Posted: 7/26/2009 5:48:58 AM EDT
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Deployment Survival Kit:
Now, before you offer too many suggestions (which I still encourage), understand that this is a very compact 48-72 hour E&E kit. It will be integrated with my EDC including my IOTV which will have a full sized IFAK and other items which I will list. The sole purpose of this kit is to keep me functioning until rescue…even the compact fishing kit is a far stretch as I don’t expect to E&E more than 48-72 hours before I’m either picked up or captured. Given the AO, water is my primary concern. I do have a Camelback and water bottles/canteens in my assault pack, but this compact E&E kit will at least give me the possibility to carry and purify 6 quarts of water…again, about 2-3 days. My EDC consists of: M9/M4 Rigger’s Belt with: Mad Dog PATAK fixed blade (soon to be a Dumpster Mutt) Leatherman Multi-tool Novatac 120 Mil LED light Small PSK/IFAK (nothing too big, fits in the lower left leg pocket) Extra two-mag M9 pouch Marathon GSAR watch Cammenga Tritium wrist compass ACH or Boonie hat (with two large brass safety pins) ID Card/cash holder Oakley Half-Jacket Ballistic glasses – polarized lenses Gloves (SWMS/Camelback – Vent Gloves) Emerson CQC-8 folder Spyderco Military folder 100mph/duct tape ID Tags 2x550-cord – 6 foot/braided Lighter Chapstick (Burt’s Bees – combat tested and approved) Extra, Clear Oakley Half-Jacket lenses Small PSK Kit In the Shirt: 2xMechanical Pencils Fisher Pen, black Grease Pen, black Gum Small Notebook Casualty feeder card IR Flag IOTV (with plates): Camelback 3-Liter M9 Magazines (3) M4 Magazines (6) Map (area dependent) Lensatic Tritium Compass Emergency Strobe Seat Belt Cutter SAK – Outrider (mini fire steel/Sliver Grippers) Tactical LED (Gladius with LED upgrade) Compact weapons cleaning kit Sun Screen (small tin) Hand Sanitizer Compact binoculars Small notebook Mechanical Pencils Pens Grease pens Lens cleaner 550 cord (about 30 feet) IFAK (issued blow out kit) Gloves Carabiners Aqua Mira personal water filter with 1qt Platypus bottle Cravat Recon Warp Well given all the crap above when outside the wire, I was trying to get a nice compact PSK together and assembled this: Built around the ICE Tactical, Belt Mounted IFAK pouch (which is removable if needed): http://www.icetactical.com/pouch-ifak-detach.html Here it is with a SAK Outrider for size comparison: 
1 Liter Aqua Pouch 6-feet 550-cord 4xsmall cord pieces (3 feet each) 12 feet snare/utility wire Role of dental Floss Needles Whistle 4 x large brass safety pins P38 can opener Small Emergency Fishing Kit: http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/Food%20Collection%20Products%20from%20Survival%20Resources.htm Fresnel lens 6 x Katadyn Micropur water purification tablets Pencil (plastic cap and rolled in duct tape) 2 x note cards (water proof) 100mph/duct tape role Tea light candle Mini Bic lighter Fire Steel Tinder (6 x Quick light) Mini signal mirror (TOPS) 9V battery IR compact emergency strobe (uses the 9V battery) DMT compact sharpener Gerber LST folding knife Mini compass Mini LED Small 10” section of shock-cord and cord-locks Small folding hacksaw blade Just noticed my mini Bic Lighter and role of dental floss were still in the pouch, but they’re there. Can't remember, but somebody here posted their small kit based on the same ICE FAK pouch...I "borrowed" his idea and will give credit where it's due... ROCK6 |
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If you get shot, someone's gonna think that little bag with the red handle is a blowout kit. Yeah that was a concern, but my standard IFAK is marked and right in the front. I can fold the red handle up underneath the flap so it doens't show at all. ROCK6 |
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i may be off base here, but chances are you will be operating in urban areas. even thought the troops aren't "stationed" there, they are still running patrols and such in them. I would take a hard look at how practical some of these things are, and trade the weight for more rounds. You will more than likely be doing mobile operations within vehicles, so also take a look at how much room this "expands" around- how hard will the ingress and egress be with all that extra gear strapped around you? I guess if worse comes to worse you could wear it all to test it out and then strip down what you don't need later.
As for items to add- hard candy and stripped MREs/MRE Items. or maybe one of those lifeboat ration bars. A military issue Casuality Blanket (It's like a space blanket, but better constructed) I also highly recommend reading Bravo Two Zero by Andy Mcnabb (Most soldiers already have), Soldier Five by Mike Coburn (Another account of the same mission from a member of the patrol), and most importantly on this subject, The One That Got Away by Chris Ryan (The only B20 Member to E &E to safety) Again, I apologize if I am offbase, I am just speaking from experience (3 Tours as an 11B). Unless you are in an "elite" unit or doing deep recon, you probably won't be in a position that this could ever concievably happen. That being said, I carried a mini-pocket kit. (Map,Compass, Water Tabs, Stripped MRE) this was enough to get me to the nearest American installation. This was going off the theory that I somehow did something stupid and got myself seperated. all of this was in addition to my basic carry stuff (I carried 8 5.56 mags and 4 m9 mags in my chest rig, along with MS-2000 Strobe and IFAK. More extra mags were elsewhere on my person, camelbak, and on longer dismount patrols, a BOB with the standard stuff and more mags and my CLS bag.) This all of this is in addition to the standard army equipment (pen,pencil, paper, all of that nonsense) I just realized that I just made the HUGE assumption that your are heading to to Iraq. Please disregard as you see fit /nonsense |
| if water will be your main problem i would add 6 more treatment tabs and another aqua-pouch. that way you can treat 2 pouches at the same time.fill your bottles then carry 2 more liters with you and they can be treated while your on the move. also, i would braid the rest of the 550 cord so it could be removed from the pouch and carried on the outside of the pouch. other than that everything looks good. |
| I carried a signal mirror when I was in Iraq. I never used it there, but did in training. Once at 29 palms, when we were waiting for helos, I was screwing around with it, when the pilots called on the radio asking if I had a mirror. They saw it before I heard or saw them. |
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If you get shot, someone's gonna think that little bag with the red handle is a blowout kit. Yeah that was a concern, but my standard IFAK is marked and right in the front. I can fold the red handle up underneath the flap so it doens't show at all. ROCK6 Or just wrap it up in different color tape. You may want to get an admin pouch for notepads, pens, and a Firefly IR strobe marker or other distress marker (see below) http://www.tacticalassaultgearstore.com/ProductImages/2008_images/300_adminflashlight.jpg Also if you can hunt down a no-shit IR strobe (recommend ACR Electronics personal IR strobe) and slap it on your ACH (if your unit allows) or get a MOLLE pouch and slip it on your vest somewhere. Distress Marker Light http://www.acrelectronics.com/ms2000m/ms2000m.jpg Always good to have are map cases, water tight, and if you can get ahold of the E&E maps that we still make those are great roofs, emergency blankets, water collector, and good information on the local (non-human) wildlife. |
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Thanks for the feedback guys. Yeah, this trip is to Afghanistan and my mission will mostly be out visiting troops in several different outposts; most traveling is done via helo. Refining the deployment PSK will be a little project...again, this is just a small layer built around my RAID pack and IOTV. Wheels up shortly, so I'll be out of the net for a few days.
ROCK6 |
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Quoted:
I carried a signal mirror when I was in Iraq. I never used it there, but did in training. Once at 29 palms, when we were waiting for helos, I was screwing around with it, when the pilots called on the radio asking if I had a mirror. They saw it before I heard or saw them. If it's an urban area, mirrors are shitty, pilots get all sorts of reflections from car winshields and side mirrors. Take a ride on a helicopter for a few hours over a city and you'll see what I mean. I'd pack a mirror if I was hanging out in the boonies, where a mirror would stick out. You can't beat a pair of smokes for day/active and an aviator signal panel for day/passive use. I like red and violet best, you can't mistake them easily for trash fires. Night/active is good with a strobe, same with an IR chemlight swung on a piece of 550. Just sayin' |
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One glaring absence: CASH. Money. US dollars - one of the best survival tools in foreign countries out there; more useful in Iraq than Afghanistan, but still something you don't want to be without. Locals can help, whether via duress, bribe, or persuasion, they can often help your situation. Whether you carjack a local or pay for a ride is up to you, but the result could be the same. And I'm not talking about a $20 bill here - carry a few hundred. It should be a part of your daily carry over there.
IR strobe. If you get separated and there is SAR out looking for you, the IR strobe will be worth its weight in gold. More water purification tabs wouldn't hurt either, you will go through water fast in mountains, hills, and deserts - hot or cold. You could probably lose about half of what you've got there and not worry about it. You are looking to reunite with your army, remember that. You're just trying to get "home". Plan accordingly. |
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Ah, somehow didn't notice that... Still, cash is a must and more water purification tabs wouldn't hurt. And I still think alot of that stuff could go considering the AO. Saw, knife (how many do you need? He's already got several), whistle (probably not a good idea since there will presumably be BGs in the area as well), candle, P38 can opener, snare, knife sharpener - this is all stuff you might want in a survival kit stateside or somewhere else, but is just dead weight in Afghanistan. The goal is to get reunited with your army, not build a shelter, catch small animals for food, opened canned food, etc. A kit there is more focused on E&E than the traditional survival kit you'd use CONUS.
You might want to include some smoke for signaling if you're not carrying it on your 2nd line. Finding ways to get a helicopter's attention will be far more important than having tools to build a shelter. |
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Okay, i'll toss a stab at it for ya, done two tours in Iraq, so i may have opinions that are a bit off. Anyhoo. the guy who said cash is absolutely right, carry 200 bucks in 20s and smaller bills, and have it in 50 dollar packets that you can take out and use one at a time, if you pull out a wad, and you're by yourself you may get killed for the money. IR strobes are awesome, however they piss off helo pilots if left on when they're closing on you at night, so you should have IR chemlights or IR reflective tape/panel to lay in an LZ. the IR strobes almost blind pilots close up, and your rescue bird crashing would suck. I'd put more emphasis on small, compact, lightweight food, like candy or clif bars over some of the gear, just because your best bet is to lay up somewhere during the day to conserve water and not draw attention, so you wont be cooking or heating meals w/ fire or fishing. You can go 72 hours w/ no food, so a few supplements should keep you alive till rescue. If you get lost, doing a quick E and E and then holing up is the best bet, dont try to trek to a base unless you KNOW where it is and how close and over what terrain.
My plans in Iraq for an E & E were ditch the armor, and roll out w/ some food, and aquatabs in my satchel charge bag and rent/hijack a car to get back to base, which doesnt really apply in a-stan as much as it does in an urban area. YMMV |
| Something's been bugging me all day about this and I just realized what it was - you need a signal panel as well. A VS-17 or something similar is really a must - especially useful if you don't want to bust some smoke (due to BGs close by) but want to get a helo's attention. If not a VS-17 just about any similar colored panel will do for daytime ops, and it'll tuck away nicely in the bottom or hydro pocket of most packs. Could be a lifesaver. |
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Where did you get that mini hacksaw? I like the idea of some sort of mini pack to keep on the back of the belt, if for some reason I lost my pack. Looks like a Survival Resources Pocket Survival Saw. |