The First Line Course: An Introduction

Some salient points from Brushbeater, as always. Going to replace my sharpening stone with a diamond plate myself.

Survival means different things to different people. To some, it’s a series of preparations for some future cataclysmic event; others, a realization of the unsustainability of many of today’s practices or a return to the simpler, more natural ways of life. In that vein, survival includes primitive living skills and bushcrafting. All of these view points are ok and ones that I agree with when it comes to more primitive, sustainable living. A military definition of survival is simpler; boiling our needs down, actual survival means one thing- staying alive to be recovered. For the vast majority out there, meeting any and all of these needs begins and ends with buying a bunch of stuff and putting it in a bag, rarely if ever testing the gear itself or most importantly, themselves. Effective training gives us a different perspective; what we carry on our bodies, our first line gear, should…