Community Preparedness & Neighborhood Security Operations Projects

SURVIVAL IN THE STATES  

Don't draw attention to yourself

You're going to have far better success at preparedness, survival and even home defense if you can engage in preparedness activities without drawing attention to yourself. So if you're out at the local Wal-Mart, let's say, buying up a case of rubbing alcohol to add to your first aid kit, you don't want to leave any kind of strong impression a cashier there who, for example, might later tell some FBI agent, "Oh yeah, there was this 6' 2" guy with red hair and an old-style Western mustache, and he bought up a cart full of shotgun ammo, rubbing alcohol and bandages. I thought that was kinda weird..."

So another tip in all this is that if you're buying first aid supplies, or stored food, or anything you need to stay prepared, buy things in small quantities, and better yet use the self checkout lanes at local retailers, so you're not even interacting with a cashier at all. And don't be a moron and buy too many items of anything at once. It's far better to make multiple trips (to different stores, preferably), buying up smaller quantities of things and then combining them at home.

Go over the entire preparedness list covering food, first aid, emergency communications, lighting, safety, shelters, etc.

The following are 6 excellent privacy tips for preppers:

1. Trust no one that you do not personally know. Even the little old lady down the road will rat on you if she is hungry when the SHTF.

2. Keep your prepping to yourself. Again, do not tell anyone you are prepping. If they know you have stores of food, where do you think they will think of first when the SHTF? Oh and don’t forget, the corrupted Department of Homeland Security (Gestapo) thinks people with stockpiles of food and weapons as potential domestic terrorists.

3. Don’t share any prepping articles on Facebook or other social media. Don’t draw attention to yourself by posting prepping articles or discussing the topic on the website. You may think you are educating your friends, but in reality you are just letting them know of your actions and plans.

4. Do not tell anyone what you are up to. That "could" seriously work against you at the worst possible time. Be smart !!
   

5. Be alert to what others are saying. I was sitting in my dental hygienist chair a week ago and she told me about another customer that was storing food. She thought he might be prepping and she said if it ever got bad, she knew where to find some food. I just acknowledged the statement and let it rest.

Decision About Defending Your Home or the Need To go Mobile (especially if it comes to Guerilla Warfare to defend our country)

A lot of people talk about having a backup retreat somewhere that they will "drive to" or "fly to" when the collapse strikes. If you do need to ESCAPE AND EVADE, your decision should be one that is made before everyone else realizes that is what must be done. You will need to stay on top of daily news reports, and know how to connect the dots to give yourself a head start before the traffic lights go out. and road blocks go up.

Highways can quickly become kill zones, targeted by marauders, and using vehicles on roads AFTER the fact, might only get you either robbed or dead (or maybe both).

To a gang of armed looters who forgot to plan ahead before the collapse, there's no more juicy target than an RV loaded down with stored food, ammo and gold, if you drive one of those as you're trying to get to your destination. You'd better have your own cavalry along for the ride, or you probably won't get very far. Having armed company and security (such as a "chase car/truck or two" is prudent and effective as you get "out of Dodge". This would be your small group or team, and why "community" is essential to survival. Stick together.

Anyone who has studied military tactics, gang mentality or historical accounts of what happens when/after the governments fall knows that roads are to be avoided. Once the SHTF, the only safe way to go from point A to point B is to hump it on foot, motocross bikes, maybe ATVehicles, and even then, you'd better only travel at night (dusk or dawn) or you risk being shot by someone defending their own land. Play it smart and plan ahead.

This  isn't about turning your house into a concrete bunker armed to the teeth, because that's just an invitation to be hammered by an armed gang of looters. Rather, it's just as much about using cosmetic deception to fool would-be marauders into thinking your place has already been hit, for example, and is therefore worthless. There is a whole concept on this issue, to make it look as though your home is not worth the trouble to break into, because it "looks" like it already has !

Some old clothes on the lawn, a broken table, possibly and old TV that doesn't work out on the front lawn... 

Do you have a small trailer ? Because even with a vehicle, you can't possibly carry everything you need to stay safe and prepared. Be aware that gasoline supplies may be impossible to find for a while, so the very best place to hunker down is the place where you live, if that is possible. That's where you can store your food, emergency first aid supplies, communications equipment (wind-up emergency radios, for example), defensive items such as defensive items, solar battery chargers, cooking gear, instructional books, garden seeds and whatever else you might need to survive an economic collapse.Have an ESCAPE contigency, just in case. Cache some of your supplies that will be along your escape route, as well....just in case.

Read Sun Tzu - The Art of War. This has excellent tactical information and will help keep you alive and provide you the ability to develop offensive resistance operations as well.

Another fantastic book is:  The Citizen Soldier - Manual of Community Based Defense by Robert Bradley.  Read it - use this as your survival bible (along with Sun Tzu) and you should be able to apply these tactics and survive with your small group or team.

The Neighborhood Protection Team (Community Watch on Steroids)

Posted by Defensive Training Group on November 25, 2013

Posted in: Training and Leadership. 1 Comment

Here’s what the deal is going to be in a best case scenario in the typical liberty-minded citizen’s world when SHTF.

Four to six well-trained and armed (to one degree or another) people.   The term ‘Neighborhood Protection Team’ (NPT) is what the military calls a ‘fire team.’  The first people to popularize it that we’re aware of are two former Spec Op types, Jack Lawson and Mike Garand, who co-wrote, “A Failure of Civility.”  We will be reviewing their book here in a later post.

If couples are involved, that can mean up to 3 couples and a relative number of children involved in your NPT, with the children, of course, being ‘precious cargo’ and something to be protected.  If each member of the NPT has a family and there are 6 members, it could be as many as 6 families or 24 people (2 parents; 2 children).   That projection is one of the primary reasons the NPT needs to remain small.  Extreme case of 24 people is a lot of folks to keep sheltered, fed, healthy and safe.  Your work is cut out for you.

So, for now, forget a full 12 person squad; forget a 40 man or better ‘platoon strength’ organization.  Forget squad or platoon drills.  It’s generally not going to happen.  There may be isolated instances of larger, more well-prepared and organized semi-official groups (private ‘militias’, homogenous prepper communities and so forth), but by and large, initially, at least, that’s going to be beyond the pale of reality.  At least measured by the indicators we’ve seen in the training arena.  That, coupled with the ‘rugged individualist’ ready to ‘die on his doorstep’, provides at least anecdotal support for the assertion.

Certainly, as circumstances develop, small groups will become ‘centers of gravity’ as they survive and thrive, adapting to new conditions not seen in this country since the 1860′s, and subsequently, survivors will find their way to them, asking for sanctuary.  Some of these will be quick learning people with needed skills; but it is speculation at best until we’re at that point, God forbid.

Bringing this closer to home, you may consider limiting your initial ‘NPT’ to 4 to 6 people and work with other small groups in your larger neighborhood.  This will have several advantages, so long as your several teams have the same objective and can work together.  First, command is decentralized, which, when working with Decentralization of strength and command in your neighborhood is going to be keeping the community relatively safe during SHTF scenarios.

Your NPT should be armed with rifles if at all possible.  Pistols and shotguns are nice, but, as we know, are extremely range limited.  Bottom line is whatever your NPT carries is up to the members, but try to get the best ‘bang for your buck’ (pun intended).

Your NPT should meet and train on something related to the actual defense of your neighborhood as often as harmonious life will permit.  Marksmanship is extremely important; the keystone of the foundation of being able to protect one’s family, friends, and neighborhood.  However, don’t ignore other vital areas:

• PT (Directly impacts marksmanship as well as the ability to move and communicate).

• Map studies.

• Go to www.mytopo.com and get a map made of your area in as large a scale as possible (1:10,000 is a good study scale) and if you can, get an aerial or satellite photograph.  Make sure you have MGRS grid lines on the map.  Yes, it’s going to cost you some cash, but take up a collection from the NPT and spread the ‘damage’ as you can.  Make copies of the maps, or sections thereof, so you don’t have to mark on your ‘real’ map.  Never take your marked up copies out with you during the ‘real deal’.

• Learn to plot 8 digit grid coordinates (that’s what the MGRS grid lines are for, if you don’t already know)

• Take TC3 a couple of times.

• Learn how to put a ‘mission pack’ together.

• Go somewhere you won’t be thought of as nutbags and practice moving as a team.

• Practice hand and arm signal communication.

• Learn effective area camouflage – what works in your particular area.

• If money allows, sign up for training with someone who doesn’t do ‘hoorah’ garbage.  Moving in a ‘stack’ and popping of a couple mags into a target 10 meters away looks great on a video, but you want light infantry type training.  Most reputable folks will offer basic courses that meet your needs, or, if your situation is very unique, don’t usually have a problem adapting the class to fit your circumstances.  Talk to them and find out.  All they can say is, ‘No, thanks!’

• Start to study Situational Leadership.  If someone in your group has a lot of experience leading, let them do it.  It’s not about ego, it’s about staying alive.

Once you’ve reached a level of training that the members are comfortable with everything you are doing and trust each other, you must ensure that you keep the NPT effective without burning them out.  Try some exercises putting the normally quiet people in charge and have them run the training session, especially in the tactics area.

If you have several NPT’s in a larger neighborhood, great.  Coordinate with them, but stay autonomous as long as is necessary.  There’s no reason to be under a unified commander when performing as a NPT.  However, there is a need to network and coordinate activities of each through communication and discussion of the NPT leaders.  So long as the NPT leaders all agree on ‘Commander’s Intent’ (keeping the neighborhood safe and stopping attacks), working together toward that end will be fairly difficulty free (aside from the difficulties of daily life without a support network that we enjoy today…).

Something that also works well is decentralized NPT operations, where each team analyzes their own small area of influence and moves about with no set pattern but with set objectives, performing what is called, ‘security patrols,’ which are designed to find an enemy trying to infiltrate an area.

Back in my day we called it, “Distributed Area Defense.”  Teams operated in concert but independent of each other in their assigned sectors, all with the leeway to do whatever they believed to be necessary at the time to ensure their area was covered in an effective, random manner.

Think about how that applies to your urban, suburban, semi-rural, or rural ‘neighborhood’.   Then, formulate a plan.  Be choosy on who you bring into your NPT.  You want dependability above a warm body.

The Oath Keepers CPT (Community Preparedness Teams) program is an excellent solution offered to the Liberty Movement today in the wake of numerous national and international crises. 

It combines all of the necessary knowledge, skills, and organization required for a community of people, no matter where they happen to live, to be able to survive and thrive a large scale disaster scenario, and to provide the ability to rebuild and help others once the smoke has cleared.

It should be obvious to most people by now, especially Constitutional activists, that America is already in the path of a great landslide of economic, social, and political instability. This landslide cannot be stopped. It cannot be turned back. There are no silver bullet solutions, and there never will be. Given this fact, we can continue to plead in futility for the corrupt establishment to police itself, curl up in a ball and be buried by the chaos, or, we can rise above it through dedicated preparation and organization.

The goal of CPT is to make every neighborhood, county, and state in the country as independent, secure, and self sufficient as possible, erasing the fear of the common citizen, which ultimately thwarts the rise of tyranny within our society. A people without fear cannot be ruled.

CPT is not an exclusive club where high-speed-low-drag spec ops ninjas secretly train while keeping others outside the circle. The training is intended for everyone, because the purpose is to make as many Americans competent in self reliance as possible. We believe that ALL knowledge, including survival and tactical knowledge, should be made available to EVERY PERSON that wants it. Period. For only when each man and woman is prepared for any contingency will our culture change for the better.

My personal participation in the CPT program has been an excellent experience so far, and I feel that I should share some of that experience with others to perhaps help them in their own work building and organizing within their own part of the country. This will be the first of many "journals" on the progress of the Eureka, MT CPT group. I encourage others in CPT groups across the nation to submit their own CPT journals as well, with privacy concerns of individual members kept in mind.

Eureka has spent the better part of the last few months diligently training in self defense scenarios. Winter weather makes such training more difficult (though we will have cold weather training as well), so other preparedness classes have taken a back seat to tactical awareness during the summer and early fall.

The average Liberty Movement activist often trains in firearms mastery, but rarely trains within groups, which is a whole other ball game entirely. Very careful instruction was given to new members for weeks before live fire practice was initiated. Live fire events were tightly controlled by range instructors for safety purposes. Members advanced very quickly, and gun handling improved vastly from their first shot, to their last shot.

Our members are all across the age spectrum, but we try to give each of them as much training as possible regardless of physical limitations. It is important that every person know self defense techniques even if the chances are low that they will have to use them.

As training progresses, it becomes clear to most members what they are capable of and not capable of. Because of the unfortunate culture of "keyboard warriors" in the movement today, active supervised training is the only way to truly know who is squared away and who is not. It is not for trainers to decide for them; each individual knows after a time what their limits are. Knowing what we cannot do, is just as important as knowing what we can do, and will surely save lives in the future.

As the cold weather months approach, the team will be shifting into other areas of preparedness and response. We recently had a short lecture by our medically trained members on the rising Ebola scare which was enlightening, to say the least, and clarified for us even more the desperate need for expanded CPT teams in the U.S. as the failure of government to address the danger becomes more prominent.

Another member of the group also recently purchased a home freeze drying machine, which they have offered to lend to other members to put together a cost effective food storage supply. The ability to freeze dry food, especially meats and proteins, is incredibly valuable. Storage life of these packaged foods is seven years or more!

Soon I will be starting an indoor class on hand to hand self defense, and a local combat medic will be giving an in depth course on combat medicine techniques. Members will begin separating into their chosen fields of expertise in the near term, and reporting back with their own classes and presentations.

The group meets once a week, which is working out very well so far. If people can't dedicate at least one day a week for training, then they probably aren't serious enough about preparedness. Though, I expect this hunting season may lure away some of our members for one or two classes. At least hunting is, in itself, a form of training.

The most important realization any survivalist can make is the realization that no single person can do everything on his own. Without the mutual aid of others, most of them will not last very long during a crisis. Oath Keepers CPT fills this massive gap in the current survival ideology. The lone wolf mentality is utterly flawed, and makes the overall movement weak.

Our greatest accomplishment through CPT, I hope, will be the debunking of the lone wolf myth, resulting finally in active organization of Americans into effective voluntary preparedness groups able to teach others and replicate this vital knowledge forever.

Texas: Example of Militia-Minded Americans

Why Austin? Because Texas has its own power grid unlike the rest of the nation. Texas can grow its own food. Texas is the energy capital of the nation and can produce natural gas, diesel, oil and even jet fuel. Texas has masses of armed patriots who own more guns than they do pairs of shoes, and that makes Texas practically impenetrable to any invading force.

This could theoretically be followed by a naval invasion of forces from Red China and North Korea, both of which suffer from too many young males that can hardly be fed and might as well be thrown at some enemy nation as cannon fodder. These forces would plow right through Southern California, with all its anti-gun laws and totally unprepared populations. Oregon would fare a lot better, thanks to the country folks who know how to live off the land, and although Seattle would be quickly overrun by enemy forces, the eastern (country) parts of Washington state would put up a fierce resistance. And any enemy forces foolish enough to try to make it into Idaho would, of course, be viciously intercepted by highly capable resistance forces that would snipe, explode and shred the enemy's supply lines, halting any advance no matter how strongly intentioned. (You do not want to mess with American rebels and patriots in Idaho, for the record.)

If some enemy force was foolish enough to try to enter Texas, they would be obliterated by a mass of Texas farmers, ranchers, National Guardsmen, law enforcement officers and ex-military men who are all locked and loaded to the hilt. That's where I feel safest, in the midst of the best-armed and most well-skilled riflemen in the country, most of which are upstanding, community-minded citizens who defend life and liberty. Texas is a fortress of determined men and women who will not, under any circumstances, willfully surrender their freedoms or their Bill of Rights.

Interestingly, Austin is also a progressive town with lots of raw foods, vegans, yoga studios and amazing artists. It's a progressive, almost liberal town, surrounded by conservative country folks who ultimately serve as a safety buffer that protects the city of Austin itself. When SHTF time comes, you can bet all the unarmed Austin residents will be begging the rural cowboys to protect them from looters and armed gangs.

That's why people (Sheeple) who don't own guns dial 911 -- because they want real men who DO own guns to arrive as quickly as possible and solve their problem. Watch the anti-gun movement drop dead, right here - right now, when all hell breaks lose !!! Funny how that works, eh ?

Are your current skills based in reality? Or fiction...

As you consider where to go in a time of crisis, think about where you are right now. Is your local community able to defend itself? Do you live among people who know how to repair cars, weld equipment, repair a rifle, clean fresh fish, grow vegetables, raise chickens and chop firewood? If not, you might want to think about relocating to a place where you live among some more capable people rather than the city-minded people who -- let's face it -- live in an artificial reality that's extremely fragile and won't last but a few days in a true collapse scenario.

Can you build an emergency shelter from logs or dead trees ? Can you kill and dress wild game ?

You don't know jack, Jack!

Above all, as much as you think you know about preparedness, survival and the like, you probably don't know jack.

Do you know how to suture an open wound? I have literally spent an afternoon reading a suture book and practicing stitches on chicken meat bought from the grocery store. Seems silly, right? Who spends their Saturday suturing a chunk of chicken?

Then again, if you're cut and bleeding more than a little, I'm the guy who knows how to apply a tourniquet in 60 seconds, sanitize the wound and sew it up. It will be ugly as all hell, as I'm no cosmetic surgeon, but as long as you didn't sever some major artery, you'll probably live. Remember, we will be surviving and living under COMBAT-like conditions. Prepare, prepare !!

I've also been known to pack open wounds with freshly-cut aloe vera gel. I just stuff it right into the wound then use a skin stapler to staple the surface shut. Never had an infection problem, as aloe vera gel is a powerful antibacterial substance that also pulls the wound shut as it dries. It's crude, free and highly effective. Just the kind of country remedy I like to have handy in a time of crisis.

Get some skills, America !

These days, my goal in preparedness is to know as many useful skills as possible, which is why I study emergency first aid and other practical skills. In a crisis, I can prep emergency food for an entire community, sanitize water for a small group, perform basic emergency medical procedures on the wounded or even be part of a rifle fire team that defends a church, for example, against a band of armed looters. I'm not the best at any one of those things, but I'm useful in them all.

I know how to grow medicine, grow food and (somewhat) handle farm animals. I know how to clean a rifle, repair a torn belt on a broken piece of farm equipment, operate a John Deere tractor, start a fire without matches, and stitch back together a torn piece of canvas or clothing.

I still don't know how to field dress a wild pig or deer, but I figure I can always barter with someone who does, as I've got a complement of other useful skills that they probably don't possess. That's why "community" (small teams or groups) are essential. Everyone has a special skill set that they bring to the table and increase the survival rate of the entire group. I cannot stress this enough... Get yourself into a small group of intelligent, seasoned survivalists and learn how to cooperate together within your own command and control structure.

Most of all, I'm determined to survive, and I'm determined to help as many of my fellow human beings survive with me, to the best of my ability and resources. And that's ultimately what's going to get me through the coming collapse, along with God's help and guidance.

Wherever you go, assess the basics (Keep it Simple)

When people look at relocating for preparedness reasons, they often overlook the basics such as water resources. That's why I recommend people buy the book "Strategic Relocation -- North American Guide to Safe Places, 3rd Edition" (http://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Rel...) by Joel Skousen. I've been a fan of Skousen for over a decade, and this book will walk you through the key decision-making process of finding a place that can keep you and your family alive. That place is NOT New York City, Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, nor Los Angeles, obviously. Those are places to go if you want to DIE in a collapse. Any large city can be more dangerous than rural locations. Of course, there are always exceptions. These are simply general guidelines.

But there are many places across North America that are quite suitable for creating your preparedness retreat as a primary residence. Many of these places even have internet bandwidth available, so you can potentially earn a living on the 'net while you prepare your location.

Even in Texas, you'll discover that Austin has its own pitfalls, including being relatively close to both nuclear power facilities and the border with Mexico. Both of those are legitimate concerns, of course, and there's no perfect spot that has everything you want. You have to find the best combination of factors that matter to you, then do the best you can with the time, skills and resources available to you.

Remember, you are NOT reacting to a catastrophe, YOU ARE RESPONDING TO IT. There's a big difference.

Timing: Are you prepared yet?

If you're not already well along with your own preparedness plans, you run the risk of missing this train entirely. 2015 is nearly upon us, and I certainly see a financial collapse headed our way very soon.

It take anywhere from 1 to 2 years to really get squared away with your retreat if you consider the process of making good quality soil for gardening, planting some fruit trees, squaring away your irrigation system, getting some backyard chickens and so on. You can't just "buy a place" and move in and suddenly expect to be fully covered. Building a retreat requires experience that only time will deliver -- experience dealing with weather, garden pests, wild predators, knowing the lay of the land for escape routes, defensive and offensive positioning, and so on.

Just squaring away your own home water supply can be a daunting task if you don't know where to begin, and even getting a well drilled can be a six-month process in terms of acquiring permits and waiting on drilling companies (which are often backlogged).

Time is running short. If you're not already in the process of storing the supplies you need -- and learning the skills that go with them -- you're late. Get on top of this NOW, and prepare to do some long-term camping out in the wild, as well.

And don't worry if you're not in the "perfect" geographic location or the perfect house or whatever. Work with what you have. A family with skills and just a few basic supplies is far better off than a wealthy family with a house full of gear they don't know how to use. I can't even tell you how many people out there just buy stuff, toss it on a shelf and never learn how to use it. Be WISE...Be SMART !!!  TRAIN, Train, Train !!! Get used to doing those things that you will need to do in the forest, of when utilities become compromised.

Whatever you buy to be prepared, practice with it and practice with your entire family. Learn to use a firearm....such as a pistol, shotgun, and long-range rifle. These are the basic three types of guns you will need. Also, figure about 1,000 rounds of ammunition for each firearm you own.