Wyoming Survival: Tactical Training for Your Tribe

Written by Tango1Papa and posted on Wyoming Survival, this is a pretty damn good personal account of not just his own training over time but, more importantly, the fostering of a training program over time that’s grown a group from a small nucleus of guys to a much larger organization. This is how you do it. -NCS
This is strictly my opinion on training my tribe. It’s not the right way or wrong way. It’s my way the way I see it. I’m sure I will leave out something important because it is a pretty big subject and I will probably just forget to include something that should be part of the training.
My idea here is I’m training my group for some sort of WROL(without rule of law) scenario. We are on our own with no local LEO help. Also for sake of this article I’m going to assume I have a group of 10 to 20 people. My assumption is this group is made up of multiple families and maybe a few single people.
Whenever I train people I always assume that they know nothing so I start at the bottom level.
I’m going to start with firearms training first. My reasoning for that is if you can’t protect it you don’t own it. In a WROL scenario self-protection I feel it is the MOST important matter.
The first set of training for my tribe would be basic rifle training. I would train EVERYONE who could shoulder a rifle. The younger children would be trained with a 22 LR if need be. They would be taught the basics of marksmanship. They would be taught emergency reloading and tac reloading. They would learn snap shooting. They would get a lesson on the use of cover. They would be taught how to shoot from unconventional positions. And finally they would be taught how to shoot to a minimum of 300 yards. 100 yards with the 22LR. I believe this is a great base level of training. I start with the rifle in this case because its easier to shoot and in the case of WROL I would want my tribe members carrying their rifles at all time.

After the initial rifle training I would have everyone taught tactical medicine. In a WROL situation every person in your tribe is of the utmost importance. You cannot risk losing one person so the medical training is highly important. If you are lucky you will have a Dr. in your tribe also.
Next would be pistol training for everyone 12 and up. Learning to shoot a pistol is a little more difficult than a rifle and thats why I don’t do it first. The pistol training would be basically the same as the rifle. I would add some transitions from rifle to pistol in the pistol class. I would have the students shoot the pistol out to at least 50 yards . I truly believe in being able to make distance shots with a pistol. You might have to engage someone at carbine distance and all you have is your pistol so you need to know you can do it.

The next thing I would work on with my tribe members is a strict combatives program. I would do a minimum of three days a week combatives mixed with some knife training. The combatives style you want to be training is offensive style.  You want to hit first, hit hard, and keep hitting till the threat is down. I’ve done some knife training with Libre Fighting and I will tell you it is highly aggressive offensive style. An opponent will be hard pressed to defend against a Libre Fighting trained fighter.
So we are in a WROL situation. We need security at all times. We don’t want to protect our area of operations from our front porch. If we are doing that we have already lost. We will need some sort of observation point and listing point LO/OP. We need to see what’s coming our way before it gets here. So we will have everyone train in the LP/OP. They need to be able to use night vision devices, thermal devices, and binoculars. Along with LP/OP you may have to setup road blocks in and out of your area. Your members will need to be trained on manning roadblocks also. They need to know proper radio procedures. No blathering on the damn radio!
So this leads up to radio training. We need a strict radio training. Anyone that will be using a radio needs standard RTO training. They need to know when they need to talk and when they don’t. Talking on the radio is a HUGE problem I see with tribes. Too much talking means signal interception and direction finding. Two things you do NOT want happening.

We also need someone training the art of SIGINT. I have posted multiple articles about SIGINT. Read them and find someone who enjoys the challenge of SIGINT and put them to work.

Now we need a little more specialized training for specific groups.
We need a group trained in patrolling and ambushes. Like I said before we do not want to be running security from the front porch. We want to have a presence from outside our homestead. So this group need to be trained in mission planning, patrolling, ambushes, immediate action drills, tac med, wilderness survival, camouflage & concealment, and infiltration techniques.

This group also needs to be able to operate 100% at night. They need to have the skills and capabilities to run any operation in the darkness of night. That means ALOT of practice.

The team is going to need some long range shooters. The distance they need to be able to shoot will depend on your AO. Here in Wy we can shoot 1000 yds all day long so I need some guys that at minimum can shoot 1000 yds. My normal team guys need to be able to shoot 500 yds cold on demand. If your AO is dense forest you may only need someone who can shoot accurately 200 yds. That’s a decision you will have to make.

We also need a quick reaction force to back the people on patrol up. They will be trained the same as the patrolling group.
Both these groups should be trained in some sort of CQB. They need to be trained to enter a structure safely as a team. I reccomend using the limited entry techniques. It is easier to learn and much safer.

This is my thoughts on training the tribe. In a perfect world this would be done before WROL but that may not be possible. As long as you get it done as soon as things have gone to shit you should be ok.
There are multiple places to get this kind of training. Tactical Training International, Brushbeater, Badlands fieldcraft, and I all offer these kind of classes. Anyone of them will help you get started. We are trying to get as many people trained as possible.
Train hard tomorrow for an uncertain tomorrow!!