Millennial Ranger

Chapter 3: Survival Pattern

The average American person consumes food and water every day. Most people have shelter by living in a home of some sort. You acquire your food, water, and shelter by paying for them with the money you earn. Not everyone owns a fireplace or a woodstove in their home, therefore, they use their money to pay the electric or gas bill for heating. When you get in an accident and become injured, you signal Emergency Medical Personnel with your cell phone so that when they arrive they will provide you with medical aid as first responders on the scene. Most people do not require Field Craft Techniques or Prepping to survive their day to day. In America, many people don’t have the knowhow or the capability to defend themselves against a home invasion or a physical attack without calling the police to intervein.

Everyone is using some form of Survival Pattern without any real thought or skill involved. The question is, what happens when the unexpected strikes and you no longer have all of these day to day commodities available to you? Is it possible that a properly prepared person might not require struggling through every single part of the Pattern for survival? A properly prepared person might have everything they need to survive on hand and may not even require venturing out into the world, not immediately at any rate.

A survival pattern is the things you will need in order to survive a situation ranked by level of importance. They are things that you cannot do without if you want to continue to exist, alive, on this earth. They go by; food, water, shelter, fire, first aid, and signal. My survival pattern happens to be slightly different than the one suggested by the US military doctrine; prayer, food, water, shelter, fire, first aid, signal/community, and prepping. (Romans 12:12) Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

For survival, it is important that you master the individual skills of this pattern so that you would be equipped and able to thrive in a survival situation. It is also important to be able to properly develop a pattern for survival based on the situation that you may be facing. For me it always begins with prayer. You may be the same way. Do you pray during takeoff and landing on a plane ride? Have you ever prayed during a real bad storm while seeking shelter? Or perhaps someone who you care about is hurt and in the emergency room because of an injury and all you can do is pray.

Whether or not you realize this, you are currently in a survival situation right now in your everyday life and the dangers could be right in your back yard or just down the street. As civilians living at home in our communities, we have different needs and requirements to survive than that of the people serving in the military. If anything, we have more needs. A soldier fighting in foreign lands has his own list of things he will need to survive. An American soldier on the battlefield is not burdened with the responsibilities of engaging in combat with his family by his side. This is because the battlefield is in someone else’s backyard. Although having a wife and kids or other family members waiting for you back home weighs in heavily on the heart of a soldier at war, their family is not experiencing the same dangers and hardships and for the most part, are safe and sound.

I don’t care who you are, the number one priority for any parent is providing the best care possible to ensure the survival of their children before their own personal survival. This is a tough job as children are not equipped with the decision-making skills and mental discipline necessary to make it on their own, at least not for long term sustainability. Because of this parents are required to focus more of, if not most of, their time and energy monitoring their offspring as opposed to taking care of just themselves.

(Romans 5:3) Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

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(James 1:2-3) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

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(Colossians 1:11) being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience...

These are three examples in the bible where survival is translated into perseverance and endurance. Military personnel have health requirements and physical standards to perform their jobs effectively. On average, not every American citizen has the same physical abilities as the United States Warfighter. Although it is important to set high standards in order to achieve your goals, when dealing with survival, you should also know your limitations; the payoff may not be worth risking your life, limb, or eyesight, or that of your loved ones for that matter. Know your limitations by practicing and challenging your skills before they become a requirement to stay alive. The next time you have a cookout in your backyard, build a fire without the use of a lighter. Challenge yourself daily to learn new skills and to perform new tasks. Go on that hiking trip in the mountains with your friends or family that you always wanted to do. The more you expose yourself to situations slightly outside of your current comfort zone, the more you allow yourself room to grow. You must not limit yourself! In the Infantry, we have a saying about training for combat, “Train how you fight and fight how you train.”