What skills could you offer to a survival group?

How about this: I can drive and hitch a team of horses and can "drive" almost anything that flies from a LBF up to 747- ultimate escape vehicle, gunsmith, expert reloader, blacksmith, welder, shooter, farmer etc etc. but then again this is not a resume nor is it a response to any offer---

 

Falcon brings up a good point... I've been learning to "garden" in our sandy patch for years,I rue the day I have to live out of it...Just buying seeds and a hoe ( ho'??) is not the same as doing it...Same with" I'll head "to the woods" and"just live off the land" comments , just aint as easy as reading a book....
And big001 has a decent comment too. After all:
"Gun kid" may "survive" a nuke strike, but how many folks would want to last two weeks couped up in a shelter with him (i.e. "two men enter; one man leaves"!)??
not to imply I consider myself the "deciderer"...
And what good is just breathing because you're a meaner "sombitch" than the next guy? Victories will be shallow indeed...

 

Same here...

 

I would but I eat them on a nightly bases.

OGM

 

Well I am a CLS and First Responder (the two combined allow me to give IV's and perform childbirth), I was on a disaster response task force as a firefighter, responded to possible chemical incidents in Iraq (when they were blowing up containers of cholorine), certified and trained in the art of Physical Security to enclude CPTED or Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, certified in MOAB (Management Of Aggressive Behavior), worked security at inner city hospital, mental insititue and a few other places. I have haz-mat response training and some field guides to go with. Pretty much my area of expertise is centered around "public safety". If I were to somehow come about living in a community, especially like the one mentioned in "Lights Out", Public Safety with its Emergency Medicine, Fire/Rescue & Haz-Mat along with security concerns is going to be a big priority. Especially if we are not talking a few week at most SHTF, but a TEOTWAWKI scenario. I have the certifications and experience to be anything from the lowly security guard at the gate or on patrol, to being a first responder medicaly (am currently signed up to take EMT class and wilderness first aid through ARC), to being the firefighter, to the fire prevention guy to being the emergency management or public safety coordinator. More or less if its security, EMS or Fire/Rescue I have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. To add to this, if the "community" in which I became part of was close to where I live now. I have a decent cache of medical gear that would put most BLS or EMT only ambulances to shame, and I have some (very limited) chemical detection gear. IF the SHTF tommorrow, my only real weakness would be lack of firearms. I only have a pistol and am gonna be getting a shotgun tommorrow.

 

I know all the prime numbers to six digits and how to shrink heads.

 

gotta applaud the medics,doctors and dentists they are gonna be in huge demand..."Getting Hurt is easy; healing not so...
Sea gets to be quartermaster/ witchdoctor.lol

 

I'm a Lieutenant in the Fire dept with 12+ years experience
Also a Paramedic
Licensed Airframe Mechanic
General Mechanic (car/Bike guy)
Home construction (do all own maintenance including electrical)
Hunter / Outdoors man
Boyscout Leader
CDL driver

 

I could learn alot from you Quigs if I ever grow up...

 

At least eight in our group, (actually family), including 2 teens. The girl can play her mp3 player and generally annoy people, but she can also shoot. The teen boy has little interest in shooting but knows how to play the drums, video games and build with legos. All three of us men are experienced shooters and or reloaders. The women have many skills at cooking, canning, gardening and cutting up meat. Being the most senior member, I know how to lead from the front in most situations. I know how to fix stuff, fell trees, trap, fish, hunt, work with animals, garden, and of course make the coffee....

 

humor and ruggedly handsome good looks

 

This is, as another poster replied, a very interesting and thought provoking thread.
BUT....
I am done-for!!!
After looking through the replies and seeing what skills others have, i have zero chance,?

I am a good blagger / trader so it may be possible i would be of little value to group/s that require that little extra when bartering?
But when that use runs out...i am gonna be "fodder".

Basic / very basic lifesaving skills / first aid (swimming)
Could be usefull in group situations (very diplomatic)
Problem solving
Basic general handy-man (very basic).
er, er er er er well thats it...i think?


CURRENTLY NOW AT DEFCON 6: WARNING SEVERE NEED RE-THINK
INSIDE THE OCCUPIED - ZONE
WITHOUT SKILLS

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared - and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
London is drowning and I, live by the river

​

 

Well I do have to strongly disagree with one thing said here by Falcon and thats

Unless you have spent a great deal of time working under extreme pressure and with people doing this you would be amazed at how the most skilled person can become so engrossed in a problem they overlook simple answers . This kind of pressure doesn't exist while making a Holiday dinner for the family .

Often one who has done a job yet perhaps not in many years can spend a few minutes or even seconds observing an operation and come up with a solution .

What can't be found must be built to return to the normal comforts we are all use to , you would be surprised at the knowledge many people have just from reading and watching even television , documentaries on bygone times often provide information one might never use and forgotten they learned until you find yourself in that unique situation .

In a SHTF it would be good to keep the old saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover" in mind , first impressions are just that a first impression , often when one gets to know a person you find the first impression either good or bad was completely wrong .

Personally in a total collapse of society I think the best skill of all wouldn't necessarily be classified as a skill at all and that would be a strong and true moral compass . A person willing to help those in danger of succumbing to the conditions as long as such help doesn't jeopardies their own groups existence . But note I said help not do for , while they sit on their ass as the government has done for decades with entitlement programs .

 

While you have a valid point, Big, book learning (or tv learning, etc) can only go so far. For example, I've read extensively about and seen documentaries on survival in extreme climates such as the Arctic circle but unless I actually experience such, I can only hope I would remember and survive long enough to be able to put that learning into use! I'd have a better chance, granted, than someone who didn't know what snow looked like, least of all how to use it to your benefit, but without practicum, I'd still be at great risk.

I grew up learning how to build a house from sub-basement up, doing all the plumbing, wiring, etc. It's been several years since I've used those skills, but they stand me in good stead now and again when folks ask for suggestions or when I need to troubleshoot problems (like now with the remodelling). I'm still marginally using the skills. If I had only read about building, yes I'd have an idea, but would have no clue how to adapt to changes or difficulties if need.

Nothing substitutes for actually 'getting your hands dirty', so to speak. You can have all the book learning in the world, watch every flipping documentary ever filmed, talk to all the old-timers and still not be able to *name the skill* if push came to shove. You may see a solution to a perplexing problem, true, but you simply won't have the ability that another holds in actually practicum. It's one of the reasons I learned how to hand spin .... I'd read the books and seen the films and talked to the older folks who recalled their grandmas spinning fibers to make cloth. Not only do I help to keep a dying artform alive, I bridge the gap between modern fast track society and our distant past ...... and enjoy myself whilst doing it .

I do agree that morality will be important BUT morality is a subjective term, rather like sanity or 'good'/'evil'.

 

I have done Cold Weather training in both Norway and Bridgeport Ca. I have done hot weather in 29 palms, & AZ.

 

Could not agree more.

OGM

 

I could see a great deal of truth to both sides of that argument. With some skills it could almost be MORE benificial to have learned it well then NOT used it for a long time to be able to make use of it in a post SHTF situation. An example might be construction for instance. A person who had been doing building every day for years and was a master builder/carpenter in current situations might well find it far more difficult to chuck a bunch of the 'hard and fast' rules of construction out the window to be able to adapt to a post SHTF world. An experienced carpenter is likely to have a harder time shifting his mind to build something that looks like a kids fort out of the junk laying around than a person who has done some construction in the past but didnt do it profesionaly the day before.

OTOH, Some skills really do have to be practiced or lost to varying degrees and if you have NO hands on experience with them then all the bok knowledge means little to nothing. I grew up shooting a bow here and there and would have been far ahead of someone who had read dozens of books on archery but never picked up a bow, 10 years or so ago I got REALLY into archery for a couple years and at least 4-5 days a week I would spend 2 hours or more practiceing. I got to the point that if I shot multiple arrows at the same mark from inside 40 yards I would split shafts of previous arrows nearly 50% of the time. If I missed practiceing for even a week my acuracy went down very noticably but even now when Im doing good to pick up a bow a few times a year I still tend to be better than I was before I put in all that practice.

If a person has acidemic knowledge of a skill but NO hands on with it, in general, they will most likely be ahead of a person who lacks both the hands on and the acidemic but will still notbe likely to come near what someone who has applied the knowledge at least somewhat.

 

The key is to get a good mix of all in your group.