21 Survival Skills That Can Save Your Life … When All Hell Breaks Loose

That’s one reason why Army Green Berets and other Special Forces units around the world are so skilled at what they do — they have put their time in, gotten the practice, and acquired the skills. So what makes a Green Beret different from a Navy SEAL, or other special forces commando unit from somewhere else in the world?

The difference between a Green Beret and a Navy Seal

Comparing Green Berets with Navy SEALS, both groups are skilled with unconventional (guerilla) warfare, special reconnaissance, and combat search and rescue. Green Berets differ from Navy SEALS by way of their ability to blend in with the locals, build key relationships, and have eyes and ears on the ground.This leads to: Training the locals in unconventional warfare (guerilla warfare and resistance fighters), coalition support, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping duties. To summarize all these actions, Green Berets are expected to be skilled at diplomacy. Diplomacy is the keyword here. If you can get any survival skill from the Green Berets, diplomacy is a survival skill that can make you or break you in a post-collapse world. You’ll see why in a moment.

Survival Skills, Explained

For the rest of us, there’s too many survival skills to learn in a short period of time and it doesn’t really make sense to get good at everything. Let’s focus on the select few survival skills that will matter most when disaster strikes and you’ll be forced to either bug-in, evacuate, or bug out to a remote retreat for an undetermined amount of time.Bug In – This means to essentially barricade yourself into your home and or just your neighborhood with your neighbors and subsist on supplies you and or your neighbors have stockpiled for an extended emergency.

Evacuate – A disaster or impending disaster or threat has made your neighborhood or region no longer safe to live, even if only for a short period of time. On short notice, you flee town to an official evacuation zone for disaster refugees; or you break off from the pack of evacuees and take your chances on your own (which may be a better choice than staying with the pack, depending on the situation). The open road lies before you…

Bug Out – You have a solid plan for leaving your home behind (permanently), packing up your car or truck — or just an oversized backpack (a bug out bag) and heading out on foot — packed with survival supplies to help you get by for the next few weeks until you arrive somewhere where you can resettle. Some people who plan to bug out currently possess survival skills for living off the land — for hunting, fishing, and foraging, while others who bug out have a planned remote retreat, whether that’s a cabin or a small area of wilderness off the beaten track, where they have pre-stocked survival supplies, food, water, etc. waiting just for this day.

What are the basics?

First we’ll cover the basics — basic survival skills. Then we’ll throw in a few survival skills that make Army Green Berets able to cover ground, blend in, and defend themselves — even on solo missions — sometimes deep in enemy territory.Once you learn those survival skills, you’ll be able to tackle just about anything.

What to Learn First

#1. Improvised Shelter

Well, this one is a no-brainer: At some point you’re going to need a place to rest, escape the weather, or hide out from eyes in the sky for a couple days during your travels. Though some elaborate shelters can be built from the forest or brush or even hillside, a single or two-person backpacking tent will do the trick for most people. If for some reason you lose your tent during your travels, a tarp or a poncho and whatever you can find on site such as a shallow cave or a downed tree can be used also. Use overhead branches to shield yourself from the rain or sun; use the landscape as a natural windblock and also as natural camouflage. Since we’re talking about post-collapse, knowing how to easily camouflage yourself and your shelter safely off trail are essential.Building shelter in a post-collapse world means more than just sheltering from the weather; it means sheltering from bad people that may be combing the landscape. Think like a hermit and hide yourself somewhere on a hillside or dense growth of trees, using moss, grass, twigs, and even dirt or mud to create insulation if needed. The best shelter in a post-collapse world, while traveling, is a shelter that no one knows is there. Remember that.

When you poke your head up to look around and do some recon, have your head covered in brush, as the shape of a human head is easy to recognize; remember, sometimes you want to avoid being seen at all costs.

If you have binoculars don’t be looking in the direction of the sun as the glint of the sun on your binoculars can be seen from a far distance away, potentially alerting someone to your position.

#2. Fire

Making fire encompasses the multitude of ways of starting it, maintaining it and then putting it out (which many people tend to overlook); after you’ve put out your fire, hide the fact that you ever had a fire to begin with. Leave no trace. Bury the ashes from your fire well under ground and then spread dirt and arrange brush so that no one can tell (without digging down) that you ever had a fire there. Don’t leave any clues for possible trail robbers or trackers to find, if someone happens to be looking for either you or for someone to rob.As far as getting a fire started, you shouldn’t rely only on the bow drill method. Though it’s a good survival skill to have, it’s also time consuming and not dependable for a wet environment. Make sure you have at least 3 quick DIY methods of making fire in your bug out bag, including having lighters (in a waterproof container — pill bottles are great for carrying lighters), cotton balls or cloth soaked in a container of rubbing alcohol (another use for those pill bottles), waterproof matches, flint and steel, petroleum jelly cotton balls or even a 9V battery and steel wool.

While there are several DIY methods to use as fire starters, nowadays there are also several proven survival tools that should be considered as backup methods (that way all your bases are covered): BlastMatch Firestarter, Gerber Bear Grylls Fire Starter, and WetFire Tinder just to name a few.

#3. Water

Though most bug outs shouldn’t take more than a few days, water is one of those things you shouldn’t have too much of in your bug out bag because you can find plenty of water along the way (unless you live in or near the desert, then you may need to pack a lot more water than normal). Water procurement can be done several ways; it can be filtered with a portable water filter, it can be boiled to kill parasites and bacteria that can make you sick, and it can also be collected and purified with water purification tablets; this last method is the most time efficient method but because of limited pack space in your bug out bag, but it shouldn’t be the only method you use. Having a portable water filter and also a small pot for boiling water are essential.Here’s why: At some point you’ll run out of water purification tablets and then a few weeks later that portable water filter will have used all it’s life. The good news about water purification tablets is that you can pack a lot of them; they don’t weigh very much or take up much space. You can also have a back up portable water filter if you use one of the smaller brands on the market, such as Lifestraw (mentioned in other articles), giving you several more weeks of water filtration.

Finding sources for fresh water: A good Green Beret will have done their homework themselves or have been thoroughly briefed on locations that exist in a region they will be operating in. For us, that means we should acquire the best maps in advance and then study each map so that we can create routes that take us near sources of fresh water — lakes, rivers and streams. This is how desert nomads of the vast deserts of the Middle East and Africa and also the Native Americans who lived in the desert southwest states of the U.S. could survive and travel through areas that would otherwise be inhospitable to humans. Desert nomads and Native Americans both knew where water could be found in remote areas and then chose their routes accordingly.

Choosing a Route in a Post-Collapse World – At the same time, the routes we create from our maps should avoid populated areas where gangs may be operating in the cities, militias may be operating in the suburbs, and some bad people (bandits, rapists, and psychopaths) may be roaming the suburbs or surrounding countryside.

Which brings us to an extremely important survival skill for a post collapse world:

What to Learn Next

#4. Navigation

In theory, the bug out process is straightforward. A couple of hours, to a couple of days, to a couple of weeks of walking and you reach a fully-stocked bug out retreat where you can live in peace for months or even years; well, that’s the hope anyway. You have to get their first.And this is where the deadly challenge of survival happens in a post-collapse.

When chaos breaks loose, a lot of things can go wrong that can deviate you from your original route. This is where your navigation skills as well as your preparedness come into play:

Printed maps

GPS (if it’s available)

Offline maps on your phone (if you can download numerous, terrain specific maps beforehand)

Finally, knowing how to navigate using a compass or the stars.

When it’s all said and done, printed maps and a good compass are going to be your best bet. Navigating by the stars doesn’t work during cloudy weather, and depending on GPS or a smartphone to store maps is a bad idea for a long term situation. At some point, the batteries in your phone are going to die or those satellites that make GPS possible may become inaccessible. Map and compass are a proven and reliable long term survival tool and can work for you in a post collapse world.

Topographic Maps: A useful and necessary skill is knowing how to read topographic maps; knowing what those contour lines represent on a topographic map, as well as the different colors, will help you understand elevation changes and the types of terrain you can encounter in a region. You’ll be able to see the elevation of the terrain, the vegetation and, of course, the bodies of water, lakes, rivers, streams, coastline, etc. With a topographic map, you can determine a route that will help you avoid populated areas, reduce the chances of a robbery out on a trail (by helping you avoid trails all together), and also determine whether or not you’ll encounter a ridge, canyon, valley, or mountain too steep to climb.

A few things to remember: Most post-collapse robberies in the first few weeks are going to take place in the countryside surrounding major cities where many people are likely to evacuate to. If you want to avoid a robbery and possible murder and or rape (females are most at risk), understand that most “bandits” lurk in areas they believe people are likely to be found — if the cities are uninhabitable, they will look for victims outside cities in the surrounding wilderness. Though these bandits may have fled a disaster themselves, like many people in the region, they are not likely to travel far into the wilderness due to the fact that they have no wilderness survival skills and can not comprehend the idea of “living off the land”. They believe they are most likely to survive by robbing and or killing people.

To avoid becoming a victim, detour wide around any cities and towns, and ,as much as possible, create routes through remote wilderness that are far off the beaten track, far from major roads, and far from popular hiking trails. Some bandits will have maps and many will likely lurk around areas on maps that look like places people travel along and where they can be ambushed.

#5. Shooting

Lots has been said about guns and they are beyond the scope of this article. There’s a mountain of great information out there on which gun to get and how to shoot it but information is useless unless you practice. I recommend you practice with as many as you can since using a pistol is different that shooting a shotgun or a rifle; for those with the time and means, it is good to have experience knowing how to shoot all three.

#6. Hunting and Trapping

Funny enough, trapping isn’t just a skill you learn for catching rabbits and squirrels out in the wild. It can be just as useful in “bug in situations” to catch mice and other rodents that may take a shot at your food stores. Keep in mind that trapping requires a lot of patience as well as knowledge, practice, and snares for various size animals. The question is, do you really need turn to trapping? Well, if you’ll be bugging in or if expect to have a short bug out, you probably won’t. However, things can always go wrong. In a post collapse unfortunately, things probably will go wrong at some point for a lot of people. Trapping is an essential survival skill to learn if you want to be sure you always have a way to feed yourself and your family!Two good books to read and learn from are The Trapper’s Bible: Traps, Snares & Pathguards and Trapping North American Furbearers: A Complete Guide.

Here are the kind of things that can go wrong with a plan for bugging out: Your bug out may take longer than expected so you might have to spend a week or more out in the wild. Your bug out location can be compromised by the time you get there. Your food stockpile may be spoiled due to one of the five food storage enemies: light, oxygen, moisture, temperature and the aforementioned rodents. You just never know what could go wrong and force you to find alternate food sources. For some people, those capable, that means hunting and trapping.

Since learning key survival skills that help make the Green Berets so adept at what they do, you should also learn one of the traits a true Green Beret is known for: overcoming fear. If you have a fear of bears, for example, in a post collapse world it’s time to overcome that fear and start seeing black bears and grizzlies as food to feed you and your family.

Depending on where you are in the country, realize that a bear can be easier to hunt for than other sought after game like deer or elk. If you’re truly concerned at all about wanting to feed your family in a bug out situation, read the SecretsofSurvival.com article on hunting black bears and grizzlies, which, worth repeating, anyone thinking about bugging out should read and take serious consideration to. In fact, a hunter (who knows how to shoot) with no previous experience hunting can be successful hunting bears on the first go.

Why is that? It’s easy to use bait or even just garbage to draw a bear to where you lie in wait. Not only can you feed your family with hundreds of pounds of bear meat for several weeks, but you also reduce the chances of a future bear encounter by reducing the number of bears in your region. Let me restate that: Bear hunting, especially in the first few weeks of a bug out, can both feed your family and also eliminate the number of bears in your region that could otherwise prove to be a threat to your family’s safety in the long run.

#7. Finding and Following Game Trails

Game trails are “trails” made by wildlife (deer, elk, moose, antelope, caribou, bison, etc.) as they follow commonly traveled routes for big game through the forest, often to a water source, and other times to where they know they can find food. Some game trails may even lead you to where large game beds down and sleeps.In a post-collapse world, traveling trails made by humans can be dangerous as the more popular trails are more likely to be ambushed by crooks looking for someone to rob or murder. Being able to travel using game trails can take you through the wilderness and even mountainous terrain on paths that a lot of people do not know exist.

Game trails can also work as great places for trapping, and of course, spot and stalk techniques for big game hunting and even give you places to set up treestands (where you sit and wait for game to come down trail — this works on “secondary” game trails; game trails not used as commonly as primary game trails; source).

Trapping works for small game but what if you can’t find any? Spotting and stalking game is a hard skill to get down; in other words before you shoot any big game, you have to see it (“spot” game), and then you have to get close to it (“stalk” game); you have to “stalk” close enough for your rifle or bow (if bow hunting) to have a good shot.

Game trails can lead you to water — Keep in mind that where there are game trails, there may also be water close by as most animals will need it at least 2 times a day. In many wilderness areas, all you have to do is follow game trails downhill and you might be lucky enough to find food and water at the same time.

If looking for food, follow game trails facing the wind – Hunters call this being downwind. If the wind is at your back (you are “upwind”), your scent will be blown in the direction you are hunting and the wildlife you’re after is likely to catch your scent; startled by your scent, that wildlife is now likely to flee.

#8. Getting Out Of Zip Ties, Duct Tape and Other Restraints

Few preppers think about the possibility of getting captured but with all the videos ISIS made to scare us, getting out of restraints is something we need to start thinking about.Plus, during a collapse, there’s a good chance that there’s a psychopath in just about every community who will now become a threat. Right now, your local psychopath works his nine to five job, and the threat of the police and a long prison sentence keeps a lot of people from going out and breaking the law.

Whether it’s a psychopath, or a rapist, you never know who could end up breaking into your home one night or even tackling and making an attempt to turn you into another basement sex slave (greatest risk of course is to women and children).

Or maybe it’s just a neighbor who knows you were prepping and decides to pay you a visit, holds you at gun point, ties you up, steals all your supplies and then leaves you to die, duct taped to a chair, as he then sets the house on fire and walks out.

In short, you get out of zip ties by either breaking them or by picking the locking blade with something really thin, you get out of single-lock handcuffs using a paper clip and you get out of duct tape by raising both your arms up and then bringing them down in a quick motion while spreading your elbows apart. This needs, practice, of course, but it’ll be fun to do with your kids.

It’s one thing for us to put these escape maneuvers into a paragraph; they’ll never work for you unless you first believe how easy these techniques can be to use. Former CIA operative Jason Hanson reveals how to do these techniques in his book, Spy Secrets that Can Save Your Life, which we highly recommend to anyone who wants to know how to escape duct tape (what most criminals use most often to bind a victim), as well as how to escape zip ties, and even how to pick a lock on a set of handcuffs in order to free yourself.

He is known and respected for his skills in teaching spy secrets like these methods to your average Joe or Jane and even had a spot on ABC Shark Tank as a guest commentator; his evasion methods are the real deal and even made it into this article in Forbes Magazine.

#9. Camouflaging Yourself in the Wilderness

Speaking of staying hidden, an important bug out skill is knowing how to camouflage yourself while you’re out in the wilderness. You can do things like:Wear colors that allow you to really blend in with your surroundings.

Using ash or mud to cover your face and hands

Securing vegetation such as grass and branches to your body

Covering your head and shelter with a variety of brush to avoid being detected from above

You don’t really need to pack anything special inside your bug out bag for this (you do need to limit how much weight you’re carrying; you can’t bring everything on a bug out) but do make sure the extra change of clothes you put inside doesn’t have any bold colors.

#10. Medicinal Plants

Have a cut, fever, pains, elevated blood pressure, high blood sugar, low on vitamins and minerals? Medicinal plants can offer several ways to bring healing, fever reduction, pain relief, and even be used for a number of specific health conditions. Because this is a lengthy topic covered in other articles on SecretsofSurvival.com, we have included two links for you to read after this one: Herbal Medicine: How Knowing Medicinal Plants Can Save Your Life in an Emergency and The Top Medicinal Plants of North America.Realize that medicinal plants can be an essential component of survival first aid, can take the place of a doctor’s care (if there are no doctors around and you know what you’re doing), and can even provide daily necessary nutrients for optimal health (common herbs like parsley, cilantro, and even rosemary have specific health properties and there are several other herbs as well to know about).

#11. Self-Defense

No matter how skilled you are with a gun, a knife or a bow and arrow, there isn’t much you can do if you don’t have them or if you run out of ammo. In such cases, your ability to improvise a self-defense weapon might save your life: A crowbar, a large wrench, a baseball bat, a section of rebar, a hammer or even a table leg (if that’s all that’s handy) can each be used as a club if needed.Sometimes though you may want a weapon that works a lot more like a spear, such as a pitchfork.

What it comes down to is this: A bow and arrow or even a machete can be a weapon for last resort — if you’re cornered, and if you’re capable, and you have no other options for self defense.

If you’ve got a good throwing arm and decent aim, a small rock can knock a person out cold.

While we hope that none of our readers is ever in a situation where life or death comes down defending yourself with a bow and arrow, machete or a pitchfork for that matter, realize that the best method of self defense in several situations may simply be to run and leave your attacker in the dust.

Speaking of dust, a handful of dirt or sand thrown in your attacker’s face just before you move forward to strike can be what turns the tables on your attacker and helps bring the attack to a sudden end. Attacker is down for the count. You live to see another day.

#12. Scouting and Recon

If everything goes to plan, you’ll hunker down inside your home or your bug out location without any bad people showing up to upset things. But what if it doesn’t go according to plan? In reality, who knows how many bad people might be in your proximity, such as desperate crooks, angry mobs and thieving, violent neighbors from down the street.First, try to work with your immediate neighbors on keeping a “neighborhood watch” along with a way to notify each other about any approaching threats. That may be three fast bursts on a whistle, or a really long drawn out whistle blast that repeats.

In some inner cities, gangs have been known to whistle repeatedly to notify others that someone is in their territory. Consider adapting that same tactic for your own neighborhood.

Reconnaissance on factions and militants – With several factions possibly fighting for territorial control in some areas, you should at least know who’s claiming “influence” over your territory. That’s just one example of why you need to scout the surroundings to gather valuable information about what’s happening around you. Some of the things you might want to notice:

What is happening in surrounding neighborhoods?

What is going on at the local municipal airport or train station, if there’s one nearby?

Are there any factions or militants that have claimed local buildings, and if so, can you tell what their intentions are from a safe distance away (preferably where no one knows you’re “spying” on their activities)?

Schools … Are they being used as refugee centers and to provide emergency first aid and or emergency housing? Or has a faction or militant group moved on to school grounds and claimed it as their own?

Open spaces

Market places

Patrols … Are factions or militants going neighborhood to neighborhood and are they well intentioned? … Or … are they just scouting the neighborhoods during the day to see which houses would be an easy target for a robbery later that evening?)

Some good scouting and working with your neighbors to recon what other neighborhoods are doing nearby can help spot trouble before it shows up unexpectedly and catches you all by surprise.

A few pairs of good binoculars could go a long way.

Stationing a couple look outs (helpful teenagers, who can rotate in shifts) in the tallest trees in your neighborhood is also recommended.

#13. Hot Wiring a Car

In the event of a catastrophe, you might not find your car keys or have the time to look for them — what if they’re buried under rubble? If you live or work in a major city, and disaster strikes, you might find yourself on foot and passing through a dangerous area of town when suddenly some bad people spot you. You realize suddenly that if you don’t get out of dodge fast, you may lose your life.While we don’t recommend stealing an automobile, if your life is on the line then the day may come where you should know how to hot wire one and get on the road in a hurry. It’s easier than it sounds. Rather than detail the specifics, and plagiarize a good book on the subject, it is one more thing that is covered in the book “Spy Secrets that Can Save Your Life” mentioned earlier.

Older cars are the ones that work for hot wiring; newer cars have complex electronic systems that are almost impossible to start unless you really know what you’re doing and have the right tools.

On the other hand, many preppers prefer having older cars for fear of EMP events. Some of these cars are really easy to start, all you need to do is jam a flat head screwdriver, hit it with a hammer a couple of times and then twist it as you would the key. You may want to look into “EMP proof cars”, that is to say, any older vehicle that has little or no electrical wiring.

#14. Foraging

Unless you’re bugging out to Antarctica, you’ll be sure to find plenty of wild edibles you can just pick up and eat — if you know where to look and where some wild edibles are commonly found.The two main benefits are that you don’t need to cook them and that you can find a few as you grow. The fact that some of these plants can be found in cities or even your own back yard is all the more reason why you need to learn to recognize them. Some of the wild edibles that are safe to eat:

Clovers

Dandelions

Wild asparagus

Ground ivy

Arugula

This is another topic covered in greater detail on our website. Refer to 15 Top Wild Edibles That Can Save You in the Wild

#15. Bartering and Negotiation

Whether the dollar is going to be worth anything post-collapse is hard to say, but you should be able to barter and negotiate regardless. You can barter your food, your water, your ammo and even some of your abilities such as building at home water filtration systems (with everyday materials), woodworking, plumbing etc. Keep in mind that one thing we’ll all have a lot of post-collapse is time — so it’s better to barter your time and skills than your limited stockpile.One other service that will be in high demand: Fortifications. People will be smart to fortify their homes using any means possible if a collapse takes place.

Windows can be boarded up, doors and porches can have defensive measures added that can either scare off an intruder or make it extremely difficult to enter your home without first having broken through your defensive measures. Which of course would make a lot of noise. Those defensive measures can include lots of barbed wire, every door on your home can be nailed shut with braces in place (except for one door, which you would use to enter and exit your residence), and any brush surrounding your home can be dug up and removed (making it harder for an evening prowler to make a late night home invasion. Shallow trenches can be dug around your yard and even sandbags piled up in front of your doorway — making it look like you are a bit extreme when it comes to home security.

Many a would-be robber might easily decide that you’re a homeowner he probably shouldn’t mess with.

#16. Running Legs

Whether you find yourself embarking on a serious a bug out or a lengthy get home situation, you might have to run like hell at some point. Only problem is, if you’re out of shape or have a bad knee or something along those lines, it may be nearly impossible to run for more than a few people.You should make your BOB and get home bags lighter but, really, the most important thing is to get those knee problems handled or find a set of really good knee braces worn by runners, which can make a difference for some people, and lessen or eliminate knee pain all together. What if you can’t run, even with those knee braces? Just like a deaf person compensates with better eyesight, you too will have to compensate for your lack of mobility with other skills such as being able to disappear into the crowd and become a “gray man” as it’s said.

#17. Look Like a Gray Man

When you need to make your rounds anywhere, and want to avoid being robbed, take on the appearance of a rough and tumble homeless person or (if you’re an older male) 1970s era Vietnam Vet who’s had a rough go in life and has spent a few years on the streets. If someone says something to you, or tries to corner you, just stumble on by with a distant look in your eyes, not even seeing them, and even swat at an invisible “voice”. It comes down to this: If you look or seem a bit off your rocker any possible bad people may just look the other way, which is what they’ve been doing for years beforehand to people with these kinds of disabilities. Looking and acting a bit off your rocker is an easy way to get ignored by society at large. Try it sometime. Men, grow out your beard and hair, coat your arms, hands, and fingernails in dirt and even some grease (which you can find on the motor of any vehicle), create some bags under your eyes, put some stench on your clothes, practice mumbling to yourself and looking down at your feet. Take off your shoes and walk around in a pair of dirty, torn socks or just go barefoot and make sure your feet are dirty when you do.What about your bug out bag? Take everything out of your BOB and roll it up, placing both your bag and its contents into a couple black pillow cases, rub some dirt and grease on the pillow cases, put some garbage at the top, and just attempt to walk on by. You and or your family can look like a gang of gypsies out foraging for trash with the hope that you don’t look like some well off folks who have anything worth taking. An extreme step, sure — but if it gets you through a bad area of town or by a group of militants or bandits out in the countryside then it was worth it. (Don’t just look homeless — you need to smell homeless also; you need that dirt and grease on your hands, and in your hair, and the dirtier your teeth, the better. These are little details not too overlook in your “disguise”, when it’s life or death we’re talking about).

#18. Diplomacy

Whether you’re bartering, being kidnapped or trying to diffuse a conflict, you can’t do it if you let your emotions dictate what you say and how you behave. This is something peacekeeping troops such as the Green Berets and the Blue Helmets are taught in order for them to ensure that, no matter where they end up, the locals will get along with them and with each-other. Green Berets are also called “warrior-diplomats” and, in a sense, that’s exactly what we should be as well. A sincere and friendly, yet no-nonsense countenance can go a long way to help make this happen. Being liked and respected, through great diplomacy, can open doors and get you places.

#19. Basic Medical Skills

Things like giving first aid, performing CPR, carrying a wounded person or splinting a broken limb can literally save your life or the life of a loved one in an emergency. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest a first aid course and additional studies on survival first aid and application.

#20. Climbing a Tree or on to a Ledge or Roof

If you’re being chased in the forest or even an urban environment, what’s the one thing you can do to lose someone? Well, if you have enough head start, you can climb a tree and hope the guy is far enough behind that he has no idea that you went up a tree (or onto a ledge or roof top). Climbing trees, ledges, or on to roofs does take practice, especially with a backpack on.

If you’re out in the woods and there’s a river nearby, consider getting within range of the river before going up a tree; if it’s flowing fast enough, the sound of the river can help hide any noise you make as you climb tree branches. Be sure to pick a tree with several low branches and one that can get you up high off the ground, the higher the better; at the same time, you want a tree that will be difficult to spot you in if someone on the ground suspects you went up in a tree nearby. Good camouflage for both you and your pack can go a long way in helping you stay hidden.

#21. Keeping the Faith

If you throw in your lot with a gang of thieves and murderers, you’re likely to meet a violent end at some point along the way. Thieves and murderers can turn on each other at anytime. A wiser move is to hold on to your faith in God, living with the knowledge that God promises to bring an end to the many dangers that have been set loose in the world and finally make things right (promises in the Bible about the end of days if you’re brave enough to read it and live by it). Even if it’s your first time considering “God”, it’s still not too late to get right with God. Jesus is knocking …

Final Word

How should you go about learning this long list of survival skills? You can start with the basics: Making an improvised camouflaged shelter, purifying water on the go, and finding your preference for an emergency fire starter, one or more which you can pack to take up the least amount of space and still be counted on several times in an emergency. Once you master these basic survival skills, you can continue with the others in the order in which YOU think they’ll assist you in whatever disaster scenarios you’re preparing for.Like the Green Berets, definitely get a handle on diplomacy as a necessary survival skill; and then, like the Green Berets again, when diplomacy doesn’t work — or simply isn’t an option — either be able to make a run for it — or, if able — hit the enemy hard and fast, using speed, surprise, and overwhelming aggression in your favor.

by Mark Lawrence