Making OPSEC Part of Your Survival Prepping

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

Greetings. It seems to me that there’s an increase in interest in preparing for disasters. Maybe that’s just my perspective, but I’m even seeing liberals starting to stock up and talk about alternate energy… without talking about global warming or going green. I suppose it’s possible that those liberals are just putting on an act, but the ones I know seem just as concerned about something happening as we on the political right are.

There is some real danger in that, especially if you consider the liberal penchant for socialism. While it would be very honorable of them to share their food stocks with their friends and neighbors in the midst of a crisis, my experience with liberals is that they are much more interested in giving away what belongs to conservatives, than what they themselves have.

This just shows me that the need for good OPSEC is growing stronger all the time. What do I mean by that? Well, OPSEC stands for “operational security.” It’s a military term, which refers to keeping your actions a secret, so that the enemy doesn’t know what you are doing. In the military, this is to avoid surprise attacks and in prepping, it can actually help accomplish the same thing.

The thing is, when the SHTF and people are hungry, they are likely to do a whole host of unlikely things. Somewhere near the top of that list is to attack those who are suspected of having food. Oh, they might try begging first; but when that doesn’t work, you can be sure that they’ll be back, armed to the teeth.

Your best defense against this is not an arsenal of weapons, it’s your OPSEC. While you might be able to win that battle, you’re better off not having to fight it. The only way you’re going to be able to accomplish that, is to make sure you don’t give them any reason to attack you. In other words, don’t let them know what you’ve got.

This is harder than it seems. Every neighborhood has a local gossip, who keeps tabs on everyone else’s activities. On top of that, people naturally see what their neighbors are doing, what they’re bringing into their homes and what they’ve got going on in their backyards. So, you can pretty much count on your neighbors having a pretty good idea what you’re up to; unless you can prevent them from finding out.

There are four basic OPSEC strategies you need to concentrate on, in order to keep your prepping secret:

COMMUNICATIONS – In this case, communications means not communicating. Everyone from neighbors to intelligence agencies counts on people talking about themselves and what they are doing. If you can keep from talking about what you are doing, you can shut off their main source of information.

HIDING – Keep your preps out of sight and they will hopefully stay out of mind. This actually covers a lot of things, as you need to hide deliveries you receive, you need to hide your pickup truck when you’re unloading a half ton of food and you need to hide all those supplies in your home. You can hide unloading by the simple expedient of putting your truck in your garage or backyard while unloading. Once the supplies are in your home, there are a myriad of good hiding places. Fill them all, leaving nothing out in the open for people to find.

DISINFORMATION – Some things are hard to hide, like a vegetable garden or a wind turbine generator. In that case, you want to have a believable story that you can tell people. Talk about going green, reducing your monthly electric bill or your concern about GMO foods. There are usually other reasons why you might be doing some specific activity, other than prepping. Talking about those will give them a plausible explanation and reduce speculation.

CAMOUFLAGE – Another thing you can do to help prevent people from realizing what you are doing is to make it look like something else. A 1,000 gallon water tank in your backyard is going to look like a 1,000 gallon water tank. But a 12 foot diameter, above ground swimming pool doesn’t look much like a water tank. Nor does pool maintenance look like you’re keeping your water supply purified. There are lots of things you can do like that, which will make your preps look like something else. Plant a hedge around your front yard for home defense, instead of building a fence. It will work just as good and not be so obvious.

You’re going to have to keep your preps secret from your kids as well, especially small kids. Children are incapable of keeping a secret and knowing that it’s a secret makes it even worse. Better to feed them some disinformation too, so that they won’t spill the beans.

When the disaster comes, you need to make sure that you and your family look like everyone else. Go on a diet, cutting your caloric intake to 1,500 calories per day. That will make you loose weight, so that you’ll look like everyone else who is losing weight. If you stay pleasantly plump, everyone will realize that you have food.

The same can be said for the use of electricity. You should have some electric power generation for your home, but you shouldn’t flaunt it. If you’re using electric lights at night, then make sure that you are hiding it from your neighbors. Put blackout curtains over the windows, so they don’t see your light shining forth.

All in all, OPSEC is a lot of extra work; but it’s much easier to make it a habit, then to go back and try to fit it in later. It’s also a whole lot safer for your family, which is the real reason to do it. That makes it worth all the effort.

So, make some changes and keep your plans a secret. When the time comes, you’ll be glad you did. In the mean time, keep your powder dry and your survival equipment close at hand.

Dr. Rich

PS: Don’t forget these as part of your survival plan.