Posted: 1/29/2012 6:35:01 PM EDT
|
1st, I am not affiliated with these guys in any way shape or form. In fact I was very suspicious of the whole thing. But it is 30$ so I figured, if it is a scam, I am not really losing very much. So I threw down the money to get a subscription to SHTFSchool.com.
I read Selco's content over at the survalistforums.com and thought it was interesting, but I took it with a grain of salt, like everything else I read on the internet. Now I am converted and I think this was money well spent. So far the content is very good, far better than I expected. About 8 hours of audio, and 3 videos with promises for future videos soon. For $30 it is not bad. The best way to think of it is an 8 hour audio book\QA session from someone who lived through SHTF for a year. This kind of content would be very useful for the guys that have SHTFantasy's and think they get to live out their Rambo dreams in a long term SHTF situation, or for people who may be on the fence on preparing. I have found it useful and it has made me re-prioritize what I need and what I dont need. shtfschool.com |
|
I must concur. After reading the stuff from the forum. I didnt have much doubt about his experience. Having known many guys who had gone into the former Yugoslavia in the first deployments. His stories matched up with what they had witnessed and heard while they were there. I have changed some of my preps after hearing him speak of the medical and bartering aspects of his experience. One of my favorite lines from his posts is that "you can shoot and eat a pigeon, but you cant shoot hand sanitizer". I just hope that they will document the audio interviews in a printed format. |
|
I dont see it for $19.95.
I work with a Bosnian family that left there in 1999. . They talk about a lot of the stuff he talks about, going out at night and searching for the mre crates that our planes would drop. people fighting over them. I would like to learn more from them. |
|
Quoted: I dont see it for $19.95. I work with a Bosnian family that left there in 1999. . They talk about a lot of the stuff he talks about, going out at night and searching for the mre crates that our planes would drop. people fighting over them. I would like to learn more from them. If you sign up for the email updates on the right side of the page they will offer it to your for $20 |
|
Quoted:
I read that awhile ago and it was interesting. Not sure how relevant a civil war situation where the survivors live off of MREs that fall out of the sky is for anyone in the US. I wouldn't focus on the MRE's falling from the sky, but rather what worked and how people behaved towards one another in a time of crisis. |
| I just thought when reading it sometimes that "what worked" only worked because food fell from the sky. Having a continuous source of food seems like it would dramatically change behavior particularly among urban groups like he seemed to be a part of. Some violent social break down like that in the US and the food runs out in a week urban survival might look a lot different from what he teaches. |
|
He stated in the original article that the Air force would drop every 10 days or so and that they wouldn't always get any either because it was to hard to get to the DZ or to dangerous at the DZ. I mean if you think of having to carry MRE's any distance how many could 2 or 3 guys carry in those conditions. In that time US air force had mission to drop food from airplanes from high altitudes as a part of the mission to help surrounded cities(not only mine) there was not any kind of schedule, or right place to wait for them, it was matter of luck. I ll try to describe one waiting for MRE (it was not only MRE, but we called it, hunt for MRE ) At first real dark we took rifle (if you had it) or any kind of weapon, and go out, usually 3-4 men, never alone. Some 2-3 miles from my house there was hill, it used to be dense wood, but soon it was naked because need for firewood, so imagine bunch of people climbing on that hill, complete darkness, maybe 300-500 people every night, and waiting for the distant sound of airplane, it was matter of luck, i guess because they dropped that things from high altitude they just never know where they gonna go. Funny thing was that few miles across that hill was another hill, on that another hill was enemy army, they usually shoot every half hour on our hill with PAT (anti aircraft cannon) in dark, without aiming, because they knew we are there. They could not see us, but i guess they did not need to see us, every time they hit someone. On the other side, most of the folks were armed, we fight regularly between us on that hill, for better position behind some rock, or to get some pallets with parachute. It was regularly to see guy climbing with his buddies on pallets full of flour , loading his rifle with statement ” OK this is mine” If you and your friends had more fire power, you tried to convince him somehow  So if you had luck and plains dropped something useful right on that hill, you still mostly needed to fight for that. I still remember everything from that MRE s , food, matches, sauces, salt, cookies… Many many years later, after peace came, when i had MRE s again in hands, i just felt strange, i wanted to cry and laugh in same time. Other important thing was with that airplanes missions, we just felt that we are not forgotten, that somewhere somebody thinks about us, sometimes that was more important than food. Mre s and cans were luxuries, we acquired cans mostly trough trade. Rice was popular to had, i ques one reason was because it easy to prepare it. Who owned some kind of garden was in advance, i remember green salads mostly from gardens, to protect that gardens was another problem, but that is theme for another post i quess. |
|
I spent pretty much all of 98 in Bosnia, most of the time in the most remote camp the US had. The air dropped MRE had long since stopped, that only happened in,the very early days and after that we handed out almost zero food.
Even in 98 things like potable water, medical supplies, hygine supplies...heck even tooth brushes were very, very scarce and hard/expensive to come by. I saw old men/women walk for miles every day carying dirty 5 gallon buckets for fresh water, people farming the front/back yards of a blown up shamble of a former house that didnt have doors or windows and empty soup cans filled with soil used for "window sill" garden space. Horses and cows "hobbled" with a rope tied between opposing front and rear legs (to keep them from running off) living in ground floors of multi story homes...the former houses now mostly blown up had the ground floor turned into "barn" space. Folks lined up for over a click at gas stations on the rumor of a fresh gas resupply. Local money was long since worthless, some other currency was almost always used, when it could be agreed upon and even then "change" made might be in a different currency. Give a kid an inflated soccer ball and you made his year as well as making him a local neighborhood hero. I could go on and on but it wouldnt matter I think. Lesson is that long after open hostilities ceased and "order" was restored, most people lived a pre industrial revolution life for years to come. And that was with NATO oversight/peace keeping. People, for the most part, lost interest in killing each other...sure talk was cheap but at the end of the day they really just wanted to eat and be safe. Take that as you will. |
|
Quoted: I spent pretty much all of 98 in Bosnia, most of the time in the most remote camp the US had. The air dropped MRE had long since stopped, that only happened in,the very early days and after that we handed out almost zero food. Even in 98 things like potable water, medical supplies, hygine supplies...heck even tooth brushes were very, very scarce and hard/expensive to come by. I saw old men/women walk for miles every day carying dirty 5 gallon buckets for fresh water, people farming the front/back yards of a blown up shamble of a former house that didnt have doors or windows and empty soup cans filled with soil used for "window sill" garden space. Horses and cows "hobbled" with a rope tied between opposing front and rear legs (to keep them from running off) living in ground floors of multi story homes...the former houses now mostly blown up had the ground floor turned into "barn" space. Folks lined up for over a click at gas stations on the rumor of a fresh gas resupply. Local money was long since worthless, some other currency was almost always used, when it could be agreed upon and even then "change" made might be in a different currency. Give a kid an inflated soccer ball and you made his year as well as making him a local neighborhood hero. I could go on and on but it wouldnt matter I think. Lesson is that long after open hostilities ceased and "order" was restored, most people lived a pre industrial revolution life for years to come. And that was with NATO oversight/peace keeping. People, for the most part, lost interest in killing each other...sure talk was cheap but at the end of the day they really just wanted to eat and be safe. Take that as you will. The first part of his last section "After SHTF" started posting today. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
I spent pretty much all of 98 in Bosnia, most of the time in the most remote camp the US had. The air dropped MRE had long since stopped, that only happened in,the very early days and after that we handed out almost zero food. Even in 98 things like potable water, medical supplies, hygine supplies...heck even tooth brushes were very, very scarce and hard/expensive to come by. I saw old men/women walk for miles every day carying dirty 5 gallon buckets for fresh water, people farming the front/back yards of a blown up shamble of a former house that didnt have doors or windows and empty soup cans filled with soil used for "window sill" garden space. Horses and cows "hobbled" with a rope tied between opposing front and rear legs (to keep them from running off) living in ground floors of multi story homes...the former houses now mostly blown up had the ground floor turned into "barn" space. Folks lined up for over a click at gas stations on the rumor of a fresh gas resupply. Local money was long since worthless, some other currency was almost always used, when it could be agreed upon and even then "change" made might be in a different currency. Give a kid an inflated soccer ball and you made his year as well as making him a local neighborhood hero. I could go on and on but it wouldnt matter I think. Lesson is that long after open hostilities ceased and "order" was restored, most people lived a pre industrial revolution life for years to come. And that was with NATO oversight/peace keeping. People, for the most part, lost interest in killing each other...sure talk was cheap but at the end of the day they really just wanted to eat and be safe. Take that as you will. The first part of his last section "After SHTF" started posting today. I need to go download those now too. I have only had a chance to listen to about 25% of them so far. |
|
Quoted:
I just thought when reading it sometimes that "what worked" only worked because food fell from the sky. Having a continuous source of food seems like it would dramatically change behavior particularly among urban groups like he seemed to be a part of. Some violent social break down like that in the US and the food runs out in a week urban survival might look a lot different from what he teaches. Yes, but I'm sure that the dynamics would be highly dependent on the resident population and the locale. Nobody would resupply the US in a similar situation. Nobody. In a weird sort of way, living under communism sort of helped prepare these people for such an event. They were used to scarcity of items before, probably didnt lead extravagant lifestyles, and were probably fairly resourceful on a day to day basis. If a catastophe happened here in the US, many urban envirnoments would be far worse. |