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James Mandeville's Survival Website:
Free Article on Making a Personal Survival Kit
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Personal Survival Kit - a little history
 The Personal Survival Kit (sometimes referred to as a Survival Tin because
originally everything fitted into an old tobacco tin) is designed to aid survival when
caught up in a potentially life-threatening survival situation when water, food and shelter are limited.
The Military Survival Kit (see photo, left) is the UK Ministry of Defence's
version of the Combat Survival Tin used by soldiers in World War II. There are a
few additions in the
new Military Survival Kit but the items remains fundamentally the same as in the World War II version.
The new Military Survival Kit has been redesigned to aid in Escape and Evasion, should the need arise whilst on active service. Alongside the
Aircrew Survival Pack
carried in all war planes, this kit was used extensively in the 1st Gulf War by UK servicemen to include Royal Air Force pilots and Special Air Service soldiers.
The concept of carrying survival aids packed in a small container has been around long before the two World Wars. Mountain guides in many countries would carry essential survival equipment in their pockets as a matter of course. Indigenous peoples carry essential survival items with them as a matter of necessity every day of the week and always have done.
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Bringing the Survival Kit up to date
People are venturing into remoter places seeking exciting recreation, thus we hear
of more extreme survival stories affecting civilians.
In many cases, people who get into trouble in the wilderness, jungle, deserts or at sea have few survival aids with them and have little knowledge of extreme survival. This is because extreme survival has been seen as the domain of the military, especially special service soldiers and aircrew who are trained to survive in extreme climates and in extreme places.
Most civilians have very little knowledge about survival techniques. Viewers of
Discovery Channel will notice how often the victims of disaster venture out ill-prepared into harsh terrain or take risks that put them in a survival situation. In 90 per cent of these stories,
carrying a Personal Survival Kit could have made a world of difference to the disaster victims.
However, it isn't only the luckless adventurer who can get caught up in a survival situation.
Today, exotic foreign travel, the effects of climate change and the threat of war and terrorism, etc., can place the everyday civilian in an extreme survival situation in an instant. If one is caught in an extreme survival scenario, the Survival Kit suddenly becomes a valued possession. Packed inside the Survival Kit is the means to light fires, trap animals, make shelter, purify water, signal for help and apply some rudimentary first aid. That's the concept, and all of this in a small
container that can be carried on the person.
The question being, is a small tin carried in one's pocket the best way of carrying vital personal survival equipment? It is also important to decided what you really need to carry in a survival kit and and it is equally important to be familiar with the items you do carry and be proficient in every aspect of their use.
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Making a Personal Survival Kit
Considerations–––>
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