Hawke Myke - Family survival guide: the best ways for families to prepare, train, pack, and survive everything

Copyright 2018 by Mykel Hawke and Ruth England Hawke

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Petersen

Cover photo credit: Ruth England Hawke

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3794-5

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3795-2

Printed in China.

DEDICATION

Wed like to dedicate this book to our parents, both in the UK and the US; we love them so very much. And to the folks who were like parents to Myke: the Hoosacks, the Stankas, Earl, Pete, Yedidia, and Ken.

Wed also like to make a special dedication to the handful of friends who helped us survive one of the toughest times of our lives: the Bolls, the Gabels, the Diazes, and the Erickson clan.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

J AMES M ORGAN A YRES

I wish the Family Survival Guide had been available when my now-grown sons were children. Although I am a generation older than Mykel, many of my experiences are similar to his. Like Mykel, I served with Special Forces (Green Berets). And also like Mykel, I have had an avid, lifelong interest in survival.

By the age of ten I was wandering the woods near my home town on my own, camping with little more than a blanket, a tin can for a pot, a knife from my mothers kitchen, and an oilcloth tablecloth for a tarp, while hunting rabbits and squirrels with a homemade bow. By thirteen I had roamed over much of my Midwestern state, camping in whatever wild country I could find.

Although I learned a great deal during my military service, like Mykel, I wanted more knowledge about primitive survival. Over the past half-century I have at times lived with so called primitive people on three continents, hunted, fished, and foraged with them and learned the lessons they had to teach. So you may ask, with my experience why would I have needed this book?

I raised a family and taught my sons what I thought they needed to know in order to survive in the wilderness and in the world. But I always had nagging doubts: did I make it fun, will they remember the stories I told to illustrate lessons, and most importantly, did I teach them enough, did I forget to cover something? I often thought I should have taken the time to write down an organized teaching plan for my boys. But due to the exigencies of operating an international business and dealing with the day to day affairs of a large family, I never did. Thats why I wish this book had been available then.

In this book, Mykel and Ruth have brilliantly organized military experience and harsh real word experience to create a potentially lifesaving manual. They have done so in a non-militaristic, unpretentious, down-to-earth style that makes essential topics easy to access and absorb for anyone, especially including children. In the first few pages Mykel sets out the primary goal of this book: The worst case scenario you can ever imagine Your child is lost and must survive on their own at least long enough to be found. Thats a nightmare scenario for any parent. And sadly, every year, children do get lost, whether from wandering off or getting separated from the group. And every year, some kids do not get found.

And as is pointed out early on, everything in this book comes down to fulfilling one mission: helping your child survive alone without you. Certainly that was my worst nightmare when my boys were children. I think it is for many parents. Chance cannot be ruled out, and anything can happen to anyone. But chance favors the prepared, and learning the lessons found in the Family Survival Guide will materially weigh the odds in your favor, and in favor of your children.

The book begins with critical components of real world survival, components not detailed in many other survival books. These include how to analyze your capacities, how to organize a hierarchy of decisions, and how to make plans based on the Special Forces methods that have enabled many to survive extreme conditions in far flung corners of the world.

Many survival books focus on making fire without matches, building shelters, and other basic skills, but leave out the most critical skillsthe mental ones. Chapter by chapter the Family Survival Guide covers all basic, and some advanced, survival skills and needs and does so in a manner that is both easy to understand and easy to recall.

In addition to the excellent organization, Mykel and Ruths prose style makes this book a stand out, and makes the lessons memorable. Heres an example:

Only taking what you really need and know that what you took, you really use, because you are going to carry it in that life-sucking tick we call the rucksack and every ounce of weight with no pay off, is an ounce of weight that wears you down and when things get tough, that wear and tear comes into play and makes difference in a big way.

I hadnt heard that phrase, life-sucking tick, since I was in the army, decades ago. I laughed out loud when I read it because it brought up memories of slogging through rough country with a monster of a rucksack draining energy from my exhausted body.

In one pungent, visual, and memorable phrase Mykel and Ruth sum up what I devoted an entire chapter to in one of my own books: travel light, carry only what you need, not what you want . That lesson is doubly important for children.

If their little rucksack is too heavy for them they will soon learn to hate it and will leave it behind at every opportunity. Mykel and Ruth explain how to ensure that your children have what they need , and a few things that are fun for them, so that if an extreme situation arises they will have the tools they need to survive.

This is an important books for all parents. Even if you dont go camping or spend much time out of doors there always comes at least one time when a kid wants to go snowboarding, skiing, river rafting, or hiking with friends.

That one time is often when it all goes wrong. I once witnessed a fifteen-year-old boy die of hypothermia. He had been snowboarding, got off, and got lost. The search and rescue team found him after he had spent two nights alone in the mountains. He was still alive then but so far gone into hypothermia that he could not be saved.

The rescue team was in tears. His parents were devastated. This boy was at no time more than a mile from the lodge. He was wearing jeans and a cotton hoodienormal clothing for a teenaged snowboarder, but nonetheless clothing that helped to kill him by getting wet and not dryingas cotton does. He had no outdoor skills. He didnt know to stay in one place so he could be more easily found. He had no idea about lost proofing, route finding, or signaling skills. He didnt know how to build a fire, or even to carry the means to make fire. As a member of the rescue team, I watched the fear in his eyes as the light died from them. I dont ever want to repeat that experience. Thats an experience that no parent wants to have. Unfortunately, kids die like this every year. But the Family Survival Guide contains critical knowledge and skills that can enable parents to avoid such horror and loss.