Background Checks: A Guide to Vetting Candidates for Your Survival Group

Written by

The following article was originally published in Issue 8 of our magazine.

You’ve seen it happen in countless movies and TV shows. The rough and tumble detective needs information on a suspect, so he calls in a favor to his computer geek pal. Said pal — often bespectacled and almost always sitting in a dark room with the only illumination coming from multiple monitors — types furiously on a keyboard for a few seconds. Then, with perhaps a final mouse click flourish, the computer expert begins rattling off everything from the suspect’s current address and full criminal history all the way down to what the thug had for breakfast that morning and the color of his underwear.

I’ve been a licensed private detective for about 15 years now, and I can tell you from practical experience that it isn’t always quite that easy. But, you don’t need a detective license or a hacker sidekick to do some basic background checking.

Here’s the thing. If you’re going to allow someone to become a member of your survival group, that’s almost the same as asking them to be part of your family. If you don’t already know them extremely well, it’s wise to do some checking, just in case.

Most survival groups are started by a core group of people who likely have known each other for years. If they aren’t family to one another, they’re probably hunting buddies, co-workers, or just friends since grade school. Generally speaking, no worries with those folks. But, as the group develops, more people may be invited to join from time to time. It’s these new folks who should be thoroughly vetted before becoming full-fledged members of the group. Remember, you may very well be entrusting your life with these people. It only makes sense to be certain they are trustworthy.

Also, there is little to no need to be secretive about this. In fact, it’s prudent to explain to prospective group members that a background check is part of the vetting process. If someone balks at that or becomes offended, odds are they probably wouldn’t have been a great fit for your group anyway.

The information you’ll need to conduct a basic background check includes, at a minimum:

  • Full name
  • Date of birth
  • Current address
  • Email address(es)

Again, if they’re reluctant to provide any of that very basic information, that in and of itself should be a red flag.

There are three basic areas involved with doing a background check. All are equally important and none should be overlooked.

Criminal History

Court cases — both criminal and civil (which we’ll get to shortly) — are matters of public record, with few exceptions (i.e. juvenile records, files sealed by court order). We can divide criminal offenses into three categories: felony, misdemeanor, and ordinance violations. Felonies are the most serious, of course, and those facing such offenses are looking at the potential of more than a year in prison if convicted. Misdemeanors are less serious crimes, but still carry the possible penalty of up to one year in jail. Ordinance violations are essentially tickets and involve paying a fine, but no confinement.

You’ll find the felony and misdemeanor information at the county courthouse. While most states have this information available online, if you’re not already familiar with the computer database system being used, it’s a good idea to drive down to the courthouse and visiting the circuit clerk’s office. While some states use systems that are easy to understand and navigate, others can be complicated, filled with acronyms and abbreviations that make little sense. Provided they aren’t swamped, most clerks are exceptionally friendly and helpful. All they ask in return is that you be polite, patient, and attentive.

Search for your subject by name and see what pops up, if anything. Be sure to search for common nicknames, too, such as both Robert and Bob. If any criminal offenses are found, use the subject’s date of birth as a check to verify whether you’re looking at the right person.

Keep in mind that the database you’re searching will probably list all criminal cases, whether the person was convicted or not. So, you’ll want to check the records and see if the person was indeed found guilty and, if so, what the penalty was, such as a fine, imprisonment, probation, and/or court-ordered counseling. Here in the United States, you’re innocent until proven guilty.

While courthouses will have the full files on felony and misdemeanor cases, they probably won’t have information relating to ordinance violations. Most of those records never leave the municipality where they occurred. For example, if your subject had been caught shoplifting and received a ticket for it, that record stays with the police department. So, you’ll need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Send it to the police department that handles the area where the subject lives and where he or she works, if it’s a different jurisdiction.

Simply send a letter to the police department asking for any records involving your subject. Identify the subject by full name and date of birth. You’ll need both of those bits of information for them to do the search. State that you are requesting a summary of the records maintained by the police department that involve your subject. This tells them that you’re not requesting copies of entire files, which could be costly. Address your letter to the FOIA officer and send it off. Most departments will respond within a couple of weeks. If any records are found, they will give you a list of them and you can then follow up by requesting full copies of those files if need be.

Be forewarned, some departments may charge you a small fee to run the search, and all departments will certainly charge you for any copy fees. In your FOIA requests, we suggest including your phone number and email address, asking them to please contact you immediately regarding any potential fees so you can take care of them right away. You could, of course, call the police department first and ask about search fees.

Civil Records

While you’re at the courthouse, you can search for civil records involving your person of interest. In fact, many court record databases will search both criminal and civil files at the same time. When we talk about civil records, we’re talking about things like lawsuits and divorce filings.

Civil records may not include the subject’s date of birth, though, so you’ll need to use your head a bit to ascertain whether a particular case truly involves your subject rather than someone else with the same name. A little bit of common sense goes a long way in that regard.

For our purpose of vetting someone prior to admitting them to the survival group, a long history of being sued for bad debts is one red flag. It may be a sign of irresponsibility. Another red flag is finding several files where your subject has sued others. We don’t mean perhaps once or twice, but a half dozen or more recent cases. Take the time to research those files and see what’s being going on. The subject might very well have had valid claims. On the other hand, frivolous suits filed over and over could indicate this person might be a bit…difficult.

Divorce files can provide a treasure trove of information, such as former names and addresses, as well as places of employment. This information could lead you to further searches, uncovering records the subject might rather have stayed hidden. That said, when reading the divorce file, take with a grain of salt any claims of abuse unless you find a corresponding criminal case. In some states, it’s quite common to claim things like, “mental cruelty” as grounds for divorce just as a matter of course.

Internet Profiling

Now we move into the more esoteric and subjective part of doing a background check. Fire up your favorite search engine, start plugging in the information you know about your subject, and see what turns up. Start by searching their email address. Then, search their phone number. Either one may lead you to any number of hits, such as perhaps a classified ad posted online where they were offering to sell something — maybe something illegal.

Search your subject by name, which admittedly will likely lead to thousands of hits. Briefly scroll through the hits and see if anything jumps out at you as involving your subject. This can be time consuming, yes, but it can also be very rewarding. You never know what you might find. Could be your subject has a habit of trolling message boards and other websites. While not a huge deal, this might indicate some deep-seated resentment or hostility that could become a problem later within your group.

Check out the social media accounts used by your subject. Facebook is obviously the most popular, but there are others out there, too, such as Instagram and Pinterest. If need be, ask one of the teenage members of your group to assist with this part of the background check. Read through what the subject has posted to his Facebook wall and such. You might find some serious differences in opinion between the subject and the other members of your group, differences that could lead to heated arguments later.

Scam Alert!

Despite what you’ll see advertised online, there is no central database that you can search for criminal records in every state and county in the country. It just flat out doesn’t exist. There are counties out there that aren’t online at all or whose records aren’t accessible in any way other than a human being standing in the clerk’s office doing a search.

I’ve always found it prudent to get my information from as close to the original source as possible. Therefore, going to the county courthouse where the records are stored is far better than trying to access a database that might contain errors.

The only way you’re ever going to get a reliable nationwide criminal records search is to pay upwards of thousands of dollars for investigators to hit every single county courthouse in the country. Anyone telling you otherwise is simply running some sort of scam.

Sex Offender Registries

One online source you should absolutely not overlook is the sex offender registry. Each state maintains one and is also supposed to pass along the information to the national registry. Check both the national registry as well as the one for each state you know the subject has lived in for any length of time. Better to be safe than sorry, and it really only takes a few minutes to check them all.
The National Sex Offender Public Website is www.NSOPW.gov. You can find the state registries by using your favorite online search engine.

Conclusion

It’s important to keep in mind that you’re not doing the background check as a means of passing judgment on the type of person your subject might be. Instead, all you’re doing is checking to see if they’re likely to be a valuable member of your group, one who will get along with the others and become a contributor rather than a handicap — or worse.

We all have proverbial skeletons in our closets. We’re all human and we’ve all done stupid stuff, but when we’re talking about a survival group, each and every member has to be someone everyone can trust and who won’t intentionally place anyone in danger. That’s important enough to warrant doing some homework on the person.

About the Author

Jim Cobb is a recognized authority on disaster preparedness. He has studied, practiced, and taught survival strategies for about 30 years. Today, he resides in the upper Midwest with his beautiful and patient wife and their three adolescent weapons of mass destruction. His books include Prepper’s Home Defense, Countdown to Preparedness, and Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide. Jim’s primary home online is www.survivalweekly.com. He is also active on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jimcobbsurvival. Jim offers a consulting service as well as educational opportunities at www.disasterprepconsultants.com.

Germ Warfare: How to Fight Infections After SHTF

Written by

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 of our magazine.

Warning! This article is meant to be a quick overview and not a detailed guide on microbes. To learn more on how to defend against pathogens, consult a licensed medical professional or accredited healthcare agency.

So, you’ve stocked everything you need in your underground bunker, from 50 pounds of Spam to 5,000 rounds of 5.56mm ammo. You even have a few boxes of silver rounds just in case werewolves emerge after the nuclear fallout. As Yanni’s greatest hits gloriously flow from the built-in speakers, you have peace of mind because you feel nothing can touch you in your supplied and well-fortified shelter.

Little do you know that there’s an entire army of marauders just waiting for the right opportunity to burst in, take over, and ultimately destroy you — and you’ll never spot them coming. “Impossible,” you say. “I have thermal scopes, night-vision goggles, and surveillance cameras all over my compound.” Yes, but do you have a microscope?

Microbes are single-cell or multicellular organisms — think bacteria, viruses, protozoa, etc. — that are mostly invisible to the human eye and amazingly resilient. While many of them are essential for both biodiversity and individual human health, there are plenty of microbes that are deadly pathogens. Prepping for these invisible invaders should be an essential part of anyone’s emergency response plan and survivalist agenda.

Microscopic Marauders

These little buggers can cause slight irritations…or manifest themselves into fatal conditions. Their side effects are as diverse as their types. Here are the most common pathogens:

Bacteria: These single-celled organisms are found all over Earth — even in the most treacherous places, such as thermal hot springs and your mother-in-law’s meatloaf. Amazingly, there are 10 times more bacterial cells than there are human cells in your body. There are more than 500 different types of bacteria in our digestive system alone, and they help digest food, keep the intestines healthy, and possibly even boost our immunity. Bacteria play an essential part in the chain of life. However, several strains of bacteria are highly pathogenic and can evade or overwhelm our immune system, wreaking havoc on our health.

Three Facts About Bacteria:

  1. Tap water generally has a shelf life of six months. Afterward, its chlorine additives begin to dissipate and bacteria and algae start to grow.
  2. Mobile phones have 18 times more bacteria than toilet handles.
  3. Bacteria cells in the human body outnumber human cells 10 to 1.

Viruses: Unlike bacteria, these microbes don’t possess all the machinery to replicate themselves (some scientists consider them nonliving); thus they require a host cell to infect. They hijack the host cell’s machinery to make copies of themselves. Due to its dependence on a host to replicate, a viral particle in blood or mucus cannot survive for a long time outside of the body or on common surfaces, such as the floor. Many viruses require close contact or the physical exchange of bodily fluids to spread, such as HIV and the current attention grabber, Ebola.

Fungi: Another infectious organism that can be readily found among us is fungus, which includes yeast and mold. Fungus can be multicellular as well as unicellular. Some fungi produce spores that can travel in the air for long distances and remain alive for several years until prime conditions allow them to grow. These properties make it tough to completely eradicate spores from a dedicated area. Most fungi will not cause bodily harm — and some are used to make delicious goodies, like God’s gift to the world, beer. However, there are a few that can be detrimental to your health if you aren’t prepared to treat it.

Equals a Pound of Cure

The best way to deal with all these germs is prevention, and one effective method is to block the routes of transmission. Because the spread of the germs may come from inhalation, ingestion, and direct contact, here are some precautions to consider:

Sanitize: One of the most important steps in prevention involves cleaning all areas where you live, work, or hole up in. Maintaining a sanitized environment not only minimizes the numbers of microbes around, it also reduces the amount of habitable areas that can become a breeding ground for germs.

Surfaces can be scrubbed down with a solution of bleach (which contains chlorine, a highly effective germicidal agent). If you are using normal household bleach, which is normally between 5.25- and 8.25-percent chlorine, a mixture of 1 cup of household bleach with 5 gallons of water should be effective in killing bacteria and viruses. For areas where you suspect a mold infestation, it is recommended to use a ratio of 1 cup of household bleach to 1 gallon of water. The use of a 70-percent solution of alcohol as a germicidal agent is also a recommended alternative, though the downside is its higher cost compared to bleach. Plus, alcohol is flammable, so more precautions must be taken around open flames.

Sterilize: Speaking of alcohol, a key advantage (other than turning you into the life of the party) is that it can be used to sterilize any scrapes and cuts on your body. When dealing with any break of the skin and vasculature, it’s essential to maintain sterility around a wound and to prevent germs from entering the blood system. Likewise, you should consider stocking antibiotic ointments and antiseptic creams in your first-aid kits, which you should have at home, in your car, at work, in your bug-out bag, and stashed in your fallout shelter.

Gear Up: Handling and contact of blood from another person should be done while wearing protective gear, if available, such as gloves and face mask. If no protective gear is available, then take extra precautions to avoid direct exchange of blood with any open cuts and wounds that you may currently have. Covering your mouth and nose with a towel or shirt will help prevent larger droplets from entering your respiratory system. Several dangerous viral diseases are spread through infected blood, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

Protective gear isn’t just for handling blood. Lower respiratory infection is the fourth leading cause of death in the world, so protecting your mouth, nose, and lungs can be crucial to your overall survival in a disaster situation. Simple surgical masks or painting respirators can provide some degree of protection for non-infected users. Conversely, they can impede the spread of germs by preventing an infected person from releasing aerosols of infected particles into the air. Keep in mind that these basic masks aren’t specifically designed to protect the wearer from inhaling pathogens — that task is usually reserved for specialized respirators, which can be commercially purchased. If nothing else, having everyone in your group of survivors wear masks might just help ease the eye strain of having to look at your less aesthetically pleasing teammates.

Cook and Filter: Ingestion of microbes can be prevented by cooking all meats and vegetables to a temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which should kill any bugs in your food. When eating fresh fruits and vegetables, make sure they are washed thoroughly with clean water. (See “Pick Your Poison” in OFFGRID’s Fall 2014 issue for more info.)

During times of strife, clean water might not be readily available. However, boiling your water before use and implementing commercially available water sterilizers and treatment tablets, which every survivalist should have on hand, can kill most of the germs in questionable water. Some sterilizers work through filtration, while others use ultra-violet light to kill the waterborne germs. Another option would be to sanitize your water for consumption using bleach. This treatment involves adding 1 teaspoon of bleach to every 5 gallons of water, making sure the bleach is mixed evenly, and letting it stand for an hour before use.

Vaccinations: The simple task of staying updated with your vaccinations can give you a lifetime of immunity from several nasty diseases. Most vaccines are administered at an early age and require no further inoculations after the initial one. That being said, the key vaccination for survivalists to maintain is the tetanus vaccination. Retaining tetanus immunity requires booster shots every 10 years during adulthood. Tetanus is a bacterium that releases a neurological toxin (one form is more commonly known as Botox, a friend to many a Hollywood star) that causes muscle spasms, lockjaw, and breathing problems. Due to tetanus growing favorably in iron when it oxidizes, the threat of accidental infection is higher around rusty objects. When you’re bugging out, watch out for nails in old fences, metallic debris on the ground, and rundown railings in humid conditions.

Treatment

No matter how well you try to avoid infection, these pests will inevitably find their way inside your body. Luckily our immune system is not alone in this fight; science has been able to create several drugs that target these intruders.

Drug NamesAlternate NamesFish Drug EquivalentTreats These Diseases
ClindamycinN/AFish CinAnthrax
Dental, bone, and joint infections
Tetanus
AmpicillinN/AFish CillinEar infection
Strep throat
Used as a general purpose antibiotic
CiprofloxacinCiproFish FloxAnthrax
Respiratory infections
Urinary tract infections
Trimethoprim/
sulfamethoxazole		BactrimFish SulfaGastro intestinal infection
Pneumonia
Urinary Tract Infection
MetronidazoleFlagylFish ZoleGiardia
Helicobacter infections
DoxycyclineN/AFish DoxyAnthrax
Lyme disease
Malaria
Pneumonia

Fighting Flus: There are several anti-viral drugs, but to date only one is really relevant to stockpile in your bunker: Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate). This drug is designed to fight influenza type A and type B, both of which can pack a mighty punch that can knock you off your feet for a few days. In fact, influenza can be lethal to the young, the old, and those who have compromised immune systems. Tamiflu can be used to alleviate or help clear this virus out of your system, so it would be wise to have it on hand if you have a family. Be aware that Tamiflu is most effective when taken within 48 hours of initial symptoms. Tamiflu still requires a prescription, but if you have some left over from a previous prescription, hold onto it. The shelf life, when stored properly at room temperature, has been tested, and the drug’s shown to be effective even six years after the stated manufacturer’s expiration date.

Fending Off Fungi: When dealing with severe fungal infections, having Fluconazole (also known as Diflucan) in your arsenal is a must. This anti-fungal medicine is used to cure a wide range of fungal diseases, such as those you might find in soil like coccidioidomycosis (“valley fever”). For the female preppers out there, Fluconazole is also highly effective in treating yeast infections, but is unfortunately completely ineffective in getting your male counterparts to put the toilet seat down after use.

Bacteria Buster: Due to the vast assortment of bacteria, there is not one omnipotent antibiotic that can kill all of them, so deciding amongst the gamut of available antibiotics used to treat bacteria can be daunting. Maintaining a selection of a few antibiotics that overlap in treatment targets will ensure that you have most of your bases covered (see the table below).

The use of antibiotics must not be abused, and should be kept to a minimum if at all possible. Misuse of these drugs can create resistant strains of bacteria that are untreatable and highly lethal. Thus, if you decide to amass a cache of antibiotics, you must be thorough in researching the appropriate use and dosage for each specific antibody. Since normal antibiotics can only be acquired through prescription, acquiring them can be difficult if you’re not actually sick. Antibiotics in powder or tablet form are available without prescription for fish and aquatic life through commercial vendors. While you might not have scales and fins, and these antibiotics might not have been manufactured for human use, sustainable off-grid survival can sometimes depend on obtaining such medications in any shape or form.

Preparing for microbial organisms may not be on top of your list when planning for SHTF situations, but overlooking them can have truly fatal consequences. By practicing proper sanitation procedures and using the right medicines for specific infections, your body can focus its physical resources on the grueling task of surviving any disaster it faces. But be aware — there’s still no known cure for zombie infections.

About the Author

Curt Lang studied microbiology and molecular genetics and is currently doing research to improve treatment for patients with brain and neural cancer. When not experimenting in the laboratory, he is an avid triathlete, photographer, and outdoor adventurer. He’s spent countless hours honing his survivalist skills.

RECOILtv: Pistol Training with the “Around the World” Drill

Written by

Self-defense skills are essential, whether that means using your bare hands, an improvised weapon, a flashlight, a knife, or a gun. No matter the skills you focus on, there’s one common rule: frequent training is essential. Practicing regularly can mean the difference between freezing up during a real-world confrontation and letting your muscle memory kick in to win the fight. Rather than simply assuming you’ll be able to protect yourself and your family, you should train enough to know for sure.

Fortunately, training can be a lot of fun if you keep it fresh. RECOILtv’s Training Tune-Ups channel provides short videos outlining a variety of shooting drills for rifles and handguns, so you can easily try them at your local range. The latest episode features Dan Brokos explaining a pistol drill he calls “around the world.”

This drill involves 12 black circles on a paper target at close range. Each circle must be shot twice in rapid succession, moving as quickly as possible from one to the next, and reloading to complete all 24 hits. A shot timer is used to track the duration of the drill, and there’s a one-second penalty for each shot outside the circles. Check out the video below to see Dan’s completion time:

The “around the world” drill is a fun way to train at the range with friends for a little impromptu competition, or on your own to work on dropping your time. For more drills to try, go to videos.recoilweb.com or check out our previous Training Tune-Ups article about shooting over, under, and around vehicles.

Time to Boogie: Escape & Evasion Without Leaving a Trail

Written by

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 of our magazine.

Photos by Luis Chacon Photography

While the exact cause of the crisis is not certain — an unpopular trial verdict, the loss of the power grid? — the aftermath is quite clear: complete infrastructure collapse, mass rioting and looting, and violence on a most epic scale. And it’s heading your way. Waiting out the impending doom at home just isn’t a safe option anymore. Let’s face it… your primary residence is compromised.

“Time to boogie, Joe,” says the familiar voice in your head. Immediately, you communicate with your loved ones not at home via text message and leave a secret visual marker at the front of your residence — this lets your clan know to begin the primary bug-out timeline you’ve all memorized and practiced. And you’ve taught them to acknowledge these messages with a pre-designated response.

As planned, the timeline begins upon acknowledgment of the signal. You figured it would take one hour to get your supplies and leave the house. You planned for three alternate modes of travel: 2WD vehicle on roads, ATV by backcountry trails, and on foot through sole-busting brush. Due to the nature of the disaster at hand (near complete lawlessness), you determine that the path of least human interaction is best and decide to go off-road immediately. Your house backs up to state land, which is a vast desert terrain with minimal 2WD access.

So, at hour one, you have your ATV loaded up and out of the garage in a hurry. As you ride away, you hear distant gunfire from multiple large-caliber, fully automatic rifles, which you estimate is down the street from your home. “They’re too late,” you remark as you open up the throttle.

But then you slow down, remembering the tracks you are leaving behind. “Complacency kills,” the voice says. You heed the collective wisdom of all the teachers and mentors you’ve had in the life and know that you must begin anti-tracking immediately. If those gun-toting opportunists come across your tracks a day or even a week from now and are able to follow them, you might compromise your camp’s position and the safety of all who are sheltered there.

Ninja Escape and Evasion

Anti-tracking methods are used to confuse, delay, and dissuade a threat who’s pursuing you. These are passive measures that are to be employed constantly wherever our trail might be discovered or easily followed. It would be disastrous if all the money, time, and sweat equity you put into preparing for a successful bug out were wasted because you were too easily tracked.

In this story’s opening scenario, our hero, Joe, has a total weight (ATV included) of about 900 pounds, translating to a lot of destruction on the ground and deep definable tread patterns. His boots are a non-typical high-quality hiking boot with an uncommon tread pattern supporting his 180-pound frame, which shoulders 100 pounds of kit. From his method of transport to his footwear selection, he has clear target indicators (i.e. anything a man does or fails to do which reveals his presence to the enemy) that are unique to him and easily identifiable to even the most novice trackers. So what does one do when faced with the situation of needing to be somewhere in a specified time, while trying not to be followed?

Above: Bugging out in the backcountry? Veg will be your edge. There’s more to disappearing into your surroundings than just wearing camouflage patterns. Break up your outline by wearing local vegetation.

I’ll share some considerations that will always apply to any situation in which your trail could lead to your undoing, and how our hero, Joe, has been trained to deal with them. There are three factors of priority in relation to minimizing your signature on the ground upon bug out:

  • What you’re taking
  • Where you’re going
  • How you’re moving

What Joe Takes

Hopefully your long-term survival plan afforded you the ability to travel fast and light upon emergency evacuation. If you have a tracker on your trail who knows what he’s doing, then fast and light is what you are going to need to be. A good tracker can deduce how fast you’re moving and estimate how far you can move within a given timeframe to determine where you may be. (Think Tommy Lee Jones hunting for fugitives.)

Traveling light affords you agility. And having agility affords you the ability to take the route of most resistance, which is counterintuitive to what most people want to do during a bug-out situation. By doing this, you will severely hamper a tracker’s ability to anticipate where you’re going. You will also force him to go through the same terrain, which he may not be prepared for, or to go around and attempt to pick up your trail further ahead — which can be a tall task at times.

Above: As you bug out, be aware of the environment you disturb. You’ll leave a clear trail behind you if you don’t prop up trees you’ve knocked over. 

Joe will move quickly by ATV, but leave an obvious trail. Because of this fact, he will gain distance away from his starting point as swiftly as possible. Once at a safe distance, he will button hook (moving into a position from a 90-degree angle and then back out from the direction he came) and cache the ATV in the thickest, nastiest terrain he can find. Then, he will brush out the vehicle tracks for a considerable amount of distance. While he’s brushing out tracks he will wear foot coverings that hide his tread pattern and give the illusion of aged tracks, if anything at all. Now he’s on foot and has significantly reduced his signature and gained vital agility.

Where Joe’s Going

During preparation, you must thoroughly analyze the terrain along your bug-out route. The best way to do this is by going there in advance, before disaster strikes, to hike your chosen route by foot, taking thorough notes along the way of key terrain features that you may be able to use for rest, observation, ambush, communication, or to cache supplies.

How might a hostile tracker use these key terrain features against you? How much concealment does this route provide while moving during the day? Are there significant obstacles on your route that work for or against you?

Above: A good tracker can not only identify you by the treads of your Nikes, but will also decipher which way you’re heading, how fast you’re traveling, and whether you’re carrying anything. Naturally, if you’re trying not to be followed, you don’t want to leave footprints. But short of having a helicopter or hover-board, you’ll inevitably leave a trail of Nike Swoosh marks — unless you have foot coverings. 

Joe has learned the habits of nocturnal and diurnal creatures along this route because these creatures will display behavior that a tracker reads to anticipate danger. He will also use the ground type to his advantage. When feasible, he will walk to the sides of trails instead of on them, and he will walk on rocky ground instead of on soft soil. He will walk in water along streams when available. He will be attentive to every step he takes, because he knows it only takes one footprint for a good tracker to determine if you’re his prey.

How Joe Moves

Joe’s movement is determined by two main considerations: speed and security. He moves only as fast as he can clear every covered and concealed position in front of him. Without the assurance that his next step is safe, he cannot proceed any further.

He has certain benchmarks to reach within his bug-out timeline, so efficiency and safety is key here. A trained tracker is sensitive to his environment. Joe’s senses of vision, scent, sound, touch, and taste are aligned with his intuition, meaning that he senses more than most people because he has been trained to.

Joe will ultimately survive the initial fallout of this disaster and will do so without compromising his long-term survival location. He will thrive as a good student of his teachers. He will monitor every piece of dirt that yields a footprint in the immediate vicinity of the basecamp, giving early warning of possible threats. If needed, he will also track high-protein meat and provide for his people.

Above: Whether fleeing on wheels or feet, you’ll need to mask your tracks or make them disappear altogether. Grab a tree branch with a lot of leaves and brush out your tracks to confuse, delay, or deter any bad guys following you. 

How to Track a Tracker

As a teacher of this craft, I am often requested to provide a class specific to anti/counter tracking. My first response is this: If you wanted to defeat a sniper, what would you do? You would hire another sniper.

If you want to learn how to defeat a tracking threat, I suggest you learn how to track first. There are many schools across the United States that can teach you how to track both man and beast. Once you learn how to track, the anti-tracking techniques you come up with will be limited only by your own imagination.

About the Author

Freddy Osuna is the owner and primary teacher at Greenside Training LLC of Benson, Arizona. As a former USMC infantry squad leader and scout sniper/chief scout, Osuna is now providing some of the most innovative tracking training in the United States. His resume includes being lead instructor for the U.S. Army Combat Trackers Course at Fort Huachuc and serving as combat tracking subject matter expert for the USMC’s 2nd Marine Division.

Greenside Training provides training to military and law enforcement agencies worldwide and courses open to all in Southern Arizona. Osuna and Jon Boyd are the authors of Index Tracking: Essential Guide to Trailing Man and Beast. Greenside’s goal to lead you to discover an awareness of your world you never thought possible, then weaponize it on the battlefield, the streets, a hunt, or in the boardroom. Go to www.greensidetraining.com for more info.

Hikers Attacked by Machete-Wielding Man on Appalachian Trail

Written by

Any time you’re traveling through the backcountry, there are potential dangers to consider. Wildlife such as bears, mountain lions, or venomous snakes may pose a threat; a sudden change in weather could force you to seek shelter; you might become stranded due to an injury or simply wander off-course. However, one of the last threats many hikers and campers expect is that of another human.

Most people we’ve encountered on trails over the years are friendly and helpful, or at the very least willing to mind their own business. Unfortunately, that was not the case for a pair of hikers in southwest Virginia last weekend. The man and woman were hiking on the well-known Appalachian Trail (AT) on Saturday when a stranger, now said to be 30-year-old James Jordan, attacked them with a machete.

Photo: Wythe County Sheriff’s Office / WSLS

According to WSLS, both victims were left injured and bleeding after the attack — the male victim sent out an SOS notification from his cell phone, while the female walked six miles to find other hikers and call for help. Authorities responded to the attack as soon as possible, and were able to apprehend Jordan and the machete he reportedly used. The female victim is expected to recover, but sadly the male victim died as a result of his injuries.

Photo: Flickr.com/bikeriders

In a press conference, County Sheriff Keith Dunagan described the incident to WSLS as “isolated,” but information has surfaced to indicate that Jordan — who goes by the trail name “Sovereign” — previously threatened other hikers in April in North Carolina and Tennessee. He was reportedly found with a knife and machete, and charged with criminal impersonation (giving a false name to police), aggravated assault, and possession of drugs. After being briefly jailed for these offenses, he was released on probation.

Then, at 3:30 AM on Saturday, May 11th, Jordan reportedly approached yet another group of hikers in a tent to ask for a flashlight — they stayed in the tent, gave him what he asked for, and reported the incident after he left. Law enforcement was said to be “on high alert” as a result. Later that day, the machete attack occurred.

This tragic incident is a reminder of several important lessons. First, it’s essential to have a reliable means of calling for help — without it, more deaths could have occurred, or the perpetrator may have escaped. Second, self-defense should always be a top priority, even if you’re traveling on an established trail with a companion. We’ve met hikers who scoff at the idea of carrying a gun in the backcountry, calling it unnecessary or paranoid, but we suspect that those same individuals would change their tune if they found themselves facing a machete-wielding murderer.

Condition Red: Avoiding Illness and Disease While Traveling

Written by

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 of our magazine.

Warning! This article is meant to be a quick overview and not a detailed guide on health precautions while traveling. To learn more on how to defend against pathogens while abroad, consult a licensed medical professional or accredited healthcare agency.

Every few months, there seems to be some new infectious disease outbreak getting media attention, whether it’s H1N1, Ebola, or the measles. The lingering question that always seems to be in the backs of people’s minds is “How safe am I?” The answer is that you’re only as safe as your level of knowledge in how to avoid these highly contagious diseases, and other situations that are potentially dangerous in general.

Although we may not be visiting countries where deadly diseases are endemic, risk of exposure and other accident-related situations may be unavoidable. Travel may be part of your career or something that only occurs for summer vacations, but it could still lead to an encounter with a lethal outcome. Whether you have a scuba diving accident without medical assistance nearby or a disease outbreak has occurred in your area, it’s important to know how to deal with the risks associated with travel.

If you’re in a location where a deadly disease outbreak is reported, what can you do to stay safe? Don’t say to yourself that you’ll just stay in the hotel room and order room service, take the first flight home, or avoid contact with people all together. What if that hotel room is on a cruise ship and you can’t leave? What if the airport is locked down and travel is impossible? Avoiding contact with people all together? Yeah, right. You need to get food and information somehow, don’t you? If someone you’re traveling with is becoming symptomatic with what you’re being told to avoid or has been injured in a freak accident, you need to know a safe protocol. We’ve consolidated important tips to put your mind at ease and provide you the resources that could save your life.

Preparation

Knowledge: First and foremost, prevention is best handled through avoidance. Regularly updated travel safety bulletins are posted on the U.S. Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites. The CDC portal also has this information broken down by specific countries to include required or recommended vaccines for that country, current travel notices, recommended packing lists, and steps to take upon your return. You can also look up in what countries a specific disease may be occurring. Arm yourself with knowledge of a country’s infrastructure and potential dangers rather than digging your head in the sand and saying, “It would never happen to me.” The CDC publishes CDC Health Information for International Travel, commonly referred to as the Yellow Book. The World Health Organization (WHO) puts out a similar book titled International Travel and Health. These biannual publications can be purchased in hardback or digital versions through their websites and offer valuable information that travelers should take the time to digest.

Analysis: A realistic assessment of your general health and ability to travel should also be addressed. Diet and exercise create a healthy immune system, so practice those basics regularly. If you or someone you’re with is pregnant, young or old with a less-tolerant immune system, or whose overall health is weakened by a preexisting condition, all these factors should determine whether your travel is a wise decision — or should be postponed if it’s non-essential. It is recommended that you and anyone traveling with you visit their regular doctor at least four to eight weeks prior to departing. Get a thorough checkup and seek advice about possible risks, required or recommended vaccinations and boosters, and other considerations to make.

Coverage: If you have medical insurance, a careful evaluation of your travel coverage is necessary. Travel insurance alone might not cover medical issues, so if you have insurance of that type, review the policy’s stipulations. No matter if you are headed to Toronto or Timbuktu, consult your medical insurance company about travel exclusions. Even things such as a car accident or laceration requiring stitches may not automatically be covered when traveling abroad.

Learn what your plan offers as far as emergency evacuation, medical care abroad, network locations, preauthorization for treatment, coverage for those with underlying medical conditions, and what activities might be considered high-risk (such as mountain biking) and possibly not covered. You may want to upgrade your coverage during travel periods if you discover there are more exclusions than you are comfortable with. If you’re traveling on behalf of your company, abide by their policies and educate yourself on the care they offer their employees during emergencies on business trips.

Reconnaissance: Take the time to locate 24-hour, physician-backed emergency medical services near your region of travel. Also, finding U.S. embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions located in your destination is a valuable commodity. Carry contact information (phone numbers and addresses) for these services with you during your travel. Leaving an itinerary listing where you’ll be during specific dates with someone at home, such as another family member, during your time abroad can also be a lifesaver. If you are stranded or unable to communicate during a certain portion of your trip, it will be easier to locate you and coordinate help.

Sign Up: Travelers can also register with the U.S. Department of State and companies such as International SOS, an organization that provides medical assistance, international healthcare, and security services. This registration can allow you to record information about your trip so you can receive travel alerts during your stay or a representative can contact and assist you in an emergency.

Backups: If you are dependent on medications, packing extra for your trip is advisable. You never know if these medications are available at your destination or if they could be tainted. Many organizations recommend carrying a medical kit. The contents of these kits vary depending on the destination and individual needs, and may require authorization from a physician (and other parties) if certain prescription medication or other specialty items must be carried, such as syringes. The WHO provides a list of recommended contents by visiting www.who.int/ith/precautions/medical_kit/en/.

Gauging Potential Threats

Though Ebola is a prime example of the devastation of infectious disease, it’s certainly not the most likely infection to be contracted — at least if you’re not going to West Africa. What are the diseases you should be most concerned about when traveling? These statistics change constantly, and new diseases come on the horizon every year. New strains of influenza and tuberculosis are always being discovered and could be resistant to any current vaccinations you may have received.

And then there are those that have been around for a long time and haven’t gone away despite the scientific and medical communities’ best efforts. In the United States, 36,000 people die from the flu every year. Around the world, HIV and AIDS are still some of the most deadly infections, killing 1.5 million people in 2012. Even diseases such as polio, which has essentially been eradicated in the United States, are still prevalent in other countries. Traveler’s diarrhea, usually contracted through contaminated water and poor hygiene, is extremely common in developing countries as well. Vector-borne diseases (those transmitted to people by blood-sucking buggers like insects and arachnids) such as dengue, malaria, and chikungunya continue to wreak havoc, but can be mitigated through the methods discussed elsewhere in this story.

So, good hygiene and knowledge are your two best methods of prevention. Read the tips in this story, do some research before hopping on a plane or vessel, and take common-sense precautions while abroad.

Arriving at Your Destination

Hygiene: This factor is of utmost importance, especially when traveling. Regularly washing your hands can mean the difference between getting sick and having a safe trip. Be conscientious of how your own health may affect others; cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Hand sanitizer with a 60-percent or greater alcohol content is another great carry item if soap and water is unavailable. Thinking of going outside? Particularly in tropical areas where insects carry infectious diseases like malaria, wearing insect repellant is imperative. Keeping windows closed or well screened can also prevent insect bites.

Food and Water: Low health standards for water and dining establishments may also be inherent to your area of travel. The CDC has country-specific tips for your destination that pertain to food and water standards. In developing countries, drinking bottled water or other carbonated drinks in cans or bottles may be preferable to drinking anything from the tap or fountain drinks with ice. Brushing teeth with bottled water is also advisable over tap water. Make sure any food you eat is well cooked. Any fruits or vegetables should be washed in clean water or peeled before eating. Eating salads as well as consuming unpasteurized dairy products is often discouraged. Do not eat what is frequently referred to as “bush meat.” It can often be wild animals such as bats or monkeys that are notorious disease carriers, regardless of how well they’re cooked. Food from street vendors is also not a good idea.

Risk Management: As always, pay attention to local customs and laws, and be respectful. Taking risks such as drinking too much alcohol also increases your willingness to engage in risky behavior. Become educated about your travel destination’s infrastructure and problems that you may encounter. For instance, all cabs may look alike, but some may not be legitimate and could result in robberies or worse. Familiarizing yourself with reliable transportation methods as well as staying in a reputable hotel in a safe area are considerations that are overlooked all too often.

Seek Aid: If you or a member of your party becomes sick or injured while traveling, see a doctor right away. How sick should you be before you go? Exhibiting flu-like symptoms, persistent diarrhea, urinary problems, vomiting, jaundice, genital infections, or skin rashes are obvious warning signs. If the nature of the injury causes an open wound, clean it immediately to reduce the risk of infection and seek qualified medical help. Assume and treat these situations as if they’re an emergency.

The accessibility of medical attention may also be hampered by your situation. If you are on a flight or cruise ship, tell a crewmember as soon as possible and do not refuse a request to wear a surgical mask to cover your mouth and nose if instructed to do so — other lives may potentially be at risk. Remember, the longer you just wait and hope for the best, the worse your condition may get, and it may begin to affect people around you. Don’t be cavalier with your health. The sooner you act, the better your chances are.

Stay Calm: If you’ve received word of a disease outbreak in your area, panic is the purveyor of bad judgment. For instance, a malaria outbreak is a serious situation; however, malaria is spread through mosquito bites and is not airborne or contagious through direct human contact. Therefore, basic precautions — long clothing, insect repellent, staying indoors, etc. — are the best ways to deal with this type of problem until you leave the affected area.

Outbreak Defense: For diseases that are highly contagious, such as Ebola, your ability to remain safe is contingent on several things. “The first thing you should do upon hearing news of an infectious disease outbreak is to verify it. There’s a lot of fiction out there and not a lot of fact,” says Dr. Robert Quigley, regional medical director and senior vice president of medical assistance for International SOS. “Learn about the mode of transmission and learn what you need to do to mitigate your risk. If it’s a serious enough outbreak, you’ve got to decide what you need to do to get out of town. Companies should have plans in place to protect and support their workforce, and they can be adapted to wherever the location might be and whatever the incident might be.”

“At this moment in time Ebola is only transmitted by contact with an infected individual’s bodily fluids, whether they’re dead or alive,” Quigley adds. “Bodily fluids include sweat, stool, saliva, blood, and vomit. Ebola is robust and can survive on surfaces, so it’s possible you could put your hand down on a surface an infected individual had previously touched, even as long as 48 hours earlier, and then you put your hands in your mouth and you could get infected that way. Whether it’s Ebola or not, always practice universal precautions of hygiene and wash your hands when you visit public places, don’t put your hands in your mouth, and cover your mouth when you sneeze. We tend to take for granted what’s getting people into trouble.”

Infected?: If you feel you’ve come in contact with Ebola or any other disease that is also dangerous and/or easily communicable, the first thing you should do is report it to your local public health department so it can be managed. That organization will direct you where to go, because not all hospitals are equipped to deal with all diseases and conditions. “That first phone call is critical, because if you are symptomatic and have been to West Africa or exposed to someone who has been there where the disease is prevalent, if you go into a communal area you could spread the disease,” says Quigley. “From that first phone call there needs to be a response plan that would limit the likelihood that you would expose anyone else. That would be orchestrated by the local department of health. The CDC may not have a lot of jurisdiction or presence in your location, but you may have to make an overseas phone call as well and report your condition. You would want to have access to our healthcare system so they could support you and manage your complications, since there are no specific medications for a condition like Ebola.”

Top 5 Most Common Travel-Related Diseases

Not all travel-related diseases are exotic by nature. Some of them are quite common and can be avoided with some forethought and care. Here is a list of the top five conditions you’re most likely to contract while abroad, according to the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network.

  1. Diarrhea: This is by far the most common ailment among travelers.
  2. Skin Disorders: Not a disease per se, but they’re common because they’re caused by the sun, heat, humidity, and insect bites.
  3. Insect-Borne Fevers: Mosquitoes and other insects can transmit serious diseases, including malaria and dengue.
  4. Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Tourists often engage in reckless behavior that they wouldn’t otherwise do at home. Use common sense out there!
  5. Parasitic Infections: These are often acquired through exposure to unhygienic or undercooked food.

Returning Home

When you return home, do not assume you or anyone in your traveling party is now in the clear. Many diseases have incubation periods that could last indefinitely, so if you become sick upon your return you may have become infected with an illness that didn’t manifest symptoms during your trip. If you begin feeling sick upon your return, immediately seek medical attention and give your doctor full disclosure on where you were, for how long, and what you did, no matter how embarrassing it might be. The only way to determine and treat what you might have is to be honest.

If you have spent more than three months traveling in a developing country, the WHO recommends scheduling a medical examination. Travelers who suffer from a chronic disease such as heart problems or diabetes should also be seen for a thorough checkup to avoid any additional complications after returning from a trip.

Be conscientious about your health and don’t become complacent, hoping any ill effects will just go away by themselves. Time is of the essence. Be prepared, be alert, and be educated. Your best offense is a good defense.

Sources

Review of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

Written by

Stumbling down a dark alley, you dive for cover behind a dumpster as tight spirals of supersonic lead shred the humid air above your head. Rats scurry away through tumbleweeds of newspaper and plastic as a fetid wind kicks up from the mass grave you passed earlier. Your RPK is empty, but your reload is practiced and confident as you huddle behind the green, dented container that barely obscures you from the angry storm of focused metal.

You rack the action of your classic Soviet-era light machine gun. Leaning out just enough, you unleash 45 rounds of controlled hate at the Hyenas pursuing you. It takes three seconds. You shatter one; wound another. The barrel of your RPK smokes with the exertion. She’s hungry for more of the precious ammo, but you’ve fed her your last mag.

A Hyena screams in the distance, enters the alley and charges you. His ASP baton points skyward like a lightning rod, but the thunder is yet to come. Another yell splits the darkness as he is joined by an armored shadow shouldering a Benelli Super 90.

The Declaration of Independence is rolled up in the bag over your shoulder. It is the most seminal document ever crafted by man. These savages will not take it from you. Instead, you will show them what savagery truly is. You draw your Colt pistol. Eight rounds of jacketed lead stand between narcotic-fueled barbarians and the document that established the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

You lean out from cover, slowly exhale, sight in and squeeze the trigger…

The Division 2 Review

There is no government. Gangs run amok. No one is going to answer your call. Federal holiday in the nation’s capital? No. It’s Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 — a tactical, third-person action RPG, or “looter-shooter,” set in near-future Washington D.C. It’s the latest installment in Ubisoft’s AAA franchise and a massive improvement over its predecessor.

In the original game, the world was brought to its knees by the deadly “Dollar Flu,” a global pandemic unleashed by a Russian virologist — talk about Russian interference! Players attempted to restore order on the mean streets of New York City with an arsenal of weapons and gadgets. In this iteration, Washington D.C. serves as the story’s backdrop and is rendered in stunning fashion as a battle-worn and lawless capital ravaged by months of social decay.

The country is in ruins. The government is down and out. Rival factions rule the streets. Mayhem ensues. Suit up, Agent. It’s time to do the Lord’s work.

Facing a Virtual SHTF Scenario

Despite things looking grim across the Fruited Plains, a glimmer of your tax dollars still exists in the form of the SHD, or Strategic Homeland Division. (No, these are not the guys led by Nick Fury. Those are different guys.) These are the guys trained and ready for what preppers ominously refer to as WROL: Without Rule of Law; otherwise known as anarchy. As a lone but heavily-armed Division Agent, it’s up to you to re-introduce a little Executive Privilege via hot lead and cold vengeance to the streets of D.C.!

Speaking of those streets, they are gorgeously rendered in splendidly deconstructed detail. The entire environment is rich and interactive. Orange safety cones fall over realistically as you dive for cover. Deer sprint away from danger through overgrown parks. Plastic bags blow like tumbleweeds through the streets. One can get lost exploring alleys and monuments alike while soaking in the seemingly limitless dystopian trappings of post-outbreak Washington D.C. Loot, supplies, gangs, and guns wait around every corner so get ready to do some serious inventory management.

Did someone say “guns?”

We Need Guns… Lots of Guns

You’re going to need more than a Continuing Resolution to get D.C. back on its feet. You’re going to need guns. Lots of them. Fortunately, The Division 2 has you covered and then some. Playing through the first twelve levels of character progression left me giddy like a schoolboy with dad’s Playboy as I collected an array of gats that included classic RPK’s, Super 90’s, SCAR-Ls, Dragunov sniper rifles, and a healthy assortment of belt-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled monsters like the M249 and MG5.

You can mod virtually every weapon in the game to improve attributes like accuracy and optimal range. This makes the myriad side missions incredibly rewarding as they offer the blueprints needed to craft up all the tacti-cool goodies your little justice-pump desires. As if that’s not enough, players can also collect blueprints to produce their own custom-made firearms complete with stat bonuses.

Jock Up

The Division 2 has everything you need to carry your customized loadouts across the urban jungle. Not only does the game feature a prepper’s wish-list of holsters, backpacks, and plate carriers, but it does so with officially licensed products from 5.11. Not only are you improving your mission capabilities, but you’ll look badass to boot. Much like getting lost in the meta-game of modifying weapons, you can easily kill hours shopping in the game’s store or looting out in the world for awesome clothing and gear.

Clothing items change your appearance so you can have a different outfit for every day of your apocalyptic week. The kit items, however, offer bonuses to your all-mighty stat sheet. If that’s not enough for you, sporting complete sets of gear from a given manufacturer nets you multiple stacked bonuses that ratchet up stats like damage, health, or accuracy, to name but a few.

Need a breather from placing militants on permanent furlough? Kit items can also be crafted as yet another facet of the meta-game.

Housing and Urban Development

The Division 2 allows for an Agent to slowly roll back the ruthless hordes of D.C. through various missions. In your travels, you’ll encounter settlements that are in desperate need of your particular set of skills. By taking on missions from the settlements, you help them expand and grow into thriving, albeit post-apocalyptic, communities.

The game does a wonderful job of visually memorializing your successes as settlements go from dilapidated clusters of shanties to colorful and vibrant permanent living spaces complete with power, daycare services and hydroponics. This is incredibly rewarding for the player as you feel a sense of attachment to these little vestibules of civilization in the otherwise predatory wilds of a city overrun by death and disease.

You’ll also encounter several SHD Safe Houses in your travels. These out-of-the-way havens allow you access to various amenities, storage, communications, and the like.

This author’s only gripe is the missed opportunity to offer the player a customizable safe house all his own. It would have been an epic inclusion to select a secure spot, fortify it, and then improve it over time with amenities and decorations. Granted, the Safe Houses serve this function to an extent, but they lack both the customization and personalization players come to expect in RPG’s of this flavor.

However, I would settle for an unlockable Dr. Ben Carson in full riot-gear sporting a belt-fed machine gun instead.

Crank Up the Volume

If you wear Peltors all the time like I do you’ll want to crank them up to enjoy the immersive sounds. From bugs to bullets to a faltering work light sizzling out on a dark street, one should definitely play The Division 2 with headphones to get the most from its incredible auditory ambience.

The sound design is extensive and meticulously detailed. An AK sounds like an AK. Operating a bolt-action rifle gives you the crisp and rewarding aural sensation of manually stripping another round from the magazine and sending it home as you line up your next target. It’s obvious a great deal went into overall sound design and it pays dividends throughout the player’s post-government experience.

Going Rogue

The Division 2 offers up robust PVP action in the guise of Dark Zones. These are areas that unlock on the map as the player progresses on his journey of rebuilding civilization. Agents can enter these zones and bang it out amongst themselves in ad-hoc or coordinated teams to see just who it is that runs Barter Town.

PVP content is easy to jump into for the beginning player. The game “normalizes” players to an extent so that combat isn’t exclusively decided by who has the most elite kit. This shifts some of the emphasis back to working together as an effective team in order to prevail.

Parting Shots

Join a clan? Go solo? However you prefer to play, I thoroughly enjoyed my first 25 hours with The Division 2. Initially, I was reluctant to give it a whirl. I’m highly selective about the games I play due to constraints on my free-time. My career as a full-time security professional, duties as a husband, father, and part-time writer demand most of the hours from my days. So, if I’m going to sit down in front of a game, it had better be worth the time I’m taking away from my other pursuits.

When dad needs a little break, The Division 2 is a rewarding diversion worth that precious time. The game offers even more content than I was able to touch on here. There’s also quite a bit of lore built into the game’s story if you want to go deeper than just the loot ‘n shoot. So, if this game at all piques your curiosity, grab it. You won’t regret the purchase.

Now I need to hurry and finish this review so I can get back onto the streets of D.C. and show those enemies, foreign and domestic, that our banner yet waves!

For reviews of five more survival-oriented video games, keep an eye out for our “Virtual Survival” buyer’s guide in Issue 32 of RECOIL OFFGRID (on sale 6/11/19).

About the Author

Mel Ward is a husband, father, and combat veteran. He served in Afghanistan and Iraq with 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Over the last 14 years he has worked as a close protective agent and security contractor. He is an advocate of preparedness and believes self-reliance is not an option, but a duty.

Infographic: Survival Uses of a Broken Cell Phone

Written by

We’ve often written about the importance of cell phones for survival — whether we like them or not, these pocket-sized devices offer a valuable means of communicating, navigating, and looking up information such as weather forecasts or news about an ongoing disaster. Our ancestors would be astonished and incredibly jealous of the power we wield from the palm of a hand. While most of a mobile phone’s value is contingent on its battery life and signal strength, they can still help us survive even if they’re soaked, shattered, or permanently out of juice. We just need to be creative in repurposing their materials.

The following infographic from AnsonAlex shows five simple ways a broken cell phone can be turned into survival tools. These include a fire-starter, improvised blade, signaling device, compass, and hunting spear/fish hook. Obviously, you should only consider these methods as an absolute last resort if your cell phone is completely toast — if there’s a chance you could find signal or some way to charge it, that’s a better plan. You’d also be much better off preparing dedicated tools so you don’t have to cannibalize your iPhone for a few bits of glass, metal, and silicon, but you get the point. When no other options are available, these could potentially help you get out of a jam.

Click here to download a full-size version of this graphic.

An important note for this fire-starting tip: be VERY CAREFUL jumping terminals on lithium batteries. They contain a tremendous amount of energy, and can burn rapidly or even explode if damaged, causing serious injury. This risk is the reason the Department of Transportation banned certain devices from airplanes, and the reason we’ve seen videos of vapes exploding in users’ pockets. You (obviously) should never leave a phone battery in or near the fire you start for the same reason.

The resulting blade will probably be very fragile, but could prove helpful for delicate cuts. Ceramic (e.g. the base of a coffee mug) or frosted glass (e.g. the edge of a car window) could also be used to sharpen an improvised blade.

For more on the subject of signaling to aircraft, check out our previous post on International Ground-to-Air Signaling Code.

The leaf compass is a classic, and while it’s not going to be very accurate or factor in magnetic declination, it’s a good trick to know. See our previous article for a video of it in action.

Pinhole Vision: A Tip for Surviving Without Glasses

Written by

This article originally appeared in Issue 6 of our magazine.

Warning! This article is meant to be a quick overview and not a detailed guide on improvised visual improvement methods. Whenever possible, always carry spare prescription glasses or contact lenses. Attempting to see without prescription eyewear is solely at the reader’s risk.

A bespectacled man, who only longs to read, survives a nuclear holocaust and finds himself the last man on Earth at a library full of books. He thinks he finally has all the time in the world to pursue his favorite pastime…until he breaks his only pair of glasses. This ironic tale was the plot of “Time Enough at Last,” a 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone. Although this man’s misery played out in a sci-fi TV show, his predicament is something that anyone who has corrective lenses can relate to and should be aware of.

In any type of emergency, there is a risk losing, breaking, or not having enough time to don your glasses. Contact lenses require even more time to put on, can take more care to maintain, and are nearly impossible to reuse or find if lost. But what if a disaster hits unexpectedly? What do you do if you are caught without the benefit of having your optical aids?

Fortunately, there is a way you can focus your blurry vision quickly and without any tools — in fact, all you need is your hand. File this impromptu sight-restoring maneuver in your mental survival skills toolbox under “just in case.”

Pinhole Fingers

By forming a small “pinhole” with your fingers and looking through them, you’ll find your vision is significantly sharpened, even if you regularly have very blurry vision. Go ahead, take your glasses off, and try it. Neat little trick isn’t it? This simple action can help you when you’re in a pinch. But just how does it work?

How Vision Works

Vision is our brain making sense of light that is collected by our eyes. As light bounces off an object, it travels into our eye, focused by the lens, and lands onto the retina. The retina uses this light to form an image that is transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve.

If our eyes had no lenses, light would enter the eyes and land on the retina from every direction, making for a very blurry image.

The eye’s lens helps focus light and form it into a sharp image onto the retina.

The optic nerve transmits the visual information from the retina to the brain, which is what allows us to see.

Whenever you look at an object, you’ll realize that the background and foreground are blurry while the object you are looking at is in focus. This happens because the eye’s lens can only focus light coming from one distance. This is called the eye’s focal length. Objects too near or far are perceived as out of focus.

Fortunately for us, our eye’s muscles can contract or expand the lens so it can change the focal length, allowing us to see clearly at various distances.

How Pinhole Vision Works

Pinholes, by their very nature, limit the amount of light that can enter the eye. This helps block out extra light noise that would otherwise create a blur. Thanks to the small opening, light streams into the eye from a focused direction. So your hand becomes an impromptu lens. Less light bouncing around inside the eye means that looking through a pinhole inherently keeps things in focus.

By looking through the pinhole you create with your fingers, you are limiting how much light is entering your eye, thereby “filtering” the excess light that would otherwise blur your vision.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages to using pinhole vision, however, are that it does also mean less light getting through to the eye, as well as a severely limited field of view. Less light means that your vision while looking though a pinhole is darker.

But when push comes to shove, using this method for even limited focused vision is a nice tool to have in the proverbial toolbox. In a SHTF situation, it could mean having the ability to tell if that dark blob 30 yards away is an abandoned car or a band of marauders lying in wait.

Because walking around with your hand to your face can get a bit annoying, we suggest keeping backups of your eyeglasses stored away in case you get separated from your primary set. Keep an extra pair or two of your prescription glasses in your bug-out bag or an alternative location, such as at work or in your vehicle. Even older prescription glasses can be of some help versus not having glasses at all.

CoTCCC Has Expanded Its Recommended Tourniquet List for 2019

Written by

The subject of tourniquets is one that’s frequently debated, and for good reason — a tourniquet is a critical life-saving device. If a tourniquet fails to properly occlude blood flow, there’s a high likelihood an injured individual may bleed to death before ever making it to a hospital. There is no shortage of evidence for the value of tourniquets, whether they’re being used in a combat setting or a civilian pre-hospital setting.

However, not all tourniquets are created equal. A poorly-designed or carelessly-produced tourniquet may be difficult to apply, inconsistent in its results, or may simply break under tension — these are obviously unacceptable outcomes when seconds count and lives are at stake. The Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC), a division of the Department of Defense’s Joint Trauma System (JTS), conducts extensive research and testing on various tourniquets to determine their effectiveness for combat situations. The CoTCCC then publishes a list of recommended products based on this selection process.

Until recently, the CoTCCC recommended three tourniquets for combat use: the North American Rescue C-A-T, the Tactical Medical Solutions SOFTT-W, and the Delfi Medical Innovations EMT. The EMT uses a pneumatic inflation system, while the C-A-T and SOFTT-W use the more popular windlass design.

North American Rescue IFAK with C-A-T Gen 7, hemostatic gauze, and other trauma care supplies.

On May 6th, 2019, CoTCCC released a new Recommended Devices & Adjuncts document that substantially expands this list of tourniquets recommended for combat use. The CoTCCC now recommends the following TQs in the non-pneumatic limb tourniquet category:

As for the pneumatic limb tourniquet category, the Delfi EMT is still recommended as well as the Tactical Pneumatic Tourniquet 2” (TPT2). Junctional tourniquet recommendations include the Combat Ready Clamp (CRoC), SAM Junctional Tourniquet (SAM-JT), and Junctional Emergency Treatment Tool (JETT). However, these categories are typically used for more specialized applications.

Keep in mind that all CoTCCC recommendations relate to combat use by trained military personnel, so their relevance to civilians with limited training may vary. The Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC) offers a set of TCCC-based guidelines that are geared towards the civilian market — go to C-TECC.org to learn more.

For more information and a complete list of the newly-recommended tourniquets, read the CoTCCC Recommended Devices & Adjuncts (as of 5/6/19). You can also download the list in PDF form.