I love bad guy reps. That is, I love playing the bad guy in a training scenario. Think about it. We walk around most of the time in good-guy mode. When we consciously make the effort to think like a criminal would to achieve a better understanding of how we can improve our safety, we only temporaril …

Everyday carry changes from one person to the next. Depending on our daily duties and responsibilities as well as our experiences and training, what we carry varies wildly. There are some folks who ground their EDC in fantasy. They carry what they believe will be useful in a hyperinflated sense of t …

My first experience giving blood corresponded to a day we have collectively agreed not to forget. On September 11th, 2001, I was a senior at Fairfield University and I watched the news come in as I heard neighbors crying through their windows and collecting in common areas consoling one another. Tha …

Cordage skills are perhaps only second to fire in terms of difficulty. Attend one of our wilderness survival courses and you’ll likely hear me say that at some point. After all, nature does provide materials that are long, strong, and flexible but if you don’t have the right skill set and knowledge …

During the Vietnam Conflict, the United States military developed various hammocks for use in the field with the most popular being the M1966. These hammocks provided US servicemen the ability to sleep up and off the ground away from the insects, rodents, reptiles, and arachnids that called the jung …

“Jesus, that’s Jason Bourne.” That quote from the popular Robert Ludlum series has become a derogatory smear online when someone makes a comment about “gray man” or “op sec” or “non-permissive environments”. It seems like everyone is a secret agent these days or trains with someone who was making th …