment, my brothers and I always said, if any of us ever passed, we would live our lives in the best way we could to honor each other. I’m living this life for my brothers and knowing they would be happy to know that I’m pursuing my passion. But it just all kind of came to a point and I was like, it’s time to stop waiting. It’s time to stop putting things off. I just need to f***ing go for it. Take that leap of faith, because what’s the worst that happens? You’ve got to pick yourself up and start over. And even that is great. That was one of the best parts about the military — you’re always challenged in some way.

Why were you drawn to overseas travel instead of just exploring or living a minimalist lifestyle in the United States?

Bucky Pratt: The way I see it, I’m in my 30s, I can backpack around the world now and probably do it for several years. But at some point, I’m going to be that weird old guy who’s backpacking and staying in hostels. At that point, then I can go back to the U.S. and explore there. I’ll be older and you know, maybe my knees won’t be up to the task anymore. Maybe my back won’t be up to it. The chance to live this way abroad may never happen again, and I had to take it.

You must have made many preparations before embarking on your journey. Can you tell us what some of them were?

Bucky Pratt: I did a lot of route planning because originally my goal was to visit 55 countries in a year. I planned numerous routes, looking at maps, flight paths, difficulty of border crossings. Once I had a rough route, I dove into visa requirements — what countries I had to apply ahead of time or didn’t need a visa to enter. I was also trying to follow the seasons and prep for what I thought I would need. I took into consideration a reasonable budget. I’ve spent enough time in adverse conditions, so a slightly more forgiving budget was important. 

Bucky Pratt travelingAbove: Taking a longboat across Inle Lake from Kalaw, Myanmar.

The importance of gear I picked up in the military always carried on with me. There was a lot of time spent picking gear for this trip. I wanted to pack light, which meant everything needed to be dual-purpose. I would go to different outdoor gear stores on the weekends. Trying on every 40- to 65-liter backpack there was, loaded with 30 pounds of weight and walk around to get a feel. If you are going to spend much time wearing gear, you want stuff that’s comfortable. 

How many countries have you visited?

Bucky Pratt Twenty-three during this trip, not even half of what I set out to accomplish. After the first 14 countries there was this turning point when I said, f**k this. I was in Europe and got to the point where if I saw another castle, cathedral, or cobblestone street, I was going to lose it. And maybe that sounds pretentious to say, but Europe wasn’t the excitement I was craving. After being in a combat theatre, going to the Christmas market in Germany doesn’t sound super exciting to me.

Bucky PrattAbove: Heading toward the train tunnel to the Nine Arches Bridge in Ella, Sri Lanka.

What is your traveler’s everyday carry?

Bucky Pratt: Most days I bring my day pack with me. I’m using a Gregory Miwok 18-liter. It has plenty of mileage on it and looks a little beat up. The important items — passport, first-aid kit, cash (local and USD), paracord, multi-tool, headlamp, power bank, pen, notepad, LifeStraw bottle, candy for kids, spirits for adults, tin cup, eating utensil, bottle opener, and a camera. There are other items that come and go depending on my location and what the day holds. 

On my person, wallet, cash (local and USD), cell phone, knife, flashlight, and ear buds. The knife varies depending on location. In places that knives are frowned upon, I carry a small paring knife. If needed for defense, it’ll do the trick, but I can also ditch it at a moment’s notice due to security checkpoints or police. 

Bucky Pratt layout

Above: Staying light on your feet while spending the day exploring a foreign country is an art.  A tried-and-true 18-liter day pack holds the essentials that come in handy while reducing the bulk of larger bags.

How do you keep your first-aid kit easy to bring along?

Bucky Pratt: Typically, just Band-Aids, sterilizing pads, gauze, gloves, pressure dressing, super glue, duct tape, and a tourniquet. Also, some antibacterial or antiseptic cream and eye drops. That’s about it. I keep it fairly basic. I figure if something’s worse than that, it’s a sh*tty day, and I’ll need to seek proper medical services.

Do you find it useful to bring currency?

Bucky Pratt: That generally depends on the country I’m in and how far the money goes. Typically, I like to keep $50 to $90 worth of the local currency. I also keep a $100 in U.S. currency, because if I get in a sticky situation with the cops, $100 is a small price to pay to not end up in a jail. Sometimes slipping someone a $20 bill can get you into places that would otherwise be off-limits. 

It looks like most of your backpacks and clothing are darker colors. Is there any particular reason for this?

Bucky Pratt: Yeah, I don’t like gear that is high-visibility. I like my gear dark and a little beat up. Makes me stand out a little less — anything to draw less attention is important to me. My Caucasian complexion already draws enough attention in some places. The last thing I need is a ridiculously bright bag that peacocks. 

What type of gear do you keep back wherever you are resting your head?

Bucky Pratt: My main pack is a 65-liter Gregory Baltoro. I originally had bought a 55-liter bag and I was like, wow, I don’t have enough space. When I upgraded to the larger size, my goal was to have everything fit in the 65. That would include my day pack. Well, I overpacked. When you have more space, you add more stuff. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of unneeded clothing along the way. I typically go layout everything every three months and assess what I’ve been using or not using. My rule is, if I haven’t used it in 60 to 90 days, I toss it. Most simple items can be bought wherever you’re at. 

S-Biners are great to have. You hang them on your backpack. They don’t take up much space, they’re lightweight and make it easy to hang your bag when you need to. They’re so small and convenient. 

Bucky Pratt backpack

Above: Size matters!  Small is great for a day pack but a 65-liter main pack will hold the gear and clothing needed for extended durations.

Packing cubes have been a game-changer. They’re fabric cubes that keep everything in place. I wish I would have had them in the military for my rucksack and sea bags. I recall numerous times going through my rucksack looking to the bottom right corner where I always kept extra whatever, but for some reason the item wasn’t in that spot. You think you know where it’s at because you always pack your bag the same. Then, you tear your bag apart. I don’t know about you, but I hated that in the military. Packing cubes are especially nice if you are staying in hostels, if you’re in a dark room, and you don’t want to use a light because you’re trying to be courteous. 

Bucky Pratt layoutAbove: Layout of the main pack contents, which includes everything necessary to reset at the end of the day and sustain months of adventure.  A detailed breakdown of all the contents can be found at: grmlnglobal.com.

The bag I have is a top, front, and bottom load. A little bit more vulnerable in some ways, but the convenience of it is important to me. I also pack braided steel cable with me. A lot of times if I’m staying in a hostel where they don’t have lockers, or I’m on a train, I’ll take that and I’ll loop it through my backpack to avoid anyone easily snagging my bag when I’m out or asleep. 

Before arriving in a new country, what are the steps you take?

Bucky Pratt: I do preparation ahead of time before I arrive to a new place. I always look up the location of the embassy or consulate. Get a local SIM card. Make a reservation at an accommodation, even if it’s just for one night. I’d rather know where I’m going for one night than show up and have no clue. I use an offline GPS map app to mark locations — that way if I can’t get a SIM card, at least I have the locations marked and I can just look at the map and figure out my route to get there. Figure out where the closest medical facility is. Look up local news, crime rates, etc. When I arrive to an accommodation, I assess the area. That includes entry/exit points of the building, security cameras, fire exits, is there staff on duty 24/7, etc. After checking in, I try to make a habit of conducting an expanding square around the accommodation. 

Have you ever changed your mind about staying at a shady place?

Bucky Pratt: Yeah. There’s been times I’ve rolled up and checked around and decided it wasn’t for me. But also, when I’m doing preparation, like the cost of a place will say a lot. Now it’s not always this way, but if it’s a $3/night hostel, the chances of it being a shady place with easy access goes up. If there is a place with a higher price, I’ll pay a couple extra bucks to stay somewhere nice. But yeah, I’ll move out of area that rubs me the wrong way. Location is a big thing — if it’s off the beaten path or it’s in a spot that’s weird to get to, those are things that will make me find a different location. The area has a lot to do with it.

Bucky Pratt divingAbove: Diving in the Gulf of Thailand.

Another thing is the staff. If something about the staff seems off, I might change my mind about where I am staying. There have been places with signs of forced entry into the room. I stayed at this hotel in Cairo, and the door to my room looked like it had been broken into more than a few times. That place made me a little uncomfortable, but my friends picked it and I was not about to ask them to rebook. I just made sure to not leave anything of value in my room while I was gone. I usually used steel cable to secure my big bag inside of a wall cabinet. Was it super secure? No, but a slight deterrent.

After spending over a year abroad living out of your backpack, what items will you change or add on your next trip?

Bucky Pratt: I will add a couple more items to my medical kit, such as QuikClot, a quality poncho, lock pick set, counter-custody items, and a high-viz panel. You just never know when you’ll need something to get out of a sticky situation. I will also pack less overall. It’s pretty easy to get stuff anywhere in the world. It might not be the highest quality, but it’ll do the trick in a pinch.

Looking back, is there anything you think you should have added to your planning process?

Bucky Pratt: I would have planned to do less. After the first 14 countries, I was really burned out, moving too fast. Feeling rushed is not fun and you miss out on the good stuff. By slowing down you get to see more of the country you’re in. It also brings down costs a little due to less transportation cost.

Bucky Pratt divingAbove: Exploring the depths of the Andaman Sea.  

You’re out there in the great wide world roughing it. What are your thoughts about how average people might react taking on this kind of challenge?

Bucky Pratt: What a lot of people in society lack is challenge. Traveling like this, for me, is the kind of challenge that is meaningful. I like living out of a backpack and having very little. I enjoy exploring new places. I may be slightly uncomfortable, or in an adverse location, but it also makes me feel more alive than ever. It’s the closest I’m getting to having the adrenaline and the joys of past experiences, and I have made it a part of my road to recovery. After all my planning, it all comes together. It’s inspiring me to open more doors, you know, I don’t want to be held back. I want the rest of my life to be a better story than what preceded it.

Have you made any meaningful connections during your travels?

Bucky Pratt: That’s the interesting thing about traveling. You make connections quickly. It’s very reminiscent of being in the military in that way, because you’re able to make these strong connections in a short time. Not that I still stay in touch with a lot of people, but there are a few people that I have and will continue to stay in touch with. And sometimes as much as I like to say I would rather avoid people, life really does come down to connections. Companionship, not in an intimate way, just companionship. What I’ve learned and experienced is so valuable and mind-opening. Especially today where people aren’t communicating as freely as previous years.

Bucky Pratt travelingAbove: Bucky stands with friends next to a retired scientist in Vattakanal, India. The gentleman kindly invited Bucky and his companions into his home for coffee and conversation.

Is there anything else you would like to pass along to anyone reading this?

Bucky Pratt: I would tell people, just be open-minded and be willing to try new things. I have to say this quote. It’s by Pico Iyer: “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again — to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”

I feel like we need to try slowing down. Life does not need to be as busy and hectic as it’s made out to be. Screw the rat race, man. Travel should be a thing where you slow down smell the roses. And I don’t know, I feel like it’s just so built into our DNA to move around. The instinct to explore and see what’s over the next hill. I just tell people, you know, find something, and go for it. Don’t be scared of the unknown, instead embrace the fear of the unknown and dive in. Growth is found in the uncomfortable situations. 

Bucky Pratt on a trainAbove: Watching the ground get further away while crossing the Goteik viaduct while en route to Mandalay from Hsipaw, Myanmar.

Final Thoughts

Selling off the majority of your worldly possessions to backpack the globe may or may not be for you. But the lessons learned are applicable to almost anyone, almost anywhere. They’re tried, tested, and confirmed across geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic borders. Bucky can be found on Instagram under the handle @grmln_global for more advice and introspection from around the world.  

Photos Courtesy of Bucky Pratt and Alexandra Vautin (@alvautin.media)

MORE SPOTLIGHTS AND GEAR ON OFFGRID

What If You’re Stuck in a Country Consumed by Political Turmoil

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It’s 2021 and many travel restrictions have lifted, offering people the opportunity to finally vacation internationally or visit other countries for business. Although it may have seemed like COVID was the only big concern when considering foreign travel, political turmoil can be just as contagious, unpredictable, and deadly as a conventional disease. Whether it’s the 8888 Uprising in Burma, 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, or recent presidential assassination in Haiti, situations can often unfold with little to no ability to estimate how it’ll impact national stability or treatment of foreigners.

Despite whatever planning you may have thought was adequate and thorough, your overseas travel may put you in the wrong place at the wrong time with only local resources to assist you in seeking safe haven. If you were stuck in a country that was suddenly reduced to chaos and the political rhetoric on the ground shifted blame to people of your nationality, how would you deal with potentially being labeled as a threat to the local government? Risking capture could result in interrogation, imprisonment, or even death. 

Situation Type: Traveling Abroad
Your Crew: Yourself
Location: Southeast Asia
Season: Autumn
Weather: Humid; high 88 degrees F; low 63 degrees F

The Scenario:

The Setup: You take a trip to Southeast Asia, a region you’ve traveled to many times in the past, to visit a plant that manufactures goods for your company. You plan to spend a few days visiting with your associates there, but you only have a marginal understanding of the local language, culture, laws, and key facilities, such as the American embassy. Protests have been frequent in the area during the last few weeks, and most have culminated in a few arrests before crowds were dispersed by police. This time feels different. Over the next few days, you begin to worry as police presence and the size of the protests seem to be escalating. The national news is continually blaming Western influence for the corruption and continued civil unrest. As if the guilt by association couldn’t get much worse, you’re also informed that all foreign diplomats are in the process of being expelled, embassies are being forced to close, and all foreigners — particularly Americans — are being explicitly named as subversives by the government.

The Complication: You wake up a couple days before your flight home to the sound of gunshots outside your hotel. Peeking out your window, you can see a column of military vehicles moving down the street, with uniformed troops marching alongside. Citizens are fleeing in fear. You turn on the TV, and the American news channel in your hotel room is saying that protests have morphed into an attempted coup that was crushed by the government. In response, the government is now detaining and questioning any foreigners.

After speaking with a few other Americans in your hotel, you learn that the government is intermittently shutting down internet access, similar to what went on during the Arab Spring and more recently in Myanmar. You’re also informed that secret police are beginning to monitor hotels for foreigners, and that access to the airport has been compromised by a military blockade. As an American, you fear your passport may put you in jeopardy. The prison conditions are terrible, and you’re aware that many people have been incarcerated in this country indefinitely without even having a trial. 

What do you do? Who can you call? Do you have any rights whatsoever? The language barrier proves an even greater obstacle to navigate. What steps can you take to explain the situation believably and receive assistance from family, the State Department, or anyone else who can help you out? We’ve asked security expert Danny Pritbor as well as international media correspondent Miles Vining for their recommendations on how to deal with the situation.

Years ago, a mentor and longtime friend shared a quote that stuck with me throughout my years of service: “Movement without observation equals death.” At the time, the context was in reference to a low-light firearms course, where he was explaining the constant need for situational awareness. To be effective in the tactical environment, you need to process and prioritize data rapidly — in other words, stay “switched on.” As my career progressed, and the areas of operations shifted from domestic to international, I realized the saying couldn’t be truer. But based on my experiences, I’m going to add to the quote, “Movement without observation and preparation equals death.” I, along with countless others serving in operational roles, often in hostile environments, have learned some hard lessons, usually after the action takes place, and many times after lives are lost.

Security Expert Danny Pritbor’s Approach

Preparation

Prior to an overseas trip, I conduct a risk assessment. Using open-source satellite imagery, I get an overview of the area. First, I locate my hotel, the airport, and worksite. Secondly, I start to identify where my friendly locations are, like the U.S. Embassy or allied embassies. Other key locations are hospitals, alternate airports, or maritime ports. 

I identify my primary routes and secondary routes to frequently traveled locations. I research information on activities such as crime, terrorist actions, and government/civil unrest. My focus is initially on the city or town I’ll be traveling to, then working outward to the provinces and country. I pay close attention to the entire region as well; neighboring countries may have turmoil that can bleed over and affect the area of travel. By taking these steps, I establish where and when these significant acts are taking place and pinpoint the highest risk. Then, I can take steps to mitigate the risk. 

For example, I advised a group of college-aged individuals who would be traveling through parts of North Africa. They wanted to take the train, which was the common mode of transportation. There was a low to moderate threat of terrorist activity in the region. After the group attended our travel security course, they quickly understood that the train would make them vulnerable to “time and place predictability” as well as place them in a crowded environment where women are often sexually assaulted. Because they understood the risk, they developed an alternate plan which allowed for greater flexibility in how and when they traveled.

Now that there’s an understanding of the risks and situational awareness of the environment, I develop what’s called a “base monitored movement plan.” It’s pretty simple: I have someone back home who is my base monitor. I share my communications and travel plans with them. For example, I’ll check in every 24 hours at 6 p.m. local time on primary communications, which I’ll have listed as a text from my cell phone (alternate is an email; contingency is satellite text via Garmin inReach Explorer+). 

For any missed check-ins, I establish a shorter window. If I miss my 6 p.m. check-in, I attempt again as soon as possible; but if it’s midnight with no contact, my base monitor will need to consider calling the listed emergency contacts of the area I have listed in the plan. When civil unrest takes place, airports are the first to shut down. Haiti is the prime example of this and Egypt during the Arab Spring. I build options for alternate means of departures from the country. Along with my alternate communications plan, I take into consideration establishing evacuation plans which include air, land, and sea (or other body of water) options. 

What I typically do is have a pro word — a shorthand procedure word representing a predetermined meaning — designated for each city and/or evacuation plan. Should I need to affect a specific plan, I’ll send the pro word to my base monitor, and they know which plan is in effect. That way I keep my travel plans off communications.

What If You're Stuck in a Country Consumed by Political Turmoil

As a traveler, I carry two lines of gear. In principle, each line consists of the following categories: medical, communications, and personal defense. I add to these, but don’t omit any of the three. This system has served me and others well by ensuring an overlap of these critical items. If I were considered a resident or living abroad, I’d expand my lines of gear to a third (vehicle) and even a fourth (residence) line. Important note: the lines shouldn’t appear military/tactical, so leave the MOLLE and Velcro-covered bags at home. 

The first line is carried on my body. For medical, I carry a pressure bandage, usually a 4-inch Israeli bandage, stripped out of the package. I remove it from the primary marked packaging to give it a sterile look (no government markings) to avoid any questioning should my bags get searched. The bandage is packaged in a second, clear unmarked wrapper to keep it clean. I also carry a CAT Tourniquet in a non-tactical color (i.e. orange). Both these items are carried in an ankle med kit and/or cargo pockets. 

My primary form of communication is my cell phone. On it, I have my navigation and various communication applications. These apps require cell signal or Wi-Fi. Many of the navigation apps can be used offline, without cellular signal. (We could go down a rabbit hole with digital security, so that’ll be left for another time.) 

Carrying weapons abroad is always tricky. Personal defense gear will have to be a personal decision; choose items that can be explained and have a plan to do so. I try to stay within the law of the land, making every attempt to avoid scrutiny when crossing the border. I carry a SureFire Tactician flashlight and often opt to travel without my name-brand fixed blades. Once on the ground, I’ve been known to head over to a night market or hardware store for items such as a screwdriver or paring knife. I make a sheath out of cardboard, duct tape, and string (for a lanyard). These items can be disposed of in a hurry, or if questioned, I can provide a reasonable explanation as to why I have the items. The bottom line is I have a plan for personal defense. 

It’s important to note, I discreetly stash my passport in my first line. This is just in case I get separated from my second line/go-bag. During stressful situations people have been known to leave go-bags behind. I usually bring emergency cash ($2K to $5K) and/or items that can be used to barter with. Credit cards will not be useful during lawlessness and disorder. These items are hidden away in my first line.

My second line is a medium-sized backpack or messenger. I carry additional medical, communications, and items for personal defense. For medical, a full-sized individual first aid kit (IFAK) along with a booboo kit (Band-Aids and over-the-counter meds). Communications consists of Garmin inReach Explorer+ (satellite texting unit), spare batteries, charging cables, and 20,000 mAh (minimum) external battery pack. Additionally, I have a couple of headlamps, a spare flashlight, batteries, snacks, baby wipes, gloves, water purification tablets, copies of my passport/documents, compass, and rain gear.

An often-overlooked aspect of foreign travel is “denying evidence.” Understand that your social media footprint provides a great deal of information about who you are, what you do for a living, and where you stand politically and religiously. If you’re detained by the local authorities, and questioned about why you’re there and who you work for, what will they find on your social media feed? Many cultures operate on what is called a “shame and honor” system. Will your feed depict you as an honorable person? I want my social media to support my reasons for being there. 

If questioned about who I am and what I’m doing there, I should be able to provide a short, legitimate statement (SLS). For example, “I work in the textile industry, and I am visiting companies A, B, C, regarding our manufacturing needs.” If I’m in the textile business, then my feed should reflect that. No political statements, pictures of the wild night of partying, provocative behavior, and statements that would be considered disrespectful to the local religion. I’m mindful that I’m in their country and U.S. civil rights no longer apply. In other words, I have a solid “backstop” and show that I’m honorable.

On Site

If my business requires multiple trips to a location, I work toward improving my initial plans. Once on the ground, I hone in on the patterns of life: what government officials dress like, what the checkpoints look like, where the checkpoints are located, traffic patterns, interactions between locals, just the day-to-day routines. The purpose is to determine what “right” looks like, so I know what “wrong” looks like. I build my network of strategic relationships, determining which locals can be of assistance, especially should I need to implement an evacuation plan or need a safe house. 

Perhaps my contacts in shipping at the textile factory can assist with a water evacuation via the port if necessary or a trusted official can help me lay low for bit. I work to make sure the evacuation plans developed back home are a reality on the ground. This will require familiarization of routes and scouting key areas. As my network of strategic relationships expand, I work to develop additional emergency communications plans and possibly implement a mesh network such as GoTenna Pro or similar. 

If I’m located near an embassy, I arrange a meeting with the Regional Security Officer to introduce myself and explain my travel and/or company’s purpose. Just as with the local relationships I mentioned, I work on building relationships with the embassy staff to get invited to functions and stay informed. 

Don’t ignore the danger signs! There’s usually a buildup to civil unrest and critical incidents. If you have your head on right and paying attention, you should be able to make your exit prior to any major shutdowns or disruptions. If you find yourself pinned down in your hotel room or somewhere in the “open,” you need to determine the best option based on the information on the ground. Remember, movement without observation and preparation equals death.

In the tactical community, there’s a great deal of emphasis on the hard skills, like various shooting and combative programs. There’s nothing wrong with having these skillsets, but keep in mind hard skills will be used after the “bang” takes place. For today’s world traveler, there should be an equal amount of time dedicated to honing soft skills, which focuses on mitigating risk and avoidance. A few of the topics to study are: Situational Awareness, Medical/TCCC, Surveillance Detection, Active Shooter Response, Security Driving, Actions on Contact, Digital Security, Building Risk Assessments, and Base Monitored Movement plans. Learn more about how to train for these in my author bio at the end of the article.

International Media Correspondent Miles Vining’s Approach

Preparation

If knowledge is the lightest piece of gear one could put in their travel bag, then interpersonal communication skills has to be the second lightest. The most important point I’d like to stress is that the crisis prompt is essentially a man-made problem that requires human solutions. If you can’t build tangible relationships and connect with other people on a personal level, no amount of survival gadgets are going to get you out of a bind of this magnitude in a foreign country.

One thing we shouldn’t fool ourselves with is being some sort of Jason Bourne or James Bond figure who sneaks through the shadows of a foreign locale. Looking to historical precedent, it needs to be pointed out that for many of the great “Western” explorers who have conquered Everest (Edmond Hillary), crossed the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula (Wilfred Thesiger), or ran humanitarian missions into war-torn Burma and Syria (David Eubank), there has always been an equally competent or even more ambitious local counterpart/guide who has helped to navigate the human and terrain environment. This is why every successful news crew in the world has behind-the-scenes “fixers” whenever they go into foreign countries.

So, when it comes time to deal with a crisis, don’t think for one second that you won’t need the assistance of the local populace. In fact, to not take local cooperation into account is to doom yourself to failure. Whether it’s an actual guide, a driver getting you across the city, a shopkeeper to provide you with food and water, or a friendly translator, you’re going to have to negotiate, barter, explain, and even beg with people who don’t share your language, nationality, religion, or values. How successful you are at this process could mean the difference between going to a foreign jail or going home.

Gear

For communications, I usually want to have several types of data and cellular service. Ideally, I have a local SIM card, an international SIM card, and preferably two cell phones. One phone I like to call my “dirty” phone, where I download and interface with all the host countries’ applications and registrations. The other one, my “clean” one, I try to keep separate with my personal information, my more confidential calls, etc. Beyond cellular phones, some very good devices that exist are satellite pagers where I can get GPS coordinates, send SMS messages via satellite, and even push preset emergency messages to designated recipients. Spot X is one such company that has very economical packages. For a full communications capability, I no longer need to lug around a bulky Pelican case with the ubiquitous folding antenna sat phones that barely work half the time. SatSleeve from Thuraya is a very compact clip-on device that simply connects to my iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth. But with these two types of devices, I need to take into account the fact that, if I’m held in a foreign country already suspicious of my intentions, finding unregistered satellite communications technology in my luggage is a solid indication that I’m some sort of spy.

What If You're Stuck in a Country Consumed by Political Turmoil

In regards to more gear, I like to be as efficient and self-sufficient as possible. My electronics need to be compatible with the host country’s outlets and voltage; if I can power them myself via solar chargers that’s a plus. I like to bring a repair kit consisting of Shoe-Goo, gaffer’s tape, and a sewing kit to fix small tears and issues that might come up. But much more important than gear, I need to realize what I have, and be able to replace these capabilities in-country with local amenities. I should be browsing local stores to see what might work better or is equal in comparison to the kit I’m bringing in. Amazon isn’t going to be there for me when I need it the most. I don’t want to be a hostage to my equipment, and I need to adapt when items fail.

With communications, I have to assume that everything I’m transmitting is being bugged, censored, or recorded some way or another. Applications such as Signal are great, but it doesn’t make a difference if the host country is able to covertly download software to your phone that monitors your keystrokes. Prearranged brevity codes are good to develop with family members and friends, but they have to be kept simple and dummy proof. For example, one brevity code I’ve used with my spouse is in referencing the third floor of our apartment if I were to get into a bind, but still have communications. Of course, our apartment doesn’t have a third floor, it only has two, but that’s the point. I can call her and say, “Would you mind looking through my hockey sticks in the third-floor storage room,” in response she could make up the flow of the conversation, but instantly realize that something is very wrong in my part of the world.

On-Site

Whenever I’m in a new location overseas, I need to try and seek out whatever environment I’m in, both the physical and the human terrain map. For the human terrain, I want to know who is in the area every day. The security folks, restaurant employees, gym employees, and receptionists. Can I establish a rapport, even a friendship that might be able to help me? Knowing my physical environment is critical as well. What roads, pathways, buildings, and structures show up on maps that don’t exist anymore, and vice versa. Offline mapping applications such as Maps.Me, or OsmAnd are fantastic when the network is down, but a thorough scouting should still be in order. On one occasion when I was climbing a hill in China, I came cross a patchwork of small-gauge power lines anchored on steel poles only knee-high. Sure, I could low crawl underneath them, but that wouldn’t have been an efficient route if I needed to get over that hill in a hurry with gear. Satellite images of the hill showed a bare surface.

When I’m staying in an unfamiliar sleeping location, I want to consolidate my belongings in a way that still allows me to efficiently get to them and use them, but also so that I can easily work from them. I can’t live in a state of hyper-preparedness, but I also don’t want to get caught with all my overseas worldly belongings littered across a hotel room. What I try to do is minimize the number of places where I keep my belongings. I pick three or four locations in a room and stick to them — the closet, the bathroom, my bedside table, and maybe a desk. I use my existing bags as organizers and wardrobes for my belongings.

Having a designated go-bag is definitely nice, but let’s keep things in perspective here. I’m in a foreign country, I need all my belongings. I don’t want to just survive; I want to thrive with all my equipment. Maybe I bounce out of that hotel room with my sweet go-bag and end up having to hunker down somewhere in-country for weeks at a time because the borders are closed due to the volatile political situation. If I have the liberty of 20 to 30 minutes in my room, wouldn’t I have wanted to at least attempt to gather the rest of my belongings, which should’ve only been in several locations to begin with?

That being said, I need to come up with a realistic evasion logistical plan. If I’m starting with no time at all, I can only leave with what I have on my person. That should be my passport (and a small laminated copy thereof in another location on my body), shoes, what I’m wearing, an ability to see at night, whether that’s a headlamp or a handheld light (which also works nicely as a blunt force weapon), my mobile device and a way to charge it, and a jacket (which can double as a blanket). This sounds simple, but let us imagine a scenario where you’re in your hotel or around the corner from it, and you cannot access your room due to a hostile takeover, a police barricade, or an angry mob rampaging and looking for foreigners (CWO Bryan Ellis was killed in this manner during the 1979 U.S. embassy riots in Islamabad).

Our second time slot is going to be that several-minute window where we can get our go-bag, throw a couple extra necessities in, and scram out the door. Now, we have a more nuanced approach to how we can live out of that bag for a limited period of time.

Our third time slot will be half an hour to perhaps an hour. You know a crisis is ongoing and you have to leave. If we can leave with all our belongings, let’s try for that. If we’re limited to our go-bag and maybe a secondary small bag, that works too. Now we can prioritize what we can jettison or keep when it comes to space. This would also be a good time to organize bags on priority, starting with what’s on your person first. If you have to jettison all your bags, what do you need to ensure stays with you? If you have to jettison one or two, which ones are they going to be, based on priority? We probably don’t want to chuck our laptop, power banks, and hard drives, but that suitcase with souvenirs, extra clothes, or items we can probably get locally anyway could probably go.

Crisis

When I’m in a foreign country that might be third-world, totalitarian governed, and even at peace, I’m working with the notion that everyone I meet already assumes I’m a spy, an agent, or some kind of intelligence officer for the United States. I’ll actually never be able to rid myself of this assumption. But I do have the ability to either lessen the spy bias or increase it. By owning or carrying tactical items — even something as innocent as a C-A-T tourniquet, for example — the assumption of being an agent has been heightened. If I try not to lie and try to be honest with authorities, the spy assumption might be relaxed. How I present myself through my physical belongings, demeanor, attitude, and actions will bear a tremendous amount of weight in the minds of those whose authority will determine whether I can get on a plane back home or rot in an overcrowded jail. Now isn’t the time to be coming up with a cover identity or a supposed origin story. 

When I’m questioned, I want to stick to the facts. I don’t need to be opining about which side I support in the country, what I think about the deteriorating situation, or the United States’ role in the mix. What’s my business, what I am doing, what items I’m carrying, where I want to go, and how I want to leave.

Bribes are an incredibly tough subject overseas. They’re just as likely to get me in trouble as they’re able to get me out of trouble. Especially with bribing official authorities, because that adds more fuel to my case of being a no-good foreigner in someone else’s country. If I were to attempt a bribe, I’d try to relegate it to small, tangible actions that can be completed soon and in my vicinity — bribing a guard to open a gate, a ticket manager to change a ticket. I’m in no position to make open-ended, complicated, behind-the-scenes negotiated agreements that’ll lead to my release. This isn’t my turf, and I don’t know the human terrain with the right relationships in positions of power. What kind of language I use is especially key as well. Many authorities who take in bribes regularly don’t like to refer to it in such crass terms. Instead of saying, “Can I pay you to open this gate,” maybe try, “I would like to give you a bonus for your hard work,” or “If you can help me with something, I can monetarily return the favor.” An outright bribe of “I’ll pay you a certain amount to do this for me” might end up insulting someone severely. Put on your best thinking shoes and work some diplomacy.

When looking at international organizations for help or escaping to neighboring countries, I’ll have to tap into pre-existing networks somehow. There are numerous emergency travel insurance companies out there that work in ways that can be very beneficial. This doesn’t mean they’ll be fast-roping into your compound with an armed extraction team, but it does mean they might be able to arrange plane tickets with travel agencies they’re friendly with, or have folks in those countries come and provide places to stay or advice. Global Rescue and Ripcord are two such companies, but there are several out there.

Conclusion

The key to any of these situations is going to be your intuition and people skills. Work through some of these scenarios with an assumption of being stripped of everything you know apart from your clothes, then revisit how you would handle that situation. The gear is great, but your interpersonal skills need to be one step ahead. Stay cool, calm, and collected, build up your sources, verify your news, act with confidence, and go with your intuition.

Pay attention to escalating problems in any area you plan to visit. A population’s confusion and overall disposition about a situation can be easily exacerbated by mass media and sudden turmoil. Check the U.S. State Department website for travel advisories prior to venturing abroad. Having redundant forms of communication to relay information to anyone back home, multiple escape routes, and friendly local contacts are just a few necessities that could mean the difference between survival and incarceration.

No one needs to know anything about you other than what you look like to form inaccurate and dangerous assessments that could put your life in danger. Although the reality may be that regional unrest has nothing to do with you personally, the perception on the ground may be that it does. Don’t assume this situation is only specific to other countries. You may have to apply these lessons to a domestic situation if civil stability continues to decline.

[Editor's Note: Illustrations by Cassandra Dale.]

About the Authors

danny pritborDanny Pritbor, director and owner of Firebase Combat Studies Group, currently serves as a Department of Defense contractor. Danny’s career spans over 29 years with service as a U.S. Marine, law enforcement SWAT officer, Department of Energy and Department of State contractor, federal agent, and private security consultant. He’s served worldwide in various war zones and high-threat areas. His company partnered with Panoplia to develop a nine-hour, online training program called Soft Skills and Tactics. It consists of three parts, nine lessons with 45 topics covered. In conjunction with the online course, Firebase offers a two-day security training program that consists of lecture, hands-on, and a field training exercise with stations that push participants to take charge, make decisions, and problem solve. For more information on the online SST program, please visit to panoplia.org. You can also reach Danny at firebasecsg.com.

miles vining

Miles Vining spent his childhood and teenage years growing up in Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia, returning to the region after his service in the Marines to work with an international relief group that works in conflict zones in Iraq, Syria, and Sudan. He also worked in digital media with a local Afghan company in Kabul. Beyond RECOIL, his work has appeared in Small Arms Review, The Firearm Blog, the TFB TV YouTube channel, and Strife Blog. Currently, he’s the editor of Silah Report, an online resource group focused on researching historical and contemporary small arms and light weapons from the Middle East and Central Asian regions. Learn more at www.silahreport.com.

MORE SCENARIOS TO CONSIDER:

 

The Art of Exploitation: Urban Movement and Urban Camo

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Exploitation is a word that carries a negative connotation — to take unfair advantage of circumstances, using every available resource for selfish gain. But when it comes to survival, there’s no denying the effectiveness of this ruthless approach. Those who lie, cheat, and steal sometimes come out on top, at least in the short term. This is the dark side to survival, and it’s one we sincerely hope you never have to experience. Urban Movement is about navigating the concrete jungle through the eyes of a predator.

Anywhere humans gather, you’ll find masters of exploitation. They’re skilled manipulators who can blend seamlessly into polite society. One might be wearing a suit and tie as he approaches with a charming smile and friendly demeanor. Another might be clad in filthy rags, begging for a moment of your time and an ounce of charity. Either way, they’re not what they appear to be. They’re deliberately playing a character to achieve a desired result. If you fail to recognize these wolves in sheep’s clothing and understand their tactics, you’ll be easy prey.

As with many of the skills discussed on OFFGRIDweb, the purpose of learning the art of exploitation isn’t to equip you to victimize others — it’s to equip you to defend yourself and your loved ones against it. Use your knowledge responsibly.

Urban Movement Urban Camo

Above: On the first day, we discreetly assessed risk factors in the environment, including cameras, security personnel, and anything that might obstruct entry/escape routes.

Urban Movement

In order to learn the challenges of countering predators in an urban environment, we attended Ed Calderon’s two-day Urban Movement class. It covered the following objectives:

  •  Increased awareness
  •  Recognition of criminal indicators
  •  Urban resource identification and exploitation
  •  Modern fieldcraft (i.e. building tools and manipulating your surroundings)

Calderon based the curriculum on lessons he learned firsthand while growing up and working in one of the world’s most dangerous cities: Tijuana, Mexico. He explained that by practicing these skills in a realistic manner, students will walk away with a type of “scammer sixth sense” that lasts a lifetime. It’s an invaluable early warning system for impending danger, whether you’re in your own hometown, a major city, or a foreign country.

Scenario & Objectives

The Urban Movement class began with a discussion of theory, but that’s not the focus of this class — the real learning happens in the world outside the classroom. In our case, we’d be practicing exploitation skills in and around a large shopping mall.

Urban Movement Urban Camo locksAbove: Instructors attached a dozen pink locks throughout the mall. Students had to remove them without arousing suspicion, which posed a challenge in the crowded space.

The Urban Movement class was split into teams, with each consisting of approximately five students. Our objectives were as follows:

1. Find and retrieve 12 pink padlocks hidden throughout the environment. Locks that were removed without damage (picked or shimmed) were worth two points; locks that were broken were worth one point. All locks were purchased and placed by the instructors, and spray-painted pink so that we didn’t inadvertently pick a lock that belonged to someone else.

2. Collect as much cash as possible through panhandling. At the end of the Urban Movement class, all money students obtained was donated to charity.

3. Convince a stranger to allow you to use their cell phone. Each call our instructors received from a new number earned our team an additional point.

4. Stick a Loteria playing card to a stranger while remaining unnoticed. This wouldn’t be as simple as placing a card on someone’s back in a crowd — students were also required to obtain the name of each “carded” stranger, and provide video or photographic proof of the card being attached. Teamwork was necessary.

Urban Movement Urban Camo begging for moneyAbove: Students used social engineering skills to ask for cash donations from strangers. All funds were donated to charity at the end of the class.

Although we were careful not to break any laws, these activities could still lead to some real-world consequences from mall security or bystanders. The stakes were high, and none of us wanted to find out what would happen if we got caught red-handed.

Cover Story

“Always have a cover story,” Calderon says. In nature, the rattlesnake’s skin matches the dry brush that surrounds it. The praying mantis sways like a leaf in the breeze. The angler fish displays what appears to be a tasty morsel ready to be eaten. Each of these is a deceptive behavior used to misdirect other predators and lull prey into a false sense of security. But this same tactic can also be used in potentially dangerous situations to avoid confrontations altogether. Passing through a part of the city with ongoing protests about wealth disparity? If you’re armed with a “little white lie” (cover story) about visiting your elderly grandmother at her nursing home, as opposed to going to your job at a big investment firm, that could be enough to completely avoid harassment (or worse) without having to actively defend yourself. 

Urban Movement Urban Camo polaroid camera Above: Calderon says a Polaroid camera is like a money printer in some urban areas. Offer to take photos of strangers, then ask for a small fee in exchange for the printout.

Creating an effective cover story requires creativity, confidence, and acting skills. You’ll need a thorough knowledge of your environment, because offering a cigarette is a great way to start a conversation in some places, but it’s completely ineffective in others.

Emotional manipulation is a key factor that can be used to draw in bystanders and break down their defenses. This is why so many panhandlers appear with children, dogs, crutches or wheelchairs, religious phrases, and patriotic imagery — whether they’re genuinely in need of help or simply pretending, these elements play on our emotional heartstrings and drown out logical concerns. If you find yourself in need of assistance, having a bit of emotional intelligence and understanding the cues and dynamics that make people sympathize could decide whether you get help or a cold shoulder. 

On the flip side, aversion or disgust can be used to repel bystanders and avoid unwanted attention. Calderon said that when he was surveilling cartels on the streets of Tijuana, he would dress in shabby clothes, wear no deodorant, and avoid bathing for several days. Once passersby could smell him before they saw him, they’d automatically avoid him — it was as if he had become invisible. Many survival and self-defense instructors preach about being a “hard target” — looking like you’ll put up too much fight to be worth a bad guy’s effort. Calderon’s aversion philosophy turns this paradigm on its head. Instead of looking like a hard target, how about looking like not-a-target? Why bother trying to rob a guy who clearly has nothing to take?

Day One: Target Acquisition & Surveillance

In order to exploit an environment, you must know it inside and out. As Calderon put it, “Having a gun doesn’t make you armed and dangerous, just like having a plane doesn’t make you a pilot.” Preparation is essential — from a criminal perspective, this is often referred to as casing a target.

Case the Joint

If the thought of “casing” a place feels off-putting, consider that all you’re doing is establishing a local baseline — a topic we’ve discussed repeatedly in the context of situational awareness. Take note of all the typical activity during normal circumstances. In the context of an upscale shopping mall, this could include the type of shops in the area, cars on the street, pedestrian traffic, typical attire, and so on. Identify the eyes in the environment — security personnel, CCTV cameras, and observant bystanders. Pay special attention to anyone who appears hyperaware of their surroundings. These individuals are likely to be either protectors (law enforcement, security, and prepared citizens) or predators. Context will help you separate the two groups and ascertain who to avoid and who you can turn to for help.

Urban Movement Urban Camo patrick non-threatAbove: Cultivating a non-threatening appearance is beneficial. Wear layers of clothing so you can quickly change your appearance if anyone comes looking for you.

It’s also important to take note of entry and exit points, as well as the locks attached to them. In class, we went so far as drawing a map and noting which routes in and out of the area would be our primary, secondary, and tertiary options. Calderon discussed using “the way of the rat” and “the way of the bear” — the former might involve stealthily picking locks, while the latter might mean throwing a chair through a window. There are scenarios where each may be necessary.

Some casing can be done remotely. Check a venue’s website for maps and information about security — both were readily available on the mall’s site. Look at social media pages for busy days/times, upcoming events, and recent photos tagged in the target location. Google Street View is another excellent tool for remote casing, but keep in mind that its images may be several years out of date, or not representative of the time you’ll be moving through the environment. For the most accurate information, you’ll need boots on the ground.

Each five-person team spent about two hours systematically walking through the mall and recording valuable information via mental notes, text messages, photos, and videos. This included good hiding places where our target locks might appear, high-value spots for panhandling, uniformed and plainclothes security guards who might interrupt us, and choke points where we could “card” someone and walk away without being noticed. We returned to the Urban Movement classroom to share our findings and build a “mosaic” of all the data we collected.

Follow the Rabbit

One additional objective during the surveillance stage was to find a “rabbit,” a nickname derived from the skittish character in Alice in Wonderland. This was a specific individual — a complete stranger, chosen at random — who could be “researched” via open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques, based on information provided in idle chitchat. This is a technique commonly used by all sorts of people for a laundry list of nefarious purposes. Criminals use it to assess your material value or net worth for robbery or kidnapping. Aggressive social media “activists” use it to “dox” people who oppose their cause. At the time this article is being written, during the rapid fall of Afghanistan, the Taliban are using these methods to locate and hunt down fellow countrymen who supported U.S. and NATO efforts against them. 

ed calderon Urban Movement Urban CamoAbove: One team of students proved the effectiveness of a brazen “act like you belong” strategy by pretending to be a maintenance crew as they removed locks with bolt-cutters.

In our case, one member of our class found a young man working at a kiosk in the center of the mall and started up a conversation with him. After a few minutes, the man happily provided his name and Instagram handle, which served as a gateway into his personal life. We learned the part of the city he lives in, where he went to school, how long he had been working this job, his favorite sports team, the type of car he drives, and even found a few rap tracks he posted on SoundCloud. While we want to stress strongly that absolutely nothing was done with the information we found, the exercise was a somewhat unsettling demonstration of how easy it is to collect large amounts of personal data with very little to start with, and just how vulnerable the digital age has made us to human predators.

Day Two: The Operation

After a good night’s rest, we returned to the Urban Movement classroom prepared for our operation. Students dressed to match their teams’ plans. Some went for a non-threatening church group appearance — clean-shaven, with neatly combed hair, khakis, and pastel-colored button-down shirts. Others looked disheveled, with wrinkled clothing and messy hair suggesting homelessness. A few disguised themselves in high-visibility vests and hard hats to imply that they were working on a construction crew. Props were also incorporated — smashed cell phones, cameras, donation jars, and official-looking clipboards with sign-up sheets.

Urban Movement Urban Camo

Our team decided to primarily focus on fundraising, assigning three individuals to this task. Two members staked out the top of an escalator, looking for targets who might be easily persuaded to part with a few dollars. These well-dressed members politely approached strangers and asked for donations for a charitable cause, while a third student in plainclothes scanned the area for mall cops and anyone else who might tell us to get lost.

ed Calderon Urban Movement Urban Camo

Above: Students cautiously placed cards on a variety of people at the mall, including shoppers, employees, and even two oblivious security guards.

Meanwhile, one of our Urban Movement team members with lockpicking experience walked the perimeter searching for hidden pink locks. Awareness was critical, both to find the locks and to keep an eye out for anyone who might be watching us remove them. The final member, a young woman, looked for individuals who might be willing to allow her to borrow a cell phone.

ed calderon Urban Movement Urban Camo security guard

After spending about an hour and a half on these tasks, we all reported back to the food court to collaborate on the final phase: carding. We picked a sales associate in a department store as our mark. One member of the group approached to ask innocuous questions about products, while another brushed by behind the associate to place the card on his back. A third person discreetly took photos from a nearby aisle, while the remaining two acted as lookouts. After the card was placed, the point man said, “I’ll come back later. What’s your name so I can give you credit for the sale?” Immediately after this, we all split in different directions before anyone could notice what happened.

The Results

Our Urban Movement team was able to successfully place one Loteria card, but an attempt to place a second proved unsuccessful since the next store was too busy and we couldn’t isolate an employee. 

Urban Movement Urban Camo fashion man in store

After returning to the classroom, we determined that we had made three phone calls — our female teammate was able to elicit sympathy to accomplish this task. Aside from that, our results weren’t so good. Despite our best efforts, mall patrons proved to be reluctant to donate any money, and our fundraising efforts only brought in a few dollars. Even for extroverts, it’s uncomfortable to ask strangers for cash, especially after several rejections. If you’re not experienced in face-to-face social engineering skills, don’t expect to be successful.

Urban Movement Urban Camo

The most efficient panhandler gathered more than $30 by setting up on a street corner with a cardboard sign that said “27 days homeless, please help.” However, it came at a price — he got spit on by a pedestrian who told him to go get a job.

As for the pink locks, our team didn’t see a single one. It turns out one of the other teams (the aforementioned hard-hat and high-vis-vest-wearers) immediately did a lap of the mall with a large pair of bolt cutters and cut off most of the locks. Plenty of people saw them, but thanks to their uniforms, nobody questioned their behavior. The remainder were found and picked or shimmed by other teams. A few students were even helped by total strangers who wanted to join in the fun. 

It Takes One to Know One

“Black magic is weaponized psychology,” says Calderon. An expert manipulator is as clever and convincing as a magician, but leaves a wake of victims who couldn’t figure out his trickery. These criminals don’t receive training from the CIA, graduate from SERE school, or take classes from well-known instructors. They hone their craft through drug deals, gang connections, prison time, and a hard life on the street. For them, exploitation is a fact of life.

ed calderon Urban Movement Urban Camo white rabbit

Although you can’t (and would never want to) directly replicate that experience, the best way to understand it is to get a small taste of it. Back in 1643, Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi wrote this:

“Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom.”

Ed Calderon Urban Movement patchAbove: At the completion of the class, each student received a patch depicting a wolf in sheep’s clothing — a lasting reminder of the adaptability of urban predators.

Calderon believes that the best warriors possess some characteristics common to liars, cheaters, and thieves but choose to use those skills for good. Although this Urban Movement class certainly pushed us out of our comfort zone, it also helped us develop a heightened sense of awareness and threat identification in urban areas. After all, it’s hard to scam someone who knows the playbook. 

For more from Ed Calderon: www.edsmanifesto.com

[Editor's Note: Photos by Niccole Marshall, Patrick McCarthy, and courtesy of Class Participants.]

More on Urban Survival

Russian Laser Light Show: Zenitco Perst 3 and Perst 4

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You would be forgiven if Zenitco wasn’t the first company that comes to mind when discussing weapon-mounted infrared (IR) lasers for night vision use. L3Harris, Steiner, and B.E. Meyers tend to be the first three manufacturers that enter the conversation with the Peq 15/ATPIAL C, Dbal, and MAWL respectively. However, in the last few years, the word “Perst” has shown up in online threads, discussed on YouTube, and seen on social media, and there’s a good reason for that. This year we’ve had the privilege of using the Zenitco Perst 4 and 3 lasers. Will Zenitco be the next well-known name to enter the shortlist when discussing IR weapon-mounted lasers in the United States?

Zenitco Perst 3

The Zenitco Perst 3 and the Perst 4 have a simple difference, the Perst 3 has an IR laser, visible laser, and a laser-based IR illuminator, whereas the Perst 4 has an IR laser and visible laser only. What is the better choice between the two? Simply put, if the intent is to mount an IR laser device on a firearm with serious night vision shooting in mind, we recommend the Perst 3. Having an IR illuminator onboard is essential for target identification and assessment. The exception to this would be if one were to use an IR head on a weapon light, such as a Surefire Scout Infrared Pro, but this limits the user in their capability to have on-demand white light- unless you’re willing to run a pair of flashlights, and at that point it might be time to ask yourself why you’re not just using an onboard illuminator. So, for most users, we recommend the Perst 3. The Zenitco Perst 4 can be a good choice for more casual night vision shooters, where the objective is less about assessing and identifying your target, and more about plinking at targets.

Zenitco Perst 3

Above: The Zenitco Perst 3 features a top-loading battery cap. 

The Perst devices are available in a green and red visible laser configuration. We’ve found that even with the same power output, the green seems a good deal brighter and much easier to see during the daytime. This is a massive benefit as we were able to see the lasers on paper in the middle of the day, and since the IR laser is slaved to the visible laser (slaved means they always adjust parallel to one another, so if you move one, you move the other) it made zeroing them incredibly easy.

Overbuilt is not a new word to the Russian way of making things, and the Perst lasers are no different. The Perst lasers have a CNC machined aluminum housing that doesn’t add too much weight. The Perst 3 weighs in at 11.8 oz, and the Perst 4 at 7.7. The Perst 3 trends slightly heavier than the competition where the Perst 4 is right in line with other IR/Vis laser options. Weight is always a consideration one must take, as an extra ounce can make a big difference at the end of a rifle.

Zenitco Perst 4

For a similar price point to the Perst series of lasers, one can purchase a DBAL A3/I2/D2 , or a Atpal C. These are all excellent choices but are considered Class 1 lasers. However, when purchasing an IR laser device from a dealer, you’ll find there’s a version you can purchase, and a version that is for government and law enforcement purchase/use only. That’s because lasers above a certain power or “class” are regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) and seen as “surgical devices”, and since we Americans can’t have things that the U.S. government decrees as “too dangerous”, civilians can only purchase Class 1 lasers.

Zenitco Perst 4

Above: The Perst 4 must be combined with an IR-Capable such as Surefire's Infrared Scout Light Pro

The Perst would technically be considered a Class 3 laser because of its max output- if it were to be regulated by the FDA. But it isn’t, as these are imported from good old Russia and not made in the Unites States or associated with the US government. This puts these lasers in a somewhat grey area as they can be legally purchased and shipped to your door but are more powerful than commercial spec Class 1 lasers. So, a pro tip: don’t shine lasers in people’s eyes.

Zenitco Perst 4 and Perst 3

All this being said, the Perst lasers are bright. And we mean REALLY BRIGHT. When held up against commercial Class 1 lasers, the Perst is substantially more powerful, even at its lowest output setting. When compared to Class 3 lasers, or the newer laser technology that’s found in systems like the B.E. Meyers MAWL, it’s much more comparable. However, power isn’t everything. Even at the lowest setting, the IR laser and illuminator can almost be too bright and nearly washing out the target you might be trying to identify. In a CQB situation, this could be a massive issue as fast and clear target identification is a must. On its max setting, it’s easy to identify a target well past 600 yards with some magnification. We would have liked to see the Perst have a wider range of settings when it comes to output, as lowering the brightness when the situation dictates would give the device more versatility.

Perst 3 dirty laser

Above: Perst 3 activated: laser only, no illuminator. Note the halo. 

When the Perst projects its laser downrange, one could describe it as “messy”, as it projects a large halo directly in front of the device. This added “splash” from the laser is both distracting and is pushing IR light downrange that isn’t required or wanted, and in a near-peer confrontation, this adds much to the user’s light signature. The illuminator is fully adjustable. The bezel can be twisted to change the size of the flood, and it can be adjusted in elevation and windage with a small torx key. Zeroing the illuminator is quite cumbersome, as the adjustments are on the front of the device. Since the illuminator is only in infrared, you’ll need to set up the weapon in a stationary position and it almost in front of the Perst 3 in order to make the necessary adjustments- without looking at the illuminator as this will need to be performed under night vision. Once you get the torx key in place, you’ll need to turn it without your fingers getting in the way of the illuminator’s flood- frustrating to say the least. Adjusting the lasers on the other hand is incredibly easy on both the Perst 3 and 4. It has capped windage and elevation turrets and adjust exactly like a riflescope or red dot.

Perst 3 versus peq 15

Above: Picture captured through L3 Harris Filmless tube with PVS-14 lenses. The splash on the left: Perst 3 on dual low setting. Right: PEQ 15 on Dual Low. Note the more concentrated beam of the illuminator on the Perst Unit. 

Both the Perst 3 and 4 ship with a tape switch, and like the units themselves, the tape switches are overbuilt, but rather large. The way it’s mounted to a 1913 rail is a bit strange and clunky, but once it’s affixed, it functions well enough. The tape switch has a fire button, as well as a sort of dimmer dial that can change the output setting on the Perst. The switch ends in a proprietary termination making it incompatible with other switches on the market. It can be affixed to the rear of the Perst by way of a locking collar than takes quite a bit of space. This means the tape switch must be mounted a few slots behind the Perst, making it an issue for firearms with limited rail space. The tape switch can always be added to the 3 or 9 o’clock of the Perst, but that comes at the cost of ambidextrous use and complicates things further depending on the type of rail is on the firearm. If the user has a Mlok or KeyMod handguard, they must add a 1913 section to mount an already large switch making it stick out obtrusively.Zenitco Perst 3Above: Both the Perst 3 and 4 have an indicator light on the back that informs the user that the laser is activated. 

Luckily for everyone, the Perst 3 and 4 have incredible, tactile buttons on the device itself, one on the top of the box, and the other on the back, just left of center (from the user’s perspective). We found ourselves using these fire buttons almost exclusively.

The laser and illuminator can be adjusted on the unit with + and – buttons for both the Perst 3 and 4 or the previously mentioned tape switch. The writing on the Perst is in Cyrillic, but the intuitive setting dial on the Perst lasers makes it easy to use, once you know what does what. On the Perst 3, in a counterclockwise direction, the settings are thus:

3          =   Visible Laser
ВЬІКЛ   =  Off
ИК        =  IR Laser
О          =  IR Illuminator
ИК+ О   =  IR Laser & IR Illuminator

The Perst 4 has only three settings:
3          =   Visible Laser
Unmarked detent that is the off setting
ИК        =  IR Laser

zenitco perst lasers

With the Biden administration cracking down on imports from Russia, we’re unsure how long these will remain available. Ordering off eBay might not be the best idea, but retailers like Ivan Tactical must have the right people in the right places (or enough cigarettes to go around), as they consistently get their product to their customers and are the primary dealer for Zenitco products in the Unites States. Overall, the Perst lasers are powerful, ergonomic when used without the included tape switch, easy to use and affordable. They have some shortcomings for sure, the inability to lower the brightness of the IR output past a still obscenely bright setting is by far its biggest flaw. But for what you get for the money spent, it is well worth it.

Zenitco Perst 3

Laser Light Source: Combined Green or Red Semiconductor Laser Module
IR Light Source: Laser Diode
Battery: Single CR123A
Dimensions: 115 x 77 x 34 Milimeters / 4.53 x 3.03 x 31.34 Inches
Weight: 11.8 Ounces
MSRP: $1,488 (Green), $1,190 (Red)

Zenitco Perst 4

Laser Light Source: Combined Green or Red Semiconductor Laser Module
IR Light Source: Laser Diode
Battery: Single CR123A
Dimensions: 37 х 60 х 91 Milimeters / 1.45 x 2.63 x 3.58 Inches
Weight: 7.7 Ounces
MSRP: $566 (Green), $466 (Red)

URL: en.zenitco.ru
U.S. Distributor: ivantactical.com

MORE ON NIGHT VISION, TACTICAL GEAR, AND FIREARMS

Urban Survival Challenge: C-Note Shopping Spree

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Is survival cost-prohibitive? We asked ourselves that very same thing and decided to challenge a few of our regular contributors to see how far they could stretch 100 bucks. We asked them to envision what they’d need in an unfamiliar urban setting with mild weather (60 to 80 degrees F) with the following parameters:

72-hour time frame: The resources you buy will need to get you through the next three days relatively unharmed. Consider protection from the elements, self-defense, and any other tools you might need for this urban setting.

Urban Survival Challenge storefrontMoney easily circumvents problems, so this challenge forced our contributors to think creatively and spend their limited budget wisely.

No escape: We want you to consider how you’d manage your limited cash and prioritize supplies, so you can’t simply call a cab and buy a ride to a safer location.

No assistance: You’re in this alone, so you can’t just find a phone and ask for help from law enforcement or flag down a passerby.

No shelter: You’ll be stuck sleeping on the streets and cannot buy a room at a hotel.

No food: You can probably find water to drink from a tap somewhere in the city, but won’t have any way to carry it. And unless you’re going to dig through dumpsters for food or live with the discomfort of hunger pains, you should consider including a source of calories in your $100 budget.

Scavenging is OK: It’s permissible to gather additional resources from your environment, but you should only do so legally. For example, using public water fountains and electrical outlets is allowed, but shoplifting is not.

shopping cart at a hardware store

See what everyone’s procurements consisted of to further understand what your options are if you can only survive with what you can purchase and find. 

Morgan Rogue’s Approach

Being in an urban setting can be limiting, but also has many advantages. In this instance, I’m thinking of my particular urban setting, which would be in Alaska where water is mostly abundant, but our big cities are still pretty typical urban environments. The time of year is summer, so it’ll probably rain, but at least it won’t be in negative temps with snow covering the ground. 

One of the many benefits of an urban setting is the scavenging. There’s a lot of trash that could be repurposed. If you have the time, there’s also dumpster diving, which could result in a few goodies. Be sure to carefully inspect any food items you may come across to prevent getting sick. Illness or injury aren’t your friends in any scenario, but especially not a survival scenario. Here’s the gear I chose to purchase with $100 and why.

camp axe urban survival gear

Ax ($12.48): An ax is pretty versatile. It can be used to chop down limbs from trees, cut up paracord, dig, and even serve as a defensive item. This will hang out on my belt; though I’d try to conceal as best as I could, I would want this as easily accessible as possible. 

sillcock key

Sillcock key ($11.02): Since I’ll be in an urban area, there’ll be an opportunity to get water from spigots attached to the outside of buildings. I’d only be doing this in a survival situation; a sillcock key should not be used for everyday reasons. 

tarp

Tarp ($4.42): I didn’t originally want a tarp, because they can be bulky and heavy, but my local stores were out of almost all emergency sleep systems, so I got creative. This tarp is fairly light. I wouldn’t only be using it as shelter, it’d also be used as a backpack to carry my stuff when I’m on the move. Plus, tarps are a common sight in urban areas. This would help me blend in. 

Using the tarp as a backpack.Above: Using the tarp as a backpack.

Food ($20.86): This scenario reminded me of how I’d pack my go-bag. I don’t want to hassle with boiling water for freeze-dried foods. I wanted ready-to-eat foods that I could eat on the go and of course, wouldn’t require any refrigeration. I chose a variety pack of Nature Valley bars, three-pack of tuna salad kits, and 12-pack of fruit pouches. These foods won’t fulfill my total nutritional or caloric needs, but they'll certainly help keep me motivated for 72 hours. Any food will be better than no food, and I may be able to scavenge food or wild edibles around the city or the outskirts. 

dollar store survival gear

Water filter ($22.97): Though I’d be getting a majority of water from the spigots using the sillcock key, I wanted the option to purify that as well. In addition to purifying water from a wild source if needed, this particular filter comes with a bag to fill with water. I’d normally want to carry more water or water bags, but since I’m in an area with an abundance of water sources, I wasn’t too concerned with being able to refill my bottle easily. I may also be able to scavenge additional plastic bottles. With a little rinse and some soap from a nearby park bathroom, they’d be good to use. 

emergency blanket

Emergency blanket ($1.98): In this scenario, the temps would be between 60 to 80 degrees F, so an emergency blanket would be nice for a quick layer, or to lay on top of. I could also scavenge some newspapers as additional layers on top or bottom for sleeping purposes. 

headlamp

Headlamp ($8): Light is helpful, that’s for sure. This particular headlamp came with batteries, so that was a win-win, I didn’t have to spend extra money on batteries. I also prefer being hands-free as much as possible. 

toilet paper tissues

Toilet paper ($1.68): Still gotta go, even in a survival situation! 

tent pegs

Tent pegs ($2.98): Since I have a tarp, I’d most likely want to set it up as a shelter and these lightweight tent pegs will certainly help. We have pretty soft ground so these will do just fine. If I were in an area with a lot of rock or clay, these may not work out so well. Knowing your area will be key to picking out proper tent spikes. 

poly cord cordage

Cordage ($3.43): Again, if I want to make a shelter, some cordage will be useful. This cordage also came in handy when I wanted to make the tarp into a backpack. The cordage isn’t comfortable, that’s for sure, but if it became a really bad, unbearably uncomfortable issue, I can always pad with moss or something else that I scavenge. 

spork

Spork ($2.27): After purchasing this I realized I had no need for it. Not even the tuna packs would need this, as they come with their own mini utensils. I had originally picked this up because my first thought was to purchase freeze-dried meals. But once I nixed the freeze-dried meals, I didn’t put the spork away, so I suppose now I’m stuck with a nice spork. 

Total spent: $94.12 

Since I had a little leftover, I could purchase a couple small things around the city such as bottles of water, a sandwich, or other necessities. It's good to have a little cash on you. It really depends on the situation if this would even be possible. 

I wrapped it all up in the tarp, tied some cordage around it, and slung it over my shoulders to use as a backpack. I left the headlamp around my neck and ax on my belt, both for easy access. Water would come out and stay out after the first use, for easy access. 

morgan rogue urban survival gear challenge

Have the ax handy for whatever I may need it for.

The purpose is to survive. With these items, as well as the clothes on my back and some scavenging, I believe I’d be fine for 72 hours. It wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but it would keep me alive for the next phase, which would hopefully be getting my booty out of the city. 

The one thing I didn’t get but wanted? A first-aid kit. I looked pretty hard, actually. Many, many items were out of stock in the store I purchased from. Being creative is what really made this all come together. I also had to purchase the sillcock key in a separate store. 

Everyone will choose different items based on skill set and region and that’s what makes this exercise unique. Though it’s not perfect, I’d highly recommend everyone do this if you have a disposable $100. After spending that money, you’d have $100 worth of gear you can now test out and enjoy, or realize you hate it and never buy it again. Either way, you’ll be a little better prepared.  

Alexander Crown’s Approach 

An urban setting with only $100 and we must survive 72 hours? In this scenario, there’s no civil unrest, no natural/manmade disaster; we’re basically homeless for three days. $100 is generous considering what your basic needs for this time period are. 

I am opting for the stealth camper approach and plan to set up shop for three days in a wood line along a hiking/biking trail in town. Parts of this area can span 50 to 75 yards of thick brush and woods, giving an ideal spot to make a small, camouflaged dwelling to hunker down in. In my urban area, this trail parallels the river, which is going to provide me with the valuable resource of water and entertainment. My goal is to hunker down and maintain noise and light discipline — so no fires and no unnecessary movement. Water resupply will be performed in the early morning and evening. I want to look like any other person out on the trail for a nice walk. 

alexander crown urban survival gear challenge

Anyone who has spent time outdoors knows that establishing a routine and having entertainment can go a long way to staying mentally intact. 

To keep a somewhat realistic setting, I chose two stores within walking distance of each other and about 2 miles from the walking path area. The first store where I hoped to meet most of my basic needs was the Dollar Tree. At this first stop I was able to purchase the following items:

Leopard print scarf: “Camouflage” and acts as a bandana, which has countless uses.

Cotton T-shirt: The shirt is brown and will add to blending in and can also be used for initial water filtration, stuff sack and most importantly a pillow when shoved with leaves and grasses.

Small backpack: I bought this not knowing if I would be able to find a better bag within my price later. I was, so this is now for organizing within the larger bag.

72-count baby wipes: These are for toilet paper replacement and other personal hygiene.

Sudoku book: This will be a long 72 hours, so keeping some form of entertainment felt necessary.

Drink mix: This has a very high amount of vitamin C and will break up the water monotony. 

Instant coffee: This will help give a little jolt of caffeine when needed and will make the water less boring.

X2 Sardines: Sardines are excellent survival food with high amounts of protein and omega-3’s. These two cans have 300 calories total, and I plan to eat one on the first day and one on the second day. 

(1) bottle Tylenol: I expect some aches and pain from sleeping on the ground and, in general, poor sleep, so these will help with headaches and body aches.

420 feet cotton twine: This will be the main cordage for my small shelter combined with the shower curtains. 

(2) Snickers bars: High carbohydrate and sugar food for quick energy, and I really like Snickers bars. Allocation is one per day for two of the days. Each bar is 250 calories.

Baby Ruth bar: High carbohydrate and sugar for quick energy and to change it up from the previous Snickers. This bar is 260 calories.

(2) Peanut butter: Peanut butter is high in fat, carbohydrates, and has some protein, making it a great survival food that is high in calories. These two small tubs equal 3,600 calories and will be a bulk of the calorie intake.

Pair of extra socks: Foot care is extremely important and allowing socks and feet to dry out will keep your dogs from barking, so an extra pair of socks seemed ideal. These are women’s, but fortunately for me I have smaller feet. 

(2) Pencils: These are mostly for the Sudoku book, but some of the pages could also act as a journal for intel collection or random important thoughts. 

(2) Shower curtains: The main portion of the small lean to shelter. These are dark in color and relatively thin, so I opted for two of them in case of rips. If only one is needed to get a roof over my head, the other will act as a stuff sack for leaves and grass to create a small, insulated sleep cushion. 

BIC lighter: A mainstay of survival. Although I don’t have the intention of creating a fire, I want the option and with the large candle I can have a small light at night and maybe bring my temperature inside the shelter up if insulated well enough. 

Candle (not charged): While being rung up with the items, the cashier mistakenly missed this. I do feel bad, however, in this instance it’s a bonus item and didn’t take away from my funds. I’d want to half bury this candle to ensure it isn’t knocked over and would only use it sparingly to maintain light discipline.

Total Spent: $22.26 

The next store I went to was Fred Meyer, a large chain grocery store that has the usual camping section. I was unable to find a suitable blade at the dollar store, or at least one I felt comfortable using for general field work so my goal at this store was water and cutting. I think I was able to accomplish this relatively well.

fred meyer urban survival gear challenge backpack camp axeMaking sure everything fit in a discreet package was my overall goal, and this bag was the best I could find. While the small camp hatchet is a diverse tool, from shelter building to defense, the downside of something this cheap was the edge left a lot to be desired. Keeping it in the bag didn't lend itself well to quick use when moving, but it fit the price and should last much longer than 72 hours. 

Backpack: During the time of this writing, it was back-to-school time so many stores had school supplies. This backpack was on sale from $10 to $8 and appeared large enough to fit everything I needed and looked like a regular backpack. I don’t expect it to last forever, but it’ll get the job done. 

Camp ax: No decent fixed blades were available at the store so the next best option for accomplishing my goal of a hidden campsite would be the hatchet/ax. It can clear a small area and help me cut down trees for making the blind and, if needed, can perform smaller tasks, like sharpening my sudoku pencil. 

Gatorade: Hydration is important, and I wanted a container to hold water from the river located nearby. These bottles are made with thick plastic and should survive being filled and tossed around. The other consideration was the size of the opening being able to fit the water purification device.

urban survival challenge backpack

Duct tape: My fear of the backpack breaking fueled this purchase, but also with the construction of the shelter I wanted to be able to reinforce the corners of the shower curtain for tying the cotton twine.

Life Straw: This was on sale and came to $13.96, it was a simple choice over water purification tabs or lugging around a gallon jug. 

Headlamp: I don’t plan on using the light but want one available in the event I must get out of Dodge in the middle of the night due to a curious critter or a two-legged foe. 

Total Spent: $71.18. 

Urban survival Challenge cheap shelterYou can't always buy the best quality on short notice, but duct tape saves the day. Reinforcing the corners of cheap shower curtains makes for a sturdier shelter. 

I wanted to go cheap at first to satisfy my most basic needs and then be able to buy better tools like a knife or ax. With the extra money I’d most likely purchase more food but given my plan to mostly lay around, I didn’t plan to exhaust too many calories. The takeaway for me was that $100 can actually get you a decent amount of stuff if you’re only focusing on a short time and have a little ingenuity. 

Ryan Lee Price’s Approach

With inflation through the roof, limited supplies on the shelves, and many things backordered until 2022, $100 won’t get you very far these days — a couple of family-of-four trips to a fast-food joint and you’ll likely just have pennies remaining, if that. This goes double, if not quadruple, for survival gear. You can get a couple of emergency blankets, a portable stove, and maybe a water filter, but that’s about it. However, $100 can’t be stretched very thin, especially if you’re outfitting a no-frills, fly-by-night go-bag for a one-time-use trip out of town in an emergency. Do you need the top-of-the-line gear? Do you need the name brands? Does a knife used to punch open a can of soup need to be designed by a celebrity and cost a small fortune? Of course not. 

dollar store finds urband survival gear challengeAn impressive array of gear can be had for only $100. Each item here was found at our local dollar store and they cost, you guessed it, a dollar each. 

The parameters for most any survival kit can be summed up a few categories: food/water, shelter, fire, first aid, signaling, and safety/light. To my surprise, under those categories sits an enormous array of gear readily available at the local economy stores. 

urban survival gear challenge dollar store rope

There was a host of things to be used to tie down other things, such as duct tape, twine, zip-ties, nylon rope, and bungee cords.

Having said that, don’t expect too much. Though there are a host of gems on the shelves of your local dollar store, don’t go in with the idea that you’re going to climb Mount Everest with the gear you’ll find. Keeping our six parameters in mind, we scoured the shelves for items that could be used in an emergency situation. 

Food/water: The shelves of the dollar stores are littered with a wide variety of foodstuffs, from bags of chips, sodas, boxes of pasta to spices, nuts, and canned soup. Look for small cans of high-protein meats like tuna and beef. It’s helpful if the cans have pop-tops so you don’t have to worry about opening them. There isn’t much in the way of water, but instead lots of choices for water bottles. Find the sturdiest one with a tight seal. If it has a ring, it can be clipped to your pack as you are traveling. 

knives razor blades tuna urban survival gear challenge dollar store findsWe wrapped the five extra blades of the utility knife around the outside of it with a little duct tape. The cans of sausage and tuna will help stave off hunger, and the hard candy (25 to a pack) is a refreshing treat to a dry mouth

Shelter: Nope, no tents at the dollar store, but they do have painter tarps — those low-end extremely thin plastic covers you use when painting your walls. They rip easily and probably won’t make for a good emergency tent, but will keep the rain off of you and your gear in a pinch. Plus, they can be used for capturing rainwater or in making a water distiller.  

Fire: There was a wide variety of fire-making items available. From a box of wooden matches and lighters (two-pack) to candles and a cans of chafing fuel. We even found a magnifying glass that you could use to start a fire. 

fire starters urban survival gear challenge

We packed the tea candles and about 50 matches in one of the two small containers, and we cut the handle off the magnifying glass so it would stow in a smaller space. Take care with the chafing fuel, as it burns at a low temperature and takes longer to cook food with.

First aid: One thing the dollar store has in spades is first-aid gear, so we put together a mini first-aid kit for only a few dollars. Is it high-quality stuff? Of course not, but a cheap Band-Aid that you have to replace every couple of hours because it won’t stick to sweaty skin is better than no Band-Aid, right? 

hygiene finds at the dollar store

Keeping clean is an important part of survival. Small wounds can lead to big infections, if not properly cleaned. The pink grooming kit was a little girlish, but it went nicely with our pink sewing kit (so we combined them). Three-pack bar of soap, three-pack of tissues and a roll of toilet paper will keep everything shipshape. Though the toilet paper is bulky and can be replaced by the pack of tissue, if there’s a need for toilet paper, you’ll be glad you had it. 

dollar store first aid

The biggest catch at the dollar stores is first aid gear. Cold and hot chemical compresses that are activated by squeezing them were a great find, as was a variety of ointments and balms. Gauze, tape, anti-bacterial gel, and anti-inflammatory pain medicine were included.

Safety/light: There’s no gun aisle or rack of hunting knives available at the dollar store, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a host of things that can be used as protection (including the utility knife). A large chef’s knife can not only be used around the campfire, but also to fend off attackers, and a large two-tined roasting fork can be lashed to a stick and made into a fishing spear. We found several methods of light, including one that's powered by a ratchet mechanism and required no batteries. 

urband survival gear challenge A host of lighting tools were found, from chemical sticks and an AAA LED flashlight to a hand-powered flashlight, a bicycle strobe light and a two-pack of high-visibility reflectors that can be wrapped around your arm or hung off your pack. 

Miscellaneous: Canvas gloves, bungee cords, twine, and nylon rope are staples of the dollar store. The pretty pink sewing kit for girls contained a dozen needles and thread. Anti-bacterial wipes, a bag of hard candy, and a couple of small boxes to seal in small gear are essential items to keep you clean, organized, and sane. Speaking of sane, a deck of cards goes a long way in keeping you mentally awake. 

urband survival gear challengeCanvas gloves as well as latex gloves will keep your hands safe when you need them to be. The 0.7-mil plastic drop cloth will be nearly useless when the going gets rough, but it’ll come in handy to shelter under if it rains. The pack of 28 plastic bags has a multitude of uses.

In the end, I purchased 68 items at $1 each (plus tax).

urban survival gear challenge dollar store finds

Without its packaging and placed into groups, the items don’t take up much space, so you can choose a relatively small bag … which is one thing the dollar stores don’t offer — something to carry all of this in. However, everything that could be ruined if wet was placed in sealable plastic bags. Find yourself a sturdy backpack and you’ll be set for a couple of days. 

Total spent: $73.27

Go Quality or Go Crap? 

Handing over $100 at the check-out stand, we wondered if going cheap (and getting a ton of stuff) is better or worse than paying two or three times more and getting higher quality gear. How many squeezes will this ratchet flashlight take before it breaks? Can this very thin aluminum foil wrap a fish without tearing? How long before the bungee cords snap or the gloves wear through or the twine unravels? Is paying a dollar for 100 Band-Aids better than paying $50 for a fully packed first-aid kit? It depends on what you can afford, as money is a concern to a lot of people. 

In a pinch, especially for short-duration scenarios, cheap gear beats no gear. 

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What is Normal Anyway? A Letter from the Editor

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As you read this, we’re closing in quickly on the tail end of 2021 — what we all hoped would be “the year we go back to normal.” While there was much discussion about the chaos of 2020 being an anomaly of American life, the truth has proven to be a little more disheartening. Large-scale civil unrest persists in several major U.S. cities and the economic downturn resulting from COVID-related shutdowns and payouts have only led to an increased sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness throughout our society. But we’re not the only ones. As I write this, there are widespread demonstrations ongoing in the world, from France to Cuba, about various sociopolitical issues. This got us thinking: What lessons can we glean from other countries who have already experienced, or are also currently experiencing, the scale and severity of cultural upheaval that we’ve seen right here at home?

So, we’re dedicating this issue to survival lessons learned abroad. We’re fortunate to have accumulated a handful of subject matter experts who have deployed and lived overseas, both in an official government capacity and as civilians struck with wanderlust. The problems we’re seeing here in America — economic turmoil, large-scale destructive protests, increased street crime, decreased availability of infrastructure and public safety services, and cyber-privacy infringement — are not new, and not unique to us.

We have two “life lessons” pieces, one from RECOIL OFFGRID alum Micah Dalton and another with newcomer Bucky Pratt. Both have spent years traveling around the world alone, with only the clothes on their back and a go-bag to live out of for weeks or months on end. They’ve experienced a large array of the aforementioned street-level problems that are becoming more and more familiar to suburban Americans, and have taken some time out of their respective globe-trotting to share their street smarts and survival lessons about looking out for yourself in a world that’s getting … spicy.

The current trends in unrest and street crime have led many to reflect on the possibility of what’s next. How bad will it get, and when will we get there? The idle chitchat of “Civil War 2.0” refuses to subside, and many are pointing to current events — both domestic and international — as a precursor. Regardless of your thoughts on the likelihood (or unlikelihood) of this scenario, research journalist Hollie McKay produced a thoroughly informed discussion with survivors of full-blown societal collapses and civil wars from around the world. These people shed some light on the courses of events which led to large-scale human disasters and deeply humanize the “ground truth” of being caught in the middle. 

As always, we hope to provide you with cutting-edge information that’s relevant not just right now but whenever you need it — even though we hope you never do. Stay tuned and stay safe.