Butch Erskine
- Sep 10, 2021
- 18 min read

Patriot Express Newsletter Edition #126

Fellow Patriots,

Greetings and welcome to the Patriot Express Newsletter Edition #126. Thank you for stopping by to share your time with HFS. We are happy to have you with us. If you are a Patriot, vaccinated or unvaccinated, you are welcome here. Welcome to all the new Patriots we met over the past month while on the road visiting HFS Groups and providing Preparedness Training.

Ms. Lucy and I finally made it home for a weekend, I think. Wilson stopped by to ask me if something was wrong or maybe someone was sick because we have been gone pretty much every weekend the past six weeks. I told him hunting season for squirrels started soon and we wanted to make sure he was okay, especially since a large mama black bear has been hanging out in the wooded area of our neighborhood.

My goodness, where has time gone so quickly. Twenty years. Is it just me or has the past 20 years seemed like a blink of the eyes? Have you ever stopped to give thought to everything happening since that horrible day back in September 2001? We must recognize and remember September 11, 2001 as a day in history our nation changed. Maybe forever for that matter. Maybe the world changed in the process also. But, did we learn anything from the disasters thrust upon us? We can debate and argue all day long why and what appeared staged, planned, or was it a conspiracy. However, 911 is a day America and the world lost thousands and it was the start of two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, where thousands more died. What did we learn, if anything? I will share more thoughts on this topic in my thoughts for the week.

Hope for Survival now a Satellite Phone Affiliate - Last week I discussed the communication disaster taking place in/around the path of Hurricane Ida. Thousands upon thousands of hurricane victims with no communication capabilities....unless they owned satellite phones prior to the event. I often tell Ms. Lucy most people, to include Americans are brave and need nothing while on the outside looking in because they have never endured a tragedy or lived through a disaster. Once in it, it is very hard to go back and pre-plan. Most disasters strike with little warning. Sometimes no warning. This is why we pre-plan. Preparedness is a personal choice. You either do it now and have better options and choices to survive and protect your family or else, end up like the fine citizens suffering from a lack of preparedness during Hurricane Ida.

September is National Preparedness Month and a great time to get started or dust off your plans to ensure you have properly prepared for possible events. Though water and food are must have essentials, being able to communicate with family, friends, security teams, and loved ones is important as well. Conduct a test. Turn off your cell phone for 30 days and do a trial of not communicating with those who are important to you. Heck, do it for two weeks and see how you do. Keep in mind, a test is a lot easier than the actual real world event where stress is high and you do not know if your recipient of the call is alive or not. Being prepared includes the "what ifs" and how to mitigate the "what ifs" identified as vulnerabilities. I was recently in rural WV where the Verizon signal is weak to non existent at times. One of our HFS Patriots who also purchased a satellite phone under this plan set up a phone test with me, satellite phone to satellite phone and it worked perfectly. Had we endured an emergency at my location we had guaranteed communications using our satellite phone.

If you had preplanned you could have walked through possibilities and determined in your family communication plan maybe having a satellite phone as one of your P.A.C.E. communication capabilities. If you have never thought about or considered obtaining a satellite phone now is the time to check it out. Several of our HFS Patriots jumped on this deal over the past 90 days. Here is a link to more information on this topic. Hope for Survival - Satellite Phone Affiliate If you have decided you want a satellite phone already, go to the HFS website main page or blog page to find a box on the upper left and right sides. They are preloaded with the HFS Code. Check it out here as well :Blog | Survival (hopeforsurvival.com) If you have any questions please feel free to email me at Preparedness101@hopeforsurvival.com These phones are available until they sell out. If you purchased a phone already or plan to do so, watch this short video as Justin walks you through some simple steps to assist you. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Thursday Zoom Rallies – HFS Zoom Rally #66 was conducted with topics covering a 911 remembrance, an exercise for the group covering preparedness topics, and the importance of avoiding fear porn while preparing. It was great to be together again with fellow Patriots after a week off.

Hope for Survival YouTube - You can find the newest podcast at this link: https://youtu.be/nYpoUzVPBcA While on the road in Kentucky last weekend I had a chance to catch some video for a Kentucky podcast to include an interview a fellow HFS Patriot and the team leader for the Monticello, Kentucky location.

For the new Patriots you will find many helpful videos on canning, food preparedness, security and defense in depth, firearm safety discussions, canning meat, and other important topics.

If you have not already, please consider subscribing to the HFS YouTube channel. We would appreciate your consideration. Because I still work a full time day job, time is limited and I have not been able to set up a routine schedule for recording and posting videos yet. Thanks for hanging with me. Share the link with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who subscribed in the past week few weeks.

HFS Mobile Training:

If you would like HFS to come to your community to conduct training classes or speak on the importance of preparedness feel free to contact me.

Communications: You can now follow HFS social media on the following outlets:

Facebook – Hope for Survival

YouTube Channel – Hope for Survival

MeWe: - //mewe.com/p/hopeforsurvival2

Connect and give me a shout. Share with family and friends.

Moving along …

If you are a guest or newcomer to the HFS journey, please check out this link for additional

information offered through HFS. https://www.hopeforsurvival.com/post/guest-and-newcomers-information-page

Hope for Survival books: You can obtain information on the two HFS books at this link: Survival, Preparedness, Disaster Management for individuals or family (hopeforsurvival.com)

Hope for Survival - How Food, Water, Shelter, and Security Could Save Your Life (Book 1)

Hope for Survival - The Mindset (Book 2)

We must make this brief public announcement to protect the innocent.

Ding, Ding, Ding....Attention HFS readers..... Opinions shared in this newsletter are just that, opinions, and nothing more. Read at your own risk. The owner and author of this site is not responsible for hurt feelings or thin-skinned readers. I do my best to show restraint and respect to the best extent possible. I take as many precautions as possible and try to remain as nonpolitical as possible, however, there are times when I just can't help but point certain things out. Occasionally I use words only Patriots recognize and understand. It's not personal against any non-Patriot. It's just the truth. Sometimes we must pull up our spenders and suck it up. Just saying. Stay the course, read what you want, and avoid the rest. Avoid fear porn as much as possible and the day will be okay. When all else fails… Keep the faith and always have Hope.

Let’s move along and get to some thoughts...

Thoughts for the week –

Saturday is the 20 year anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in NY City, the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Better knows as 911 to many. A question often asked is "do you remember what you was doing when the planes hit the twin towers?" Yes, I do, as will many Americans alive during that period in history. I was two years from retiring from the military and served as the Chief of Antiterrorism, Headquarters, United States Air Force Special Operations in Fort Walton Beach, FL. At 8:57 CST I hurriedly sent a message out to other professionals in my career field informing them that Usama Bin Laden had vowed to strike the United States hard. I hit send on the message and ran down the hallway to a meeting on this Tuesday morning. About 8:48 CST I was pulled from the meeting and directed to a television to see what was taking place. I immediately knew a new war had just started and this time on U.S. soil. This was the start of something that would change the US and most of the world forever. Twenty years later I believe my comment still stands.

For those who can remember, do you remember our Congress standing united on the steps of the US Capitol singing God Bless America, hand in hand, united as one? Remember that? Oh how long that moment lasted. They lured us in and told us the war on global terrorism was a must and it was all to protect "we the people."

Yes, we can spend hours upon hours debating other factors around 911 but today we need to remember those who perished on that day and the days after with diseases developed from responding to the events of 911. Employees, workers, and visitors to the towers, responding fire, medical, and law enforcement responders, and the military and victims of two wars that followed in response to 911.

Do you realize since 911 or Sept 11, 2001, over 7,000 US military troops died in Afghanistan and/or Iraq wars supporting the US of America. Did you know this? Even more staggering is over 30,000 US troops committed suicide upon returning from these wars. Foreign troop deaths supporting the US military is over 100, 000. In Afghanistan alone 47,000 civilian and over 50,000 opposition forces deaths.

The cost has been staggering, not just in blood and human lives, but in financial costs. Comparative estimates exceed $3 trillion dollars, that we know about. This does not include the billions left behind recently in Afghanistan. Think about this. The entire Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns cost burdens got financed on credit. If not paid sooner, the total cost with interest will exceed $6.5 trillion dollars by 2050.

Oh, I failed to include another cost. The US Government otherwise known as the US Taxpayers who is already footing the bill for the many who refuse to work today and many other useless waist, also will foot the bill on another $2 trillion dollars to cover healthcare, disability, burial, and other cost for roughly 4 million Afghani and Iraqi military members. I bet you did not know this did you?

This does NOT include any projected cost to our own US veterans who are blinded, crippled and maimed for life and will require complete hospitalization or home care for life. It also does not include life time psychological care, physical therapy, medications, transplants and other associated needs.

I must ask, is all the above deaths and cost worth it over a difference of foreign policy between two nations or a nation and faction? This is very costly for a decision made by one or two humans. By the way, I searched and searched and could not find any actual numbers or estimates on the money and kickbacks to politicians off the two wars. Just saying.

Next ....

In order to stress the importance of having an emergency plan, I am again posting this information below to help preparers get started. Through conversations and past risk analysis to family plans, I have found families simple DO NOT have emergency plans. Many have no plans at all. Okay, here we go.

Creating Your Emergency Plan

In Preparedness, we discuss many facets from plans to resources, communications to feed and water, but one of the initial and most important items you should do for you and your family is build your emergency plan. You could probably gather around the kitchen table with your family and in a couple hours complete this critical piece of your Preparedness puzzle. Below is a basic plan. This is about as simple as it gets outside of doing nothing at all.

The point of the emergency plan is so you and those you care about can get in touch and meet back up after a major emergency. Documenting your plan is crucial and a big part to building a working and doable plan is communicating the plan while building it. Is your goal to simply have a plan or have a usable plan that all participants can use.

To get started, remember to keep it simple and get the ball rolling forward. Let your family know you will have a meeting after dinner or maybe simply call them to the table for a family discussion. Just do your best to include family members the emergency plan has impact on. Think about how you want to verbalize your goal of discussing the plan before you address it to others. Explain how you have been thinking about a plan to keep the family safe. Discuss the importance of the family working jointly to put together a working plan.

Read aloud the instructions and fill out the worksheet and contact cards as a group. If you do not have contact cards, use index cards, and do a home walk through together. We will discuss the walk-through shortly. When you are done, you will have a written plan of what each person will do in an emergency.

Once you have completed your Emergency Plan, keep it in your Emergency Bag and supply copies of the same plan to your family members for their bags. If you get separated the leader may be the only person holding the emergency plan. What good is the plan? Consider providing a copy of the emergency plan to a trusted family member or friend who lives outside the area. If possible, consider posting a copy of your plan on your refrigerator, and/or a copy in your vehicle glove box. Each person should fill out the contact card we mentioned above and put in their wallet or a safe place so they always have access to it.

Doing your emergency plan should also include a plan for work and school. Right? Think about it. You spend more time away from home right? It is important to have a plan for these locations as well. Talk to your family and decide who would pick up children during the emergency. Make sure every phone in your group is signed up for alerts from their schools, workplace, and local government.

You will need to discuss and figure out a way each member can communicate. This would mean even the times when a phone is dead or the network is down. Sometimes you can text during times a call will not go through. You may need to send a runner to deliver the message. Maybe you will leave a note on a family members car. You can figure out what method is best for your plan.

Identify team contacts, local contacts and out-of-town contacts to support your plan as needed. The local contact is a friend you can trust and depend on to lend you a hand. The out-of-town contact is your communication hub during the emergency.

It is crucial that everyone in your plan knows your out-of-town contact. They must have a way too contact the person using multiple methods. A key part of your plan is identifying how often your plan requires individuals to check in and with who. Organize your plan now to ensure it is organized when the plan is implemented.

You must determine in the plan where and when you will meet up. Some folks call these locations the Rally Point. The type of disaster or event could determine the location you identify to rally. Many plans identify the home as a central location to meet. Depending on the event, the home may not be a feasible rally point.

Think outside the box. What if you are separated and cannot communicate and someone does not show up at the first rally point? What if one parent is supposed to pick up a child and bring them to the rally point but does not show up? What is your planned time to wait on the person? Would you keep all your family members who arrived together? Or would you send a person to go locate the person?

You need to think through the “what if” scenarios and make a plan for each one. You must know where you will rally as a primary and alternate location and how you will communicate. I cover this process in more detail during the Family Communication Planning course that I will be teaching two times at Heritage Life Skills in May 2020.

Another important step is each person should build a get home bag to carry daily. If allowed they can keep the bag at school or at work or in a vehicle. The get home bag will contain essential items to navigate back to their assigned rally point to meet the group. Think about what will be needed to be as self-reliant as possible. Practice possible routes to be used as a primary and alternate route. Remember to adjust the bag for seasonal conditions.

You will want to conduct a home walkthrough of your home as part of your plan. The best situation would be if you are home when the emergency event happens. Therefore you need to be familiar with your home and area you can utilize for safety based on the emergency.

First, identify safe places. These are locations to use during specific events. An example would be heavy furniture you can drop, roll, and roll under during an earthquake. Or, what interior area at the center of your home could you use during a tornado if you do not have a basement or storm shelter. A bathroom is often selected based on location and the ability to climb in a bathtub and cover up the body. Never select a location above the ground floor. Once you have identified safe locations, document your plan. The brief your team on what command you will shout to inform them of the action to take.

Did you include all possible emergency exits in your plans? If your family must evacuate from the 2nd floor, is there an emergency ladder to use? Based on where you may be when the emergency happens should determine which escape route will be used. This is important. The leader should know which route family members will use in the event they must backtrack in to the home to locate the person.

During your risk assessment of your home be sure to identify all potential hazards that could harm or impede escape routes. Determine a mitigation plan around the hazardous threat. This assessment should also include exterior hazards such as large trees that could crush the house or locations where limbs could penetrate a window or wall.

After your risk assessment of your home, routes, and any other location, you should identify what emergency tools and supplies you may need. Rolls of plastic. Ply wood. Duct tape. Battery powered tools that you keep charged. These are just a few of many suggestions. But, don’t just have them. Know how you will use them and practice if needed.

EMERGENCY PLAN WORKSHEET

School Plan:

School name: _________________________ Emergency Contact: ______________________

Address: _____________________________ Phone: ________________________________

Plan: _______________________________________________________________________

Daycare/Caregiver Plan:

Company:_____________________________ Emergency Contact: _____________________

Address: ______________________________ Phone: _______________________________

Plan: _______________________________________________________________________

Work Plan:

Company Name: _______________________ Emergency Contact: ______________________

Address: _____________________________ Phone: _________________________________

Plan: ________________________________________________________________________

Team Contacts:

Full Name: __________________________________ Phone: ___________________________

Other # or Social Media:_______________________ Email: ____________________________

Medical/Other Information: _____________________________________________________