ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE

Deployment – What do you take?

When it comes time to deploy you do not want or need to be caught off guard. However, the question becomes, “What do I need?” It's a hard task to answer the question with 100% accuracy because each scenario will be different so we find ourselves making compromises trying our level best to be prepared for all situations.

To be prepared means we need to do some advance planning. That is what I hope to cover in this article. While we may not have the time or room to discuss every possible scenario at least it can get us to thinking. Additionally, if we all had the resources (money) and the space to put everything we thought we needed we might need to buy another house. So where do we start?

First, where are you going to be deployed? Will you be in a fixed facility where electricity and the normal utilities be supplied or are you going to be in a field where you have to bring along your own source of electricity and have to plan on everything needed to sustain normal living requirements. These two extremes along with every scenario in between will determine what we need to take with us.

If we are deployed to a fixed location such as a building on post someplace we may have electricity, water, sleeping facilities, and bathroom facilities already on hand. In this case we may only need to take a sleeping bag, a handful of our toiletries and our equipment.

However, if we are deployed to a field site, possibly close to the front lines of the disaster or event causing the deployment we will need a lot more. Some meals ready to eat are the first thing to come to mind. Then we need to plan on water. Three gallon jugs of water per person to last three days is the suggested norm. A sleeping bag with any additional blankets as the time of year may require would be next on the agenda along with some sort of mattress or camping pad to ensure a restful sleep would be welcome. We may even need to plan on having our own shelter! When you start planning on being deployed to a field site by yourself or with others in similar circumstances the list of items you need to take can become quite long rather quickly. Think about how you are going to transport all these things to the site.

If you are lucky enough to own an RV you probably already plan on a lot of the necessary items and keep the RV stocked. But then you have to know if you are going to be able to drive close enough to the site. If you can keep the RV handy for eating and sleeping drills then you will have an easier time being self sufficient. The best of conditions would allow you to live in your RV and operate a station from the comfort of your RV. Because what are you going to do if you have rain or worst yet snow?

Because the situation at hand may fall anywhere in between the two extremes I like to keep more than one go-kit. One go-kit may just be my personal things such as toiletries, my sleeping bag, my own stash of energy bars and food stuffs, etc. Much as if I were going to go backpacking. I would keep these items in a backpack with a frame for carrying it on my back and plan on being able to adapt it for radios such as a VHF/UHF dual band radio (possibly a handi-talkie) and a QRP HF rig with gel-cell batteries for power. There may be times when it is necessary to hike in to get to the scene of a disaster and you have to be able to take care of yourself and possibly any victims you may encounter.

Another go-kit may contain my equipment such as VHF/UHF radios, an HF rig, tuners, portable antennas, coax etc. You may even want to break these items into two bags in order to have room in the bags or in order to allow you to carry extra or back-up items. If these bags are kept stocked and ready to go, then all you have to do when the time comes is grab the appropriate bags and load the truck or car. And by the way, don't forget to have the instruction manuals and some tools on hand. Murphy's law is bound to strike!

Personally I like to keep a cooler in the back of my truck and when needed I stop off at a convenience store and get a ten pound bag of ice or two and it helps to keep some food stuffs I may carry cool and room for bottled water or cold drinks.

One thing I learned recently during the Valero MS150 Bike Ride; also called “Bike to the Beach” because the riders were biking from San Antonio to Corpus Christi, was to carry a First Aid kit. I stashed it with about everything I would want in a fully stocked First Aid kit and found a camouflaged shooting bag that would hold everything I needed and have room for a fleece throw blanket I picked up at Wal-Mart for about four dollars. You never know when you may need to cover yourself or a patient with a blanket.

One thing I carry in my First Aid kit is sanitary napkins. Why would I carry these you ask. Well if a biker were to fall and gash his or her leg I could use one of these sanitary napkins to place in the wound to stop bleeding and wrap it with some gauze tape as a temporary fix until proper medical care could be administered. This trick was taught to me by a former combat medical specialist.

And I still found one further use quite by accident when I came upon a rider that was facing possible heat exhaustion. One man had stopped and leaning up against a guardrail. He appeared to have the strength to at least stand and wait for a ride but going on was absolutely out of the question. He had his wife on her way to pick him up and didn't need a ride in the SAG (Support and Gear Vehicle) but he asked me if I had some sort of rag I could soak in cold water to put across the back of his neck sort of like a cold compress.

I was carrying a bandana in my hand which is quite the norm for me. I use them for everything from small cuts to dusting off my trucks dash to wiping the sweat off my forehead. I only had the one and didn't really want to give it up. I went back to the truck and looked in my First Aid kit. That was when I got the idea to open up one of the sanitary napkins and soak it in the ice water that had formed from the melting ice in the bottom of my cooler. I walked back to the man offering him the make shift cold compress and said, “This may seem a bit unorthodox but I think it will work about as good as anything.” He didn't hesitate, he took it and placed it on the back of his neck. Because it was now soaked with water it was rather limp and molded quite nicely to his neck. I guess it worked because about four hours later I met him and his wife in Beeville, the overnight stop for the ride, and he was looking rather healthy and apparently happy for the help!

There is no limit to what you may need when you are deployed. As well, there is no magic answer I can give you as to what you may need. It will all depend on the situation at hand. I just hope I have given you some ideas to get started planning for the eventuality.

If anyone has some other ideas I am assured the members of Texas Army Mars would be interested in hearing about them. Drop me a line and we'll get then up to Andy for inclusion on the website http://www.txarmymars.org

I can also be reached by email at AAR6BL@aol.com.

Gary S. Tangrady/AAR6BL
Zone 1 Reporter