essentials of survival

THE ESSENTIALS OF SURVIVAL
part II of a series
(volume 1 issue 4)
17 November 2006


In todays blog entry I will address more specific issues concerning survival in a crisis situation or other widescale
natural disaster and/or catastrophe. This blog posting is part II in a series of blogs addressing the essentials of survival.
Two very important aspects of survival are assessment and logistics.

Assessment, according to the dictionary is defined as: "to set a value for; to impose an amount, as a fine, tax, etc.;
to evaluate, as a situation."

For our purposes, assessment shall mean to evaluate as a situation. Basically, we have an obligation to insure the safety,
health, welfare, and well being of ourselves, our family, or possibly the group we may be associating with. In order to maintane our
obligations and responsibilities, we need to know what we need, what we can get, and how and when to get it.

Generally, there are two types of assessments, passive and active.

A passive assessment is done in preparation for any incident or accident or other unforseen eventuality that can, and most likely, will adversely affect the survivor, their family, and the group the survivor may be associated with. A passive assessment is basically the presumption of need prior to any unforseen eventuality or natural disaster or national catastrophe.

An active assessment is done when the survival finds themselves and/or others in a predicament that presented itself with little or no forewarning. The active assessment is generally a spur of the moment sort of a thing. It is therefore essential that the survivor have a keen sense of needs to be done, and what needs to be acquired. An active assessment requires an immediate response to the present situation and environment. Simply put, the survivor must be reasonably able to assess a situation and respond to it quickly, intellegently, and responsibly. With proper mental discipline, foresight, and instinct all apllied to the situation, the survivor should be able to cope with situations quite adequately.

To simplify: passive="what if...?" and active="what now?".

There are two specific types of active or passive assessments the survivor must be concerned with. They are the physical and logistical assessments.

The survivor can do a physical assessment by simply asking the following question as it applies to themselves, their family, or possibly the group they are associated with. The survivor must ask themselves:

Do I, or any member of my family, or member of the group require any medical care and treatment, sustained or otherwise, and/or any special medical equipment, apparatus, or supplies to facilitate ongoing treatment of illness or disability? I can not stress the importance of this question enough. The survivors anwser to that question could be the difference between life and death for themselves and others.

The second type of assessment is the logistics assessment. Logistics is simply the control and management of available resources. A logistical assessment can be done by simply asking the following question:

What do I, my family, or the group I am associated with, require to manetain our safety, health, welfare, and well being?

The reader is reminded that the word "require" is defined as immediate need and not, immediate want. The survivor may want that big screen color television, but, the baby needs pampers, wipes, and formula.

Best regards and wishes
Christopher Griffin (archeangelsk2002)
archeangelsk2002@yahoo.com

Tojours L'Audace

Introduction to Survival

Survival
(part 1 of a series)
INTRODUCTION TO SURVIVAL
(volume 1 issue 3)
15 November 2006


Todays blog entry begins a series of topical discussions on the subject of survival and the various techniques associated with it.In blog entries forthcoming I will be exploring the aspects of survival and certain techniques that may be employed by you the reader
The reader should take note that what is examined in the blogs are subject to the interpretation of the reader. These blogs are not intended to be the only available resource for information concerning survival. The reader is highly encouraged to do their own investigation and research on all of the items discussed herein, as well as, any future blogs posted on this topic.

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO SURVIVAL

What exactly is "survival"? Survival, by definition, is taking appropriate measures by any available means, to insure your personal health, safety, and well being. This definition not only applies to the individual, it can be applied to a group of people. The group of people may be small or large. In a survival situation, smaller groups of people are more easily managed than large groups of people. Many people have differing views on how to proceed in a survival situation. There must never be a case of too many chiefs and not enough indians in a survival situation. In order to prevent such problems we need to know that which is survival, and that which is not survival.

Survival is subsisting and existing in any enviroment not suitable for normal human habitation or an otherwise inhospitable environment This means that there may not be food, water, shelter, clothing, or medical care available to and your group (if applicable). In this event, you must be able at aquire these necessities by any means available. The method by which these necessities are acquired is subject to the situation you and your group may find yourselves in , as well as, the availability of such
necessities. Necessities are those things you need to live, nothing more and nothing less!!!

Survival is niether stealing a big screen television, nor killing or otherwise harming, any other human being to satisfy your
personal needs or wants. As we all saw on the television news, people were stealing liqour, beer, televisions, and tennis shoes, not to mention a great many other useless things during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. I can not empasise enough that the things people were doing down in Loisiana after that hurricane are not survival. What they were doing is theft and looting. Theft and looting are crimes that can be causes of your death when martial law is declared.

I do not know of anyone who was prosecuted for stealing food, water, baby diapers and wipes, clothing, and medicines for their or their families personal use. However, there are still outstanding criminal cases pending on those who stole televisions, alcohol, boom boxes, tennis shoes, cd's, and other useless items of that sort.

Survival is being able to do the best you can to take care of yourself and your family, and possibly others, if possible or able. If all you can do is take care of you and yours, remember this, in a struggle for survival you are not necessarily your brothers keeper. You can not help or save everybody, but you can do whats best for you and yours. The reader must note that if you cant take of yourself during a survival situation how can you be expected to take care of your family, or other people in a group The anwser is simple, you cant. In order to take care of yourself, and possibly others you must take care of yourself first.

Survival is not presuming that you can expect any reasonable or timely assistance or responce from state and local government entities. Take the crisis situation created by Hurricane Katrina for example. This occurence demonstrates the will of the local and state government to respond to that crisis, as well as, how quickly the local and state government agencies became completely overwhelmed by it. I agree that the local and state government agencies, as well as, the federal government itself did the best they could for the people of Louisiana during that crisis, however, what they did illustrates a noble effort, but a total failure as well.

Survival is being prepared for a potential crisis situation. Preparedness is defined as being able to adequately adapt and/or respond to any situation that places an individual in a hazardous environment or dangerous situation. a hazardous environment is any place or location where the reasonable fear of death or serious injury is present and apparent. A dangerous situation is defined as an individual or individuals finding themselves placed in a situation where death and serious physical will occur and an immediate response or action is absolutely necessary. For example a hazardous environment could be finding onesself waking up to a fire in your house or apartment, but having a prearranged exit plan in place, a dangerous situation would be waking up in a fire and having no plan or prearranged escape route. The basic differences between a hazardous enviroment or a dangerous situation is what may happen and what will happen and how you are able to respond to the situation as a whole.

Survival is not delusional paranoia to such an extent that you have a small armory in your home or basement or 5 years of dehydrated food and MRE's stashed away for armageddon. None of us are psychics and we can not predict the future, as such, I am not professing that we should all be prepared for every crisis that presents itself to us. There is absolutlely no away any of us can be prepared for every possible crisis or otherwise bad or degrading situation. We are all human, and none of us have a pentium 4 processor for a brain.

Survival is being able to rationally and adequtely respond to any given situation or conditions that are presented to us. In order for any of to use any form of rational thought to adapt and respond to a crisis situation we must use whatever skills, knowledge, and resources we have immediately available to us. In order to use the resources we have available we must have knowledge how to efficiently apply these resources to the situation we may find ourselves in. Therefore, one of the most important keys to survival is knowledge. Knowledge can come in any number of forms. Personal experience, books, the computer, friends,and neighbors to name a few. Information gained from what we are willing to learn is the most valuable resource we have available concerning survival as a whole.

In conclusion, this, and future blogs I intend to post, will be a good place to begin to gain knowledge and get informed on survival. These blogs are by no means your only available reource and shall not be intended as such to be your only resource. I invite the reader to go well beyond these blogsa and do their own research and gain their own knowledge. To get you on your way I would like to suggest that you check out these two books:
The S.A.S Survival Handbook, written by John "lofty" Wiseman, published by, Harper Collins
The SAS tracking&Navigation Handbook, written by, Neil Wilson, published by,The Lyons Press.

In future postings I will endeavor to include more references pertinent to the topic of survival and anything else associated with it. Until my next posting, have a great day and always remember there is power in knowledge and skill in learning.

Best Regards and Wishes
Christopher Griffin (archeangelsk2002)
archeangelsk2002@yahoo.com

Tojours L'Audace

A Harsh Reality and a Rude Awakening

A Harsh Reality and a Rude
Awakening
14 November 2006
(volume 1 issue 2)


In this issue of my blogs I intend to illuminate and enlighten the reader on many ideas and falacies concerning the state of our mutual human nature and existence. A human beings existence is measured in terms today such as what kind of car he or she has, their status in society, and the position they may hold in their respective community. A man or woman is also known not so much by the company they keep, but by their actions. (or in some cases, their inaction.)

How a person lives is one thing how a person acts is something else. In Sun Tzu's book, Sun Tzu stated that to determine a mans truest nature, bind him up and stand him on the edge of a volcano and you will then and only know is true nature. Simply put, fear has the ability to bring out any persons true nature. Fear can bring out the best in a person or the worst in a person. Sun Tzu wrote his book The Art of War, centuries ago, and what was written then is as true now as it was during Sun Tzu's era.

Today, in 2006, we live in a world permeated by fear. In centuries past here in the United States of America, we as apeople were more self reliant, and independent. Freedom was at one time freedom and liberty was at one time liberty. Today, however. liberty and freedom are defined by the affects of terrorism and not by the Bill of Rights and The Constitution of The United States. These documents are the foundation of the very principles our forefathers fought for. These documents led to the creation of the United States or America and these documents are the birthright of this country and every American Citizen who lives here. But fear
has denied us all this birthright.

What would it take to restore our birthright and what can we do to become the American's we were meant to be? There is no one sufficient anwser to this question. It is quite obvious that our current government can no batter anwser this question, than we. as American citizens can.

The best I belive we can do is to become less reliant on our government and become more self sufficient. Unfortunately, self sufficiency is almost nonexistent. Less than a hundred years ago we grew our own food, built our homes, and raised our families without government assistance or interference. To me, that was liberty and freedom. A person was obligated to maintane personal responcibility. Family meant something more then than the nuclear or dysfunctional family we all know today.

I often wonder what would happen if some sort nationwide catstrophe took place today. Hurricane Katrina is a very good illustration of how human nature degrades when we have no food, water, medical care, or electricity. My greatest fear is that no one is willing to learn from this tragedy and that no one cares to learn from that catatrophe. Many people tell me why worry the givernment will step in and help us we shouldn't be worrying about the what if's. it is my opinion, that an attitude like this, is the greatest form of ignorance and pretext known. Apparently, todays American citizen believes that they have everything under control as long as the government will intervene. The aftermath of Katrina demonstrated without any doubt how inadquately this government functions in that kind of situation. God only knows what this current government will do if any terrorist organization attains a nuclear or biological weapon and deploys them on United States soil. How would the government maintane order amongst this country's citizenry? What could you or I do if, God forbid, this kind of event takes place?

The harshest reality is that if this event were to take place, we, as American citizens, would be unable to do anything but hope to survive. We must not allow ourselves to become comfortable with idea that the government is adequately prepared for any kind of eventuality even remotely similar to this kind of situation.

The cold reality is that in a future as yet unknown we all may have to learn how to live without the government, without the right to due process, food, water, shelter,clothing, or medical care. The victims of Hurricane Katrina illustrate how deplorable human nature can become when people are forced into such a situation where ther is no food, or anything else immediately available to satisfy the human needs and a persons comfort.

I have no intention of trying to predict the future. I do not know what will happen, if anything at all happens, and I will not try.
I will, however, attempt to pass along knowledge that i feel will be suitable to prevent the human condition from degrading as badly as it did for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

In the successive blogs I will publish here I will suggest to the reader things concerning survival, as well as, other pertinent
topics of interst. In the next blog i will publish, which will be volume 1 issue 3 i will outline the processes necessary for survival. it is my hope that the reader does not just use what I post here as a guideline. I suggest to the reader that this is only a starting place. I invite the reader to do there own research and draw their own conclusions. But no matter what I want the reader to learn something from what I post. I do not want any reader to limit thenselves to this blog, but instead, do some additional research on their own.

The views and opinions expressed in this and any other blogs I post are not intended for anything else but the sharing of information and knowledge. The author of this post will not be held responcible in anyway for how the reader applies any information
contained herein.(A lawyer suggested I do this disclaimer thing.)

Best Regards and Wishes
Christopher Griffin (archeangelsk2002)
archeangelsk2002@yahoo.com

tojours l'audace

welcome back

Welcome back to Archeangelsk's Blog
(12 November 2006)
volume 1, issue 1


Upon further consideration and numerous requests, I have restarted my blogs on Blogspot.com. It is not my intent to write these blogs for the purposes of chatroom bullshit and entertainment, but instead, to provide valuable information to all on topics such as, survival, health, and well being. I am not a doctor, nurse, or practicioner of any medical field. However, I did have intensive training as a medic when I was in the U.S. Army. At that time I was a member of what was once known as the Radiological Survey Team.

The Radiological Survey Team had the job of going into areas in which nuclear weapons had already been detonated, or possibly where chemical and biological weapons were used. Our orders were fairly simple. We would be deployed by whatever means avai;able to the area and do assessments on casualties, effects of usage, and damage assessments.

The personnel assigned to the RST had specific jobs. For example I was the team medic. I gave medical care to the survivors (if any), set up decontamination stations,for chemical, biological and nuclear contamination. I had to be knowledgable in all aspects of the treatment of injuries associated with the use of radiological. chemical, and biological warfare.

In addition to myself our team also consisted of at least two combat engineers who would assess structural integrity and damage, a squad of Infantry Military Police, one unidentified civilian observer, and two unidentified individuals who were assigned to our team by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. All of the information and data collected by our team was fowarded to the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Eventually, the final destination of or surveys would be given to the Secretary of Defense.(at that time it was Casper Weinberger).

Now that you have some general idea of my qualifications, you must now decide if you want to go further. In future blogs
I will be covering topics ranging from field medicine to field sanitation and hygiene, and a lot of pertinent topics in between.
My objective is to enlighten and inform anyone who wishes to learn. Bare in mind that I am not a teacher, doctor, nurse, or
voodoo practitioner. I am a simply a man who wishes to pass on what knowledge he has in the hopes that this knowledge will be further passed on. You see friends, the world as we know it today is very hostile and unstable, and as such, I believe we need to train ourselves to be prepared for whatever may come our way.

In closing, it is my intent to publish the subsequent blogs I post in an orderly outlined manner. I give total consent to anyone who wishes to reproduce, copy, or republish for the purposes of information sharing and learning. any blog or blogs I post. In addition, I will welcome any information from any source to add to and improve the context and content of the blogs I post. However, let me make myself very clear. The blogs I post will be of an informational and educational nature. Therefore I request that any inquiries or responses to these blogs exclude all forms of chat room related bullshit, pissing contests, or any other non topic related nonsense.

I have included my yahoo email address in this blog for the purpose of anwsering inquiries and responses concerning the topics of these blogs. Please note: I have my yahoo spam filters set up so that i may only recieve text emails. I can not download pictures, videos, or any kind of media files. If my yahoo email server thinks that an email I am recieving is spam it automatically deletes it.

Best wishes and regards,
christopher a. griffin (archeangelsk2002)
tojours l' audace
archeangelsk2002@yahoo.com