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5 Gray Man secrets I learned as a surveillance operative

March 5, 2017

5 Gray Man secrets I learned as a surveillance operative

Luckily, this just happens to be something I’m very familiar with, having both been involved in real-world operations on source operations and surveillance teams as well as teaching agents in both classroom and field exercises (not to mention the crap ton of training I did, compliments of the government), so I’ll break down the basics for you as far as I understand the concept. If you really want to dig deeply into it, here’s a list of books that you might want to consider.

What is the Gray Man concept?

Surveillance Tradecraft: The Professional's Guide to Surveillance Training The gray man concept is the theory behind the tactics, techniques, and procedures of reducing an adversary’s awareness of your presence or actions, allowing you to operate in a semi-permissive environment.

In simpler terms, it means doing things in a way that any others either don’t pay attention to you or dismisses you from being a target while you go about your business. Essentially, it comes down to how to hide in plain sight.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sailboats, survival, and SHTF

January 13, 2017

Sailboats, survival, and SHTF

Sailboats, Survival, and SHTFI’ve always been a fan of being self-sufficient and learning skills. Sailing is one of the skills that I always wanted to acquire but until my sister married her husband, I never knew anyone who sailed. I love it so much now that I’m considering selling everything and living on a sailboat. As you’ll see below, learning how to sail will give you the opportunity to learn all sorts of self-sufficiency skills, emergency preparedness skills, and off-grid capabilities. As far as I’m concerned, the skills and knowledge required to sail a boat to a distant shore and live on the boat require almost exactly the same skills that preppers pursue.

Lemme throw some context at you for a sec and then tell you why you might want to consider learning how to leave dry land if you need to. I went out to Kalifornia in September to visit some friends and family and along the way, I spent a week in Monterey, where a good friend is learning Russian at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). Since I didn’t want to sit around his house all day while he was in school, I decided to take this opportunity and take sailing lessons. I’m glad I did.

I spent a week and got my ASA101, Basic Keelboat Sailing and ASA103, Basic Coastal Cruising certifications (those links are to the exact books they gave me for the courses but I’ll list the other books I’ve recently read at the end of this post – click here to jump to my book list). I then stopped in at Oxnard on the way back to Phoenix, and instead of getting a hotel, I decided to just rent a 32-foot sailboat for the day since it was almost the same and I’d have the boat for daytime (they let you sleep on the boat).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Adapt or die: Why you need more skills and less stuff

September 24, 2016

Adapt or die: Why you need more skills and less stuff

adapt or die why you need prepper skills more than gearPreppers have a bad reputation for hoarding gear, stocking up on a year’s-worth (or more) of food, and packing bug out bags that could supply a platoon. In almost all cases, these preppers would be screwed if there were a disaster or SHTF.

Gear and supplies are useless unless you still have it when you need it, and as I’ve experienced several times in the military – in emergency situations, things don’t usually go as planned.

There is an inherent cost associated with collecting stuff that extends past the initial purchase. Buying means researching, storing, protecting, repairing, maintaining, carrying, and several other ‘ings.

The precept of knowledge weighing nothing has been a long-term idea in my thinking. I love learning how to do things and how to adapt my surroundings by adapting what I have available for new purposes.

Also, if  something like a regional disaster hits your area, you may be surviving with only what you have on you at that moment and all that stuff you collected will be useless.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t go out and buy stuff in advance of something happening. Starting a fire with something like a magnesium/ferro fire starter is much easier than by rubbing two sticks together, so those things are really good investments. But if you lost that thing, would you still be able to start a fire?

What I am saying though is that sometimes it’s better to learn than to buy. Let’s look at some examples.

Alcohol

In every part of the world and culture, alcohol plays a major part. Sometimes it’s hidden but even while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was very easy to find it if you wanted it (but you’d pay out the ying-yang for it). During hard times, alcohol gets even more popular.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Family survival: 5 tips for distributing gear

October 19, 2015

Family survival: 5 tips for distributing gear

Family survival: 5 tips on distributing gearEver since I posted my article on my personal bug out bag, I’ve gotten quite a few questions on how to pack gear and what people should choose but one of the most common is how to share gear with your partner/kids/wife etc so I figured I’d write something up.

Sorry that I haven’t written in quite a while but I’m knee-deep in planning/writing a novel. It’ll be about a year or two before it’s finished but I think a lot of you will like it. It’s kind of part Brave New World, part Jericho, and a whole lot of awesome. Also, I’ve been knee-deep in organizing my motorcycle for some extended camping trips and travel where I can do some reviews on some of the gear I’ve picked up lately, including a vintage 1960’s Hudson Bay 4-point wool blanket and several other things.

Let’s assume you’re married and have a kid so there are three of you, each with varying skills and abilities. Here are the key points:

1) Have redundant survival capabilities

Just as with the critical things in your individual survival/bug out bag, you need to make sure you have redundant capabilities (not necessarily redundant gear). I go into some detail on this in The ‘Two is one and one is none’ fallacy so you may want to read that one too. Essentially, each bag should be able to allow you to cover all your survival bases but not all gear works in every scenario, so having different ways to do the same thing just may come in handy.

For example, you may be carrying a Trangia alcohol stove in one pack. They’re super portable and pretty capable little stoves (I have one), but they require alcohol (the best I’ve found is Yellow Heet but Everclear can be used in inclosed spaces and for wounds etc – check out this post for more fuel ideas).

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

12 essential survival items under $12

September 14, 2015

12 essential survival items under $12

Quality survival gear isn't always expensive. By choosing carefully, you can find gear for your kit or as a gift. Here are 12 essential survival items for your bug out bag or camping equipment, all under $12. -- http://graywolfsurvival.com/14778/12-essential-survival-items-under-12/Prepping can sometimes cost a lot of money and a lot of you really like when I post about gear (even though you really should be spending your time and money on skills more than stuff).

Because my EDC kit (every day carry) – the cheap way article was so popular, I thought maybe you’d appreciate a quick article about some inexpensive things you can get under $10 that are worth more than $10 – and that you could actually find useful. This is an entirely different idea from the 9 freakin’ awesome ideas for your bug out bag article that I wrote previously, which was intended to get you to think outside the box about what you carry.

I’d consider every one of these things as something that you should really consider having in your kit. Of course, “essential” really depends on your particular situation but since these things are so cheap and so really useful, I’m declaring them essential, so there.

These aren’t in any particular order. All links should open in a new window so you don’t lose your place (unless I missed one). Most of these will be well under $12. In fact, they’re all under $10 but I thought the title was catchier as 12 essential survival items under $12 instead of 12 essential survival items under $10.

Now, granted – there isn’t anything here that holds water, or filters water, or does a lot of essential things you need to be able to do in a survival situation but I didn’t find anything for those solutions that were under $12 and were a really good deal. I’m sure they’re out there somewhere though. This isn’t ALL the essential survival gear under $12, just a dozen of them.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

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