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#122726 - 02/05/08 11:55 PM What would YOU bring ?
Taurus Offline
Addict

Registered: 11/26/07
Posts: 458
Loc: Northern Canada
So here it is folks. Our unit has been tasked with running an upcoming survival exercise in late spring. On the last survival exercise I was so disgusted with the incompetence of the instructor that I called him an idiot and walked out of his class. Since then guys from my unit have found out who I am on this forum and have been reading my posts . My boss reads this forum from time to time as well and figured out who I am.(not exactly like I try and hide it) Guess who the instructor for the next survival course will be ? smile

I will be giving a full day of classroom lessons followed by a 72 hour exercise in the field. The exercise is still not confirmed as of yet (due to training funding allocations etc) but I will be ready if it does. These are the guidelines for the exercise and scenario:

Each student will be ONLY allowed to take:
1.a single knife of their choosing
2.issued multi-tool(S.O.G)
3.issued sunnto compass/map
4.issued first aid items-(shell dressings, C-A-T tourniquet, gloves, CPR mask, quick clot)
5.Issued flash light
6.penjector with flares(red) x 3
7.Issued camel- bak, 3 L
8.issued sidearm. 9mm NATO(may be a notional item for safety )
9. Issued IMP x 1
10.PSK (all items MUST fit inside a standard sized soap dish, and are
of the students choice)
The above items are what any soldier is expected to have on him at all times besides the normal fighting order(at the very least) while deployed.

This is the scenario in brief:

You are on the way back from a tactical operation B.E.L when your chopper gets hit. You go down. You are alive and unhurt somehow, but everyone else is dead. The chopper is on fire so you get away from the wreck. The Enemy will be here soon to check the wreckage for survivors so you need to move fast. You know from your brief that there is an area of relative safety 5 clicks away from here (an emergency LZ). Your guys will be looking for you soon, but you have to get out of here. Your rifle was in the chopper which is now engulfed in flames. You only have made it out of the chopper with your TAC vest, FRAG vest and helmet. You decide to ditch these items and take only what you need as you must travel light and fast. You take only the items listed above and ditch the rest (FRAG VEST, helmet, TAC vest, Rifle ammo, etc) you have used your FRAG grenades and smoke earlier. All and any other gear which you may have used is burning in the chopper (GPS, radio, crash pack, etc , etc)

Using the map and compass you manage to get to the emergency LZ. You are unsure if the Enemy suspects that you have survived the crash, but you don't want to take that chance of being spotted before rescue arrives. It is late spring and the weather is mild at the moment, but may turn at any second. Day time temp is an average of between + 15-25 deg cel with the night dropping to an average of 3-10 deg cel. You are in a lightly forested area. You are wearing your issued combat clothing, Gore-tex Wet weather boots, and leather combat gloves(your gore-tex jacket, rain gear and other spare snivel kit was burned in the crash)
It is best to stay in this location unless you are compromised as this is where the rescue team is likely to look first. Nothing to do now but hold out until help arrives. Time to dig out the PSK ......................................


If this exercise is a go, Each of the troops gets put in a location away from everyone else for 72 hours and will be told to stay put, but first, there is a forced march of 8-10 K to make sure everyone is tired and sweaty first. they will be allowed a 100 m area to best choose for shelter location etc but must stay within that limit for safety and control.(there will be a water source in that distance) They will be checked up on every so often and at any time there is a real threat they will have a flare gun and a few red flares to signal for help. Someone from the staff will be on constant watch just in case. Training is well and good but you don't want someone REALLY get hurt.

I have done this course as a student already and it was an awesome eye opener. What you decide to bring in the soap dish is up to you but you need to live with that decision for three days in the cold/wet. As a student, this is what I brought.

My knife of choice was my Gerber LMF II

These are the items I carried in my soap disk PSK:

Military survival sheet (silver on one side, OD on the other)
spark-lite with 4 tinder
6 wind/waterproof matches with striker strip
12 feet of braided mine string
4 feet of snare wire
large zip lock bag
Micro-pur(MP-1) water purification tablets x 8
4 foot length of GUN tape, wrapped around two double headed nails.
Large needle
4 large safety pins
A flexible straw
A mini-spool of mil spec sewing thread(VERY strong stuff)
1 x large fishing hook, 2 x small fishing hooks
survival whistle, jetscream
A sheet of tin foil 2 feet x 8 inches
A picture of the wife and kid
A scalpel blade
(this is all I could cram into the dish)

With these items I did fine. Once you have a good, concealed shelter in place and a means of getting water then basically you have three days of boredom to cope with while your belly growls and you come up with all sorts of interesting games to play to beat out the clock while attempting to stay out of sight(like trying to find food) The biggest problems were that only red light could be used, lighting a fire had to be concealed underground in a Dakota fire pit(works quite well, but the smoke is a problem) and the stupid, G++++++++, F++++++ little black flies that were relentless no matter how you tried to cover up. And then of course, the rain


As well you are not allowed to have a watch. The safety staff makes checks at random intervals but the student usually won’t even know he/she is being observed. Since there is a tactical side to this, if you are spotted at a distance of over 200 m from what would be the Enemies point of view (due to light, smoke etc) then you will fail the scenario. You can fire off a red flare in an emergency and you will be rescued in an emergency (getting stung and having an allergic reaction, or real serious injury etc) BUTS THAT'S ABOUT IT. If you try to take the easy way out because you are cold and wimpy you will be simply told to suck it up as you get a new flare and watch the truck drive away again.(they will leave you there but you will still fail the exercise) The reason for the soap dish is that it gives every student a set standard so no one can have an unfair advantage over the other and usually for a military survival kit space is very limited anyway, so it is very realistic.

I figure this forum would be a great way to generate healthy discussion and ideas on this topic. I am looking forward to teaching on this course and I really hope we get the go ahead from higher. If you were faced with this situation and could bring a PSK in which all items had to be kept to a size limit of what you could fit in a soap dish.................

What would YOU bring??? confused


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#122730 - 02/06/08 12:20 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
Hacksaw
Unregistered


I'd bring my Gerber LMF II as well...it was designed for helicopter egress after all.

If I knew I would only be out for 3 days I'd be really selective about the gear I took. It's most likely I'd take my personal PSK kit because it's smaller than a bar of soap and it's what I'm familiar with. It's got all the basics tinder, sparker, bandages, meds, firesteel, tape, etc. I'd likely supplement it with as much paracord or wire as would fit into said container so that I could give myself the best chance of being able to build a good primitive shelter that will keep me fairly warm without fire and shield me from prying eyes.


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#122733 - 02/06/08 12:25 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
Cyblade Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 02/16/06
Posts: 64
You may wanna trade out the scalpel blade for http://www.countycomm.com/straightrazor.htm they arent that much longer than a scalpel in it's package and it's about as thick as a penny I'd also include one of the saws that are the same size shown here http://www.countycomm.com/seresaw.htm if you want to buy the item in bulk and pass a few out they can be bought buy the case alot cheaper and they offer many diffrent colors here http://www.derma-safe.com/index.htm

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#122739 - 02/06/08 12:59 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
Blast Offline
INTERCEPTOR
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 07/15/02
Posts: 3760
Loc: TX
Can we get picture of the soap dish?

I'm thinking some paracord, Micropur tabs, firesteel, hard candy and a book to read.

-Blast
_________________________
Foraging Texas
Medicine Man Plant Co.
DrMerriwether on YouTube
Radio Call Sign: KI5BOG
*As an Amazon Influencer, I may earn a sales commission on Amazon links in my posts.

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#122742 - 02/06/08 01:33 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Blast]
Taurus Offline
Addict

Registered: 11/26/07
Posts: 458
Loc: Northern Canada
The purpose of fitting all the items into the soap dish is only for the challenge of the task. Afterwards its entirely up to the soldier what to put in their Military gear as a PSK. The general rule is "you pack it you hump it” But by the time your TAC vest is filled with mission essential equipment (ammo, grenades, wire cutters etc) you have very little room for much else. The point of the exercise is to be mega confident in the limited items you do decide to take.

When I am bashing about hunting at home my PSK is quite large with a fair amount of comfort items. When at work I have no other choice but to go ULTRA-Light.

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#122744 - 02/06/08 01:44 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
Am_Fear_Liath_Mor Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078
Hi Taurus,

The Knife would be a Bacho Laplander, The issued SOG would be sufficient for other duties.


1 BCB Aluminium Mini Mess tin box (would this allowed or would this be considered to large compared to the soap dish)

In the soap dish/mini mess tin would be the following;

1 Ipod Nano,
1 Small Vial of Bog Myrtle Oil.
4 Ibuprofen.
2 Codeine Phosphate.
4 Benadryl.
12 Micro-pur MP1 water purification tablets
5 NATO + 5 Strike Anywhere matches in waxed cardboard and Striker.
1 Swedish Firesteel Cadet without the Plastic Holder.
1 Silva SERE 40 Luminous compass.
1 Wet Fire Tinder.
1 Esbit Hexamine Tab.
1 Small Candle.
1 BCB flexible wire saw.
1 Sewing kit consisting 3 various sized needles rapped in high strength sewing thread.
1 Small Fishing Kit. (various hooks, 5 Kg line, snaps, splits, safety pins etc)
1 metre of 18 gauge brass wire.
4 assorted plasters.
1 Set of DR surival instructions.
1 Red LED microlight (i.e CR2032 powered) or a Betalight.
1 Space Pen refil rapped in 30cm length of Duct tape.
2 Sheets of A6 Rite in Rain waterproof paper.
10 metres of 200lb Flexifoil hydroline.
1 Lifeventure Aluminium Mountain Whistle.
1 Very Small bar of Soap.
1 Medium Aloksak resealable Polybag.
3 Stock or bouillon cubes.
Some local coinage and paper currency.


And if possible to try and sneak a Lifesystems Midge Mosquito Head net in the lining of the clothing.








Edited by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor (02/06/08 01:54 AM)

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#122750 - 02/06/08 02:00 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
frediver Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 215
Loc: N.Cal.
IS the survival blanket the thin disposable type or the more sturdy re-useable casualty blanket. I would try to make an arguement for including the re-useable model, it could fit in the camelbac bladder carry pouch as further insulation/padding for you back? If not- O well !

I would ditch the 12ft. of nylon cord. Replace it with Paracord shoe laces. Even when you pull the inner cords you still have the sheath to tie your shoes. You could also add the countycomm
razor knife and saw to your boots just like you tie in a spare dog tag.
pc of colored cloth for hook lures and/or fish fly, trebles?

Button compass, in the last big war they were small enough to swallow if you got caught.

More water tabs, 8 will not last 3 days in any amount of heat.

Not sure if I would carry a jetscream whistle or not, do you want everyone to know where you are or just signal to those close by? You can get decent small flat whistles at a boat or dive shop.

switch out the ziploc for a turkey oven bag.


Edited by frediver (02/06/08 02:01 AM)

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#122753 - 02/06/08 02:13 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
Taurus Offline
Addict

Registered: 11/26/07
Posts: 458
Loc: Northern Canada
Holy bloody crap dude!! If you can fit all of that into a soap dish then give me a call and let me know where I am going wrong because after 12 years in the Army I still haven't figured that one out (lol)

I hope I didn't confuse anyone. Sometimes I think people will know what I am talking about because everyone I work with knows what I am referring to, but then I realize that most people here on this forum are not military. I get more than one confused look in my eyes when people start talking about canoeing or climbing or other stuff I have no knowledge of.

By soap dish I mean the plastic type that has two halves that fit together over one another (the kind you toss it into a gym bag to keep wet soap water from getting on everything) and not the type you would have permanently next to your bathroom sink.

And once again, we all don't keep the stuff in the dish after the exercise. Then we have free reign to pack our PSK any way we choose. I took mine out and packed it differently. (The same as the mini-psk on my hunting core gear post)


I just noticed that I am an enthusiast now with over 200 posts.
WOW, not bad considering how much I loathe sitting in front of a cpu. I originally started reading this forum after breaking a whole bunch of ribs and fingers. I couldn’t type much but I could still surf forums and other......um.......stuff....... online blush. I began to read this forum and joined 4 months later. Kind of been hooked ever since.............


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#122756 - 02/06/08 02:32 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: Taurus]
Hacksaw
Unregistered


You'll be an addict in no time smile

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#122757 - 02/06/08 02:35 AM Re: What would YOU bring ? [Re: frediver]
Taurus Offline
Addict

Registered: 11/26/07
Posts: 458
Loc: Northern Canada
In any Military survival situation most items are designed to be a one-time use. I guess you could re-use the blanket but it is just easier to get another one issued.
In a non-training environment I can stuff items into my other gear any way I want but you cannot exchange your boot laces for Para-cord. You have to use the issued laces. For the training you must fit all items into the dish but once you pass the training you can do whatever you want (like a lot of the little tricks you mentioned) the dish thing is to make it more challenging.

In the scenario you will notice that the issued SUUNTO compass was one of the items on the allowed list as you are expected to have this item on you anyway.(a bit hard to swallow this one though sick

The whistle is because your rescue team may be dropped off a distance away and come to search on foot. If you see that they are friendlies you can blow the whistle to get their attention first without causing surprise. If you come shouting and waving your arms while running out of the trees you may get blown away by the very people that are there to rescue you.
I only chose the zip-loc bag because it could zip and un-zip easily to store water for later use. Can you seal a turkey bag? Or do you have to be constantly fighting with a knot?

The weather was fairly cool but true; you would want more tabs in a hotter situ.

Thanks for all the replies guys, getting some good feedback on this

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