Packing Up Our Bags – RIP James Yeager

I’m reminded of the wise words of my favorite President, Teddy Roosevelt, on days like today.

It is indeed the Man in the arena who counts, accountable to his own successes and failures; the fortunate to be judged more so by the former than the latter.

This community – the preparedness community, the shooting community, the Patriot community – all parts of the larger movement to preserve the greatness of this great nation and its people. I sit packing my own bags for yet another stretch on the road and learned of the passing of James Yeager, reminded of one of his more famous, or infamous, videos asking Patriots to ‘pack their bags’ in light of the proposed draconian restrictions on our rights at the time. He drew a lot of heat for it, but he wasn’t wrong. And he certainly neither shied away nor backed down from a fight, quick to leave no question on where he stood.

Controversy never shut him down or left him in fear; he was a man who lived the virtue described by Roosevelt above. It is the man in the arena, no one else.

James trained a lot of people and grew the larger community through his herculean efforts, building a business and living his dream, supporting his family along the way. He grew our community. In the end, we can ask for no better opportunity in life. I can say as one blessed to do the same, there is no deeper feeling of satisfaction in life to be found.

I did not have the opportunity to know Yeager during his life but have worked with many of his students over the years and can personally attest to his efforts at growing the community of armed Americans. Here we find ourselves yet again, in an even more foreboding time in our Nation’s history requiring training like never before. An armed, trained and organized populace is the bulwark against tyranny.

As he would remind everyone in his videos, your responsibility to be ready for the fight never ends. May you rest in peace, we’ll take it from here.