The Basic BOB

 

 

The Basic BOB is meant to be carried every day, and is geared towards an urban or suburban environment. This is something that, since it is meant for everyday carry, must be comfortable, rugged, and useful in daily life.

 

A real life application of an everyday Basic BOB to illustrate the idea of its use would be the World Trade Center incident in September of 2001. There were many who were left stranded for greater than 24 hours with just their clothes and wallets, and the wallets weren’t working. Services were interrupted, and many people were on their own in a hostile environment. The air wasn’t safe to breathe and their was no ready haven.

 

Another example was the Aum Shirinynko nerve gas attack in Tokyo. People could not access mass transit and were effectively stranded for up to 48 hours while the subways were checked.

 

Lastly one should remember the Bhopal disaster. Huge clouds of cyanide gas were vented and many were forced to flee their homes with nothing but their clothes.

 

This sort of BOB is easy and very worthwhile to assemble. A small briefcase or book bag sized rucksack is not only a useful everyday carrier, it also will fail to draw the eye of most passersby.

 

 

Here is what you need in general, feel free to add or subtract:

 

  1. The bag itself. We suggest something inconspicuous and easy to carry, but with an appreciable load capacity. A medium sized briefcase will suffice, but try to get a North Face or Jansport type bag that college students use as book bags. The bags will have extra external and internal pockets which will come in handy for little things you need to get to quickly such as toilet paper or food. The bags often come with Fastex buckles which allow the bearer to externally attach other items allowing the user to customize his carry. A good place to get this sort of gear is Eastern Mountain Sports at www.EASTERNMOUNTAINSPORTS.com.

 

  1. A Leatherman Supertool or something similar as mentioned in the Minimalist BOB.

 

  1. Spare glasses. If you wear glasses get a spare set and put them in. If you wear contacts, get a pair of glasses and store them in the bag. In an abrasive or caustic atmosphere you can seriously damage your eyes with contacts, and you may not be able to clean your hands enough to replace dirty or lost lenses. So, glasses it is. An excellent and useful item for this is RecSpec. These are prescription recreation and sports glasses/goggles that can’t fall off your head and get lost. Ask about them at your optometrist, or read about them here- www.sportingeyes.com/recspecs.htm .

 

  1. One roll of toilet paper. Never be without at least one roll of toilet paper. For ease of carry remove the cardboard tube and smash it flat. Then take it and put it into a ziplock bag. Express the air from the bag and seal it tightly. If you are ever in a position where there is no TP, you will thank us for this one.

 

  1. A Zippo multifuel lighter or an unopened drug store butane lighter. If you don’t smoke you may never need it, but fire is man’s most basic tool, so get it and have it. If you get the Zippo, remember extra flints and fuel.

 

  1.  Food. Have some power bars or some cookies. The best way to figure your needs is to miss lunch, then see if one or two packs of Oreos or a power bar or two takes most of the edge off. The prepackaged cheese and crackers snacks for kids are a good idea also. For this author a package of 8 Fig Newtons is sufficient for a few hours. Plan on a 48 hour period of relying on your BOB. Have six very small meals, each in its own ziplock bag. Eat them once a month and restock so they don’t go bad on you.

 

  1.  Water.  Have a minimum of 4 20 ounce bottles. If you can stomach warm Gatorade, get that instead. Most hunger pains are actually thirst, so try drinking a half a bottle of fluid with each mini meal you eat.

 

  1. Medicine. Be absolutely certain you have any daily meds you take. This may be something you have to put into and remove from the bag each day, but don’t forget them. If the medicine you take is not easily perishable and not a controlled substance, get your doctor to write an extra prescription and keep a spare bottle, that you rotate out monthly, in the bag at all times.

 

  1. Space blanket. There are emergency blankets that fold up to about the size of a sandwich. They are inexpensive and very warm. They are also usually waterproof. Get one or two. www.SPORTSMANSGUIDE.com

 

  1. Toothbrush and toothpaste. This is optional, but performing personal hygiene can make you feel worlds better in a bad situation. Put them in a ziplock bag together.

 

  1. Money. A spare $100.00 is a very good idea. At the very least get a roll of quarters for vending machines since they may work in the absence of electricity. Be aware that money may not have much value in a true SHTF situation. This author experienced Hurricane Luis on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean in 1995. You couldn’t get food or gasoline with a 2 carat ruby. I know, I tried. Remember that money is a good idea, but it only works in a civilized paradigm. 

 

  1.  Deodorant. Very optional. This only applies if you are from the US. Other countries don’t seem to want it.

 

  1.  Spare clothing.  This is optional, but not a bad idea. At the very least you will want some spare socks sitting snug in a ziplock bag.

 

  1. Personal protection. Get the strongest pepper spray you can find and rotate stock every six months or so. If the button gets pushed, get rid of it. The can will leak. www.PEPPERSPRAYINC.com

 

  1. Firearm. If you live in a free state, get a concealed carry waiver so that you can carry your weapon without fear of arrest. If you are in a state where the rights of all people are not recognized, rely on the pepper spray. For a BOB firearm, the suggestion is for a something reliable. It has to go boom every time the trigger is pulled. A compact lightweight revolver such as Taurus or Smith & Wesson makes may be the ticket. Firearms are a very personal sort of equipment, and if you don’t know anything about them, get help and get good teaching.  At the very least get a small semi-auto .22LR pistol and learn how to use and maintain it. Keep it in a holster or case so the sights and trigger can’t be bumped. Any gun is better than no gun when people around you lose their minds.

 

  1.  Feminine hygiene. Get some maxipads. Remember they can be used as pressure bandages.

 

  1. Pencil and paper. Being able to write a note can be very necessary at times. You may need to write down a license plate or a description for the police, so get a small wire bound 3”x5” notebook and put it in a Ziplock with a pencil.

 

  1. Band-Aids. Always a good idea. Stick 10 or so in a ziplock bag and seal it tight.

 

  1.  Radio and batteries. A cheap transistor radio can be a big help. If nothing else it can tell you if there are road or bridge closings or if there is a shelter nearby. Make sure the radio isn’t a flimsy headset design that will break with rough handling, and make sure it is a RADIO, not a CD or an MP3 player when you buy it. Put the radio and batteries in ziplock bags.

 

  1. A flashlight. Just as described in the minimalist BOB, get a small AA or AAA battery using Mini Mag-Lite or a LED keying. 

 

  1. A respirator. This is optional. Lowes, Home Depot, and other hardware stores stock painter’s respirators that run about $15.00 USD. They use replaceable canister filters that are really very good for what they are. This isn’t a gas mask of course, but if there is a lot of stuff in the air these cans will help keep it out of your lungs, especially dust in the event of a nuke or radiological “dirty” bomb. You may expect a sudden peak in the numbers of lung disorders among survivors of the NYC WTC collapse in about 2011 or so. Those folks breathed in a lot of bad stuff, and it is reasonable to believe they will have had their lives cut short by it. A respirator doesn’t weigh much, is about as big as a fist, and is cheap insurance. Get one and put it into a ziplock bag.

 

  1. Soap. One or two bars of hotel sized soap can help with cleaning hands before eating or for just getting yourself a little cleaner. This is especially helpful in the event of a small wound. It may hurt to wash a scrape or cut, but it is the best way to avoid infection.

 

  1. A fork and a spoon. Eating with your hands isn’t just bad manners, it is a health hazard. Remember the Four F’s of Food Sanitation: Fingers, Face, Flies, and Feces. Getting food poisoning when you have no ready way to care for yourself can be very problematic. Even freshly washed hands can carry enough bacteria to make you ill in dirty conditions, thus poor personal hygiene coupled with a failure of civil sanitation is a recipe for trouble.  If you have a regular metal fork and spoon, you can sidestep this large potential problem. Put them in a ziplock so they won’t get lost and put them in the bag. You can make a cup if needed by cutting the top off a plastic pop bottle, or by using you can opener on a soft drink can.

 

It is suggested that you put like items in like places so you don’t have to hunt around too much. Hygiene stuff in one pocket, food in another pocket, etc. Always strive to be logical so that when you are under stress, you won’t have to solve any puzzles.

 

All together this should take up about ½ to ¾ of the space in your bag. This will allow you to carry regular day to day stuff as well, so you will feel more inclined to tote it around. This is an important point. If you don’t want to carry this thing, you won’t. If you don’t carry it, it does you no good. A daily BOB is just like your pants, you don’t leave home without it. It has to be an automatic act when you leave home that your bag is on your shoulder or your case is in your hand. Once you have reached the point where carrying this thing is a natural act, you will have met the most difficult challenge to being prepared on a daily basis.

 

Again, don’t be afraid to add or subtract items that you want or need. This list is based upon a MINIMUM of what would be needed, and may not address your personal needs.

 

 

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