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I have nearly thirty years of law enforcement experience. That experience was gained as a local police officer, a deputy Sheriff and finally as a state trooper. The last decade or so of my trooper career was spent as a crime scene investigator for a state police agency. I only tell you this for you, the reader to weigh the opinions and statements that will follow. This experience serves as my only true “skill” as I’m a terrible carpenter, plumber, cook, welder, gardener or nurse! What follows is my small contribution to the “how to” lessons for a prepper that are contained within this blog.
Law enforcement experience has shaped my preparations. I always had a “storm kit” ready as I lived in an area that is prone to summer tornadoes and severe winter storms. But after working a security and anti-looting detail in a city of 35,000 people that had been devastated by a tornado, I rethought my preparations and increased the food, water and medical supplies that it contained. I saw first hand that rescue, recovery and a return to normalcy takes time. In addition, after 9/11, we were required by our agency to keep water and emergency rations in our patrol vehicles.
Even so-called routine occurrences such as a traffic crash can take on survival tones if it occurs in a remote area or during a blizzard. I once helped search for an elderly woman that simply ran off a road and moved down a steep embankment into a grove of trees. All she had with her was a cell phone but after phoning the police, but she couldn’t tell them where she was. She only knew that she was somewhere between two towns that were twenty miles apart. We had difficulty using the phone company to triangulate her position so we drove in the area with our sirens on until she heard us and advised the dispatcher. That was a decidedly low tech solution to an everyday problem.
The woman was not physically able to leave the car and it was winter. If she had not been able to call for help, she might have succumbed to hypothermia before anyone discovered her car. What would happen if this same situation was after TEOTWAWKI?
While as a police officer, I was always conscience of security matters in and around my home and my focus was anti-crime. In other words, I prepared as best I could against a burglary or a home invasion scenario. It is only within the last few years that I have given considerable thought to major civil unrest due to an economic situation, the likes of which most of us have never seen. Another prime concern is a grid down scenario for an extended period of time. Both of these threats seem to become more real each day.
Within the last five years or so, many things have changed globally, nationally, locally and within my own family. I took a friend’s recommendation and read Patriots and it changed me deeply.
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