Guest Post: Why Every Bug Out Bag Needs a Woobie

by George Groot

George is a member of our Facebook Group and has written for us before.

What is a “Woobie”?

In the military, a woobie is a standard issue poncho liner, designed to work with a standard poncho to make something like a survival sleeping bag by putting the two together.* By itself it's a quilted camouflage square made from ripstop nylon with a small bit of insulation between the two sides. The edge is reinforced with slightly thicker nylon webbing, and there are sewn-in laces that allow you to tie the woobie to the poncho.

The woobie is beloved by soldiers as it is the most cost-effective item in terms of weight that you can carry to keep from freezing. The old saying “Travel light and freeze at night” is true in the infantry, and the woobie, much like the “snookie cap” (aka watch cap), is something lightweight to keep you from freezing at night.

Just how much do Soldier’s love their woobies? This much:



The woobie is viewed as an essential piece of kit for field exercises by most infantrymen, although it is viewed as a “comfort item” by some leaders who view a two pound woobie as additional weight that would be better spent on water, food, batteries, or ammunition. Having served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany where the winter weather can kill you just as dead as any enemy, I firmly believe that a woobie helps a soldier get better rest in the field. and a soldier who has better rest makes better decisions, is more alert on patrol, and a better teammate to have around. If you have a mission set of unknown duration, you’ll want to pack your woobie, and want your guys to pack theirs.

Getting a Woobie of your Own
Shipping weight for one is two pounds, but they are actually lighter, usually around 22 ounces when dry. Woobies come in a standard milspec size of 62x82 inches, but commercial offerings can be larger or smaller (my personal woobie has an extra 10” of length), so when ordering online make sure you get a woobie that is a size appropriate to you -- although if you don’t know where to begin, the standard milspec dimensions work fine for almost everyone except the super tall (and even for the super tall, a milspec woobie will work for most uses).

If you are looking for the most possible “utility” from woobie camouflage, get the USMC version with MARPAT camouflage on one side and coyote brown on the other. If you're looking for the most absolute value for the money, faded ACU pattern woobies are usually half the price of new ones, and the mottled digital gray actually does okay in winter, sagebrush deserts, alder forests, and against gravel and concrete. OCP, also known as multicam, works well in most natural environments, and the woodland pattern is usually fine for anywhere that has greens and browns to blend into. However, I recommend you purchase clothing that is specific to the area you are in, and not rely on a woobie for concealment.

The Many Uses of a Woobie
Much like the towel of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the lightweight woobie is an infinitely useful item to have on hand. Here are some of the things you can do with a woobie:

• Comfort while resting. You can use your woobie as a blanket. You can use your woobie as a pillow. You can use your woobie as a hammock (not recommended, but you can if you have to). You can share woobies so that one person in three can get really good sleep while two provide security.
• Overhead shelter and concealment. By spraying your woobie with Scotch Guard or other water repelling treatment for camping gear, you can use your woobie as a rain cover. Since they come in camouflage patterns, you can use your woobie to conceal you (if you've picked a pattern that makes sense for your area).
• Gathering and carrying tool. You can lay your woobie out and shake fruits or nuts from trees to gather. You can use your woobie as a carrying implement by rolling stuff in it and tying the ends together and slinging it over your shoulder and across your body.
• First aid. You can use your woobie and two long sticks to make an impromptu field litter to transport a casualty. You can cut a woobie into strips for splinting a broken limb. You can fold a woobie into a sling to support and immobilize an injured arm.
• Cold weather garment (see pictures at end of article). By tying the loop ties together you can make an impromptu uniform liner that covers your arms and torso down into your groin and upper thigh area. (When wearing standard Army fatigues you’ll look “puffy” with your woobie stuffed in your uniform jacket and pants, but you’ll be warmer than the guys who are hanging about in a wet uniform.) Simply slide your fingers through the tied string, and put your uniform jacket on, then stuff the extra poncho liner into your pants, adjusting the poncho liner so that it covers your arms, armpits, torso, groin, and upper thighs. This will help you not die of exposure when halted for a long time.
• An aid to fire starting. Since the woobie is synthetic, if you absolutely need some highly flammable tinder, you can pull the polyester stuffing from your woobie (not recommended, but it’s an option).

Youtube has many videos on how to modify a woobie to make it even more suited to various tasks, and if you are handy with a sewing machine you might want to look into whether or not any of those projects would be value added to you in the circumstances you think you are most likely to encounter.

What a Woobie Is Not
It is not the same as a sleeping bag, thermal mat, and a tent. In terms of heat retention it's way better than nothing, but on its own isn’t going to give you the good rest you need except in very mild conditions in places where it doesn’t get too cold at night.** You’ll need at least season-appropriate clothes to truly make the woobie into a valuable addition to your total system, and I recommend wool watch caps in every bug out bag regardless of season, as it can always get cold at night.

Packing your Woobie
A standard bug out bag can easily accomodate a woobie. A woobie is at least five pounds lighter than an M65 field jacket, and much lighter than a full sleeping bag set; it's even lighter than a spare uniform set. It crams down into a much smaller stuff sack or ruck pocket too. So if you need a lightweight bugout bag I highly recommend you put a woobie in it.

In a standard ALICE or MOLLE rucksack, an external pouch is perfect for rapidly stuffing a woobie into when you need to strip down to minimal uniform or so you don’t overheat. Stored that way, the woobie is nice and handy for when you need to add a layer. On a civilian backpack, I would recommend a small nylon “stuff sack” be used to hold the woobie so that it is easy to find by feel in the dark.

https://amzn.to/324aAuU

Your other kit should also be in stuff sacks, so that you don’t have a “rucksack explosion” digging around for a specific item. There's nothing more frustrating than having to empty your entire pack to look for one item, and then needing to repack in a rush because your position was compromised and you need to move immediately!

If you are cheap and don’t mind not having cool factory gear, a gallon ziplock style freezer bag reinforced at the seams and sides with duct tape can make a great waterproof storage bag for your woobie. (Note: if you have a larger than milspec woobie like mine, you’ll need to duct tape two bags to make a waterproof bag for your woobie). When I was in Ranger school this was the preferred way to store spare socks, t-shirts, woobie, pens, paper, etc, that could get soaked in the rain or a river crossing. I’ve used both the slide lock and the standard press lock, and for storing clothes, the press lock is probably the better option; for storing maps, paper, etc, the slide lock is really convenient because you’ll get in and out of those bags a lot more often even if it isn’t as totally waterproof. For what it's worth, I still have some of the duct taped ziplock bags from over ten years ago protecting some of my gear.

Waterproof sacks from ziplock gallon freezer bags and duct tape.
Waterproof gear bags ensure your BOB will float, and be much lighter on the other side of a water obstacle.
The bag holding my woobie is halfway finished to illustrate process.

Appendix: Woobie as Cold Weather Gear

1). Tie Figure 8 knot in center ties on each side of woobie.

2) Put fingers through tie loops created by figure 8 knot, holding folded woobie over shoulders.

3) Put on your jacket or uniform top over woobie, using ties to pull woobie into arms. Wrap loose parts around your torso.

4) Tuck excess woobie into your pants top. If you are a little tight, just unbutton the fly and stuff, using belt to keep pants up.

5) Zip up your top. Now you have extra insulation around your torso, arms, and upper legs. It won't make you perfectly toasty warm, but it's a lot better than nothing. To remove, just take the loops off your hands and pull the woobie out the jacket front.

Footnotes
* I’ve been in the US Army for a while now and this is one thing I haven't done with a woobie, so I might have to try it someday as simply knowing how to do it isn’t the same as having experienced doing it.

** However, if you are “escaping and evading” you should be moving at night and resting during the day anyway.

Guest Post: Light Weight, Low Bulk, Cold Weather

by George Groot
George is a member of our Facebook Group and has written for us before.

In the Infantry there is a phrase: "Travel light and freeze at night." It’s true that there isn’t a lot of room or weight left over for creature comforts when you have to carry lots of military gear, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t add in a few pieces of "snivel gear". After graduating Ranger school, I decided that I would never again be cold, wet, hungry, and tired all at the same time if I could possibly avoid it. I can’t always avoid the hungry or wet or tired, but there are some things I keep on hand that help in the cold.

A sleeping bag is unfortunately a big, bulky, and relatively heavy thing to carry around, so if you have to travel light and freeze at night, the sleeping bag is usually the first thing to get left behind. After all, as your Platoon Sergeant will remind you, the rucksack you carry is for supporting the Platoon, not yourself. Fortunately, you don’t have a platoon sergeant deciding that you need to carry an extra 800 rounds of linked 7.62mm instead of a sleeping bag, but you still have the same problem: a sleeping bag is a hell of a luxury item to carry around.

Here are a few tricks to get some sleep at night,without carrying around the full weight or bulk of a sleeping bag or having to spend hundreds of dollars on a high-tech lightweight hiking bag that you only have as an insurance policy in a bug out bag.

Beanie or Watch Cap

"If your feet are cold, put on a hat" is actually pretty decent advice. Fleece beanies are lighter weight and more compact than knit watch caps, but once synthetic fleece gets wet with sweat, it’s not as good and insulator as wool. But if ounces make pounds and pounds make pain, a less than six dollar fleece beanie is a good investment for your go bag, especially if you really only need it for when you go to sleep.

Wool costs more and weighs more than fleece, but not much more. If you're in a climate where you’ll need to retain heat throughout a day of strenuous activity, then I recommend you spend the extra money on this wool cap.

Neck Gaiter

You lose a lot of your heat from your neck, which is why scarves are a thing. A neck gaiter has all the warmth of a scarf without all the bulk and weight. You can find them at most surplus stores, but Amazon has a polyester military style that works well and folds very flat.

I've been using a shemagh in cold and dry conditions for a few years, as wrapping it around the neck and tucking into your coat or sweatshirt retains heat well enough. But in reality it’s just a cotton scarf, and a cotton scarf is inferior to a polyester neck gaiter for heat retained versus weight and bulk. If you happen to live someplace where having a cotton scarf makes more sense to you than a poly neck gaiter, ten bucks isn’t a bad price for something that can keep you warmer at night and show off your keen fashion sense during the day.

Base Layer

A silkweight base layer of thermal underwear is great for staying warm while  sleeping in, hanging around camp, or light activity outdoors. If you don’t want a military surplus color, you can even save a little and buy a top/bottom set for a little less. Believe me, the military doesn’t buy the best, so I have no reservations recommending people purchase civilian products for enjoying the great outdoors. 

The military surplus base layer has thumb holes on the sleeves to help keep heat in at the wrists, but if yours doesn’t, then a 6 dollar set of wrist gaiters will help a lot. 

Sleeping Gear
When bugging out and carrying gear you’ll really want something to sleep in, just maybe just not a whole sleep system or full winter sleeping bag. During the summer I’ve used just a Gore-Tex bivy cover to stay dry at night, as the best way to stay warm is to stay dry.* There are alternatives that are lighter and smaller, and if you only plan on getting to a cache point/bug out site, then an  emergency bivy might be a better choice for you. 

No matter what you carry to sleep in, I recommend some sort of ground pad for thermal insulation. I’ve used closed cell foam and inflatable, and I think the closed cell foam is more durable, but the inflatable is definitely lighter and more compact for being on the move.

* Hence the reason that when stopping for the night I change out of my sweat soaked uniform and put on the dry spare to sleep in. The next morning it always sucks to put on that wet uniform before you move out, but really that’s the only way to have a dry uniform to sleep in the next time you stop.

Tallying the Weight
If you purchase a beanie, neck gaiter, silkweight base layer, bivy cover, and inflatable sleeping pad, your grand total will be less than 8 pounds in your pack and you can fit it all inside of a backpack that wouldn’t look out of place in a suburban or urban setting. If you're in an area that consistently gets below freezing at night, you’ll want more than this; probably a 30 degree sleeping bag to put inside the bivy cover.


So there you are. You’ve been on the move all day wearing some clothes soaked with sweat and you've decided to get way off the beaten path for the night. You find a nice spot where you're unlikely to be noticed, so you strip off the wet layers and put on dry clothes, inflate your thermal pad, put it inside your bivy so you don’t roll off it in the night, and then get snuggled up inside for some shuteye with a neck gaiter and wool cap helping you stay warm. It won’t be a stay at the Hilton, and you may wake up cold and shivering after a few hours when your sleeping metabolism slows down, but you’ll be a lot better off than the folks who just threw a six pound sleeping back in a hiking pack and let the ground suck out their body heat because they didn’t have a thermal pad, and who couldn’t pack enough food because the bulk of the sleeping bag took up so much space in their ruck. 

Worth Its Weight? The Pocket Ref

In an earlier post I discussed the utility of the Pocket Ref, and the question of whether that utility was worth the weight and space it takes in a BOB or similar. Now that I have mine in hand, let's settle that question.

Amazon's listing says that the paperback version of the book weighs roughly half a pound, and measures 3x5x1 inches. To put that into perspective, it's roughly the same footprint as a modern smartphone, but 2-3 times as thick. Ironically, it will actually fit in any of the main pockets of a pair of slacks or khakis, or the back pocket of a pair of jeans.

https://amzn.to/2EsAGQK

The Pocket Ref crams more raw information into an inch of paper than I would have ever believed. It covers a vast array of topics including Automotive information, Construction, Lifting and Rigging, Geology, Chemistry, and General Science, just to name a few. All of it is information that can be useful in your life. However, a massive portion of it -- the vast majority even -- won't be that useful on the road or in an emergency. What you need is a way to pare out the information you need so that you can take it with you while leaving the handheld library of data at home.

I was clued in to a solution for this problem by the dimensions of the book itself. What if I copied down the data I thought would be useful on the road onto 3x5 index cards? That way, I can carry just the information I find useful, taking up far less space and weight in my bag. If you're handy with your printer and word processor settings, you could also type up and print all the information on your computer, for neater and more compact text.

The problem with index cards is that they're fragile, just like all other paper products. This problem is also very simply solved. Laminating sleeves are roughly $0.10 each and Prime eligible. The 4x6 size is a bit large for index cards, but can be trimmed to fit. Normally these require a machine to set the lamination, but a simple clothes iron can also be used.



Personally, I'd start with parts of the First Aid, General Science, Lifting and Rigging, and Automotive sections, but you can grab whatever information applies to your life and situations. Stick your laminated cards into an envelope to keep them together in your bag, and have all sorts of useful information ready at hand.

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