And you won't have to take whatever you can get if you think about this stuff now. I certainly don't plan on ever relying, trusting, or taking in any stranger based solely on their particular talent.

Skills are learned. Things like gardening and animal husbandry is something you can pick up with experience. It takes years, yes. But eventually, anyone who is around those things will pick it up. So, if that's the 'main skill' of your prospective community-mate, they're only going to be useful for a couple years and then, everyone else is caught up to them. If you were putting up with a lazy or selfish or just plain less-than-perfectly-compatible personality for that gain, you're just going to be left with a shitty neighbor three years down the road. A worthwhile animal husband is going to be a veterinarian with surgical skills and an herbalistic medicinal understanding as it pertains to the animals you use. He's also going to be able to put shoes on your horse, and correct the horse's posture with those shoes.


A blacksmith is better but they gotta know their stuff. ANYONE can work a bellows, heat some metal, and bang it into simple things like hinges and pliers. Maybe they'd need to play around with it for a bit, or be taught for an hour. A really useful blacksmith for a self-sufficient EOTW type of community is going to know how to smelt the iron out of sand by the river, make different alloys, and should smith with a degree of excellence that you won't find at your typical rennaissance reenactor-blacksmith's giftshop.

I would also argue that mechanics are not that hard to find. But then I guess it depends where you live. I've been in neighborhoods where nobody within a mile knows how to change their own oil or check tyre pressure, then I've been other places where everybody's a shadetree mechanic with at least a go-kart, or a chevy malibu rebuild in the backyard or garage. There's not much 'art' to being a mechanic. You turn wrenches, you replace busted parts. A worthwhile EOW mechanic will somewhat blend the line with a blacksmith, and should be able to machine and fabricate and sand cast, and engineer alternatives to parts that might no longer be repairable. I know of an old motorcycle rider who would cast his own pistons from melted down chevy engine parts, in a mould he made from sand on the beach. For cylinders he cut lengths of gas pipeline. THAT is a useful mechanic. The ASE certified mechanic at meineke, not so much. He only knows how to replace an old part with a new part. You could do the same with a little patience and willingness to try.

Maybe I misunderstood your original question. You're looking for skillsets. I don't think skillsets are as important as personality and group compatibility, and a person's aptitude for learning and ethic for hard work. Skills can be added to such a person easily enough to make their initial lack thereof, a moot point. Definitely a bonus IF they have them, but I'd spend my energy looking for the right people, not preocupy myself with skillsets. Just my long-winded two cents.

uh, oh. here we go..............

good point. and nice bio. ;-)

<<So you get a bunch of guys who know, hopefully, around 30 battle drills, have very little comprehension of COIN or UW, are familiar with a very limited set of NATO weapons, and all have exactly the same skill set. >>

Yea, Infantry mos guys probably couldn't lace up civilian shoes, let alone be a productive member of paranoidtinfoilhatsville.

What a huge steaming pile of stereotypical dogshit.

Fuckin pog.

& he's not too hard on the eyes, either :)

Good point there Michelle.

Dude, this Raven guy is an Alt. Just look at his picture.

"security and tactics". Good lord.

And Rangers dont track or avoid tracking anymore. Except their scout elements. LRS guys, now those dudes shit in bags they keep on them in order to avoid detection. That's serious business. They dont even shit on the ground then scoop it up - one of their team mates holds the bag while the other dude shits.

Well I'm not saying I'm the shit or anything. I just know the most about weapons,tactics, and all that good stuff. By far I'm not the best. I'm the best out of my group. Here's a list of members/jobs
Bravo-head of security
Delta-head of engineering
November-security assistant
Whiskey-engineering assistant
Charlie-Head of inventory
Sierra-inventory assistant
Mike-hunter/medic
Echo-hunting assistant

We have other jobs. and some jobs cover a lot, but here is the basics. we arn't saying we are the shit. We are just making due. We don't have one man as the leader. Whiskey, Delta and I are kind of a counsel.

Well here's the reply to your other question. I am a country boy, Tracking, shooting, hand to hand. Hell Ive been doing that sense I was 7.
I'm not a full time warrior. My assistant is a better shot than me. But that's about all he knows. If shtf everybody fights. But who will train them? For people who never considered survival before in there life, Never shoot a gun before, They need help.
Yeah we got a safe place, but security envelops every part of survival. Going out on hunting trips, trading, Where and what we make our shelter out of. Where we store supplies/weapons. Like I said, I'm not god or anything, but I'm the best we got.