The Vietnamese Tarzan. FULL DOCUMENTARY

"Social Distancing" expert. I love to eat bamboo rat myself. and yes, the head is the best part

Bushcrap3.0

ladies and gentlemen I am struck. I was recently sent a link for a YouTube channel featuring an SF type as a wilderness survival expert.

I took a look at the videos, there is some useful information contained there in but (to me) juvenile and frat boyish.... I took a look at the individuals bio and aside from 26 years in special operations there was no evidence of any type of outdoor school or qualifying skills. Being able to make a Ferro rod fire and a poncho hooch does not qualify you as a wilderness expert.

This individual - like the other SF "experts" I have met has never spent any length of time in a remote wilderness with minimal gear and no support network. They have spent time in austere hostile environments with the Army but that is a far cry from a wilderness.

Bottom line - if you are some type of military special operator and you make the claim of being a wilderness expert you are a straight up liar. Get some actual training, like with a JMBS expedition course, maybe outward bound, national outdoor leadership school, or even a Tom Brown tracker course. Sprinkle in becoming a raft guide, wilderness EMT WFR. Then get some actual solo wilderness experience,Then make your claim.....it will give you much more credibility.

Thanks for your service.

Colonel Tomahawk

The Hunted - final Knife fight scene

The 2003 flick The Hunted - loosely based on the life of Tom Brown jr. I believe, was for me a bit of a shit show. The knife fight scenes with the combatants displaying the filipino fighting art Sayoc kali.
As was the final scenes where each of the dudes were making knives in their own styles. 

William Friedkin’s 2003 thriller The Hunted is not a remarkable film. The movie sees Tommy Lee Jones track rogue assassin Benicio Del Toro who in turn is hunting and killing the most dangerous game of all, man. It’s a potboiler of a thriller for sure but the film distinguishes itself with some heart pounding, visceral fight sequences.

The film’s credits list two knife fight choreographers, Thomas Kier and Rafael Kayanan, both practitioners of the Filipino martial art, Sayoc Kali (The Art of the Blade). Del Toro and Jones worked extensively to ensure the hand-to-hand combat in the film had a realistic and brutal feeling to it. Friedkin pulls no punches in filming these fights and a lot of credit goes to the sound department for making every cut sound suitably squishy.

There are a number of standout fights in this film. At one point Del Toro dispatches two heavily armed agents with nothing but his trusty knife. Jones and Del Toro face-off a couple of times in the film, there’s a good hand-to-hand encounter in a wooded area a little ways into the film that ends with Del Toro taking a sleeping dart to the back. However, The Hunted‘s best sequence comes at the close of the film when all bets are off and the two men must battle it out for survival.

First man out with Ed Stafford - S1

I got word from one of the pimp minions about a show called "First man out" with Ed Stafford. I have seen a few of  Eds show about adventure travel and survival. I like them for the most part, and Stafford seems like a good cat.

Anyhoo, this show featured Matt Graham in Mongolia and John Hudson in Northern India. I worked with both of these dudes on season one of a TV show called "Dude you're screwed" AKA "Survive that" outside of the USA. This show also has an episode with EJ Snyder in Thailand.

I Have never met EJ face to face, but I have talked to him on the phone, and chatted online several times over the years. Ironically I was even present when Tim Smith of the Jack Mountain bushcraft school in Maine interviewed EJ for his first TV appearance on Naked and Afraid. Long story short, Matt, John and EJ are decent guys. So is Ed for that matter.

Lets break down Matts episode in Mongolia a bit. Typical of Matt he shows up in his bush hippy garb and home made sandals - trivia fact; Matt makes his sandals from riding lawn mower tires. He was also sporting his trademark broken machete as his tool of choice for the trek.This particular knife is now Matts signature blade. I was told by Matt that its simply a machete (Tramontina?) that he broke while camping in Baja, or Hawaii, I cant remember now. He also said he carved down the rubber handle to fit his hand better, fucked it up, so he had to wrap it with leather...true story.

Ok, back to Mongolia - Ed and Matt light out across the edge of the desert, Im not sure its the Gobi, but saying so is good for the TV cool factor. I lived in Mongolia where I worked as a teacher for 2 years. I know that country pretty well.

Personally I think the show was divided up, and filmed in different locations then edited to look like it was shot over a few days. Ok,, so, Matt runs down into a valley, good idea. Why? because that is where the water is at, as well as raw materials for survival. In Matts case he also wants materials to construct an Atlatl and darts.

Matt follows the 4 basics of survival; 1. shelter - he makes a tipi type leanto shelter, 2. water finds it in the area. 3. fire - Matt makes fire using the bow and drill method. Excellent idea due to the available resources in the area, ie., willow, aspen, larch. there may even be sub alpine fir, I didnt notice any in the frame. 4. food - nothing, tighten your belt.

Matt constructs his signature weapon - the Atlatl and some darts, grabs a hunk of Ice for drinking water then takes off across the desert. blah,blah, Matt beats Ed to the finish.

Next; Hudson in India.

John and Ed are dropped off somewhere in the Himalayas, Hudson looks to be packing his usual Swiss army knife ( I dont know the model ). I remember on the DYS shoot he always favored this type of blade. I like a SAK myself, especially one with a saw and scissors.

These 2 poor bastards are in the Himalayas during monsoon season, and the skies open up on them. They are both soaked to the bone, it looks miserable. Both men find a cave like over hang for shelter and ride out a miserable night. If they actually spent the entire night out there they had to me near hypothermic by the early AM.

day 2 - finds our explorers searching for food, water and a route. watching and listening to Ed eat that little snake was a bit nauseating. Hudson made a sling shot and killed a mountain crow. You dont actually see John make fire, but you do see him attempt to make fire ; he prepares tinder, has a piece of a file ( I assume is for throwing sparks ), and a bit of rag soaked in fuel. They flash to Hudson throwing sparks with 2 stones on to his bit of rag. then flash to Ed making a friction fire, then back to Hudson sitting around a cheery blaze.

Knowing how TV works, I doubt John actually made a fire on his own, due to the conditions and camera pressure. Im not saying he cannot make fire in that method, but for the sake of time on TV Im about 90% sure he had some assistance.

Once again, blah,blah,blah. Ed beats Hudson to the finish. story over. It was actually good to see Hudson again even though it was on TV. I would personally like to see John do more on screen stuff.

EJ AKA "Ogre" in Thailand;

Chiang mai province,Thailand. I know it well. I have maintained a residence there since 2006. I also know the Mountains well, and am friends with the Blacksmiths, tool makers, and Knife makers in the CM area. Watching EJ on this episode was like being back home.

I noticed that he and Ed both carried the typical Thai style jungle found in that region. I dont like the wooden handle style these cats carried because the handle always come off. They are only burned in the glued with a pitch type resin. If you look close you will see that the blade EJ is using loses its handle after a short time.

I learned how to make these knives by my blacksmithing mentor Saijung Kaipo in Northern Thailand. The handles are usually construction grade hard bamboo. Personally, I prefer the hollow handle type.

Ok, back to the jungle. These 2 pimps boogey through the woods, EJ eats some banana tree, and collects some to eat along the way. Ed searches for a way down a steep slope. They continue to trek, looking for routs to the river. Ed digs a sump for water, EJ stops to look for wood grubs, then breaks the handle off his knife.

EJ finds and kills a snake, makes a fire with a bamboo fire saw, dines in regal splendor. Ed meanwhile sneaks around EJ, Blah,Blah,Blah, beats him to the finish thereby becoming the First man out in 2 episodes. All in all, I like this show. Hell Bells , I would even consider doing an episode myself if Ed had the balls to ask me. I doubt he ever would though because Im afraid he wouldnt like having his limey ass kicked by an old man.

See you pimps on the trail!

The Special forces survival "experts" on TV

Annoying in the extreme, not only to myself but to a great many others are the TV Survival experts from the ranks of Army Special feces. I have viewed the various websites and youtube pages of these so called "experts" and can find NOTHING that actually qualifies them as experts in wilderness survival. Simply being an Army SF operator, Navy SEAL, Ranger, etc. does not automatically qualify a person as a survival expert.

I think this misconception comes from Rambo actually......And people, being stupid tend to believe what they see on TV or in the movies... stupid yes, but there it is.

I had the displeasure of working with one such Army type on a Survival reality TV show I co-hosted on Dick-scovery. This joker was touted as a Survival expert...In reality he had never spent a night alone in the wilderness or even camping..

As a military operator or a TV "expert" you are never alone in the outdoors, and there is a vast support network to draw upon. If these SF type MOFOs want to impress me and many others, they should grab a small pack, buy a one way ticket to some 3rd world shit hole and come back home 3 or 4 years later, and do it on their own. Relying on a vast support network doesnt make you an expert. It makes you a needy follower.

Oh! and guess what? If you dont like what I wrote about TV SF types, I do not give a rat fuck. Pull your panties out of your special crack , quit crying like a pussy and move on to the next blog. 

Tomahawk - Out!  

Enemy mine - a survival flicked wrapped in Sci-Fi

Enemy Mine - kind of a cool flick in the survivalesque genera. There is actual "aviation" type survival gear; Knives etc. One thing I noticed is that Davidge made 2 different bows in the film. The 1st was made from parts salvaged off the crashed ships, and the 2nd appears to be made from a type of wood bound with leather made from the hides of the giant bugs they were eating. Kinda cool.

The Survival knife used in the flick is one of those hollow handled types that were popular with TV and faux survival types in the 80s. Yes, I owned a few also. I have forgotten the manufacturer but they were made of cheap steal, they were hard to sharpen, didnt keep and edge, had a weak hilt and a useless saw back.

Enemy Mine is a 1985 West German-American dark science fiction drama film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by Edward Khmara, based on Barry B. Longyear's novella of the same name. The film stars Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr. as a human and alien soldier, respectively, who become stranded together on an inhospitable planet and must overcome their mutual distrust in order to cooperate and survive.

The film began production in Budapest in April 1984 under the direction of Richard Loncraine, who quickly ran into "creative differences" with producer Stephen Friedman and executives at 20th Century Fox; the project was shut down after a week of shooting. Petersen then took over as director and reshot Loncraine's scenes after moving the production to Munich.

Originally budgeted at $17 million, the film ultimately cost more than $40 million after marketing costs were factored in, and was a box office bomb during the 1985 holiday season, earning only a little over $12 million. However, the film had a big success in the former Soviet Union, where it became the first Western sci-fi film shown in the theaters. It gained a cult following afterwards.

Dutch from Predator in Survival mode

The Improvised bow made and used by Dutch in the 1987 flick Predator is what we in the survival industry call a "quickie bow" or a 3 hour bow. They are simple to make, and designed to give you a quickly made weapon that is easy to use. They are not designed for the long term but are excellent for bow fishing or shooting small birds or other small game. The one made by Dutch in this film would be impossible to pull. The arrows look kinda cool though. The article below is a decent read . Check it out and see what you think.

https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/dutchs-improvised-bow.324188/

We all remember the scene in P1 when Dutch sits in the tree and lashes together a bow from sticks, and makes an explosive arrow from grenade powder. Well, here is my version of Dutch's improvised bow:

Dutch's bow is actually a real improvised weapon that people are taught to make in survival courses, called a "bundle bow". It's made by binding together different lengths of straight thin tree branches to form a tapered bow that bends evenly on both sides. A bundled bow made from sticks won't last long, maybe a few dozen shots before the sticks begin cracking and losing power.

My version is permanent, though. Instead of sticks, it's made from thin fiberglass rods that I got from Home Depot by cutting the reflector heads off the driveway markers in the "home" section. These rods are advertised as 48" long, but in reality they're only 44"--a bit short for a workable bow but usable anyway. If you can find fiberglass electric fence posts or something similar that are longer, I'd suggest using them instead.

You can adjust the strength and draw weight of the bow by varying the number and arrangement of rods. The version pictured here is an early test version that ended up being stiffer than I liked, so I removed some of the rods--I also moved the bowstring notch out further to be closer to the end of the bow. After a bit of experimenting by assembling and disassembling, I ended up using seven rods total. Three of these I kept intact, and bundled together at each end using duct tape covered with a layer of twine. Then I cut three more rods and placed the center of these around the center of the bow, so the ends were several inches down from the first layer at both ends. I taped and twined these into place. And then I took one rod and cut it in half to give two 2-foot pieces, which I placed centered at the front of the bow and taped/twined into place. At each end of the bow, I cut off about half an inch of one of the three rods to make a notch for the bowstring to rest in.

The bowstring was made by braiding together several pieces of jute twine.

The finished bow draws, I would guesstimate, about 40-45 pounds. A couple test shots showed that at 10 yards it shoots flat and hits hard.

Since lengthening a bow decreases its draw weight, if you make it the full 48 inches long (using longer fiberglass rods), you can add back the lost draw weight by bundling another short rod with the third layer, to the belly of the bow.

If you would like a lower draw weight, start by removing the two shortest pieces, then if necessary remove the second-layer pieces one at a time until you hit the draw weight you want. It's best to hold all the rods together temporarily with duct tape, and do the final twine covering only after everything is set the way you want it to be.

What happened to Royce after Predators?

Royce and all of the others trapped on this hunting preserve were idiots. The movie was pretty stupid from a survival standpoint. Not one single thing was salvaged by these "soldiers", and they fired off ammo like their supply was unlimited. Also, they seemed - especially Royce - to enjoy throwing away their clothing.



anyhoo, my thoughts on this flick.  2.5 stars

Sergeant Henry Johnson World War I

  
"Using grenades, the butt of his rifle, a bolo knife, and his bare fists"

Sergeant William Henry Johnson July 15, 1892 – July 1, 1929, commonly known as Henry Johnson, was one hell of a scrapper and a United States Army soldier who performed heroically in the first African American unit of the United States Army to engage in combat in World War I.

On watch in the Argonne Forest on May 14, 1918, he fought off a German raid in hand-to-hand combat, killing multiple German soldiers and rescuing a fellow soldier while experiencing 21 wounds, in an action that was brought to the nation's attention by coverage in the New York World and The Saturday Evening Post later that year. On June 2, 2015 he was awarded the Medal of Honor  posthumously in a ceremony at the White House.

The French Army assigned Johnson's regiment to Outpost 20 on the edge of the Argonne Forest in the Champagne region of France and equipped them with French rifles and helmets. While on observation post duty on the night of May 14, 1918, Private Johnson came under attack by a large German raiding party, which may have numbered as many as 24 German soldiers.

Using grenades, the butt of his rifle, a bolo knife, and his bare fists, Johnson repelled the Germans, thereby rescuing Needham Roberts from capture and saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. Johnson suffered 21 wounds during this ordeal. This act of valor earned him the nickname of "Black Death", as a sign of respect for his prowess in combat. 

In 1918, racism against African Americans was common among white U.S. soldiers in the U.S. military, but French attitudes differed. Johnson was recognized by the French with a Croix de guerre with star and bronze palm, and was the first U.S. soldier in World War I to receive that honor.

Johnson died, poor and in obscurity, in 1929. From 1919 on, Henry Johnson's story has been part of wider consideration of treatment of African Americans in the Great War. There was a long struggle to achieve awards for him from the U.S. military. He was finally awarded the Purple Heart in 1996. In 2002, the U.S. military awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross. Previous efforts to secure the Medal of Honor failed, but in 2015 he was posthumously honored with the award.

Military awards;
The French government awarded Johnson the Croix de guerre with a special citation and a golden palm. He was the first American to receive the award.

In June 1996, Johnson was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart by President Bill Clinton. In February 2003, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest award, was presented to Herman A. Johnson, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, on behalf of his father. John Howe, a Vietnam War veteran who had campaigned tirelessly for recognition for Johnson, and U.S. Army Major General Nathaniel James, President of the 369th Veterans' Association, were present at the ceremony in Albany.

Herman Perry in Burma WW2

You dont need a patch on your sleeve to be a special operator. Take the case of Private Herman Perry in WW2. Perry was an Army engineer working on the Ledo road which lead from India to Kunming china. He was supposedly coming down from a opium high when he shot his CO. He then ran off into the jungle with his rifle and took up a life of jungle living with the Naga head hunting people. He was finally captured in Assam on March 9, 1945, and his death sentence—by hanging—was carried out on March 15.

His story was recounted in 2008 as Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight From the Greatest Manhunt of World War II by Brendan I. Koerner; George Pelecanos called it "A fascinating, untold story of the Second World War, an incendiary social document, and a thrilling, campfire tale adventure."

He was born near Monroe, North Carolina. As a soldier in the army's 849th Engineer Bn. he served in the China-Burma-India Theater, helping to construct the Ledo Road.

On March 3, 1944, Perry's CO, Lt. Harold Cady, attempted to apprehend him for dereliction of duty and place him in the area's military prison. Perry had previously served time in this prison and was well aware of the abuses that went on there. When he was found he was holding a rifle and repeatedly warned Cady not to approach him and to "Get back."

Cady continued to advance and Perry fired his rifle, killing Cady. He fled into the wilderness and lived out a fugitive's life of jungle survival, discovering and adapting to the headhunting lifestyle of the Naga people of northeastern India and northern Burma. He was caught twice by the Army but escaped both times. After being captured the second time he was tried for murder and convicted, being sentenced to death by a military court on September 4, 1944.