What is "bug-out bag"

n. A portable kit containing items needed for short-term survival.

The term "bug-out bag" is related to, and possibly derived from, the "bail-out bag" emergency kit many military aviators carry. In the United States, the term refers to the Korean War practice of the U.S. Army designating alternate defensive positions, in the event that the units had to displace. They were directed to "bug out" when being overrun was imminent. The concept passed into wide usage among other military and law enforcement personnel, though the "bail-out bag" is as likely to include emergency gear for going into an emergency situation as for escaping an emergency.

Other names for such a bag are a BOB, 72-Hour Kit, a Grab Bag, a Battle Box, a Personal Emergency Relocation Kits (PERK), a Go Bag, a GOOD Bag (Get Out Of Dodge) or INCH Bag (I'm Never Coming Home).

The term Go-Kit is popular in the amateur radio service, especially in the " Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service" (RACES) and " Amateur Radio Emergency Service" (ARES) communities and is used to describe a combination personal bug-out-bag and portable amateur radio station. A personal Go-Kit generally takes some combination of units - a "one-day" (or "24 hour") kit, a "three day" (or "72 hour") kit that adds additional supplies, or a "one week kit" that adds yet additional personal items to the three-day kit. Any or all supports deploying the operator plus his or her privately owned self-contained radio communications setup.