Shelter kit (AKA Doomsday bedroll)

[TACAIR]

While doing my semi-annual mid-winter maintenance on this 'system' I took a few images to share.
This is a 'Shelter sleep system" which is designed to be used in a shelter - a public shelter, post disaster. On Nov 30, 2018, Anchorage was hit with a 7.2 earthquake in our back yard, in a manner of speaking. Had my primary residence been declared off-limits (and the secondary and ...) and I was forced to go to a public shelter to stay warm...I'd have this.
Local public shelters can be organized - can be. These shelters would normally have cots, blankets and water. In case I had to use a local school building (secondary for the Muni) I would not have said cots, blanket etc. As a ham, I've participated in a few 'shelter' exercises, so understand what might be provided under the best of circumstances. However, I'd much rather be a disappointed pessimist than a horrified (and cold) optimist, so I have and carry my own swag.
This system gives me a 'ground cloth', cover, insulated/reflecting pad, a layer of fleece and a wool blanket (hospital sized). Should I be fortunate enough to have a cot, then the ground cloth will provide a way to keep chill air out from under said cot....

Old version - 22 inches rolled with carry handle.

ground cloth, cover and wool blanket. The ground cloth is a shelter half, the cover is a Cover, Bag, Sleeping, poplin (AKA fart sack of days gone by)

cover and Reflctrix insulating pad

Now with 1 yd of fleece in place

here you can see the fleece in double folded for 4 layers- 2 under/over or 4 under/over.

Full up system with foldback (~22 inches)

Now rolled to just 17 Inches wide  and about 1/3 'thicker'
than the original roll.
 
This stays in the vehicle full time. 2x a year the soft parts are run thru the dryer to ensure they are...well, dry.
I sleep on my side mostly, so this gives me a lot of flexibility. My clothing is seasonally appropriate and my coat would serve as a pillow.
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You might ask -- Why?

Few people have had the "opportunity" to sleep on the (hard cement) floor of a public shelter - typically a school of some sort.

My first experience with this was, oddly, in 1979 while AD USAF and we crashed at a school in Moses Lake, WA. Later, for another week, we stayed in a semi-abandoned building at the former Larson AFB, outside of Moses Lake. While many settled in on the concrete floors, I was lucky enough to know the wooden stage deck or the top of an office desk would be 'less' cold. It was after this I started carrying my own (insulated) swag. This was part of a (very badly planned and executed) military exercise hosted by SAC.... I learned a lot of other things as well.

Don't have a surplus shelter half?
Consider a simple rectangle of 10mil black 'construction' plastic. Lite weight and cheap! Alternatively, a painter's drop cloth with PVC /vinyl in one side would work well could be used for shade on sunny days.

Heavy Duty Butyl Drop Cloth
Heavy Duty Butyl Drop Cloth
 www.thepaintstore.com
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The cover was used on many different systems. See https://olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_sleeping_bag.php
The poplin cover was used on multiple systems:

Case, Water-repellent, for Bag, Sleeping

The Case, Water-repellent, for Bag, Sleeping, is made of poplin and provides a wind resistant cover for any one of the Bag, Sleeping versions. That is, it is ordinarily used with all sleeping bags. In warm weather, where little protection is needed, the case may be used alone. Two openings in the seam at the foot of the case allow the tie straps on sleeping bags to be drawn to the outside to hold the items in a compact unit when rolled. The Case, Water-repellent was also used for decades as the outer case for newer model sleeping bags (see below). The case was issued in two sizes, regular and large. It is common to find these covers with dates in the 1940s through 1960s, manufactured by "Boyd and Gould" among others. Markings are stamped inside, along the button or laced opening, or may be in the form of a sewn-in label.

(ED - the cover on my system is 'newer' with snaps and eyelets to lace onto an M-1949 sleeping bag)

This cover was included with the Arctic bag, the Wool type 27-B-317 sleeping bag and later, the M-1949 sleeping bag.

My Shelter system is a nod to both the Bag, Sleeping, Wool type 27B -but with ground insulation, something lacking at the time and has elements of the M-1935 bedding roll.

If I could find an affordable M-1935 Bedding roll, I would have that. Specifically designed for use with a folding cot, it was normally issued to officers (Field grade?). I have been posting about this kind of setuo for quite some time (see https://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78700 from 2011)




Issued with 2 to 5+ blankets, it also held a change of clothes and so on. For the time, well thought out for someone with a folding cot and access to motor transport.
The roll was true issue equipment with a set of detailed instructions to go with



The really old school cowboy bedrolls were, by todays viewpoint - massive. Here is a photo to give you an idea of just how large/heavy a real bedroll was....




If all of this sounds familiar, it is/should be
Cowboy bedroll
Saw this on YouTube, thought if was pretty good info. Don't know if it was previously posted.
bushcraftusa.com
 
Bed Rolls... Popular Or Not?
I know I have seen people around here using "bed rolls". I have an idea for a product and I wonder how interested the general bushcrafter really is in "bed rolls". Like the cowboys used to use. Like an all-in-one sleep system. I am a big sleep system nut. I love a good sleep system, and I love...
bushcraftusa.com

Finally, I had a bedroll with canvas cover and multiple Furniture pads (in lieu of quilts) and wool blankets - now that I now longer work in rural Ak as cook/security type at a girls camp, that system found a new home.
Here is a piece I wrote in 2010 about bedrolls (https://survivalblog.com/home-sweet-home-on-the-range/)