Every Tool an Air Force Survival Specialist Takes into the Wilderness

I'm Airman First Class Denniston and this is everything that a SEER specialist would take during a field training exercise. SEER stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. My job is to be a survival instructor and teach military members how to survive in any condition anywhere in the world. Every instructor has a different way of doing things. I personally have a chest rig for a lot of my easy access equipment. On the front, I have a quick grab med kit. Pull that straight out. It has medical equipment inside of that. I also have a tourniquet directly on the front just in case I need one of those. Hopefully, never need one. Inside here, I have things like sharpening utensils for my knives. Speaking of knives, I have a small pocket knife. It's a small folding knife that I can utilize this small blade for multiple purposes, whether it's animals, firewood, taking care of equipment, cutting up line. I always have that with me. I also always carry a fixed blade knife right here. I have it on my back. Other people like to carry it other ways. This is also good for any large-scale work. This allows me to help to firecraft. When I'm cutting down trees, I can break the trees down to smaller pieces and actually get some usable firewood out of that. I also have a GPS located inside here just in case I need one, a compass, which is going to be my main form of using direction and navigation, and then a headlamp for when it gets dark and scary. I also have a mirror, signal mirror, so I can make sure I'm looking good, but also if I need to signal anything, I have that, and a ferro rod or ferrocelium rod to be able to strike for fires with the striker on the side. I also have a drop pouch that I can attach to the bottom. This is usually filled with my fire items, such as matches and strikers. I have natural options for tinder, as well as man-made options inside these small canisters here, like cotton swabs filled with WD-40, so I can use those to also take care of equipment I have, keep things oiled and clean, but also use it to start fire. So all that would be in here. And then one of the other things I have is a radio pouch. We have to be in good communication with everyone around us, making sure that the training is going well. In case there's any issues or anything needs to be changed, we can communicate, so I always have that with a radio. But then moving on to my actual pack itself, I personally have a 75 liter pack right here. I do also have a 30 liter pack that I use for shorter trips or different times of the year where I don't need as much gear, but this one does pretty well. This one's great because it has a brain on the top for easy, quick access things. Inside my front pouch, I've got a hat because I'm not going to be wearing the beret out there, so I can protect my eyes and still wear a hat. And then I have my gloves so I don't hurt myself when I'm using any of my tools or moving trees around, moving branches, cutting through grass. To keep my pack protected as well, I have a pack cover. This is a waterproof protective layer, so if it does get raining, I can actually cover everything up and ensure that everything stays dry and doesn't get damaged. I've also got binoculars just in case I want to look at something far away. They are small, easily packable, but they have good zoom to them. I have what's called a pack hanger. Made this myself. Still lasted pretty good. It's about two years old, but wrap this around a tree or heavy-duty branch, and I can hook my pack up to it, and so I can keep all my stuff off the ground, out of dirt, out of the mud, and actually keep it protected and easily accessible. This is made out of just standard paracord, 550 cord, braided together. It's a standard braid for the majority of it, and then it splits into, for the hooks at least, and it splits into basically a fish-style braid using the two braids on the side, blended together into the main braid for strength. I also have multiple lines here, also 550 cord. I have 10-foot lines, and I have 5-foot lines, in case you need different lengths to tie things down. If you're making a shelter, you want it to be tight. You want to have good pitch so that it can actually protect you from the elements, and so if I need to reach out far, I have longer lines. I can also connect them together and use those smaller lines to help tie other portions. 550 can also be used to build. We have benches that we might build in an encampment. I also have a saw. You never know when you need a saw. This is just a quick, easy pack saw. You can use it to take down branches, cutting down small trees that you don't want to get an axe out for. It makes life a little bit easier than trying to just break through things. And then, just because I've got to stay connected and keep things charged, I do have a battery bank that is resistant to water, as well as shock, heat, and cold, so I'll keep that with me as well. Opening up the front of my ruck, I have a small net that I can use. I can drape this over myself when I'm sleeping or walking around, help keep the bugs off of me. This one is camouflage, just so it doesn't stick out too much, but it is a great piece of equipment to have, especially during mosquito season and bee season. Just makes life a little bit more comfortable out there. I also have what we call a MUP, or multi-use pad, also handmade by me. It is stitched together using some sort of nylon material with a PVC backing, so it's fully waterproof. I can use this to place equipment on, use it when I'm maybe changing clothes out in the woods, stand on it, so I can keep out of the dirt. Tons of uses, that's why it's called a multi-use pad. I also have gaiters. These are for my legs, keep my legs dry, keep my boots dry. When walking through tall grasses that are wet, it's raining out, I don't have to worry about getting wet. And along that line, I also have a Gore-Tex top, right here, and a Gore-Tex bottom, right here. As you can see, I'm currently laying everything out on a poncho. I carry two of them. They're usually in this bottom section right here for quick access. I have this one here, and the one on the base. These can be used for shelter pieces. I can place them on the ground to put my equipment on. I can also use them to just keep things dry and protected in inclement weather. Just a few different uses. Not going to put it on myself because I have my Gore-Tex as well. On this side, you'll notice there is a handle sticking out. That is my axe. I do carry an axe with me to the woods. This is going to be used in case I have to take down any trees or some firewood or get some of those bigger branches. If there's any hazards in the way, I can also use this to really chop through them, break up some bigger pieces of wood for fires as well. On the other side, I have my water bottle. This one is a grail water bottle. I like this one out in the woods just because it has a built-in purification filter, so I don't have to worry about disinfecting it after filtering my water. Just pull this casing out, fill it up, and press to actually get water into the main canister. It's safe to drink right away. Just because there are bears out here, we do have bear spray as well. It's a good idea to have. Easy, accessible. I can just reach over my shoulder and pull it out if I ever need it. Hopefully, I don't. I carry a slingshot because you never know when you might find a good tasty grouse or a rabbit. You can get one of those and get some additional food out there. How good of a shot are you at this? Depends. Sometimes I'm good. Sometimes I'm not. It depends on what I as my ammo, whether it's shot rocks or what animal I'm trying to hit, how far away it is. I've had some pretty good success with a couple grouse. Grouse is pretty tasty as well. If you haven't had it, you should try it. What's it taste like? It's all dark meat. It's an upland bird. I don't really know how to explain it. It's just pretty good. Opening up the main pouch of my ruck inside at the top, I have what we call an eight gore. This is a chunk of parachute. On parachutes, there's these things called gores. This is going to be eight of those gores, eight segments in one. This can be tied up high up to some trees to create some nice shade on hot days as well as protect from the rain. If it is raining, I can have a large space that stays dry. This is awesome. When we're packing our rucks, we want the heaviest stuff towards the top and closest to our back just to make life a little easier when we're carrying it. I have that up there just because it is one of the heavier items even though it is just a parachute. Then I have another single gore of parachute here. This can be used to wrap up materials. If I don't have a trash bag, I can use this to house some of my food for that bear cache. I can use it as an improvised tourniquet if I need to. If I've already used one tourniquet, I have another one available in that sense. Is there a reason why it's braided up? This is braided up. It's called a daisy chain just to help with storage. It doesn't get all wadded up into a ball. I can just undo one of these lashes right here and actually just pull the whole thing apart just like so. I also have a dry sack filled with some extra clothes just in case I do get wet. Just to stay clean out in the woods, I will usually care about three or so extra pairs of undergarments, shirts, anything like that, socks, so I can actually change out, keep myself healthy, keep myself clean. With being clean, I also have a hygiene kit. Inside here, I have some micro toothbrushes to keep my teeth clean, some foot powder to keep my feet dry. I have a pack towel so if I take a bath in the creek or something like that, I can dry myself off. Deodorant so I don't get all stinky. Then nature calls when you're in the restroom when you need to use the restroom, so I have some wipes I can use out in the woods just to keep myself clean. I also got to eat too, so I like to bring these rec packs. They're 700 calories. They got a lot of protein in them and you just add water. Those are good to go. A lot people use mountain house meals or peak meal, also whatever we can catch or collect while we're out in the woods as well. If I do need to cook something or if I need an additional heat source, I do have a jet boil. It's an easy pack stove. I can open this up, start, strike it up, get a heat source, or actually cook with what I have here. I got to sleep too, so I have a sleep mat that I can just inflate up, throw that on the ground on top of maybe one of my ponchos, and then my actual sleep system to go with that. I have just a standard 32 degree sleeping bag for when it gets hotter or colder. I have a supplemental insert, so if it is colder and this won't do it, I can add this insert liner into that to help increase that warming capabilities, and when it's really hot, I can use just this to actually stay a little cooler at night. I like to be comfortable as well, so I have a pack pillow. It just inflates up, throw that in, sleeps a little more comfortably at night, and I actually have something to kind of lay my head on instead of just the ground. And then as my main shelter piece, I do also have a large tarp, and I'll string this up above me, give it some good tightness, some good pitch, and make basically a mini house that I can sleep in, change, go over anything I need to go over for the next day as far as teaching-wise, and be like I'm at home out in the woods. Depending on the weather, I don't always want a sleep mat, so sometimes I will bring a hammock out, and that's what this guy is, just an easy small packable hammock, and just to stay a little bit warmer, I have an underquilt to go with that. So if I don't want to sleep on the ground, or maybe I can't find a good spot, or I don't expect to be in areas with good flat spaces for sleeping, I can throw a hammock up, still stay pretty comfortable, be elevated off the ground away from any bugs, or if it is raining, right, that also gets me out of that wet ground as well. And then very lastly, I do have just a large braided rope. This can be used for if I need to tie something that needs a lot of tensile strength. I've used it to create my own makeshift hammock, so I've used my regular 550 to tie two poles that I cut down to a tree, and then I strung those together, cross-hatching it with this thicker guy to create some sort of springboard, and then I was able to lie on top of that with my sleeping bag, and it was actually pretty comfortable overall. And I actually took some of that parachute to create another extra layer inside of it. I feel like being really fancy, and I don't want to have a tarp as my shelter piece, or I don't want to have a poncho on the ground, I do have a very ultra lightweight tent that if I take the poles out and place them inside my ruck, this actual tent itself can compress all the way down to here, and I can pack that with me as well, be even more comfortable while I'm out there. I also have maps because in order to know where I'm going, I need to know where I am, and so these maps help me figure out what kind of terrain I'm going to be going through, what to expect while I'm traveling, and help me with my navigational abilities. And that is everything that I would take with me during a field training exercise.