We recently completed a top-down review of the ruggedized Juggernaut phone cases and mounting ecosystem. Shortly after that article was complete, Juggernaut announced they would be releasing a new, expanded line of phone cases and mounts. Good news up front: both cases and mounts are backwards compatible. If you have a legacy mount, all the new cases will still fit in those mounts. Likewise, if you purchase one of their new-generation mounts, your existing phone case will fit into it without problems. (Our first look of the improved PALS plate carrier mount can be found here.)
Above: The outgoing IMPCT and SLEEV cases offered two levels of protection; the new ENDVR, ADVNTR, and OPRTR families provide three levels to choose from.
Previously, there were two Juggernaut phone cases: the IMPCT and the SLEEV. The IMPCT was their “medium-to-hard” use case, with the SLEEV being up-armored even further for extra-rough handling, and optimization for Juggernaut’s line of power and data transfer cables. Their new line has expanded to include three case options, instead of two, to cover a wider range of use-cases.
Juggernaut Case Everyday ENDVR
At the more casual end of the spectrum is their ENDVR case. The ENDVR is a front-load “snap on” case. Simply press the phone down into the corners of the case until it stretches and snaps down over the body of your phone. This is how most commercial phone cases work, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
Optimized for EDC and weekend warrior adventures, the ENDVR does not feature a port sealing mechanism like its counterparts. It does, however, still lock into Juggernaut mounts. Whether you want a belt clip for your work pants, a PALS pack adapter for your weekend trail pack, or a vehicle mount for road trips, the ENDVR will still fit securely into any existing Juggernaut mounting interface – with one caveat. The ENDVR’s design is so sleek that you will need to go down one mount size.
The sample phones used here are a Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra. If I load the standard S22 into an ADVNTR or OPRTR case, it will need a medium-sized mount to ride in. But the same phone loaded into an ENDVR case, will use a small-sized mount. Fortunately, Juggernaut marks both their mounts and cases with size icons, and all of the new cases are explicitly labels with the required mount size for that case. If you plan on switching your phone in and out of the different cases, using different case models for work and personal phones, or have family members or co-workers using different-sized cases than you, you’ll have to bear that in mind as you shop for corresponding mounts. But this difference only applies to the ENDVR.
Extreme ADVNTR and Tactical OPRTR
Above: The Juggernaut ADVNTR (left) and OPRTR (right) are top-loading designs with seals for the ports on the base of the phone.
The larger ADVNTR and OPRTR cases are similar in form factor. Both are top-load cases, as opposed to snap on, with a hinged top cover. They both feature a port-sealing mechanism on the bottom. The ADVNTR seals with a pop-off rubber gasket, while the beefier OPRTR has larger, buffered bottom plate that secures into the case with two screws. Either one can be completely removed from the rest of the case and stowed if not needed for daily use.
The ADVNTR and Operator both feature more material built up around the edge of the screen, creating a deeper offset for the phone. This is good news if you’re prone to dropping your phone on its face, when that offset could save you from a cracked screen. Aside from that, the OPRTR appears to be an even-more-up-armored version of the ADVNTR, slightly taller with more material all around.
Our sample S22 did require more effort to load into the OPRTR than the ADVNTR, which indicates the use of additional shock-absorbing foam on the interior of the case. But make no mistake, both of these cases are fit for duty with law enforcement or military units. Also, the ADVNTR and OPRTR use the same size mounts – in our case, they both used medium mounts for the S22 and XL mounts for the S22 Ultra.
Design Improvements
We were big fans of the previous-gen IMPCT Juggernaut phone cases, with our editorial staff making extensive use of them in the field, and the new lines offer some distinct improvements. In addition to scalability of protection level, all three of the new case models make more extensive use of texturing and rubberized grip material around the edges of the case. We did notice that, on the older cases, as increased wear smoothed out the untextured plastic edges, our phones became a little more prone to slippage and drops.
Not so with any of the new case models. There is also the SHLD screen protector (not shown here) available. In addition to the additional protection for your screen, the SHLD is available in blue light blocking and privacy-protection variants.
There is also more attention to detail in design aesthetic. The large military-style labels have been moved from the outside to the inside of the case, which also feature subtle artwork resembling topographical lines on a map. The inside of each case also features a cheeky one-liner or movie quote. You’ll only see it once, when you load your phone into the case, but they’re good for a quick chuckle, and the combination of colors and quotes adds a degree of uniqueness and collectability to an otherwise utilitarian product.
Above: The Forearm Mount features a ratcheting BOA dial for micro adjustment, ensuring it fits the wearer securely.
Speaking of colors, there are some additional options in that realm, as well. The ADVNTR and OPRTR are available in black, FDE, OD green, and Gunmetal Gray. The more urbanized ENDVR case is available in black, Stone Green, Gunmetal Gray, and a lighter limited-edition Tundra Gray. Pricing, like protection level, is scaled to the individual cases: $65 for the ENDVR, $80 for the ADVNTR and $145 for the OPRTR. The SHLD screen protector is an addition $50-$60 depending on model. Even maxing out the prices, you are still looking at just over $200 to not only protect your smartphone to the level of literal battlefield use, but also capitalize on the wide array of mounting and carriage options that can be integrated into almost any imaginable use case – from belt clips and dashboard docks to skydiving harnesses and body armor.
Above: The Armband Mount is made from stretchy Lycra with a topo-pattern grip material on the inside to reduce slipping.
At time of writing, these new case lines have only been released for Samsung Galaxy S22 phones, with limited availability for S22 Plus and Ultra models. Juggernaut has told us that iPhone 14 models are coming soon.
For more information on the new Juggernaut phone cases, go to Juggernautcase.com.
Protection is an individual right and an individual responsibility. This statement shouldn’t be controversial in the slightest, but in recent years, an increasing number of politicians and lawmakers have expressed a belief that protection is solely the responsibility of the state. “Don’t take matters into your own hands,” they say. “Just call 9-1-1 and wait for help to arrive!” Thankfully, most of you can see the fallacy behind this statement. Rather than resigning ourselves to helpless victimhood, each and every one of us should become a trained protector and a first responder, even if it’s only to buy a little time until law enforcement, paramedics, or other professionals arrive.
This mission statement formed the backbone of Protector Symposium, a multi-day training program that’s currently on its fifth iteration. In September 2022, we attended Protector Symposium 5.0 in Tucson, Arizona, with the goal of absorbing knowledge from renowned experts in the protection industry. Attendees included members of the military, law enforcement officers, EMTs, firefighters, executive protection specialists, cybersecurity analysts, and preparedness-minded civilians. The event’s website explains, “The Protector Symposium is specifically designed for those who have a heart for protecting others and understand the tremendous value that comes from investing in life-saving skills.”
The Mindset of a Protector
Before we headed onto the training grounds for practical exercises, the event began in the classroom with an opening statement by Protector Symposium and Protector Nation founder Byron Rodgers. This was followed by presentations from each of the instructors.
Craig “Sawman” Sawyer, a former Navy SEAL and founder of Veterans for Child Rescue (V4CR), opened with a frank discussion of the often-uncomfortable realities of being a protector. Sawyer reminded us of the old axiom, “evil prevails when good men do nothing,” but explained that simply doing something isn’t enough. As protectors, we must be righteously motivated and decisive. He continued, “Evil does not yield to mild suggestion. It never does. It takes and it destroys.” In practical terms, this means that those who are motivated to cause harm to others — rapists, murderers, and other ruthless predators — will not be swayed by polite requests or pleas for mercy. To reinforce this point, Sawyer shared an incident that rocked his family to the core. In 2017, Sawyer’s teenage daughter was abducted at knifepoint while walking out of a Subway sandwich restaurant in Tucson. Her abductor, later identified as 32-year-old Johnny Angel Salazar, forced her to walk with him to a dark and secluded area where he sexually assaulted her multiple times. Despite this horrific, life-altering event, Aspen Sawyer became a protector — a “right fighter,” as Sawman puts it. Today, she assists in V4CR operations to arrest predators and help victims of sex trafficking.
Sawyer left us with a powerful message: we should train hard to be better protectors because our lives depend on it, but more importantly, because others’ lives do. “There is a tremendous opportunity for you to make an impact and defend the defenseless,” he said.
Behind the Wheel
The next speaker was Rick Sweeney, President of SECFOR International and Director of the League of Executive Protection Specialists. With nearly 30 years of experience providing safety solutions for NGOs overseas, Sweeney has become an expert in vehicle-based operations in high-risk environments such as Bosnia, Iraq, Syria, and the war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Sweeney explained that many life-threatening scenarios, such as kidnappings and robberies, begin with a vehicle ramming attack or block-in tactics. To prove that this isn’t only a threat in foreign countries, he played a video of a 2022 armed robbery in Manhattan that began with a suspect using a stolen Mercedes to spin the victim’s car — not once, but twice — with a law-enforcement-style PIT maneuver:
Sweeney says in situations like this, your vehicle can serve as a powerful weapon as well as your best method of escaping to safety, but you’ll need to know how to use it effectively. Every driver is conditioned to avoid making contact with other cars, but you’ll need to get comfortable with trading some paint if you expect to escape this type of attack. In extreme cases such as those Sweeney has experienced overseas, it may also be necessary to PIT maneuver vehicles, evade obstacles at high speed, and push through roadblocks.
Above: Training vehicle used during the Protective Driving Course.
Protector Symposium 5.0 offered a two-day Protective Driving Course option that allowed students to practice evasive maneuvers and bumper-to-bumper “sparring” in specially modified Crown Victorias. However, this option overlapped with the two-day Hard Skills Intensive training we planned to attend, so we’ll have to take this course with Sweeney and the League at a later date. Stay tuned for an article about this program in the future.
Instructor Zero, a firearms training specialist and social media personality, also taught a training block related to fighting in and around vehicles.
Weaponology
Ed Calderon should be a name that’s very familiar if you’ve been following our magazine for the past few years. We interviewed Calderon about “Survival Lessons from South of the Border” back in RECOIL OFFGRID Issue 25 and published a dozen articles about his training courses since then. He has also written several original articles for us based on his experience working counter-cartel operations in Mexico. At one point in his career, his team was recovering 10 to 20 dead bodies every night, many of which were viciously mutilated or suspended from bridges as an intimidation tactic. Looking back at those nightmarish days on the streets of Tijuana, he recalled a quote: “enlightenment is a destructive process.” Those traumatic experiences helped him develop his protector philosophy and create courses to share real life-saving skills with other protectors.
Above: Ed Calderon used whiteboard drawings to show vulnerable areas on the human body. Defensive knife designs were also discussed at length; wide and ornate blades are generally ineffective, while simple paring knives and icepicks are brutally efficient.
Calderon’s hard skills training block focused on weapon-based combatives, a curriculum he refers to as Weaponology. During the introduction, he explained, “There’s no such thing as blade combatives or gun combatives. Don’t separate sh*t. It’s a fight — you use what you have.” In other words, during a real life-and-death scenario, you won’t be concerned with which tool you’re using because you’ll be using every tool you have to stay alive. That said, there are some key characteristics for edged weapons that Calderon prefers. The handle should be simple in its design and should fit comfortably into a full-fist “icepick” grip (tip down) or “hammer” grip (tip up). The blade should be roughly the length of the user’s outstretched thumb and terminate in a narrow piercing point; Calderon has a strong dislike for karambits and other ornate blades. He considers an inexpensive Morakniv fixed blade to be one of the best knives on the planet — “it’s made as a tool, and it won’t break.” Paring knives from the grocery store are another favorite choice for utilitarian self-defense; they can be acquired in non-permissive areas and tossed in a trash can when you leave.
For the practical segment of Calderon’s course, students stepped into a padded sparring area, and each was handed an aluminum training knife. In pairs, we worked various angles and targeted weak points such as the heart and femoral artery. Calderon also showed us some down-and-dirty techniques for disrupting an opponent:
Grabbing a knee and lifting to throw them off balance
Stepping forward rapidly to pin their foot onto the ground, and shoving to topple them backward
Pulling their shirt collar up over their head to completely block their vision
Quickly passing the blade from one hand to another to make it more difficult to trap the weapon
Above: Ed Calderon demonstrating how a disorienting shirt grab can be used as an opening to go on the offensive.
We also covered what Calderon refers to as “parting gifts” — attacks that can be used as you step past an adversary without slowing down, such as a quick eviscerating slash across the waistline. Some might look at these techniques and think, “These seem awfully brutal, more suitable for street thugs than self-defense. Why would you even teach this?” Calderon’s response is concise: “These techniques are already out there. If you’re not aware, you’re fighting yesterday’s war.” Also, whether you plan to use these methods or not, it’s important to experience them firsthand in training so you can formulate better defensive strategies. As for demeaning labels like “thugs,” Calderon offered another important lesson: “Never make the mistake of dehumanizing the enemy. It blinds you to his capabilities.”
Lone Operator Tactics
Let’s make something perfectly clear. CQB — close quarters battle, especially room-clearing — should be a group activity under ideal circumstances. Whether it’s a military unit or a SWAT team, there’s a reason you’ll see breaching teams stacked several members deep. When you’re attempting to clear a building all alone, you won’t be able to cover all the angles completely, and if you get injured, there won’t be anyone to return fire or drag you to safety. There’s no delegation of tasks or sectors of fire — it’s all on you. Knowing this, there are many who will say, “I’d never attempt to clear a building alone! That’s too dangerous!” To these individuals, we’d like to pose a hypothetical scenario.
You awake in the night to screams of terror coming from your 8-year-old daughter’s bedroom down the hall. As you sit bolt upright in bed, you hear a strange man’s voice shout “shut up, bitch” followed by more muffled screams. Your spouse is out of town, so you’re alone. There’s no way to know how many people are in the house, or if they’re waiting around a corner to ambush you. Do you: A) grab a gun and move swiftly to your daughter’s bedroom, or B) call 9-1-1 and hide until police to arrive, because solo CQB is too dangerous? There’s no question which option we’d choose. This is why it’s important to consider one-man CQB skills — it’s far from ideal, but there are situations where it may be necessary.
Kawa Mawlayee — an Afghan-born Green Beret and founder of 2Alpha Training Group, who we interviewed in Issue 52 — has developed a Lone Operator curriculum to teach students how to increase their survivability in a solo CQB environment. This skill is directly applicable to defense against home invasions, and it should be part of a cohesive plan that’s discussed in advance with everyone in your house. Typically, developing CQB skills requires weeks or months of continuous practice, so Mawlayee gave us a quick overview of the fundamentals during his Protector Symposium segment.
Above: Kawa Mawlayee spent an enormous amount of time practicing CQB skills as a Green Beret, and he takes pride in passing that knowledge to prepared civilians.
We practiced three approaches to checking doorways — non-entry, shallow entry, and deep entry. For a non-entry approach, we carefully walked up to one side of the doorway and leaned close to the wall to get as much view of the interior as possible. Then we moved slowly in a 180-degree arc to “slice the pie” and check for threats; a lean-step-lean-step motion was used to limit exposure. It’s critical to ensure the gun’s muzzle never protrudes past the threshold. We held our trainer guns barely below line of sight, ready to fire at a moment’s notice, and moved our guns in line with our eyes — in CQB, there’s no sense in moving your head to check an area without being able to shoot in that direction. More time and focus should be given to areas with dead space, such as large pieces of furniture someone could hide behind. If you decide not to make entry, you should keep moving as soon as you’ve established that the room is clear. Don’t get bogged down.
Above: Opening a closed door is a dangerous moment. Push (or pull) it open in one swift motion, using the precise amount of force necessary — too little and it’ll get in the way as you enter; too much and it’ll swing shut in your face.
With a shallow entry, you can establish a quick foothold in the room, buying yourself a few seconds to breathe and get out of “bullet funnel” areas like hallways. Mawlayee explained that bullets skip down halls like rocks on a lake, so you should avoid lingering there. We practiced arcing back to the center of the doorway, positioned a leading foot just outside the threshold, and then stepped swiftly through the doorway with body and gun at the same time, clearing the wall parallel to the threshold. Once that side was clear, we made a quick U-turn to clear the opposite wall and complete the shallow entry.
Deep entry can be used if you’re looking for a known threat or a specific asset (e.g., a trauma kit, a defensible place to barricade, or a path to an emergency exit). The process is the same as shallow entry, but after the U-turn, we moved along the perimeter of the room to look for points of dominance (POD; key areas you can control for a strategic advantage). Check for open and closed doors — open doors are a priority and should be cleared first — and also note the hinge placement to predict the entry/exit direction. If you need to open a closed door, stay close to the wall, open it quickly and completely, and immediately step back. Anyone inside may fire blindly into the doorway or the wall next to it, so you don’t want to be where they’ll expect you.
Above: Airsoft guns may be marketed as toys, but they’re great tools for practicing force-on-force scenarios in close quarters.
After practicing these techniques, we put on masks and loaded up airsoft guns. Each student was tasked with clearing a series of rooms, with randomized configurations of opponents and bystanders inside. If a bystander approached, we gave clear verbal commands to stay back, show hands, and leave through a safe area, never allowing them to get close enough to snatch our guns. Some of the “bad guys” in our scenarios were instructed to hide for an ambush, surrender immediately, fire blindly, or retreat further into the structure after first contact. We learned firsthand how solo CQB situations are unavoidably dangerous, but we also saw that good visual awareness, wise decision-making, and violence of action can improve your chances of survival.
Hands-On with a Handgun
It should come as no surprise that self-defense shootings typically occur at “conversational distance” — less than 7 yards, the distance at which we usually interact with other people. Most of us also know how easy it is for a motivated attacker to lunge forward and close that gap. This leads to a high likelihood that an adversary will try to block you from drawing your gun, redirect the gun, or worst of all, attempt to take it from you and shoot you with it. Most shooters are not adequately prepared for this hands-on fight.
Raul Martinez Jr. is a U.S. Army veteran, former undercover narcotics officer with the Chicago Police Department, and founder of Rogue Methods, a combatives training organization. He leveraged his experience in Iraq and on some of the roughest streets in America to teach us how to deploy, retain, and recover a firearm at contact distance. He made it clear that a hands-on fight with a gun in play is a worst-case scenario, but also one you must be prepared for if you carry a gun.
Above: Raul Martinez Jr. demonstrates one “off-body holster” method to protect and control a firearm — wrapping the support hand's palm over the bore — if you realize a hands-on fight is imminent.
Training began on a live-fire range, where each student learned how to deliberately induce a malfunction in his or her handgun. Why? If you’re about to get into a knock-down drag-out fight with someone, it’s surprisingly easy for your opponent to shoot you with your own gun — something we learned the hard way later with Simunition rounds — and putting it into a non-functional state temporarily might prevent that. Additionally, knowing how to induce a malfunction in your opponent’s gun while you’re grappling can put them at a huge disadvantage. We accomplished this by clamping the slide in a static position with our support hand before pressing the trigger. If the slide is pressed slightly out of battery, the gun won’t fire at all; if it’s held in place, the gun will fire one round but won’t eject it, resulting in a dead trigger. Racking the slide can clear the malfunction once you have control of the gun again.
Aside from the ability to induce malfunctions, gripping the slide with your support hand offers much better control over the firearm — Martinez calls this an “off-body holster” technique. Two methods were demonstrated: thumb over slide with elbows tucked in, and palm over slide with support side elbow up. The former keeps both arms and the gun tight against the body, making it almost impossible for an opponent to wrench the gun from your grasp. The latter allows you to use your elbow to protect your head from punches and create more defensible space. In either case, the trigger guard should be fully covered by your hands, and both hands should remain firmly on the gun. A similar grip around the slide and trigger guard can be used to forcibly “holster” an opponent’s gun during a fight, preventing them from getting a finger onto the trigger.
Above: After a few hours of grappling, every student was battered and exhausted. At this point, Martinez started adding Simunition training guns to the fray, dumping a whole new level of adrenaline into each fight.
After our brief live-fire segment, we headed inside and spent the next few hours grappling on padded mats. At first, we did hands-off, head-to-head drills to focus on footwork and learn how to push an opponent off balance solely with body weight. Next, we put on gloves and started punching our sparring partners as we grappled. Then, inert training guns were added to the mix, and students were forced to fight to maintain or take control of the weapon. For the final exercise, students paired up, stood head to head, and started grappling. At some point during the struggle, a training gun loaded with Simunition rounds was tossed into the fray, and both students dove for it. In some cases, the students struggled over the gun for an agonizing 30 seconds, but neither was able to shoot it; in other cases, one student took control of the gun immediately and shot their adversary at point blank — a painful but memorable lesson. We finished the Rogue Methods training block sore, bruised, and thoroughly winded, but it was a stark reminder of how challenging a contact-distance gunfight can be.
Closing Thoughts
With a wide variety of lessons on mindset, edged weapons, firearms, and tactics, the Protector Symposium 5.0 covered a lot of ground in only 72 hours. More importantly, we didn’t just listen to PowerPoint presentations or discuss these topics in the classroom — we experienced the drills and lessons firsthand. If you take the responsibility of being a protector seriously, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to seek hands-on training from qualified instructors. It’s a worthwhile investment in a skill set that will leave you with far better options when disaster strikes than to simply call 9-1-1 and wait.
Editor's Note: This Black Triangle G10 knife review was originally published in Issue 24 of our sister publication Concealment.
WHAT IS IT? It’s a G10 knife with a nonmetallic sheath designed for discreet self-defense.
WHAT GOT OUR ATTENTION? Every Black Triangle knife comes in a retro VHS tape box, complete with a custom-printed, faux-aged insert that looks like it belongs on a late-1980s Blockbuster shelf next to Predator and They Live. Packaging is usually a throwaway item, so we were interested to see if this attention to detail carried over to the box’s contents.
HOW DOES IT WORK? For those who aren’t familiar, G10 is a hard fiberglass composite material that’s commonly used for handle scales on metal knives. The Creeper MK1 Mod 2 is constructed from a solid piece of ¼-inch-thick G10 ground to a sharp point. Its handle is wrapped tightly in gutted black paracord, and it includes a fitted Kydex sheath. The polymer belt clip is bound tightly to the sheath with elastic cord, eliminating the need for any metal hardware. The end result is a G10 knife that’s completely invisible to a metal detector, so it can serve as a self-defense tool in environments where a traditional knife or firearm might not be permissible.
We also received a sample of Black Triangle’s matching MK1 trainer ($42), which is made from easily identifiable blue G10 with a blunt tip. A fitted sheath is also included with each trainer.
HOW WELL DOES IT WORK? Many nonmetallic tools still register on a metal detector due to carbon-fiber construction, metal sheath hardware, or other overlooked elements. Thankfully, that’s not the case here — we passed a wand over the Creeper repeatedly without a single beep. Note that nonmetallic tools can still be found by density scanners or a simple pat-down, so there’s no guarantee it won’t be noticed, but it’s much more concealable than a metallic blade.
WHAT WE LIKE: The Creeper’s handle is large enough for a full-fist grip, and the twisted cord wrap offers plenty of slip-resistant texture. Sheath fit is just right; the knife clicks securely into place but is easy to draw quickly. The belt clip accommodates a standard 1.5-inch belt, and the extra loop of elastic cord attached to it provides an alternative retention method. It can be tethered to a belt loop, the inside of a pocket, or any other fixed point to ensure the sheath stays put as the knife is drawn. That versatility is helpful.
Black Triangle has a lifetime guarantee for every G10 knife, so if the tool or sheath is broken or damaged, they’ll fix or replace it.
We appreciate that Black Triangle offers a trainer that perfectly replicates the size, shape, and weight of the “live” blade. Too many of the trainers we’ve used in the past feel like featherweight toys compared to their real counterparts. We’re also glad it includes a fitted sheath that allows you to practice the drawstroke realistically. An inert trainer is an important add-on for anyone who wants to practice edged weapon techniques safely against a human partner.
WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE: The edge geometry of any knife is a compromise between sharpness and durability. A fine edge slices effortlessly, but dulls or chips quickly. This is especially relevant for G10, a material that’s less durable than steel. Black Triangle grinds each G10 knife to be strong enough to puncture repeatedly, acknowledging that they’re “point-driven, meaning they are not meant for cutting.” The Creeper won’t be effective for slashing, but that’s not a problem as long as your fighting technique matches this design.
Did you know that the difference between survival, inconvenience, and comfort, can be as simple as turning a dial? Open any survival manual, and you’re bound to find some crudely sketched drawing of an analog watch being used to determine a cardinal direction. This can be confusing or difficult to interpret if you’ve never been exposed to the idea before. Using a compass as a watch is rarely discussed in field craft books, so it may not even cross your mind as an option.
Thanks to Jacks Genega, a talented instructor and the owner of Wildcard Wilderness Survival, we are able to watch a demonstrations which make the two skills easy to understand.
Using a Compass as a Watch
Estimating the time fairly accurately with a compass is one of those more obscure fieldcraft skills, but it is really easy to learn. Central to the concept is the fact that planet Earth must rotate 360 degrees on its axis to make one full rotation. Since it does this in 24 hours, each degree is the equivalent to 15 minutes (360/24 = 15). Assuming this is done in the northern hemisphere, by aligning the orienting arrow on the compass with the southern pointing end of the needle, simply count the degrees in the direction of the sun. This process would be reversed in the southern hemisphere. Each degree counted to the left of zero is 15 minutes subtracted from noon. Each degree to the right of zero is 15 minutes added to noon. To use a compass as a watch with more accuracy, being aware of time zone changes or daylight savings, and checking declination adjustments are crucial. But if that is too confusing, check out the Wildcard Wilderness video here:
Using a Watch as a Compass
This is a fieldcraft skill that is more commonly known, but you must have either an analog watch, or a watch digitally capable of displaying watch hands. What it boils down to is rotating the watch until the hour hand is pointing at the sun. Keeping the hour hand pointing at the sun, look at the space between the shorthand and 12, then divide that space in half. In the northern hemisphere, that halfway line is pointing to the south. See it in action here:
It should be noted that these are not precise ways to measure time or determine direction, but it will get you in the ballpark. Knowing the time could be vital when trying to determine how long you’ve been gone, and how long you have to get back, especially when trying to return before dark. Knowing the direction you’re going could prevent you from traveling in circles. Whatever the case may be, if you forget an important piece of gear like a watch or a compass, having these skills at your disposal can quickly turn a life threatening survival situation into a mild inconvenience.
We’ve always advocated that survival is a team sport. Building up your network of family, friends, and community to endure hardship together is perhaps the strongest step you can take toward being prepared to handle whatever contingencies an uncertain world throws your way. But since you can’t pack all those people in your go bag or backpack, finding yourself alone in a bad situation is often inevitable. Whether that’s away from home on business, in the wilderness on a solo adventure, or in the car on the way to work — very few people are never alone. Especially in a post-COVID world that puts a premium on remote work, digital delivery services, and video conferences, we are constantly being pushed into circumstances requiring us to “keep our distance” from even our closest loved ones, typically under the premise of some “abundance of caution.” So, we felt it was important to take a look at some critical skills for surviving on your own.
Self-defense expert Steve Tarani graces our pages to discuss some key methods to develop a defensive mindset. When all you have to rely on are your wits and a pocket full of tools, keeping calm and being able to analyze your situation on the fly is critical. We also assembled a panel of experts to discuss how to integrate yourself successfully into a foreign population. While most of us will never be alone in a distant land for extended periods, these critical social skills can be re-tooled for any environment of strangers, whether they share your language and culture or not.
Special Forces soldier Kawa Mawlayee, war correspondent Hollie McKay, and former private military contractor Tim Lacy all contributed to this piece after years of working embedded in foreign cultures. Our Web Editor Patrick McCarthy also gave us a very thorough breakdown of his experience with Apex Training Solutions, who imparted him with a thorough understanding of long-range shooting fundamentals. While making a 500-yard rifle shot isn’t what most people think of in a self-defense context, as shooting skills go, it does fall firmly into the category of keeping your distance. He also reviews the 5th annual Protector Symposium, an event the RECOIL OFFGRID staff has been covering yearly since its inception. Event founder Byron Rodgers does a fantastic job of compiling teams of experts in various protection skills, many of whom are past or current contributors to this magazine.
As always, we hope you never have to use the skills in this magazine. If you do, we hope you have friends, family, or community around to help you through it. But, with or without a shoulder to lean on, the best defense against a bad day is investing in the knowledge, skills, and equipment required well in advance. Stay safe, stay ready.
As the hot weather of summer months approaches, several officials and numerous media outlets reported that due to high temperatures and an overtaxed energy infrastructure, we should expect rolling blackouts. This has already turned out to be true in my region of the Midwest, having numerous power outages. Losing power, and subsequently losing indoor climate control, makes the human body more susceptible to ambient temperatures. Normally, this isn’t such a big deal but can quickly turn into a serious problem if it’s too hot. Having personally experienced heat injuries on more than one occasion, it’s a situation that I take every precaution with.
My inspiration to put this bag together came to me when my significant other ended up needing to spend the summer months in an urban area on the West Coast for work. This is a region of the United States that may be undergoing the first “mega drought” in over 1,200 years. No power, lack of water, and unrelenting heat can be a recipe for a bad time but doesn’t have to be. With minimal preparations, the worst of it can be staved off with ease. The components include redundant ways to prevent heat injuries, keep the body running efficiently, ensure personal protection, and stave off the inevitable boredom that comes with extended blackouts.
The Bag
Having a bag that had enough room for everything while not looking like an operator was important. Camouflage print and “tactical” colors like coyote brown often draw the wrong type of attention. Kitanica’s available colors help maintain a low profile without sacrificing features or functionality. The shoulder straps and reinforced back on the Vespid are cushioned mesh to assist with cooling. This helps keep your core temperature cool during hot weather, especially when you can’t charge your EV and need to move manually from one location to another. The 30L capacity offers plenty of room to store supplies while keeping the hands free, and two easy access side pouches make grabbing water bottles effortless. Four zippers allow access to the main compartment from multiple angles. While inside, a laptop can be nestled in a protective enclosure. There are plenty of inner pockets and three dedicated MOLLE panels for extra storage, should it become necessary but, for its intended purpose, I felt keeping it minimalist was the best approach.
Trickle Charge
USB chargeable fans will help keep air moving should hardwired fans become incapacitated. In case of nighttime blackouts, the USB chargeable Knog headlamp and MPowered solar charging light will keep the darkness at bay. To charge said USB devices, there’s a solar charging radio/flashlight/SOS device that will keep critical electronics running. This particular one has a hand crank and AAA batteries for several layers of charging redundancy. Having a radio allows the listener to tune into local stations that may still be able to broadcast important information in case of blackout emergencies, and the dedicated weather band adds another layer of usefulness. These days, phones have largely replaced wearing a watch, but Bertucci makes a solid timepiece with a glow-in-the-dark face for finding the time if the power is out. A dedicated analog watch can be used to count pulse rate during medical emergencies, or determine approximate cardinal directions, just to list a few useful functions.
Beat the Heat
Staying physically cool during hot weather is only one part of the equation, the body also needs H2O and electrolytes to stay hydrated and keep the body functioning well on a cellular level. SaltStick caps provide buffered electrolyte salts and a small amount of caffeine for an energy boost. Worst-case scenario, Katadyn tabs with a few sealable quart-sized bags will keep the body happy if finding potable water becomes an issue. No power means no Uber Eats, so Nutrient Survival fills in that gap until a trip to the grocery store can be made. Their non-perishable survival food has a long shelf life and is packed with vitamins and minerals.
Beat the Street
Unfortunately, being prepared also comes with the risk of being a target. People who are hungry or thirsty will do desperate things to change their condition. Mission First Tactical makes a civilian-friendly self-defense spray that packs a law enforcement punch, combining CS tear gas, OC Pepper, and UV dye. This is a great non-lethal solution for states with prohibitive gun laws. Wind could be a potential drawback, but the RapidStrike spray boasts a concentrated stream with an 18-foot range to minimize the risk.
Beat the Boredom
Last, but not least, what’s a blackout without a few analog items to pass the time? Playing cards and colored pencils will help keep morale up until streaming services are back in action. Cards are also great if the blackout brings friends and neighbors out of their digital cocoons. Nothing like a little Texas Hold ’Em to occupy the time. If the neighbors are lame, or there’s a need for some alone time, solitaire, or meticulously filling in spaces with color will provide some much-needed catharsis.
Final Thoughts
Exposure to the elements is one of the top killers in nearly every survival situation. Someone suffering from the heat would experience cramps or prickly skin sensations, shortness of breath regardless of how much they’re exerting themselves, rapid heartbeat, and eventually have a stroke with acute organ failure (in that order). When the rug of modern amenities is forcefully pulled from beneath us, having a few simple items and an understanding of the signs and symptoms will make a world of difference.
Water features such as lakes and oceans tend to vary in temperature based on latitude and depth. Even Caribbean Sea bottoms near the equator can reach temperatures as low as 36 degrees F. Luckily, humans rarely venture that deep. Rapid immersions in cold water, however, are still dangerous and can quickly become life-threatening if not prepared. Let’s discuss what you can do to increase your chances of survival.
Survival Times in Cold Water
If water temperatures remain above 70 degrees, a victim may survive quite a while. Once below 68 degrees, survival is unlikely beyond a certain time limit. Even less time exists before exhaustion leads to an inability to remain conscious. To an extent, this varies according to the circumstance and from individual to individual. You could die of hypothermia off a tropical coast if immersed long enough. Body size and build, fat content, clothing, flotation aids, and even psychological makeup play a part.
Above: Cold water survival chart.
Hypothermia
The ill effects of exposure to cold are called “hypothermia.” Hypothermia occurs when body temperature drops below 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). When exposed to cold, the body’s muscles shiver to produce heat. This functions only to a point, after which the victim may appear confused and uncoordinated; as the condition worsens, speech becomes slurred, and the patient will become lethargic and uninterested in helping themselves; they may fall asleep. This occurs due to the effect of cooling temperatures on the brain; the colder the body core gets, the slower the brain works. As hypothermia progresses, organs fail, and the victim expires.
Those suffering from general hypothermia must be removed from the cold and warmed immediately. If the victim must remain on the ground, place a barrier underneath and cover with warm blankets.
Above: Typical hypothermia wrapping technique.
If they can’t be moved to a warm place indoors, place warm dry compresses in the neck, armpit, and groin regions. These are areas where major vessels come close to the body surface and can move warm temperatures to the body core more efficiently. Warm fluids may be given to those who are awake and alert but may be dangerous in those who have altered mental status. Although controversial in some circumstances, a rescuer might “spoon” with the patient and cover with blankets to share body heat.
Assume that anyone encountered in cold weather with altered mental status is hypothermic until proven otherwise.
How the Body Loses Heat in Cold Water
The body loses heat to the environment whenever the ambient (surrounding) temperature is lower than about 68 degrees F. Much lower temperatures cause heat to radiate away more quickly. This happens in water more rapidly than in air due to its increased denseness. As such, when the body’s surface comes in sudden direct contact with cold water, it conducts heat from the body many times faster than cool air.
Above: Always wear a life jacket while boating, especially on large bodies of water.
Events that involve a rapid immersion in cold water include capsizing boats, going overboard in storms, and even falls through the ice during winter hikes. All of these could lead to fatal consequences if the victim fails to act rapidly to mitigate the risk of drowning and hypothermia.
Boat Mishaps
If your boat sinks and you find yourself in cold water, you’ll need a strategy that’ll keep you alive until you’re rescued. Failure to follow this advice decreases the amount of time you have before the effects of hypothermia take hold:
Wear a life jacket. Whenever you’re on a boat, wear a life jacket. A life jacket can help you stay alive longer by 1) enabling you to float without using a lot of energy and 2) by providing some insulation. Jackets with built-in whistles or a beacon light are best, so you can signal that you’re in distress.
Above: A sudden dunk into cold water initiates a “gasp reflex.”
Keep your clothes on. While you’re in the water, don’t remove your clothing. Button or zip up. Cover your head if at all possible. The layer of water between your clothing and your body is slightly warmer and will help insulate you from the cold. Remove your clothing only after you’re safely out of the water. Then, do whatever you can to get dry and warm.
Get out of the water, even if only partially. The smaller the percentage of your body exposed to cold, the less heat you lose. Climbing onto the hull of a capsized boat or holding onto a floating object will increase your chances of survival, even if you can only partially get out of the water.
Position your body to lessen heat loss. Use a body position known as the Heat Escape Lessening Position (think H.E.L.P.) to reduce heat loss while you wait for help to arrive. Just float and hold your knees to your chest; this will help protect your torso (the body core) from heat loss.
Huddle together. If you have fallen into cold water with others, keep warm by facing each other in a tight circle and holding on to each other.
Above: Groups in cold water should huddle together while facing each other.
Don’t use up energy. Unless you have a dry place to swim to, do not exhaust yourself swimming.
Falling Through the Ice
In many parts of the country, lakes freeze to the point that it may be difficult to identify a safe trail to hike. Indeed, a field of newly fallen snow may camouflage a water feature with a thin coat of ice.
Above: After a snowfall, you might not even know you’re walking on lake ice.
Ice must be at least 4 inches thick to handle the weight of an average human. Having said that, this “safe” thickness may be undermined by flowing water just below the surface, which weakens the underside of the ice. Safety is never guaranteed when it comes to walking on the ice.
If you end up on thin ice and fall through, your body will react to the sudden immersion in cold water with an increased pulse rate, blood pressure, and respirations. This is known as the “cold shock response” (also called the “gasp response”). Drowning can occur as your body reflexively takes a breath and hyperventilates as you go underwater. Life-threatening cardiac events can also occur due to the sudden increased workload on the heart. Both are common causes of death in these situations.
Although this situation is difficult without a rescuer with rope or other equipment, it’s important to make every effort to keep calm. You still have a few minutes to get out before you succumb to the effects of the cold. Your main enemy here is panic.
If it’s possible, place your hand tightly over your nose and mouth as you go under. This will minimize the amount of water you inhale with the cold shock response. Then, get your head above the water by bending backward and, once in the air, taking a deep breath.
Tread water and quickly get rid of any heavy objects that might be weighing you down. Keep your clothing on, however; there are air pockets between layers that are helping you stay buoyant.
Now, turn in the direction where you came from; the ice was strong enough to hold you there. With any luck, it still is.
Spread your arms on the surface of the ice. If you have an ice pick (a useful item for anyone hiking on the ice), dig it into the ice as a handhold for support. Then, try to lift out of the ice while kicking your feet to get some forward motion. At the same time, try to get more of your body out of the water.
Above: Spread your arms on the surface of the ice.
Lift a leg onto the ice and roll out onto the firmer surface. Do not stand up, though — you’re not out of danger. Keep rolling in the direction that you were walking before you fell through. This will spread your weight out, instead of concentrating it on your feet. Then, crawl away until you’re sure it’s safe.
Start working to get warm immediately. The wisest hikers will have a change of clothes in a waterproof container available. This allows you to always have something dry to wear if you get wet. Other important items include a fire-starter; get one that works even if wet.
Knowing the Ice by Color
When it comes to predicting the safety of walking on ice, the color may give you a clue as to safety:
Light gray or black ice – This is a sign of melting, weak ice, even in freezing temperatures. Ice can melt even if the air temperature is below 32 degrees F (0 degrees C). This ice will not hold your weight.
Above: Black ice won’t hold your weight.
Mottled or slushy ice – Thawing ice which may appear thick might be mottled in color. This ice may be deteriorating in its center and base. Consider it unsafe for walking.
White or opaque ice – This ice may be caused by snow thawing and refreezing in layers. Porous air pockets in-between usually indicate a questionable ability to hold weight.
Bluish-clear ice – Ice that is high density and strong is often bluish-clear in color. It is the safest ice to be on if at least 4 inches thick.
Above: Blue ice is considered to be strongest.
Areas of contrasting colors indicate an uneven thickness and should be avoided. Larger bodies of water take longer to freeze, and saltwater usually needs colder temperatures, depending on the concentration of salt and other factors (28 to 29 degrees as opposed to 32 degrees F).
It’s important to understand that survival rates are higher when traveling in groups. If walking on a frozen lake, members should always proceed in single file and be separated by several yards. This will guarantee potential rescuers are at hand if someone falls through the ice.
Above: Just because its cold outside, doesn't mean you have to be uncomfortable.
C.O.L.D.
When it comes to preventing cold-related injuries, it’s useful to remember the simple acronym C.O.L.D. This stands for Cover, Overexertion, Layering, and Dry:
Cover: Protect your head by wearing a hat. This will avoid the loss of body heat from your head. Instead of using gloves to cover your hands, use mittens. Mittens are more helpful than gloves because they keep your fingers in contact with one another, conserving heat.
Overexertion: Avoid activities that cause you to sweat a lot. Cold weather causes you to lose body heat quickly; wet, sweaty clothing accelerates the process. Rest when necessary and frequently self-assess for cold-related changes. Pay careful attention to the status of elderly or juvenile group members. Diabetics are also at high risk.
Layering: Loose-fitting, lightweight clothing in layers do the best job of insulating you against the cold. Use tightly woven, water-repellent material for wind protection. Wool or silk inner layers hold body heat better than cotton does. Some synthetic materials, like Gore-Tex, PrimaLoft, and Thinsulate, work well also. Especially cover the head, neck, hands, and feet.
Dry: Keep as dry as you can. Get out of wet clothing as soon as possible. It’s very easy for snow to get into gloves and boots, so pay particular attention to your hands and feet.
About the Author
Joe Alton, MD, is a physician, medical preparedness advocate, and three-time Book Excellence Award-winning author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide For When Help Is Not On The Way. He’s also an Advanced Wilderness Expedition Provider and member of The Wilderness Medical Society. His website has over 1,200 articles, podcasts, and videos on medical preparedness.
You may know them under a variety of names: T-back knives, push daggers, punch knives, gimlet knives, or even palm knives. The bottom line is that they all do the same thing. You grasp the handle, and the blade protrudes through your fingers. You deliver a cut or a stab as you throw a punch. The idea has been around for centuries. Some Roman gladiators wore a weapon known as a cestus (or cesti when paired). These were leather gauntlets that covered the hand and had a blade, or several blades attached to the top. The gladiator armed in this manner would literally punch and stab for his life. Another variant was the katar of India. This was a long dagger grasped horizontally where the blade seemed to protrude from the fist, and it may have been where the term “palm dagger” originated. The modern version of the T-handle goes back a few hundred years to German immigrants to the United States. This easily concealable design was popular in the Southeastern U.S. particularly with riverboat gamblers, and it eventually made its way out West following the gold and silver rushes.
What is a Push Dagger?
Typically, the profile for this design resembles a T with the handle as the top bar and the blade as the stem. Historically, most of these blades were in a symmetrical dagger design or even a spike. The idea was that stabbing pokes holes in people and two edges were better than one. As we’ll see in this lineup, the symmetrical push dagger still rules the roost, but that’s not always the case. Some makers and manufacturers are utilizing more utilitarian blade shapes. This may be to work around jurisdictions that outlaw dirks or daggers.
Another noticeable trend is the handle design shifting from the traditional T to a hybrid between a T and a 7. There is virtue in this as it gives the user a better grip for fighting as well as if they may want to use the knife for a simple cutting task as opposed to being solely a combat knife. Even with that in mind, don’t look to one of these as your only knife, but think of it more like a backup weapon. They do work well as a fighting blade but can leave a lot to be desired as an EDC knife for many utilitarian tasks. Although, admittedly, a few in this batch are better at that than their forbears. As always, research the local and state laws before you start carrying a push dagger.
Notes: Jason Perry is a custom knifemaker based out of Concord, California, known for tactical fixed blades and stunning chef’s knives. The Little Alien is his take on the classic discreet push dagger. This is one of the smaller ones we looked at. It conceals well, but if you have XXL-sized fingers, it might be too small for you. It’s a well-made piece of 1095 steel with G10 handles and a wickedly done edge. This has a lot of potential as a last-ditch hideout knife. In this case, the short stall in the handle helps secure the blade close to your fingers so that it will not yaw on a punch.
Pros:
Extremely small, but very effective
The edges on this dagger are a testament to Perry’s skills.
The artistry is subtle, but apparent.
Cons:
As keen a cutter as 1095 is, the potential for rust exists on the exposed edge that’s uncoated. If you don’t live in an arid environment, make sure you maintain it.
The sheath does a good job of securing the knife, but it does make for a slow draw as it partially encompasses the handle unless worn as a neck knife.
Notes: M3 Tactical Tech (Modern Mission Mobility) is run by Kevin Moore, a custom maker of knives, tools, and tactical gear. This time out, he took on the likeness of one of sci-fi’s greatest antiheroes and incorporated it into the design of this push dagger. This push dagger has a heft and feel that you just don’t want to put down. The handle fits the hand perfectly. The sheath has a metal clip and wears well on the belt comfortably and unobtrusively. While it looks amazing, this one is not an art knife or collectible you stash away in the safe. It’s meant to be used.
Pros:
The appearance is tactical design meets fine art.
Razor sharp with a single bevel edge, this knife makes for an awesome penetrator against steel drums.
The sheath is simple, but highly effective for both securing the blade and keeping out of sight.
Cons:
Carbon steel has the potential for rust unless you get a coated version.
As M3 is a custom outfit, particular models may be scarce or only available during certain times of the year.
Notes: Mercworx Knives has been producing high-end custom tactical knives for a few decades, but seems to avoid the spotlight to do good work in the shadows. The Custos is an example of one of their push daggers that has a great deal of input from real-world operators. Constructed of S30V or 154CM steel, this blade is a one-piece construction, save for its canvas Micarta scales. The most interesting and most useful aspect is the unique shape of the handle and how it properly indexes when you throw a punch. A lot of thought went into this design, and it shows. The Kydex sheath is extremely well made and keeps it secure on your person.
Pros:
This knife has one of the best push dagger handle treatments I’ve ever seen.
The profile and grinds make this one excellent at penetration.
The sheath keeps the blade secure yet doesn’t slow rapid deployment.
Cons:
These custom knives usually involve a waitlist or a higher price on the secondary market.
The edge could’ve been a little sharper, but it still penetrated different types of material.
Notes: Shivworks is a knife combatives training and edged weapons design team based in the Southeastern U.S. Their knives are intended to conceal well and be brought into action fast to help you fight your way through a violent encounter. The Push Dagger is a testament to the principals at Shivworks putting real-world input from their userbase into their products. This is one of those designs with the handle closer in profile to a 7 than a T shape. Only one edge is sharpened, which may help those who live in or travel to areas where a second edge may be a felony. It indexes well and has more utility use than the typical push dagger. A training version is available as well.
Pros:
Indexes unlike any other due to its handle length and low profile
The edge is sharp and can slash as well as it can stab.
A training option for a fighting knife is a must.
Cons:
The single edge is smart for a number of reasons, but I still prefer double edges for daggers.
These knives are made overseas and can be subject to availability due to global supply chain issues.
Notes: Connoisseurs may find the Heretic Knives Sleight somewhat familiar. It has its roots in an iconic design by custom knifemaker Steve Ryan when he headed up the SureFire Edged Weapons Division and unveiled the forerunner to this knife as the SureFire Bravo. It was a modular push dagger. Rather than let the design die, Heretic Knives resurrected it with more than a few improvements. It’s still modular; you can swap blades and handles with other models for changes in color and texture. The handle treatment aids in retention and lends more leverage for cutting tasks.
Pros:
CPM-20CV offers hardness, toughness, and excellent edge retention.
The sheath is more like a holster, securing the blade and allowing you to carry on the belt, MOLLE, or secured to a pack.
In testing, there was nothing that this blade wouldn’t cut.
Cons:
Deployment from the sheath can take some getting used to if you’re relying on it for self-defense. Practice the draw often, and it’ll work well.
The sheath is a masterpiece, but it can be a bit bulky to conceal.
T-Kell Knives Tarani Close Quarters (TCQ) Tri-Angle (Spearpoint)
Notes: Tim Kell is a former active-duty Marine who turned to knifemaking as a civilian. He has built a large following for his realistic no-nonsense tactical knives, including building this design for Steve Tarani. The Tri-Angle fixed blade is offered in several blade profiles. Handle scales can be spec’d at time of purchase as well as the tightness of the Kydex sheath. This spearpoint model excels as not merely a push dagger, but as a close-quarters fighting blade. It can handle most typical EDC tasks comfortably as well.
Pros:
80CRV2 is corrosion resistant and easy to maintain.
The handle shape is brilliant and shows what you can achieve when you team up a combatives instructor with a knifemaker.
The sheath is one of the more versatile ones I’ve seen.
Cons:
The spearpoint design is close in profile to a dagger but lacks that second edge. While great for legal reasons in many areas, it lacks the true aesthetics of a symmetrical dagger.
Notes: TOPS Knives builds serious hard-use knives for professionals, and this model has been very popular among troops as a boot knife. It comes with a survival whistle should you get lost and need an auditory method of signaling. With its clip-point profile and serrations, it has the characteristics of a great EDC blade turned into a push dagger. The single edge means that it won’t be considered a dagger in some jurisdictions. The Grim Ripper’s strength as a push dagger goes to the handle. Although it’s definitely a T-back style, there’s a ledge for your thumb to prevent the knife from yawing in-CQB, but also lends support and control when using it in an EDC role.
Pros:
The serrations are well done.
The G10 handles with the incorporated thumb ramp are so comfortable that this can work for most mundane cutting tasks.
The included survival whistle is a nice bonus.
Cons:
In spite of the coated blade, 1095 will rust in a maritime or even very humid environment.
Its size makes it less concealable than most push daggers.
Most survival skills are environmentally dependent. The way you’d build a shelter in the arctic tundra is quite different from the way you’d perform that same task in a rainforest. But camouflage is perhaps the most environmentally varied survival skill of all. In nature, we see animal species that are uniquely adapted to blend into the exact colors and textures of their surroundings — mottled brown owls, bright green caterpillars, stealthy tan lions, and so on. Many species, such as snowshoe hares, even change their coats seasonally to maintain concealment year-round. Below, we'll take a look at desert camouflage and movement techniques suitable for the scrub brush and sandy terrain of Arizona.
Above: As shown in our previous camo article by Offgrid staff Patrick Diedrich, the dense greenery and filtered sunlight of the Michigan forest requires a different approach to camo craft.
Some of you may recall our feature article in Issue 54 about Greenside Training’s Camo Craft class. The author of that article, Patrick Diedrich, attended a course in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and wrote about his experiences learning to blend into the dense forest. Around the same time, I also attended a Greenside Training class in a drastically different setting: the Arizona desert. In this article, I’ll briefly examine some of the variations in gear and technique as they apply to the desert.
Considerations for Desert Camouflage
Above: Freddy Osuna of Greenside Training (left) and Corey Clancy of GPS Defense Sniper School (right) compared various camouflage patterns. Freddy is wearing a Raider Concealment shirt with an A-TACS iX chest rig while holding a Desert Tiger Stripe shirt. Each of these patterns proved quite effective in Arizona. The Dutch M93 DPM camo shirt Corey is holding was far too dark for this environment.
Greenside Training founder and former USMC Scout Sniper Freddy Osuna began by reiterating the three main ways humans detect objects: movement, shape, and contrast. In the sparse, low-lying vegetation of the Sonoran Desert, movement and contrast are especially apparent. Clearings and areas with minimal cover (called “low-traction areas” by Osuna) are plentiful, so experienced trackers will spend more time scanning the few “high-traction areas” (i.e. good hiding places). This gives them a strong chance of identifying you there. Move cautiously to avoid detection, and always be aware of your backdrop to limit contrast.
Above: Students spent a large portion of the class learning to observe and scan environments. Becoming more observant will allow you to become more evasive.
Plan your route carefully to avoid large clearings. In the desert, your options will be limited. When you do have to cross a clearing, a painfully slow “skull drag” face-down crawl may be necessary to conceal your movement.
Above: Veils were constructed using materials such as burlap, jute, mesh, string, and natural plant matter. Breaking up the head and shoulders is critical, since that shape is the most identifiable sign of a human silhouette.
There is one upside to the scarcity of dense foliage, and that’s a lack of branches that will be displaced as you pass through. In forested areas with thick brush, every twig you crawl past moves slightly overhead, and a keen-eyed observer will see the difference between breeze movement and animal/human movement. This is still a consideration in the desert, but it’s much less frequent.
Above: While this elaborate veil certainly breaks up the head's outline, the movement of its thin twigs allowed instructors to spot this student quickly. Later, he pared it down to a much sleeker appearance.
The best hiding spots in the desert are often the most uninviting. Get used to baking daytime heat, freezing nighttime cold, and being poked by cacti and mesquite thorns. As Osuna put it, “If you’re comfortable in a position, you’re wrong.” The hellish cholla cactus field ahead is your salvation; the inviting shaded spot under a lone tree is a death trap.
Above: In the desert heat, sweat or sunblock can cause skin to become shiny. It's wise to cover exposed skin as much as possible.
Another crucial factor in the bright desert sun is reflectivity. Whether it’s the glisten of your sweaty skin or a sparkle of light from your watch, the intense sun has a tendency to reveal any shiny object. Half of the students in our first observation exercise were identified by instructors due to the glint of their binocular lenses. Even though they were clad head-to-toe in camouflage fabric and wearing ghillie veils to break up the outlines of their bodies, the glass revealed them in an instant. After that point, we learned to wrap our bino lenses in camouflage mesh with small slits cut for visibility.
Above: Even though the body of this set of binoculars is wrapped in camouflage tape, the exposed lenses catch sunlight and can be a dead giveaway.
Know Your Home Turf
Above: Sparse, waist-high bushes and cacti don't provide much concealment. Crawling on your belly over hot sand may be the only way to stay hidden while moving through some parts of the desert. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Above all, remember that observers in any environment — whether they’re animals you’re hunting or people you’re trying to avoid — are typically operating on their home turf. They know instinctively what looks out of place. This applies to goat herders in the Middle East who have never left a 15-mile radius of their home, and it also applies to your nosy busybody neighbor who knows every inch of the block. Whether you’re in the desert of Arizona or the forest of Michigan, to evade the locals, you need to be observant and methodical. However, don’t play it too safe. Osuna frequently reminded us to be bold in our movements when the opportunity presented itself. Never pass up a chance to sneak past a distracted or lazy observer, because you may not get that chance again.
Above: With the right blend of off-the-shelf camouflage apparel, a carefully-constructed ghillie veil, and patient movement, you can melt seamlessly into almost any environment.
I got a lot of valuable lessons from this class, and really enjoyed learning more about how to blend into the desert that is my own backyard (or detect others who are attempting to do so). For more information on upcoming Greenside Training Camo Craft classes, go to greensidetraining.com.
I often describe our society as “increasingly nonpermissive,” but what does this really mean? For former CIA officer Tony Mendez, the Soviet capitol city of Moscow was the quintessential nonpermissive environment — one in which CIA officers, or other embassy personnel, could assume with a high degree of certainty that they were under surveillance. Given the unrelenting scrutiny of the KGB, activities such as meeting with agents or picking up dead drops were essentially out of the question. The CIA and the officers at Moscow Station were able to develop new tradecraft, including sophisticated disguises developed with the aid of Hollywood makeup artists, to allow them to evade their KGB opponents and begin operating again. Mendez details this, and many other relevant tidbits, in his book The Moscow Rules.
However, as we move into the 21st century, nonpermissive environments have taken on a new meaning. The average person on the street in the United States or Western Europe might not need to fear being tailed by agents of the state every time her or she leaves home (yet), but the digital Panopticon is upon us for data monetization purposes, as well as for reasons of “public safety.” Pervasive CCTV camera deployments, social networking, and advances in the fields of high-performance computing, “artificial intelligence,” and machine learning are pushing us toward a dangerous future very similar to what Philip K. Dick described in The Minority Report.
In fact, for places like China, where facial recognition is already widely deployed, be it at restaurant kiosks for payment and ordering suggestions, or via surveillance cameras on the street corners, the world of The Minority Report is already here.
Above: Unsurprisingly, China has been a pioneer in the field of facial recognition camera systems. They provide the CCP with a fast and effective means of tracking down citizens who step out of line.
So, how does the technology work? Where might we encounter it today or in the future? And how, if at all, can we defeat it and maintain our privacy? Let’s discuss.
What Are Biometrics?
Biometrics refers to a set of technologies, generally used as security controls, which are predicated on that fact that individuals have certain universally unique characteristics. The first thing that might come to mind is fingerprints. Chances are that your smartphone or laptop has a fingerprint scanner and will allow you to log into the system with a simple scan rather than entering a password. As far as a measure of uniqueness goes, fingerprints are top-notch. There has never been a documented case of two people having the same fingerprints — not even identical twins. Theirs may be very similar, but they are, in fact, different.
Some other biometrics that can be used to uniquely identify an individual include:
Iris of the eye
Palm prints
Voice prints
The face
While facial recognition is what the majority of this article is about, it’s important to understand biometrics in general as they have a lot of things in common.
As a cybersecurity engineer by trade, I have a love/hate relationship with biometrics. In fact, what I view as their key disadvantage as an authentication factor is actually what makes them so dangerous from a privacy standpoint. That is, you can’t replace them once they’re lost. If I forget a password, or lose a CAC card, I have recourse. I can have my password reset or have the keys on the card revoked and a new one issued. Not so with my biometrics — they’re permanent.
And, unlike “something I know” (i.e., a password), or “something I have” (the CAC card), the “something I am” is always visible, and oftentimes left behind. So while biometrics are an excellent way to establish identity, I find the way they are actually leveraged as a replacement for passwords is very problematic.
Above: Many of us use biometrics as a convenient way to unlock our devices. However, few consider the security implications of using an unchangeable feature — such as fingerprints or the face — instead of an easily changed password.
Biometric systems are also subject to two types of errors. Type I errors are false negatives, and Type II errors are false positives. In biometrics terms, these are called false rejection and false acceptance. The accuracy of a system is measured by the point where the false acceptance rate equals the false rejection rate. This is called the Crossover Error Rate (CER), and the lower the CER the better. Looked at another way, the lower the CER, the harder it is for the system to be tricked.
Understanding CER is key to understanding both whether it’s worth it to deploy a biometric security control, or how you might go about defeating one.
At a high level, all biometric systems have the same basic components:
Some sort of sensor to take the data input (fingerprint or iris scanner, camera, etc.).
A database containing all the enrolled data (pre-existing samples of the biometric, associated with an individual).
A processing system that creates the mathematical model of the biometric during enrollment and is also capable of real-time processing inputs to match against the database.
If you have a modern smartphone, you’re likely familiar with the process of enrollment. If you have ever worked in a secure environment in government or even the private sector, you’re also likely to have gone through the enrollment process.
The sophistication of the input sensors is of utmost importance. In 2013, for instance, the Chaos Computer Club, a hacker group in Germany, demonstrated an attack against Apple’s TouchID which enabled them to gain access to someone else’s iPhone. By transferring the target’s fingerprint onto a gummy bear candy, they were able to give to trick the sensor into unlocking the phone. In 2017, another German security outfit, SYSS, demonstrated that they could bypass Windows 10’s facial recognition with a specially printed head shot of the spoofed user.
The next most important feature of the system is the enrolled dataset. When it comes to users of phones, computers, or even those granted access to a specific section of a building, that enrolled dataset is pretty small and focused. When scaling up for mass surveillance purposes, that dataset (and the processing power required) starts to grow exponentially.
Above: Unlike humans monitoring security cameras, facial recognition systems never fall victim to distractions or fatigue. They leverage computing power to spot targets with superhuman speed and accuracy.
Facial Recognition: How it Works
Now that you know some basics about biometrics in general, let’s focus on facial recognition in particular. Facial recognition is composed of two major phases. The first is facial identification and the second is facial recognition. Identification is determining “do I see a face” and recognition is determining “do I know who this face belongs to.”
Facial identification requires cameras and a good mathematical model of what a face is or isn’t. Traditionally these cameras were visible light cameras, but the need to function in low-light, especially in surveillance purposes, as well as the need to get high-grade contrast, means many operate in the near-IR spectrum, like night vision devices do.
Facial recognition requires the system to have an enrolled dataset. How exhaustive the dataset needs to be is dependent on the application.
Understanding the two-phase process and their components is key to developing countermeasures, which we will discuss later. But why would people want countermeasures in the first place?
The wide-spread deployment of facial recognition technologies, driven by machine learning (ML) and “artificial intelligence” (AI) systems is, in terms of threats to a free society, second only to the adoption of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). And, just like CBDC, the masses have been conditioned over time to accept aspects of it, or its forerunner, in their lives under the guise of “cool” or “convenient.” Some examples include:
Facial identification helping auto-focus the camera on your smartphone when you’re taking photos.
Facial recognition helping to automatically tag “friends” when you upload your photos to social media.
Facial recognition being used to unlock phones and computers.
Making it cool, fun, and convenient creates a situation where people actively, willingly, participate in feeding the data model. For years, people have been uploading photographs of themselves, friends, and family, to social media sites. These sites then introduced facial identification and allowed you to tag the face with who it belongs to. Eventually social media started offering to tag photos for you, which is fun and convenient, right? Well, it can do that because machine learning models were built and trained by people tagging photos.
Above: Millions of photos are uploaded to social media and tagged every day. Facial recognition models are being perfected through this massive influx of data.
Think of all those photos of people, at different angles, in different lighting conditions, at different ages. If you wanted to build the perfect dataset for an automated facial recognition system, you couldn’t ask for a better one — certainly not the state DMV database or State Department’s database of passport photos.
But what about the model? Just having photos of individuals isn’t enough. Each image needs to be analyzed in order to build a mathematical model of that person’s face. These days, system designers are increasingly relying on technologies like convolutional AI to automate the creation of these models via processes which are opaque to them. However, in general facial recognition models are going to be based on the geometric relations between facial landmarks, such as:
Distance between eyes, ears, etc.
Breadth and length of the nose.
Bone structure of the face (cheek bones, brow ridge, etc.)
Additionally, some of these measurements will be based on measured or inferred depth. These measurements require good lighting and contrasts in order to assess, a situation which has led to no small amount of controversy in recent years. In recent years, there have been no small number of cases where facial recognition technologies, deployed for various purposes, have been accused of being “racist,” either because the sensors have trouble with darker-skinned subjects, or because the training dataset for the machine learning algorithms is predominantly white or Asian.
Because this causes issues with applications that people want to work, such as device security or social media applications, these complaints tend to drive the state of the art in pushing facial modeling, advancing it in the general case.
The Facial Recognition Threat Right Now
Above: Whether you’ve noticed it or not, facial recognition technology is already being used extensively in crowded public places, especially within countries that favor authoritarian control over citizens’ right to privacy.
In China, the future is now. Mass deployment of surveillance cameras hooked up to high-performance computing clouds, with massive datasets, provide an all-seeing eye. People caught merely jaywalking are identified and then put on digital billboards to humiliate them and force social conformity, all in keeping with their social credit system. Facial recognition is tied to digital ID and payment systems. You can go into a fast-food restaurant, walk up to the kiosk, be served, and have your account debited, all from facial recognition. Fun, cool, and convenient, right?
The much darker side is that while social justice warriors in the U.S. and Europe are misguidedly pushing to help make facial recognition technology better at identifying minorities, in China they have developed data models and algorithms which can identify, with a great deal of accuracy, the ethnicity of a person. This technology is being used specifically to target the frequently persecuted Uighur minority population in Western China’s Xinjiang province.
In the U.S., we have protections that China doesn’t have. When the first publicly documented case of police using facial recognition technology en masse came to light in 2001 at the Tampa-hosted Super Bowl, there was a wide-spread outcry about how it was a 4th Amendment violation. Of course, this was pre-Sept. 11, pre-PATRIOT Act, and before Snowden’s revelations that would make this seem like a blip. In the U.S. now, some cities have created ordinances banning the use of facial recognition technology, sometimes due to privacy implications, other times at least in part because of the seemingly disproportionately high false positive rate for minorities leading to incorrect identification and false arrests. (Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, for instance, rolled out their ordinances against facial recognition in 2020 so that police could not use it during the ongoing riots and protests).
However, there are areas of the U.S. where the rules don’t always apply. Borders and checkpoints are one. Automated immigration checkpoints comparing on-site snapshots to your passport photo are becoming well established in the U.S. and other rich countries, offering convenience for greater acceptance of the tech. There can be no doubt that facial recognition technology is being deployed in the surveillance systems of major airports as well.
The same mobile technology that was pioneered and rebuked two decades ago will continue to make appearances at major events and especially at protests. And even when real-time facial recognition isn’t in play, surveillance photographs can be compared to government and open-source data sets (all those photos you put on the internet) for identification. This tactic was heavily leveraged both by government employees and private-sector open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts and digital sleuths after the events on January 6, 2021, for instance.
The Threat in the Future
In the U.S., we’re highly suspicious of three-letter agencies hoarding and manipulating our sensitive data, but many of us hand that same data to social media and tech corporations without blinking an eye. Here, the threat of invasive facial recognition is less likely to come directly from the government and more likely to be privatized. As China is doing now, and as The Minority Report showed, we’re likely headed to a future where the profit-fueled surveillance we have long known in the online world will move to the real world. You’ll walk into a store, be identified, and then based on your likes and internet history, will be offered products in real time. Or, based on your Personal ESG score — a measurement of how environmentally friendly and socially conscious your lifestyle is perceived to be — you might even be told you can’t spend money there.
As the social acceptance of the technology grows until it becomes basic background noise like flushing toilets and flipping light switches, there’ll be fewer and fewer legal challenges, and eventually government surveillance will step up as well. Via “public-private partnerships” in the name of “public safety,” we’ll find the lines increasingly blurred.
At least, that’s my projection.
What About Countermeasures?
Some systems are going to be harder to trick than others. How hard is going to be a function of how good the hardware is, how exhaustive the database is, and how sophisticated the model is. Saying for sure what will or won’t work is therefore hard. However, with some experimentation and research, I have a few things that I know will defeat some systems and may have success against others.
Above: The Android application ObscuraCam can quickly edit out faces and other distinguishing marks. This is perfect for countering facial recognition and methods OSINT analysts might use.
Online Countermeasures With regards to online countermeasures, the goal is to deny the creation of a good data model of your face. This can basically be broken down into two tactics:
First, is adversarial modeling. In machine learning, this essentially means spoiling the dataset with lies. You operate an account as yourself, or otherwise upload photos, but the photos are not of you. You then tag those photos as you, so the data model doesn’t associate your face with your person.
The second tactic, and one that’ll bring you much joy in your life, is to simply avoid playing the game. Get off social media. Spoil all your data, then delete your account. If you never had social media, all the better. Ask your family and friends not to upload photos of you. If they must, blur out the photos.
If you must swap photos online, use secure or covert communications applications to do it, and spoil the photos directly. Applications like ObscuraCam can take advantage of facial identification and pixelate or otherwise redact the photo when you take it. You can also use it to quickly obscure any other identifying information.
Above: Despite obscuring a large portion of my face with this mug, A match was still made at a distance of an average distance of 0.53, which is near the threshold but still a match. A more sophisticated model would likely defeat this.
Real-World Countermeasures Broadly speaking, there are three different categories of countermeasure we can use against facial recognition systems in the wild:
The first type of countermeasure attacks the ability of a system to detect a face in the first place. This is going to include anything from simple face coverings to purpose-driven clothing.
The second type of countermeasure is going to cause a false negative with facial recognition, after facial detection has occurred.
The third type of countermeasure is going to attempt to cause a false positive, making the system think that we’re someone else entirely. We’ll call this the “Mission Impossible” countermeasure.
Above: This disguise is fully defeated facial detection, however the utility of wearing something like this in your daily life is kind of a crapshoot.
Countermeasures you can use in the real world are a tricky topic, as it’s very difficult to know with any certainty what will or will not work against any given model. In a general sense, we can be assured that if simple facial detection and recognition models, such as the open-source Python library and tool “facial_recognition” cannot be tricked, then more comprehensive systems powered with sophisticated AI models will also be immune to countermeasures.
To test various types of countermeasures against a baseline, I used the Python tool facial_recognition, which can be installed on any Linux, Mac, or Windows computer with Python on it. This tool will compute the probability of a match in terms of distance from a known baseline, which is to say a smaller number equals a closer match. By default, anything that is 0.6 or higher is considered to not be a match.
Above: This mask prevented a facial detection, even preventing me from using it as a “known” photo. However, it wouldn’t be enough to counter the surveillance technology used in places like China and shouldn’t be relied on.
For control data, I used the same photo of myself as a known test photo, as well as test photos containing Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Burt from the move Tremors. A distance of 0.0 was computed when the tool saw the same picture side-by-side. It also correctly determined that I am not Zelenskyy or Burt.
Countermeasure Test Results
So, how did the countermeasures fare?
By far, the best countermeasures were ones that targeted facial detection. Full-face covering of an FDE neck gaiter, wrap-around sunglasses and hat prevented any match. A simple black cloth COVID mask was also enough to prevent any face from being detected, however, this should not be considered reliable as Apple’s iPhone is known to be able to make a conclusive match on data points not covered by a mask, when the user is wearing a mask, so long as a masked photo has been enrolled. This tool, however, couldn’t detect a face even when providing a masked sample image.
Above: Simulating a hat with a light on it to obscure my face, this was enough to defeat simple open-source facial detection models. The fact I can still recognize myself leads me to believe that a more sophisticated model might still make a match. I still believe that clothing with visible or IR lights that obscure the face are likely to be effective in many cases.
Illuminating my face with a bright flashlight in such a way that it washed out my features also prevented a face from being detected, lending credence to so-called “Liberty Caps” and other such clothing which contain LEDs to obscure the face from cameras. It may be advisable to use infrared LEDs, since their light will be invisible to the human eye while remaining effective against many camera sensors.
“Disguises” meant to obscure my identity, but not completely obscure the face, had mixed results. Predictably, matches became better as more “known” images were added. Thus, merely wearing a hat and glasses would cause a low-confidence match against an “driver’s license” type photo of me, but once photos of myself with hats, glasses, etc., in various combinations were added, the confidence of the matches became closer. However, there was nothing more conclusive than about 0.25. The use of camouflage face paint in the typical application used to obscure lines and flatten the face (darker colors on higher points, lighter on lower points) reduced the confidence of the match but wasn’t sufficient to completely avoid a match.
Digitally obscuring photos with ObscuraCam did prevent matches from being made as well, which proves that such digital countermeasures are effective against non-real-time facial recognition dragnets such as may be conducted using OSINT sources.
“Mission Impossible” disguises weren’t tested. I have low confidence in sophisticated systems being tricked by anything like a Halloween mask. High-end disguises built out by professional makeup artists may be able to make this work, but I think a false negative is going to be the best-case outcome in the general case at this point in the evolution of the technology.
Conclusion
Facial recognition technology is here to stay, and with profound implications for society in general. Just like any other biometric system, there are certainly uses that bring a legitimate advantage, but there’s also an exceptional opportunity for abuse.
Privacy-minded individuals have options to reduce our exposure, but it’s an arms race like any other. While we in the West enjoy legal protections that those in places like China do not, we have far less protection from the monetary drivers of surveillance capitalism that pervade online spaces and the government’s outsourcing of functionality to the private sector to avoid 4th Amendment challenges. In the long run, it’ll become increasingly more difficult to avoid these systems.
Judicious curating of your likeness online can go a long way to limiting the scope of the threat, and there are simple technical countermeasures that can be applied in the real world as well. These steps may not be perfect, but they’re the best we have right now.
Hopefully, this is one topic where civil libertarians will not let up in fighting the potential for abuse. However, as we continue to see facial detection and recognition technologies integrated into people’s daily lives, the expectation of privacy and fear of abuse will winnow over time. Sadly, facial recognition and biometric surveillance will become another “if you’ve done nothing wrong then what are you hiding?” argument in the next generation.
Thus, the best chance we have is in raising a next generation that’ll be resistant to mass surveillance and tracking, and who will adopt appropriate OPSEC as well.
