I've lost track of SERE graduates who think they are defacto experts on survival. They are experts in some aspects of survival, but mostly moving very fast and unobserved away from bad guys. How many of us are going to run from Colonel Saito with Creedence Clearwater Revival singing 'RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE?'My #1 don't leave home without it survival item is my Wiggy bag.If I ever do manage to get in a wreck, I am NOT building Fort Zinderhoff with my knife,spearing, snaring or shooting Bart the Bear or dancing nekkid like Robin Williams in THE FISHER KING, er Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY building fire like some rite of boy to man passage initiate.No Sir, I am going to curl up in my warm bag, chew on some fruitcake by the fire and blow my whistle and work my mirror.If that doesn't work, I'll initiate plan B and go walkabout as recorded by A.B. Banjo Patterson in his poem turned national Anthem of OZ.I don't care what Nessmuck did or how light a pack can be made.This is survival, not some Zen pursuit of non attachment and Muir Minimalism.Being slave to an arbitrary wieght in the literature is just as burdonsome as a truly to heavy pack.