Staying Warm at Night in an Emergency...

For some time I gave little thought to having a sleeping bag as part of my emergency kit. It isn't even mentioned as part of the suggested packing list for the "grab-and-go" nag at work. But then again, that list is just a starting point.

As I've mentioned before, the intention of my "get home bag" was to provide me with everything from a "shelter in place bag" for car or office, to a bag to carry what I need to get myself home on foot, should I be forced by weather or other emergency, the 37 mile trip that would entail. And the need to be able to do any of the above in temperature below 0 Fahrenheit and as high as 120 Fahrenheit.

Obviously I can't do any of that with any level of comfort without a sleeping bag. Or I should say sleeping bags, since one bag will never cover the full range of temperatures I could face in a year. So I reached the decision to select two sleeping bags, one for each end of the temperature range I might face in an emergency.

And it is important to remember that a daily swing of 30 degrees Fahrenheit between the high and low daily temperature is not unusual. Something to keep in mind when considering the needs of preparing for a night in a non-climate controlled environment.

For warm weather, I found the British Army Warm Weather Sleeping Bag (nsn 8465-99-869-5310), which was introduced in 1996 and replaced in July 2011. It has a squared foot and was issued to those serving in hot climates such as jungle and desert. It's pretty light weight, weighing 1.2kg, and in a compression sack is smaller than a soccer ball. This also would be ideal to use in a heated building for instances when you might need to shelter in place.

British Army Warm Weather Sleeping Bag

For cold weather, I needed something to handle arctic temperatures, so I looked for and found an arctic sleeping bag, more specifically the British Army Mk2 Arctic Sleeping Bag (nsn 8465-99-138-4584) which entered service before 1991 and has since been replaced. This is a 90/10 goose down sleeping bag, which means it has a fill of 90% down and 10% feathers. The higher the percentage of down, the better the bag. It has a heavy duty front zipper with an internal baffle to prevent the ingress of cold air through the zipper. It is rated to -20 degrees Fahrenheit and weights 2.5kg.

(top) British Army Mk2 Arctic Sleeping Bag inside a Bivy Bag

(bottom) British Army Mk2 Arctic Sleeping Bag

Hopefully this can help you make your own plans to say comfortable at night, regardless of the weather in an emergency situation.

The warm weather bag can be found at Keep Shooting here and the arctic bag can be found at Major Surplus here.

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Looking for a Smaller "Get Home Bag"...

When the weather got warmer and it was time for me to repack my Get Home Bag for the Summer months, I found that the larger bag I was using was now no longer needed as I needed less warm items during the hot summer months. I could simple tighten the straps on the larger bag, reducing its size, or I could look for a smaller size bag.

A smaller bag is also very useful for those who cannot carry a larger bag for some reason, be it size or weight.

I did some researching and recently one of the bags I'd looked into became available on the American market. This is the 30 Litre Patrol Pack (nsn 8415-99-869-3875) also known as the Northern Ireland Patrol Pack, which was introduced in late 1995. Designed for short duration patrols, it is not as large as the regular British Army bergen, holding approximately 30 litres versus 100 litres in the infantry bergen or the 50 litres all arms bergen. Also, the two side pouches are permanently attached and the bag lacks an internal frame, unlike the larger British Army bergens. The top flap has two zippered pouches above the large central main storage area of the pack.

Constructed of cordura nylon, this is a rugged and hard wearing pack will stand up to most activity. I will note, in my research, it was advised to stay away from civy street models of this pack and buy only the real surplus British Army pack, as the civy street models are not very durable.

Repacked for summer, mine weights only 17 pounds packed. Without getting into details about the contents (this will be covered in a future post) it contains undershorts and a t-shirt, socks, shorts, gortex rain suit, windproof jacket and trousers, wool jumper, sun hat, bivy bag and sleeping bag. Most of what I would need to cover 37 miles in 24 hours in any weather I might have to handle during the warmer months of the year. And I still have room in the bag for additional items.

Mine came from Keep Shooting which has been the source of a number of my emergency preparedness items. They offer quick shipping and fantastic customer support. www.keepshooting.com

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What to Eat in Case of an Emergency...

When planning for an emergency, food, water and shelter are three of the most important things for which to plan. In this post, I shall attempt to tackle the food planning portion of my own Emergency Preparedness Plan.

As I have mentioned before, my goal is to be able to be self-sufficient for up to 3 days, in temperature ranges from -10 degrees Fahrenheit to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. I also want to be able to eat with or without a heat source and be able to provide myself with the full range of nutrients and calories needed should I have to walk 37 miles home from work. I think I have finally found the solution.

While military field rations have been derided in the past as barely edible, modern food science and developments in meal selection have created a very wide range of "meals ready to eat." They require no cooking and aside from the beverages, require no added water, which is an advantage if you have a limited potable water supply. As part of my goal in emergency planning is not not just survive or exist, but to be comfortable. I could have selected American MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) as my food supply solution. I would need 6 of these for my needs and they are quite easy to find online, either surplus or commercially packaged for civy street sales.

Since I was looking for something new and different, I have opted to supply my food needs with the British ORP (Operational Ration Pack). Also known as 24 hour rations, they come in a single box per day and offer a wide variety of menu choices. The regular menu offers 20 different menus and they also have 10 different menus each for Vegetarian, Halal, Sikh/Hindu and Kosher. All food items in the packs were surveyed and all chosen for inclusion scored at least a 6.5 on a scale of one to 10, being at least between liked and moderately liked before being selected for inclusion.

The packs are designed to be stored in a temperature range of 37 to 77 degrees without additional protection from the environment for extended periods of time, though they can be stored in hot environments for short periods of time. Each pack weights about 5 pounds and contains about 4,000 calories, more than enough for a 37 mile hike home and will allow me to make each pack last even longer if I am sheltering in place.

The main menu items are packaged in retort pouches which can be reheated in 4 minutes in gently boiling water, though they can also be eaten without reheating them.

So on to the meals. Here is a photo of one of my older meals which I am rotating out of storage. This is Vegetarian menu 3, and personally, I have no issue with any of these vegetarian menus since I know they give the same level of nutrition as the regular menu items and honestly, I rarely notice that they are vegetarian.

One you open the box, you can get a full idea of how many items they contain.

Below is the example found in Vegetarian menu 3.

Meal Pouches: Mushroom Omelette, Vegetarian Tomato Noodle, Pasta and Bean Salad, and Sticky Toffee Pudding

Snacks: Castus Apricot Bar, Biscuit Fruit, Strawberry Boiled Sweets, Classic Fruit and Nut Mix, Oreo Biscuit, and Strawberry Jam

Drinks: Isotonic Tablet Orange, Blackcurrant Drink, Raspberry Drink, Cherry Drink, and Hot Chocolate Caramel

Sundries: Beverage Whitener (x4), Tabasco Red, Sweet Menthol, Spearmint, Strong Mint & Peppermint Dental Chewing Gum, Instant Coffee (x2), Sugar (x4), Wet Wipes (x2), Teabags (x2), Tissues, Spoon, Water Purification Tablets (x6), Matches, and a Reusable Poly Bag.

You can un-box the meal and re-pack the food items in your bag or even your pockets, as they are designed to withstand such a short duration re-pack. And since the ration also includes water purification tablets, you can purify up to 6 litres of water a day without worrying about additional water purification means.

They have a shelf life of 2 years based on the "best before dates" of the contents, so every 2 years I will rotate my stock. You may read that military rations will last for years. What I have found is that the commercially available food items, as well as the items containing fruit and nuts do not hold up for 5 years as some may claim. So play it safe and only buy rations which are "in date" and rotate your stock of food. (British rations have a pack date on the white circular label on the outside of the box noted as "PD0213" for example meaning pack date February 2013. This would have a "best before date of February 2015.) Since the food is quite tasty by camping/backpacking standards, this will be easy to do on a weekend hike or outing.

Highly recommended if not easy to find. Try looking on eBay or GoArmy in Scotland which does offer reasonable shipping to America. www.goarmy.co.uk/survival-sleeping/cooking-eating

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