<XMP><BODY></xmp> Rowe Combat Emergency Kit.


Rowe Combat Emergency Kit.
        
        Named in honour of Lt. Nick Rowe, but can also be taken to stand for "Rescue Orientated Wilderness Equipment". While many of the items in this kit would be useful when evading an enemy, you are unlikely to get it past a search if you are captured, so I don't regard it as an Escape and Evasion (E&E) kit and am wary of using the term SERE.
        Hence it is referred to as a "Survival, Emergency" or ROWE kit.

        Likelihood of use. The ROWE kit is most likely to be needed when a soldier is isolated from his unit or supply chain. Usually the contents of the Soldier's webbing should sustain him for several days. Webbing (LBE) will probably supply a poncho, knife or bayonet, food and water. Often there will be a metal canteen cup and a Natick stove, and the Soldier will probably have a lighter on his person.
        The ROWE kit comes into use if the unit or individual is cut off for a longer time. It is also used if the webbing is lost or damaged and the Soldier cannot acquire items from his comrades or fallen friend or foe. "Survival kit" is everything you have with you or available in your surroundings, not just something in a tin or pouch.

        An important consideration is that the kit should be with the Soldier.
         Webbing and jackets are often removed, even in an area where combat is likely. These are therefore not good places to store the ROWE kit. It is my feeling that the Soldier should either carry the kit in the thigh pocket of his BDUs or one or more pouches attached to his trouser belt.

        The closest thing that I know of to the ROWE kit is the British Army's Survival tin. This has been used by Soldiers in active service for several decades. Rather than try to re-invent the wheel I've based my proposed ROWE kit on the contents of such a tin, but have addressed what I see as several shortcomings of the Survival tin.

ROWE kit contents

Assembling a Kit.
        Survival tins are available from several sources, and these can be used to supply most of the contents of the ROWE kit.
British Survival Tin
Another Survival Tin

To the kit add:-
        The above kit is just a prototype or kit that you can build yourself. Rather than being wrapped up in clingfilm the issue item would probably come as three packages, probably vacuum packed. One would contain the shelter kit, one all the medical items and the third everything else. This allows the medical items to be easily replaced when they pass their "use by" date, which is printed on the pack.


By the Author of the Scrapboard :


Attack, Avoid, Survive: Essential Principles of Self Defence

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Crash Combat Fourth Edition
Epub edition Fourth Edition.
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