Book Review "Contact!" By Max Velocity

Subtitle: "A tactical manual for post collapse survival"
Number of pages: 366
Purchased from: Amazon

This manual strives to cover the gap between survival manuals and military field manuals. The area that I personally found to be lacking.

Most survival manuals tell you how to pack a bug out bag, create shelter, filter water, even forage for food. List after list is often cited on what you need to bring in order to make your life easier. They don't tell you how to move tactically from your current residence to your bug out location, how to form a patrol, or how to organize yourself for defense.

Realizing this, I often turned to military field manuals to cover the other end of the spectrum. Not a bad choice until you considered the following. I have never served in our armed forces. I am in no way, shape, or form "high speed, low drag". I do not have access to multiple forms of military grade weapon systems such as APCs, Tanks, Artillery, or Close Air Support. While I view myself as both creative and adaptable, there are limits to what I can take from a field manual and apply to my family of four plus what ever friends happen to be around.

The author, Max Velocity, recognized this gap, and wrote this manual in an attempt to cover it. The follow is quoted from the back cover of the book:

"This manual is the result of a detailed consideration of societal collapse and the civil shift and aftermath that would impact individuals and families who are intent on survival. The purpose of this manual is to provide information to enhance security, tactics, and survival skills of law-abiding citizens who are faced with civil disorder, lawlessness, violence and physical threat in a post collapse environment.
The information in this manual is derived from years of experience gained from service with special operation forces (SOF) followed by employment as a security contractor in hostile environments including Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a distillation of military and security training, principles, and tactics, techniques, and procedure (TTP) adapted to the threat and environment anticipated in this type of scenario in order to provide knowledge needed to train to survive in a world turned upside down. It is no longer just survival of the fittest but survival of the most prepared.
The manual will take you from self-defense as an individual, team and family, both pre and post collapse, and move on to tactics, techniques, procedures and training that can be used by tactical teams. In a serious post event scenario, one of total collapse with several months or years before recovery, families, groups and communities may be forced to create such tactical defense forces to protect personnel and resources against marauders.
There is something in this manual for both the tactical newbie and the military veteran."

I found the book to more than live up to the back cover hype. Chapters included anticipated threats, staying or going, training, basic principles, defense, patrolling, offensive operations, and withdrawals. While most of this might be obtainable from basic infantry field manuals or the ranger hand book, he also included topics such as casualty care and movement, vehicle movement, dismounted tactics, and decision making processes. This in my mind helps to strengthen that gap between survival and field manuals.

A final note about the author, he is a British born U.S. citizen who has served in both British and US armies. This offers the reader a unique perspective on how things are done differently. I believe that some of the TTPs he has distilled are what he feels are the best of both services. He has authored two other books, one nonfiction, the other fiction and has a blog at: maxvelocitytactical.blogspot.com. There one can find links to the training he offers in the mountains of West Virginia, as well as read some of his thoughts.

All in all, I found the book to be easy to read with a sound grasp of the material delved out in a straight forward manner. I have placed this on my bookshelf, next to the ranger handbook, as one of the ones that needs to go with me if I ever need to get out quickly. I recommend this to anyone who is looking to fill the gap I noted earlier, as well as to anyone who might need a different perspective on there current knowledge base.

 

Holy Crap! I never realized there was another moderator on here. I think I'll give this one a try.

 

Love that book !!! Great training manual for an uneducated SHTF group - sound principals, laid out in good order.

 

Thanks...ordered.

I recently read another book of seemingly the same type called "A Failure of Civility" by Mike Garand and Jack Lawson, which I found to be a very good book on basic defensive tactics aimed mostly at urban dwellers and this sounds like it might be just a little less "basic".

Having been a Ranger 40 years ago, I am not a complete novice...but neither body nor mind are "quite" as sharp as they were...

 

Ordered

 

ordered...

 

I read this book this weekend, Impressive common sense with quite a few new things.

Its a good read, easy to read, well organized.

 

Ordered it ,maybe it will refresh some of the rusty things .