The Bug Out Bag Series Part 1- Theory

 Part I- Bug out Bag Theory

What Is a Bug Out Bag?

  

If you could grab one thing on your way out of the house, knowing you may not be able to come back for anything else, what would that be?

    Imagine that tonight you wake up to the fire alarm blaring, and the smell of smoke on the air. You have time to get you and your family out (because you practice this, right?), but what now? Hopefully you are lucky enough to have some sort of support network to fall back on until life gets back to normal, but leaving home with nothing but the clothes on your back (at least that, hopefully) will instantly put you in a “survival” situation. Think about a different scenario. What if its not a fire that forces you out of your home? It could be a chemical spill, a weather emergency, or civil unrest. Any of these things could force you out of your home… possibly forever. It would be a scary thing to face unprepared. Having a Bug Out Bag can help you in any of these situations. 

Military style 72 hour bag

Read on after the break, and we will talk a bit about what the Bug Out Bag is, and what it is not.

    The term "bug out" is military in origin, but the meaning is simple for anyone to understand. If you are "bugging out," you are leaving in a hurry, most likely because staying will mean imminent danger to yourself. You don't have time to pack up belongings or decide what is important. You need to be gone, NOW.

    The bug out bag is one of the base levels of individual preparations. It may be referred to as a “go bag,” or “get out of Dodge bag,” but the meaning is the same. It is a bag that, should everything go sideways on you quickly, will help give you a chance at surviving, or even just being more comfortable in a less serious situation. It can be as simple as a large duffel bag with three days worth of water, nonperishable foods, light sources and a weather radio (what we call a FEMA bag) to help you be more self reliant and safe during and after a disaster. Or, the bug out bag can be built into something to help you move on foot from wherever you are to somewhere safe, such as your bug out location. It can be filled up with supplies from the dollar store, or from high dollar outdoor gear companies. It is up to you.

 The bug out bag must accomplish a few simple things.

• It must be portable. 100 pounds of good gear is worthless if you cannot carry it.
• It should meet base needs. Water, Shelter, Food. Remember what YOU need in YOUR environment may be very different than someone else on the internet.
• It must help sustain you for at least 72 hours. There are many reasons for this. The main reason I like it, is that no matter what you aren't a drain on local emergency response resources in the first three days which, in a disaster, is a very critical time.
• It must be built around your specific needs. If you wear glasses, your bag needs to have a spare set. If you have children, they need their own bags, or your bag must also meet their needs. If any of your family is on chronic medication, you need to have extras in that bag.
• It must be one layer to your preparedness plan, not the ENTIRE plan.

What a Bug out Bag isn't.

    Many people hear the term Bug Out Bag, and envision a man walking through the post apocalyptic wasteland with his backpack, which has everything he needs inside to live through whatever situation he may encounter. These people put a bag together, and think they are now prepared, and that when the time comes, they will head off to the woods and live out of this bag. That is a mistake. This is the bag to get you from an unsafe location to a safer one as smoothly as possible... It isn't going to make you a hero in an action film.

    Check Back-

    This is the start of a series about Bug Out Bags.We will talk about what you may want to think of packing, what you should pack it in, and why. As always, feel free to leave comments.

-Kyle

Dragoon Solutions

22APR2013

      Note: There are probably hundreds of extremely specific lists on the internet as to what you may need in a bug out bag. There are also quite a few prebuilt “72 hour survival kits” for sale online. The problem with those bags and lists is that someone else put them together. Their situation will never be exactly the same as yours. The only way to ensure your kit is going to work is by selecting components that match your mission and your environment. If you have questions specific to your environment or needs, feel free to contact us at Dragoon Solutions