WWII Motor Vehicle 12 Unit First Aid Kit
Please note that the following are my thoughts on first-aid and medical kit considerations for both for myself and others who
are not medical professionals, and have little to no formal training.
I am not a medical professional nor do I play one on TV. I’m not even particularly interested in any aspect of the medical field. Yet having been sick or injured, at very inconvenient times, and not having any medicines or proper supplies to do anything about it but suffer, I sort of fell into it. The proverbial straw occurred on an extremely rare vacation and our young daughter ingested some lake water. That night she got a fever and stomachache. We forgot to bring medicines and such. But I digress. Additionally, none of what you’re about to read is intended to be taken as advice or directions. These are simply ideas, conjectures, observations, and deliberations. In other words, they’re something to think about.
Advice on, and definitions of, first-aid/medical kits are all over the map. They’re akin to BOBs, GHBs, and three day survival packs. I’ve seen people whose EDC (every day carry) kit would rival a big city hospital’s ER. Generally, and mind you this is simply my perspective on it based upon my experience, I feel people go way overboard on FAKs (and everything else for that matter). Some are sincerely trying to cover the bases, others are just blatant yuppie-esque gear-queers*. In any case, I thought I put together some thoughts and ideas on the subject to, perhaps, assist people to draw their own conclusions on the matter. Think it through, as thoroughly as possible, before you assemble a kit or kits. Oh and, IMO, don’t buy a kit, assemble your own.
Some things to consider:
- What’s your level of training and experience in emergency first-aid and “Dr. Mom” medicine and how current are you?
- What’s to be accomplished with this particular FAK?
- Consider your history with needing some type of first-aid or administering it to others. In other words, do you even need a kit for this particular application and, if so, what type or types?
- Is this kit for you alone, you and your family, or perhaps the general public?
- Familiarize yourself with the purpose of, and the techniques for using, every item you include in your kit(s). Otherwise, you are merely accumulating rubbish and weight.
- Once you establish what, specifically, the kit is intended to do, stick with that plan. Don’t get carried away with additional bells and whistles based upon “what-ifs” and possible bragging rights.
- If you’re really serious about becoming a self-made medic, not just the owie-booboo/Dr. Mom kind, I suggest training in EFA, CPR, AED, and FAST for starters.
A few examples of the many variations of FAKs:
A personal or minor first-aid kit (irritatingly called a “boo-boo” or “snivel” kit) is just that. It’s for minor scratches, scrapes, and possibly a blister. Our daughter, who has three kids, two of them boys, made one up out of necessity and kept it in her purse. Contents included several antiseptic wipes, a few individual antibiotic ointment packets, and several sizes of band aids (including a couple big enough for a knee scrape), and a few cotton swabs to spread the antibiotic ointment around. That’s it. Perhaps, if you’re prone to afflictions such as headaches or heartburn, put some pain-reliever and antacids in it simply for convenience sake. Just about anyone with a little common sense can use a kit like this.
An individual first-aid kit or IFAK should be geared for you specifically and for your medical emergency possibilities, conceivably under abnormal or adverse conditions. It should be based upon your day-to-day way of life and, of course, your medical knowledge. As well, you should be able to use everything in it on yourself, without assistance, as you may be alone when the time comes. This applies principally to the trauma kit if such is included. Many experts proclaim that an IFAK is a trauma kit, I somewhat disagree. A trauma kit is a trauma kit**. If you’re on a SWAT entry team, as but one example, a trauma kit may be your IFAK while on the job. Nonetheless, a trauma kit might be included in an IFAK depending upon your specific requirements and training. Furthermore, you may want to toss your minor first-aid kit into the IFAK bag and have everything conveniently located.
To the best of my knowledge, my third kit example does not possess an official designation. I suppose you could call it a family or group first-aid/medical kit or bag, if you so choose. It’s easier for me to simply explain what I did and you can take it from there. For brevity’s sake I will leave out the tedious background (this concept started back in the ’80s and continued to evolve into the ’10s) as to why I eventually chose this scheme for mine and most of its evolution. Oh, and NO, this was definitely not an EDC kit. Honestly, I never carried an EDC FAK.
Moving on. Due to personal and professional circumstances at the time, I found a need to pack some basic FA supplies and both prescription and OTC medications and keep them with me in most cases. Akin to what many might call a travel FAK. It started out small, as a travel kit, nevertheless over time it grew. It seemed that whatever I left at home, my family, myself, or someone else, wound up needing. This usually when there were no drug stores available. Therefore, I decided just to take everything with me, so to speak. For those who think they might have to evacuate or bug-out someday, this would be a handy setup should one need to leave home in a hurry; all your medical supplies are already packed.
Being somewhat fastidious in certain areas, this turned into an interesting project for me. Over time I did a heck of a lot of research and analysis. This included speaking with EMTs, nurses, the occasional doctor, and even a special forces medic. This was mainly pertaining to OTC medications, which worked and which didn’t. You’d be amazed at what you can learn asking a simple question or two.
The initial, yet ever changing and increasing, contents included a descent general FAK, any prescription medication, and my preferred OTC meds, which covered most of the common maladies and injuries we all suffer from occasionally. In some cases I repackaged and labeled items into smaller containers. Then I somewhat categorized them and used zip-lock bags for storage of each category. This also eliminated unnecessary redundancy. In the beginning, all this fit well into an old M1936 musette bag that I had laying around, with the zip-locks thus creating a bag of bags. This made finding anything extremely easy. Times change and this evolved into a well stocked grab-n-go medical bag***. Think of it as a nicely supplied home medicine chest in a bag that you could take anywhere. Eventually, I did have to switch to a somewhat larger bag, a GI surplus, hard bottom, duffle type bag.
It paid off many times for my family, friends, and myself, and for various reasons. Thank God none of them were severe. I maintained it for years. Now I don’t need it as we don’t travel and we’re not “bugging out”.
Some noteworthy items (eventually) included were***:
- Various medical instructional sheets, laminated (stored in the appropriate category’s zip-lock).
- ACEP first-aid manual.
- Medical shears (EMT scissors).
- Magnifying glass and OTC reading glasses (aka cheaters).
- Penlight w/spare batteries (eventually a headlamp was added).
- Tweezers (several types and forceps would’ve come in handy as well).
- Disposable forehead thermometer strips.
- Blood pressure gauge/cuff (aka sphygmomanometer, try saying that).
- Blood oxygen/pulse monitor (aka pulse oximeter).
- Infrared digital thermometer.
- Sterilized hand towels (store in zip-lock or vacuum seal bags).
- Eye wash and cup.
- Note pad and several pencils.
- Sawyer extractor.
There’s more but you get the idea.
Examples of other specific kits to consider are a dental FAK, a podiatric or foot FAK, an infant/toddler FAK (including child specific OTC meds), an adult/infant CPR kit, a trauma kit, and, if you have pets, a FAK for them as well. You may also want to consider a climatic based kit depending upon where you live or plan to go. There are also task specific kits to consider. Just ask yourself, for my skill level am I reasonably prepared for what I plan to do and where I plan to do it?
In summary:
- If possible get training.
- Don’t pack more that you need for the task at hand.
- Don’t pack anything you don’t already know how to use.
- Think; use your common sense.
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*
Gear-queer: an individual who excessively spends on premium equipment and/or supplies without possessing adequate knowledge of their purpose or usage. Typically a showoff, wannabe, or poser.
** Trauma kit: to the best of my knowledge and recollection, these weren’t a consideration back when I was out and about. For general first-aid, tourniquet usage, especially by amateurs, was highly frowned upon at that time. Direct pressure was in and considered the only way to go. In my FAK kit, I had gauze and clean towels for packing a wound and my belt to use as a tourniquet if need be. Were I to do this again, I would include a specific trauma kit (and I’d definitely take a FAST course). Training notwithstanding, I wouldn’t have anything in the kit I was not comfortable with or trained to use. That should apply to any and all other kits you assemble.
*** I’m not a gear-queer nor do I think I’m a paramedic or a doctor. Many of these items eventually wound up being in the bag for family health reasons at the time. Additionally, if I had to, I could relay some vital sign information to a medical professional. One example is my friends and I hunted, fished, camped, and hung out in some remote areas and in all seasons. My buddy’s cabin had no cell service and no landline. However, the house “next door” (about a half mile away up a hill) did. The nearest ambulance and hospital was at least 25-miles away. Some of these items would've paid off if the need arose. The basic first-aid and “Dr. Mom” things did and more than once.
