Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
We all agree that being prepared for an emergency is important. That's why preparing a "Bug Out Bag" that will allow you can grab and go can be a lifesaver. So I began posting information here over 6 years ago, and I'm updating that information regularly. I've also gone beyond the traditional products. Because creating "the bag" is just the first step to being prepared, not the final product. We now know we each need to have at least 30 days of essential supplies like food water and medicine. We must be our own first responders.
I cover topics like:
*Products I both use and trust.
*Often forgotten items you need to have in your bag.
*Psychological and Emotional planning for the family
*Planning for Kids and Seniors
*What to do when Plan "A" fails?
This includes a curated list of links from a variety of sources too. I'll be sharing and updating links to sites I buy from and products I use. So we are clear, I have no sponsors, so the opinions, both good and bad, are my own.
Join me as I begin the 7th year/6th season of productions in an ongoing series of podcasts for you and your family to use and to share with others as you build a community. Is this fun or what?
Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
Broken Wings: Planning for When You're Down
A critical moment of vulnerability awaits us all. That moment when we—the prepared ones, the designated responders—find ourselves suddenly incapacitated during an emergency. What happens when you can't be the hero in your own story?
As we celebrate our 99th episode and over 10,000 downloads, we're tackling this often-overlooked aspect of preparedness. Using the example of someone recovering from open-heart surgery who faces sternal precautions (unable to lift, push, or even dress normally), we explore how quickly an emergency can transform when the caregiver becomes the patient.
Have you considered what would happen if you broke your leg during an evacuation? Or if you received CPR, which often cracks the sternum? Would your group or family know how to apply a tourniquet correctly, treat shock, or manage severe bleeding without your guidance? These aren't comfortable questions, but they're essential ones.
Quality matters tremendously in emergency situations. As we emphasize, "You don't want a discount steak and you don't want a discount tourniquet." Your life could depend on proper training and equipment distributed among multiple capable hands. Beyond physical preparedness, we also discuss the psychological aspects of emergencies—managing hysteria, fear responses, and group dynamics when strangers might join your circle during a crisis.
Looking forward to our milestone 100th episode, we're shifting our focus toward long-term resilience and 30-day self-sufficiency as the new minimum standard. Join us as we continue exploring survival beyond the typical 72-hour bug out bag mentality. What questions do you have about preparing for your own vulnerability in crisis situations? Send them our way as we embark on this next chapter together.
Reminder: Keep your medications together in one location to collect them quickly, as well a container or bag to transport them.
Have a list of all meds on the Fridge. Good for you to grab. Very useful for emergency responders. Typed is best.
Class Information: Refuse to be a Victim Personal ProtectionTraining
For questions and comments, email me at: profprepper@protonmail.com
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We're coming up on some outstanding milestones.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that, and I also have a very interesting scenario for you. So come on inside, let's get started. Well, hi everybody. I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training. We are located in the Medford-White City area of Southern Oregon and we are talking about survival way beyond the bug out bag. So it's been a month off. I promised I was going to do that and I did. We're back and let's talk about those milestones.
Speaker 1:First, we are episode 99 today. We have 99 episodes done so far, and that's kind of significant because obviously, duh, the next one's going to be episode 100. And for that I want to do a video episode and we're going to do something a little bit special. So that's all I'm going to say about that. But 100 episodes, and we have already and I just got a notice on this already we have passed 10,000 downloads, past 10,000 downloads. Now, that's pretty exciting to know that 10,000 people think enough of what we're doing here to download it and share it with somebody else or save it for working with at home, and I do encourage everybody to download this and to share it, and I can only say thank you to everybody who has gone out and spent the time to keep one of these episodes and to share it with somebody else. 10,000 downloads is a great landmark and 100th episode coming up next, so thank you. We are going on a new journey. I think at episode 100, we had some firefighters come out to where we live. I live in a mobile home community and we talked about bug-out bags and it was interesting to hear from the firefighters about the bug-out bag and they stressed, based on what they have seen through incidents, making sure you have good information. You have thumb drives full of contacts and how to reach your insurance company and what your inventory was in your gun case and all of those things Making sure after the fire you are able to deal with the problems. So we're going to talk about that in the weeks to come. We've spent a lot of time on that previously and it's interesting to look at the idea of what we're doing through the eyes of the professionals.
Speaker 1:The interesting scenario I wanted to put forward with you and this is kind of an interesting viewpoint you know how you tell the story and you or I are always the first responder or we're the one going to be bandaging or we're the one going to going to control the situation? What if you're injured? If you are not the person who does that? Normally you are At our house. Normally I would be the one who's going to take care of a lot of the things, but if I got injured, my wife would have to do that or someone else would have to do that In your group. We've talked about assigning roles. If you've got a group and I think that's a wonderful idea having enough people so it's not just you and your significant other we are going to need more than each other. We're going to need friends and neighbors.
Speaker 1:If things start getting really, really ugly due to a disaster or a civil unrest or any of the many problems that can pop up today A weather incident we're seeing more and more of those Tornadoes, earthquakes Well, you know the whole litany. If you're not the one who is able to give aid, there's a lot of things you need to think about, and part of it is restructuring your whole mental picture. I'm used to being able to run in and say okay, guys, here's what we're going to do. If I couldn't do that, how would I cope? First of all, what would I do to be of use? What skills do I still have that I could still share with the group? And these are the type of things I'm going to ask you to think about this week.
Speaker 1:When a situation occurs, and it doesn't really matter why, I'm going to use a friend of mine who recently underwent open heart surgery. That was a month or so ago. They're in good shape, they're back, they're taking care of business, saying their prayers, eating their vegetables. But one of the things they do in heart surgery is they cut your sternum. That's the part that holds your ribs together, and there's a thing called he explained this to me sternal precautions, which means, well, the sternum is healing, and I guess they actually cable this thing back together in addition to the sutures. Well, the sternum is healing. You can't lift. You can't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. You can't open a car door. You're not even supposed to get dressed with your hands above your head. Now, cpr does the same thing. Cpr cracks the sternum and you're going to be out of commission there. So if you have been the recipient of CPR, you're going to need medical attention, obviously, but you are going to be disabled. You are going to be unable to do things you normally could, unable to do things you normally could.
Speaker 1:If you have a situation that, let's say, this individual had the surgery, if you've had any type of surgery, you're out of commission for a while and if an emergency happens in that situation while you are recovering, how are you going to change the dynamic? Each of us has our roles in our family on what we would do and what is expected. Well, okay, what would happen if I was unable to complete my roles for whatever reason? Maybe in the emergency I got hurt, maybe I broke my leg, maybe I got impaled on a piece of rebar, maybe I took a gunshot wound? If I'm no longer able to do what I thought I can do, self-care becomes important. Are those in your group able to care for you? I've often mentioned groups and getting together, and I think it's very important We've talked about this Having the ability to share skills. Yes, I know first aid. Yes, I know CPR. Yes, I know advanced bleeding and trauma care and I'm very fortunate, so does my wife In your group.
Speaker 1:Not everybody's going to be able to do stop the bleed or deal with a serious injury If the main caregiver is out of commission. What are you going to do? What is your process? Now, let's say I got hurt and I couldn't do this or I couldn't do that. There's other things I can still do. I've been doing this for well 15 years now. So we have, in our house, quite a skill set built up.
Speaker 1:If you are new to prepping, if you are new to being your own first responders until actual help can arrive, don't put all your eggs in one basket. I think is what I'm saying for today. If you have a set of skills, that's excellent. Share those skills within your group how to tie a tourniquet, how to stop the bleed, how to clean out if you get something in your eyes, or if you get some chemicals, how to flush that out and what to do afterwards. Aftercare is just as important as first aid just as important as first aid.
Speaker 1:So, as we look at the changing scape of life around us and how things can get different, how things can happen in unusual ways, let's look at being prepared from the other side of the coin. Yes, you're going to be the leader. Yes, you're going to be going in directing, but if you can't do it, what can you do? What skills do you bring? What are you bringing to the picnic? Someone sloughing off or not doing their part? That's not what I'm saying, and I'm sure you realize that this is a case of in an emergency.
Speaker 1:Take it to the next step. We always say what would you do if an emergency happened right now? All right, what would you do if an emergency happened right now and you got hurt? What is your plan? If you don't have a plan, get started putting one together. Look at what you're going to need to do.
Speaker 1:Let's stop and think about the type of injuries you might receive A break or a sprain or a minor puncture of some sort from getting impaled on a piece of broken rebar, a piece of cracked wood. These are things that are realistic. Hopefully, gunshots are not a part of a realistic scenario. But knowing how to deal with that serious trauma, serious injuries, that serious trauma, serious injuries what are you going to do? Dealing with shock, dealing with blood loss? If you have the experience to do it yourself, I urge you to train the others in your group to do it as well. So if you're unable to do it, they have the skills, they have the ability to prevent the problem from getting out of control. So that's. I wanted to bring that up because, talking to this friend of mine, this guy is normally, you know, running, jumping, climbing trees. He's out there taking care of business Not so much now and he brought it up. He said, boy, I'd hate to have an earthquake happen today. Yeah, I can see how you would. So let's consider that Sharing your planning within the group.
Speaker 1:How do you stop the bleed? How do you wrap a wound? What do you do for a tourniquet? I think everybody in a group should be able to use a tourniquet and get a good one. Oh my God, I've seen some junk out there and $3, $4 tourniquets. That's like a $3 and $4 steak People. You don't want a discount steak and you don't want a discount tourniquet. These are things that are just too important. You don't want a bad meal, but you don't want to be bleeding out or do damage to yourself.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the possibility that you may not be at 100% in an emergency. I have not mentioned this in the entire time we have been together. I've always come in from the point that you or I are going to be the caregivers. Not necessarily the case, folks. It can happen in an instance. So let's look at that. And now, talking about the 100th episode that's next week, next week or next time we get together the 100th episode I'm going to start moving in some different directions. We've talked about this, it's already begun. I'm going to concentrate less on products and more on what we just did, looking at survival, not so much as having a couple granola bar and a clean set of underwear for a couple of days, but looking at the necessity of of having 30 days self-sufficiency, and that's the minimum right now 30 days of self-sufficiency. Let's look at that and explore that area.
Speaker 1:If you've got questions as we talk about these things, things are going to pop into your head and it's going to be like oh well, what about if I'm hurt? Or what about if somebody goes crazy? There are people who, under stress, get really hard to deal with. You're going to have to need to deal with that in your group, especially if you don't know the group. In my case, and I think in many cases out there, you're going to be with people. You know people. You know how they're going to behave, how they're going to react. If you have strangers a, how are you going to include them? Will you include them in the group and how are they reacting? How do you deal with someone who gets hysterical or who is so scared they can't function? These are some real issues Now. These are not quick fixes.
Speaker 1:Obviously, these are things which require some study and some preparation and getting some professional information on how to do this, and this is why I'm mentioning it now, before the problem occurs. That's something I always recommend Planning in advance, going through it, having scenarios and actual drills, actual rehearsals. You have fire drills at our house. Okay, what about getting ready to go? We're rebuilding our go bag plan, our evacuation plan, here in my mobile home park. Interestingly enough, a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting around the pool area and there was a grass fire. We could actually see flames. Okay, this is the first part of June and we're looking at flames from the swimming pool area. And there was a grass fire. We could actually see flames. Okay, this is the first part of June and we're looking at flames from the swimming pool area.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's time to take another look at that evacuation plan, just like with the evacuation plan, looking at how to deal with emergencies of all sorts, those tough questions. Put yourself in the situation of the victim, not the, not the first responder. How are you going to get from here to there? If you fell down in your home, how would you get help? Lots of different things to talk about. We we're going in that direction.
Speaker 1:I urge you to send me your questions. The email address is at the front of the broadcast where you come in. As always, we want to invite you on out to the range. We've got a lot of good things happening there, everything from the non-ballistic self-defense class right up to and including advanced tactical training. Lots to talk about. If you're interested in classwork, check out the website. If you're interested in coming on out and getting more information, we're there by phone, we're there by email and, again, I look forward to your questions and I look forward to seeing you next time we get together for our 100th episode of Survival Beyond the Bugout Bag. Thanks. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
