You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know…Ye Merry Band of Guerillas, by Crusoe

Over the course of this past year our mutual assistance group identified several training gaps and have worked diligently to shore up as many loose ends as possible.  Training has been going well with a lot of significant progress.  About six months ago we sat down and decided it was time to look outside of our MAG for more formal training opportunities.  This past weekend we started that training evolution with the Scout Course in North Carolina.  It was quite the eye-opening experience!  There is something to be said about congregating together with other like-minded patriots to do hard things and see what is possible on a grander scale.

Every single training event for the course had a defined purpose that was built upon with follow on instruction.  Laying prone in ankle to knee high grass while trying to shoot a steel target at 425 meters inside of a tree line paid dividends later while low crawling through brambles to scout out potential enemy forces.  Everything had a purpose and highlighted deficiencies our MAG had not considered.  You don’t know what you don’t know.

I came away from the course with three key takeaways that I feel are relevant to the patriot movement.  The first, and I think most important, is that you are not fit enough right now to do the things that will need to be done.  For us this course was three days, but what if an emergency last 3 weeks, 3 months, or even three years?  I am telling you now, you need to get as fit as you possibly can within your physical capabilities.  Yeah, yeah, yeah…. I know…everybody has something.  A large portion of this course required movement up and down terrain in gear.  When your team leader screams “Contact Left, MOVE!” do you have what it takes to take cover, lay down suppressing fire and then assault with speed up a hill?  I think you get the picture.

Second takeaway was the ability to communicate is key and will save your life.  On day two we conducted a nighttime movement with two separate elements towards an enemy force.  Radio comms went down between the groups and the enter movement descended into utter chaos.  It was so bad that after we got back to camp, we had to redo the entire patrol again that night.  Our group uses the Walker Razor electronic earmuffs with the add on radio module.  We passed them out to both teams and they were a game changer.  In fact, on the final training event there was an active SIGINT element working against us and we were completely undetected.

My final takeaway is night vision is a requirement.  I was skeptical about night vision until that evening.  About half of the students had them and the other half did not.  I was among the have nots and not having them put me way behind the situational awareness power curve.  Thermal is a force multiplier, but night vision is an absolute game changer.  There is nothing more empowering than being able to see your adversary and they have no clue that you are even there.  I know they are expensive, but so is getting shot while stumbling around the woods in the dark.

I would recommend this course for anybody.  If you come in with an open mind and willing to learn you will not leave disappointed.  The descent into chaos is rapidly gaining pace and you owe it to yourself to be the best guerilla (or gorilla) you can be.

RTO, RTO Advance, and SIGINT is next.  Happy Training!

One final point…paint your rifle.

Crusoe is retired from the Air Force after 30-years of service as a flight crew member.  He spends most of his time thinking about the apocalypse and how to mitigate its effects.  When not immersed in academic pursuits, he is often on a trail hiking in the mountains of North Georgia or reading with a glass of Irish whiskey and a German Shepherd by his side.   Global travel enthusiast, history nerd, Appalachian Trail thru hiker, and recovering ultra-endurance athlete.  He can be reached at [email protected]