FRONT TOWARD ENEMY

Taking a Look at the Survival Applications of Plate Carriers, Vests, and Chest Rigs

- Patrick McCarthy

Backpacks are a topic of endless debate and speculation within the survivalist community. What’s in your bug-out bag? Do you have a go-bag in your car? What about a get-home bag at the office? Is your every-day carry bag stocked with survival gear? These are all questions we’ve heard discussed ad infinitum on blogs, forums, social media pages, and at in-person gatherings. There’s nothing wrong with this line of thinking — we’ve written plenty of articles about packs, and even established our Bag Drop column as a recurring feature to delve further into various configurations. However, it’s easy for a laser-like focus on this subset of load-bearing gear to distract us from the fact that there are other viable options for carrying supplies.

It’s no secret that many common practices in the civilian preparedness realm have been derived from the armed forces. Here, too, there’s a lesson we can learn. Take a look at military loadouts around the world, and you’ll notice a common theme — operators are rushing into dangerous environments with nothing but a weapon on a sling and a backpack crammed with all their remaining gear. In a high-intensity battlefield setting, it’s more than a little impractical to take a knee, unshoulder a pack, and dig around for a full magazine, tourniquet, or radio. When those items are necessary, they’re necessary immediately.