138.5 - Contingency Planning For Your Family Overseas: Jake, the International Security Specialist Guy

This is part two of my recent conversation with Jake the International Security Specialist Guy and if you haven't already listened to Ep 138 or when Jake was on the show last year in Ep 117, then stop what you're doing and go back and catch those episodes.  In this portion we are talking more about contingency planning with your family.  The specific context is what do you do if you're separated from your teenagers during an emergency in a foreign country, but really, this is practical advice for an emergency anywhere and even in a situation that is not a crisis yet but just requires some guidance so that your teen is prepared.

Jake's previous episodes were Ep 117 and Ep 138

Music is by the Mini Vandals

Hey Chaplain podcast episode 138.5 (part 2)

Tags:

Travel, Children, Contingencies, Connectivity, Disasters, Emergencies, Family, Hiking, Phones, Planning, Police, Rally Points, Safety, Technology, Teens, Mexico

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My name is Kate Gallup. I'm the Reverend Dr. Chaplin Coordinator for the Massachusetts State Police. Thank you all for listening. This is such an important ministry and outreach. And I just wish more people had this. So if you are listening right now, please share it with your departments, your troopers, your agencies, your officers. It really makes a difference. I just want to say it's such an honor and privilege to be here with more amazing chaplains and to do this work. And I love what I do every day. How many people can say that? So I am very grateful for this. I like that.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

That's excellent.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Thank you so much. Good job.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

Welcome to Hey Chaplin. My name is Jared Altic, and I'm a chaplain with the police department. The Hey Chaplin podcast is about talking to police officers who say, Hey Chaplain, I've got a story to tell and some hard-earned wisdom to share. The guests on Hey Chaplin come from across the world, from the LAPD to Scotland Yard. They are sharing their wisdom so that you don't have to learn it the hard way. And as a patrol chaplain, I think that you deserve to hear something that is positive and encouraging. This is part two of my recent conversation with Jake, the International Security Specialist Guy. And if you haven't already listened to episode 138 or when Jake was on the show last year in episode 117, then stop what you're doing right now and go back and catch those episodes. In this portion, we are talking more about contingency planning with your family. The specific context is what do you do when you're separated from your teenagers during an emergency in a foreign country? But really, this is practical advice for an emergency anywhere, and even in a situation that's not a crisis yet, but requires some guidance so that your team is prepared. Here's Jake, the International Security Specialist Guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

As you look to be prepared for these situations, uh one of the things you want to do is what we would call contingency planning. A lot of contingency planning is forecasting actions and behaviors when there is no communication.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

We're more talking now about what if, you know, when something happens, you are separated from your family members. You're on this side of town, they're on this side of town, or for whatever reason you become separated in an emergency. Having a plan for this type of situation, uh, it's very helpful. And also it can lower anxiety.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

So this is like talking to your kids about a house fire and how to get out and where to meet outside.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

That's part of it. That's part of it. Uh, you have safety training that you would do, which is what you're describing for a fire. Okay. And by the way, I think safety training is a great way to start preparing kids versus security training. Right. So with safety training, we can talk about natural disasters and different emergencies. And, you know, there's not that threat actor that we're discussing with family members and things like that. So I'm a big fan of starting your family on your young family on safety training and then moving into security training. But a lot of it does cross over for sure. Okay. Um starting, you know, we can talk about satellite phones and in-reach devices and all these ways to stay in communication.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Define that term in reach device. What do you mean by that for people who don't know?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Enreach device is a Garmin, yeah, it's a Garmin device that is basically satellite messaging. Okay. Versus voice calls. Okay. I have these devices, I travel with them sometimes. We could talk about other things like air tags and tracking apps and and all that stuff. But at a basic level, if there is an emergency and you reach out to try to get a hold of another uh travel, travel partner, team member, family member, and they're not communicating back to you, it's probably not because you got a message on your phone that says the government shut the cell phones off. That that happens, but most likely it's because that other family member has their volume turned down. Right. Or they're or their phone's dead. Yeah. And your cell phone is your primary means of communication when you're traveling. And the there are, you know, I start talk about panic or uh paranoia. I'm one of those guys that when my cell phone gets to 80%, I start becoming paranoid and start looking for a charger. You know, you you have my wife is on the other end of the bellcur. Right, right. And she runs around on six, seven per percent and just completely have to.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

See, that that gives me anxiety. I can't do I can't stand that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

So as a great stocking stuffer, Christmas gift, because by the way, guys, we should be putting stuff in the in the stockings too. Yeah. A battery bank is a great stocking stuffer for this type of thing. Because if you have that on you, then you're you're very likely to be able to keep your phone charged. If it's fine when you're in your hotel room and you can plug the thing in, you'll probably have power, but you may not want to be in your hotel room. You may want to be on the roof so you can see what's happening. Yeah, you may want to be traveling to the airport. Right. You may want, you may be hiding somewhere if there is some kind of a crisis. And it's pretty stressful to be sending messages and receiving messages and getting information, and then you're watching that phone slowly die, and you know you're gonna lose that.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

Yeah, the last few times I've traveled with my uh my kids, my my teenagers and adult kids, I've I've hand them each a battery bank. I'm just like, here, this is you, this is yours for the next week, and uh keep this with you.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Now now you got an improvised weapon with you, too.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

That's true. That's true. That's a heavy, heavy little item that you could could use to your advantage. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So I'm a big fan of having that because it makes a big difference. But this does us no good if we we reach out and we're not getting a response back in an emergency. Uh and so a lot of times when we'll go to a mall or a market overseas or something like that, and we know we're gonna split up, it's me being the leader of the group or the leader of the family that just tells everybody, okay, uh, let's turn the volumes up on our phone. Yeah. And doing that one simple thing greatly increases your chances of being able to communicate, not just in an emergency, but just when you're trying to come back together and regain it, gain accountability to eat lunch or do anything else. Yeah. Uh so this is a great starting point because yeah, you can also use tracking apps. I mean, people feel differently about that. But tracking apps, they can lower anxiety or they can increase anxiety. Right. I think a lot of times when you just put the kid on the tracking app, they learn that you know what, they know where I'm at, so I don't need to look at my phone and and it's fine. Uh that that's a very family cultural thing. I think tracking apps can be good if if you you're running in different directions because there's some kind of explosion or some kind of emergency or something's happening. And maybe, maybe I can look on the phone and see where my my kid is or my spouse, and I can go find them even if they're not answering the phone. But they they have limitations. Sure. And if you're looking at a situation where there is no phone, whether whether you ran from your table and you left your bag sitting there in an emergency, or uh the government has shut the the cell tower down, or the cell tower no longer exists based on what's happening. Now you're looking at contingency planning, or what we would say establishing emergency meeting locations.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Yeah, my family, we had uh four of us in a town in Mexico we had never been to, and we're in this kind of central plaza area, and there's food vendors and people coming in setting up for concerts and just coming and going and whatever, stores to disappear into, and we're like, look, this big Christmas tree thing, we're all we're all meeting back here, and so this is this is where we're going to. And that's that's your classic rally point, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, and we did this instinctively throughout human history, but somehow we've lost this with our modern technology.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

It's so simple, it's so basic, but it but it's it's I mean, and we picked the tallest thing in the plaza. It's like, okay, from everywhere, if you can step outside, you can see this giant Christmas tree thing. This is visible from blocks away. Come here. This is where we're meeting before we leave.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

That would be what we would call a good primary meeting place or rally point. Okay. Uh, and that's great if that is a safe place. Ah. But it might not be. In almost all cases, it will. Too visible.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Okay. Yeah. So if it's a great primary meeting place for most emergencies. But if we're really getting into contingency planning, sometimes it's good to have a secondary one that that meets a different need if there's more of a physical threat in that area. In other words, if the Christmas tree isn't safe, where else are we going to meet up? And now you're you're looking for different features. You may be looking for somewhere that has cover concealment, a place to hide, uh, or or there's better security still in that nearby area.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Okay. Okay. So instead of out in the plaza, you may be like, no, we're going to meet back behind this church, or we're going to meet down in that basement shoe store or somewhere that you can get to easily at night, that maybe you could get to even if you had a limited injury that that you can find.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Okay. So not up ten flights of stairs. Right. Right. Okay. Highly visible is great if we're trying to find each other. Right. But highly visible in that area may not be good if people are being targeted. Right. Right. Yeah. So just having that secondary place can be very helpful. And then you know, you could also think about having your hotel, for instance, as a third meeting place or rally point. In other words, if we're, you know, if we're trying to get on the train and one of us doesn't make it for whatever reason, but we don't have any communication, because if we have the phone, it's fine. I'm just going to reach out and text you and we're going to make a plan and we're going to find each other. Send me a pin on the map and I'll come to you. Okay, that's easy. But when you're traveling, like you said, sometimes people don't have sales service. A lot of times I'd travel, I'd have a SIM card, but my kids wouldn't. Right. You know, it's okay there with me. Well, it's great when you have accountability, but you can lose that very easily. And so, you know, we may not be at the market, we may be on our way to the market, and now we've, you know, we've been separated. What do I want them to do in that situation? And what you really want is to find a place where the most vulnerable member of your family can be comfortable, safe, and happy. Because they may be there for a few hours, a little while. You you could pick any place that would be a good place for that, but maybe your hotel would be a good solid option. Yeah. Yeah. And then do do they have the capabilities of getting to that location? You know, do they need to carry some local currency so they can pay for a cab? Do they need a credit card? Do they need a rideshare app?

SPEAKER_04 12:12

See, that's what I was going to say. So many times you may have teenagers that be like, oh, we want to go do our own thing. And it's like, okay, but if we get separated and you had to get back to the hotel, you don't have the proper money, you don't have the proper communication, you don't you don't know, you don't have the proper knowledge to get back to the hotel. So no, you can't be by yourself in this situ in this particular situation.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

But but if they were unexpectedly, then how are they going to mitigate that when they can't call and ask you for something and uh they're on their own?

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yeah. Yeah. What do you what would you do in that situation?

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Well, first they need to know where you want them to go.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

So that you can find them again. And that's the point of setting up uh a meeting place or a rally point. And then you're just looking at, you know, how do they get there? So here's another option. Um, this my son, I he went oh gosh, how much of this story can I tell? Uh he went deep deep in the jungle somewhere where uh there was a lot of risk, and and in the end uh he he had a heat stroke hiking in. He has he has a backpack on, he's traveling for days. How old was he? I think he was eight. He was he was eighteen. Okay. And you know, we didn't hear from him. He was with a group of people we knew he was with. We had some contact with them, you know, peripherally, but we didn't hear from him for three days. Uh which we sort of expected. But once he got there, so in the end, he uh he had a heat stroke, he was carried down to a river and dunked in the river at a coolie mall before he could be carried to a uh really a bamboo hospital, and they have a thing called a bambulance, and this is where they take uh a piece of bamboo and then a a hammock, and you get five or six guys to just rotate and take turns and carry somebody. So he's in a very remote place, but when they dunked him in the river, his cell phone slipped out of his pocket and ended up at the bottom of the river. He's okay now. He wakes up in the hospital and it's a very, very remote hospital, but it's um, you know, the problem is he doesn't have a cell phone. And he hikes back down to the river and actually amazingly found his phone. I've I've been to that river because I went into the jungle uh soon after. And it's a fast-moving river, but somehow he found it. Well, and amazingly, after three or four days, it dried out and started working again. Wow, which is unbelievable. Yeah. But but he now here he is, he's he's at a satellite location to where he could sign in and send me a message, but his phone doesn't work. So he doesn't remember his password to his email. And he doesn't I don't think he knew my phone number.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

You know, and I don't think he knew the password to his email. So he just figures it out how to communicate with me all on his own. And I receive an email from a stranger's email, and the the headline is This is your son Hunter. So I see an email I don't recognize, but I see this is your son hunter, and I open it up and and there's the message. Hey, here's where I am, this is what happened to me. Wow. So even if this was instructive to me because I thought, yeah, in in 2026, it really doesn't matter where you are on the planet, there is a way that you can communicate. And even if your primary phone, you know, your primary is your phone and that's not working, if nothing else, if you just tell them, hey, go somewhere where there's a coffee shop and internet and Wi-Fi, yeah, and he knew my email address, and that was all he needed to send me a message from a stranger's phone. Wow. Wow. So this is this is contingency planning that you know you could roleplay this with a kid or or just tell him what you expect him to do if something happens.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

What would you put in your kids' hands besides a battery bank? Assuming they already have a phone. What else what else do they need to have in their hands?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Well, we have a a shared email account. The whole family shares an email. I created it just so we could put virtual copies of important documents and things in there. Oh. So everybody has that. Okay. Everybody has access to copies of their passport and and different things that we may need for just basic travel, uh, basic emergencies. I can put everything in there from you know who I want them to contact in an emergency to medical information, uh, whatever could be important that they may need to access virtually.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

So there's a shared Google email and uh connected to that email is a Google Drive, you know, where there's you know Google Docs of all these things. That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah. And so whatever whatever you decide to put in there is is up to you. But I mean, we use that all the time, just accessing basic travel documents to apply for visas, to uh yeah, anything like that. That's excellent. Okay. Just drop it in.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

So let me ask a different question. Instead of what you put in their hands, what do you put in their minds? It sounds like they need to have memorized at least a phone number or a you know, Google Drive account. They need to know that name and that Google, that Google account and that password to get to access that.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Traditionally, people will say memorize a phone number when you're traveling, because if your phone's taken away, we don't memorize phone numbers anymore. No. And I think it's good to memorize a phone number, but if they're gonna go up to a stranger and try to use their phone, are they gonna be able to make a call to that number? And so uh as simple as it is, I'm real big on at least memorize my email. Yeah. Because if both of us have Wi-Fi, we can we can send emails. Yeah. And yeah, I want them to memorize their password uh so that they can access their information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

So they can access their email on a different device. Yeah. If they have to borrow a device, can I get into my own email? And a lot of people can't because they don't memorize anything anymore. They don't memorize passwords, don't memorize phone numbers.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

But even if you know, even if they know your email, they can email you from someone else's email. But you have to, you have to expect that that may happen, or you're not going to open an email that you don't see your.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Well, I guarantee you the police department IT people are all telling you, do not open emails from people you don't recognize. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

And this is where it was so helpful with my son, where he just put in, This is your son Hunter. Yes. You know, the the necessity of solving the problem led him to a genius solution that in in hindsight seems so simple. Yeah. It's like, yeah. But uh it was not in any of my contingency planning prior to him doing it, and nobody had ever discussed it with me, but he needed to he needed to communicate and he figured out how to do it. That's awesome. And also, I was in the Middle East during a crisis, and I had my satellite device and I had my ESIM. I had my eSIM. Well, the settings were not working on my eSIM, and uh because of that, uh initially, because of that, I didn't have a local SIM card and I didn't have an ESIM. So I had no connection and I needed to activate my satellite inreach device when I was in the country. And I couldn't do that without Wi-Fi and I couldn't do it without line of sight to the sky. So I had to go outside where I lost my Wi-Fi. Now I can't connect my inreach device, and the Wi-Fi on my phone is not working, so I can't pair with my phone. It's like, okay, I don't have any way to communicate. In hindsight, I realized, wait a minute, my cab driver has WhatsApp. Yeah. He he would be more than happy for me to make a phone call, but I didn't even think about it because I just thought, well, my phone's not working, my satellite device is not working. But if I would have had a number written down or memorized, and uh the person I was trying to contact had either a signal app or WhatsApp as opposed to just a phone number, I could communicate very easily. And so it is good to have a phone number memorized, especially if you're using something like WhatsApp that'll work anywhere in the world because almost everybody around the world uses WhatsApp. Yeah. And there may be some sensitive information I don't want to put out on WhatsApp, but as far as basic communication goes, it's great.

SPEAKER_04 21:43

Yeah, it's it's the preferred texting app almost everywhere except the United States.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And so start looking at other people as resources. Yeah, and so having uh you you whether you think you're gonna have an international phone plan or Or you're gonna get a local SIM card or an eSIM, don't rely on you know regular text messaging and phone calls. Yeah. With your family members back home and people you're traveling with, use something like WhatsApp or Signal so that it'll work on Wi-Fi no matter what. And and someone else doesn't need to have an American phone plan to be able to contact you. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

Alright, so once again, I'm going to cut the conversation right there. I still have about another third of this conversation covering some more great topics, specifically how to shelter in place in a hotel and relocate while in another country. But I'm just going to set that aside and use that in maybe a future bonus episode. It'll also be fun to see if I'm ever able to reveal Jake's true identity. I promised him just a little bit of anonymity while he was on the show because some of his work is sensitive in certain countries and with certain groups. But if Jake is able to move back to the United States in the future and maybe is not actively working in those things that are still time sensitive, then we'll bring Jake back on, reveal his identity, and share more really great stories because he has a lot of great stories. Until then, we'll just express our undying gratitude to Jake, the International Security Specialist Guy. On the next episode of Hey Chaplin.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

9-11 turned out to be our son's first day of kindergarten. And you know, this story is not special at all for all of us that went through that day, you know, but everybody's story is unique. Uh and a neighbor called me and said, Hey, you've got to turn on the TV. This is this is crazy. And like everybody else, you know, I was just absolutely stunned and rocked and astonished and grieving. And I remember seeing a photograph, it was an iconic photograph of this man and woman jumping off the top of one of the towers, and they were holding hands. And I heard anecdotally that they did not know each other prior. They were just two strangers sharing this final moment together. And there's something inside of me, it was almost like survivor guilt. It was like, there but for the grace of God, go I. And the other reaction I had was, oh hell no. And no, this shall not stand. No way, this shall not stand. I was 48 at the time, wanted in the fight in the worst way, called all the armed services recruiters, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, and they're like, How old are you? They weren't they weren't desperate enough to start taking 48-year-olds. Exactly. Of course, when I told them my age, the next thing they said was, Well, try the Coast Guard. All of our coasties will appreciate that. Yeah.

unknown 25:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

So, but even the Coast Guard said, You're too old, man. Usually's too old. So shortly thereafter, I remember reading in uh I lived in a uh a suburb of LA at the time, Burbank, California. And I remember reading in this local paper that a lot of these uh Burbank coppers were getting called up. They were in the Armed Forces Reserve and they were called up to active duty. So they were looking for coppers.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

The views expressed here are the personal views of the host and our guest, and do not necessarily represent the views of any law enforcement agency or its components. If you like this episode, please share it with a cop or someone who loves a cop. Thank you for listening to Hey Chaplin. And as always, let's pray for peace in our city.