The Reason behind HIS thought:
My doctor is 48 years old, 6’-1”, and was 192 pounds before a Church mission trip to Africa, 154lbs when he returned home. I have known him for about 20 years. He has just recently (about 6 weeks ago) returned from a month long mission trip to Africa, that unfortunately had to be EXTENDED by 13 weeks. He has been going on this trip about every 3 years, and always lost weight, but usually less than 5 pounds.
Now realize, he has been home about 6 weeks, but he still looked HORRIBLE. He had been in great shape, worked out, swimmer, jogged or biked regular, not an ounce of fat on him before the trip. He ate well balanced meals, didn’t diet, just watched what he ate, very little “junk food” (he has a weakness for Krispy Kreme donuts) He is a “prepared family”, and well situated when things go south. Now, he looked like the starving children from Africa, which we see on TV.
During our half day visit for my annual physical’s (insurance, DOT, Scouts) I learned:
1. He will never willingly leave the USA again
2. He will never leave Georgia, except by his doomsday vehicle (98 dodge, ext. cab, 4x4, 12v, Cummins diesel, no electronics , he has owned since new, although I think as time goes on, he will travel with his regular cars)
3. He has added a 100 gallon in bed fuel tank to his oversized 50 gallon under bed tank
4. He has added a Leer top to the bed
5. He has bought A LOT more ammo; shotgun, hunting and now 5.56 and 9mm
6. He got a German Shepherd to go along with his hunting Lab’s
7. He has added a full length slide out tool / cargo carrier to the bed
8. Extra 5% or so of weight is a GREAT Prep, He is HIGHLY recommending to most everyone that he sees (that he thinks is “preparing” )
9. He is adjusting his long term food to bump up to around 2500 calories a day, plenty of fat calories, canning and storing more food this summer (he always has canned food)
10. He is ‘Insisting” that his family (brothers, sister, parents, sons, daughter n laws) get on board and start storing more food (after seeing his condition when he returned, it wasn’t a hard sell)
11. He started canning meat as soon as he got home (something new for him)
12. He ran out of his normal vitamins after 30 days( he keeps 6 months at home, but increasing to 2 year’s)
13. He has started storing FISH antibiotics, along with “normal” ones
14. He is remodeling his basement “man cave” to include more shelves for food storage
15. He ate ALL of his extra protein bars, food bars that he had taken, which he had planned to leave with the people he helped, when he left
16. During the extended stay, he had maybe one meal a day
17. Clean water was by boiling, filtering , but he always had plenty
18. Permethrin treated clothes are LIFE savers
19. You can’t have too much DEET insect repellant
20. GREAT quality clothes are the only way to go
21. If you can only have one set of clothes, socks, underwear, boots, buy the Best you can
22. Real leather 10-12” boots hold up better than the “high tech, cloth” in the wild, rough terrain of Africa
He is slowing recovering his physical condition and weight, but he was SCARED. He has had some “knee jerk” reactions, but all told, he saw the worse of human behavior. He told me that the extra pounds (8 of them) that I have added in the past 20 years to think of as “long term” prepping. He seriously thought he might die from starvation. While other “Fat people” in his group lost weight; they ended up with a much better health situation and were able to assist him as his strength gave out. He had to be carried on/off the plane, and was admitted to the hospital for several days when he got back home. He is not advocating getting “fat”, but a few extra pounds is probably a good thing, if you are long term prepping. He suggested to increasing your long term food calories to at least 2500 per day is a MUST, as you will probably be doing much more physical work than before and burning a lot more calories.
He was always prepared, but now he is on a new “mission”. He sold his brand new 2016 MB500 to buy an old deuce, old 1964 diesel John Deere tractor, more cows for his family cattle ranch/farm (his brothers, sister, parents all jointly share in it, which is about 300 acres), and a 2014 4 door Toyota 4x4 pickup that will now be his daily driver. He has his family convinced to expand their family / joint garden to about 5 acres (he said about 50 of them, including the children). He has started storing heirloom seeds, buying manual farm tools, and installed new generator at the farm, installed new 500 gallon diesel fuel tank. He was truly scared and afraid while over there and now will do anything necessary to prevent his family from going hungry. His wife is a great lady, and fully supports 99% of his decisions—she did baulk at trading her brand new MB mini-van to buy a 2005 model 2500 4x4 Suburban. (He wanted me to talk to her, since my wife and I both have 4x4 2500 Suburban’s). Their three children (sons) are early-mid 20’s and they have one grandbaby with another on the way (hence his wife’s desire to keep the mini-van). The sons are doctors (or soon to be). He did ask me to come up and instruct him, his wife, daughter in laws, and sons in shooting pistols and AR’s (they are already well versed with firearms and hunt regularly, all year round, rifle and shotguns), but wants someone else to help him/them shoot better and learn about pistols and AR’s . He has applied for several suppressors for new firearms he bought. His family “farm” is our 3rd place to go to if we had to leave out first two locations, Our place is also his 2nd place. His /Our families are jointly welcomed if caught away from home in any event.
This is a very normal, rational gentleman, “pillar of the community” type that was pushed over the edge by what he saw and experienced. He says he now sleeps with some of the lights on outside, and wakes at every little sound. He has been down to the local VFW, American Legion to speak with some of the combat vets from Vietnam, Korea, and Persian Gulf (I think as “therapy” for him) I’m not worried that he will go “Postal” or anything, he just wanted to talk with people that have real life experiences with the horrors that humans can do to one another.
My Doctor, NOW, recommending being 5% +/- over weight as a “prep”
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