One of the alluring aspects of Special Forces to me as a kid was the thought of spending time outdoors building snares, shelters and so on. Having spent a large portion of my life in very rural settings, I've had a chance to tinker around in the woods some. I had family in the rural mountains of PA, and the attraction grew stronger when I spent a couple of weeks each summer as an asset for the 11th Grp when they were in the area for their AT.
The Foxfire series of books come to mind as a very good read. Gosh, I remember reading them as a kid through my teens. There's some crazy stuff in them like dowsing, snake handling and square dancing. However, there's a ton of really valuable info to be had. Everything from soap making, hide tanning, moon shining to preserving foods, weaving and "other affairs of plain living." I'm not saying it's going to address what to do in the first week or so of a survival situation, but given the 60 day scope of this exercise…
For this exercise I would like:
1 pocket knife, 550 cord, duct tape combo. Never knew what this was called, but it was on me religiously when I was in the field ever since Sgt Csaba showed it to me at SFQC. The swiss army knife I carried was one of the longer than standard sized ones with a long blade, saw that works, and a can opener I think… it’s in my fishing vest now. My old Case stockman has taken it’s place in my pocket. It had a lanyard hole in the rear that I tied a 24 or so inch piece of 550 cord through. The other end was fastened to a bic lighter by wrapping a dozen or so wraps of green duct tape (trimmed to fit) around it and the lighter. Put the kife in your right pocket, thread the lighter and 550 through your front belt loops, and put the lighter in the other pocket. Just make sure you’ve got enough 550 cord so that each can be easily pulled out of the pocket and used. Damn near impossible to lose any one piece, and you have 4 items taking up a manageable amount of space.
Small fishing kit. Anyone who fly fishes is familiar with tippet spools. I have some that will fit in an empty can of Skoal. The back is hollowed out, so you can put the spool of 8-12lb mono and 30# Fireline in a plastic (not Cope) can with some goodies behind it. Spit shot, a few terrestrial pattern flies, and some bait hooks ranging from size 8 for trout and panfish to 1/0 or 2/0 for bass and cats. I would want the bait hooks with the barbs on the shank. I would plan on fishing for some small stuff at first. If the environment provided a decent size body of water, I would plan on using the gut and white underbelly to fish for larger meals like turtles and catfish. The barbs will help to keep bait that may have been hard to aquire on the hook.
Woodsmans Pal Jr. & a sharpening steel I could fit into the sheath.
A small keychain compass. The ball type floating inside of a clear lexan container. About the diameter of a dime, and can be attached to a button pocket hole with 550 cord core so it cannot be lost. Small and functional.
I wouldn’t mind having some char cloth, and a magnifying glass.
Signal mirror.
Guitar string can be thread into your boot laces if you use 550 cord.
Some other stuff, but work calls.
