I don't know if anything I know really qualifies as a "skill," but that the heck.

As far as map and compass work, that came from my interest in backpacking, and anything relating to it, along with my lifelong desire to be prepared. I am sorry to say that those map and compass skills have deterated of late. I can still do it, I just have to think about it a lot more. Doesn't come to me automatically anymore.

Fire starting, same thing. That actually started in Boy Scouts, or maybe Cubs. I still carry several different ways to start fire, and practice often.

Survival "stuff," again, that "be prepared" mental outlook. Growing up in, and working in for 30 years, CA earthquake country might have something to do with it. I like to be able to take care of myself as much as possible. Having to ask someone to do something that I should be able to do myself makes me crazy. After a local flood a few years ago, with bridges out in many canyons, there were locals, who lived out of town 20 miles or so to be self sufficient, begging our chopper to bring them food and water after only three days. How embarassing.

My military service (I was in the Air Farce), even tho I had the pleasure of attending a couple of Army survival schools, did not really have much to do with anything. I already had the desire. They did teach me what a raw boa tastes like, and not to eat fuzzy bugs. Law enforcement, same thing. I already had the survival/do it for yourself mindset, which went far beyond anything the department trained me in.

Gotta stop, mind is shot, hard day...

I don't know how I could have forgotten my dad. He started me off shooting at the ripe old age of five. I had my own .22 rifle years before a BB gun. We used to hunt and fish all over the place, and never had a map. Dad did have a compass (I still have it), but we never carried it. We just kept track of where we were going, what the country looked like, and always ended up back at the car. It was simple, and became second nature to me I guess...