Archive for month: January, 2023

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

As the saying goes, we are nine meals away from anarchy. In short, it means that after three days without new supplies, most cities would be completely out of food and gas. At that point, people will be desperate—and dangerous. Imagine if the taps run dry, too.

In desperate times, people do desperate things. How will you handle that? If people know you have the things they need (food to feed their family, ammo to protect them, medication to heal them), you will become a target.

So, in an SHTF scenario, how do you avoid become a target? It’s all in how you conduct yourself.

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Play the Middle of the Herd

There is really one concept to understand if you want to avoid becoming a target after the SHTF. That concept is becoming a master of playing the middle. The middle of the pack mentality is pretty simple to understand.

When the world around you is full of predators and you are part of the herd—which you will be unless you are extremely isolated—then you want to be in the middle of the herd. You do not want to be the weakest or the injured member of the herd because they get picked off. And you don’t want to be the biggest and the baddest in the herd because then you stand out.

You wanna be nestled somewhere in the middle. The middle means you are likely to go unnoticed, and that is exactly what you are after. So, how do we take that principle from a herd of ungulates and apply it to an SHTF neighborhood in America?

There are many things you can do to position yourself in the middle of the herd.

If you have a lot of emergency food, you don’t want everyone to know about it, and you don’t want to appear full and satisfied if the people around you are starving and suffering. You could either ration yoru food, or you could fast and eat one meal per day.

In that way, you will stay lean and hungry at times. You might consider fasting once or twice a week so you can feel that hunger that everyone around you is feeling. It will help you relate, and it will keep you from becoming a target.

Gray Man Theory

I wouldn’t recommend avoiding interactions altogether, but there will be situations where you do not want to interact with people and just live out that middle of the herd mentality. When you are trying to blend in, there is no better mentality then that of the gray man.

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This gray man theory is often misunderstood. I have seen many people take this quite literally and start buying gray baseball hats and t-shirts as though the color itself is what will make a person go unnoticed.

The truth is that the Gray Man Theory requires that you understand what’s going on in the world around you. What are the people doing? What pace are they moving? How are they dressed? Where are they going?

To be an effective gray man, you don’t need a certain color shirt. Rather, you need to mimic the movements of the crowd. Again, you will become one of the herd. This is a great technique if you are leaving the safety of your community in SHTF, and you want to go unnoticed.

Build a Circle, But Not Too Big

You might think that being alone and not talking to anyone after the SHTF is the best way to avoid becoming a target, but as I mentioned, you want to avoid being unique and noticeable. That means that you should have a small circle of people that you talk to regularly.

The best case scenario is that you have a block of neighbors that are all working together to survive, and that becomes your circle. These people can vouch for you, and they can back you up if need be. They are people you can work with.

While you want to have that circle of allies, you do not want that circle to get too big. It will be hard to know and trust a very large circle, and after the SHTF, trust will be important. Keep a small, tight circle so you are not singled out for being isolated. People will make assumptions if they never hear from you or see you.

However, avoid spreading your name and face around to a much larger group of people as that will only get you noticed by the wrong kinds of people. Better that you do not exist to the larger world.

Hide Your Food, Inside and Out

The trickiest part about being a prepper after the SHTF is having the resources everyone wants but not having enough for everyone. You will want to help the people around you, but you also have to make sure you don’t starve yourself or your family.

When it comes to food, you can never let anyone know just how much food you have, and one of the best ways to do that is to hide your food. If you invite people into your home, you do not want them to see or find your food.

A wrong turn to the bathroom might take them to a backroom that is stocked to the ceiling with food storage. Then your secret is out. Storing food in multiple rooms and even outside is a much better plan.

Survival food caches can be as simple as a 5-pound bag of rice, 2 pounds of black beans,and some seasonings all stored inside a length of PVC pipe and buried somewhere on your property.

The point is to not keep all of your food in one place and to keep it hidden so you don’t become a target.

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Be Careful with Generators and Lights

Having a gas generator is the best way to get the lights back on when they go out. However, gas generators are loud, and lights are bright. If no one else has power, then you are going to stand out like a sore thumb with your generator thumping away and your house lit up in the dark of night when no streetlights are on.

While it might seem like you have done the right thing by preparing for this catastrophe with a generator, you need to be very careful how you manage it. One of the best ways to become a target after the SHTF is to show everyone that you have something desirable that they want.

When you run a generator, you have many things:

These will all be appealing in an SHTF scenario, and people will hear that generator from a long way away. So be very careful about what you show the world and the noise you make, too.

Have Worth

You can also be noticed if you’re no help to anyone. Remember this! If you bring nothing to the people around you, that will also bring attention. What if you are pushing a low-grade neighborhood security and you don’t have a firearm or any experience using one? Or you don’t know how to operate your radio and are always falling asleep on your shift?

You are going to be noticed for all the wrong reasons. You might be pushed out by the people of your own group.

If you really want to avoid becoming a target after the SHTF, you need to stick to the middle of the herd mentality. You cannot be the strongest or the weakest. Remember, there is always someone stronger who will look at you as an opportunity or a challenge.

The weakest always fall victim to the predators. So, you cannot be there either.

However, by being a viable member of the herd and being involved to some degree, you can become just what you are today: a regular person doing life. That life will be filled with much more risk, but you will still strive to be just another member of the fallen society, and not someone who will become a target.

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Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

There’s a lot of talk about major disaster scenarios in the prepping community—what we refer to as TEOTWAWKI events. Part of that is that they are much more interesting to talk about than a hurricane or flood.

On the other hand, preparing for an EMP or another SHTF scenario means we are likely to also be prepared for any lesser disaster that might happen. So, it really makes sense to use one of these major disaster scenarios as our framework for prepping. 

The one glaring difference between these major events and other disasters is their duration. If we look at a hurricane, even a bad hurricane, things will be back to normal for most people within a few weeks. Even Puerto Rico was mostly back in operation two months after Hurricane Maria wiped out their entire electric grid. People in remote areas had to wait longer for power, but most people were doing well.

When we look at something like an EMP or other disaster that might take out our entire electric grid, we generally assume that the grid won’t be restored in any reasonable amount of time.

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According to the report of the EMP Commission, as much as 90 percent of the population would die in the first year, mostly due to starvation. That makes these sorts of events a whole different animal than the average disaster. 

Yes, people will die of starvation, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Most people haven’t thought about the problems that we’ll have to deal with or how to deal with them. We can be sure that it will become an ever-changing situation, with dangers around every corner.

Some of those dangers include:

Those with Chronic Medical Problems

The first people to die will be those with chronic medical conditions. Some 66 percent of American adults take prescription drugs for some sort of chronic condition. This can range from diabetes and heart disease, through arthritis, cancer and psychological or emotional problems.

Regardless of the reason, many of these people are incapable of surviving without their daily meds. Those who survive will either do so because they are borderline cases, the disaster actually makes them healthier, or they find a natural alternative to their medications. 

Medicines will Run Out Quickly 

Speaking of medicines, those will run out very quickly. Pharmacies are used to receiving shipments every day, so with computerized inventory management systems, they don’t need to stock more than a couple of days’ worth of medicines. When those run out, there won’t be any resupply. 

This directly affects the people mentioned above who depend on those medications for chronic conditions. But it will also affect anyone who becomes ill or gets injured in the aftermath of the disaster. Without the medicines needed to overcome infection, people will die of seemingly inconsequential injuries. 

Many of the Elderly Will Die

Another sub-group who is highly dependent on those medications is the elderly. Most people over 50 are taking a variety of different medications for a variety of different medical conditions.

Those who are borderline cases might be able to overcome their chemical dependence by switching to a healthier diet and doing more physical work, but that won’t work for everyone. 

The other big struggle that the elderly have is that they don’t have the strength and stamina to do much of the physical work necessary for survival. In olden times, these people would have likely lived with their children, contributing to the family in whatever way they could, while allowing their adult children to do the physical work necessary for the family farm or business. 

Today, these people live in nursing homes or assisted living centers; not exactly good environments for being self-sufficient. When the staff of those facilities is unable to meet the residents’ needs, many will die. 

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Human Waste is Toxic 

Our modern sewage system is a major boon to maintaining public health. One of the greatest medical discoveries in history involved the spread of disease, specifically how bacteria and viruses in humans waste ends up contaminating our food and water, spreading disease.

Proper disposal of human waste is essential to stopping the spread of disease. But when the power and water go out, so will the sewage systems, backing up and leaving us without a proper means for disposing of human waste. 

Some people talk about using bucket toilets, putting the waste in plastic bags for storage. That’s only a workable solution if the disaster is going to be over in a month or two and the stored waste can be taken to a sewage treatment plant. For long-term situations, the only workable solutions are either to build an outhouse or to do humanure composting. 

The Second Die Off – Plague 

Lack of proper sanitation consist of two things: the lack of proper human waste disposal and the inability to keep ourselves clean. The two together will lead to plague of some sort. Diseases will spread easily and will be harder to treat.

Without the availability of proper medicines and with our medical community overworked, people will start dying off from these diseases; people who would have survived in normal times. 

Many Babies will Die During Birth 

Women have been having babies for all of human history. But things are different now. In the past, many more babies died before taking their first breath or within a few days of being born.

There weren’t the medical procedures and supplies available that we have today. But with a major disaster that causes a shortage of medical supplies, we can expect the infant mortality rate to rise again. 

This isn’t the only risk I see here; women will face greater risks in childbirth. While there have always been women who died during childbirth, there have been many fewer in modern times.

But with the difficulty of getting women to proper medical care, women who need emergency C-sections won’t be able to receive them. Some percentage of those women will die for lack of proper medical care. 

Wood for Fires Won’t Last Long

We all talk about heating our homes with wood when the SHTF, but just how many of us have an adequate woodpile to make it through the winter? What about the next winter? How will you restock your woodpile when it runs out and you don’t have gas for your pickup truck?

You might be thinking that you’ll cut the trees in the park, but you won’t be the only one thinking that. All those unprepared people will be trying to beat you there, because they won’t have any firewood. 

Back in the days when this country was being settled, people would file a claim on land which provided them with water, land for grazing and/or planting and wood for their fire. They didn’t have to go far to cut wood, because they owned their own patch of forest.

Few of us have more than a tree or two today, and those probably aren’t big enough to give much firewood. 

Toilet Paper Will Run Out 

If you think the great toilet paper shortage of 2020 was bad, just wait. The one that follows an SHTF situation will be much worse. There won’t be any standing in line before the grocery store opens, hoping to get a pack.

When you run out of what you have, you’ll have to come up with other options. That means using cloth and washing it, using your hands and washing them (yes, there are places in the world where they do that) or using leaves. 

Many People are too Weak to Survive

There are a lot of people who just don’t have what it takes to survive. I’m not talking about physical strength here, but emotional strength. Our dependence on the infrastructure and supply chain that we have created makes many of us poor candidates for survival. Yes, you and I, as preppers, have done something about this; but what about everyone else? 

There will be a lot of people out there, and maybe even within our own families, who can’t stand the emotional and mental strain of having their whole world collapse around them. They won’t survive because they won’t see any value in surviving. They’ll just plain give up.

Teens do it now, how much worse will it be for them when they realize that the things they’ve dreamed of are no longer available? Remember, easy times make for weak men. That’s what we’re living in now, and it will come home to roost. 

Being Out of Shape Makes it Harder to Survive

Many preppers are not in good physical shape. I have to include myself in that. I’m overweight, but working hard to bring it down. Even so, if a disaster were to happen today, I’d have a hard time doing the physical work necessary for survival. It would literally be a race between my getting in shape and my running out of food. 

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t survive; just that I realize the risk I face. It’s the same risk that many others face, even here in the prepping community. Survival requires a lot of physical work and if we’re not in shape to do it, we’re going to be facing extra challenges. 

Gasoline Doesn’t Store Well

We depend on gasoline for a lot more than running our vehicles, although that is our main use for it. Many will try hoarding gas when the SHTF, either what they have in their gas tank or what they can buy before it is gone. That may or may not do them much good, as gasoline only stores about six months in plastic gas cans. 

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You can get more life out of gasoline by storing it in metal gas cans, assuming that the rubber seal at the opening is good. I have two metal cans, one of which is still full of good gasoline after more than a year, while half the gasoline evaporated out of the other, because the seal leaked.

The other thing you can do is add a gas life extender to your stored gas. This will extend the life out to about a year. 

Not Enough Water Filters

The most popular water filter system in the prepping world uses a cartridge-type filter. These cartridges are a bit on the expensive side, although I will have to say that they are cheaper per gallon than using the cheaper filters. They also do a better job, providing water that is more highly purified. 

But just how many filters do you have in your stockpile and how long will they last you? That varies from filter system to filter system and is also affected by the quality of the water that you’re using. The cleaner the water when it goes into the filter, the more water you can purify. If the filter can be backflushed, that can help too. 

If you don’t have enough water filters to get you through the disaster (or forever), you’re eventually going to have to revert to other means of purifying water, like boiling it. That works, but it will increase your fuel consumption to do it. 

Gardens that Aren’t Big Enough

Somehow, many preppers have gotten the idea that they can feed their family off of a small garden plot, say something like 12’x 12’. Someone even wrote a book claiming that you can do it from a four-foot-square garden.

But if you’re going to feed your family from your garden, you’d better count on about a ton of food per adult and a half-ton per child. That’s a lot of food. 

There are people today who grow all the food they eat in their backyards. To do this, they’ve converted their entire backyard into a garden, using every square foot as effectively as they can. That’s what we’re going to have to do, if we expect to live off the food that we grow. 

Game will Run Out

Anyone planning on augmenting their food stockpile by hunting wild game had better be living in Montana or someplace like that. There was a time when it was possible to live off the land, but that was when there were many less people and a much larger game population in the country.

Today there are something like 90 million hunters, all of whom will be out there, trying to bag something for dinner. Some will bag a pig or cow, earning a farmer’s ire and possibly some return lead. The only places where game will still abound will be more remote ones. But without gas, it will be hard to get to them. 

Some People will Turn to Cannibalism 

Starvation will cause people to do a lot of crazy things, including eating pets or strays they find on the streets. When those run out, don’t be surprised if some turn to cannibalism, like the Donner Party did during the winter of 1846-47. Snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains, some members of the party turned to eating those who died from exposure. 

One of the interesting things about cannibalism (in a rather sick way) is that there is a ritualistic side to it. Many such cases have a quasi-religious side to the act, where people are sacrificing others “for the common good.” William Forstchen talks about this in his book “One Second After.” If you haven’t read that, I’d recommend it. 

Gotta Get Rid of that Trash 

Finally, trash is going to be piling up everywhere. That not only creates a fire hazard, but can provide a habitat for pests, like mice and rats. Getting rid of the containers that food is packed in carries the additional problem of letting people know that you have food. 

The easiest way to take care of the trash is to burn it; but care must be taken with that, because many materials, including some plastics, can give off noxious or even poisonous fumes when burned. Burning trash outdoors can help, but that also risks letting others know that you have food. 

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Most people in the world are reactive in emergency situations – especially when it comes to SHTF disaster scenarios (Shit Hit The Fan) that result in TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It). Having the right survival gear and training isn’t the whole picture though; you have to have a plan and know how to use it.

I don’t normally write about full-on SHTF scenarios like this one but if you plan for the worst, it’s easier to plan for the most-likely.

Obviously, if you’re directly involved in a current disaster, such as finding yourself floating down main street during a flood or your building crumbling down around you, this article isn’t for you. Your first priorities are to get safe, fix your broken self, fix others, and get out of Dodge. This article is about what to do in the middle of a regional event that has happened but hasn’t yet directly affected you – but it soon will.

In this situation, something big happened to your region of the country and you have no choice but to leave town. Just make sure you don’t plan JUST for worst-case. Minor scenarios are MUCH more likely, but you can gain from thinking about the worst case. Let’s just go ahead and pretend that an EMP just hit, something like in this book (which is a really good book to get you thinking).

The world waits until something happens, then decides what they need to do. Preppers are typically different, but even they fall into a similar problem. They buy lots of stuff, and do lots of learning and training. Some even make plans. What they fail to miss is that sometimes the necessary assets to adequately deal with a situation aren’t readily available on a whim. You have to have them in advance.

The Special Forces and other organizations I’ve had the pleasure of working with are very good at executing effectively because the plan, then they drill it over and over and understand the military planning process. They wargame what could happen, develop possible COAs (Courses Of Action), run through mock exercises in as-real a circumstance as possible each time, and then do AARs (After Action Reviews) to redefine mission parameters, gear, and necessary additional training.

Their action may be reactive once it’s go-time but they’re proactive enough that they already know a good deal of what will happen once boots hit the ground. The more you make a plan, practice the plan, and adjust the plan, the more easily you’ll be able to deal with emergency situations.

The other problem is that without an adequate COA analysis, you may not recognize WHEN you need to take action, and you definitely won’t know what other people on your team or in your family will be doing. Essentially, everyone needs to not only know what to do, they need to know under what circumstances they should be doing it.

So, this isn’t an article about how to plan for a SHTF scenario. This is what you should do first, when you’ve recognized that there’s been a serious shift in your way of life due to economic collapse, natural disaster, EMP, or whatever. What you need to do after reading this article is to backwards plan so you can get to this point.

Obviously, this assumes that you have a team with which to rally. If you don’t, you won’t be surviving long though.

1. Collect intelligence on the current situation

Before you start phase 1 of any operation, you’re essentially in phase 0. This means that you should be shaping your environment, to include setting up ways to know what’s going on (which is what’s called Intelligence). During an EMP that blasts across most of the country, the first thing you’ll notice will depend on what time of day it is.

Make sure you get in touch with your neighbors. This could be critical not for just figuring out what’s going on, but for neighborhood security and augmenting skills you don’t have.

At night, the first thing you’ll notice is all the lights just went out. If you’re driving, your car will most likely stall. I say “most likely” because we really don’t know what would happen in real life and the exact circumstances would vary widely depending on the type of EMP, its altitude, atmospheric conditions, and the type and placement of the electronics and any shielding. We just don’t know.

Let’s assume you’re home, and it’s just after dark. All you know at the moment is that you lost power. So how would you know that this is a widespread event and not just that a tree fell on a powerline?

First thing would be to pick up something that would be susceptible to an EMP but not tied into the power grid. Check your cell phone for power. Check any battery-operated device.

Some things probably won’t be affected by an EMP though even if it’s strong so you’ll have to use some logic here. A metal flashlight that contains just a bulb, batteries, and wire would probably survive with no problem. A plastic one that has a little micro-controller circuit in it would be much more likely to fry.

Now, since you set things up previously, you pull out something electronic that you’ve stored in a Faraday cage. If the cage was constructed properly, it should protect your electronics against a decently-hard hit. There’s a lot of real crap out there on the web about how to build these things though so do some thorough research.

So at this point, you should have an idea as to whether the things in your home work or not. Next thing would be to start your car. Not only will this give you another indication, it’s necessary information to know how you’re gonna react.

Next thing you need to know is how widespread the EMP is so you’ll have to communicate with someone not in your immediate area somehow. Unfortunately, communicating long-distance pretty much means you have to use electronics. Hopefully you stored a ham radio in some kind of shielding (and not had it still attached to the radio). Many ham operators do this and most repeater stations have emergency power backup. I personally have a Yaesu 857d, that works very well for things like this.

Also consider that an EMP would develop massive power along any power lines or phone lines, which would most likely cause fires in the affected area.

What, or who, you check into next will depend on your own circumstances, but at this point, you should have an idea what happened. Based on that assessment, you decide that it meets your criteria for leaving town.

2. Gather gear and personnel for movement

If you’re already at your primary rally point, such as if you’re bugging in, best thing to do is immediately fill your tubs, sinks, pots, and other containers with water because that pressure probably won’t hold for long. Then move to gather your stuff in case you have to leave. Your plan must on some level involve bugging out at some point.

This is where you grab your bug out bags. Hopefully you’re not like most preppers and have 70 pounds of gear, or even worse – don’t have your stuff together and end up deciding at the last moment what to put in your bags. My bug out bag is currently is only 25 pounds plus whatever water and food I’m gonna carry (except when I’m traveling on my Harley, in which case all that gear and more is on my bike. If it works, I’ll ride it as-is. If not, two of my bags are weather-proof backpack/duffel bags and I know where each and every item is on my bike so I could assemble my gear in a few minutes).

Before you can move out, you’ll have to find everyone else with whom you’ll be traveling, and they’ll have to have their gear together.

Most likely, you won’t have everyone at home when it hits, so the next thing to do is try to establish comms.

3. Establish comms with your team

Hopefully, you’ve set up an emergency communications plan with your family and team, well in advance, and trained with it. If you haven’t read my article on SHTF communications, you should check it out too.

Essentially, that means you’ll have to have different ways to communicate, and those ways can’t all be electronics-dependent.

In a real situation, you may not be able to establish comms with every member within the time you can safely stay at home. In that case, hopefully you’ve planned and practiced and would each recognize what’s happened and that they need to now move out. Otherwise, you’ll spend a great deal of time just randomly trying to find each other.

If you can use electronics, nothing beats ham radio for SHTF communications. One of the best radios on the market is the Yaesu 857d, which I have. It’s super powerful, has a good menu system, and can Tx/Rx on a ton of frequency bands.

I have a Yaesu VX-6R as my personal handheld because it’s an awesome radio and it’s waterproof but if I were getting one now, I’d go for the Yaesu VX-8R. If you want to save some cash, get the Baofeng UV-5R but expect to spend some time learning it because it’s pretty confusing. It’s also not waterproof and requires a separate battery charger thing to charge the battery, which is inconvenient. Don’t get me wrong, I have one because it’s such a good deal, but I always go for my Yaesu.

If you can’t use electronics to reach someone, you should leave a message somehow. Have a predetermined location that everyone knows to check. Make it something that is out of the ordinary, can’t be accidentally done, is unlikely to be changed or moved, and easy to notice without having to walk right up to it. An example might be to bend the road sign at a particular corner as the sign that you’ve decided to bug out and they should move to the primary rally point and/or make comms with you.

4. Move to the primary rally point

In most cases, your primary rally point will be someone’s home but not in all cases, and for all you know, that home may not be there once you get there. Everyone should have noticed something happened and remembered during training that when ‘X’ happens, they should move to the primary rally point somehow.

You should all have already planned your bug out routes to get to where you need to go, which makes it much easier. Shit happens though, so you can expect that once you get there, someone will be missing. Make sure you wargame that scenario for each missing person or group of people because your next steps will depend greatly on who’s there and who’s not, and may also depend on what you’ve all brought or failed to bring.

Also, consider that you may find out that your primary rally point isn’t useable. The neighborhood may be rioting, the forest could be on fire, a roving band of baboons may have been given human-like intelligence by a mad scientist and started a commune there – all sorts of things. You need to have a secondary and at least a tertiary rally point set up that hopefully wouldn’t be affected by the reasons you can’t use the primary.

You may also find that for whatever reason, you have to move to a new location that wasn’t planned. Try to leave some sort of message to later parties who arrive so that they notice it and understand the message. In certain scenarios, you won’t want anyone else to understand the message though.

One example could be to stack rocks in the shape of a ‘4’ and the arrow defined by the triangle inside the four points toward the point where the two likes overlap (bottom right as the 4 is read). You might also add something underneath one of the stones such as a note or even more discreet, a symbol (anything blue meant you headed toward water in that direction, for example).

A written or laid out ‘4’ can communicate direction

Essentially, you need to get to some rally point and wait for everyone to show up so you can figure out what to do next.

5. Establish security

Once you’ve arrived, in a very rare set of circumstances (such as a regional EMP strike), you’ll need to worry about people who wish to do you harm. Hopefully you’ve already shaped the battlespace of your bug out location to make it easier but if not, you need to do it now.

Quickly set up defenses (such as set up a few people on the perimeter) and then work on improving those defenses later.

If you’re in a neighborhood, start figuring out who’s staying and what their skills and abilities are so you can establish a neighborhood watch. If you’re in a decently-sized town, you can expect certain areas will riot very quickly.

6. Collect intelligence on the situation

Now is when you realize that going it alone would have been a stupid idea. You’ll have to make sure you’re set with food, water, shelter, fire, etc and set up guards who can scan the area so a threat presents itself in time and distance to react effectively, but you have to know your situation first.

First thing to do once you have a hasty defense set up is to do your three inventories (read that article for more details). Essentially, you need to figure out what you have on you in the way of gear and skills (and what you don’t), what your immediate needs are (medical, water, security), what’s in the immediate area that could be of use (or isn’t), and what’s in the extended area that may either present a problem or a solution.

This is also when you should start monitoring frequencies across the spectrum and gain some intel on the situation. As you find a frequency with some traffic – even if you can’t understand them, document the frequency, time of day, your Rx (receiving) location, and the gist of what you heard. This makes it easier to try to reacquire that same Tx (transmit) signal at a different location or know when they may transmit again.

7. Establish comms with your missing team members

Once you’re at the location you’ll be staying at for a while, you may find that not everyone is there yet with you. If you’ve already established a radio plan with everyone (and they have comms that were protected and still work), you’ll probably have a time of day and a frequency to transmit and monitor as well as a couple of backup freqs.

If you’re in some kind of Red Dawn scenario (great movie, btw), you won’t want to be transmitting from your location or in any pattern of locations. You’ll have to balance your need to communicate with your need for OPSEC and evasion.

If everyone knows the general area where you’ll be, such as a town or a particular forest area, you can agree on very obvious locations to leave messages, such as the top of a very large hill or a unique building, etc. As before, prior commo planning will allow you to leave more accurate messages to your team while not giving away the message (or hopefully that there even is a message).

8. Link up with missing team members

Once you’ve establish comms in some way, you need to get everyone together. Either you have to get them where you are or you need to go to them. Your primary mission continues to be assembling the team, even if you have to divert resources to other missions such as collecting food or water.

If you’ll be leaving your basecamp or primary rally point to go get someone, you’ll have to decide who will go and who will stay (if anyone). Obviously if you have even more people still out there, it may not be a good idea to send everyone out after one person unless it’s unlikely you’ll be coming back.

9. Decide your next COA

Now that you have everyone together, you need to decide what to do next. Do you stay where you’re at or do you bug out to a different location?

In a lot of cases, you’ll have temporary rally points that are good for easy meetup and security but won’t be the same as your ultimate destination.

Either way, you’ll have some larger decisions to be made once you have everyone.

Continue to collect intel, improve your position, assess your process, and make plans, and you’ll be much better off than anyone who didn’t do all this planning in the first place.

As you can see, the whole key to all this is prior planning and practice. Remember that a half-assed plan that everyone follows is much better than a good plan that people follow half-assed.

Thoughts? Questions? Please feel free to contribute your own ideas or experiences and help anyone who has questions.