A Pipe Hitter’s Guide to

Crushing the Coming

Societal Breakdown
by
Nicholas Orr
 A Pipe Hitter’s Guide to Crushing the
Coming Societal Breakdown
by

Nicholas Orr
Copyright 2020
All Rights Reserved

No part of this text may be reproduced without the express written

permission of the author and publisher.
Foreword by the author, Nicholas Orr
The topic of survival, both in the short-term as well as the long,
seems to be cyclical. A quick review of human history will turn up
periods where the masses feared that the end of the world was near.
Some of the motivation for those feelings may have been superstition.
When ancient man experienced a solar eclipse, they thought the
world was coming to an end.
Other apocalyptic predictions came from natural events; severe
droughts, massive storms, and floods they bring, abnormally long
winters, and of course the Earth being angry as represented by the
eruption of a volcano now and again. God or “the gods” was/were
angry.
Of course the actions of man are the most common harbinger of the
societal collapse or doom for a country or society. One can only
imagine the fear inspired as the Huns ran roughshod and unchecked
across Asia. Europeans had much to fear as the Muslim hoards
stood on the edge of the continent, threatening slavery and
subjigation for every man, woman, and child. Charles “the Hammer”
Martel can be thanked for halting one of first major thrusts into
Europe by the Muslim invaders.
During nearly the entire history of mankind, when apocalyptic threats
were on the horizon, the citizenry or the peasantry if you will,
depending on the time and place, had little choice but to submit to
their fate. The ancient pagans might have tossed a virgin or two into a
volcano. Some men sacrificed lambs on the highest rock. Still others
begged and pleaded for their King or Emperor to save them from
impending doom.
One lesson from history that should not be lost on the citizenry is that
in nearly every case of impending doom, whether natural or
manmade, the Kings and Emperors took care of their people, the
ruling class, first while the welfare of the peasant class came a
distant second. Serious famine affected the peasants first and the
King and his army last. It only stood to reason, if you possess the
sword, you control the food.
The foundation of the United States of America represented a hard
turn about from the worldwide history of the Ruling Class versus the
Peasant Class. From the outset of the new nation, the idea that some
men were born to be rulers and others were born to be ruled was
cast aside. The greatest evidence of this was the codification in the
Constitution that the sword was meant for the people, not the crown.
Forbidding the peasant to possess the sword, a physical means of
dissent and rebellion, has been standard operating procedure for
every government and empire since the dawn of man.
When the men who founded the United States of America put the
sword in the hands of the people, they forever changed the idea that,
during times of crisis, emergency, and impending doom, the citizens
had to beg their King for protection. The citizens could now employ
the sword against the onslaught of marauders, huns, and barbarians
who threatened to steal their crops, burn their homes, and enslave
their women and children.
For this text I have enlisted the aid of my good friend and compatriot,
Thomas Thrasher, and interviewed him at great length. A combat
decorated United States Marine during the late unpleasantness,
Tommy moved on to work as a military contractor. Thomas Thrasher
is the epitome of the term pipe hitter.
As for the explanation of “pipe hitter”, there are various definitions
floating about, however for our purpose here, a Pipe Hitter is some
one or a group of people who are willing to go to the extreme in order
to get things accomplished. This descriptor most commonly refers to
Special Operation Forces, but it is not limited to that.
Throughout the remaining text, unless otherwise noted, Mr. Thrasher
will address, in his own words, the coming societal breakdown and
apocalyptic threats. He will also give you, the reader, a how-to guide
for dealing with the end of the world as we know it in your community
and neighborhood.
Nicholas Orr
September, 2020
Chapters
Introduction
1 Understanding the Threat to the
Food Supply
2 Time for Guns
3 Team Tactics
4 Blow Out Kits and Trauma Medicine
5 Tribes
6 Fortifications and Fire Bases
7 The Dutch Liferaft
8 Swallowing the Red Pill
Introduction
A big thank you to Mr. Nicholas Orr for reaching out to me and giving
me the opportunity to put my thoughts on paper. I can only hope
someday to be the wordsmith that Mr. Orr has proven himself to be.
Through numerous phone calls, emails, and a few personal meetings,
Nick coached me and then went through the material I submitted so
that it did not come across as the incoherent scribblings of a
barbarian.
This is a deadly serious topic and I approached it as such.
Throughout my career as a Marine, military contractor, and
professional pipe hitter, I have witnessed the fatal results of men who
failed to prepare and their communities and countries have suffered.
This is not a game we are playing where you can just accept the loss
and try again tomorrow. If you fail here, you die and those about
whom you care or love will suffer irreparable harm for your failure.
If you are not prepared to deal with the harsh realities of a life or
death struggle, I would suggest that you put this book down now.
Either that, or pass it along to someone who does possess the
mental fortitude to deal with the harsh realities that come with living
on planet Earth.
I will approach this work as my Drill Instructors on Parris Island and
then my Infantry School Instructors at Camp Lejeune did. Those men
were not there to be my buddy or my pal. They understood that I and
my fellow Marines would, sooner or later, have to face down the
Reaper. They broke me down and built me back up and for that I will
be eternally grateful. Those men prepared me to deal with the life
and death conflicts that came thereafter.
If you are hoping that I will sugarcoat the dangers that we face in our
modern world and what it will take to crush those dangers, I hate to
tell you, but I am all out of sugar. There is a lot of suck in our world
today and there is even more suck coming. However, the good news
is that you don’t have to just take it. My hope is to provide you with
the information, education, and mental tools you need to crush the
coming societal breakdown.
Thomas Thrasher, from somewhere in Free America, October 2020
Chapter 1 Understanding the Threat to the Food Supply
For this manuscript, we will address the threats to the United States
of America, not Europe or Asia. The inhabitants of those continents
long ago sealed their nations’ fates by surrendering their individual
sovereignty to the will of the collective. In our modern world, Poland
and the Czech Republic seem to be on the right path, but it is going to
be a long hard walk for them. Conventional Europe; Germany,
France, the UK, etc. have devolved to socialist slave states and
without a complete 180, they will fall to the invading Muslim hoards in
the next generation.
The USA provides the last opportunity for humans to possess
individual liberty and freedom, not collectivism and tax-slavery, on
planet Earth. Therefore, our prime focus will be defending the United
States from enemies foreign and domestic.
Thanks to a deliberate effort to demoralize the populace of the United
States during the last two generations, we now bear witness to
citizens with little to no understanding of national and world history.
They have become the ultimate Lotus eaters. These men and women
are convinced that their desires and inbred feelings of entitlement will
keep them fat and happy and distracted, regardless. The only threat
they perceive is a threat that might force them to confront harsh
reality. (Okay, now that half of you have Googled “lotus eater”, we
can continue.)
Food Supply
Aside from the apathy of the people, one of the greatest threats to
the survival of the United States is the move from purposeful and
productive living to notional or virtual living. During World War II, the
federal and state governments encouraged the people to plant
“Victory Gardens”.
The leaders at the time were under no illusion that the citizens would
grow so much food that traditional farms would be eliminated. The
purpose of the Victory Garden movement was to get people used to
the idea of providing, at least some, food for themselves. This also
gave them a feeling of purpose. The people were not just sitting
around hoping that some faceless farmer somewhere would grow
food for them. No, instead the people who grew Victory Gardens
during WWII were participating in their own survival, however small of
a factor that might have been. At very least, growing their garden
gave them a very real sense of the genuine labor that it took to
produce edible food. A successful garden also produced a very real
sense of accomplishment and pride in their labor.
In the United States today, only a small percentage of the people
ever plant a garden or participate in the critical aspect of feeding
themselves. The millions of people dwelling in major metropolitan
areas are completely dependent on a fragile supply system to keep
their stores stocked with food. In the average big city, there is a 3-
day supply of food in all of the grocery stores for the total population.
Delivery trucks from strategically placed supply depots run constantly,
in order to keep these stores resupplied. Unlike decades past, where
every grocery store was equipped with a warehouse or the meat and
dairy came from local suppliers, today the barcode system is used to
place orders and resupply on demand.
As we have witnessed during numerous hurricanes and floods, when
the trucks can no longer reach the cities, the food supply dries up
fast. More recently, we have seen that the closure of just one meat
processing plant can drive up the cost and drastically limit the supply
of meat to entire regions of the country, not just one city. The
systematic centralization of the food supply chain has created a
dangerous situation, one where hundreds of thousands of people can
be without food or be drastically rationed almost overnight.
Rock and Stone World
Despite the marvels on the internet and the wonders of smartphones,
all it takes to send us right back to the 1800’s is to turn off the power.
All the gadgets and distractions of modern life are meaningless if the
power grid is interrupted or completely shut down. Are you going to
eat your iPhone X? How are you going to order Doordash or
UberEats without power?
City-dwelling Americans have become so accustomed to 24 hour
stores and on-demand food delivery that most have completely lost
touch with the reality of where genuine food comes from and how
much effort it takes to produce it. We all know the young Millennial
couple who eats out almost daily or who has their meals delivered via
mobile phone app. What are they going to do when that option is
completely off the table?
The generally accepted calorie count for human survival is 2000
calories per person per day. How many calories worth of real food,
not cookies and chips, do you have in your home right now?
I am reminded of the recent Communist insurrection within the city
limits of Seattle. The mongoloids in Seattle started running out of food
almost immediately. They resorted to begging and then stealing food
within days. Their childish effort to grow food overnight by sticking
vegetable plants in the grass of a city park would be laughable if not
so ridiculously stupid. That was only a small scale, but it is a good
example of the completely out of touch behaviour of spoiled urban
parasites.
Everyone has to eat. There is no getting around that fact. For the
entire history of man, those who have controlled the food have
controlled the people. If you do not have food on hand and the ability
to produce it, you will be a slave to whomever it is that is controlling
it.
Mohammed Farah Aidid and the other warlords of Somalia
understood this lesson perfectly. During the 1990’s, UN and other
humanitarian food shipments to famine struck Somalia were seized by
the warlords at gunpoint. The warlords and their men ate first and the
remaining food was used as a weapon to control the peasants.
This was not the first time that men with guns seized humanitarian
food shipments from the United States and Europe. In Africa, that
practice is the rule rather than the exception. Corrupt governments
and regional warlords consistently seize the food for themselves while
the peasants continue to starve.
When the traditional production and supply system breaks down, food
becomes a weapon. Don’t believe me? Ask the survivors of Joseph
Stalin’s mass starvation of the Ukraine. Between 6 and 7 million
Ukrainians died of starvation thanks to Uncle Joe. Chairman Mao’s
communist utopia led to the starvation of over 30 million Chinese
peasants in only four years.
The bottom line is this, the systemic centralization of food production
and distribution has put every major American city in a precarious
position. What is worse is the fact that the majority of the populace
seems to be blissfully unaware of this situation. Sitting at home
watching Netflix and munching on lotus, they cannot fathom the idea
that food will not just appear on demand with a touch of a button on
their iPhone.

Crushing Food Prep

Unless you are trapped in an urban hell like New York City, most all of
the readers of this book can implement the following suggestions.
Our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers all knew that
everyone in the family was going to have to eat, every day. They did
not order food with an app or go to the grocery store every other
day. Our grandmothers stored food in the home.
The food supply and preparation plan I am about to lay out for you
has four tiers, implement them as you see fit.
Tier 1 Canned Food
By canned food, we mean commercially canned food from the
grocery store. The benefit of canned food is that it is all essentially
ready to eat. You can warm it up or eat it cold if you have to. Canned
food will last a couple of years, depending on the specific type, from
the date it was processed. Old canned food is not necessarily rotten,
but it loses nutritional value slowly as it ages. Exposure to oxygen and
heat is what degrades fruit and vegetables the fastest.
The downside to canned food, besides needing a can opener to
access most of it, is that it is heavy. If you are not planning on moving
or leaving during the collapse of society, then that is no big deal.
However, if you need to relocate, 20,000 calories of canned food is a
lot of weight to transport.
Tier 2 Bulk Food
Bulk food, such as rice, wheat, corn, flour, sugar, salt, etc. can be
purchased for much less than prepared food. That is the good news.
You can store a hundred pounds of rice and a hundred pounds of
grain or flour for relatively low cost compared to other food sources.
Like commercially canned food, bulk food is going to be heavy to
move.
Considerations for bulk food are primarily storage. You need to keep
out oxygen, moisture, and bugs. Also, if you buy whole grain, you will
need a grain mill to grind it up and make usable flour. The good news
about wheat grain is that it lasts nearly forever if you keep the bugs
and water out of it.
Another important aspect of bulk food is the actual ability to cook and
prepare food from scratch. Don’t laugh. How many of you either fall
into or know people that only purchase and eat prepared/ready-to-
cook dinners? Having a hundred pounds of wheat grain on hand is
rather pointless if you do not have the skill and know-how to turn it
into bread. And yes, you need more than just flour and water to make
edible bread.
Tier 3 Specialty Food
In the specialty food tier we will put both MRE’s (Meal Ready-to Eat)
and the numerous brands of dehydrated long term storage or
camping food. The US Military MRE’s are valuable because they do
not require cooking, they last for years and years on a shelf. In a
deep freezer, MRE’s will last for decades and still remain edible.
Also, one MRE has all the nutritional value you need; protein, fat,
carbohydrates, vitamins, sodium, etc. MRE’s are made to provide
ample calories for men living in the field during combat. The average
calorie value of one MRE is 1250. Practically translated, unless you
are engaged in hard physical labor or surviving in cold temperatures,
two MRE’s would be enough for one person, per day. In a survival
situation, two people could share one MRE and get enough calories
to stay alive and function.
The only real drawback to genuine military MRE’s is the cost. Expect
to pay $7 to $8 per meal. That price tag will add up quickly.
*Personal note: People who would refuse to eat an MRE have never
been genuinely hungry. I have heard rear-area pogues and
chairwarming fucks carp about how they would never be hungry
enough to eat an MRE. Folks, that is straight up bullshit at its finest.
Those people would be begging you for a vegetarian MRE two days
into the collapse.
As for dehydrated food, it is not as pricey as MRE’s but it is not
cheap either. Dehydrated food has come a long way since NASA
figured out how to send ice cream to space for the astronauts. There
are several makers; Mountain Home and Wise Foods are the primary
names you will encounter when shopping. I have eaten both brands
and both companies make edible food.
The natural attraction to dehydrated food is the fact that it is super
light and numerous meals can be stored in a relatively small
container. This type of food will keep on the shelf for years as well.
The downside to this type of food is that you need to have a fair
amount of water and the ability to boil it. I suppose you could put
room temperature water in a dehydrated Mountain House meal and
eventually it would be edible, but that is not the preferred method.
Tier 4 Grow and Can Your Own Food
Growing your own vegetables and fruit is naturally a great plan for
the breakdown of society, it is also the most time consuming and
labor intensive. What should be obvious is that as soon as you can
you should start growing food to supplement your available food
supply. While the plants are growing, you eat what you have stored
up.
Ideally you have heirloom seeds that were not genetically designed to
deteriorate rapidly. Also, you need to actually understand what it
takes to turn those tiny little seeds into edible food. Going back to the
Victory Garden discussion, how many people in today’s society
actually have the skill and knowledge to produce enough food for
themselves or their family? Hell, how many could grow enough
vegetables for one large salad?
The other component to growing food is the ability to store it. Oxygen
and moisture will degrade you fresh vegetables relatively quickly. You
need to have the skill, ability, and the hardware you need to can food
in your kitchen. Both gardening skills and canning skills are not things
that suddenly come to you when the crisis hits.
Your first garden is going to be an exercise in trial and error. Your
first canning adventure will not likely be perfect. Start learning and
practicing now. If you have the skill and knowledge in both areas,
start teaching your friends and relatives. The more prepared people
you have the fewer will be begging for your food.
Many of you have already thought; what about eggs and milk and
meat? Raising animals for food and milk is a subject that is a bit more
in depth than we have space for here. Chickens are not that difficult
to raise once you know how. Some breeds of ducks will lay massive
protein-laden eggs for you. Ducks also tend to be more resilient. A
dairy goat will provide enough milk for a small family’s daily needs.
Goats are easier to raise and keep than cows. Even peasants in third
world countries have goats and chickens.
Understand this, without a well-thought-out food preparation plan,
during a major catastrophe or crisis, you will be a slave to anyone
who has food. If your plan is to sit around and wait for FEMA to drop
food in your lap, good luck. Eventually you will become a refugee
living like a slave in a government FEMA camp. I don’t know about
you, but I say, fuck that. Trust me, I have seen these kinds of
Refugee/FEMA camps, you do not want your family living with the
people who flock to them.
Chapter 2 Time for Guns
All of you guys who watched the Road Warrior, and got a hard-on
thinking about it, have been waiting for me to talk about guns. The
firearm is the most valuable self-protection tool during a societal
breakdown. I’ve read a bunch of bullshit fantasies from suburban
weaklings who think they are going to drive off hoards of looters with
bright lights, lasers, and bear spray.
Let me tell you something brother, if that gang of looters does not
have guns of their own, and they likely will, they will have other deadly
weapons such as baseball bats, machetes, axes, etc. If you plan to
stop twenty thugs carrying baseball bats with your 2000 lumen
flashlight and a can of bear spray, you are going to die with a stupid
look on your face.
A firearm is a critical tool for survival. However, I see far too many
people who think that buying a gun somehow guarantees their safety.
That’s like buying seeds and assuming you will be able to grow a
garden if it ever gets that bad. If you have never had genuine firearms
training, from a skilled instructor, you are kidding yourself. Yes, you
might get lucky and pop off a few shots at a crackhead or lone rapist.
Irregardless, when the organized mob descends on your quiet little
neighborhood to steal all of the food you have stored up, you are
going to need more than luck.
Step one, if you own a gun but have no training, quit making excuses
and get training, now. You say you cannot travel now or you don’t
have training available where you live? Okay, bullshit, but okay.
Hopefully you have a combat experienced veteran in your
neighborhood or at your church. Very politely ask them if they will spin
you up on your gun handling skills and be ready to show them thanks.
Have your wife make a big plate of cookies or a couple of pies. Most
of the pipe hitters I know would love some fresh, homemade goodies,
that and good whiskey. Note, I said good whiskey, not some plastic
bottle Canadian garbage.
Many of you are already spun up to various degrees with your gun
handling skills. Good, you are ahead of 95 percent of the population.
Don’t get me wrong, an urban mongoloid with a stolen Hi-Point can
get lucky and kill you, but we aren’t focusing on luck here. Also, we
are not going to just sit around and wait for said mongoloid to walk up
to our porch.
Speaking of veterans, brothers now is the time to reacquaint
yourselves with your fellow servicemen. Yes, I know that many
combat vets returned home with the idea that they did their duty and
now they can live out the rest of their lives in peace. That is a nice
idea and in a better world it would be possible. Our grandfathers and
great-grandfathers kicked the shit out of the Japanese and Germans
(and Italians, don’t forget them). They came home, married their
sweethearts, got a civilian job and raised a family. I wish I could tell
you that all of the enemies of the United States have been
vanquished, but that would be a lie. A huge percentage of the
enemies of the USA now reside within our borders. Ignoring that fact
or pretending it is not the case won’t change the reality that our nation
is under attack from within.
Before we get too deep into team tactics, let’s get back to firearms.
Hopefully you already have the guns that you will need. If not, you
better make friends with people who have guns and ammunition to
sell or trade.

Fighting Rifle
Your primary arm should be some variation of the AR-15. The Stoner-
based AR design is the, hands down, most prevalent rifle in the
United States of America. I don’t give two shits about how great you
think your SCAR Heavy happens to be. There are more magazines,
parts, accessories, and ammunition for the 5.56mm AR in the USA
than all other personal weapons, deal with it.
You want recommendations? Okay, here goes; Colt, BCM (Bravo
Company), Daniel Defense, Armalite, LMT, LWRC, SIG, and FN.
Yes, there are many more, but the aforementioned have a good track
record for quality and reliability, as well as government contracts.
After the AR, some type of 7.62x39mm AK is the next most logical
choice for a fighting rifle. Every other rifle is secondary to the
previous two. Yes, it is better to have any rifle than none, obviously,
but given a choice for an individual fighting gun, the AR is first and the
AK is second, at least in the USA.
If you are on a Ramen noodles budget and don’t have a long gun, I
guess a 9mm Hi-Point carbine is going to be the gun for you. The
good news is that as ugly as they might seem, Hi-Point carbines run.
Fighting Pistol
During a major crisis or societal breakdown, a handgun is a
secondary tool to the rifle. Nonetheless, we carry handguns because
they are always on us, allowing the use of both hands. I’ll make this
one simple; buy a Glock 19 or 17. The reasoning is the exact same
as the AR. There are more Glocks in the USA for fighting than any
other handgun, that means more mags, holsters, accessories and
parts. There is more 9x19mm ammunition in armories, storage
lockers, and gun safes in the USA than any other fighting pistol
cartridge.
If you cannot find or afford a Glock for some reason, the S&W M&P
is a solid choice, but let’s face it, if you cannot find a Glock for sale
you won’t likely find an M&P. The SIG 320 might seem attractive, but
they are nowhere near as prevalent. Surplus Beretta M9’s or 92’s are
big, but they work. The Canik line of pistols are well-made, rugged
and reliable, they are also priced about $200 less than Glocks and
SIGs. Not as many mags or holsters are available, but a Canik will
get the job done.

Fighting Shotguns
I know a lot of you preppers have been screaming “Shotguns!” for the
last couple of pages. Calm down, bitches. I will address shotguns
now. When it comes to a universal fighting tool, the shotgun is second
to the rifle, but far ahead on any handgun.
The 12 gauge shotgun is a powerful, close range tool, but it is still a
special purpose tool. Ounce to ounce and pound for pound, you can
carry a lot more 5.56mm ammunition for the same weight as 12
gauge. The standard Foster-type slug for the 12 gauge is 1.25
ounces, 16 gauge is an ounce, and 20 gauge is ¾ ounce. I am not
going to waste ink on the .410, we are not discussing rabbit and
squirrel hunting.
If you just weigh the projectiles and not the case and powder, 20
rounds of 12 gauge slugs will add up to 25 ounces or 1.56 pounds.
By comparison, 20 rounds of 77 grain BTHP will be 3.4 ounces. Yes,
that is just the projectile weight, but you get the point.
It is most certainly true that the average gangbanger or urban thug is
not going to shake off a 12 gauge slug or nine 00 buck pellets to the
chest. By the same token they are not going to shake off a 77 grain
Mk262 round to the chest either.
The problem that most neophytes have with shotguns is that they
become schizophrenic mongoloids when it comes to ammunition.
They view the 12 gauge as the ultimate answer to all situations and
start playing the salt and pepper loading game. I actually heard a
man, in person, say that he loads rubber buckshot, birdshot, lead
buckshot, and slugs all at the same time in his pump action shotgun.
“Bailiff, whack his pee-pee!”
Yes, a positive aspect of the 12 gauge pump-gun is that it is versatile
due to the numerous loads being available for it. However, this
situation often leads to mass confusion as to which load to use and
when. For fighting against human predators, there are only two
choices; slugs or buckshot. Go have the home defense birdshot
conversation with your buddies on the “Tactical Masturbation” forum.
If you are serious about using slugs in a shotgun, that gun needs to
have real sights, front and rear, not just a brass bead. You can get
away with a brass bead for buckshot. Of course, if you are really
froggy and have a picatinny rail on your shotgun receiver, you can dial
in a red dot at fifty yards or so for your slugs.
Despite popular mythology, the fighting shotgun is not a beginner’s or
an amateur's gun. Running a 12 gauge pump gun skillfully during a life
or death struggle requires dedicated training and practice. The
bottom line is that the 12 gauge fighting shotgun does have a place
on the battlefield, but it still comes second to a self-loading rifle.
Regardless of the firearms you have on hand, the most important
consideration for any of them is for the user to be thoroughly skilled in
their use. If all you have is a .30-30 Marlin lever-action, so be it. You
should be able to work that lever in your sleep and stuff the magazine
tube with your eyes closed.
Regardless of the popular mythology, firearms are not some magic
talisman that provide a cone of protection around your home or your
body.
You would not expect a new wooden deck to build itself just because
you went to Home Depot and bought a $50 hammer and a bucket of
nails, would you? It does not matter how expensive the tools were, if
you have no skill, your new deck will end up looking like a retarded
monkey banged it together.
As I mentioned earlier, if you have guns but do not have training, get
some. Make it your priority. This is not one of those “well, eventually I
will do it, some day” situations. You cannot crush the coming societal
breakdown without skill. Just do it.
Chapter 3 Team Tactics
There is a reason why all of the military organizations in the world
teach their men team tactics. Even the vaunted US Army, 1st Special
Forces, Operational Detachment Delta works in teams. The lone
wolves like John Rambo, Col. James Braddock, and even Paul
Kearsey, are Hollywood fantasy. You are just one man or woman,
you will need to eat, sleep, and shit. If you do not have team support,
who is going to keep watch while you do the aforementioned human
necessities?
For all of you recent or more seasoned veterans, now is the time to
start getting your suburban neighbors organized and working
together. Hopefully, if you are a combat vet, there are others with
similar skill sets living in your general area. It is time to break out your
field manuals and notebooks and reacquaint yourself with basic
squad or team tactics.
Unfortunately, many urban or suburban gun guys think that because
they have a group of friends who are “gun guys” that they have a
ready-made team. Unless you have trained with those gun guys and
actually participated in team exercises, what you have is a bunch of
individuals who happen to like guns. That is not a team.
Vets, you are going to have to assume the role of leader for your
community. Unless you live in some liberal-infested shithole like San
Francisco or Austin, Texas, there will likely be enough local gun guys
who want to do something positive and proactive. Your task is going
to be helping them figure out what to do and how to transform them
from a bunch of random people into a unit that, at very least, will not
shoot each other during the first engagement with the enemy.
Let’s say that your community has no late veterans to step up and be
the leader. You might not have any recent GWOT vets around you,
but what about Vietnam? If you have an old timer in your
neighborhood who survived the Battle of Khe Sanh or Hue City, you
need to shut up and listen to what that guy has to say. That old dude
might not be able to get around quickly, but he should be able to give
you guidance and tell you what to expect during mortal combat.
Still no veterans? Okay, who among you has been to actual firearms
training. I am not talking about an 8 hour CCW class, I am talking
about a course where you actually sweated and fired hundreds of
rounds under the watchful eye of trained instructors. If you have the
most training experience of your peers, then you are the guy.
Congratulations, the fate of the cul-de-sac is now in your hands.
Workup Team Tactics
If you have an Army or Marine Corps combat vet, I will leave the
team tactics and training to them. A SEAL veteran is probably
spending all his time marketing a perfect push up machine or some
brand of protein shake. Either that or he’s working on his career as
an Instagram model. (I kid because I care)
Without a combat veteran to guide you, I have some
recommendations for a crawl, walk, run approach to team tactics.
Vets, you might find something in the pages that follow to inspire you
or spark a memory. You do want to crush your enemies and see
them driven before you, don’t you? Alright, then.
Step One: Gun Handling
This is the really real world we are living in, not some cold range,
lorded over by a guy with a red RSO hat and a micro-penis.
Everyone on your team has to be comfortable and competent
carrying and handling loaded guns around other humans.
As a leader you need to instill Col. Jeff Cooper’s four Universal Gun
Safety Rules into the minds of your people and help them understand
that they are “Universal Rules”, not “Range Rules”. The following are
the rules Col. Jeff Cooper brought down from Granite Mountain.
Universal Firearms Safety Rules
#1 Keep your Finger Off of the Trigger until your Sights are on
the Target and you have made the decision to Fire the gun.
(Triggers are not finger rests, they are designed to make the gun go
‘bang’)
#2 Treat All Guns as if they are Always Loaded (Most Negligent
shootings occur because someone ‘thought’ the gun was not loaded)
#3 Never Allow the Muzzle to Cover anything you are not
Willing to Destroy
(Before you point a gun and anything/anyone, ask yourself if you
would be willing to put a bullet in it/them)
#4 Know Your Target, what is around it and what is beyond it.
(Bullets do not always strike the center or stop in the target, consider
what is around the target before you fire)
Notice that the Universal Firearms Safety Rules do not include the
words “range’” or “mechanical safety”, or “chamber flag”. The
Universal Rules are, well, universal, that means they apply
everywhere; your car, your bedroom, out in public, on the range, and
even during a gunfight. I just heard you. You said, “But Clint Smith
says ‘If you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t trying.’ or ‘If you find yourself in a
fair fight, your tactics suck.” Yes, so what? That has nothing to do
with Universal Safety Rules.
Allow me to introduce you to a word; fratricide. Fratricide goes way
back and the old, original definition means to kill one’s brother. In our
context, fratricide means when one good guy, through error or
negligence kills another good guy. Your gun has no mind of its own.
Your gun has one job; launch bullets. You are the operating system
for that firearm and if you pull the trigger through error or negligence
because you failed to follow the four rules, that’s on you.
Even in a gunfight there are as many things that should not be shot as
should be shot. If you get shot in the back of the head because your
team mate is an incompetent asshat, you are still just as dead as if a
looter shot you in your face. So, the moral of the story is that the
Universal Safety Rules always apply, even during a gunfight.
Question: How do you get a bunch of gun guys used to actually
carrying loaded rifles around other people? Answer: You have them
all carry loaded guns around other people. Don’t think you can just
carry around empty guns and then; “When it is real, we’ll load our
guns”. That is a load of horseshit. If the gun is empty, people know it
is empty and they will treat it like a prop in a play, not like a deadly
force tool. When the gun is hot and deadly, people will treat it with
respect.
Think of a chainsaw. If the chainsaw is turned off and the chain is
covered, no one gives it a second thought. When the chain is
uncovered and that bitch is running you absolutely treat it with the
respect it deserves. A dormant chainsaw is not of much use. Only
when the chainsaw is fired up and dangerous is it useful. The exact
same goes for your rifle. If your rifle is empty it is essentially useless,
it is not useful unless it is topped off and dangerous.
Also, the “chamber empty, magazine inserted” situation is
“Institutionalized Stupidity”. Either load your firearm completely so
that it is dangerous or lock it up in a safe so no one can steal it from
you. If you have people who want to be a part of the team, but refuse
to load their guns completely and carry them, they are not serious.
They will either get you killed by negligently shooting you or you will
need them to shoot a bad guy but their fucking gun will be unloaded
and then you get killed that way. There are a lot of ways to get killed,
try not to die from the incompetence of others.

Mechanics and Marksmanship

If you have never worked or trained with your friends and neighbors,
you need to know that they can safely operate a firearm without
injuring themselves or, most importantly, you. This is where
fundamental marksmanship and mechanics come in.
During this range time we will utilize more traditional or standard
firearms training. Everyone gets a target and we run through the
basics: loading, engaging a target, operating the safety lever,
reloading, clearing stoppages, etc. Think of this as the “crawl” part of
the equation. You can do these drills with rifles or handguns, but keep
in mind, we need people to be proficient with rifles first as they are
the best man stopping tools we have.
Review the Universal Safety rules, designate the location of the
trauma kit and who the primary caregivers will be in the event of a
medical emergency.
Instruct every student that if they hear the command “Ceasefire!” that
they immediately take their finger off of the trigger, point the muzzle in
a safe direction (not people) and hold in place for further instructions.
Ceasefire does not mean go back to the holster or fuck with your
rifle, it means finger off trigger, safety on, stop moving.
Please note, we are not focused on competitions or looking cool.
These are not speed drills. Leave your shot timer at home. To quote
James Yeager of Tactical Response, “The only ‘splits’ you should be
working on is splitting your opponent’s skull.”
Do not worry about long distance shooting, this is not a sniper
course. Get people used to engaging targets from close up, say 3
yards, out to about 25 to 30 yards. Think of your fighting rifle as a
powertool, it is a sledgehammer that you will use to smash the
looters and thugs who want kill you, steal your food, and rape your
wives and daughters.
As we mentioned earlier, if you are the guy who has actually gone to
realistic firearms training, now is a great time to liberally borrow or
just steal the drills that your instructors used to get you spun up.
Believe me, John Farnam, Clint Smith, and James Yeager will all
forgive you if you borrow their range drills to get your neighbors
ready to defend the community during the coming societal collapse. In
a perfect world, you and your friends would all take training together
from the aforementioned. But we are not dealing with a perfect world
situation here.

Team Tactics Pt 1 - Range Drills

*Note: The instructor and a partner must demonstrate all of the drills
cold (no shooting) and then do a live-fire demonstration. Look
everyone of your people in the eyes and be sure they understand
what is expected of them. Encourage questions. Do not put a
confused shooter on the line.
Review the Rules, Emergency Medical Procedures, and Ceasefire
command.
None of these drills are “speed drills” or on the clock. These drills are
used to instill confidence in one another and to get people used to
moving around friendly personnel with loaded guns in their hands. This
is the “walk” portion of the program.
Drill 1 - The Straight Line
Have all of your teammates join you at the range. Have everyone load
their rifles. Next, have the students form a straight line facing a single
target. Target distance should be ten to fifteen yards. Everyone in line
has their muzzles down pointing at the ground, not the guy’s legs in
front of them.
The first guy fires three or four rounds into the target, puts the rifle
back on safe, goes muzzle up, turns around and walks to the back of
the line, then goes muzzle down. Next guy in line takes a big step
forward, shoots the target and does the same thing. Then the next
guy, and so on and so on, continue until everyone has run through the
drill at least three times.
Drill 2 - Back to Back
Break your men into teams of two. Set up however many targets you
need, ten yards away is fine. Space the team out about ten yards
from each other in a normal shooting line. Instruct shooters that they
will be “Moving to the Left.” Now have them raise their left hands over
their heads. I’m not kidding. The first man is facing the targets. The
second man is facing 180 degrees away from them, low ready.
Hence the title of the drill “Back to Back”.
Give a command; “Fire!” “Kill!” “Rumplestiltskin!”, whatever. The first
group of shooters from a muzzle-down ready engage their target
with three or four shots. When the shooters have engaged, they safe
their rifles, muzzle up and announce “Moving!” loudly. Their teammate,
the one behind them responds with, “Move!” At that time the first
shooter pivots left away from the target and the other man pivots left
to now face the target. Now they have switched places. It is
important that the two man team does not switch positions until the
rear man has indicated that he is ready by giving the “Move!”
command.
The instructor now gives the fire command again. The exercise
continues until every two man team has gone through it three or four
times. If people are bumping into each other or having trouble with
the concept, feel free to repeat the drill.
Drill 3 - The Stack
Now is when you find out who has been paying attention. The Stack
is relatively simple, but if you screw it up, it can be ugly.
Have all shooters get in line as they did with the first “Straight Line”
drill. The instructor’s first command will be “Move!”
The first man in line takes one big step forward and kneels down,
taking aim at the target. The next man in line will go muzzle up, take
one or two big steps up to the man who is kneeling and press his leg
into the off-side/non-gun side shoulder/back of his partner. Physical
contact is important, just don’t slam into the guy who is kneeling.
The standing man will bring the muzzle down. For the first time
through this drill, the instructor will give the “Fire!” command. Both
men fire three or four shots into the target. When both men have
stopped firing, the kneeling man will yell, “Moving!”. The standing man
will say, “Move!” Standing man goes muzzle UP and pivots to the left.
Kneeling man goes muzzle DOWN and gets up and pivots to the right.
Both men return to the rear of the line. If you have an even number of
shooters, have them switch places. If you have an odd number, they
can just get back in line as they were and work with a different
partner.
For “The Stack Drill”, after every shooter has successfully run though
at least once, the instructor will no longer need to give commands.
When the first team has fired and moved out, the second team will
automatically take their place. When the standing man has made
contact and indexed on target he will fire without command from the
instructor. The kneeling man will open fire as soon as the standing
man fires. When they are done firing, the move/moving commands
will be given.
When your men are truly switched on and operating like a team, you
might inject the ‘Totem Pole of Death’ drill. The Totem Pole of Death
is a 3-man drill like the stack, except the first man goes prone, the
second man kneels next him and the third man stands. After they
have mastered The Stack or Totem Pole of Death, have them do it
while utilizing cover.
There is a method to the madness. It should be obvious that the team
tactics shooting drills will require everyone on the range to be locked
on and paying attention to the direction in which their muzzle is
indexed. Your people will also get used to both giving and receiving
commands, not just standing around waiting for someone else to tell
them what to do.
Far too often, shooting schools and training courses do little more
than turn the students into robots who cannot and will not move
without first being given a command. If you have any hope of turning
a bunch of gun guys into a useful team of men, they must learn how
to give commands as well as receive them. They need to learn how
to work closely with others and they cannot be afraid when another
good guy is shooting, even if they are right next to them.
I know that some of you in my audience have dug in your proverbial
heels and said; “You are wrong, you never go muzzle up” or the
opposite, “You never go muzzle down”. To that I will respond, did you
pay attention to The Stack Drill? If the standing man goes muzzle
down he risks pointing a hot rifle at his partner. If the kneeling man
goes muzzle up, he will certainly risk blowing his partner’s head off.
Who is right and who is wrong?
The fact is that there are times for both muzzle up and muzzle down.
If you are moving from place to place around other people, muzzle up
is almost always the best answer. If you are going low, kneeling or
prone, and good guys are standing nearby, muzzle down is safer. The
purpose of these drills is to get shooters used to THINKING with a
gun in their hands and making the correct choice as to muzzle up or
muzzle down.
Team Tactics Part 2 - Field Exercises
Remember when I said we were going to build our team up with a
“Crawl, Walk, Run” approach? Well, now it is time to run, both
figuratively and literally. You as the team leader must decide if
everyone on you team is ready to run, some of them may not be.
That’s okay. Spend more time on the previous drills.
Regarding those who are just not catching on, there may come a time
when you need to have a serious ‘Come to Jesus’ discussion with one
or more guys. If they are so out of shape that they cannot make it to
lunch without a nap or they are behaving in an unsafe manner and
endangering others, you need to find them another job. As we
mentioned before, there are enough ways to get killed in this world.
Getting killed because someone else was careless or negligent is
bullshit. The Universal Firearms Safety Rules are not rocket surgery.
We have not yet touched on the body armor, plates and plate
carriers, and helmets that so many suburban American commandos
have purchased during the last few years. Veterans understand the
suck involved in wearing a helmet and armor everyday. Combat
veterans also know the comfort afforded by said items when the
bullets start to fly and shit is exploding all around you.
I’d say that it is a safe bet that if your neighbors consider themselves
gun guys and preppers, that most of them have purchased the armor
combo we just mentioned or at very least load bearing vests, war
belts, etc. I would also put money down betting that 95 percent of
these same guys have only worn said gear the day they bought it
when they played dress up in the mirror. Having protective gear is
good, but that gear is also heavy.
Your gear is not going to carry itself. One 10”x12” AR 500 armor
plate weighs 8 pounds, double that and you have 16 pounds, and we
have not added the carrier, magazine pouches and loaded
magazines. All told, a loaded rifle, plus magazines, trauma gear, plate
carrier, helmet, a knife of some sort and miscellaneous items will be
30 to 35 pounds or so. The average male CCW guy might be carrying
3 or 4 pounds of gear between their pistol, ammo, flashlight and
pocket knife.
Hopefully you will have access to some type of open field, woods,
farm land, etc. If one of your team members has a farm or a close
relative or friend with a farm that you can use, that’s a Yahtzee!
Get all of your cul-de-sac team members together and schedule a full
day of training in the field. Instruct them to tell their wives they will be
gone all day and not on their phones. The wives will probably be
grateful. Also, tell your people to bring all the tactical Gucci gear that
they have been squirreling away “just in case”; helmets, armor, load
bearing gear etc. Every one of them needs to bring their rifle and at
least four fully loaded magazines. Don’t forget water; canteens,
Camelbak’s, bottles, whatever. Water is critical in the field and it is
also heavy. Dress for the weather. Also, remind them to wear good
boots.
*Instructors need to put in a solid recon of the property so you have a
good feel for the lay of the land. Before the team arrives, map out a
route that is approximately one mile from where everyone will staged
at the beginning of the day. Secure a map of the area before you
bring your team out.
Have all team members meet at the designated training field early,
say 0700 hours. When all personnel are accounted for have them
gear up. Tell them to put on all of their war gear. Veterans, try not to
have a stroke at how they wear their gear. Just let them do what they
think they are supposed to do. Everyone needs to carry everything
that they will need for the entire day. No going back to the cars or
trucks.
Do not allow people to lollygag around. Encourage a sense of
urgency in your people. The enemy is not going to take a timeout
while you leisurely dress yourself in your war gear.
Divide your people into two columns and step off. The instructor will
lead from the front. Start out at a normal walking pace. The average
adult can cover one mile in about 15 minutes on level terrain. After
about ten minutes, pick up the pace to a rapid walk; long strides.
After another five minutes or so, walk over to one of your people, tell
them their ankle is broken and have them fall to the ground.
Now your team has a casualty. Explain to the team that the casualty
cannot walk on their own and you are in a dangerous area. The team
must evacuate them to a safe zone. Instructor, step back and allow
the team to figure out how they are going to evacuate the wounded
man. You should be less than a quarter mile from your destination.
Continue to lead them to the end point, which is one mile from the
staging area.
When you have reached your first goal, miraculously heal the
casualty. Now it is time for some real world learning.
For an infantry veteran, a brisk walk in combat gear for one mile is
child’s play. For the average suburban commando, this will very likely
be the longest that they have ever walked with a loaded rifle, much
less all the MultiCam® Gucci gear they have bought.
Now is the time to have everyone consider how their gear carried on
their bodies. Was their gear too loose? Did it move and shift on their
bodies? Was it too tight and cut off their circulation?
Plate carriers and load bearing vests need to be secured up high on
the chest and be tight enough so they don’t bounce with every step.
They should also not be so tight that they cut the circulation off in
your arms. Helmet straps need to be adjusted so that the helmet
does not bounce or shift constantly. Most new people will not secure
their helmet’s chin strap in a snug fashion. Backpacks need to ride up
on the shoulders, not dangle down to the lower back.
The instructor needs to lead the conversation and have the team
break down their response to the casualty. What worked? What did
not work? Through what trial and error process did they go? What
could they have done better? Carrying a fully grown man, and all of
their gear, is not an easy task. Within the first hour of this training
exercise, a great deal of learning should have already taken place
and you are just getting started.
Patrolling
There are three basic types of patrols that infantrymen will conduct;
Security, Combat, and Reconnaissance (Recon).
Security Patrol: A designated patrol route within an area of operation
to keep the enemy from entering or infiltrating. This is the most
simple. You will patrol around your area of responsibility to keep the
bad guys out and the people inside safe. You may or may not
encounter hostiles, but you need to be ready if you do. Security
patrols are the most overt type.
Combat Patrol: This patrol is deliberately directed toward an area
where enemy presence has been reported and is expected. The
purpose of the patrol is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy
by fire and maneuver. In short, you go out looking for a fight and are
ready to deliver it. The patrol is covert up to the moment of attack.
Recon Patrol: A reconnaissance patrol is one that is conducted to
gather information about the enemy. Recon patrols are the most
covert. Even when the enemy is located, the mission is to document
and report, not engage. Men on recon patrols travel light with only the
minimum amount of gear as their mission is to be swift and silent.
For our purposes, the Security Patrol is the one on which we will be
focusing the most. Looters and thugs are generally cowards and they
will go after what they perceive is the easiest target. The smart ones
will recon your neighborhood before they attack you. If your cul-de-
sac looks like a hard target, one where they might be killed, they will
most often fuck off and look for a weaker target. If they decide not to
fuck off, you need to be prepared to ballistically encourage them to
do so.
For our field exercise, the instructor/leader will break out a map of
the area, orient it with a compass, and have everyone school circle
around you. Point out where you are, where you want to go, and how
you are going to get there. Security patrols generally make large
circles around the area to be protected.
The Marine Corps infantry utilizes a number of formations for
patrolling. I recommend you pick up a copy of the Marine Corp Rifle
Squad Manual. To keep it simple, we will focus on the diamond, the
staggered column and the column. Fire teams are four men, squads
are thirteen. The four man team is the easiest to control.
Diamond: just as it sounds, you walk in the shape of a diamond. One
man up front, two men to the sides, one man to the rear. The man up
front is point and leads the team, the man to the rear is rear security
to keep you from being ambushed. The man to the left has left side
security, the man to the right has right side security. Again, it’s not
rocket surgery.

Diamond Formation
Staggered Column: One man front right, he is the point man, one
man to the left about three yards behind the front (left security), one
man right behind the point man about three yards behind number 2
(right security), and finally one man left rear, three yards behind man
number 3. The rear left is rear security.
 Staggered Column
Straight Column: A straight column is only used when the terrain
becomes thick and uneven, such as walking on the slope of a hill or
ridge. When the team reaches difficult terrain, they collapse down to
a straight column. When the terrain opens up, they return to a
diamond or a staggered column. All of this should seem relatively
simple and straightforward on paper. The trick is to get four people
who have been functioning as individuals to work as a unit, as a team.
You remember when I admonished that a bunch of guys who all own
guns are not a team? This is when we stop being a bunch of
individuals and learn to work together.
For your initial practice, find an open field. Break you men up into
groups of four as best you can. If you have odd numbers, you can
add a man to the end of the diamond or back of the column. After
everyone is working together in the open field, move them to the
woods, uneven terrain, etc.
Contact Drills
The security patrol can be a deterrent, as we mentioned earlier. The
sight of several armed and obviously disciplined men will often give
the average thug reason to pause. Nevertheless, we must be
mentally and tactically prepared for the eventuality that you will
encounter a hostile enemy during the security patrols around your
neighborhood. This is particularly true a night when vermin are most
likely to attempt to infiltrate your area.
Contact drills or immediate action drills must be rehearsed by
everyone on the team to both ensure a tactical edge over the enemy
and to reduce the risk of fratricide. Regardless of the patrol type,
your team should be moving noiselessly and using hand and arm
signals to communicate. In the dark, where your team will be closer
together for better control, you can use whispers or touch.
If you are moving as quietly as possible, you may very likely spot the
enemy before they see you, in that case you can use hand and arm
signals to halt the patrol and alert your team. This is naturally the best
scenario as you will have a tactical advantage and the element of
surprise. If you have the drop on the enemy, you have options. You
can engage if you have the tactical advantage, you can quietly
withdraw if you are greatly outnumbered, you can steathfully observe
and report and call for assistance if the situation merits.
When you have the element of surprise, the team will generally halt
and take a knee if cover or concealment is not available. If cover is
within one or two steps, move to it, otherwise just drop down. If you
have one member of the team running twenty yards for cover, the
formation is broken.
The other scenarios are spotting the enemy as they spot you or,
much worse, not spotting them until after they have spotted you. Both
situations require immediate action on your part unless you want to
be overwhelmed.
If any member of the team realizes that their location/presence has
been compromised, they need to shout out as loudly as possible;
“Contact front!” or whichever direction they are responsible for
monitoring. “Contact rear!” is a hair-raiser because it means the
enemy has somehow come up on your six o’clock.
In the situation where you have been busted and the enemy knows
where you are, you can either take one or two steps to cover or drop
to prone. If the enemy has seen you and you decide to run twenty-
five yards to some rocks, you will be dead before you get there. If
cover and concealment are thick, you might be able to get away with
dropping to a low kneeling position. Remember, you need to be able
to return fire.
Diamond formation
Contact Front: point man, right and left security address the threat.
The rear security faces about 180 degrees to prevent the team from
being overrun from the backside.
Contact Right: point man, right, and rear security address the threat,
left security faces 180 degrees away to protect what is now the rear
flank.
Contact Left: point man, left, and rear security address the threat,
right security faces 180 degrees to protect the rear flank
Contact Rear: rear man, left and right address the threat, point man
faces 180 degrees or simply in the direction the team was just
moving to protect that flank.
Once more, on paper these drills seem self-explanatory and simple.
However, in order for the team’s movement to be immediate, contact
drills must be practiced until they are second nature. It should also be
readily apparent that every member of the team must have complete
confidence in each other. If one man fucks up during immediate action
he can get himself or everyone else killed. You must have absolute
faith that the men to your left and right have your back.
Staggered Column
Contact Front: point man, left security and right security address
threat, rear most man face about and protect the rear flank. The man
directly behind the point shifts hard right for a clear field of fire.
Contact Right: point man, right security and the rear man address
the threat, left security faces 180 or the left flank to protect the team.
Contact Left: point man, left security and the rear man address the
threat, right security faces 180 or the right, to protect the team.
Contact Rear: rear man, right and left security address the threat,
point man covers what is now the rear flank. Left security will shift
hard right to get a clear field of fire.
Straight Column
If your team is moving in a straight column due to the terrain and you
are surprised by the enemy, your immediate action is to shift into a
tight diamond and address the threat like you would in that formation.
You cannot just stay in a straight column because the number two
and three man will not be able to safely fire without hitting the point
man. The same goes for contact rear. For contact right or left,
someone needs to protect the flank or you could be overrun,
particularly if the enemy is spread out over a large area.
Realistic Scenario
For those who might think that these exercises are overkill, allow me
to offer a realistic scenario based upon what is going on in the United
States right now.
The downtown area of your city is burning and all of the law
enforcement assets in your city and county are dealing with the
rioting. You can call 9-1-1, but no one is going to come. Your
neighborhood is five miles from where the main problem is occurring.
You and your neighbors grab your guns and decide that you need to
stay outside and provide security. You don’t have a specific plan but
you all walk around in the same general area. Seeing you should
make the other neighbors feel better.
After a few hours of rioting and looting downtown, a group of thugs
decide to hit the suburbs. Unbeknownst to you, about twenty of them
pile into cars and head for your community. They have already
smashed a car through the front of a pawn shop and stolen all of the
guns they could carry.
Your neighbor, Bob, is at the end of the cul-de-sac near the main
intersection, you can see him but he’s probably 50 yards or so from
the others in your group who are milling around front yards and
talking to the various neighbors who are on their porches. Bob sees a
few cars coming, he’s carrying his rifle so he feels confident to step
into the street and raise his hand for them to stop. The first car slows
as do the three others behind it. Now the rest of your armed
neighbors start walking in Bob’s direction.
Bob moves toward the driver’s side of the lead car and when he is
within ten feet of it a hand comes out of the window with a pistol. The
driver fires a half-dozen rounds at him. You see Bob collapse to the
ground. You raise your rifle to fire at the first car and it accelerates
past Bob. As you are taking aim at the lead car your armed neighbor,
Steve, runs between you and the car. You hold your fire to keep from
hitting him.
Across the street you see Jim, another armed neighbor. Jim is
running as fast as he can towards his house at the end of the street.
Hands with guns appear from all of the car windows and the
occupants begin firing wildly in all directions. The women and kids
who were outside are screaming and running for cover. You get back
on target and shoot the driver of the lead car. You are pretty sure you
hit him. All four cars stop and the thugs inside bail out in all directions.
You fire at one of them who looks like he has a shotgun. He goes
down, but his friends are moving in all directions.
You spot Steve. He is on one knee in the middle of the street taking
aim with his rifle at a thug carrying a pistol. Steve gets off a shot, but
two other thugs are hiding behind their car and they fire at him. Steve
goes down with a round though his right leg. If you run to help him
you will be exposed. Bob is deathly still on the ground and Jim is
nowhere to be seen.
In this scenario you have four armed men walking around their
neighborhood to keep it safe. They all have rifles and feel confident
that any bad guys will see them and change their minds. The moment
the first shots are fired, everything falls apart. The four gun guys have
never actually trained together except for going to the range at the
same time. Everyone is acting as an individual with no group plan.
They had no plan for what to do if bad people actually showed up and
were ready and willing to fight.
If you and your team are diligent, dedicated and practice in a serious
manner your odds of coming out on top of a fight will increase
dramatically. Take all of this training advice to heart, buy and carry
good gear and when you do encounter looters, thugs, and shitbags
you and you team will eat their fuckin’ lunch.
Chapter 4 Blow Out Kits and Trauma Medicine
One of the biggest benefits to the American citizen that has come out
of the Global War on Terror is the advancement of traumatic medicine
and the gear to go along with it. In 2001 the US Military was largely
dependent on Medics and Corpsmen to care for the wounded
troopers on the ground. Infantrymen were given basic first aid and
CPR training, but the big stuff was left for the professionals.
Aside from Desert Storm, which was won rapidly, the US Military had
not been involved in serious ground combat since Vietnam. The focus
during the Cold War was nuclear missiles, submarines, and bombers.
Very little attention was given to the individual warfighter. That all
changed after 9-11-2001.
Ground combat in Afghanistan and then Iraq demonstrated the
immediate need for a better traumatic medical program for the
ground troops. Units could not field enough medics and medics could
not be everywhere at once. We needed to teach infantrymen the
concept of self-aid, buddy-aid, professional aid.
It took a few years of trial and error to get all of the troops who were
deploying to combat zones trained up to deal with life-threatening
injuries, but we did it. I took the training and then, later on, I became
an instructor and taught Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) to
younger troops who were training for deployment.
BIG 3 Life-Threatening Injuries
The Big 3 life-threatening injuries that are sustained from trauma, that
you can effectively do something about, are as follows:
Major Hemorrhage (bleeding from a limb)
All humans have major arteries in their arms and legs. If one of these
arteries is compromised, without immediate aid, the patient will bleed
to death in minutes. By minutes we mean four to five, not ten to
twenty. If a femoral artery is partially or completely severed, the
death clock immediately begins to tick. If the patient loses 15 to 20
percent of their total blood volume (specific volume is different for
every person), they will go into hypovolemic shock, this is absolutely
life-threatening. If a person loses 40 percent of their total blood
volume, the organs will begin to die and they will reach what is called
“irreversible shock”. You don’t come back from irreversible shock,
your organs die and you die. End of story.
Loss of Airway
Bleeding or not, the loss of an airway will kill the patient. God gave us
a primary (the nose) and a back up (the mouth). Conscious patients
that are screaming in pain have an airway, that’s the good news.
Unconscious patients are the highest risk of death from a blocked
airway. The basic rule is that every unconscious patient gets airway
treatment.
Tension Pneumothorax (TPX)
A TPX occurs when a lung has been compromised and air begins to
fill up in the pleural space. Think of your chest as a closed space with
two balloons inside (lungs). If one of the balloons has a hole and
leaks, the air gets into the chest space, but it has nowhere to go. If
too much air gets into that space, pressure builds up and pushes on
the heart which is in the center. The heart does not like that. Too
much pressure on the heart and it will say, “fuck it, I’m done”.
Ladies and gentlemen, you need your heart to work properly if you
want to stay alive. The pressure from the compromised lung will also
bleed over to the uncompromised lung, making breathing more and
more difficult until it becomes impossible.
A tension pneumothorax can occur due to an external puncture
wound; bullet or stabbing or fragmentation that has come from the
outside and put a hole in the lung. A TPX can also occur from a
broken rib that punctures the lung. In that case, the external chest is
intact but the internal is compromised.
The good news about a TPX is that it builds up slowly. The bad news
is that, if undiagnosed and untreated, the patient’s heart will quit or
their good lung will stop working. Both are deadly.
Detailed and extensive battlefield casualty studies showed that if we
can teach the men on the ground to recognize and deal with the big
three traumatic injuries, we can save more lives.
I cannot teach you traumatic medicine in a book. However, I can give
the information you need to get the training. The good news is that
any person who is intelligent and skilled enough to get a driver’s
license or a CCW permit should be able to learn how to save a life
during a traumatic injury.
The goal of the TCCC program was not to turn our troopers into
corpsmen or medics, it was to give them the skills needed to keep
themselves and their buddies alive during the time it takes for
professional medical providers to get to them and get them to a
trauma center.
Training has changed a lot over the last ten years. During the early
part of GWOT (Global War on Terror), TCCC type training for
citizens was largely unheard of and hard to come by. Now that
situation has changed. Thanks to men like James Yeager at Tactical
Response and Paul Markel at Student of the Gun, traumatic medical
training for citizens is more prevalent than ever before.
Remember, we are talking about serious issues here and a major
crisis and societal breakdown. We cannot just rely on calling 9-1-1
and hope for the best. You carry a gun because you understand 9-1-
1 is not the ultimate solution. You need to get basic trauma training
and carry the gear for that same reason.
GET TRAINING NOW
You and your teammates need to make the commitment to getting
traumatic medical training. If you are fortunate, you might have a
military trained medic (Army) or a combat corpsman (Navy). Do
some research and get the training. The life you save may be your
own or that of someone you love.
If you have had trauma training, you are ahead of most of your peers.
Now is the time to be honest, is it time for a refresher? If you are one
hundred percent spun up, it is your task to kick your friends in their
asses and convince them to get the training.
Note: CPR Kills!
“Whoa! Stop it right there. You cannot tell me that CPR kills. CPR
saves lives.” Yes, if you have a drowning patient, a heart attack
patient, etc. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation can absolutely help to
keep someone alive until they get professional help. HOWEVER, we
do not do CPR on bleeding victims. If the patient is leaking, CPR will
make them leak FASTER and they will die. Many, many years ago,
my first TCCC instructor said to us, “We don’t do CPR on the
battlefield.”
The problem with people who learn CPR is that too often that is the
only thing that they learn. During any emergency, people will default
to the level of training that they have mastered. There have been
many gunshot victims on whom the first responder did CPR and they
died. CPR pushes the blood out of the victim faster. Once more, get
training.

Blow Out Kit (Traumatic Medical Gear)

As mentioned earlier, I cannot give you training from a book, you
need a competent instructor or instructors. Nonetheless, I can tell you
what gear you need to have in your “blow out kit” or traumatic
emergency personal medical kit.
Tourniquets: I have been trained with TQ’s since early on in GWOT.
Much has changed in the years that have passed. The first thing we
were taught was how to make an improvised tourniquet from the olive
drab caveat in our old school med kits. Combat experience has
shown that improvised tourniquets rarely worked well on the
battlefield. The success rate of improvised TQ’s has been pretty
pathetic. The failure of the improvised TQ was due to a number of
factors; operator experience/skill and available material being the
primary considerations.
One of the first commercially made TQ’s issued to the military was
the SOF-T, these worked much better than a rag and a stick, but they
proved somewhat difficult to use under combat stress. Big Army
adopted the CAT after the SOF-T. The first CAT’s worked, but
improvements still needed to be made on later models.
Other tourniquets found in theatre have been the TK-4, the RATS,
and the Recon Medical. All of the aforementioned work when used
properly by trained people. My two personal favorites are the RATS
and the Recon version. RATS are easy to use, fast to apply, and
compact enough to store and carry all over your kit. The Recon TQ is
essentially a better made version of the CAT.
When it comes to a tourniquet, think of it like you do a firearm. When
there is little to no chance of a fight, we carry a handgun. When we
expect a fight, we carry a rifle. When there is little chance of a fight
we carry one TQ. When we expect a fight we carry at least two TQ’s
on our person.
Pressure Dressings: Again, the more training and experience you
have, the better able you will be to make good gear choices. There
are numerous companies making ready-made pressure dressings.
The common components in all of them are a blood soaking pad and
elastic band material. The old OD green Vietnam-era bandages had
good blood soakers, but no elastic.
Contrary to popular belief, the Israeli battle dressing is not the “end
all be all” of pressure dressings. They work, but there are better
options. Commercial pressure dressings come in many sizes from a
couple inches wide up to an extra large version to wrap around the
chest or abdomen.
A good instructor can teach you how to make an improvised pressure
dressing using a roll of medical gauze and an Ace bandage. Rolls of
Coban or Vet Wrap are tremendously useful in a field trauma kit.
Coban is the professional medical wrap and Vet wrap, well, is for
veterinarians. Here’s a little secret; Coban and Vet Wrap are the
same thing, but Vet Wrap costs about half of the price of Coban.
If your team is on a tight budget, buy a shitload of medical gauze
rolls (about $1 a piece), Ace bandages and Vet Wrap. With the right
training, you will be a pressure bandaging wizard.
Nasopharyngeal Airway: All of you CPR graduates know the head
tilt method for keeping an airway open on an unconscious patient.
That method has evolved over years from neck raise/head tilt, to jaw
thrust, now you just place your palm on their forehead and gently
push back. The problem with the head tilt is that you have to sit there
and do it continuously and you cannot do anything else. You are now
the designated head tilt guy. But, what about everyone and everything
else?
EMTs and Paramedics have a battery of Oropharyngeal Airways.
They have them sized for toddlers up to 300 pound, extra large men
and everyone in between. Our issue is that we cannot expect to carry
a bag full of oral airways or spend all the time it takes to learn how to
use them.
When the Big Army doctors realised that the loss of an airway was
killing unconscious wounded troops they had to come up with a
solution that they could teach to the average infantryman and a tool
that was ready made for the situation. What they decided on was the
Nasopharyngeal Airway or NPA or “nose hose”.
NPAs come in a variety of sizes, but the primary patients on the
battlefield were physically fit, relatively young men and women. The
28 gauge NPA is now the most commonly issued and used size of
nose hose in blow out kits.
Inserting an NPA is not that big of a deal and you can be trained to do
it in a morning or afternoon. While conscious people cry and bitch
about getting an NPA, the fact is that in the real world, the only
patients getting them are unconscious, so they don’t bitch about it.
Chest Seals: As with the tourniquets, we learned a lot during the first
few years of GWOT. At the beginning of the war we were teaching
guys to make chest seals with tape and any plastic material they
could find. Bandage packages were normally the go to. Over the
counter medical tape is generally worthless on patients who are
either covered in sweat or blood or both. We learned that good old,
gray duct tape worked better on sweaty/bloody patients than most all
medical tape. All US Military trauma kits contain a small roll of duct
tape.
Commercially made, adhesive chest seals with specially designed
one-way valves came about in the mid-2000’s. They seemed like a
perfect solution. However, during combat field use, it was discovered
that coagulating blood rapidly clogged the valves making the valves
useless unless they were regularly flushed with water.
Big Army trauma surgeons realized that the one-way valves were not
all that important and the next generation of adhesive chest seals
were made sans valves. That is great news for you. The one-way
valves made the seals super expensive, up to $50 a piece. Today you
can get a 2 pack of chest seals from North American Rescue for
about $12 maybe a bit more. Several companies make adhesive
chest seals; HALO seals are good and HyFin seals from NA Rescue
are good. I have used both.
Decompression Needle: Besides the tourniquet, ignorant people shit
their pants more over the idea of using a chest decompression needle
than most anything else. A stainless steel chest decompression
needle, that is 14 gauge and about 3.5 inches long, partners with the
chest seal to deal with Tension Pneumothorax. If a TPX seems to be
occurring and the patient has a chest seal over a puncture wound,
step one is to vent the seal to try and give them relief. This
sometimes works and sometimes does not.
If the TPX is internal with no external chest cavity compromise, the
only way to relieve the pressure in the field is to use a decompression
needle. Obviously, this is a skill that must be taught by a competent
instructor. However, once you have learned how to do it, it is not that
big of a deal.
I’ve had civilians and EMT’s balk at the idea that a citizen would have
a decomp needle in their trauma kit. I have had more than one person
say, “That is too much liability.” I asked one of these guys if he
carried a gun for self-defense. He said “Yes, of course, it’s my right.”
I continued and asked if he would ever shoot a person threatening
him. “If my life’s in danger, yes, I would shoot them.” To that I
responded, “So, you aren’t worried about the liability involved in killing
someone, but you won’t carry a needle in your kit because you are
afraid to get sued?” Yeah, some people just don’t fucking think before
they open their mouths.
When it comes to traumatic wound care, there are some things that
can be improvised from available material. There are two items that
cannot be improvised from shit laying around on the ground; an NPA
and a decomp needle. You either have them or you do not.
That brings me to a good point. There are a lot of snake oil sellers,
carpetbagging fucks, trying to make a buck on the Internet selling
“trauma kits”. If their kit does not include (or offer as an upgrade) a
no-shit, genuine tourniquet, an NPA, and a chest decomp needle, they
are amateurs. I have seen a lot of so-called trauma kits filled with
band-aids, alcohol wipes, and miscellaneous boo-boo stuff. That’s
nice, but it won’t save your life during a traumatic injury.
Blow Out / Individual First Aid Kit (closed)
Various contents of the Blow Out Kit
Sterility and Infections
Many new or ignorant people will get all bunged up about sterility in
the field. They think that a roll of gauze or pressure dressing that
touches the ground is “no longer sterile.” I’ll tell you what an 18D
(Special Forces Medic) told me, “The battlefield is not sterile. It
doesn’t matter whether or not the bandage touches the ground.” We
don’t go out of our way to infect a wound, but we also don’t allow the
lack of sterility in the field to stop up from doing what needs to be
done.
How about gloves? Should you stop to put them on or not? All EMTs
and Paramedics in the audience just screamed “Yes!” in unison. I will
give you some more advice from my mentors. “Who are you working
on, a family member or a stranger?” If you need to put a tourniquet
on your wife or child are you going to tell them to just relax while you
find your gloves or are you going to jump in and put direct pressure
on the wound while you pull out the TQ? “But your hands are not
sterile.” Go back one paragraph, the world is not a sterile place.
If you are working on a neighbor, acquaintance or a stranger that you
have decided to help, sure take the extra time to get your gloves out
and put them on. This is a good time to consider where you keep
nitrile gloves in your kit. How long will it actually take for you to find
them and put them on?
Regarding the cleansing of wounds, hospital protocol is to put on
gloves and use clean water and soap to cleanse the wound before
applying a fresh clean dressing. That is absolutely the best thing to
do if you are in a clean hospital emergency room. How many of you
expect to be operating in a hospital ER? My point exactly.
If you are in the field, away from clean water and soap, you still
should attempt to cleanse the wound, before applying a bandage to
it. You could pour your canteen water on the wound, but that doesn’t
take care of the scrubbing with soap portion. Some advice that I
received from a trauma doctor who was also a SWAT team medic
was to keep a 200ml bottle of grain alcohol in your field trauma bag.
The medical standard for using alcohol to kill germs is 120 proof or
60 percent. The Everclear brand of booze makes both 120 and 190
proof varieties. The 190 proof will work, but it is going to cost more
than the 120 and the 120 will kill the germs. If you can locate a plastic
200ml bottle (glass will break for sure in your pack) you have an
inexpensive, compact solution to sterilizing a wound. Keep in mind
that we need to clean ALL wounds, not just trauma. If someone on
your team gets any kind of cut or scrape and bleeds, regardless of
how small it is, you need to cleanse the wound. No, it is not being a
pussy, it is being smart.
President Calvin Coolidge’s 16 year old son died from an open blister
on his toe. The small wound was enough to allow Staphylococcus
aureus, a relatively common bacterium to enter his blood stream.
President Garfield died, not from the bullet lodged in his body, but
from the infection he received from unsanitary attempts to remove it.
Hopefully your community tribe will include a doctor or nurse or
paramedic who is familiar with and able to prescribe antibiotics to
those who need them. Antibiotics notwithstanding, ALL wounds
should be cleaned to the best of your ability. There are also antibiotic
resistant bacteria. The best plan is to cleanse the wound as soon as
you can safely do so.
Other Considerations
Other items that are good to have in any first aid kit are; nitrile gloves
(XL), medical shears, gauze pads to wipe off wounds, tweezers, and
a bottle of saline eye wash to name a few. Don’t get me wrong,
band-aids and boo-boo gear are important, but often people rely on
those and forget the big stuff.
What about intravenous medicine and fluids (IVs), sutures and
staples, splints, etc? Crawl first, then walk, then run. The bottom line
is not that complicated. The more medical training you have, the
better prepared you will be to crush any injury or illness that comes
your way. Get CPR training and take a Red Cross Family First Aid
course, and engage in Trauma Training. If you are still motivated after
all that, sign up for an EMT course or study nursing at the local
community college.
Chapter 5 Tribes
Whether the breakdown of society lasts one week, one month, or one
year, you and your neighbors are going to need to get seriously tribal,
seriously fast, if you plan to survive. The ideal situation is that you are
familiar and friendly with your neighbors long before the crisis or
national emergency.
We mentioned food earlier and we would hope that all the
responsible people in your community have been storing food and
preparing essentials for a while now. Before the emergency hits, you
might consider identifying the people in your community who may be
living hand to mouth. How are you going to help them without
jeopardizing the welfare of those in the community who did prepare
their families?
You also need to have a hard CTJ with neighbors and consider who
the trouble makers and internal threats to your community happen to
be. It is easy to ignore the loudmouth alcoholic who is prone to
beating his wife and kids when all is normal. You can just call the
police to deal with his outbursts. But what happens when the police
are not coming? Who gets to deal with the violent alcoholic? You
cannot just ignore him. Well, you can try, but sooner or later he’ll need
to be dealt with.
The Best of People
What I have witnessed in my time milling around planet Earth is that a
crisis or prolonged emergency will bring out both the absolute best
and absolute worst in society, simultaneously. During the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina I bore witness to this fact. I was a young, fresh out
of the Corps military contractor and I deployed to New Orleans with
the Blackwater organization.
Blackwater and other military contract companies were called upon to
aid the beleaguered law enforcement agencies of New Orleans
proper and the various surrounding parishes. An unpopular fact is that
a huge percentage of cops in and around New Orleans simply left
when the storm hit. Those who remained were tremendously
outnumbered by the numerous drug gangs operating in that part of
Louisiana.
The moment that the gangs and thugs realized most of the cops were
gone, it was game on. For the first 72 hours or so, even before the
levees broke, anyone out in public or on the highway was fair game
for the gangbangers. The first emergency response crews from the
utility companies were stopped on the roads and streets and robbed.
Yep, that’s what you want to do, jack the guys coming to turn the
power back on. After the first few incidents, utility crews refused to
return to N.O. without armed escorts. Blackwater provided armed
pipe hitters for that task among others.
When word of the out of control violence got out, men with rifles were
dispatched to the Greater New Orleans area from all points in the
compass. After about a week or so we put a lid on the day time thug
activity and brazen looting, but they still kept up nocturnal escapades.
While in New Orleans, my team spent some time in the Garden
District. That area has nice to very nice to extremely nice homes, it
also did not flood. We encountered many residents there who did not
evacuate. While on patrol in the area one resident walked out to
greet us with a Mossberg 590 shotgun slung over his shoulder.
We inquired as to his situation. He replied, “We’re fine. I have a gas
grill, my generator, and this in case anyone comes back to try
anything.” When he said “and this” he patted the shotgun. That man
had banded together with his neighbors, they pooled resources and
took turns guarding their homes.
Following the cops, pipe hitters, and Federal agents, tens of
thousands of volunteer medical personnel flooded into the area.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and EMTs paid their own way, cashed
in vacations day, and traveled to where help was needed. The Red
Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Relief Service and many other
volunteer organizations arrived with portable kitchens, medical tents,
and trucks loaded with food and water. That was the very best of
people coming out.
The Worst of People
By comparison, allow me to relate the very worst, because this is
what you can expect from the coming societal breakdown. Keep in
mind, New Orleans went from normal to a third world anarchy in less
than three days.
In addition to the standard urban chaos that goes on everyday in
major cities across America, what we witnessed in New Orleans was
lawlessness of an epic scale. The first places to be looted and
robbed were any business that sold alcohol, drugs (pharmaceutical)
and guns. Pawns shops, liquor stores and corner drug stores were all
looted almost immediately when the thugs realised the police were
not coming.
Grocery store looting was primarily left to the women and kids and
men not associated with the drug gangs. But the gangs went after
drugs and guns first. Think about it, with guns, the gangbangers could
take all the food they wanted. After the previously mentioned
businesses were cleaned out, they were burned. No fire department
was coming to put out the flames. During my time in New Orleans,
post-Katrina, I could not find one single drug store that was not a
burned out shell.
After the drug stores were cleaned out, the gangs targeted any
medical clinic or doctor’s office they could find. Then they hit the
hospitals. Hospital staff members were held at gunpoint while the
pharmacies inside were looted.
Now fully armed, with no police to interfere, the rival gangs went after
each other. I was able to befriend a couple of NOPD officers who
had stayed behind to try and help maintain order. When the water
around the New Orleans Superdome finally receded, I saw cars
riddled with bullet holes. I asked my NOPD friends about that, “Was it
you guys against them?” To which they responded, “No, it was them
against them.”
One of the officers clarified the situation. “You see, we have four
ongoing turf wars between the various drug gangs. When they
realised that no one would get in their way, they decided it was time
to start taking out the competition.” I bet you did not get that story
from the CBS nightly news.
Rape, murder, assault, and theft were rampant and out of control until
literally thousands of men with black rifles arrived. When the thugs
realized that these new guys in khakis would shoot back, it was not
quite so fun any more. Brazen daylight attacks slowed and the
criminals favored the night.
Negotiating with Predators
If you live a relatively comfortable life in your condo in a major
metropolitan area, the minute the police are gone or too busy to
respond, you and your neighbors will be the targets for the thugs and
gangbangers with whom you do not normally trouble yourself. The
naive thought that these urban monsters will suddenly find Jesus
when the power goes out is laughable. What most comfortable
suburbanites fail to understand is that they will be dealing with a
culture of humans who have been raised, essentially since birth, to be
predators. No government pamphlet, billboard, or tax-payer funded
social program is going to alter that fact.
People thinking they can bargain or reason with human predators in
American cities reminds me of the fucktardation that we tried to pull
off in Afghanistan. The Army trained officers to go into villages to try
to convince the local chiefs and warlords that if they supported
America, we would bring them “infrastructure”. Yes, these officers,
through interpreters, would talk about building highways and hospitals
and schools and utilities. They were talking to people who shit in
holes in the ground and had likely never seen the inside of a hospital.
Promising them infrastructure was like promising them a fucking
spaceship, it was retarded, but we tried that.
What the chiefs and warlords understood was power. They
understood the value of controlling the water and food supply. They
understood the value of horses, and trucks, and guns. They also
understood that they should be wary of strength and they despised
signs of weakness. When we negotiated from a position of strength
and demonstrated through our actions that we were a force to be
reckoned with, they respected us. What they did not respect was a
lot of talk and empty promises.
Tribes: Good and Bad
As discussed at the outset of this chapter, your community will need
to band together in a tribal configuration if you hope to survive the
coming societal collapse. There is no nice way to put that. People
who think they can just stick it out on their own will eventually be
overwhelmed. Some tribes are peaceful and productive, while other
tribes are hostile and predatory.
Consider the history of the native American tribes before the arrival of
Europeans. We like to craft an image of peaceful people, harvesting
maize, frolicking by the rivers, and weaving feathers and beads.
That’s all bullshit and an honest person would know it.
American Indian tribes were constantly at war with each other. They
fought over resources and territory. If the winter was particularly
harsh or their crops poor, they would raid the weaker tribe across the
valley. The plains Indians were killing and torturing each other long
before white men ever crossed the Mississippi River. The rock and
stone reality was that a tribe without warriors did not survive very
long.
As late as 1866, the Shoshone went to war with the Crow nation over
hunting lands. The Crow had been encroaching on historical
Shoshone hunting land. The Shoshone Chief, Washakie, in an effort to
end the conflict without war, sent an emissary to the Crow. The Crow
were not impressed by the gesture and killed the messenger.
Washakie, enraged that his emissary was murdered, promised that
he would cut out the heart of the Crow Chief, Big Robber. The two
engaged in single combat and true to his word, Washakie cut out the
rival chief's heart, mounted it on his lance, returned to his people and
danced on what is now called Crowheart Butte. The Crow retreated
and left. There is a plaque commemorating this battle today in
Wyoming on the Wind River Reservation.
I relate all of the previous to remind you that despite iPhones and the
Internet, we are not all that far removed from thousands of years of
tribal behavior. When our comfortable society is turned upside down
by forces out of our control, it is the tribe that will save the lives of our
children. The second moral to the story is that, when faced with
unrepentant aggression, even a man who desires peace must take up
arms and do what must be done, however horrific it might seem to
others.
As you have this book in your hands I will assume that you plan to be
a part of a productive, self-sufficient, prepared tribe. That is
admirable. However, that does not alter the fact there will be tribes
out there who care nothing for morality and fair play. They have no
stored up food and resources, their plan is to take what they need by
force from whomever they perceive to be weak. That is the rock and
stone reality. Fear not my friends, if you heed my words, we will have
something to say about that. Remember, we not talking about mere
survival, we are going to fucking crush the coming crisis.
Chapter 6 Fortifications and Fire Bases
At some point you are going to have to limit and restrict access to
your community and neighborhood. The larger the city in which you
reside, the more difficult this will be to accomplish. Conversely, the
more rural your community and remote, the easier it will be to control
access. If you are living in a metropolitan area with hundreds of
thousands or even millions of people, your life will be interesting
indeed. Remember, the fragile food supply chain? Add to the food
problem the organized drug gangs in your city whose numbers are
likely in the hundreds, if not thousands.
* Author’s Note
I contacted my good friend, Paul Markel, and asked him if I could
quote from his book, “Patriot Fire Team Equipment Guide” for this
section. Mr. Markel graciously agreed. The following information was
provided with permission. Paul’s material is italicized.

Fortifying your Neighborhood

Vehicles as Barriers
The fastest way to block off a street (the entrance to a
neighborhood) is to pull a vehicle or vehicles across the roadway.
The advantage to this method is that it can be done quickly with
essentially no physical labor. The downside is that these vehicles
become “sacrificial lambs” as they will be subject to being rammed
by looter vehicles or shot up by armed thugs.
If you are relying on your pickup truck to transport supplies for your
family, you don’t want to sacrifice it to a riot demolition derby or
allow it to become a bullet sponge for thugs armed with all the guns
they stole from a pawn shop. If you have old, junk vehicles that can
be put in place, use them. Don’t sacrifice useful, utility vehicles.
Road Spikes
Spike Board: An easy to make and easy to deploy road spike barrier
can be made by taking a standard 1x6 piece of lumber and driving
60 penny (6 inch) or 70 p (7 inch) carpentry nails through the board
and staggering them. The average 1x6 board is 8 feet long.
Drill a hole on each end of the board and loop a rope through each
hole so that it can be put in place or pulled out of the way by friendly
forces quickly. Depending on the width of the road, you may choose
to use one, two, or three of these Spike Boards. (Skill Level:
Beginner)
Caltrops / Jack Rocks: Using the previously discussed 60p or 70p
nails, you can produce individual road spikes that can be deployed
en mass on roadways just beyond barriers or signs forbidding
people to enter the road. When spread widely over a likely avenue
of approach, caltrops have the added advantage of greatly slowing
the advance of mobs of looters. The loots will not be able to run at
or rush defenders, that is unless they want to impale their feet on the
spikes. These will not stop them, but will definitely slow their roll.
To make individual road spikes, take 2 large nails and cut off the
head to create an angled point. Bend the nails approximately 45
degrees and weld the two nails together at the bends so that no
matter how they land, one point will be up. Think of a child’s toy
jacks, only much larger. (Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced )
There are a few online outlets that sell premade caltrops. One store
sells them in ten packs for $50. You will likely need dozens or even
hundreds, at $5 piece that price tag adds up quickly. It might be a
good idea to purchase some and then replicate more later.
PS: “Jack Rocks” is the term that union men use for road spikes that
they litter around the gates during labor disputes. The Japanese call
these devices tetsubishi and they date back to the feudal era. One
form of caltrop, that looked more like a large toy jack, was widely
used during the American Civil War to impede cavalry troops.
Signs and Barriers
Sawhorses: The typical sawhorse made of 2x4 lumber can be
quickly assembled and used to mount traffic control signs at
checkpoints. During a crisis, if you don’t have a Stop sign for your
roadblock you can surely find one at an intersection somewhere. A
sturdy sawhorse can be drug in and out of the road quickly.
A large sign affixed to a sawhorse that states “Looters Will Be Shot”
might seem a bit dramatic, however, the middle of a riot is not the
time to be sensitive. “Looters Will Be Shot” is a warning that cannot
be misconstrued even by the most sub-moronic thug.
Hedgehog: A hedgehog looks like a giant caltrop or tetsubishi.
During WWI and WWII hedgehogs were constructed of steel “I”
beam material to impede tanks on roads and landing craft on
beaches. For our purposes, we can make hedgehogs out of 4x4
lumber. You will need 3 - 4 foot pieces of 4x4, heavy duty bolts
and/or 90º corner braces/brackets (heavy duty) and wood screws
that are at least 3 inches long.
Lay two pieces of 4x4 centered atop one another in a “+” sign
configuration. Secure them together with a heavy duty bolt. Now take
the third piece of 4x4 and center it on the other two, making a three-
dimensional cross or “t”. When it is complete you have your six-
pointed wooden hedgehog. If you require larger hedgehogs just alter
the length of your 4x4. (Skill Level: Beginner)
After you have made several wooden hedgehogs you can spread
them out and run barbed wire between them to create a barrier that
can be quickly deployed across a road. While it is true that a
hedgehog will not stop a car or truck, any person that drives over
one, particularly when wrapped in barbed wire, is not going to be
happy.
 Hedgehogs from common lumber
55 Gallon Drums: If you need to create barriers that with stop or
slow down vehicles, 55 gallon drums are an easy solution. A 55
gallon drum filled with water will weigh around 450 pounds. If you
set them up in a triangle formation that gives you 1300 plus pounds
of barrier.
Conversely, if you can get your hands on steel 55 gallon drums and
fill them with sand, each one will weigh over 800 pounds. Put the
sand filled drums in a triangle formation and you have over one full
ton of weight. That will slow down any standard passenger car or
light truck. Steel drums filled with sand will naturally provide cover
from small arms fire as well.
Sandbags: Sandbags are easy to come by and not that expensive.
You can purchase the industrial variety that will be white, orange or
some other color. The surplus market also is a good place to find
military OD green sandbags. Naturally, plain white sandbags are the
least expensive. Expect to pay $30 to $40 for 100 white sandbags.
Sandbags have been used to build cover for armies for a hundred
years or more. They are versatile but they are also labor intensive to
fill. Filling sandbags is definitely a team project. Note: In the event of
an ongoing crisis, you must remember to maintain security during
the construction process. Double thick walls of sandbags should
stop any conventional small arms you might be facing (.50 BMG is a
different story).
When reinforcing guard posts or checkpoints with sandbags, the
normal configuration will be a “U” or three-sided square with the
opening facing the secure area. The sandbag wall should be built up
to the sternum of the average man; think 4 to 4.5 feet tall. (Skill
Level: Beginner)
If at any time you might think this preparation is excessive or
paranoid, consider the option of having your neighborhood overrun
by fifty to a hundred armed thugs. Think about watching your family
run crying from your burning house. Imagine your wife and daughter
being repeatedly raped while your dead body grows cold twenty feet
away. Now, get back to work preparing your team.
Razor Wire and Barbed Wire: Barbed wire is available at any home
or farm supply store. For instance, when this was written, an 80 Rod
(440 yards) spool of barbed wire was $50 at Tractor Supply. The
down side to barbed wire is that it is not self supporting. You will
need engineer stakes, wooden posts, or something like the
hedgehog we discussed previously. The upside is the cost
effectiveness and versatility.
Razor wire comes in rolls and is self-supporting. You can stretch out
a roll of razor wire and it stands up. The diameter of the rolls of
razor wire will vary from 12 inches all the way up to 36 inches. On
the commercial market, 18 inch rolls of razor wire seem to be the
most common. Like the barbed wire, you can order and pick up
razor wire at home and farm stores. You can even get it from
Walmart or Amazon. Remember to purchase a few pairs of thick
“Wire Handling Gloves”. Your hands will thank you. (Skill Level:
Intermediate)
Barbed and razor wire are primarily used to deny/restrict access to
people on foot. Yes, a car or truck could drive over/through wire, but
the tires won’t last very long. Imagine the rushing mob scenario.
How do you slow down fifty armed looters with only a few men?
Even in a deadly force situation, you will find it difficult at best to
address forty or fifty threats, all at once.
Regardless of how motivated, cracked up, or angry a mob might be,
they are not going to be happy campers when they run into triple
thick rows of razor wire. Even if they attempt to breach the razor
wire with ladders, discarded house doors, or lumber, that will take
time and it also creates a funnel point on which the defenders can
focus. Razor wire can be cut with heavy duty tools, something thugs
are not likely to have. Cutting through barbed or razor wire is again
a time consuming affair, giving the defenders time to react to the
threat.
Thanks to Nick and his pal, Paul Markel, for giving me a break from
writing. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Markel’s advice about
constructing barricade material from commonly available components.
I understand the idea of fortifying your neighborhood is going to be
distasteful to many, but you need to suck it up and deal with reality.
Waiting for the monsters to show up on your doorstep is the worst of
all plans. You need to keep the fight away from your home and your
family.
You must keep in mind that all cover or barricades are a temporary
solution. Given enough time the enemy will always find a way to
defeat your cover or get around it. You cannot just build sandbag
walls, stretch out razor wire and then wander off hoping the enemy
will be dissuaded. Check points must be manned by armed men.
Also, routine and frequent security patrols must be conducted. If you
want to keep the monsters and vermin away from your wives and
children, this is part of the price you will need to pay.
In addition to road blocks, check points, and security patrols, another
weapon in your arsenal needs to be some form of overwatch. In
short, you need to find the highest position in your area of operation,
or a few, and put men with magnified optics and rifles in them. The
men in the overwatch position act as lookouts and communicate to
the men on the ground giving them warning of approaching threats.
These men will naturally have rifles with high power, optical sights to
engage deadly threats to the community. This is one of those jobs
where the leader will need to be absolutely sure that the most
qualified people are manning these posts. You cannot be on the
ground worried and wondering if the guys on overwatch are sleeping.
Also, you must have one hundred percent confidence in the
marksmanship skills of said men. These jobs will generally go to
trained combat veterans first, police sharpshooter next, and, if you
have no vets or SWAT guys, put some skilled and experienced
hunters up there.
Don’t forget, the bad guys will employ snipers too. During the first
few days after the collapse of New Orleans, post-Katrina, bad guys
frequently climbed up on roofs and parking garages to take pot shots
at targets of opportunity. The enemy might decide to take out your
check point guards with a sniper of their own. How are you going to
deal with that?
If your area of operation has little to offer in the way of elevated
platforms, a skilled engineer with the right materials (telephone poles)
can build you a watch tower. My advice is that if you build one
watchtower that you build at least two. If there is only one tower, the
enemy knows where to focus. If you have more than one, you can
alternate watches or even set up decoy positions.
Considering that your manpower might be stretched thin, it is not a
bad idea to build more sandbag bunkers than you have men to fill and
put dummies with BB guns or airsoft rifles in them. Of course, you
need to mix it up. Switch out the decoys will live shooters frequently
to keep the enemy spies on their toes.
Keep in mind, if you have done a good job securing your
neighborhood, the enemy will conduct recon on you before they just
come charging in. Think this is paranoid fantasy? There are cities and
suburban neighborhoods in America being terrorized right now as
these words are typed. The residents are cowering like pathetic
sheep behind locked doors praying that they don’t get murdered or
burned out with fire bombs.

Fire Bases
Fire support bases or simply “fire bases” are forward areas occupied
and secured by friendly personnel in a hostile environment. The fire
base became popularized during Vietnam and the concept was
rejuvenated during our recent involvement in Afghanistan. In addition
to providing support fire from mortars and artillery, fire bases also
can launch reactionary forces to support other fire bases, patrols and
offensive operations.
While I don’t anticipate that your cul-de-sac will possess 81mm
mortars or 155 howitzers (artillery is a beautiful thing) you can
support other communities and neighborhoods in your area if mutual
aid agreements are made between them. This is where solid
community leadership comes into play.
Long before the balloon goes up or the lights go out, take your pick of
metaphors, good people in neighboring communities need to have
open lines of communication with one another. Ask your local Sheriff
about mutual aid agreements. I would be willing to bet that your
county Sheriff has a mutual aid agreement with all of the other
counties that border yours. It is not all that complex, they simply
agree, before a crisis or emergency, that they will come to each
other’s aid if and when they are called upon to do so.
There is no reason why your community, particularly if you live in a
rural area where towns and villages are separated by miles of open
country, cannot engage in a mutual aid compact with others. If your
towns and villages are spread out and separated by farm and ranch
land, I would suspect that your small village police department
already has a mutual aid agreement with the police department in the
next town over and the sheriff’s office.
Chapter 7 The Dutch Lifeboat

by Nicholas Orr
Allow me to relate a story to you. Many years ago in the Dutch village
of Zomspeet lived a 13 year old boy named Bram De Jong. Bram’s
father, Luuk De Jong, was a hardworking carpenter and Bram hoped
to be as skilled as his father some day.
On his twelfth birthday, Bram began to apprentice with his father.
Bram looked up to his father, but thought perhaps that his father
worked a bit too hard and too long. Bram’s friends who were his age
were also apprenticing with their fathers. However, from the window
of his father’s workshop, Bram would see his friends Lucas and
Ruben running around and playing in the sunshine of a warm summer
afternoon. Meanwhile, Bram would still be helping his father until the
sun was almost set.
The De Jong family did not have a lot of money. Nonetheless, Bram’s
mother and father were always sure to put aside a bit of extra food in
preparation for long winters. Bram noticed that while other men in the
village were often found sitting at tables outside of the town tavern,
Bram’s father would be working on yet another project. “I will have
time for beer and leisure later.” Luuk told his son.
One day the village elders called a meeting and Luuk along with all of
Bram’s friends’ fathers were in attendance. When Luuk returned he
told his family that Milan, the oldest farmer in the province had issued
a dire warning, this year they could see terrible flooding. Milan was
81 years old and, as a farmer, he had kept track of the seasons and
the weather since he was a young man. According to Milan, the
weather patterns of the current year were the same as those from
forty-five years before when the entire village was flooded and water
reached the roof tops.
According to Milan, the Waal River had broken the dikes and the
flooding had lasted for days. He advised all of the villagers to build
wooden lifeboats for their families and to fill them with food and
water. Luuk related to his wife and son that, after Milan had left, most
of the village elders and men in attendance had mocked him as
crazy. Everyone at the village hall was either not yet born or had
been so young at the time that they had no recollection of the flood of
which the old man spoke.
The opinion of the elders was that while there might have been a
flood forty-five years previous, it was certainly not as bad as the old
man remembered. It was true that the old people of the village used
to talk about a great flood, but that was a long time ago. No one
spoke of that anymore. Others felt that most everyone would be safe
on the second floor of their houses if a flood did come. They advised
those with a single story house to go to a neighbor’s home if flood
waters ever came.
Bram asked his father what he planned to do? “I am a carpenter, am
I not? I will build a boat big enough for our whole family.” In addition
to his father and mother, Bram had a 5 year old brother, Levi. Luuk’s
younger brother, Finn, and his recent bride, Mila, would join the family
if a crisis occurred. Bram liked his Uncle Finn. Finn always seemed to
have a new joke to tell when he came for a visit.
Over the next few weeks, Luuk and Bram worked on the family’s
lifeboat when they were not working on other carpentry projects.
Bram’s mother filled a wooden box with dried meats and fruit. She
filled ceramic jugs with fresh, clean water and set them aside. Luuk
taught Bram how to make oars from hardwood and to put a finish on
them so they repelled water.
By the end of summer, Bram and his father had completed the
lifeboat. A sturdy rope for a bow line was placed inside as were the
hardwood oars and Luuk covered it all with a large canvas tarp. The
food box and water jugs were staged in the family’s kitchen and life
went on.
Bram would work on his schooling until his noon meal and then
apprentice with his father in the afternoon. A few of Bram’s friends’
fathers had come by during the summer seeking advice from Luuk
about how to build their own lifeboats. Nonetheless, by the time of the
fall harvest festival, most of the village seemed to have forgotten
about the warning of the old man.
Bram loved the harvest festival, the air was filled with wonderful
smells as the women of the village prepared a variety of food. There
were games in day time for the children and music and dancing for
the adults at night. The De Jong family, even Luuk, all took a break
from their labors and enjoyed the festivities.
On the morning of the last day of the weeklong festival, Bram was
excited to meet his friends at the square. As he hurried to the heart of
the village, the Dutch boy was surprised to feel a chill on the wind.
The previous days had all been pleasant. Today the wind was coming
from the north and Bram paused to consider going back for his coat.
By afternoon the street vendors were doing all they could to keep
their canopies from blowing away. All day long the wind strength
grew and the midday skies grew dark. By supper time the dark
clouds opened and rain began to fall. The mayor announced the day’s
activities cancelled as it had been a good festival up to that point. He
told everyone they should just return home.
As Bram lay in his bed that night he could hear the rain beating
against the roof of their home. The sound of steady rain helped him
drift off into a deep sleep. When he awoke the next morning, Bram
was surprised that he could still hear the sound of rain. “Had it rained
all night long?” he wondered to himself. After breakfast, Bram ran
from the house to his father’s workshop trying to dodge the downpour
from the sky. He could see the low lying areas around the house had
filled with water. When he entered the workshop, Bram found his
father at the bench planing a piece of wood.
“Good, you are up.” Luuk said to his son, “I have a job for you. Go to
your Uncle Finn’s house and tell him to bring Aunt Mila with him here,
as soon as he can.”
By the time Bram made his way home with Finn and Mila, they had to
wade through small streams that had formed in every low lying part
of their village. The standing water was building up everywhere. In his
thirteen years, Bram had never known the rain to fall so hard for so
long. The youth saw men with a horse cart filled with sand bags
heading north toward the dike that held back the Waal River.
When Bram, Finn and Mila entered the house they were soaked to
the bone. Luuk and his wife were in the kitchen with Levi. “It looks as
though the old man might have been correct.” Luuk said. “Yes, that
seems to be the case.” Finn replied. Luuk continued, “If the Waal dike
breaks, we will have little time. Sophie, will you and Mila put the food
and water in the boat?” Bram’s father fed the fire in the stove and the
wet trio gathered around it to get warm and dry. “We’ll all sleep under
one roof tonight and see what tomorrow might bring.” Mr. De Jong
stated to the extended family.
When he woke the next morning, Bram could hear the rain. He found
his father sitting by the black iron stove in his rocking chair. The young
man realised his father had been up all night long. Soon thereafter,
Finn emerged. It had now been raining for nearly two days straight.
Luuk had Finn and Bram follow him to the workshop. Once inside and
out the hearing of the women, Luuk spoke gravely. “There are not
enough boats to save the village.” “How can that be?” Finn asked.
Luuk frowned, “Most of the men in the village thought the old man had
lost his mind and they ignored him. Very few of them have lifeboats
for their families.” Mr. De Jong paused and looked his brother and
son in the eyes individually, “I pray it is not as bad as old Milan said,
but if it is, many in the village will not survive.”
Just then the sound of the church bell began to ring. This was not a
call to worship, this was the alarm. The continued ringing of the bell
meant one thing, the dike had broken, the waters of the Waal River
were rushing toward the village.
Bram’s father said not one word as he ran to the house. Everyone
knew what to do. They lifted the edge of the canvas tarp high enough
for everyone to climb in. Luuk and Finn being the heaviest sat at
opposite ends. The women, Bram and his little brother sat in the
middle. Luuk had made the tarp large enough to act as a shelter from
the rain. The family huddled in the wooden boat and waited.
Bram could not say how long they sat in the boat before they heard
the roar of the approaching water. When it reached them and their
lifeboat the force shook the craft. Mila let out a brief scream. “Hold
on everyone, we will be fine.” Luuk assured his family. Bram felt the
boat shift as the rising flood waters carried it. When they lifted the
tarp to look outside, Bram was shocked to see that the boat was
higher than the kitchen window of their home, by his estimation they
were more than a hundred yards from the house and moving away.
The house seemed to be moving farther away and sinking at the
same time. Bram was amazed that the flood waters were rising so
rapidly.
Bram’s family held the tarp over their heads and surveyed the scene.
They saw the Jansen family in their boat not too far away, perhaps a
hundred yards or more. Karl Jansen had been one of the men who
sought Luuk’s advice to make a lifeboat. Karl Jansen had a wife and
three children. There were people in the water. They were yelling and
screaming for help. Many were swimming toward the Jansen family
boat.
The De Jong family watched in horror as the Jansen family boat was
overwhelmed by the people in the water. Unable to hold the weight,
the Jansen lifeboat tipped and then sank below the flood waters. Karl
Jansen and his wife desperately tried to save their children but the
panicked villagers flailed and screamed and pushed the Jansens
down drowning the entire family.
A dozen or so remaining villagers spotted the De Jong lifeboat and
began to swim for it. Luuk yelled to Finn and Bram, “Grab the oars,
don’t let them get to the boat they will drown us all!” As the panicked
swimmers approached the lifeboat, Luuk yelled a warning. “Stay
back, leave us be.” The villagers in the water ignored the command
and kept coming. They screamed for Luuk to save them.
“Stop!” Bram’s father yelled as a man reached out to grab the
family’s boat. A fraction of a moment later, Luuk smashed the head of
that man with the heavy, hardwood oar. At the bow, Finn defended
the lifeboat as another man in the water lunged for the front. Finn
stuck that man with all his might, splitting his head open.
Sophie and Mila huddled in the center of the boat, little Levi between
them. Mila screamed once more as a woman put her hands on the
edge of the boat and started to pull herself up. Bram recognized her,
she was Mrs. Bakker, the mayor’s wife.
Finn and Luuk were busy defending the fore and aft. “No, stop, get
out!” Bram yelled. But Mrs. Bakker, a crazed look in her eyes,
ignored him. At that moment the yelling and screaming became
muffled in Bram’s ears. The sight of the Jansen family being drowned
by the panicked mob flashed in his mind. It seemed that the world
was moving in slow motion. Bram De Jong was now operating on
survival instinct. If he did not act, his family would suffer the same
fate as the others. The youth was a bit surprised when the oar he
was holding crashed down onto the mayor’s wife who was pulling
herself into their boat. Bram saw her eyes roll back into her head and
he watched her slip below the flood waters.
Epilogue
Like one of Aesop’s fables, not all stories have a happy ending but
they do have a moral and many have lessons. I would expect the
moral of this story would be self-evident, but we will dissect the tale
regardless.
First, we have the warning from the old man. The villagers think that
the old man is paranoid or prone to exaggeration. They are assured
that things could never get that bad. It is a common form of
arrogance in man to behave as if history began on the day that they
were born. Far too often, humans, whether by default or design, will
act as though nothing that happened before they arrived on this
planet matters. In this story we see that the villagers had no direct
memory of the previous catastrophic flood, so they acted as though
the historical relevance made no difference to them.
Luuk, Bram’s father, is a skilled carpenter with the talent and ability to
build a sturdy liferaft for his family. Despite the fact that Luuk was
available to give advice in such matters, only a few of the villagers
decided to take him up on the subject. The villagers had all summer
and into the fall to prepare, but most chose not to do so. When the
flood came they were not prepared. It was not that they hadn’t been
given warning, they had. They also had ample time to prepare, but
they chose not to.
When the unprepared and panicked villagers swam for the Jansen
boat, Mr. Jansen was ill prepared to stop them from sinking it. He
had done the right thing by making a lifeboat, but he and his family
perished anyway. On the other hand, Luuk had arranged for his adult
brother to join his family in the event of an emergency. He had built
the boat so that it was big enough for the extended family. The De
Jong family did not drown because there were two adult men and a
teenage boy on the boat to defend it. That does not make Luuk De
Jong cruel or a selfish monster. He did what was right while other
men lounged at the tavern.
At the end of the story, the De Jong men had to use the oars to bash
the heads of those whose panicked behavior would have sunk and
killed them all. The people in the water were not foreign invaders,
they were their neighbors. Bram recognized Mrs. Bakker, the mayor’s
wife, but none of that mattered. The people in the water were going
to drown, the only difference would be whether or not they took the
De Jong family with them.
When the societal collapse comes, whether it lasts a few weeks, a
few months, or 299 days as one author suggested, there will be
people who completely failed to prepare. In a panic, they will cry out
for those who did prepare to save them. They will attempt to
overwhelm the prepared people and, if they are successful, both the
prepared and unprepared will all die because there will not be enough
for all.
You cannot make your neighbors and family build their own lifeboat.
However, unless you want to be in a position where you are smashing
heads with an oar, you need to encourage them to become self-
reliant, now.
Chapter 8 Swallowing the Red Pill
If you are unaware of it, in the movie “The Matrix” the hero, Neo, is
given a choice to take either a red pill or a blue pill. The red pill will
open his eyes and allow him to see the reality of the world in which
he lives. The blue pill would allow him to go back to living a life of
blissful ignorance. Spoiler, Neo takes the red pill.
Those who watched and enjoyed the film understood that reality was
not going to change regardless of the pill Neo chose. The horrors of
the actual dystopian world were not going to go away just because
Neo chose the blue pill. Red or blue, the harsh reality remained the
same, the only choice was whether or not to have the courage to
face it.
That is very much the choice that millions of Americans are making
today, whether by deliberation or mindless default. It does not take
much effort to pay attention to the world around us and understand
that evil men are growing more bold by the day. And why should they
not? The thugs, looters, and criminal vermin are burning homes and
businesses, stealing, assaulting and even murdering innocent citizens.
To date very little punishment has taken place.
Our police have been deliberately hamstrung by politicians and the
media. Even when called, they come late or not at all. We witness
entire city blocks set to the torch while police are ordered to stage a
half-mile away by their criminal masters. People who have absolutely
nothing to do with the so-called grievances of the criminal mobs are
targets for beatings and worse.
State governors are so intent on controlling the citizens that they
criminalize free commerce and threaten to arrest the law-abiding for
violating these unconstitutional mandates. Meanwhile, the same
politicians turn a blind eye to mass criminal behavior and even go so
far as to make excuses for it.
Millions of Americans have been put into debt and many of them
bankrupted through no fault of their own by politicians drunk on their
illicit power. Food production, processing, and distribution have all
been damaged and the free market supply endangered.
I told you at the outset of the book that I was going to give you
information and education that would help you to crush the coming
societal breakdown. Many of you might have expected gardening
how-to’s and food canning advice. Those things you can get from any
number of sources.
What I have attempted to deliver on these pages is hard, in your
face, information and instructions that many either do not understand
or are afraid to relate. While it is definitely important to have “stuff” it
is just as important to have others who understand what needs to be
done and how to do it.
The last most critical aspect of crushing the coming societal collapse
is WILL. You must have the will, the intestinal fortitude, the courage
to make hard choices and do what needs to be done to ensure that
your family and community survives and thrives during the trouble to
come.
About the Author
Nicolas Orr is the nom de plume for a civilized barbarian, a savage
gentleman, with thirty plus years of operational and combat
experience in the United States and overseas. The author has carried
a gun during innumerable assignments worldwide as a member of the
United States Military, as a Military Contractor, and Executive
Protection Agent.
Thomas Thrasher is one of the author’s favorite characters and the
conduit for hardcore, in your face, information delivery and
entertainment. The adventures of Thomas Thrasher are chronicled in
The Operator Series of books by Nicholas Orr.

Other Books by Nicholas Orr:

The Operator

Sin City: The Operator Book 2