Ha ! Awesome replies folks. It’s definitely getting me thinking for sure. What I packed when I did this training worked but that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.

MDinana- I tried to cheat when I did it but it was futile. They caught me and made sure the dish closed completely. Likewise, I will make my students do the same.(just because) A certain element of the training is to make it a little uncomfortable. Three days doesn’t sound like a long time but once you try it trust me. The seconds tick by VERY slow. The Bas****s take your watch away just to make it all the more agonizing.

frediver - I kept the matches simply out of habit. I would have been fine without them. Since it was a tactical survival exercise fire was tricky as if you were seen by the staff you would fail. I made a Dakota fire pit on the second night to warm my hands a bit, roast some crab apples I managed to scrounge and boil a bit of water with raspberries in it. I ended up having to bury the fire after about an hour because the smoke was too hard to control.
The jet scream is an awesome whistle but I know there are lighter ones that will do the trick. The jetscream was free and that’s the only reason I carry them now.

The sunnto compass has a real glass mirror about the size of a credit card built in as a sighting mirror.


Am_Fear_Liath_Mor - Thats a real neat trick with the meds in the whistle thing. I don’t know how it would work in the ones I carry. I would hate for something to get stuck in there when I needed it most. For the purpose of this training, everything had to be INSIDE the case. (The Army’s way of sticking it to you on training) I made a small cup out of the tin foil I was carrying and crafted a crude handle out of grass. half way through my tea the foil let go and I got a lap full of scalding raspberry juice. The flies ant ants were an absolute NIGHTMARE after that. Lesson painfully learned on the foil cup thing.


The purpose of being so strict on the dish thing was only to instill a great sense of planning in the decision making process. When you know that all you get for 3 days is what you can fit in such a small space you choose VERY carefully. When you train to survive with very little the theory is that you will do even better with more. The Army mentality is to have enough to last 3 days as help should have found you by then. I am not saying I totally agree with this, But that is how the training is usually geared. I got a few funny looks when I was stuffing the survival sheet in the dish as it took 80% of the space, but I had a dry, semi-warm camp while others were freezing and wet. Likewise one guy took a small bug repellant wipe and I didn’t and I regretted that for the whole dammed three days.

On a funny note though, One dude took only a mini-BIC and a pack of crushed smokes. He was so weak/cold and tired after the three days he took a whole week to recover from it but he still made it when other guys didn't.

Just for everyone’s info, the exercise instills a very good idea in your mind about what you need and what you don’t.

This is what I have in my Military survival kit now.
• Starflash mirror
• Jetscream whistle
• Double headed nails x 2
• Mini-roll of mil spec OD tripwire
• Spark-lite with 6 tinder
• Wetfire tinder x 1
• 12 feet of Para-cord
• Mini-BIC
• 6 Mariner matches w/ striker
• Button compass
• Mini-hack saw blade
• 4 large safety pins
• Mini-fishing kit
• Mini spool of mil spec super thread
• Large needle
• Mini roll of GUN tape, approx 15 feet
• Survival sheet
• Scalpel blade
• Large zip lock bag
• 20 micro-pur(MP1) tabs
• Star nav/ground air signal reference card.
As space is EXTREAMLY limited in my TAC vest this is all I can afford space and weight wise. I am comfortable with it though. It will not fit in a soap dish but it will fit in a cargo pocket of my Combat pants or a pouch in my TAC(usually carried in the pouch with the trauma gear) I then have a few backups in my ruck sac.

Once again, thanks for all the constructive input.