Lessons from Red Dawn
Dr. John Woods 03.01.17
You have likely seen the movie. If not, you’ll have to rent it via Red Box or shop it from old stocks of CDs. I mean even the star Patrick Swayze has now passed on. Without ruining it for you, the basic element of the story was a Russian invasion of the western United States. The film depicted what happened in Colorado in particular.
One family of high school students and friends were forced to escape into the mountains to outlive the invasion. Though they formed a sort of quasi fighting force they called the Wolverines, the story here is more about the survival elements and what we might could learn from it.
Given this particular SHTF hit one fall afternoon when most people were thinking about the Friday night football game, not escaping for their lives up into the hostile mountains with no planning, little equipment and bare bones supplies. But then isn’t that just the way most SHTF’s happen?
In the mayhem of the escape, the teens visit a sporting goods store to gather up what they can. An old family friend provides them with some food and gives them horses to get up into the mountains along with two grandchildren, both girls. They basically carry off what was on their backs and the horses. Certainly a fictional account for sure.
In the mountains, the group creates a sort of camp, which was basically just a campfire around which they huddled close. They had canned foods, but it seems little else. Their number one mistake was having no shelter whatsoever, not even a tent or a cover tarp to get out of the elements. Their bug out came so fast, they simply did not have time to think things through in terms of their needs. Thus showing how critical pre-planning and supplying can be.
Their camp scene was extremely meager. They had no cooking utensils it appears, or much else. A couple of the kids had sleeping bags, but not all. Collecting gear, clothing, supplies, and some food became a matter of scrounging, mainly from surprise attacks on the roving Russian military patrols and caravans. That is a tough way to gather supplies.
Though movies like this are fictional, one never knows what reality might bring. The take away is the prepping aspect. Be ready, be supplied, and be equipped for even a minimal survival existence.
