This is a worst case scenario SHTF prepper nightmare, but prepping is what we do, so I thought I’d at least touch on this topic. Let’s say that TSHTF and you have to move out of your current location on foot for whatever reason. If things have gone real bad; criminals roaming the streets, gangs looking for things to steal, rioters destroying things. Whatever the case, you decide it’s time to leave. How do you do it without being seen? Unless you’ve got a small army the idea is to not advertise your position when moving.
Here are a few ideas for staying out of sight when being seen could mean big trouble for you and your family. The chances are slim that you’re going to be able to teach your family and friends how to leapfrog or bound on a sniper when he opens fire, so the idea here is to keep it very basic.
My wife asked what I was writing for today’s post and when I told her she said, “What about kids?” That’s a great question because if you have kids or pets you’re not going to want to leave them behind. (I hope.) So what do we do? The only answer I have is do the best you can with them. Babies might be able to sleep if you put them in a back pack carrier, but toddlers to eight or ten years old could be a real challenge. My two year old is hell on wheels and honestly it would be a big job to try and get him somewhere quietly. Try as best you can to keep them quiet, try to stay away from groups of people as much as possible, and keep the vulnerable near the middle of the formation so that it’ll be easier to protect them if you’re attacked.
When moving I would suggest moving in Ranger File. This is basically just a single column march with the man in front called the Point Man. This person is usually in charge of navigation and keeping an eye out for ambush, road blocks or anything that looks suspicious. Pick the best person you can for this position because it’s important. The leader is usually near the back of the formation in order to keep control of his people. The idea is to move slow, no more than a normal walk at the fastest. The people in the column must be alert, looking to both sides as well as glancing to the rear of the formation every minute or so. In the day time you should keep at least five meters between the person in front of you although at night you can close it up, so that your formation doesn’t fall apart or can’t respond effectively to a threat.
If attacked the people in the formation go either left or right and get down facing outward and supply cover fire if needed. The direction the individual moves is determined by the leader. The point man will move left or right depending on the situation. The second person in the formation might go left a few steps depending on the terrain, the third person will go to the right, the fourth person left, etc. This should be as instinctive as possible especially if you’re ambushed. Once your people have moved they immediately drop down and take whatever cover is available. I guarantee if your column is attacked by a bunch of gangsters and you react in a strict military fashion it will make them think, especially if you’re returning fire effectively.
Other things to watch out for:
Noise and light discipline. These are critical when moving tactically and every effort must be made to keep noises that carry to a minimum. Avoid metal on metal – such as pounding in a tent stake or hitting a rifle on something metal. Try to keep talking to a minimum when moving.
Do not use your white lens flashlight or headlamp at night. Most headlamps these days come with a red lens and if you absolutely must use a light then use the red light to see by. This will help to keep your night vision sharp and it won’t advertise your postion as much as a white light will.
If you’re a smoker – don’t. Not only does the smell carry a long distance, but the flare of the match and the glow of the cigarette coal can be seen a long distance off.
Hand Signals
In the spirit of keeping it simple there are just a few hand signals that everybody moving in your formation should know. Anybody in the formation can give these signals, which is why it’s important that people look behind them when moving.
Freeze – raised fist – this is the “freeze” signal. If you’re walking and you see this 
signal and you have a foot in the air, leave it there. Don’t move, don’t make a sound. Danger is imminent.
Stop – raised hand in the universal “Halt” gesture. Someone has seen something that needs to be investigated. Stop until you get the signal to move forward. (The move again is generally given by the squad leader or the point man.)
Get down and take cover – Palm down and
hand pumped up and down a few times. Usually used in conjunction with a freeze or stop command.
There are many more hand signals of course, but you can probably get by with these if you’re just moving your family and some friends out of the city.
Again, this is one of the worst case scenarios you might enounter for travel as a prepper, but prepping is what we do, so it pays to think these kinds of problems through. Better to think about it now and have a plan in your back pocket than to run into the problem without the faintest idea on how to proceed.
-Jarhead Survivor
BTW:
Here’s an Allstate advertisement I saw online and thought was pretty funny, but it’s a good lesson going back to what I’ve been saying about GPS (and other electronics.) Have a back up!!
I went through something like this recently when my daughter’s boyfriend brought his GPS in my truck when he was helping me move a bedroom set. I was close to chucking the thing out the window by the time we got to Portland!
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30 comments
This, combined with camoflage, is very important. Not only the ability to move carefully, quietly but also to not be seen if at all possable. Anyone who has ever trained with live fire or even airsoft in the bush can tell you quik, the people who dont use face paint GLOW IN THE DARK! You can see that white face glowing in the bush a mile out and it makes a mighty easy target. In urban environments, it may easier to blend in street clothes, but at the same time, your gonna be more of a target everywhere you go. Every movement is standing out, my first thing would be to get to the bush or out of the city. Cover is paramount when it comes to discreate movement. Rule number one when my feet hit the ground is where are the woods, and fast can I get to them. If you dont know these things, read , study, test and learn them.
Excellent point Spook.
Thanks for this article, Jarhead. While the information may be second nature to those who have served in the military, it is new for most of us who have not. Good to know.
Let’s hope you never have to use it!
Thank you for this one. I have to agree with LindaG – I don’t have a military background so the only tactics I know of are what I’ve seen discussed in blogs and from watching Special Ops Mission on TV (LOL).
Do you know which field manual or other resource I could look into to get some more in depth coverage on this topic?
Google “Survival, Evasion and Recovery”
You might be able to find some info online. I’m sure there are tactical training manuals out there, but this was written from experience.
Maybe some of our other readers out there might have more ideas where this information could be found for those who are interested? Anybody care to chip in?
Here is a good overview of Basic Formations, Movement Techniques, and Hand-and-Arm Signals from FM 5-10
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/5-10/appa.pdf
Awesome! Thanks all.
“The chances are slim that you’re going to be able to teach your family and friends how to leapfrog or bound on a sniper when he opens fire, so the idea here is to keep it very basic. ”
That’s strange… my family and I do battle drills every day. We just rehearsed how to react to a nearside ambush this morning. Doesn’t every family do this? 😉
Well, as we were working on a traveling overwatch yesterday my wife commented about that. I had to tell her that I don’t think everybody does this kind of thing all the time.
For folks who have no experience with these tactics, just find your local paint-ball field and try entering a tournament. Another option is scenario paint-ball games. I used to play tournaments when I lived in VA beach, with the amount of military personnel “blowing off steam” it was easy to find several folks who to teach tactical principles.
Spook45 mentioned Camouflage… One important thing to note is that the primary purpose is to break up an outline and help blend colors into the background. If you are moving it makes it MUCH harder to stay camouflaged. That expensive Mossy Oak, or digital cammo suit you bought, will likely offer little concealment while on the move! In talkin with several friends and family about this issue, and through my own experience, the best option for a somewhat “universal” cammo while on the move, go with OD GREEN. It blends into more backgrounds than specific cammo patterns and you can buy mil-surp stuff for pretty cheap.
Bets thing I have found is Multicam. The colors are subtle and it bridges well between changes in terrain. Most people think of tactile movement as fast and staggered lots of motion etc. Truth be known low and slow is where its at. If you move slow enough at distance, you may never be seen at all. speed for motion under fire, covering ground etc. If you are hidden and uncompromised, the less movement the better. After training with some other people, it makes e want to keep things as small as possable. Other people want to hack thru vegitation and knock it down, I just want to hide in it. Makes no sense, theyve seen too many Vietnam movvies!! IF I encounter a contact that doesnt see me first, im gonna drop below cover(horizon line, foliage etc) and let them walk on by. Why expose your self when you dont have too.
AGREED, unnecessary noise, movement, “trail-blazing” are all just open invitations to have somebody follow you! I used to live in Central America, we would go trekking in the jungle about every weekend and I can think of MAYBE 2-3 times where it was necessary to break out the machete and hack a trail into the vegetation. It’s just, for the most part, unnecessary and swinging a sharp 18″ blade around increases your chance of hurting someone in your party or getting hurt yourself!
I will have to check out the “multi-cam”, I am looking for a new set of BDU’s and that sounds like it might fit-the-bill! Thanks!
I’d recommend a blue light as opposed to red. It’s much harder for most folks to see. Red colors catch the eye. A blue marker even on a clear lens can do this and many military flashlights have this as an option.
Keeping kids and dogs quiet while moving. Benedryl makes them sleepy and can be given to both safely.
The new Nerf guns, and water pistols can make a great game for kids and parents to play together. You can do some basic MOUT and security operations. Put a little red dye in the water gun and practice 1st aid.
Without practice the old flight, fight or freeze attitude kicks in. Make it fun and call it hide and seek, or lazer tag or a water fight. Trust me kids will talk about it at school. So give it a name that won’t raise eyebrows.
Jamie said “I’d recommend a blue light as opposed to red. It’s much harder for most folks to see. Red colors catch the eye. A blue marker even on a clear lens can do this and many military flashlights have this as an option.”
The red lens is used because it is the color that lets the human eye get back its night vision fastest. If you use any other color, it will take you longer to get back your night vision.
Flashlights should not be used at all unless under a tarp or poncho to look at your map / password list / commo frequencies, etc. “Noise, Light, & Litter Discipline” means don’t make noise, don’t use any light, and don’t leave any evidence of who/what you are. Any color of light will get you shot.
Great topic. I’m always thinking of ways to stay out of site if this situation were to arise. My question is snow. What’s the best way to cover ones tracks through fresh snow? I understand maybe trying to walk through existing tracks, but what if you need to go where there are no tracks yet? Snow is also loud n crunchy when you walk. At night when there isn’t a lot of ambient noise, it seems each step you take would be heard a long way off. If anyone knows anything about this I would love to read your thoughts. Thanx.
To help make tracks a bit less obvious in the snow, the simple idea is to distribute your weight across as wide an area as possible. The best way I know of is using snowshoes, to reduce the easily distinguished track left by commercially available snowshoes you could make your own. Simply take a pair of similarly sized, flexible pine/evergreen saplings. The last time I made a set, I used 3′ tall Douglass fur saplings. Just bend them around so the tip of the little tree touches the base and secure with some rope/tape/whatever you have. Then form a lattice structure across the center to place your foot on, when I made the last pair I needed I used a few green branches from a hickory tree for the lattice and structured them in place with duct tape and para-chord. Then simply strap the snow shoes on to your boots, I used para-chord for this and then covered the chord with duct tape to prevent slippage
If you pick saplings with a lot of branches and needles, it should help to further distribute your weight, reducing the indentation your tracks will make. The needles from the evergreen should also help to somewhat obscure the track, for someone not familiar with tracking, they may have difficulty noticing such an odd looking trail. That being said, THAT I KNOW OF there is no effective/efficient way to COMPLETELY mask your trail in snow. However, if you use the improvised snowshoes, stick to areas where the snow-pack is a bit more dense, or trek through areas where your tracks will be harder to notice (like dense forest or over rocks/ice) it should further improve your odds of evading detection.
I agree with Chefbear. Once you’ve walked through deep snow there’s no good way to cover your tracks. The best you can hope for is another deep snow to cover your tracks and even then there’s usually a slight despression showing where the old trail was. However, traveling single file will keep your sign to a minimum and help disguise how many people there are.
There’s an old Charles Bronson movie where he was trying to cross into Alaska while being tracked and chased. He put his snowshoes on backwards to fool them – lol – it didn’t work, but the question reminded me of that.
I remember that movie! Do you remember what it was called?
About all I remember is that he wore a parka with a fur hood and he ran across the tundra for what seemed like forever.
Thanx for your comments on moving through snow. It’s just a point I wanted to bring up which is usually avoided in discussions of this sort. It’s just assumed that a person will have to bug out under perfect weather conditions. The truth is that’s most likely not how it’ll be. Sure, if the snow is comin down 3 inches an hour, then you have nothin to worry about. Or if u have an extra few hours to kill during the evasion to sit down and construct snow shoes then it’s fine. ( Sorry, not trying to put down that comment. It could be a life saver.) The possibility of having to avoid being followed on a day when the snow is deep, yet it’s not snowing at the time, could very easily present itself. The military would have to train for such things, I’m sure. Snipers, recon, and that sort. Just something I’ve been thinking a lot about this winter with all the snow we’ve had. Again; thanx for your comments.
By the way, that Charles Bronson flick is called Death Hunt.
Is that the movie where they end up having a huge shoot-out at a remote cabin with a sunk down floor? And the main character ends up taking out several of the guys stalking him with his pistol, from rifle ranges? Gotta love Hollywood, they make the hardest shots I can imagine look easy!
@Skillit- Last time I had to make the improvised snowshoes, it took me about 10-15 minutes to make them, and secure them to my boots. It is sort-of impractical, that’s why I also mentioned moving through areas where your tracks would be less obvious. It’s actually fairly easy to evade someone on a snow-machine while on foot in deep snow (with a head start), if you travel through a dense forest they can’t easily follow on top of your trail and are usually confined to game trails, clearings, ect. so if you stay in the thicker bush they can’t see your tracks as easily. Even if they are on foot, you can put them on the defensive with some space between you, just find a good place to “hunker down” and you should be able to hear them coming from a ways off, pick them off from a distance under concealment and then you don’t have to worry about them following you!
Jarhead Survivor, there are some very excellant points in this article and in comments. I especially liked Spook45 analisis of moving through the bush without a machette, just use the terrain and crawl under or over blockages. A machette can be heard a long ways off. The only thing I would differ with you on is in a single file formation our third man had the compass, the first man was point watching both sides and the second man looked out wherever the point man wasn’t watching. We also had the man in the rear, which traded off, watch the rear as a tail end charlie sort. this is how we moved in squad and platoon size in Viet Nam in the Army. Of course you jarheads always *expletive* up a good thing sort of.
Yes, I LUV Concealment. I said it that way, so as not to confuse it with cover. Rabbits for all of thier instincts, do not know how to hide. If rabbits head is conceealed and he cant see you, he thinks you cant see him, strange. I love a good machete when I need one, but in place where other people are trying to find, engage, and kill you, I think chopping down all of the hiding places is A BAD IDEA. Yes, I grew up in house full of JARHEADS and they taught me well. SEMPER FI
I know a whole bunch of jarheads and I didn’t intend any slight, to them, you, or the jarhead.
No offense taken. 🙂
If you have a full squad of trained men, then traveling the way tj says makes perfect sense; however, if you have a couple of families with deer rifles, pistols and maybe one AR then you’ll have to combine several jobs in order to spread your people as thin as possible. Like they say here in Maine, “Make do or do without.”
Just do the best you can folks.
Oh no, None taken….
Hey All! Ive been following this movement for a long time, and love this website. Im surprised none of the military guys mentioned this, but the absolute all around best book you can get is the RANGER Handbook. It has everything from movement, to survival, tactics, camo, etc. Thanks and never give up.
Exp: Current Active Duty Soldier, 7 + years USASOC Experience.
When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the identical comment. Is there any way you’ll be able to take away me from that service? Thanks!