Hello,

I have lurked here and there on ETS for some time and really didn't even know about these forums until I started to 'really' look around. I have built my own personal survival kit from the advise that I have found on this web site. Great site by the way. You can look at my profile to see what I am all about.
Anyways, on to the question. I am about to go traveling internationally for the first time in my life, I know; I'm sheltered. Once I got into LE I just did not make the time to do any. I am now getting ready for an international LE deployment and was looking for information as to what type of kit I should have on me or about my person.
The Boy Scout in me wants to take everything, but the sensible person does not want to stand out like a paranoid individual. So I turn to this forum to ask for some opinions and advise. What would be the best kit to put together. Must me able to pass TSA guidelines for carry-on and stow-away. I will be travelling over the Alantic Ocean and large expanses of land. If you would like more details, which I would not post on a public open forum, please contact me privately and I will let you know what my travel plans are.
I am set for deployment in several months so I need to get something put together so I can purchase items that I may not already have.

whats LE stand for?

Just wondering

Garrett

Sorry,

I'm so used to the LE and Military forums that I forgot about the abbreviations that I use here. LE stands for Law Enforcement.

Oh, OK

Well I am not an extremely seasoned traveller, but I do fly quite a bit both on business and vacation. I can tell you that TSA regs are pretty strict and they will take away any sharps you have. My wife and I have lost a few knives, just forgetting to take them out of bags. I do know that TSA will allow you to check your sharps and you can pick them up later or something.

When I fly, I just have to do without any kind of knife/matches/whatever. My rationale is that there haven't been too many survivors lately of most airline crashes so if there is an emergency, then I guess I am going down with the ship. I do however pack my knives (I carry a swisstool RS and a SpyderCo Rescue or SAK Huntsman) on the very top of my checked bags so the second I get them from the luggage claim area, I pull them out and put them on.

If you are travelling abroad, I would check with the local regulations about blades. Some countries won't allow you to have a blade of X inches long, or you cannot have a locking blade or an assisted opening blade.

With the state of alert the way it is, it makes it very difficult to carry your normal preparedness items, so I make do with what I can and hope the plane doesnt crash.

Just FYI, all I carry is a small carry on bag of some sort, a flashlight (LED type), a whistle, a water bottle, a book and maybe some motrin or something in my shave kit.

I hope this helps,

Garrett

OK,

Thanks for the reply garrett. Just to let you know about what I was thinking. I also have seen the odds of surviving a commercial crash as not being very good, but just recently, there was one in which 20 or so people survived, I think it was overseas somewhere, can't remember off-hand. Anyways, since I will be in that part of the world, I would like to be prepared. I am not worried about knives in my stow-away, my position will allow me to have one or two. I have a friend who is a TSA Screener and after talking with him, I have let TSA make up my mind that most of my survival kit will be in stow-away.
I was thinking that in my carry-on I would bring a PFD(inflatable type) GPS, thinking about getting one of those new Personal Locating Transpoders (what-ever they are called) - new info on ETS about them, some food, water and extra clothing. I know I can not get anything but a signal mirror in carry-on so that would be my only signalling device besides maybe a panel marker. Maybe this is all too much? I don't know, again it is that Boy Scout in me that takes over some time. In a ditching event I can all but count my survival kit in stow-away gone, unless it floats to the surface and it remains in one piece, bringing a Pelican case for that one. Over land and if the fire doesn't get it, I may be able to salvage something. I can always hope for the best. In a catastrophic event, no need to worry, hope that I'm close to the event so I go quick. What else is there?

A very interesting post from a very long and interesting thread on this subject

A few innocuous or dual-use items:

(I think that these would all be able to get on-board with you)

fire
book of matches,
Flint rod + keys,
lens (of glasses, on tweezers in your FAK, in bino's, etc... - not sunglasses!)
100% cotton twine
Hand sanitizer - this is simply sweet smelling sterno (gelled alcohol)
corn chips ( I just learned about their use as tinder this weekend works great!)
Ranger bands
candle (avoid the trick birthday candles as they contain gunpowder)
9 volt battery and steel wool (small transistor radio and a cleaning kit) The steel wool might be the hard part of this.

signal
mirror,
whistle,
compressed air horn,
fire - see above
CD (improvised mirror)
Cell phone,
PLB,
Ham HT (my personal favorite)
Ham Rock-Mite

water
Large - gallon stand & zip ziplock
small - unlubbed condom or balloon
iodine or halazone tablets
in-bottle water filter
1-liter water bottle

food
power bars
snickers

[b[]DISCLAIMER]
These next two categories are not sanctioned but cannot be prevented. If you wish to protect yourself from misbehaving other passengers you might consider them. I neither suggest the use of these items nor would I use them myself
[DISCLAIMER][/b]

edges
I don't know what your status as LE will get you but take that as far as you can
improvised edges
CD broken in half at the appropriate time
wine bottle shattered in use as a blunt instrument
broken signal mirror
mirror removed from inflight lavatory

weapons
bandanna with roll of quarters
wine bottle about to become an edged weapon
talent and training
in-flight blanket and pillow
serving tray
serving cart
full soda can in bandanna

lighting
a photon II minimum (small LED keychain light)
Petzel Tikka or Zipka would be a good idea

miscellaneous
small travel sewing kit - this is always a good idea. Just remove siscors.
dental floss ( dental floss and safetypin can be a fishing kit) - glide dental floss is spectra with decent tensile strength and can be used to hold a shelter together.
plastic sheeting / tarp / poncho (anything from those flimsy emerency ponchos to a trashbag to a full mil-spec poncho can be used to provide very useful shelter.
More substantial cordage - always useful and permissable from a spool of nylon twine to a hank of climbing rope is up to you.
Duct-Tape! Can never have enough of this stuff!

office
notepad - rite-in-rain preferrable
pen / pencil - space pen or pencile needs to work in rain and s/b pressurized.
Duct-Tape!
stapler
straight edge / ruler (this has a bunch of uses)
Travel clock / alarm
Weather radio / sw receiver
Compass - something clip-on / keychain zipper pull
Thermometer

First Aid Kit
bandaids
moleskin
4X4 gauze (bunches)
adhesive tape
Duct-Tape!
painkillers
anti-diarheal
anti-vomit
motion sickness
Res-Q-Me tool

Evac tools
Evac-U-8 hood or like
PFD (I'm not sure you can get a self-inflating one on-board due to the pressure cansiter required to make it work)
Cordage - this would have to be substantial to work in this capacity.
Nomex gloves - invaluable if needed hardy leather would also work.

Urban destination tools
door alarm for hotel room. Door knob hanger - door stopper - motion sensor All available, battery op'd, effective intrusion alarms and light and small can be found cheap at radio-shack or expensively at Hammacher-schlemmer.
money-belt, neck pouches / walletts for valuables and id
Small mesh bag for in-room laundry
Dr. Bronners peppermint soap for laundry
and don't forget the voltage converters or your electric razor won't work.

Thanks miniMe,

There are several things that I did not think of, like the evac hood. Good idea. I read throught the other posts and found them quite interesting. I have no intention of trying to get things past anyone. Where I'm going, I will be going through several check-points and in different countries. Like I mentioned, I want to be prepared, but I don't want to look paranoid. I haven't done my research yet on how long it takes to fly over the Atlantic Ocean yet, but that is the biggest body of water that I will be going over. I also do not know my route of travel, exactly which airports and such, that will be given to me when my deployment date gets closer. I just started to think of worst case scenarios and survival along the way.

ETG,

>>>how long it takes to fly over the Atlantic Ocean

FWIW, if you are crossing from the Northeast/Canada area, your crossing should take about 3-1/2 hours, on average. That's from coast out/feet wet to coast in/feet dry.

Of course, going down in Canada or Labrador could be a real challenge, too!

JMHO,
Mamabear

(PS) The PFDs onboard the aircraft are pretty good. You might not need/want to carry your own. Or you could take a couple of heavy duty balloons as a field-expedient flotation device.

Well,

Thanks for the info, now I don't need to do the hard searching about that. You also brought up a good point. I never thought about heavy duty ballons as floation devices. Now to just find some that will do the trip and be durable enough.
If you contact me privately, I will let you know what my travel plans are thus far. They may change on me slightly, I'm at the mercy of government contractors and they make my travel arrangement/plans.
What airline do you fly for?

I would hope that if your crossing the Atlantic yout feet would stay in and dry otherwise I would start to worry <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />