Alex Hollings

The glaring problem with your plan to defend your home

It’s not at all uncommon to find articles breaking down the proper techniques you should employ when clearing your home, just like it’s easy to find articles discussing and debating what the best possible firearms are for that specific (and dangerous) set of circumstances. I love reading these pieces and participating in the dialogue they encourage, but all too often, I’m left with the uneasy feeling that the debate is going on between a strange combination of experienced veterans, well trained amateurs… and idiots that fancy themselves cowboys. Of course, not all idiots are bad guys, some are just woefully inexperienced, under-trained, and overconfident. In a lot of ways, you could use those same three adjectives to describe me doing just about anything half the time I’m doing it. Being an idiot only becomes really dangerous when you don’t realize you’re doing it.

And that’s where home defense comes in. It’s become apparent to me that most home defense strategies are predicated on the idea that you’ll have ready access to your firearm and the advantage of knowing your home when an intruder breaks in. From there, many articles suggest that it’s just a matter of slicing the pie through doorways and careful execution of your room clearing plan (that would optimally already be worked out) until you’ve neutralized all the bad guys and can call it a night. After all, that’s what John Wick would do.

The truth of the matter is, if the extent of your tactical training comes from watching YouTube videos and occasionally going through the motions in your house with your kid’s Nerf gun, clearing your home during a break in is an absolutely terrible idea. You have no idea how many opponents you’ll be facing, what they’re armed with, what sort of training or equipment they may have, or where exactly they’ll be coming from (assuming your house, like most, has multiple entrances). Your home-field advantage dissipates quickly the minute you find yourself creeping through the kitchen and realize there are bad guys both in front of and behind you.

As for firepower, three guns almost always beats one, even if you’ve got a very expensive boomstick you’ve been itching to try out. While you’re engaging one target, you often leave yourself exposed to be hit by the others. There’s a reason the U.S. military doesn’t use the one-man Rambo approach to house clearing even when sending in highly trained special operators: numbers matter. The more support you have, the more likely you are to survive an encounter. With no support and an unknown number of assailants, your effort to “clear the house” is really just putting you in harm’s way.

There’s a reason the military trains to clear houses as a team: because it’s too dangerous to do alone unless you absolutely must. (US Marines)

So, what do you do when you hear a break in? I won’t lie to you — I’ve had a break in and I took off after the sound of broken glass with my pistol in hand and hate in my heart. In hindsight, I was lucky. Our house was broken into by a young punk with a head full of drugs and a healthy fear of his Marine neighbor carrying a 9mm. If it had been an armed assailant with more than my X-box on his mind, I could have been riddled with holes before I cleared the stairwell.

Sometimes you’ll have no choice but to move from one room to another during a break in: You’ll need to get to your family and your firearm. Once you’ve got both, don’t bother moving through the house like Solid Snake trying to take down the bad guys one by one. Instead, put yourself in a solidly defensible position, keep your family around the corner, out of sight, and behind whatever cover you can find. Call the police and keep them on the line. Then, if need be, open fire to keep the home intruders from entering the room you’re all hiding in. The best place for you to take cover is somewhere that allows you as clear a line of sight of their approach as possible, while allowing for as little exposure to your opponents as possible. Stake out your house ahead of time and identify spots like that so you can more easily locate them when the adrenaline starts pumping.

With no support, every angle is your responsibility and there’s no one there to watch your back. (US Marines)

Remember, drywall doesn’t stop bullets, and neither will your kitchen table, couch, or mattress. Real cover needs to be legitimately solid (steel, concrete, a stack of logs) — so if you’re lacking in real cover, do your best with staying low and keeping the intruders back until help arrives.

Stay on the line with the police, even if you have to drop the phone to defend yourself. Keeping the line open will help them to understand what’s going on in the room for when the responding officers arrive. Remember, in this defensive position, you really are fighting for your life and the lives of your family. Most intruders will run rather than get shot or arrested, so anyone that’s willing to exchange gunfire with you to get into your bedroom likely has something worse in mind than stealing your wife’s jewelry.

If you’ve got the training and the confidence, clear your house the way you’ve been taught. But if you’re a normal mortal with a gun, your best bet is finding a defensible position and waiting for backup. It could save your life.

Feature image: Courtesy of InformedMag.com via Flickr

Watch: This is what full-color night vision looks like

There is no question that night vision technology has revolutionized the way wars are fought, particularly among America’s special operations community. That said, anyone who’s been stuck wearing the sort of night vision goggles (NVGs) that find their way into the hands of conventional forces can attest that television rarely provides an accurate portrayal of how tough it can be to function with them strapped to your head.

The wearer must often adjust the focus of the goggles by hand, which means removing at least one hand from one’s weapon. It also means that without constant adjustments, one’s field of view lacks any real sense of depth. Aside from the constant need for adjustments, the wearer’s complete lack of peripheral vision (with the exception of the alien-looking L-3 setup used by special operators) makes night vision only slightly less dangerous than closing your eyes and hoping you don’t trip.

Of course, these problems aren’t because the technology for better night vision doesn’t exist; it’s simply a matter of making the technology more cost effective so conventional troops can get their hands on more capable gear for less money. The need just isn’t there for conventional troops to receive the latest and greatest in NVG tech, but with each advancement in this realm comes a reduction in cost for last year’s breakthroughs.

And let there be no mistake, there have been breakthroughs. Night vision has historically come in shades of green—that’s not a tech issue, but a human one. The human eye, adept as it is at interpreting reflected light as the world around us, can only register and process so much at once. Through extensive experimentation, shades of green proved to be easiest for the human eye to distinguish between, and as such, green was adopted as the monochrome color of choice for night vision tech. In truth, these goggles could display images in any color depending on how we built them—it would just limit our ability to interpret the images on the lens.

But what if we could do away with that monochrome idea altogether? After all, the human eye is great at picking out threats against a well-lit, daytime backdrop. That’s where SPi Infrared’s X28 night vision system comes in.

This video was recorded at around midnight, with no lighting beyond what can be seen in the distance:

Or how about this video of the beach, also taken in the middle of the night? When the camera pans up, you can see cloud cover with light stars behind it.

These images were recorded using SPi’s camera, which is not currently available as a wearable night vision rig, but as this technology continues to mature, it’s likely America’s special operations troops will soon enjoy the same level of detail and clarity during nighttime operations as they do during the day. As for the conventional side, chances are good they’ll be upgraded to something that keeps them from tripping over their own feet in the years to come, too.

Originally published on NEWSREP

Watch: Ever wonder what a tank could do to your old SUV?

Here in the U.S., we tend to only see large armored vehicles like tanks parked at local National Guard installations. They resemble large metal works of art, rather than the mighty war machines they truly are. Even if you happen to spot a tank scooting around the Motor T lot, the chances you’ll see one firing its main gun are about the same as winning the lottery while getting struck by lightning. As a result, it’s sometimes hard to really appreciate the sheer power of these vehicles.

We’ve watched footage of tank-on-tank action in the deserts of the Middle East, and we’ve seen shots of modern tanks firing at static targets on test ranges. But it’s not every day you get to see a tank decimate your aunt’s Land Rover. Watching a tank shoot a tank may offer important insight into how armored platforms stack up, but it’s only after seeing a video like this that you understand just how destructive even old, outdated tank platforms really are when stacked up against things normal folks cruise around in every day.

Watch: Ever wonder what a tank could do to your old SUV? — FullMag

Enter the YouTube channel FullMag, which got a hold of a M60 Patton tank, and a Land Rover LR3 that was a bit long in the tooth. FullMag let these two vehicles–both renown for their off-road capabilities–work out differences the old-fashioned way: with a 105mm tank round.

The shot hits the Land Rover’s passenger side fender and creates an explosion of parts and debris that’s eerily reminiscent of a person taking a round to the head: the fender remains largely intact while the engine, along with wheel and suspension components, is blown out the other side.

These guys may have destroyed the front end of the SUV, but there was still plenty of truck left. So they rolled in a recoilless rifle, pointed it at the rear side of the poor vehicle, and let ‘er rip.

In the end, you could argue that FullMag gave us some important insight into how even long-dated weapons of war stack up against the daily drivers we traverse our urban jungles with, but let’s be honest: any philosophical discoveries we may be able to glean likely won’t set in until after you tire of just watching an SUV get blown to pieces.

Watch the full video below:

Feature image captured from included YouTube video

Watch: After crashing in the wilderness, pilot films his efforts to get rescued

On July 27, pilot Matt Lehtinen found himself living his worst nightmare. While flying alone in his single-prop aircraft over the remote Quebec wilderness, the plane suffered a mechanical failure that put it into an unrecoverable descent. After crashing into the dense forest (using parachutes to slow his fall), some people might have taken a moment to lament their luck — but Lehtinen instead pulled out a camera and set to work putting on a clinic on how exactly to get rescued.

“I’m just going to take this vlog so people can learn from this experience, so something good can come out of it,” Lehtinen says in the video after showing the aircraft embedded in the trees. For bush pilots and those who regularly travel over remote wilderness, surviving the crash is often the least of their worries. With so much ground to cover, even large scale search efforts often yield no signs of lost aircraft or their crews.

Lehtinen’s level-headedness and quick thinking, however, helped secure his rescue in just a matter of hours. First, he sent out an SOS distress call, then immediately set to work trying to locate his First Aid kit and signal flares. Then, he started a fire to mark his location with smoke. It’s worth noting that he started the fire using a Bic lighter he had in the console of the aircraft. All too often, people tend to overthink fire in a survival situation, opting to carry and use elaborate fire-starting gear while utterly forgetting about readily available sources of fire we often have handy.

The most important part of his effort, however, came by way of his satellite communicator (he used a Garmin inReach), which he was able to use to communicate with his family and coordinate a rescue response.

Before long, a low flying C-130 swoops in overhead, confirming for Lehtinen that help is indeed on its way. Within five hours after the crash, a rescue helicopter arrives, and Lehtinen is on his way home. He concludes his video by thanking the Canadian Royal Air Force, Mounted Police, Search and Rescue, Air Traffic Control and local law enforcement for their combined efforts in finding and rescuing him. He signs off, “You are my heroes, and you saved my life. Sincerely, a grateful American.”

This video offers a number of important lessons, like the value of carrying a satellite communicator — but unlike so many guide books, how-to’s, and pamphlets, it shows how keeping your head and relying on your training can help get you through an actual bad situation. Lehtinen didn’t offer up hypothetical solutions, he got to work and made his own luck. More often than not, that’s exactly what it takes to survive.

We all make our own sandwiches: A short story about life that got me through the Marine Corps

Two construction workers were hired for the same big job, and although they didn’t know each other, they soon started eating lunch together during their breaks. Each day, the two men would take a seat near their work, pop open the lunch boxes they brought from home, and exchange pleasant, if not superficial, conversation about their day as they ate and rested.

Each day, as both men opened their lunch boxes to survey what was inside, one would audibly sigh and exclaim, “God, I hate tuna fish.” He would then reluctantly pull the plastic wrapped sandwich out of the box, begrudgingly unwrap it, and unhappily chew away at the white bread, tuna, and mayonnaise combination, seemingly willing to weather yet another terrible meal in favor of staving off starvation. Finally, after a week of watching the same spectacle each day, the second construction worker interrupted the daily ceremony of tuna fish and misery:

“Hey man, if you hate tuna fish so much, why don’t you just ask your old lady to make something else?” He asked his lunchtime compatriot.

“Old lady? I’m not married?” The first man replied through a mouthful of his least favorite lunch.

“Then who keeps making you that?” The second man asked.

“Me.” Came the reply. “I make my own sandwiches.”

If I’m being honest, I’m not sure anymore where I first heard that story. It may have been in a book, or maybe it was conveyed to me by some older, wiser guy that spotted me wandering through life with a downtrodden look on my face… but wherever it came from, this short story about two construction workers eating lunch would go on to change the entire course of my life for the better.

At first glance, the story almost seems nonsensical: why would someone continue to make themselves the same lunch, day after day, despite hating it? What type of person would do such a thing? In terms of sandwiches, perhaps not many of us. In terms of life choices, however, I believe it’s something that we all do.

Your tuna fish sandwich may be continuing to work in a job that you hate, ignoring the bills stacking up in your mailbox, eating a third piece of cake despite knowing that you’re full. You may continue to entertain toxic relationships in your personal life, or you might be ignoring the positive efforts of your loved ones. We all do things that make our lives more difficult, and then defend those choices using words like comfort, easy, or worst of all, “deserve.”

“It’s just easier to keep this job than to start looking for another one.”

“I know he treats me badly, but I’m comfortable here and I don’t want to try dating again.”

“I had a hard day – I deserve another drink.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with making hard choices and sticking with them, just like there’s nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with some cake, vodka, or both when you’ve had a long day or accomplished a goal. The problem arises when you make conscious decisions that will negatively affect your life, and then lament the repercussions as “bad luck” when it comes time to deal with them.

You’re overweight because of your eating and exercise habits. Your relationship is struggling because you need to either put more effort in or leave. Your job sucks because it isn’t right for you. You’re eating tuna fish because you made it. Life isn’t easy, and sometimes we’re stuck doing things that make us unhappy. There’s no getting around that – but often, we possess the power to remove negative influences in our lives, but we choose not to out of fear of change. You’ll keep plugging away at the same old 9-5 because you’re afraid to go looking elsewhere. You’ll keep eating that bag or doritos because the split second endorphin release you get with each bite is more valuable to you right now than how you’ll feel in the morning. You’ll stay with the wrong man or woman because, unhappy as you are, you’re too afraid of being alone.

In the Marines, I often felt as though I didn’t have any power over my own destiny. Where I went, what I did, and how I did it was all dictated by a chain of command and endless SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)… but it wasn’t until I started leading Marines that I truly started to recognize how much autonomy I had in the execution of my duties. Sure, I may have been stuck in the duty hut for 24 hours – but it was my decision to spend it miserable, rather than studying for my degree. When it came time to deploy, I didn’t choose our destination or timetable, but it was my choice to either pursue learning a new language and culture… or spend who knows how many more hours staring at the wall of my tent and wishing I was somewhere else.

Making emotional allowances doesn’t make you a bad person, or even a weak one – they make you human – but once you decide to stop permitting yourself the convenience of yet another miserable tuna fish sandwich lunch, you might be amazed to find that things really do get better. Hard days will still be there, but they get easier when you stop convincing yourself to do what’s wrong for you, and start putting that effort toward doing what’s right.

You might not have the option to leave that job you hate, but you can change how you approach it. You might not be ready to leave a household that makes you unhappy, but you can address your problems with your significant other. You’re still going to have make a sandwich in the morning if you want to eat something at lunch… but you can decide to make it something you’d want, instead of something you’ll tolerate.

In the Marine Corps and since, I’ve found myself in some pretty tough spots. I’ve been low, depressed, unhappy, and angry – but I resist the urge to blame my feelings on fate. I make my sandwiches, and sure, sometimes I don’t like them. I succeed or fail based on my own decisions, my own efforts, and when I’m met with setbacks, I do occasionally shake my fist at the sky in spite, but then I try to temper my existential woe with realistic objectivity. If I’m unhappy, what can I change? If I’m angry, what needs to be fixed? If I’m hurting, who can I talk to?

Just like that construction worker, we’re each faced with a decision every morning: are you going to make choices that lead to a better life… or will it be tuna fish again?

It’s up to you – because we all make our own sandwiches.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

No power tools or forges: Here’s how to make a survival knife using just the stuff in your garage

The looming threat of a nuclear attack launched by North Korea has brought about a resurgence in Cold War era anxieties about survival in a post-infrastructure America. If such an attack were to take place, it may not mean the end of the world, per say, but it could certainly mean the end of yours, and in the days, weeks, or months that followed a nuclear or EMP strike, there’s a chance help wouldn’t be on its way.

When you mention such an apocalyptic scenario to many people, the first thing they want to regale you with is a list of their firearms, ammunition stores, and food and water supply. That stuff all matters, and while I too maintain a laundry list of those sorts of things, many tend to forget about what I consider to be among the most important survival tools a man or woman could ever have: a good quality knife.

As I’ve written about before, knives serve a number of purposes in a survival setting. Whether you’re building a fire, preparing a meal, or fighting for your life, having a knife in your hand could mean the difference between today being an easy day, and today being your last one. Even after years of training in knife fighting techniques, armed, and disarmed defenses – I’m arguably more afraid of a skilled combatant with a knife in his hand than I am of the same man armed with a pistol in close quarters. If I can get a grip on that pistol, I’ll probably get out of a fight alive. Try the same thing with a knife, and I may lose a few fingers before he leaves me in a pile on the ground.

The most valuable part of carrying a knife, however, is that you don’t need to have trained to use one outside of the kitchen to be effective. Knives are simple, they don’t jam, they require very little maintenance, and as long as you remember which end is pointy, you’re dangerous when carrying one. For those of you who live in states that are not particularly firearm friendly, or if you’d just prefer to keep your home boom-stick free, knives offer you a legal, inexpensive and relatively safe means of defense to keep inside your home or go bag.

But what if the worst were to happen… and you find yourself without your trusty knife? Is it possible to make a passable survival knife without a forge, power tools, or even electricity?

That’s exactly what I wanted to find out.

Last year, I posted a series of videos depicting all the ways in which I wouldn’t be able to make my own knife. These guys made some incredible pieces of cutlery, but each of the projects were just too far outside my skill set, my budget, and the equipment I have available to me. If making a survival knife is something that’s possible for the layman, it means it’s got to be cheap, simple, and effective using only the sort of things you could easily scrounge up after a disaster.

With that in mind, I swore off of using the internet for guidance and headed into my garage to find whatever I could and see if I could make a passable knife out of it.

Here’s what I came up with:

-One pair of work gloves
-A hack saw with two blades
-One C-clamp
-One hand clamp
-A heavy duty file
-A sharpie

For optimal results, you’ll also need a good knife sharpener of whatever sort you prefer, but in a pinch, you could get away with just the file.
As for the knife itself, I found an old piece of scrap steel that’s been in my basement since I moved in – it was a lucky break, but it likely wouldn’t be too difficult for you to find a decent piece of scrap steel after the world ends either. Mine was about three feet long, one and a half inches wide, and maybe a bit more than 1/16 of an inch thick.

Step One: Cut the steel to the appropriate length

Raw steel next to a Smith and Wesson Search and Rescue knife for scale

Now, you could almost certainly use a ruler or measuring tape to determine the exact length you’d prefer to get started – but in keeping with my overall approach to this project (using as little as possible) and the general demeanor I’ve developed as a new father (“I haven’t slept in six weeks and I don’t care how long it is.”) I opted to just eyeball it, draw a line with my sharpie and go after this poor piece of steel with my hacksaw. The end result is shown above.

Step Two: Draw the basic shape of the knife onto the steel with your sharpie

Using the corner of one side of the steel as your knife tip, draw the basic shape of your knife blade onto the steel. You’ll be using this as your template as you cut the remaining steel away using your hacksaw. Because I did this outside in 20-degree weather, my trusty iPhone shut itself down before I could take a picture of my artwork.

Step Three: Use the hacksaw to cut along your drawn line

Clamp your steel to a secure surface – I used a good sturdy wood table, but if you happen to have a vice it could make this process much easier. Once the knife is secure, put on your work gloves and eye protection and set about sawing along the line you drew on the steel. Depending on the quality of steel and the state of your hacksaw, this step could be both times consuming and count as your cardio for the day. When you’re finished, the steel should resemble a knife in profile, despite lacking an actual edge.

I also chose to make the handle portion of the knife more narrow than the blade itself for the sake of an improved grip. I had to go back inside for my where my weak-willed iPhone was resting by the fire to snap this picture, but as you can see, I also cut notches on the top and bottom of the handle portion in order to make it easier to secure my paracord handle later on.

Step Four: Use the file to create an edge

With the basic shape of the knife established, now it’s time to get your second cardio session in for the day. Clamp the knife down at the end of your table or secure it in your vice and set about filing the steel into an edge. You’ll have to re-position the knife a number of times as you work to ensure you’re achieving a fairly even grind throughout the length of the blade, then flip it over and repeat the process on the other side. If you’re anything like me, you’ll likely have to flip it back and forth a few times as needed to ensure a reasonably even edge emerges.

Step 6: Finish the edge with a knife sharpener

If you have a knife sharpener available to you, use it to refine the edge you started with the file. The sharpener will help you to do away with any small burrs left behind by the sawing and sanding process and create a sharper edge. Although stabs and thrusts are important elements of a knife fight, you can actually do away with an opponent much faster with effective slashes to the carotid artery, for instance, rather than a stab to the gut. Likewise, a sharp edge will make the knife more useful in everyday applications, like making tinder for a fire or cutting meat.

Step Seven: Fashion your handle

The raw steel handle my knife was left with would probably chew up my bare hand almost as quickly as the blade would, so it was important that I fashion a handle for the knife that protects these old callouses I’ve worked so hard to develop over the years. I’m a Marine, so there’s paracord in a dozen places in my house, but there are a number of materials you could feasibly use to the same end: leather straps, cloth, duct tape, even shoelaces.

The sailors among us may have some better suggestions for knots, but because I wasn’t using the internet for guidance, I was forced to rely on what I could remember – so I tied what is commonly known as a “perfection loop” at the end of a length of paracord, then fed the other and through the loop and tightened it onto the top groove of the handle. I then wrapped the paracord around the steel as tightly as possible and secured it again on the other end before repeating the process.

What I was left with is a pretty passable survival knife. From start to finish, the project took about three hours, though it may take you longer if you find yourself gassed from the sawing and filing. All that’s left to do is see how well it holds up when put through its paces. My testing of this knife will be the subject of a subsequent article, so you can see how well it holds up to real-world use.

Hopefully, we won’t find ourselves needing this sort of know-how before then.

Originally published on NEWSREP and written by ALEX HOLLINGS