For our non military members

[Fog_Harbor]

First of all if you don't know me I'm a veteran with a survival school that being said I want to ask our non vet members a few questions that came to my mind during a role playing excersise we did here to help me with my students. Please be honest with your answers I'm trying to better understand my students without singling them out in class.

1) Do you feel your bug out/in kit should contain anti personnell equipment (rifles, handguns, pepper spray, tank, bazooka )

2) If in a group would you be able to follow orders from someone with more experience even if you personally don't like them.

3) To what lengths would you go to keep you and/or your family safe and healthy?

4) Last question, if you had an injured companion would you leave them to die if were the only way you could survive?

Thanks in advance for your responses they are greatly appreciated and remeber please be totally honest, also no argueing over someones response it's important I get honest feelings.

1) I think every citizen should be armed, but I'd prefer to hide my stores than have to defend them. Even in a worst case scenario, I don't want to have to decide whether or not to take someone's life. I quit the Police Department for that very reason.

2) It would depend solely on my faith in that person's abilities. I've known too many people in my life who had loads of experience, and were in leadership positions, that I wouldn't trust with my dog, nevermind my life or that of my family's. Mostly because I didn't trust their decision making abilities, not because I didn't like them. Contrarily, I know a few people I can't personally stand that I would follow into South Central LA with cash hanging out of my pockets.

3) If I HAD to kill you to protect my family, I would without a second thought. But again, it's not a decision I want to have to make. The best plan for us is to stay out of harms way to begin with.

4) If there were no other option, yes.

[Sarge47]

First of all if you don't know me I'm a veteran with a survival school that being said I want to ask our non vet members a few questions that came to my mind during a role playing excersise we did here to help me with my students. Please be honest with your answers I'm trying to better understand my students without singling them out in class.

1) Do you feel your bug out/in kit should contain anti personnell equipment (rifles, handguns, pepper spray, tank, bazooka )

2) If in a group would you be able to follow orders from someone with more experience even if you personally don't like them.

3) To what lengths would you go to keep you and/or your family safe and healthy?

4) Last question, if you had an injured companion would you leave them to die if were the only way you could survive?

Thanks in advance for your responses they are greatly appreciated and remeber please be totally honest, also no argueing over someones response it's important I get honest feelings.

My original response to #4 was inconclusive.. I suppose I would'nt leave until after said person died, then, depending on how the food situation looked...

[owl_girl]

Pepper spray & bazooka's seem a little extreme

How is pepper spray extreme? I carried that stuff when I was 8…I lived in a bad neighborhood.

But unfortunately my mommy never let me carry a bazooka lol

[Sarge47]

How is pepper spray extreme? I carried that stuff when I was 8…I lived in a bad neighborhood.

But unfortunately my mommy never let me carry a bazooka lol

Isn't that a brand of Bubble-gum? I think the old WWII jobs bit it awhile back and they went to LOV's. Today they got something even more powerful...Know where I can buy one?

[sticks65]

1] yes 2] yes 3] i would go to any lenths for my family 4] depending on the situation.

[Beo]

Kinda old and I'm kinda late but here goes. Oh and I'm a Vet, sorry but the civilians don't get all the fun.
1) Do you feel your bug out/in kit should contain anti personnell equipment (rifles, handguns, pepper spray, tank, bazooka )
Gun yes.

2) If in a group would you be able to follow orders from someone with more experience even if you personally don't like them.
As long as I feel he's knwledgable in survival and leading us out.

3) To what lengths would you go to keep you and/or your family safe and healthy?
Any.

4) Last question, if you had an injured companion would you leave them to die if were the only way you could survive?
If it the Wife or Son, I'm staying. If its me I'd give them instructions and directions and send them on their way. If its someone I don't know, if I can't save them the I'm not staying, no sense in both of us dying I'll learn to live it and send the authorities to get the body. But if I can apply a tourniquet then I'll toss you over my shoulder and hump you out.

[Beo]

yeah those are good questions.

[bulrush]

First, I've never been in the military.

Oh crap, this is a really old thread.

1) Do you feel your bug out/in kit should contain anti personnell equipment (rifles, handguns, pepper spray, tank, bazooka )

In general yes. If there is no law, there are no police to help you. It takes the police 3-5 minutes, minimum to get there during the best of times, and a bullet takes a fraction of a second to kill you. So yes, I need some type of gun.

2) If in a group would you be able to follow orders from someone with more experience even if you personally don't like them.

If he can keep my a$$ alive, I can follow orders. If he's a poor leader (has a bad temper, not sure of what to do, bad judgement, doesn't take other's experience seriously) he/she needs to be replaced. As a leader you need to hear all options and experiences from all people, then make an informed decision. If you limit your judgement to your own experience, you limit your chances of success.

3) To what lengths would you go to keep you and/or your family safe and healthy?

I'll prepare as much as I can: store food, buy water filter, learn new skills. But I won't break the law AFAIK.

4) Last question, if you had an injured companion would you leave them to die if were the only way you could survive?

There is always some way to help them, or send for help, I just have to find a way. I'm sure I won't have to do leave them.

Ok, now you're going to tell us this was a psych profile to ID the sociopath profile, right?

[canid]

1. depends on the scenario. if i'm likely to need it, you bet. if it serves other uses [anti-predator, anti-game] aswell; all the more likely.

2. if i trust their motives and their experience, you bet. even if i don't like them, i salute the man, so to speak, never the uniform and i know i don't always know best.

3. i would rip somebody's arm off and beat them with it or swallow my pride to lick a goat's hind end to protect my loved ones if there where no other choice. on the other hand; i find that 'no other choice' is most often a self fulfilling scenario.

4. i would never leave somebody to die or suffer for my own sake, even if it meant i would probably not survive otherwise. where there's a will, there's often enough a way and nobody should die or suffer alone when there's an able person to give aid or comfort. can't say i'd expect others to agree; it's just what i believe.

[edit: also, holy thread necromancy batman...]

[trax]

Number one, pack a gun...all the rest, what the meat sprocket dude said.

[Daren]

Question #4.

Let's change the scenario from everest to a society collapse. Now you are not trying to get to safety because no where is safe. You are just trying to survive.
Your injured buddy might not die for hours or days but still is doomed. You have decided to leave him but do you leave him to die or do you kill him yourself before someone / thing gets to him before he dies?

I don't believe I could abandon him to a worse than death fate but this is fantasy. I might collapse under pressure but then I might have grown a pair and do what needs doing.

[FVR]

If he's my buddy, he ain't getting left behind. Period.

I don't buy into "theres no hope."

I couldn't kill my buddy, I'll just carry his arse. If he by chance dies while in my care or on my back, at least he will cross over knowing that FVR, does not leave his buddies behind.

Hey, but I don't count cause a freak'n MARINE!

On your face, give me 20!

[canid]

i had a dream a few years back where an injured friend asked me to kill him [by decapitation]. i suddenly had a sword in my hand. it proved to be more trouble than i expected and took more than one try, all the while he was b*tching at me that i was doing it all wrong.

[nell67]

If he's my buddy, he ain't getting left behind. Period.

I don't buy into "theres no hope."

I couldn't kill my buddy, I'll just carry his arse. If he by chance dies while in my care or on my back, at least he will cross over knowing that FVR, does not leave his buddies behind.

Hey, but I don't count cause a freak'n MARINE!

On your face, give me 20!

FVR,I agree with you 100%

[Ole WV Coot]

This sounds very familiar and it took awhile to remember. I am positive every question was on my last job application. I even grew rather fond of the smell of tear gas in the morning.

[Catfish]

Interesting thread.

1) Do you feel your bug out/in kit should contain anti personnell equipment (rifles, handguns, pepper spray, tank, bazooka )

I don't own a tank or a bazooka, and wouldn't know how to operate them if I did. However, I'm a firm believer that anything which 'might' be useful is a valuable addition to the bug out/in kit, (which is why I lean towards the bug in option) so yes to the other 3.

2) If in a group would you be able to follow orders from someone with more experience even if you personally don't like them.

Here's an "it depends". It depends on why I don't like them. Do I disagree with their politics, or their views on the Denver Broncos, do they drink lite beer, or are they merely annoying in some other way? Or do I dislike them because they're hot-tempered or irrational, dishonest, prejudiced or careless? In other words, do I dislike them because they have personality traits that could be dangerous to me or others in the group? Experience is invaluable, but it doesn't in and of itself, a good leader make.

3) To what lengths would you go to keep you and/or your family safe and healthy?

If we're in a true SHTF scenario then the the laws of the land don't apply. I'll feel no guilt about lying or stealing to get my family through. I'll never purposely hurt anyone unless they're a threat to me or mine, but otherwise, the gloves come off. Hey, I've kept library books out past the due date - I've already lived outside the law.

4) Last question, if you had an injured companion would you leave them to die if were the only way you could survive?

I would never leave anyone to die. If they were absolutely, positively going to croak, and if they were in great pain, I'd consider putting a bullet behind their ear to make things easier for them. If getting them to safety was an option, even if an unrealistic one, then I'd do whatever I could. Otherwise, I'd make myself comfortable and tell them stories until it was over. If that means I die too then ah well, I'll (probably) die eventually anyway.

[Rick]

(taking notes) Catfish has kept library books past the due date.

I don't think we need your kind of radical around these parts, Catfish. We're civilized folks.

[wildWoman]

#1 - don't have a bug out/in bag but I carry bear spray in the summer. We generally don't have weirdos in the woods. But there's a few people in town I might be tempted to spray.
#2 - probably not if I find them really annoying. I don't do groups anyway, I'm a crusty loner.
#3 - depends. Made myself unpopular already amongst the miners because I find clean drinking water preferable to getting Joe Blow's new truck financed.
#4 - no. I'd still like to be able to look at myself in the mirror without shame after.

[Catfish]

(taking notes) Catfish has kept library books past the due date.

I don't think we need your kind of radical around these parts, Catfish. We're civilized folks.

Aww man, did I put that stuff about the library books in my post? When will I ever learn.

[Assassin Pilot]

1) A handgun at most. I'm usually not big on carrying guns around when I don't need to (the cops can take away my green card for stuff like that)

2) Yeah, as long as they weren't being an a**hole or anything.

3) To keep them alive, I would easily kill someone. To keep them just healthy, I wouldn't do anything too illegal besides steal. To keep them safe, I would stay up all night w/ a shotgun in my lap

4) If it was a good friend or family member, I would try to carry them out with me, unless I know they will be able to live long enough for me to get proper support. If I knew that absolutely I were to die as well if I tried that, I would run. If it would be any old Joe who I barely know, I would save my own skin the best I could.