How Ready Are You?

If there is one thing this last year should have taught us all, is that things can change in a matter of moments. Kenosha was the best example. People were having a normal Sunday night with barbecues and family dinners, and within one hour they were living in a war-torn hell-scape. Fires burned everywhere, law enforcement was gone, and fire/EMS service very limited. Sitting on your porch was dangerous. It stayed that way for over a week.

The prudent see danger & take refuge,

but the simple keep going & pay the penalty.

Proverbs 27:12

That’s solid advice from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook, and there is danger today.

Ever since George Floyd, was killed, every police shooting, whether justified or not, draws a hostile crowd. In fact, as we are seeing RIGHT NOW in Minneapolis, the facts don’t matter. The dead man even bragged that he was going to shoot at police. He did, was shot, and they still claim it was racism and unjustified, and are burning things down & looting.

People are encountering armed illegal checkpoints by revolutionary communists in various parts of the country, with no police presence. Those same groups are calling for armed revolution. At the same time, far right people are whispering about a military coup being possible this summer (it isn’t).

That brought me to todays topic, how ready are you at any given moment? In the preparedness community, everyone talks about how ready they are because they have 37 years of food stores, 20K rounds of ammunition, and 16 guns, but how ready are you REALLY at any given moment? And, if you had to run, how are you carrying all that?

First, let’s talk about being DRESSED. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but do you get up and get dressed, even on your days off? What if your neighbor’s wife was pounding on your door, because her husband was having a heart attack and you were still in your Superman Boxers? Or a neighbors house was on fire and they were stuck inside? I know it seems silly, but the next time you’re in the grocery store, look around you. Notice how many people are in pajamas and slippers. We used to be a society where no one would ever consider leaving the house like that. What if they got into a car accident, or ran out of gas, while dressed like that? Not helpful. Don’t be those people.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know exactly how I feel about shorts on adult men, but have you considered how many people wear flip flops or sandals? Yes, they are comfy, but what if you had to stop and help someone at a car fire in them? (I choose car fire because I came upon a car fire the other day). These are truly elements of our preparedness. You don’t want to walk home from a car accident 15 miles in flip flops.

On a more serious note, at the beginning of the pandemic, we all started carrying a bit more gear, and kept our awareness up. By the end of month 3, we were a bit fatigued, and we started to streamline our everyday carry. Now, we’re back to having our home stockpile, for the most part. I know a lot of you, like me, aren’t, but a majority are.

Taking it a step further, do you carry a ‘Get Home Bag’ in your car or keep one at work? Why not? In our modern society, it’s not unusual to work 40 miles or more from home. What if you couldn’t drive for whatever reason, and had to walk it? Do you have a change of clothes, for those who work in more formal clothes? What about shoes or boots?

Going even farther, how prepared are you on a business trip? I used to travel by air every week all over the country. Now, I won’t accept any assignment that I can’t drive to. I know that some of you don’t have a choice, but consider it. You may very well be the most well-stocked prepper at home, but what if you are 800 miles or more away when an event happens?

I remember on 9/11 the struggles in trying to get all of the senior leadership at my employer at the time back to where they needed to be, since planes were grounded and no one knew when they would resume flights. Most of them had been at a meeting in Minneapolis (that should tell you who the employer was), and we needed them back in their home markets. Rental cars sold out in under an hour. That was 20 years ago. Imagine it now. I myself had just gotten home from Utah literally hours before.

Flying with full preparedness supplies is not really an option, due to the costs involved. So what can you do? How prepared are you really, every day? I choose now to drive and have for many years, because I want to be able to bring the supplies I want and have the ability to leave, preferably in my vehicle, without being at the mercy of mass transit.

I recommend as we enter this new summer of renewed protests, increased tensions, open talk of civil war and planned coups, that you seriously consider your DAILY preparedness for ANY EVENT, not just your overall preparedness. All those supplies at home or your bug out location do you no good if you don’t survive to get to them.

First, build a ‘Get Home Bag’. This is a bag with basic supplies to enable you to get home from anywhere if you have to leave your vehicle. Advice and lists for building one can be found in my book, Base Line Training Manual, available here: https://amzn.to/3ciohgU

Second, build or buy a quality First Aid Kit. I personally have several. I have a Solatac PTK (www.solatac.com) in my Get Home Bag, and a larger kit from Kilo 5 Supply (https://www.kilo5.com/) in my vehicle. The Kilo 5 IFAK is well stocked, well thought-out, and in a quality pouch that I keep attached to my vehicle emergency kit.

Have basic supplies in your vehicle, like a change of clothes/shoes, some food, and some water. You don’t know when you might need it.

Carry emergency communication gear, like VHF/UHF radios, with you everywhere. The MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service) is VHF and doesn’t require a license. Your group or loved ones could plan on using one of those channels in an emergency.

At the end of all this rambling, the important takeaway is this: Every day, BE READY. Be honest with yourself, most days you really aren’t. Have the supplies and gear AVAILABLE when you need it, not stored away somewhere you can’t get to.

Afterthought: If, once you finally get back to your home, it would take you 8-12 hours to load up those supplies to move to a back-up location, are you really ready?

Be ready, always.

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