Actually using a BOB in an emergency/survival situation

L

Lawlor69

Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
386
I'd like to hear some actual, real-world use of a BOB in a real emergency or real survival situation. I'm keen to hear of first-person accounts, not stories from the media or from books. Oh, and I mean civilian situations (even if you are military or ex-military). I realize that the BOB may have only been carried, and very little used, throughout the experience. That's cool, too, and also very instructive.

To be honest, I don't have any such stories. Guess I'm just lucky...

Matt
 
i was driving up to school one day and a large tree had fallen over blocking the road.
cars started to pile up behind me (i was second in line) and some guys were getting out to try and clear the tree. The tree was approximately 30-40 feet tall. I dug around in my BOB and found my pocket chainsaw, made some handles and sawed through the tree, enough to clear 1 lane. I was able to get not only myself, but alot of other people out of a situation where we'd have waited a long time for city crews to come clear the tree.

Cheers

JC
 
Was driving home from a wedding in South Carolina last year.

We were driving home through the smokies. We stopped for a second just to take a quick lunch time hike.

The food, water, and tools int he BOB we were able to have a nice time and spend more time on the trail.
 
I made my father an Altoids PSK. He has had it in his truck for two years now. He was at a company picnic for my sisters work. The wind was blowing real bad and making the tablecloths knock over all the food on the tables. Out of all the people that were at the picnic, no one had anything to use. My father was looking in his truck when he came across the PSK wrapped in duck decoy thread, which is a very thick braided line(about 150# test). He unwrapped it and used it to tie all the tablecloths down on the tables. He saved the day.
 
I went car camping in Big Bend Nat'l Park recently. We took my wife's Tahoe as it had 4WD and some roads in the park can get pretty rough.

Just before leaving, on a whim, I grabbed my BOB out of my car and threw it in on top of the camping stuff.

The first day at the park we had a tire start to go flat. At that instant I remembered that I had a can of flat fix in my BOB, so I grabbed that and quickly stopped the leak.

This was very lucky because soon after we had another flat, and had no spare tire left. Not only that, this was a three day weekend, and all the local tire shops were closed until the following week.

We were only able to continue our trip because I happened to grab that bag.

Andy
 
In my BOB I carry a great 1st aid kit and we were out riding motocross and a buddy crashed badly,did not clear a jump hit the face side and being tossed 20-30ft, AKA: lawn dart, any ways ,he was knocked out and scraped up badly and bleeding...we picked him up & took him back to my truck ,every body was scrambling round wondering what to do,I pulled out my 1st aid kit and place a ice pack on his broke hand,and on a nasty gash ,I applied that "stop bleed " and fixed him up temporarily until we left the MX park to go to the hospital...thanks to my kit.
 
Great stories. Thanks for the feedback. Anyone notice the vehicle theme to all the stories? I guess people's BOBs often function as multi-purpose go-to bags (since they are, after all, handy).

Still be great to hear a tale of its use--or carriage--in a true emergency (ie: mass-evacuation) or survival situation (ie: stranded).
 
My BOB got so big after a while that it wouldn't be portable without a vehicle! LOL

I carry about everything you could think of to get 4 people through 1 week in a large storage locker in my SUV. I also have an empty backpack so I can build a true BOB with whatever the situation demands. The only items I've had to call upon have been rain ponchos, warmer clothes, a blanket, spare cash, and a first aid kit once.
 
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