image courtesy of google
I was a United
States Navy Hospital Corpsman for a time.
The training I received in the Navy was incredible and very useful to me
both in my service to my Country and in my civilian life. I later became a Paramedic and served the
civilian sector both in the hospital setting and on the streets. I have taught classes as an instructor as
well. As a Corpsman, I didn’t receive a
lot of weapons training, or get a lot of battlefield tactics and/or tactical
movement instruction, but what training I did get in this area I found very
interesting and quite useful later on.
The reason I go into all of this in the beginning of this little
dissertation is to give you a brief history and a little background for where
my conclusions will be coming from in this article. Furthermore, I will state briefly my
frustration with “Geopolitics”, the election process, our elected officials and
the corruption that is all invasive within the current system as it has morphed
into over the last 100 or so years. The
lies, the deceit and the un-willingness of our Government and our elected officials
to follow and adhere to the Constitution for the United States I find very
disturbing to me at my very core. More-so,
I find the apathy or ignorance of the American people to what is going on all
around us simply unforgivable in most instances. There are a couple of terms I can use here i.e.:
“Useful Idiots”, Sheeple, willfully ignorant and so forth. I will even throw in “Cognitive dissonance”
just to add a technical term. I tried
for a time to get my neighbors (although few and far between) to get together
and form a type of preparedness group, or neighborhood protection force if you
will. They all acted as though I were
crazy and blew me off with no interest in even a way of keeping in touch like
radio or walkie-talkies. Like most
people, they live in, and want to stay in that little river in Egypt we refer
to as denial (the Nile).
Now, there are a
lot of different types of organizations out there. Your lll%’ers, your State Defense force (not
all States have this option) Oath Keepers, Local groups and your State Militia
just to name a few. There are others out
there as well as websites that claim they will put you in touch with groups in
your area that you can find out there.
One such website would be WRAMSITE.com
(Well Regulated American Militia) although I am not very fond of this site for
personal reasons if you join there to get connected to a local group and avoid
getting too involved there you should
do well.
What I have found
in my search was that there is a very broad spectrum of people, attitudes,
beliefs, ideologies and skill sets. In
most, organizational skills and forethought are not within the forefront of the
loosely organized and often very opinionated small groups. Each has their benefits and it is not a “one
size fits all” kind of movement (for lack of a better term) so don’t jump in
blindly. Most, if not all, claim to be
based on the military unit structure and even have some members with prior
military backgrounds. Others are just
loose bands of like-minded people trying to learn from other members of the
group things they didn’t know that will help them in their journey to become
better prepared for a life they know is very different than it was, and is
about to get exponentially worse. It is
up to you to decide which type of group is best for you and your
situation. You will find that the people
contained in each “organization” just like in life, are very diverse and
different so the personalities within the group should be just as big of a
priority in your choice as their beliefs and their mission statement, though I
have also found the a “mission statement” is often more for show than for “GO”. Though there are exceptions to that as well.
The group that I
chose I have been with for two years.
There is a constant flow of people both in and out. This group is large and encompasses small
groups (platoons) throughout the state.
There are a lot of members with prior service from the Vietnam conflict
to the recent stuff going down in the Middle East. The training is often disorganized and repetitive. However with patience, I have found that the
information gleaned will be, or is, very useful. It can be confusing as these people want to
train as though they are a fighting force but they are not. The command is firmly in the “defensive”
mode. They want nothing to do at all
with taking a pro-active stance or an aggressive posture. The command structure makes constant statements
to the effect that the People of the Nation are being told that the Militia are
“terrorists” and are anti-Government and that they should be afraid of us. When the actual truth is the complete
opposite, the Militia is here to help the civilian population in need and in
fact does so all the time. Even when not
called upon to act, they do. Yet, when
they are asked to embark on a public relations campaign such as a blood drive
or other charity event in the public eye to alleviate or combat that stigma
they balk. Their fear of reprisal from
the government for doing nothing wrong is too great of a burden for them to
even consider. So they stay in the shadows
and continue to question why they are losing the P.R. battle. People who think like that will never fight
for you or your family. They will run
and hide leaving you and yours to defend yourselves from the inevitable.
So, in conclusion, even with a good bunch of
guys/gals in your “organization”, you cannot expect too much assistance when
push comes to shove. They are often spread too far and too thin. The time it will take them to muster in an
emergent situation could be days rather than hours or minutes. You would be better served calling the police
if they have not yet become the overt enemy. As a defensive force in pockets, I am still
not convinced of the effectiveness and/or the willingness they possess to
really get involved. Most of what I have
seen is the lack of resolve and the willingness to admit that the fight to come
is inevitable, not if, but when. However,
the knowledge that can be obtained from getting involved is incredible and very
much worth the effort it will take to gain it.
That effort will undoubtedly take time, expenditure of funds for
equipment and lots of gas and travel time. It can also be a great deal of fun
if you have the right people involved with you. So, to answer the opening
question, while I have had a very limited exposure to these groups, some are
obviously better than others depending on their intended purpose while others
act the part and are too timid to be useful.
The bottom line I guess is that unless your group is well trained and located
within a ten mile radius of you with ample communications, you are really no
better off than you were before joining with the exception of the knowledge you
have picked up along the way. To expect
anything more from the experience could get you in more trouble than you had
before you started. The following is a
good video. It will give you a little
different insight as to a Pastors viewpoint.
The video is courtesy of Viking preparedness on youtube.
