Nope, only simulated (SERE trainng).

Hmm... I guess littering isn't bad all the time...

I was part of a volunteer search team for two mountain bikers during the El Nino storms. I scouted a familiar canyon . Halfway in I started rapidly succumbing to what turned out to be walking pneumonia and the canyon was turning into an impassable mudflow. A quick radio call that I was going to hunker down rather than try to hike out before nightfall and approximate position was followed by activated chem sticks on a nearby oaktree with a small sandstone rockshelter. I crawled into my Wiggybag everyone thought was so cumbersome, brewed up some cocoa on my Esbit and fell asleep. I woke up at sunrise to the well known trail obliterated by mud. The S&R 4WD had spotted my faint sticks and was honking. I gathered myself together, gently removed a buzzworm that took advantage of my body heat and sloshed out of there. Sometimes rescuers can become rescuees in short order. Turns out the mountain bikers had gone on to another friends without telling anyone <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Back when I was nineteen I was hitchhiking across the US and got kicked out of a car at gunpoint on a tiny road somewhere in the Mojave desert. I got rescued about 30 hours later by the first guy who drove by. I was unconscious from dehydration and had a bit of a sunburn.

About the only thing I did was hide from the sun as much as possible during the day and walk slowly at night back along the road in hopes of reaching a larger road. Didn't really help as the guy who found me came from the direction I was walking anyway but of course I didn't know that at the time. I didn't have any water and wasn't really prepared in any way. So I really have nothing useful to say except being thirsty is not fun and somewhere out there is a pipefitter that makes me hope heaven exists so he can go there, because man, if not for him, I'd be a nice bleached set of bones!

I guess the only thing you can take from my experience is this: just because you expect to have a vehicle doesn't mean you will. It might break down, it might run out of fuel, or the driver may be nuts. So take whatever you need to do a good but of walking, and don't go traveling places you couldn't navigate if you needed to. When I got left, I didn't know where I was, and what the road went to, so I didn't know if there would be a town five miles down the road and I should continue in the direction of the car, or if it was a dead end, and I should head back, like I did, or what.

Anyway it turned out that there wasn't anything at the end of the road but a played-out oil well of some sort and the pipefitter had been shutting it down or taking some equipment or that sort of thing. Pure fluke he was there at all. So I guess the other lesson is that you should always be phenomenally lucky.

I?m not sure whether I?ve been in survival situations as you meant but to me they feel alike.

Here?s the recent of my storys:

Late spring last year I?ve been on a business-trip to an middle asian country.
One of the meetings with my "counterpartys" didn?t developed as I?ve hoped ... <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />(no further comments on this) ... In the end I?ve found myself thrown into a river with my hands tied up with cable ties. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I?ve learned to swim whithout using my hands some years ago when changing from canoeing to hydrospeeding (kind of swimming in whitewater). I drift down the stream out of the view of my opponents and reached the bank without swallowing too much water.
So I was sitting on a rock dressed in a tree piece suit, soaked with cold water, deprived of my pocketknife, my cellphone, my wallet (passport and visa !) and with my hands tied. Real bull***t, especially with such guys on your heals in a country that language you can?t speak or understand <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />. OK, I?ve took some SERE-like trainings by a government institution some times ago but they were only speaking about "getting back to your unit through the enemy lines". Between me and my "unit" (my wife) were a few thousand miles and some borders. ... No, Germany didn?t have a consulship in that country... <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
I succeed to get rid of the wire ties and were lucky to wear a woolen suit (keeps some warmth even when wet) and handcrafted leather shoes (smoothly to wear).
Anything that have been left to me were my watch, my weddingband and a small capsual that hasn?t been found by my opponents. This capsual (I?ve writen elsewere about it before) contains my "deep-core-psk. It?s with me at any(!) time. The capsual contains amongst other things a flintrod, a compass and some cash. Unfortunatly that time it weren?t the local currency. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
I didn?t used major roads and tried to travel as stealthy as possible. It seamed that the poorer the population the less feasible the garbage they dump to the countryside: I couldn?t seek and pick up what I lacked so I were forced to practice "farmlifting". <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />
In the beginning the biggest problem to me was to get some more clothings and to shelter propperly, especially during the first days because I didn?t have the heart to light a fire <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />. I made an impromptu stone blade that I tied with a shoelace to a branch (a half lace will close a shoe as well). Later I upgraded to a steelblade made from a piece of a car door.
It took me roughly 500 miles in 22 days to get to a friend of mine in a neighbor country. I lost 18 lbs., get some trouble with hypothermia and blisters on my feet but at least I get home to my wife and that?s all that counts to me. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Summary:
- First of all it?s a question of mindset.
- The ability to start a fire gives so much hope.
- Some practice in lockpicking, stealth movement and such couldn?t be wrong.
- It?s important to know the map of the area by heart.
- Have friends all over the world!
- Local currency at hand would make things easier.

This year I?ll have to go there again ... <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Molf

Feb 1984 was caught in an artic blast of very cold weather in Western North Carolina.

Temps were -5 with wind blowing 10-15 mph.

Went to pick up future wife a work. I was dressed in tennis shoes, bluejeans, and a light winter waist coat. The anti-freeze in the car froze and car was running hot because of no circulation through the cooling system. Blew out what antifreeze that was in the car. Had some folks come by and take me to a gas station to get anti freeze. I spent about an hour to an hour and a half out in weather dresses like that.

I finally got back home and jacked the gas furnace up to 95 degress and pull the blankets off the bed and sat in front of the furnace to get warm.


With age comes learning and wisdom, we hope. Both vehicles now have survival kits in them and the knowledge to use them.

This is one of the best educational stories I've heard. Where had you hidden the capsule so that they didn't take it from you?

That time I had the good luck that they didn?t screen me that well they should <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> because it stuck with a kind of safetypin inside my waistband.

The next times I expected similar situations to be possible I - sorry that I?ve to say that - hide it in my rectum. That might not be very convenient to insert but when it?s at its place you start to forget about it after a while.
I know the trick isn?t new but under most circumstances it?ll work well. The only ones that might search at this "area" will be policeofficers on the hunt for hidden drugs. I don?t really know if that?s right but I?ve read about it.

Finally I?m trying to engineer a non-metal version in order to pass detectors more easier.

I?m infected by learning to do it all without even less and by making super-sub-mini-tools, -gears and -gadgets by myself. <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Molf

Why no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die...
Good luck on your next trip, Molf, and here's hoping that your next one goes better than that.

Troy

P.S. Are you SURE you're getting paid enough??? <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Molf, here's a plastic pill fob:

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp80295_333181...astic_style.htm

Have you ever considered changing jobs?

Sue