Weekly Sneak Peek #3: EDC, GHB, BOB, INCH…Say That Again?

Aren’t acronyms fun?
Well they are no fun if you have no idea what they mean.
One of the problems with the entire genre of survival and disaster preparedness is acronym usage.
It seems like only the military uses more acronyms and new ones are cropping up all the time.
Well it is time to demystify all these acronyms.

In the section on survival equipment there are a lot of kits ranging from First Aid Kits to Bug-Out-Bags and more.
All of those things listed in the title (EDC, GHB, BOB, INCH) are kits.
Survival is very kit-centric and for a very good reason.
Often times when a disaster strikes you don’t have the time to pack up the kids and the supplies into the minivan; you just have to GO and DO.

One thing I knew right out of the gate when I started writing this book was that I was going to have the unenviable task of covering kits of different sizes.
Why unenviable? There are so many and most of them have multiple names. There is no standardization across the multiple communities that have cropped up in support of proper survival and disaster preparedness.

The funny thing about all of this is that once the acronyms are deciphered, most people have the response of ‘Oh, I call that Timmy’ or what have you.
The result is that when people get to talking they end up sounding like they are talking in two different languages, both of them get confused and have trouble understanding the other one.

Now then..onto Acronym’s of the Survival Community.

The simplest one is EDC as it stands for Every-Day-Carry.
Empty your pockets, all of that stuff is your everyday carry kit. Now some people put little planning into this simplest of kits.
Not much planning is really needed, this kit is simply what you carry with you everyday.
Some people choose to add little odds and ends to the EDC like a folding knife, maybe a one of those key ring LED lights. Things like that.
The purpose of this kit is to make your everyday life..simpler.
In the book, mention will be made of a few small lightweight items that would be well suited for inclusion in your everyday carry so fret not if you are trying hard to find things to put in this simplest of kits with little success.

Next is the GHB which stands for Get-Home-Bag.
This is typically a bag kept in your vehicle with one very special purpose, getting you home.
Think about the amount of time you spend daily in your car. For some of us this is a few hours while others spend much much more.
A friend of mine drives for a courier-type company and can spend 8 hours on the road at a time.
This is a lot of time in which you are vulnerable. The purpose of the GHB is to provide with with enough of what you need to get home if an emergency hits when you are in your vehicle.
Don’t think just about yourself here either, think about your vehicle. It is going to be the fastest way home.
Do you have a spare tire, jack, and a can or two of Run Flat not to mention a hand pump?
If you don’t..you should as those are the starting blocks.
So why this whole insistence on getting home? Looking at the next acronym should tell us more.

BoB. No not Bob Dylan. BoB stands for Bug-Out-Bag.
There is another term for this, the Go-Bag.
They are both the same thing. This is a bag kept at home that you can grab at a moment’s notice that carries with it enough supplies to last you at least 72 hours and preferably 120 hours or 5 days.
Now do you see why the GHB exists? So you can get home to this puppy.
A lot of people plan to ‘bug in’, which means to stay at home and button up the shutters for an oncoming disaster.
To bad mother nature has a really cruel way of changing things on us.
So whether you are planning to ‘bug in’ or ‘bug out’ get one of these bags.
In the book I will be focusing an entire chapter on this kit alone because it is so central to survival and disaster preparedness.
There are exactly….more ways than any of us can count to set one of these up from bag selection to contents selection.
Its complicated, it can be expensive, and it is absolutely critical.

Now here is an acronym that isn’t in the title V-BoB, also sometimes seen as BoBV, which stands for Vehicle Bug-Out-Bag.
This is not a duplicate of your bug-out-bag. I repeat, not a duplicate!
This kit can be thought of as an extension to the BoB.
The facts of the matter are this. One, vehicles travel faster than humans. Two, we all would prefer that if we had to hurriedly leave a location that it be in our vehicle.
The purpose of the V-BoB is to, as I said, extend the usefulness of the BoB.
Since the BoB is supposed to be man-portable, many items which are by no means man-portable, are left out.
The V-BoB is where those things can be placed.
As I feel this is a very important kit, there will be an entire chapter dedicated to it and how you can get the most out of it no matter if you drive a compact car or an SUV.

Now we come to the all might INCH.
There are probably other terms for this kit but I like the sound of INCH.
I must give credit where it is due for the acronym to Arch over on the ZombieSquad forums. He made up an INCH which I believe is one of the most complete kits of its kind I have ever seen.
(If when you click on Arch’s name, it should take you to his profile, if it doesn’t you might just need to register first.)
So just what is an INCH Kit? According to Arch it stands for “I’m Never Coming Home” or more precisely a resettlement kit.
If the BoB and V-BoB were a Honda Civic, the INCH is the Chevrolet Suburban; this is the big boy.
There are certain situations when you have to be ready to abandoned your home for an undetermined amount of time.
Want an example as you sit there shaking your head questioning this?
Just how close is the nearest nuclear power plant? You will probably be surprised about that answer.
If that melts down..you won’t be coming back to your home most likely.
Basically, as you can probably tell, the INCH Kit enables you to walk away from your home with minimal fallout.
You have all of your important records in your INCH, which is one of many things that sets it apart from the others, so that you can restart.
Not having these important records, or allowing them to be destroyed, was one of the main headaches in every single hurricane I have ever heard of.
Afterward people are trying to get back on their feet and they can’t even prove they own the house anymore; lovely situation no?
In the book I will be taking Arch’s excellent advice and building on it substantially to enable everyone to build said kit if they so choose.
Remember, there are about 10 ways to achieve a goal with each way ranging in price and effectiveness. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, better make the smart one’s right?

I hope this sneak peek has given everyone a bit more understanding of the topic along with insight into one of the major sections of the book.

There are a lot of other acronyms out there today, confused about one? Come ask in a comment and I will due my best to demystify the arcane forces that are the acronym in survival and disaster preparedness.