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Posts
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Welcome! Please introduce yourself? (Name, age, gender, location for example)
Greetings team!
I go by the pseudonym “Inshala”. As one other community member already identified, it is an Arabic word/phrase. “Insh’Allah” means “God willing” and is used excessively in Middle Eastern conversation. When used, the context usually means something like “hopefully”, “whatever”, “whenever”, and/or “when I get around to it”. After a while, when I was overseas, we started using that phrase in a mocking fashion. (I am NOT Arab, of Arab descent, nor Muslim) Anyways….
I am a 38 year old male that lives in “Occupied New York”. If you are unfamiliar with the State of New York, anything above NYC, Rockland, and Westchester Counties are predominantly conservative, rural, and agricultural (and formerly industrial). As a matter of fact, if you broke down Upstate New York by county, you would see that geographically New York is mostly a “Red State”. It’s a simple case of the “tail wagging the dog” when it comes to Occupied New York and most of us in the North resent the Metropolitan and Greater Metropolitan South. The reason why I believe this is relevant is because a lot of recent legislation has restricted the potential to prepare for disaster. Also, in the case of a SHTF situation, the majority of the 8.5 million people inhabiting NYC will most likely head North. We lovingly refer to these people as “Citiots”…but I digress. I swear I try to remain as apolitical as possible.
I have served for twenty years both Active Duty and Reserve Army. I was deployed to Iraq in 2003-2004 and again 2008-2009. I also was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Amman, Jordan on a TDY in 2005. Since 1994, I’ve traveled to Puerto Rico, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, Spain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Czech. Republic, Italy, Jordan, Ireland, and Germany. I haven’t traveled out of country since 2010 and currently focus on exploring more of the homeland for an ideal location.
Since when are you into survival and preparedness and what made you get into it?
I have been studying survival since a very young age. My father had lived in the South Bronx for most of his youth and was an Army Ranger and Vietnam veteran by the time he was twenty. He immediately moved to the rural North once he had the means and we lived in a very wooded area where you couldn’t see your neighbor nor saw many cars and people pass by. He taught me much about the wilderness, hiking, camping, and survival. When I was older I joined the Civil Air Patrol and continued my training up until I joined the U.S. Army soon after high school.
Honestly, I didn’t take survival nor prepping all that seriously until Super Storm Sandy hit Metropolitan NY and NJ in 2012. We felt pretty sure that we would be well off since we live a considerable distance from the city…we couldn’t be more wrong. We lost power for nearly two weeks and much longer in more rural areas. That is the longest I’ve lived without power in the U.S. Honestly, I didn’t mind it at first and it was actually kind of fun getting back to basics, but that would soon change. I noticed that people’s attitudes in the local community started to degrade, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The real trouble started when the rumor floated that they could not get a resupply of gasoline to NYC and NJ for an extended amount of time. It wasn’t long before Citiots and Jersey Shore-types started to invade for our resources. They had sucked clean all the gas stations south of us and made it as far as North were we lived. Fights broke out all over the place. I couldn’t believe that this was happening. It wasn’t long before I made a decision under pressure and headed out to get gasoline when, in fact, I really wasn’t in need at the time. Luckily, I didn’t encounter any trouble and found a lone gas station that out-of-towners weren’t aware of. It was stupid and unnecessary, but at least it enlightened me.
Why is survival and preparedness important or interesting for you? What scenario are you preparing for?
Survival and preparedness became focal in my life due to the recent birth of my daughter and the instinctive drive to protect my family, loved ones, and trusted friends.
I’m not training for any real scenario such as bio-chemical, nuclear attach, or such, but more of an invasion of displaced civilians in search of resources.
How would you describe your prepping / survival philosophy? What matters for you?
My prepping philosophy is simply to be ready and trust nobody that doesn’t share your blood or shed blood with you. I’m more of a bug-out strategist with a bug-out location in mind. My goal is to ultimately shelter in place once I find that location. Hopefully, I can save up enough money, purchase, and permanently relocate to that area so that bugging-out would not be necessary.
My family matters to me.
Do you have some favorite quotes or words of wisdom you like?
“Blessed are the meek, for they make easy targets” is a quote I got off an old computer game called “Postal”. It might seem cruel and mean-spirited, but when you think about it…it’s true.
As far as any wisdom….I’m still trying to acquire that. If I come across anything along the way, I’ll be happy to share it in future posts.
You are dying and have 30 seconds left, what do you do or say?
I have nothing original, but I would like to share what I came across from an acquaintance: I was at the VFW when I met an old Special Forces Captain and Vietnam veteran. He had a lighter that he carried with him all through out Vietnam. On the front was his Group’s crest and on the back was an inscription that read, “To the person who finds this on my cold dead body…F–k you!” I don’t think I’m that bad ass…I probably would curse if I found out that I had that short of a time to live, but I hope that I’d come to my senses in time to tell my family that I love them and did my best.
"If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die historic on the Fury Road."
Welcome to the forum Inshala. Hope to read some of your post soon.
Shalom Inshala,
Born and raised in the red state of Indiana and now living in Israel and working for a non-profit. Nicely done introduction. Welcome to the group.
LovelyNightBird
Greetings Inshala,
Look forward to reading your comments and posts.Welcome Inshala. If you don’t mind, roughly how far are you from the city? I’m curious how far the citiots ranged looking for supplies. I’m on the western side of VT about a couple hours north of Albany (under normal conditions) and have sometimes wondered whether those folks would range this far in similar circumstances.
Welcome , I feel for those Americans that live in Communist states like The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia or the Soviet Socialist Republik of New York . Fortunately for now , AZ is still in the old west mentality .
Tolik, I agree with you on CA and NY but AZ faces some long term threats in terms of Mexification if I can coin a new word. The whole Aztlan thing. New Mexico will be the first to fall I think and that will just empower them to want the rest of the Southwest too. I envision the initial set of demands to be something along the lines of Quebec’s special status in Canada.
That is indeed a problem , but there are enough Blacks , Whites , and Native Americans in the major cities , not to mention all the tribes on the reservations that wont take kindly to any attempt to take over OUR country or land . Things are the way they are now because of politics , and the fact that everybody is fairly comfortable in their lives ( they have enough food , they can get things at a store easily , etc. ) but if the shooting starts , I do feel the Mexicans will loose . The tribes absolutely wont stand for it , and they know their land better than any other . If you look at a map of Arizona , and how much of the land is Indian Reservation , it might surprise you .
I’ve been to AZ a couple times and am aware of the large Native American land holdings. You are right, they’re not going to give up anything willingly or easily. That’s not going to stop the Aztlan crowd from pushing for a little and a little more until they get some kind of special status though. It is a trend worth watching and fighting every inch of the way.
Aye that !
Cool profile, welcome to the forum Inshala!
Welcome, Inshala. Interesting profile. Enjoy the forum
Welcome Inshala. It looks as though you may have some good insights to share with us. A number of us has little experience in SHTF situations and I, for one, listen carefully when those that do share them. Ron S
Welcome to the forum. Lot of good info here. I’m a former 11m. I lived in NYC for 30 years before moving out West. I was at my parents house in the Catskills when Irene hit. The roads were all washed out and it took 8 hours to get back to the city. Interesting time.
Great introduction Inshala, glad you are here. Like you observed during Sandy, it doesnt matter how sane and smart you are you have to protect yourself from the stupid masses that surround us. Hope you find a great spot for relocation soon. The US is lucky to still have a lot of less densely populated areas.
Alea iacta est ("The die has been cast")
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