Survival UK

One of the biggest issues that we all have is OPSEC. All our other issues are outside our control in many respects, financial, storage, time, etc. it is just we just can’t really do anything about them. OPSEC though is something that we can do but we don’t really exercise the control to do it properly. It isn’t actually us that is the threat here, it is the others in our family. They just don’t see a reason for not talking about the things we do. It is a source of conversation to them. In fact for most of us our OPSEC is already compromised we just don’t know it.

OPSEC is going to be the issue that haunts us after an event, who knows what we have, have we hidden the stuff well, who will notice that we don’t seem to be as hungry as they are, who will notice our kids laughing while their kids cry and remember that time five years ago their kid came home and said he had seen the largest pile of beans he had seen in his life.

It’s not our fault, we are just not geared up for lying and our kids like to show off and talk about things they think others will like to help their relationships. Thus the fact you have some bows is known among the kids but the parents are not aware of it. When TSHTF and a hungry parent starts asking questions then they can quickly come to the conclusion that something is not right with you. Then they start to do something about it and before you know it someone is knocking at your door asking questions.

For those bugging out it is much less of an issue. You won’t have shared so much background information with the new neighbours, if you have any, but bugging in means the existing neighbours have several years worth of knowledge to call on.

For those with no kids and just themselves interacting with the neighbours then it is an easy thing just to keep things to yourselves, that is provided of course that your better half is bought in and doesn’t tell all her mates about your insane craving for storing food for emergencies. I suspect that the women in most streets know a lot more about all the blokes than we could imagine.

What can you do about it? Well, to be honest I don’t know. It is probably already too late for the knowledge and you are bugging in for a reason, you can’t change that but you could consider doing two things.

First of all spend some time explaining what could happen after an event to your family, show them examples from the TV. Let them know that there is real danger here to the rest of the family, you never know they may get it and every little helps.

The second, and the only one you can do something about is to look at hiding your stuff better. That conflicts with the space requirement though but you could try burying food in caches around the place. Unless you make it obvious you are burying things then it will soon get forgotten. Having bows and tools in the house may be the way you got noticed and raised their suspicions but they are going to be ignored in the hunt for food. Just don’t empty your caches and fill the pantry. Being suspicious and not finding food means their suspicions will be allayed and that means you can carry on being careful. Hopefully, by the time they realise that you are not suffering as they are they will be too weak to do anything. Strength though will be in numbers and you may have to consider a pre emptive strike before they can build a team up if you are detected. Just try and keep in with them as long as you can so you can hear the rumours.

Having just to hide food should make things a little easier but don’t forget chickens, rabbits, fish, etc. are food and you want to keep them as part of your long term plans. Bringing them indoors is a good step, it has been done that way for centuries but it is practically impossible to hide them in a search. They may have to be sacrificed for OPSEC and that will be a problem for the future.