I often meet people in my day-to-day life who do not understand why I spend my time, money, and energy constantly improving upon my family’s preparedness and self-sufficiency. The question I always get asked is, “Why do you do this?” For a long time, my answers consisted of a list of technical reasons why preparedness makes sense — but I found this never really had the impact on people I thought it would. This took me down the road of looking at the reasons why I embarked upon this preparedness journey in the first place — the why.

My passion for preparedness began well before I was born, starting with my grandfather in the World War II era. My grandfather was born and raised in Italy. He was a passionate and intelligent man who actively spoke out against the rise of Mussolini’s fascist regime. His activism quickly made him a target of the oppressive regime, resulting in threats of imprisonment and death. He spent time hiding and traveling between monasteries before he was finally able to flee to America. When he arrived in the United States, he could have simply lived his life in peace, but he instead chose to join the U.S. Army and fight for what he believed in. That tenacity for standing up for his beliefs and will to survive resulted in the creation of my family, and while my father and his brothers did not grow up living as preppers, my grandfather always instilled the importance of critical thinking, utilizing outside-the-box ideas to overcome obstacles, and the importance of protecting the family.

My grandfather was a big part of my life when I was growing up, and he instilled upon me the same values he taught his children through the stories of his life experiences. My father taught me the importance of hard work and doing everything to the best of my ability. He also shared with me his love of the great outdoors, physical fitness, healthy eating, and growing our own food in the limited space we had available to us in urban New York. Our shared love of wild places allowed me to experience the wonders of the wilderness around the country.

When I was 12 years old, I embarked on an adventure with my uncle and his family to Olympic National Park in Washington. As young people often do, I had a fight with one of my cousins while on a hike and decided to head back to the cabin we were staying in to cool off. After some time, I got bored and decided to hike back out to catch up with the group. What started with a few wrong turns ended with me wandering the expansive wilderness alone and hopelessly lost for hours.

After the water I brought along with me was exhausted, I had to rely on natural water sources to stay cool and hydrated. I utilized the knowledge I had learned in Boy Scouts and from my father to source water from the fast-moving rivers to stay hydrated and continued along the trails until I heard vehicles from a road and eventually went off trail toward the road until I came across the dirt road. I followed the road for a while until a park ranger vehicle went zooming past me. About 100 feet ahead, that ranger vehicle slammed on the brakes and threw it in reverse until reaching me. He asked my name, and when I answered, he promptly responded, “We’ve been looking for you, get in!” He took me back to my family. I spent the rest of the trip sick, as despite trying to source potable water I ingested parasites that caused gastrointestinal illness.

This was a defining moment for me. I realized how fortunate I was to be alive and decided it was important for me to learn all I could about wilderness survival. Throughout the rest of my youth and early adult life, my experiences continued to shape my preparedness, mindset, and skills. As a teenager, I worked for a taxidermist, where I learned the importance of hunting in providing protein and usable resources from animals. When I got engaged to my wife, my father-in-law — a Marine and retired NYPD police officer — taught me firearms skills and tactics to defend myself and my family. I experienced living through natural disasters, grid outages, supply chain disruptions, and lived in the New York City area during 9/11.

The culmination of all these experiences and people in my life was the realization that preparedness is not just a single set of skills or an array of cool gear — it was a state of mind and the blending of practical ancestral practices, general modern know-how, tactical skills, and the appropriate equipment that I knew how to use. It was more than being prepared in an emergency — it was living a self-sufficient lifestyle and building a community around me, both to teach and to learn from.

As you read through this issue, you will see a variety of topics, ranging from practical self-sufficiency for everyday life to tactical skills and equipment that can help all of us in an emergency. Each article was selected based on the important lessons I learned throughout my life. As you read through each of article, I encourage you to look back on your own experiences and ask yourself what shaped you into the preparedness-minded person you are today — so that the next time someone asks you why you do what you do, you can explain your why.

From Tactical to Practical

Editor’s Letter Issue 72

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