Body of Missing Los Alamos Nuclear Lab Worker Found in New Mexico Forest

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One hundred issues. Before I started this newsletter, I had a bag of expired canned goods and a flashlight with dead batteries. Now I have a system. Water stored and filtered. Food rotated and stocked. Power backed up. Communication planned and rehearsed. Documents digitized and printed. Skills practiced. Neighbors known. None of it happened overnight. It happened one small action per week, and for 100 editions, I shared them with you.

Here's what I've learned.

100 Issues Later: The Ten Things That Matter Most

If I had to distill 100 issues into a single conversation, here's what I'd say.

First: water is the most critical supply. You can survive weeks without food but only days without water. Store it, filter it, know where to find it. Issues 3, 22, 39, 48, and 57 cover this comprehensively.

Second: a 72-hour kit is the foundation, but a two-week capability is the goal. Most disruptions resolve in days. Some don't. Build the short-term kit first (Issue 2), then extend to two weeks (Issue 51).

Third: skills beat gear every time. A person with knowledge and no equipment outperforms a person with equipment and no knowledge. Practice the skills you've read about. Issue 79 covers how to learn faster.

Fourth: your plan is more important than your stuff. A written communication plan (Issue 99), an evacuation plan (Issue 13), and assigned household roles (Issue 83) turn chaos into procedure. Plans cost nothing and save everything.

Fifth: community is the ultimate prep. Lone wolves in disruptions do worse than connected neighbors. Know your neighbors. Share skills. Build relationships before you need them. Issue 70 covers this in depth.

Sixth: financial preparedness is physical preparedness. Cash on hand (Issue 49), proper insurance (Issue 96), and digital document backups (Issue 34) are as important as food and water.

Seventh: technology is a layer, not a foundation. Phones, apps, and smart devices enhance your preparedness but depend on power and connectivity. Your analog capabilities, printed plans, paper maps, physical skills, are the foundation that technology builds on.

Eighth: rotation and maintenance keep everything working. The best kit in the world fails if the batteries are dead, the food is expired, and the plan is outdated. Regular maintenance (Issue 71, 78) turns a purchase into a capability.

Ninth: start small and build consistently. The One Thing This Week from every issue proves that meaningful progress comes from tiny, repeated actions. Buy one extra can. Learn one knot. Test one battery. Over 100 weeks, those small actions compound into genuine preparedness.

Tenth: preparedness is about living well, not living scared. The point was never fear. It was margin. The same margin that a spare tire provides. The same margin that savings provide. You're not expecting disaster. You're just not expecting to be helpless if one comes.

If you've been reading since Issue 1 and taking even half the weekly actions, you are genuinely, meaningfully prepared for most of what life can throw at you. That's not a marketing claim. One hundred small steps add up to real capability.

Write down the three biggest gaps in your preparedness right now.

Be honest. Is it water? Skills? Community? Communication? Pick the biggest gap and make it your focus for the next month. You've built the foundation. Now close the remaining gaps.

Social Security Trust Fund Now Projected to Run Dry in 2032 — An Automatic 28% Benefit Cut Would Follow

The CBO's February 2026 baseline moved the OASI trust fund depletion date up nearly a full year. Without congressional action, benefits would be cut 7% in 2032 and average 28% per year from 2033 through 2036 — a total of $2.7 trillion in reduced payments over five years. Roughly 70 million Americans currently collect Social Security. For anyone within 15 years of retirement, the financial picture has changed materially — and issue 6 of the ten things that matter most is financial preparedness.

Source: CBO (February 2026), CRFB

Jeffrey Denning's Warrior SOS closes with a reflection on what sustained preparation actually means. For Special Forces soldiers, readiness isn't a destination — it's a practice. You don't become prepared and stay prepared. You maintain preparedness through ongoing attention, practice, and adaptation. Denning's message for civilians mirrors what this newsletter has been building toward: preparedness is a lifestyle practice, not a project with an end date. The threats evolve. Your circumstances change. New information emerges. The person who treats preparedness as an ongoing conversation with reality — adjusting and improving over time — is the person who's ready when something unexpected actually happens.

Schappert's message for civilians mirrors what this newsletter has been building toward: preparedness is a lifestyle practice, not a project with an end date. The threats evolve. Your circumstances change. New information emerges. The person who treats preparedness as an ongoing conversation with reality, adjusting and improving over time, is the person who's ready when something unexpected actually happens.

Pick up Warrior SOS by Jeffrey Denning on Amazon — a Special Forces veteran's framework for building sustained readiness into civilian life.

Body of Missing Los Alamos Nuclear Lab Worker Found in New Mexico Forest — She Is Among at Least 10 People Tied to US Nuclear Research Who Have Died or Disappeared

A hiker discovered the remains of Melissa Casias, 54, a Los Alamos National Laboratory employee who had been missing for nearly 11 months, in Carson National Forest near Taos, New Mexico. Her remains were found with a handgun nearby; cause and manner of death have not been determined. Casias is among at least 10 people connected to sensitive US nuclear and aerospace research who have died or gone missing in recent years under strange circumstances. Authorities say no links between the cases have been established.

Source: Washington Times, Santa Fe New Mexican, Fox News

The Preparedness Audit (Annual Review)

For Issue 100, I audited my entire preparedness system using a simple checklist organized by category: Water (storage, filtration, sources), Food (pantry depth, rotation, cooking ability), Power (backup systems, batteries, solar), Medical (kits, medications, training currency), Communication (plan, devices, contacts), Documents (digital backup, printed copies, insurance), Skills (last practiced, gaps identified), and Community (neighbors known, agreements in place).

Each category gets a 1 to 5 rating. My weakest areas this year: community connections (3) and skill practice frequency (3). My strongest: water (5) and food storage (5). The audit takes about 30 minutes and gives me clear priorities for the next quarter.

The audit itself is the most valuable preparedness tool I've developed. It replaces vague anxiety with specific, actionable information. Free.

Budget alternative: A single page with one question per category: "Could I handle two weeks without this?" If the answer is no, that's your priority.

Overrated: The idea that preparedness has a finish line. There's no point where you're "done." Life changes. Threats evolve. Equipment ages. Preparedness is maintenance, not achievement. Embrace the practice.

Underrated: The confidence that comes from being ready. The most valuable thing I've gained from 100 issues isn't any piece of gear. It's the quiet knowledge that my family can handle most disruptions without panic. That confidence affects how you sleep, how you process news, and how you respond when something actually happens. It's the real product of everything we've built.

Issue 1 (read it again) — See where you started. Notice how far you've come.

Ready.gov: Build a Kit — The federal baseline. Compare it to what you've built.

ThePrepared.com — The best ongoing resource for preparedness deep-dives.

CERT Training — If you haven't taken it yet, now's the time.

StopTheBleed.org — The single highest-impact training available. Take the class.

A new chapter begins. We'll continue with specialized topics, seasonal guidance, and reader-requested deep dives. The foundation is built. Now we refine, adapt, and maintain.

PS: Thank you. One hundred issues is a commitment, for me to write and for you to read. If even one action you took because of this newsletter makes a difference for your family someday, then every word was worth it. We keep going. Together.

Most engineers reach for fine-tuning too early. In this free online session, Gauntlet AI's Aaron Gallant covers fine-tuning, PEFT, and QLoRA — the real tradeoffs, when it actually makes sense, and when prompt engineering gets you there first. Register free.

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