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  1. #5831
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Killing, Dying, and Death: “A Combat Mindset and Acceptance of the Horrors of War”

    M.H.
    July 30th, 2014
    Survival Blog
    Comments (201)
    Read by 17,135 people

    This informative article has been contributed by James Rawles’ widely popular Survival Blog. If you haven’t already, we urge readers to check out James Rawles’ books on preparedness and survival, including the best selling Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse and the essential guidebook How To Survive The End of the World As We Know It.

    Killing, Dying, and Death – Part I, by M.H.

    This article will be on something that is rarely talked about but nevertheless is a fact of life and certainly a major fact in a TEOTWAWKI type situation. It’s the combat mindset of killing, dying, and death. This includes getting a handle on killing bad people; you dying; your wife, husband, or kids dying; and the fear of death. Most importantly, it also includes the fear of killing. It will hopefully shatter all the theories and misconceptions people have from Hollywood, or from “experts” who have never killed or risked being killed. While not particularly thought of as a skill set by most, without a combat mindset and acceptance of the horrors of war, all of the other skills will render themselves useless the moment one is confronted with a horrific event, such as watching one’s spouse get shot in the head.
    Everyone is an expert these days. A young teenager I had hired to help me build some fence and I were discussing ballistics and he was arguing for this caliber and that, based on what he had been told by others. I asked him how many of those people had killed people before. He stated that they were all in the military; I repeated my question, to which the answer was “I don’t know”. Remember folks, if your veteran buddy was a grunt, it does not necessarily mean he EVER saw any action, let alone was in close combat.
    I will use actual events I have experienced to demonstrate the reality of some of the points I want you to grasp. Are the examples I use the standard all the time? Of course not, but it should make you think!

    Death and Dying.
    Most people are scared of dying. From young to old, we fear death or the thought of its occurrence in one way or another. Some family of mine never want to talk about what will happen when they die, nor choose to make a will, thereby they are leaving a mess for their children, because they won’t handle this “stressful” topic. My mother-in-law asked me one day about what she should do if somebody came into her house. I told her my opinion. She decided it best to just go out the back door. Then I asked, “What if my kids are spending the night in the other bedroom?” Oh boy, it’s no longer a simple option. Well, that resulted in her ending the conversation with “I don’t want to think about it”. I fear getting burned to death. That has just got to stink. I don’t fear other common forms of death, nor the thought of dying. I do fear what could happen to my family after my death, which was a variable I did not have while in the military. That variable is scary to think about, since a social collapse could result in very unfriendly conditions for my wife and two kiddos after my demise. However, I cannot let that fear hold me back, or it will consume me. I accept that I will die and so will my family. Personally, I believe that if I endure till the end (as stated repeatedly by Jesus) in the way of righteousness, I will go to heaven after death. Regardless of faith or lack thereof, accept the fact of death and focus on making sure it is not in vain.
    Having seen charcoaled bodies and bloated bodies laying out in the sun, having shot a man in the head and watched the top of his skull disappear and his brains spill all over the floor, having walked through pools of blood, having seen dead men and women (thankfully no children) laying in the streets of Fallujah, I will tell you it is not a glorious sight as portrayed in the movies. Is it something I sit at home and cry over or even dwell over? No. Though, having seen it and knowing the ignorance of the masses regarding the horrors of war or whatever you may call it, I want you the reader– the man, woman, or teen reading this– to recognize and accept that there will be horror, dead bodies in the streets, mobs that will tear people to pieces, bombs dropping on YOUR house, blowing your little girl to pieces. Oh, no? You say, “I have a bunker and my kids will be safe.” They may; they may not. If not, and your fantasy prepper world goes to hell in a hand basket because you did not have time to get to your bunker, and you watch your child bleed out, you may potentially render yourself utterly useless to the rest of your family, since you’re likely to be so emotionally distraught that you cannot even think, while the post-bombing team is lining up at your door to clean up the survivors. Accept it now. It will not be easy, nor pleasant to think about, but I beg of you not to deny reality and risk more losses by your denial.

    Killing.
    It seems that some folks have a huge issue with killing people. If you are truly convicted in your mind that you will not kill anyone for whatever reason, it does save you the cost and trouble of weapons. For those who don’t have a specific conviction, remember that life is not to be taken lightly. It is one man fighting for his cause against another fighting for his, however good or evil those causes may be. Yet, if you know in your heart that your cause is just and right, the man who comes against you should not be thought of more than the time it takes to eliminate him. Why? Because you are the good guy, and he is the evil guy. If you want to think about the decisions he made in life that resulted in him being a bad guy, give it a few days, or until hostilities are over before you lend yourself to doubt.
    Easy enough you say? No problem killing all the bad guys that come along? You are just going to pretend they are all zombies and never bat an eye. Fair enough, but let’s take it a few steps further: Let’s pretend we are in Nazi-controlled Holland at the moment; the Nazi party has been established and is recruiting young men and women into the ranks in what starts out as harmless roles. A year later these young people are committing atrocities. Your nephew had joined the Nazi party. You know he has knowledge of your family’s beliefs, which will likely result in your death, as well as the deaths of your wife and two other children and the eight Jews you have hiding on your farm. Would you kill your nephew to protect the other lives? What if we replace your nephew with your son? Killing bad guys just got real in your mind, I hope. I’m not going to tell you what I would do, or what you should do, other than that you should think about it, because that type of situation has happened many times in the last 100 years and will happen again someday. Tribes are formed, people band together for both good and evil, and sometimes people you know and care about may join up with the evil.

    Getting killed
    Everybody is a tough guy while standing around their buddies. Few are tough when their buddies have been killed or the odds are not in their favor anymore. While a grunt in the “Battle of Fallujah”, I saw this repeatedly. Another young Marine was with me on the roof of a mosque one night posting security, and he said “I just want to go home; I am scared.” Not without reason, mind you, the closest the average American has gotten to that level of chaos is fireworks on the 4th of July. Another Marine crapped his pants. Yet, another crawled under a Humvee rather than use his machine gun for suppressive fire. One of our E-4s, a big ‘roided up dude, kicked in a door for me one time; I ran into the dark room with my gun light on to find a man hiding in the far corner with his AK still pointing at the ground. Mine was up and ready, and therefore he lost his life instead of me. After about six rounds rapidly sent into his chest, two other guys started coming up from behind a bed. Do you think the big, tough, smack talking, steroid-using powerlifter came in to help me out? No, he did not. The same Marine Corporal was very tough and aggressive when there was 10 of us shooting at one unlucky insurgent, who had no chance off inflicting damage on him. Another time our squad was split into two teams, each team would take a side of the street, and we just went down the road clearing houses. Seeing my counterpart point man, SS, who has since passed from an IED, getting ready to go into a courtyard, I waited to make sure they got in “okay” before going into my house. SS went through the door, followed by two other Marines, when SS started shooting. I cannot recall if I was heading across the road to assist the moment the shooting started or after I saw the first Marine run out, since it happened rather quickly, but I literally RAN INTO the second Marine as he ran out of the courtyard. SS was fine, even though he was quite irate that the two left him. Also, I was the only one who ran into the courtyard out of the entire squad. I hope I have portrayed the scenario well enough to help the reader grasp what happened. Two trained Marines ran out of a courtyard leaving one of their own! One Marine out of what I recall to be about 10 at the time took immediate action! Those two cowards sure told a lot of good stories when they got stateside though. ( I will come back to this at the end of this article for a side note to the main theme). These are young men who went through a rather specific indoctrination in boot camp, two months of infantry-specific training, followed by unit training before a deployment, complete with live fire, sim rounds, et cetera. So, if you think that just because you went to a Gunsite class and read a few books that you are good to go, you may want to take things a step further. One senior Marine was especially motivating while doing MOUT training with sim rounds on an old Air Force base. I thought that for sure this guy is going to be good to go to war with! The moment we went into Fallujah that all changed. He was a coward, to put it bluntly. What were these Marines lacking? In my opinion, acceptance of death and mental training.
    The moral of the story is well summarized in the quote commonly attributed to Heraclitus: “Out of every hundred men, ten shouldn’t be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

    Part two of this article will discuss the training to make yourself the fighter!
    This informative article has been contributed by James Rawles’ widely popular Survival Blog. If you haven’t already, we urge readers to check out James Rawles’ books on preparedness and survival, including the best selling Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse and the essential guidebook How To Survive The End of the World As We Know It.

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  2. #5832
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    TEST DATA! PowerPot and Cup Charger - Thermoelectric Generator, USB fire powerd TEG face off.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8-qRfw-pc
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  5. #5835
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  6. #5836
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    Here’s How To Prepare For The On-Your-Own Experience Most Of Us Will Have

    July 7, 2014 by Frank Bates

    THINKSTOCK

    Ever since I started working my first full-time job, there’s something I’ve been looking forward to: retirement.
    It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed some of my jobs through the years, because I have. And it’s not that I haven’t enjoyed many of the people I’ve worked with, because I have. It’s just that my ultimate goal in working has always been to earn enough money so that I could retire comfortably and spend my retirement years doing things that I never had time to do before.
    But for many American adults, the concept of retirement is scary. Some of us don’t know when or if we’ll ever be able to retire, thanks to a struggling economy, an iffy Social Security situation and a new healthcare system that is being called an accident waiting to happen by many people. Those of us who are nearing retirement age or who have already retired are facing some serious challenges.
    We’re certainly not alone. According to a study conducted in 2013 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 57 percent of Americans say they have total household savings and investments of less than $25,000 (excluding their homes and benefit plans), 28 percent say they do not believe they will have enough money to retire comfortably when the time comes, 54 percent say they have not yet tried to calculate how much money they will need for retirement, and 39 percent of retirees (and more than 50 percent of workers) say they have a problem with their level of debt.
    Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take — right now — to help weather the storm and live as comfortably as possible during your retirement years. It’s a very basic, three-step plan:

    1. Earn as much money now as you can.
    2. Secure what you’ve saved.
    3. Cut your expenses.

    If you can successfully accomplish those three tasks, you’ll be in better retirement shape than most Americans.

    Earning Money


    The more money you have heading into retirement, the more likely that you will have enough to live on through your retirement years. Some suggestions for generating cash now are below.

    • Sell stuff: Hold a garage sale or put items up for sale on eBay or Craigslist that you no longer need, including books, clothes, furniture, records, glassware, china, etc.
    • Market your skills: Depending on what talents you have, you may be able to earn cash by making clothes or quilts, restoring furniture, fixing broken appliances, pet sitting, etc.
    • Turn hobbies into cash: Your favorite hobby may be creating things that other people are willing to purchase.
    • Rent your space: If you have room in a basement or garage, you might be able to rent that space to someone looking to store some of their items. Or perhaps you could rent out a room in your home to someone looking for a place to live.
    • Maximize Social Security: By waiting as long as possible to receive Social Security checks, you can increase the amount you will receive.
    • Tutor: Many parents have children who are struggling in one or more subjects in school. If you have expertise in a subject such as math, you could be a tutor to some of those children.
    • Baby-sit: Many parents would rather have a middle-aged or older person they trust babysit their kids than a teenager.
    • Pet-sit: People who love their pets are willing to pay to have them cared for in their homes while they are at work or on vacation.



    Securing Money


    It can be argued that the U.S. economy is improving, although very slowly. But some economists say that this “improvement” is an illusion and that the real evidence points to a coming recession far worse than what we experienced starting in 2008. Regardless of who is right, it’s important to secure your money for retirement.
    One Forbes magazine economist strongly recommends short-term Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) if you’re concerned about a financial meltdown in the U.S. It’s a safety net you should be ready to use if necessary.
    Otherwise, one formula for diversifying your portfolio now is 50 percent stocks and 50 percent bonds. A safe portfolio is 20 percent stocks and 80 percent bonds, while a risky portfolio is 80 percent stocks and 20 percent bonds. A more detailed recommendation is 30 percent U.S. stocks, 30 percent foreign stocks, 10 percent high-grade bonds, 10 percent high-yield bonds, 10 percent Inflation Adjusted Treasuries, 5 percent Precious Metals and 5 percent Real Estate Investment Trusts.
    It’s important to have a plan that factors in how much you’ve saved so far, how much more you’ll need, your spending habits, inflation, expenses that will go away with retirement and others that will arise, the cost of your health insurance, and all of your income sources, including Social Security.

    Cutting Expenses

    Limiting what you spend is just as important as earning money. Following are a few things you can do now to cut back on spending:

    • Downsize your home: If it’s just you and your spouse living in the house, a smaller house or condo might save you money each month.
    • Sell a car: If you have two cars and don’t drive as much anymore, selling one of them would give you cash now and save on maintenance, repairs, insurance and registration fees.
    • Travel smarter: Check into savings you can gain by traveling on certain days of the week. Look for deals.
    • Get senior discounts: Many restaurants, hotels and other businesses offer discounts for seniors, so take advantage of them.
    • Avoid impulse buys: These break budgets more effectively than just about anything else.



    –Frank Bates


    http://personalliberty.com/heres-pre...ience-us-will/
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  8. #5838
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    Homestead Survival

    http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/campfire-bacon-cook/

    Campfire Bacon – New Way to Cook It !

    Half of the fun of camping is being outdoors and doing things quite differently. Kids would get such a kick out of this, they love roasting anything on a stick.

    Nice Smoky Flavor is a bonus.
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  10. #5840
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    Homestead Survival

    http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/amaz...hpaste-recipe/

    Amazing Homemade Natural Toothpaste Recipe

    Get the cleanest feeling teeth of your life with this homemade toothpaste recipe…. your teeth will sparkle !
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