I have a question and would like to get some opinions. Which is better for survival situations civilian camping gear or military gear? For example a red civilian rucksack or a olive drab military A.L.I.C.E. pack, or a flannel shirt and denim pants or woodland camo fatigues? What are the advantages and disadvantages of civilian and military gear? Military packs are far better built than their yuppie counterparts.  I have heard some comments to the contrary

I have one  problem with olive drab fatigues, they make you look like Castro (especially if you have a beard and like smoking cigars)

Around where I live (WA state) it is not unusual to see people in military wear on a day -to-day basis (not the full uniform, usually a field jacket, or just camo pants, or BDU shirt) I wear military clothing on the weekends when I am working out in the yard, on the car and such. I go out to stores etc. with no strange looks. In a bugout situation though, one may have to go where this look is more unusual. I buy military equipment because it is cheap (such as my $15 combat boots and $10 for a set of E.German BDUs). I also worked at REI for a few years and was lucky enough to pick up a lot of good civilain equipment at a discount. I keep two sets of bugout bags. One with mostly military equip for my car, mainly to be used in case I get stranded , or when I am camping. The other is an REI pack with civilian camping equipment for get up and go amongst the general population.

I have one  problem with olive drab fatigues, they make you look like Castro (especially if you have a beard and like smoking cigars) Well, the good thing is, unless you're in Southern Florida. . .who cares? But then, I somewhat resemble this remark, if Fidel had blonde hair. Geoffrey L. Hardin, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Military gear is by far superior to that of civilian gear , and it is time tested ....over  and over and over , where civi gear is made to apeal to the yuppie camper , and the truth is , if it lasts the first trip into the wilderness , it will probably never be used again.     To stay a little more covert , you can pack a set of civi clothing in your ALICE , or CFP 90 and wear that in town , along with that nifty banrney the dinosour purple waterproof backpack cover that you will be sportin on your ruck. When you hit the woodline back to tactical mode