Urban Survival Skills – OP/LP’s and Training your Survival Group

In previous posts on Urban Survival Home Defense and Preparation we briefly discussed Observation Posts/Listening Posts (OP/LPs) and the requirements for these positions to be in a place where they could observe, listen and report on any potential threat moving towards your Urban/Suburban or Safe location. 

 

Again, OP/LP’s should have a covered and concealed route from the Home or Base Camp to their position.  The OP/LP positions themselves should be covered and concealed positions to avoid detection from advancing threats.   And they should have a means of communications from their position to the home or Base Camp.  In keeping with PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency), multiple means of communications is necessary to ensure OP/LP’s can perform as you need them to, primarily reporting the presence of a Threat.  

 

A simple reporting format based on the Army SALUTE format will work for most any OP/LP’s in a survival scenario.  The SALUTE report format is:

S – Size (Size of group)

A – Activity (What the Threat is doing)

L – Location (where is the Threat – what direction and distance from the OP/LP)

U – Unit and/or Uniform (this refers to who the Threat is, if that can be determined, and how they are dressed)

T – Time (time of report)

E – Equipment (primarily what weapons and vehicles that the Threat is equipped with).    

 

The easiest type of OP/LP would be one or more located on or in the home or Base Camp, such as in a second story window or on the roof to enable the height or elevation necessary to view longer distance and see the threat coming at the earliest opportunity.  Communications from an integral OP/LP is much easier than from a remote OP/LP, plus it allows you keep your combat power on site and useable – which may be important for a small Survival Group.  Without any electronic communications means such as radios, landline field phone or electric or battery powered horns, an OP/LP at your home can use a pull string with a bell or even a series of tin cans filled with rocks can be activated for an alert. 

 

It is not simply a matter of selecting an OP/LP and telling them to report what they see.  You have to train them to use any observation device you have available such as binoculars, spotting scopes, night vision devices, etc. 

 

One of the best methods to train your Survival Group to perform as a viable member of an OP/LP team is through Observation Exercises. 

 

All members of the Survival Group should be able to use all common observation devices you have on hand.  Teach them scanning and searching techniques with these devices, both day and night.     

 

The first step in an Observation drill is to position the OP/LP members in the selected OP/LP position or a like position.  Have them draw a Sector Sketch of the area of responsibility for that post.  This trains them to develop sector sketches and sketching in general but also familiarizes them with the objects in their field of view or area of responsibility. 

 

Then, send them away from the OP/LP position, and emplace objects in the field of view or area of responsibility.  Such objects can be soda cans, tools, toys or anything else that is small and hard to see, but clearly visible from the OP/LP.

 

Bring back the OP/LP members and have them use their naked eyes and observation devices to try and find what is the different in their area of responsibility,…what stands out,…what doesn’t belong there.

 

They should be looking for shine, straight lines or patterns and also movement will help cue to them to the object or threat.   

 

When defending the Urban Home, you are going to be at a disadvantage already, not to make use of any advantage you can glean.   Knowing the terrain, emplacing OP/LP’s where they detect the threat at the maximum possible distance will all help your Urban Survival Home defense.     

 

You should have an emergency evacuation plan for the OP/LP, so in case they get compromised they can return safely to the Home or Base Camp.  This plan may include route to use, and, passwords or visual signals (colored or blinking lights) to identify themselves as friendly.   

 

Comments on Night Time Observation:

 

At night, especially at remote OP/LP’s, team members may have an enhanced sense of isolation.  This can manifest itself into seeing things that aren’t there or neglecting their duties to detect threats and give early warning.  Being forewarned of this may help you ensure your task organization or OP/LP team makeup can reduce this possibility. 

 

Also at night, the human eye sees differently.   The eye uses cells on the periphery of the eye, called rods, which creates a type of blind spot in the center of the eye. This can cause someone to stare at one spot and produce images of an object moving when it is not, or even cause the observer to miss the object.  Scanning techniques will help reduce this.  Lateral scanning by systemically, viewing at a slowly moving pace, from left to right, then right to left, or in a vertical “S” shaped pattern of bottom to top, top to bottom, and repeating itself until the observer has completed a scan through the entire area of responsibility.   

Urban Survival Skills – Land Navigation, Resection Using a Compass

Our previous map reading posts were meant as an orientation to the individual new to Urban Survival Preparation and we will continue to drip land navigation tips and skills. The intent is for the fledgling Urban Survivor to practice these techniques and tips, first in a controlled environment building to a rehearsal like practice either on similar terrain to, or the actual terrain he/they may be moving through if withdrawing from their urban location to their prepared safe location.

The technique in this post is called resecting your position from a known point. The military calls this intersection and resection. It is basically locating two (or more) terrain features on the map then finding them visually. These terrain features should be easy to pick out and will most probably be hills, mountain peaks or can even be man made structures that are annotated on your map.

Again, resection is used to determine your unknown position by determining lines of bearing or azimuths from known terrain features.

The steps are:

From your unknown position you determine two or three terrain features, ideally 120 degrees apart, that you can locate on the map.

You shoot a compass azimuth from your unknown position to each terrain feature, then compute the back azimuth. The back azimuth is simply your azimuth plus 180 degrees or minus 180 degrees. If you are at an unknown point and can identify a mountain both visually and on the map and you shoot a compass azimuth from your unknown point to the Mountain, lets say the magnetic compass azimuth is 170 degrees, you can determine that from you to the Mountain the direction is 170 degrees magnetic and from the Mountain to you the magnetic azimuth is 350 degrees magnetic (170 degrees plus 180 degrees).

You will have to convert the magnetic azimuth to a grid azimuth (see previous post), then plot (on your map) a line coming from the mountain at 350 degrees. Your unknown position is somewhere on that 350 degree line of bearing that you plotted.

If you find another terrain feature and do the same, you will have two lines of bearing (or back azimuths) that cross. Where they cross is your unknown position.

Again, from each known terrain feature plot the back azimuth on the map, after converting for G-M angle. Where the lines intersect is your unknown, now known, position.

New Urban Survival Skills Feature - Leeds on Finance

Provided to us by an associate who in involved in Finance and is a shooter as well (you know who you are R.F.), UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has inserted a link, underneath our header, to Leeds' financial blog. We find his analysis easy to read for us knuckle draggers and very much appreciate his insight. Plus we approve of his Marine Corps standard haircut. You can also access his site by going to: http://leedsonfinance.com/

Sandy Leeds, CFA is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches graduate level classes in the MBA program and also serves as President of The MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C. Prior to teaching, he had careers as a lawyer and a money manager. He did his undergraduate work at The University of Alabama and also has a law degree from The University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Texas. At UT, he has received many teaching awards, including Outstanding Professor in the MBA Program. He is married and has three children.

If you have read this site very much at all, you'll understand that we believe heavily in Planning and a plan without incoming information and analyzing that information, or otherwise planning in an Intelligence vacuum, is setting yourself up for failure.

Keeping on top by analyzing the financial trends will allow you to craft a better plan, make better priorities and adjust your Urban Survival Planning and Preparation timeline as necessary.

After Armageddon 9 of 9 - A History Channel Program and Lessons Leaned

The last chapter in the After Armageddon series shows Chris, his wife Ellen and son Casey still at their new Idaho home two years after the pandemic. Chris' infection from a cut gets worse and he dies.

After the initial pandemic dies out, people will be dying from disease hereforto treatable with modern medicine and anti-biotics. Not only will there not be much medicines available, if any at all, the people and infrastructutre that creates these medicines may be completely decimated. Survivors will have to be careful and make full use of natural anti-biotics and medicines.

The Web Master at http://www.homeremediesandnutrition.com is posting some information on natural anti-biotics and medicines.

The chapter continues 25 years later as Chris' son Casey is grown up and thinking back on the collapse.



The commentators correctly reflect that education and skills, after society settles from a collapse, would become much more practical. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com believes that this practical knowledge needs to start now. Do you know how to grow crops? Raise livestock? Can you handle firearms? Do you have firearms and ammunition, not to mention food stocks, tools, appropriate clothing and footwear and above all, a plan in case a collapse hits?

What would you do in a World without Law and Order? What would happen to you if you are forced to abandon not only your home, but your way of life, and, perceptions about and goals for your future? Where would you go? What would you be prepared to do? How would you survive?