Every Citizen a Soldier

 Pressure dressings, also known as battle dressings or trauma dressings are a piece of first aid gear that include an absorbent material and the means to fix it over a wound. This means some gauze and an elastic wrap. This idea has been around at least since WWI. Essentially it is supposed to allow you to apply direct pressure to a wound in order to stop bleeding. In many cases the tourniquet has supplanted the pressure dressing as the go-to first aid response in any place it can be applied, but pressure dressings certainly have their place in first aid kits. There may be instances where a TQ can not be applied, or does not need to be applied. The pressure dressing has evolved a lot in the last 20 years and in this article I want to list the three most common products on the civilian market in the US. I will list what I see as the major advantages of each design so that you might be able to purchase a few for your (hopefully non) use. These are all in the under $10 range so...

  A Note on Training: This article will cover a wide variety of gear and supplies. I believe that certain levels of training are required to properly employ various bits of such equipment. Some of it, you might be OK with what your mama taught you or what you learned in the BSA. But as we approach the more serious level of equipment you need to have learned from, and practiced under, the supervision of a trauma professional. If you are carrying around a tourniquet or decompression needles and you have never properly learned how to use them, you are making yourself a shit-sandwich that you will have to eat on the worst day of your life. “ Normal” First Aid First Aid Supplies The household, vehicle or camping first aid kit probably doesn't have a lot of trauma oriented supplies. I call these the “BooBoo Kit.” These are arguably your most important items, because (we hope) you will never need the trauma gear. There are a lot of these commercially available, however I like to as...

  “ Stronger People are harder to kill and more useful in general.” The US Army realized, some time between the first and second world wars, that the most cost effective way to up combat survival is physical fitness. I think that before WWII the United States was still primarily an agricultural nation. As such, recruits would be more likely to be fit at the time of induction. This is, obviously, not the case today. With our sedentary lifestyles and easy access to more wasteful calories, an American civilian is more likely to be unfit, often grossly so. This is a huge obstacle for the defense of our nation and our rights. There are several reasons why this is true. Being out of shape severely limits your tactical options. Shoot-move-communicate, these are the things you have to do in a fight, being out of shape makes it harder to do all of them. Being very out of shape basically limits you to dyeing in place in anything but a simple home defense situation. A person can learn m...