My name is Clint Emerson<\/b>, and I\u2019m your new GearScout editor. I spent 20 years in the Navy\u2019s SEAL Teams, from SEAL Team Three to the National Security Agency and Naval Special Warfare Development Group. Like every professional soldier, I learned to appreciate my gear\u2014especially when it saved my life. There\u2019s a saying among operators: \u201cIf you take care of your gear, your gear will take care of you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gear is also just plain cool, whether it\u2019s as simple as a carabiner or a tourniquet or as complex as an outboard motor or a parachute. I don\u2019t know about you, but there have been a number of times when first discovering an awesome new piece of gear, I\u2019d say to myself, \u201cWhere the fuck was that when I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro?\u201d or \u201cThat would have been nice when bullets were whistling overhead in Iraq!\u201d If only\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But gear is nothing without know-how<\/b>. Guns or go-bags, tents or tackle, knives or neoprene\u2014you have to know what it\u2019s for and how to use it. Luckily, our current moment of global pandemic and social unrest has one positive side effect: Self-reliance, long minimized by technology and urban life, is important again. Awareness, preparedness, and being a capable human are cool. And gear plus skills equals freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like any good SEAL, I like to shoot, fight, feed, and stay fit. Recently, I\u2019ve been trolling #vanlife, and I\u2019ve just come off a monthlong cross-country road trip\u201424 states, 11,000 miles, ridiculous amounts of coffee\u2014so nomading across America in a pimped-out ride will certainly make its way into Gear Scout. I feel you need a healthy balance of rural and urban environments, analog and digital gear, and, of course, throwing stars and sniper rifles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My goal for GearScout is simple: Find gear and tell you about it. And there is so much badass gear to discover. I find word-of-mouth is best\u2014nothing beats a first-person story about some piece of kit for making me say, \u201cI gotta have it, right fucking now!\u201d And now, I can request great finds from you, my readers. You are all gear scouts now. Hit me up at gearscout@militarytimes.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not one for ridiculously long articles discussing every stitch, screw, and solder joint. My guess is, if you\u2019re anything like me, your attention span sucks\u2014I consider myself lucky if you\u2019re still reading this. So each article will be kept brief. I\u2019ll focus on the 4 W\u2019s\u2014the who, what, why<\/i>, and where<\/i>, along with a BLUF (bottom line up front). This format parallels most special-ops mission briefs. That way you get exactly what you need to know without all the bullshit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n