• Buy these in order to adequately plan the route.
• Measure SPC T. for appropriate size of pack and purchase.
• Measure SPC K. for appropriate pack size and purchase.
• Purchase sleeping back for SPC T. (? purchase Snugpak VTS, TENNIER MSS, Slumberjack MSS or Slumberjack SVCSS for all team members?   ? Include bivy bag?)
• Sleeping pad for SPC T. (open-cell/self-inflate?  Closed-cell?)
• Start hiking training.  Goal: 10 miles/day within 9 months w/full load.
• Inventory all gear.

That's all I can think of for now.  More will be added as they come to mind.

Operational Orders have been received. 

Standing by for "go" order coming May 2008....

So I won't.  Much.

We had a gathering at the homestead last weekend.  Most of those in attendance were firearm advocates (at least) and/or Civil War reenactors.  Obviously, that means that most of them are at least familiar with more than one kind of firearm.

The most pasifistic of the lot, a slightly older lady (Maybe mid 40's), vegetarian, special-education school teacher casually asked if anyone of the assembled group had any idea what needed to be done to get a new Firearm Owners Identification card.  Silly me, since I've declared war against the local squirrel population, happened to have the exact form and information to hand.

The Missus looks over at our friend, gapes for a moment, then puts her head in her hands, muttering "I'm loosing the no-firearms argument, aren't I?"  One of the other women in attendance smirks and agrees.

Now, I can start researching firearms in the open! :D

Well, this is coming up this weekend.  At this point, I think I've done all of the planning that I can, now need to give it a real go.

I haven't yet actually worked any of this out.  It's going to be entirely experimental, but should be a rolic, in any event.

Since I'm acting as chaperon for a group of very young paramilitary personnel, I'll be playing with some skills that I've been wanting to try out, too.  Specifically, fire-making.  The equipment list is, obviously, a preliminary set.  I expect to have the need to go back and revisit some of the items.  On some items, I've packed duplicates to try different items.  I also plan on taking stuff to cook at least one meal on-site.  MREs are OK, but this is really an equipment shake-down to see where any glaring holes are, as well as an  experimentation trip for me.

Also, in addition to my "main" pack, I'll be taking along a North Face "Chameleon" hydration pack as well, to be a "daypack" for around the site.  Since I'll be giving some instruction on wilderness survival, I might as well be prepared for anything.  Man, I want that Xray and ZXR I mentioned in another post.

Note to self: Gotta get less bulky with the layers  The sweatshirt I've got packed is actually a job-shirt.  It's nicely warm, but heavy and bulky.  Also need to get baselayer and midlayer before end of week.  Also need to pack my Buck fixed blade knife.

( Packed equipment list behind the cut. )

Oh, man.  I have serious gear-lust for a couple of packs from Kifaru.  They're all essentially custom made (that is, made to measure, in different models) and their prices are high, and delivery is estimated to take between 6 and 8 weeks.

The first one that I want to get is the Xray in "foliage gray.  This is a nice sized pack for general "day-pack" use and for "walking around" and school uses.  The color is considered a "custom" color, and adds a 10% premium to the cost. The "non-premium" colors are "coyote brown" and olive drab.  Both are, in my opinion... Icky.  Without a waist-belt, the Xray comes to just over $300.00

What's even more lustful, though, is the "Zulu Extreme Ruck" with the "Extreme top lid" which can double as a "go-bag" with the addition of the shoulder strap.  The ZXR with "XTL" (again, in foliage) comes to about $575.00 

However, the crowning achievement of these packs is the fact that the Xray can be "piggy-backed" onto the ZXR.  Kick ass!  Total volume of more than 90 liters and the ability of breaking it all out into four different, discrete capacity units.  Whee!  I've currently got a pack with a volume of about 65 liters.  It was cheap, and filled the need at the time, but I'm not terribly fond of it.  Maybe I can pawn it off on SPC T come Spring, and replace it (for me) with either the Xray or ZXR.

Urban Dead is a "bad" game.  I love it. :) 

My character profile

Unless you play the game, this post is nothing of interest to you, but I just got enough XP that I could "buy" the "diagnose" skill in-game.  I started with the "first aid" skill, since I took a medic character, and have been having a slow time gaining XP.  IT should be going MUCH better, now that I can see other people's health levels!

Starting plans to hold an escape & evasion-scenario FTX for part of the company.  It's probably going to take place in the Spring, since these things take time to plan adequately.  Not only that, but most of us are sadly lacking in the PT category.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking a 3-day weekend (Friday afternoon/Sat/back on Sun evening) including a trail hike of somewhere around 10 miles (maybe over 2 days, not sure) and starting campfires "the hard way".

Going to have to get gear for at least one of the squad-members, SPC T between now and then.  I don't know what SSG E has on hand, I need to check in with him.  I also need to review what SPC K has, and determine what we need to hit up the quartermaster for.

Pvt K is in no way ready for a FTX, and CPT B isn't keen on these sort of things, so it falls to me to plan, schedule and execute it.  I think that I can probably rely on SSG E to assist.  In my perfect world, I'd be able to have SGT K, CPT B and PVT K participate in the FTX, but I don't think that's going to happen yet.  Maybe after I pull off a couple of successful ones, I'll be able to convince them to come along.

In the mean time, I've got SPC T looking through some planning manuals for food prep.   It'll be interesting to see what she comes up with.

For now, this is 1SG ZEDU medic, signing off