Recce (UK) Rcon (US) Kit

[CharlesHarris]

The military SERE community has two types of “players,” those forced to endure the training and those who are full-on students of the craft. SERE is not a long term survival scheme its premise is based on recovery, in the short term if you can avoid capture, or a longer term if captured, which is where the resistance and escape components come in.

There are a few real life examples of long term evasion in which the subject avoided capture for years. The best example was Lt. Hiro Onoda of the Imperial Japanese Army, who evaded for 30 years after WW2 ended! His book, “No Surrender, My 30-Year War” was required reading for those of us attending the jungle course at Ft. Sherman, Canal Zone during the 1970s.
Your gear choice is vital if you must carve out a new life in a wild place because the cavalry isn’t coming. Only rugged, reliable, durable gear is long term. Gadgets are short-term gimmicks of limited value. Having fire starting tools and aids for extreme conditions is simply good planning. Feeding yourself with just a knife is possible, but you have better done it before the "test with critical ending circumstances" comes about. Being able to start a fire in any conditions is a life-saving skill.

Be realistic when choosing your gear. Use it regularly, develop skill and confidence with it. There is a BIG difference between “boy scout skills” and “advanced primitive skills.” Outdoorsmen have an unrealistic vision of the potential for enduring long term circumstances, because their perception of reality, is, like SERE, is based upon recovery. If you filed a flight plan, don’t have life-threatening injuries and have working comms, your chances for survival are good. But you improve your odds when planning is reality based in good risk assessment and consequence management, rather than luck.

The prepper community has a more realistic view of long term survival, if they manage to think it past Mad Max beyond thunder dome. Fixation upon guns, gear and gadgets cannot make up for lack of skills. It’s fine to have pocket EDC gear and a pistol at all times, but that is far short of what it takes to prevail in the bush under life testing circumstances.

Think about what 10-15 critical pieces of equipment you would need to deal with a life threatening situation that doesn't involve violent conflict? Forget pocket EDC and guns for now. What goes in that second line kit? Do you have a utility pot? Can you boil water and cook without it? Do have a water container and purification tabs or a Life Straw? Do have ferro rod on your keyring or in your pocket or both? If the gear is not actually attached to your body, what will you have when the boat sinks or the car burns? A bailout or man-overboard bag you can grab and take with you when you must leave your transportation behind may make the difference between life and death in the wild places.

I hate the term, "survival kit" because it denotes content only suited for use in extremis. I want military or contractor commercial grade components in my kits, intended for daily use, so as to gain confidence, skill and proficiency in their use. I have shed most of the small stuff. With wet, cold hands it comes down to gear that can be used with gross motor skills. This learned this years ago falling through the ice in a New Hampshire winter 4 miles from home.

I'm a believer in skills over gear. Case in point was the hunter in Idaho a few years back that Field& Stream touted as a great survival practitioner after being trapped in a storm. But it took him 50, yes 50 matches to start a fire and had to use his game bags after multiple failures before he got a fire. Clearly he needed to practice fire lays and how to ignite it properly. Nothing says training weather like a rainy 35 degree “hypothermia day.”

In the urban/suburban scenario, you won't worry much about cold wet hands and losing gross motor skills, but you must know the value of simple easy-to-use gear and practice skills learned in cold wet places.

A small pry-bar, Swiss Army Knife (SAK) and a Leatherman Wave with the bit kit is a good start. You want also safety glasses, gloves (both leather palms and nitrile), a small defensive flashlight (multi-color), tactical pen, chapstick, a trauma bandage, lighter, bandana, parachute cord, several batteries, etc serve in an urban EDC.

I also carry pill fobs with aspirin and Motrin, cotton balls with Vaseline, a little folding saw, a P-51 can opener with spoon, a whistle, small pepper spray, small prybar, a small tool blade sharpener, and ferro rod on my keychain. My work daypack has a small roll of 100MPH tape, some rolls of wire, swim googles, a headlamp, a carabiner, a silcock key, a trauma kit, a water filter, and N-95 masks. I wear a calculator watch with a decent compass on the band. Only used the tactical pen for writing though, so far. Figure I can handle most issues that arise with this stuff.

Instead of “survival kit” prefer functional descriptors which identify the gear line or level:

Everyday Carry (EDC) duplicates the most important/ useful items in your pockets. "Two is one, one is none" is the line of thinking in which important items redundant and stored in different places: Bic lighter in pants pocket, a milkshake straw w/ PJCB in it in your shirt, a ferro rod and striker on your key ring. Multiple BIC lighters stashed separately in first line, second line, and third line gear is better distribution than having a Bic lighter, life boat matches, and Fresnel lens stashed all together in your bag which might get left behind, because you have only one pack... and could lose it... and one is none. A lighter in your pack, another in a coat pocket, and one in your pants pocket, is MUCH better.

Pocket EDC Gear:
Mil-K-818 utility folder
Chapstick
Rope Cuffs
Bic Lighters(2)
Fenix E01, ferro rod, striker and Suunto orienteering compass around neck
On Belt:
Mora Knife
Grab & Go Kilo Kit (Frontier Filter Pro Plus, drinking tube, Signal Mirror, Whistle, BIC, Ferro and Skoal can full of Vaseline infused cotton tinder, decoy line, demolition wire, spare Fenix EO1, button compass,
Leatherman Wave

The Grab & Go Bag is compact and weighs about a kilogram and contains additional stuff that won't fit in your pockets. In extremis you will want more/better, but having the minimum “ten essentials” always in a “drop rucks” E&E scenario sure as hell, beats being without it. My Grab & Go Bag is packed in a first aid kit container which can be worn on a belt, stuffed in coat pocket or attached to a ruck with a snap link, it contains basic first aid , personal meds, fire making, water filter, signals, flashlight, multi-tool, spare pistol mag, etc.

The Get Home Bag is small internal frame SAR pack, 1500-2000 cu.in. with “snivel gear,” food, water bottles, water filter, mess gear, comms, nav, health & medical, extra batteries, ammo, stove fuel, etc. to sustain 7 days, with goal not to exceeed 10 kgs. Serves as contingency gear SAR scenarios, works for urban E&E, tactical movement “ get home” situation. If must leave vehicle and walk home from work, cannot cover the 100 km in less than four to five days in a dangerous civil unrest scenario, being pursued/hunted, or if sick/injured. Ruck has essentials for daytime concealment, shelter, insulation, heat, hydration, and calories to sustain 7 days of stealthy night movement.

Smallest compressed mummy bag (Wiggy’s) in ruck, polyester fleece jacket and pants, Gore Tex wind/rain suit, bivi bag (or ruck itself as shelter to save your toes/feet), cut down pad and USGI fabric backed casualty blanket, poncho and poncho liner (woobie).

Heat/Cook: Natick cooker nested in canteen cup, Esbit fuel, in winter also Trangia burner and fuel bottle. Winter consideration for having to melt/boil water for snow.

Cooking: canteen cup used as basic pot, HeavyCover to conserve heat, used to melt water from snow, then boil for sterilization, hydrate freeze dried LRP-CW rations, make tea, coffee, soup. Maintain winter warmth, aiding hydration, calories, minerals, protein/fat.

Food – Ten pocket rations for quick energy, requiring no preparation, MetX bars. For hot chow six freeze dried LRP-CW rations. Protein, fats important in cold, longer lasting/ slower burning calories than carbs. 500g WASA multi-grain crispbread, 500g peanut butter. Ten dry soup packets, ten instant coffee sachets or tea bags. Maintain not less than 10% ratio each of protein and fat to total carbs.

Hydration: (2) qts. Water daily for meal prep and hydration as minimum. 1 metre drinking tube and Frontier FilterProPlus (military version) to replenish supply on the march. Use flexible bottles to reduce “sloshing” noise for stealth. Pouches insulate to slow freezing, aid attachment to ruck, protect skin from freezing to cold metal, use "hot water bottle" in sleeping bag. Canteen/cup/cooker/hydration system, serves as pot, stove/fire to heat water/melt snow/ice. Mandatory to have reliable long term method of purification, Frontier Pro Plus filter and supplement with Betadyne from FAK.