Castaway,I agree with your points and obviously we all want every advantage to counter unforseen events.Let me tell a story.I was a lifeboat coxswain at Tillamook Bay Or.We received a SAR alarm at sunset in December of '75. A pleasure craft had smashed into the rocks just outside the bar with survivors sighted on the innaccessable shore.I managed to join the 360 club crossing the bar,busting my nose and my crewman's arm.I left the MLB under the engineman's command and swam to the rocks.I was wearing a wetsuit,bell helmet,lifejacket,survival belt and first aid kit.I was smashed into the rocks and lost my survival belt and the aid kit, leaving only my civilian puukko knife carried on a neck lanyard. I had learned to make firedrills as a little boy in AZ visiting my Apache schoolmates. I like to think it was a relative of Tom Brown's mentor Stalking Wolf.I hadn't made one in years.Here I am in the dark,pouring rain,seaspray and 5 scared people thinking Im Randolph Scott.I had wet driftwood,piles of seaweed and lots of rocks.I fashioned a firedrillwith my knife,cut up my laminated Military I.D. for tinder,dug out half dry seaweed and somehow got a fire going. My crew had withdrawn to a safe distance to avoid a similar fate, our searchlight and mast having been destroyed. The fire was our beacon for Helicopter medivac.At the hospital we were all treated for hypothermia.In addition I had a broken vertebrae(no paralysis)dislocated ribs and broke every finger on my left hand. spent the remainder of my tour on light duty and one very serious disscussion with the new Coast Guard Commandant(my first unit commander) on improving the survival belt!Knife and fire-don't leave home without it!<br><br>