volunteer and get training and equipment

I have mentioned this in several posts but it might be better served as a separate thread.
You can get really good training at no cost as a volunteer in your community. I work as a volunteer for search and rescue at the county sheriff’s department, and have been given free of charge training in survival , land navigation, specialized equipment, first response medical, and a host of other such things; others in our team get snowmobile and atv training ( and I mean extensive and expensive training lasting 3-4 days ) we all were offered winter survival by peter cumberfeld (not sure as to the spelling) also we get issued police band radios (the same radios the patrol deputies use) gps units, local maps and state mapping cd computer disks, compasses and such. Working with the local emergency agency you get to know what’s going on and where before the general public and are issued id that allows you through road blocks and into restricted areas as needed to do your work.
I also work as a volunteer firefighter in our small town and this gives me access to specialized equipment and training that the public never thinks about (how many people have a scba and nomex clothes in their car.
I guess the point is you can serve your community and at the same time get skills and equipment that are yours to use in whatever situation you might find yourself.

Thats a fantastic idea! However here in CT volunteer oppoortunities not involving ghetto kids or reading to the elderly are practically nonexistant.

The few that are out there require you have the skills before you even show up to ask if they could use you.

It must be a regional thing. Its funny that by percentage CT is the most heavily forested state in the union but all we are is little cities and big ghettos.

Yup, Im looking for a job out of state, but thats an entirely different rant/topic.

Youve got a great idea though!

Volunteering like you describe is excellent and a commendable endeavour. However, if the SHTF, as a volunteer you are (at least morally) required to serve the agency for which you volunteered. You can't just volunteer, get the training and equipment and then not show up when the balloon goes up. I need to be available for my family in such a scenario. I'll happily assist and organize my neighborhood but my primary mission is my family.

Oh, I never said it was all gravy I have put in hundreds of hours perhaps thousands of hours of my time to get the training I have been privileged to receive. Yes it’s a commitment and you surely do have to show when the bell rings, but these are day to day emergencies, someone’s kid is lost or their house is on fire or the slip and break a leg or some such, and for this you are trained to a level the rest of the public is unaware that is available. But in the sit x when it all goes to hell no one expects volunteers to abandon there families to help others and if they do well is that really reasonable? Yes you do put out a lot of time but you meet people that are in to the same thing you are and have knowledge you can’t get anywhere else. I been cold tired and felt like sh** then you find some lost hunter or keep a neighborhood from going up in flames and it’s all worth it.

Totally agree. If you are so inclined, I'd say join the National Guard, or if you're in fair Canuckistan, the Reserves.

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Hey, hear me out!

You get paid to learn things like topography, firearms skills, and first aid. You have the option of going on all manner of course, being paid for it, as well as going out there and helping folks out. Risks, you say? Don't want to kill people or die? Well, they're not givens, firstly, and secondly there are all manner of noncombat trades for you to join up.

I just spent most of january in Quebec going field exercises during my basic for the reg force in -40C weather, and it was brilliant. We learned how not to die when it's forty below, how to move efficiently in the winter, all kinds of stuff like that. Plus, it was tons of fun.

Just a suggestion- be a weekend warrior, or join your local police auxilliary unit.

DE

that's the thing most people who are or weren't in the military don't understand, most military people aren't in combat it's something like 1 combat troop for every 10 support troops and yes support troops can be killed but it's not near as likely. there are benefits to being in the military that you don't appreciate till you need them, like decisiveness make a decision right wrong just make it if your wrong will fix it but you won't be right either if you can't decide. working with all sorts of people you would not even meet in most cases in civilian life( explosive experts, snipers, infiltration and camouflage experts and you might become one of these people.) yes there risk but risk is part of life and driving your car is still probable the most dangerous thing you'll ever do ( 52,000 troops were killed in the 10 years of the Vietnam war 50.000 people died every year of that war in car accidents about 10 to 1.)