Author Archives: JD

This is an epic battle story and a classic study of tactics that directly applies to us as people interested in preparedness. It highlights some pieces of Tactical Wisdom that are vital to our plans for a WROL situation, and happens to be a pretty cool story. If anyone wants to follow along, the fullContinue reading “Tactical History – Ziklag”

We prepare for all sorts of situations, and presently most of us are worried about a potential hack taking down the electrical grid or some type of mass civil disorder, right up to a potential second civil war. You know I frequently talk about second and third order effects, and the potential for a fireContinue reading “Fire Preparedness”

Last night, I had a conversation with a long-time corrections officer and he mentioned training to shoot in Nitrile or Latex gloves, due to the current pandemic and other scenarios. Anyone who has ever tried to accomplish anything in nitrile/latex gloves instantly knows what the issues will be. For context, the source I spoke toContinue reading “Latex/Nitrile Glove Training”

Earlier this week, I mentioned that you need to take yourself from Condition Yellow to Condition Orange. I had an incident occur this morning where that condition kept a workplace violence threat from expanding into actual violence. I want to share the story, not for accolades, I get paid to do this, but to pointContinue reading “My Morning – A Preparedness Tale”

If you read my book or have followed this blog for any appreciable amount of time, you know I talk about Cooper’s Color Codes and remaining in Condition Yellow as much as possible. Today, I’m saying that if you aren’t in Condition Orange when interacting with others outside your household, you aren’t safe. Monday night,Continue reading “Condition Orange”

The other day, I shared an article of mine that appeared over at http://www.survivalblog.com (great website by James Wesley Rawles, BTW). In that article, I discussed some training exercises that are listed in my Base Line Training Manual, available at the Amazon affiliate link below. The exercises involved conducting safe movement, avoiding others, and settingContinue reading “Misconceptions are Dangerous”

Everyone has a different opinion of what a collapse will look like, and that spurs a lot of conversations. Hollywood has given us a false sense of what a societal collapse looks like. In the movies, it’s a sudden event where we go from order to chaos in less than a day. What if, inContinue reading “Our Collapse”

In their training manual on Fieldcraft, the Canadian Forces define Fieldcraft like this: “Fieldcraft is made up of the individual skills and techniques used by soldiers in the field, which include movement, use of ground and camouflage in conditions of reduced visibility.  These skills and techniques enable soldiers to maintain their own security while gainingContinue reading “Fieldcraft”

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24:6 As I sit here watching the situation unfold in Israel, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a preview of things to come here. Now, I’mContinue reading “Is Israel a Preview?”

As we approach Mid-May, the weather is getting warmer. On Monday, I decided to do a seasonal changeover on all of my bags. As I was finishing, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you all my thinking and methodology. By now, you should all have ordered a copy of theContinue reading “Seasonal Changeover”

Whenever existing prepper groups train as a group, one of two things happen. They either spend the entire weekend shooting and doing unrealistic tactics like practicing urban combat, or it just becomes a family camping trip, where a good time is had, but no actual training occurs. As the law & order situation in theContinue reading “Team Training Ideas”

I watch a lot of the “Prepper” movies, to see how realistic they are, and to see how the principles I discuss would have helped the heroes in the movie.  SPOILER ALERT…if you haven’t seen “The Road”, with Vigo Mortensen, there are a few spoilers in here, but I’ll try to limit them. Before weContinue reading “Lessons from “The Road””

Just when you thought this place couldn’t get any crazier, the last 2 weeks have thrown us for an even bigger loop.  Today, we’re going to talk about the declining self-defense situation, the revelation of the lie that this was all about George Floyd, I’ll offer some practical tips, and throw out a few itemsContinue reading “Let’s Talk Self Defense”

As civil disturbances are increasing and we approach the deliberations phase of the Derek Chauvin trial, I thought it would be a good time to discuss civil disturbance planning.  There are things you can do to reduce the impact of civil disturbances on your life. First, let’s come to an agreement that politics plays NOContinue reading “Skill: Civil Disturbance Planning”

I know, I talk about this a lot.  You want to know why?  Because people still have a normalcy bias. But first, an update.  The first book in our Training Manual Series, The Base Line Training Manual is being edited and will be wrapped up in the next few days.  If you’d like to helpContinue reading “Normalcy Bias – Again”

A great opportunity for preparedness is the ability to gather and analyze information, so that you can make informed decisions based upon that information.  In the military realm, that’s called gathering intelligence.  When the information is gathered from information freely available, it’s called “Open Source” intelligence or “OSINT”. In the beginning, OSINT wasn’t considered asContinue reading “Gathering OSINT”

As the weather warms up, protest season is on us once more. We can expect more frequent protests, and potentially even worse ones than last year. In this article, we’re going to cover some lessons learned, discuss some events from this weekend, and talk about how to prepare for protests. First, we need to understandContinue reading “Protest Season – Again”

In the world of preparedness, we gather camping gear, and prepare for “bugging out” with all our cool-guy gear, food, and supplies, but have we considered that camping in a Without Rule of Law situation will be DANGEROUS?  Security will become crucial. Military forces the world over have been camping in dangerous situations for thousandsContinue reading “Skill – Overnight Positions”

Boy, has it been a rough ten days, or what? We’ve had two mass shootings, a murder on video in Washington DC, and several violent protests.  We’re going to discuss what that means for us, as people into preparedness, and what we can do to further prepare for the situation we are in. First, we,Continue reading “Are We Already in a Collapse?”

I’ve already repeatedly explained the need for first aid training and gear, but the yesterday, I had a discussion about the need to prepare as far as medications. It’s an area that is often overlooked. It’s such an issue, that I’ve included the topic in the first volume of the Tactical Wisdom Training Manual Series,Continue reading “Medicinal Preparation”

As we head further into what appears to be a decline, communications will be even more vital.  We have become so reliant on our modern ability to immediately communicate with everyone else instantaneously, that the loss of that ability could be devastating. A few issues have come up since my last article on Communications, soContinue reading “More Communications Issues”

Cell phones and the internet were supposed to make our lives easier, less complicated, and more efficient.  It was supposed to usher in an era where our effectiveness was going to give us more free time and less stress. Do you feel like that’s what happened? With the prevalence of cell phones, “free” search services,Continue reading “Personal Security in the Digital Age”

What is the reason that we prepare?  What is our ultimate justification for what we’re doing? If you watch “Doomsday Preppers” or some other show on TV, the answer would seem to be that it’s because we’re crazy.  They selected people and edited the clips to make them look crazy, which led to years ofContinue reading “Why We Prepare”

I originally wrote this for Survival Blog, and the skills are critical in analyzing your routes and options for getting away from your immediate area in a Without Rule of Law situation. But first, let’s see what the Ultimate Tactical Handbook has to say about this: Give careful thought to the paths for your feetContinue reading “Skill – Route Planning”

You can a learn a lot by reading.  If you’re into preparedness, I’m sure you have a stack of books with practical skills in it, I know I do. I read the entire Gray Man series by Mark Greaney (www.markgreaneybooks.com if you’re interested), and a few other good pieces of fiction, like Mongol Moon byContinue reading “A Preparedness Story – Gathering Information”

We spend a lot of time discussing how we can prepare to survive some type of a Without Rule of Law or SHTF situation.  We watch livestreams, read blogs, and buy all kinds of products. If we face the cold, hard truth, we have to realize that at the time we need it the most,Continue reading “News – Book Series”

We all have our plans and our preps, but when was the last time you conducted a functional test, with all of your gear?  Getting out and doing a functional test, like a I describe below, allows you to adjust things before there is a true emergency and it’s good training. Here’s what the UltimateContinue reading “Functional Testing”

The President, the Speaker of the House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI have all made announcements this last week about a “War on Domestic Terror” and the threat of “Domestic Violent Extremists” and “Homegrown Violent Extremists”.   Politicians are giving speeches about “all-out war”, “declaring war”, “seditionists”, and “re-education camps”. There areContinue reading “If the Government is Planning on War – Shouldn’t You?”

The information age was supposed to make our lives better.  It was supposed to enable us to make faster decisions based upon the solid, factual information that was available at our fingertips at a moments notice. Are you getting the feeling that the free and rapid flow of information is making your life easier?  MoreContinue reading “Dealing with Rumors”

I’ve mentioned before that knowing your state’s self-defense and citizen’s arrest laws can help, and I meant it.  I don’t think we’re all intending to run out and start arresting people, but you need to know what authority you have if someone assaults you or steals your property, or attacks a third party. Recent statementsContinue reading “Legal Preparedness 1”

We are being inundated with rumors of impending power outages and/or internet & cellphone outages, there are literally troops on the street in every state capitol, and everyone is talking about potential unrest over the next 5 days. The odds are, none of it will happen at all.   But…a quick check of the UltimateContinue reading “Last Minute Reminders”

One of the biggest issues I’ve faced since this slow-moving collapse started last spring is verifying all the information coming in. At the very beginning, we heard reports from all over of checkpoints at state lines, roadblocks for “COVID” checks, ID checkpoints, etc.  Nearly all of it turned out to be rumors and none ofContinue reading “Skill – Reporting Formats & Verification”