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Post by wtr100 on Nov 26, 2019 10:51:31 GMT -6
Trying to clean this up just a bit
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I found my self 50ish, 40 lbs over weight and with time on my hands now that second son had headed off to college. I decided to look into the militia. Yes I know it could be a batch of knuckle dragging clansmen or a bunch of whannabe gear queers but what the heck. Worst case maybe I scare up some students for the CCW classes I teach, make a few bucks that way.
They said to pack food for a full day so that week I made a pan of Logan bread. Logan bread is named for Mt Logan, a dense bread and full of nuts and dried fruit. We used to make it for week long Boy Scout canoe and backpacking trips. My version has pumpkin in it, extra black strap molasses and dried cranberries and dried tart cherries. I vacuum sealed 4" squares. Making it brought back memories of Hudson Bay Bread. From the Boy Scouts Northern Tier High Adventure Base the traditional version was oatmeal , lots of butter , corn syrup, sugar , honey , maple flavor and slivered almonds. My version was simpler oatmeal, maple syrup, coconut oil and slivered almonds. I made a batch and again cut into 4" squares and vacuum sealed them.
Made a Walmart run where I grabbed a couple of the flavored tuna packets, some of those caffeinated drink sticks, single serve gator-aid mixes. On the way out I spotted the little cans with the red devil on them, Underwood meat spreads. Hmmm chicken, ham , roast beef, corned beef or liverwurst which to pick. Unable to decide I get two cans of each.
I decide to pack like the Allen Gallon Challenge - each scout put his food for the day into a zip loc freezer bag. I put in two squares each of Logan and Hudson Bay Bread, a single serve peanut butter, a can of Underwood liver wurst, some crackers, some hard blue mints and some caffeine drink mixes. Wow that's a long list who's writing this, J.W. Rawles?
The 'Militia Standard' was RealTree cammo BDU but the only RealTree I owned was a set of arctic bibs and coat. The OIC said in an e-mail that BDU's or whatever were fine so put on heavy green Carhart cargo pants , much better quality and less expensive than the official BSA pants, heavy blue cotton long sleeve t and a really disreputable looking plain khaki ball cap I got from Menards. The only true military stuff was my boots - USAF Green Corcorans. I got 'em for $50 at a gun show and they were the best boots I'd ever owned. The older I get the more I like good tall boots. My day pack was bought 30 years ago, a thick black nylon thing, it pre-dated the MOLLE stuff and ALICE wasn't cool back then so it was just thick black nylon. It did have a padded waist strap and chest straps.
We weren't supposed to be armed at this event but that went against my personal policy of never leaving my cave without my club, hat tip Mr Mark Walters, so I figured my little Kahr MK9 in the pocket holster wasn't bending the rules too bad. Beside what would they do court martial me?
HA!
I got to the TA or 'training area'. It was a picnic area way back in a state park. I arrived early as is my habit. A guy by the name, well call sign everyone uses a handle or call sign, of Gravy greeted me. He was a trim, weathered looking guy head to toe in Real Tree BDU's complete with boonie hat and trousers bloused into his Vietnam style combat boots. Each collar had a blacked out captains train track, his right shoulder has black and white US flag with one blue stripe in the middle, on the left shoulder was an olive oval patch with a rust brown III. He had an old school pistol belt with two canteens and a single butt pack held up by suspenders and had the de ringur Shemag in green and black around his neck. We chatted a bit, he thanked me for coming, directed me under the picnic shelter.
I signed the muster and filled out a paper. I asked the huge lady in RealTree if I needed to fill it all in. The answer was no, fill in what I wanted but do note any medical stuff they should know about and contact info in case I got injured. By the time I was done more folks had arrived. A knot of them had formed, drinking coffee, shooting the breeze and smoking cigars. A personality flaw of mine is despising cigars. The only thing worse than cheap cigars is expensive cigars. They cost more money and are as reprehensible as the cheap ones. I stayed upwind of the noxious cloud. There was a group of obvious newbs such as myself. They either had brand new RealTree or like me no real tree.
There were all sorts of people now in various bits of RealTree. Some with stripes or rank badges on hats or sleeves or collars. There were all sorts of pins and patches to be found with some guys lookeing like a walking patch collections. Most were serious but some humorous. One guy had one on his left shoulder that said 'Chairborne', cute. Another was a tab like a ranger tab that said,"Regular Guy". I'd find out later he thought of himself as anything but a regular guy and had the interwebbook props to prove it.
A simple flagpole had been put up. They, or is it we, formed up for 'colors'. The color guard was mismatched. The bugle playing to the colors was ragged and there was every combination of hand salutes, hands to hearts, hats on, hats off but the flag got up in the air. The CO lead the assembled masses in something that resembled an oath of enlistment. The a guy with crosses on his collar gave a blessing.
There were 21 regulars in three squads, four 'state cadre' or big shots and five newbs including myself. Morning was land nav. Most folks dug out those military lensatic compasses, I pulled out my trusty Boy Scout Silva base plate compass. The 'Cadre' passed out toppo maps. Gravy came by to give me a hand then realized I was pretty good at it already. We trooped through the woods looking for rally points, each squad getting a couple newbs tacked on. My squad was friendly enough but it was clear I was along for the ride but it was cool.
Towards the end we were about about to hump up a steep hill to hump down another to then hump up a second hill to find the final point. I spoke up, "We could just follow this creek bed down and around to where the other creek bed comes in back track it to the curve then attack a bearing off that to get do." Regular Guy looked skeptical but said "Lead on Mc Gee." My route worked rather well, not sure RG was that happy about it.
We broke for lunch. Lots of the establishment types broke out MRE's or the really cool dudes like RG broke out First Strike Rations. The cigar club fired up - did I mention this is nasty. I was surprised how many folks here smoked - I guess working in corporate / IT world so long. Anyway Gravy came over to say hey. He was interested in my 'Alan Bag' even tried some of the Logan Bread and was impressed.
Half way through lunch they switched to lunch and learn were we kept eating while some guys did first aid training. The had everyone toss out their med kits. A guy with a patch showing a winged angle with a sword and the word Paramedic around the edge and a name tape saying Nurse Ratchet was inspecting. He made good natured fun of some folks only having a zip-loc of band-aids. Others had full on 'downed operators' kits.
"What for ewe has two bags?" he asks me.
I explained one was a boo boo kit with band aids, anti-biotic ointment, Imodium and Aleive while the other was a blow out kit with tourniquet, kerlex gauze , ace wrap and duct tape. "I like it he pronounced. Simple, effective, cheap"
Afternoon training was GPS. Again we did a lot of plodding through the woods in a straight line. While it worked didn't seem the best way to go at it.
The final exercise was a LAND NAV with first aid. The newbs were formed into a squad. The other squads charged off into the woods. I held out group up a second. To the guy holding the GPS, 'What is bearing and distance?" He gave it to me, it was off our toppo map so I had everyone walk to the big park map. The map was huge, 4' square. I found the picnic shelter on the map, luckily it had a distance scale on the bottom. I applied bearing and range to the map.
"Yeh, but how accurate is that map?" someone asked.
"Should be close enough, why don't we drive to this point here then use the GPS to guide in the last 300 yards, it'll save us 4,000 yards of so of bush whacking."
We piled into on guys's diesel bro-dozer pickup, this thing was huge. I wonder if he has air stairs at home, anyway we drove to a curve in the road and parked. Then used the GPS to overland out way to the designated point. The training staff hadn't even set up the 'wounded' yet!
I got home early evening, wife was heading out with friends to play some sort of chick card game. So I showered and fixed myself a small rib eye , sweet potatoe and cracked open a Sam Adams and intended to surf the web and then watch some walking dead.
I was lurking in AR15.com. I don't post much there, after an unfortunate incident I was banned from the site. I went through a couple alternate ID's until those were detected and banned. I managed a final id that I mostly lurked with, having less than 20 posts in over a year.
Surprisingly a message box opened. Weird it had no 'from' UserId
"Saw you at training today."
"We are Impressed."
"Keep going to training."
"Eyes open. Mouth Closed"
"Lose 30 lbs by Spring"
"Liberty or Death..."
Whut duh fuq? I tried to get into my PM's again and it was gone. How did they know my AR15.COM ID? Either spooky or a very well played joke.
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Post by bluefox2 on Nov 26, 2019 18:34:34 GMT -6
Think I have seen this somewhere else some time ago.
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Post by willc453 on Nov 26, 2019 21:05:58 GMT -6
Thanks for the start of what should be an interesting story. However, thought your Logan's bread bit was so much bs. You know, a recipe made up for this story. But went to Youtube and it's real. Downloaded 2 different videos of how to make it and going to give it a try in the next few days. Learn something new every day.
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Post by texican on Nov 27, 2019 1:51:19 GMT -6
Think I have seen this somewhere else some time ago. bf, you are correct, wtr100 has this posted on at least one other site.... It is a good read with lots of info.... Texican.... |
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Post by wtr100 on Nov 27, 2019 7:15:56 GMT -6
Think I have seen this somewhere else some time ago. bf, you are correct, wtr100 has this posted on at least one other site.... It is a good read with lots of info.... Texican.... Going to try and clean it up here - maybe improve the story a little |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 2, 2019 12:55:14 GMT -6
Chapt Two
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Around 9:30 that evening I started to get e-mails. "Welcome Patriot". "Download this app, we don't use message boards any more." "Mandatory gear list."
The gear list seemed typical stuff. They were really intent on a few things. First was an AR15 in 5.56. This was the one non-negotiable item it seemed. I was rather fond of my Palmetto State AR in 9 mm but of course what normal American didn't have at least one AR15 in 5.56? My go-to AR was a Rock River lower, with a Spikers Tactical slick side upper, 16" stainless full profile barrel, simple Troy fixed rear sight and TRS25 red dot sight.
Most interesting was a message from 'Gravy'. Seems he owned a farm and his squad was doing some live fire training and was inviting selected newbies to get us 'up to speed' next weekend. All we needed was AR , pistol, load vest, magazines and such. Sounds like fun and I can always use getting up to speed.
Now I've been teaching CCW classes for several years now and taking a defensive firearm course once or twice a year. For CCW class I taught in an old USGI pistol belt with the Y type suspenders, had the 'nam' look to it. My buddy Nick made me a basic Kydex holster and two mag pouch for a Glock 17. It wasn't fancy but it worked and the suspenders kept the whole thing from sinking to half mast. I had a few USGI doo-dads to hang on it, 30 round mag pouches, 100 and 200 round SAW gunner pouches and an old school 1 qt canteen. I decided to set up for my 'getting up to speed' with two USGI mag pouches (green), my kydex holster and pistol mag pouches and one brown 200 round saw pouch with a tourniquet and home brew pressure dressing in it.
I put the whole rig on an looked in the mirror. Well I'd never make the best dressed edition of Militia Quarterly, nothing matched. The belt was tan, suspenders and rifle mag pouches green, holster was black, pistol mag holders were grey. Oh well, a newbie will look like a newbie.
I had replied that I'd love to come and received a response: "Great. We'll meet outside the diner in the town of Kickapoo then car pool to the farm. Be sure everything is unloaded and cased."
Hmmmmm. Seems a little to double oh, secret squirrel for my tastes. "Hey guy seems a little too James Bourne to me maybe another time, but thanks."
A few minutes later, "HA! Yeh OK. We'll meet you at the diner and you can follow us out. I'd give you address or directions but GPS will take you to the wrong place and it's kinda tricky the first time."
"Ok thanks."
The next Saturday arrived bright and crisp. Gravy met me and two others at the diner. One was a guy at last weeks field training or FTX. Can't bring up his name, I'm terrible with names. The other was a lady, a very tall lady. I'm 6'1" on a good day and I bet she wasn't an inch shorter than me. It was a quick 25 minute drive to Gravey's farm and he wasn't woofing about a bit tricky.
There was a flag up already and a quick opening with Pledge of Allegiance and quick prayer. Gravy had three other 'regulars' with him, Sea Dog, Nurse Ratchet and MollyB. Looks like they planned to have a coach for each of us. Gravy's cadre as I thought of them had on pretty tacticool gear. Plate carriers, load bearing vests with pistols in chest holsters or sometimes in drop-leg holsters, a pair of gloves held in a carabiner through the right front belt loop.
First order of business was gear inspection. Tall Woman as I thought of her had a basic duty belt with Taurus 24/7 pistol in 40 S&W. She was being loaned a Wyndham Polymer SRC with a simple Primary Arms Micro Red Dot and a USMC Tactical Vest.
Other Guy was loaded for bear. His pistol was a Glock 29 , a mighty 10 mm , with a light attached to the rail. His rifle was a Noveskie with a 10" barrel and a rule beater Shockwave brace stock but not a stock thing.
Only the US Government could look at that thing and not think stock but hey if it works. He had a high end red dot on it, he had a magnifier on the red dot, he had one of those fore grip gizmos on it, he had some crazy high end tactical sling on it. I'd guess all in he was well north of $2500 into that rifle no pistol - whatever.
I was feeling down right in inadequate with my plain Glock 19, wait it did have a Lone Wolf barrel so I could shoot cast bullets, and my minimalist AR15 and web gear that was mismatched and almost could have come off a soldier in Viet Nam. Then things really came off the rails when Nurse Ratchet looked at my 9 mm ammo.
"Is this reloads?"
"Yeh."
"ALL of it?"
"Uh yah, why?"
Gravy, "My bad, we typically don't allow training with reloads out here. Do you have any other ammo with you?"
Lovely, if they send we out to get more ammo I'm just going to blow this Popsicle stand. "No it's all reloaded, even the rifle ammo." DOH! Why did I volunteer that?
Gravy, "How about this. We'll have you shoot a few rounds of each, we'll find the empty cases and look for pressure signs."
Well that seemed a reasonable plan. Since I reload right down the middle of the load data I passed with no problems. After which Gravy raised his hand in the 'blessing' position, "I here by dub thee Reloads to be your lawful militia handle until someone comes up with a better one!' Great now I too have a nom-de-gurre.
We would wear our weapons all day. Training started with handguns, Nurse Ratchet would be my coach it seemed. Before long we were being trained in presenting from a holster. Gravy must have been an NRA Instructor like I am or at least he used the NRA's method.
Grip, Chest
Pull, Chest
Rotate, Chest
Join
Extend
Fire
Safety, Chest
Reholster
Nurse Ratchet asked, "Do you have a carry permit?"
"Yup"
"It shows, looks like you've done this before."
"A time or two ...". Yup I've led these drills once a month for the last three or four years. But I said nothing, trying to keep mouth shut and eyes and ears open.
Class was actually fun. By lunch we were drawing and engaging multiple targets. Fun stuff. I think Shorty , the gal, and Boomer , the guy, were both getting beat pretty good and were ready for lunch.
Towards the end of lunch Gravy asked if I would talk about Logan Bread and Hudson Bay Bread. Sure I even had an extra square of each so I could pass them around. "These are Boy Scout trail foods. Logan Bread is a wheat based bread where Hudson Bay is oat based. They are pretty much the same to make - mix the batter / dough, press into a sheet pan and bake like cookies or brownies. I cut mine into 4" squares then vacuumed seal and freeze. The Logan is three parts whole wheat, one part rye with pumpkin and molasses and dry cherry and cranberry. There's other stuff in there too probably." I opened and passed the Logan around. "Hudson bread is simple, oatmeal , coconut oil, maple syrup and slivered almonds. Both fill you up and store well. Both go good with butter or jelly or peanut butter on top. They are pretty high calorie though and mostly carb and fat', I warned.
MollyB , "Can you post the recipes up?"
"Sure once I figure the board / app thing out."
Chuckles from the others.
Hey now ...
Afternoon was rifle practice. I guess I'm more a pistolero than a rifleman. A lot of what they did was new to me but it made sense. We started zeroing at 25m. Mine was already zeroed there, so yay me. Shooting next to the 10 inch pistarbfle was an experience. IT WAS REALLY LOUD, Boomer was really earning his name.
Shorty was doing well I thought. The Wyndham polymer lower and upper was shooting just fine. I'd always heard bad things about them on the interwebnet ... amazing not exactly true. Of course we weren't running and gunning mutant, ninja, UN, zombie bikers yet either.
During a break the cadre left us be and Boomer was holding court with Shorty. "You really get what you pay for in a rifle. You really owe it to yourself to get the best rifle you can afford." When Boomer was looking away Shorty rolled her eyes.
I was squirting a little Ed's Red onto the bolt carrier of my rifle and offered the bottle to Shorty. By now Gravy had joined us. She looked at him before accepting the tube, it was his rifle.
"I that CLP?"
"More or less, it's Ed's Red, kerosene, mineral spirits , acetone and synthetic tranny fluid - equal parts of each and then a quarter part of some 80wt synthetic racing motor oil I got from the brother-out-law."
Gravy chuckled at the brother-out-law joke. "I've heard of that stuff, go ahead and do you mind if I steal a squirt? Now in my mind an AR doesn't need to be squeeky clean as much as well lubed." He offered the tube to Boomer who of course used only Frog Lube. I thought to myself aren't frogs pretty much self-lubricating?
We'd been shooting paper and 25 meters. We next did the 'mess with your buddy drill'. Your buddy gave you 4 magazines and 20 rounds. The cadre gave you 5 dummy rounds. You randomly loaded the magazines then your 'buddy' shot them clearing malfunctions as they went. I got to load for Boomer and the devil got in me. I loaded the first two mags with a single round. This left me with two mags, 18 rounds and 5 dummies. I loaded one mag with the first and last round as a dummy and a the other the first, third and last rounds were dummies.
To add to the fun we faced 5 silhouettes from 25 to 75 yards and several cover options. We were to engage each target with at least 3 hits and we were under the timer. I slipped the mags into Boomers high end tac vest such that he would grab the mags with one round first. He got a little twisted around after the first two malfunctions and dropped a loaded mag on the ground when he should have tap-racked. He was not happy with me. I'm a jerk, it's the way I am. I did ok but Shorty rocked it. She was a stone cold killer, at least against paper.
To finish the day we moved to the 300 yard range and steel. The steel plate was a full size silhouette with a swinging head 'flipper thing' and a swinging torso 'flipper thing'. I guess these were kill zones? Anyway Boomer had a devil of a time keeping the short barrel and short stocked Noveskie on the steel even with the optic and magnifier. Shorty was a machine. Once she was slung up she could make it ring every second lick a ticking clock. I tried to get cute and ring the head shot flapper thing. Trying to remember the drop difference between the 250m battle zero and 300. I think it was 4", not much wind so ignore it. Held top of head squeezed.
Nurse Ratchet, "Your way high, nicked his left cheek."
Adjusted to the top of the right side of the head. Squeeze.
Nurse Ratchet, "Split the gap in the kill plate. Are you taking head shots ya show off?"
Third shot nailed the kill plate.
Nurse Ratchet, "Ok Mr Hathcock, now how about we speed thing up and you shoot the center plate?"
Not a bad day of shooting. On the way home I called the wife and suggested I pick up a pound of bbq beef brisket and a pound of pulled pork for dinner from our favorite BBQ joint. The thought it was a great idea. She'd put some corn-on-the-cob on. Oh and there was Jason Borne movie on the satellite thing tonight.
Wife crashed after the movie so I got on the web to do some surfing. I went to AR15.com half expecting the mystery man to contact me. But was locked out. Drat foiled again. Well I'd slum over at pawfiction proboards for a bit.
Hmmm a PM from /dev/null? How can a user be /dev/null?
/dev/null: "Dont make people mad"
/dev/null: "Dont show off"
me: sorry - the deeble made me do it, Gravy is this you
?
/dev/null: Keep going to training.
/dev/null: Don't move into leadership
/dev/null: Lose 30 lbs by spring.
me: Sure.
me: Hey my AR15.com account was permabanned is thig going to happen at pawfiction proboards too?
/dev/null: No
/dev/null: Will fix AR15.com
me: Are we going to chat after every militia training
/dev/null: No
Then I was logged out of pawfiction proboards . Well hell I thought, did they get me banned here too? But I was able to log back on. Of course the PM from /dev/null was gone. There was no user /dev/null in fact I don't think a user name can have a slash in it.
The next day I looked at the fitness center in out little hick town. Jarred was the guy who ran it with his father Paul. They had me doing battle ropes and kettle bells and beating a tractor tire with a sledge hammer. I was surprised how reasonable the price was. Besides just coming to work out Paul or Jarred would work with you or leave a 3x5 card stuck to the wall with what you were to do.
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Post by texican on Dec 2, 2019 14:07:31 GMT -6
WTR,
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by millwright on Dec 2, 2019 18:45:04 GMT -6
Good to see you here, WTR.
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Post by 9idrr on Dec 2, 2019 21:50:23 GMT -6
Good to see you here, WTR. And good to see how he's personalizin' this for the PAWfiction board. Makes it worth startin' over from the get-go to see what little changes will be made. Thanks for bringin' this one over here, sir. |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 3, 2019 8:16:22 GMT -6
Good to see you here, WTR. And good to see how he's personalizin' this for the PAWfiction board. Makes it worth startin' over from the get-go to see what little changes will be made. Thanks for bringin' this one over here, sir. I'm going to add some stuff to it make it a bit less awful |
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Post by texican on Dec 3, 2019 19:28:30 GMT -6
And good to see how he's personalizin' this for the PAWfiction board. Makes it worth startin' over from the get-go to see what little changes will be made. Thanks for bringin' this one over here, sir. wtr, Occasionally awful gets the point across better than good.... Texican.... |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 4, 2019 15:03:01 GMT -6
Chapter 3
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Working out 3 days a week and changing diet dropped weight really quickly. On advice from trainer Jarred my Monday through Friday breakfast was radically changed. One big spoon full of cheap orange flavor fiber powder , aka metamucil, and a scoop of protein powder in a glass of water and shaken like crazy. The idea was protein and fiber to fill me up. This was followed by a whole 12 oz can of V8 Juice. In the beginning I hated this stuff and had to power slam it ice cold. As time went but I got to actually like it and it's two servings vegetables. The last part was weird but surprisingly good. Starting with black coffee slightly strong add two table spoons of butter, huh? Two table spoons of coconut oil. Put it where? In the coffee? Blend or mix like mad. It was surprisingly good.
I guess the idea was no carbs or very little carbs. Lunch was meat at vegetables. Lots of veggies. Typical lunch might be half a bag of frozen broccoli and half a pound of deer burger or ground pork or a big chopped chicken breast with vinegar and olive oil. Snacks could be carrots or cheese or nuts or fruit or sometimes olives. I ate whatever the wife fixed for dinner just less of it and try to not eat after 8 or 9.
By late fall I had lost 10 lbs. I decided to get some of the required gear, especially after an 'order' came down from above that the Militia was moving to a dual standard uniform. In addition to RealTree camo solid, muted colors such as olive green, sage green, khaki and coyote were authorized specifically not authorized was
Black - too ninja
Sherriff's Dept Brown - too sheriff's dept
ACU - don't want to look like Army
MARPAT - ditto Marines
ABU - ditto Air Force
NWU - too gay even for the navy
Companies or squads may wish to standardize at unit leader discretion for identification, unit cohesion and esprit de corpse. Corpse was not a typo the message said corpse not corps. I did some surfing - wow some of these makers were mighty proud of their wares, $60 or even $80 for a pair of trousers to run around in the woods?
I found LA Police Gear. They had an inexpensive line of tac clothes, of course made in China, that looked functional enough and not crazy expensive. Some was even made of fairly heavy cotton canvas duck. I was composing a note to Gravy when he sent a group message. He'd been in contact with a surplus outfit about 90 miles away. They had 20' shipping container full of Austrian Milsurp just in. Austrian was high quality gear and rather than camo it was a dark green. Austrian milsurp tended to have a lot of XL and XXL.
The deal was if we come help unload the container, sort, sift and pack the stuff we could get two sets of trouser, two sets on tops , a fleece jacket , an outer jacket, a wool watch cap and a wool jeep cap for $50. Plus you'd get the secret friends and family discount code for a year that's good for 50% off.
We showed up bright and early at their warehouse on Saturday morning. The owner of the place was there. He said this is always the most exciting part. He buys the stuff 'pig in a poke', so you really never know until you open it. This container was huge or it looked huge to me, 20 feet long and 8 feet square. He cracked it open and peee youuuuuu.
"That's the smell of money or Austrian moth balls, depending on your point of view." He flipped on two big floor fans to properly circulate the stink around. The first layer of stuff was in bales for lack of a better term, bundles of garments tightly wrapped in a heavy plastic sheeting and heat fused closed. They weighed about as much as a hay bale but you couldn't use baling hooks on them! We used little kindergarten cutters to open. It was surprisingly hard work and the smell gave me a pounding head ache.
End of the day though it was all sorted and bagged and stacked and counted with some surprise finds. Cases of really nice 5 button wool sweaters. Some super heavy duty web or duty belts with a crazy Austrian buckles. You could likely hook these belts end to end and use them as a tow strap. Boxes of canteen kits with a cover , metal cup and metal stove thing. The owner was quite happy with the work and insisted everyone take some extra gear. In fact he piled stuff on us.
I walked out of the deal with two heaping armloads of stuff. Best of all was the gore-tex like rain suit and 10 pairs of the nicest heavy wool socks I've ever had.
Gravy and I stopped for some hate chicken on the way home, Chik-fil-e , spicy chicken sandwiches and sweet tea he asked. "Hey did I see your name on the State Police list of CCW instructors? Are you an NRA instructor?"
"Guilty. Kinda left it out of my info sheet. Seems like you were an NRA instructor at one time too. "
"That's cool and no I'm not NRA certified. I did get home of their personal protection lesson plan and sort of self-studied it. I am an Appleseeds Red Hat and United States Rifle Association Rifle and pistol Instructor though. Anyway you still teach CCW? My three daughters are 21, 23 and 24. I want to get them their carry permits, would you run a family course at the farm?"
We agreed and he actually haggled the price back UP to my normal full price. We did the 16 hours of training at his farm and it went well. Gravy and his wife sat in on the training too, although the already had carry permits. I have to say that was one well-armed family. I think they might have been on Mr. Gaston Glock's person Christmas card list.
All of the girls had both a double stack G26 and a single stack G48. Mrs. Gravy , well Gravy's wife Anne , had a double stack G19 to go with her G26. I shudder to think how many Glocks Gravy owns, my suspicion is many, many. He brought to class a Glock 17 with a full Saurez International internals and Trigicon RMR slide. That thing was sweet. Gravy brought out a 50 cal ammo can darn near full to the top with 147 gr lead reloads. I shot Gravy a look, cast lead in Glocks?
"Lone Wolf barrels."
"Gotcha."
We flew through the basic shooting drills. By lunch time the girls were shooting one handed, weak hand against the clock. I broke out my Palmetto State Armory 9 mm AR15 that fed off Glock magazines. It was super basic 16" barrel and A2 front sight and fixed rear sight. Well MagPul furniture is kind of fancy, right? A Primary Arms Red Dot is super deluxe fancy too, well kinda, maybe. A little?
The ladies loved it. It ran like a champ with everything except single stack mags. Of course the single stacks didn't fit and fell out so that might have been part of the problem. End of the day Gravy says to me, he says "I guess I'm building four of those for Christmas this year." No doubt about it I want to be on Gravy's Christmas list ....
The next militia training was squad patrolling in a rural environment. Part of me wondered what the point of this was. I didn't exactly see Red Dawn or Patriots as actually happening but we could be doing close order drill on a parade ground so I went with it but if they started showing us how to make ghilli suits after lunch I was outta here. We were on 200 acres of wooded private land. Everyone was going to patrol with weapons so ran weed whip line through the muzzle and out the action. It looked slightly retarded but was effective and cheap so there was that. Tradition seemed to be for squads to form up pretty much at random and for squads to elect a squad leader who appoints an assistant.
I'd geeked out a little and sewed two patches on the Austrian BDU's. On was the First Naval Jack (subdued) on the left shoulder the other was a subdued field forward US Flag. I hadn't gone full potatoe to get name tapes made so i had strips of duct tape with my Nom De Millitia "Reloads" in sharpie marker stuck above my right chest pocket and the back of my hat.
Now back in the day I was a sailor man , surface warfare officer in the US Navy , so patrolling through the woods wasn't exactly something we trained on. But somewhere along the way I learned to keep all the straps and what not tied down, some of my squad mates not so much. Our Squad Leader for the day was a bearded, cigar chompimg guy dressed head to toe in well-worn real tree. He was one of the walking patch displays. His rifle sported both a collapsible stock and bipod and rather large scope. I was a little concerned when he started to lecture us on Rodgers Rules of Rangering. Why do I need a hatchet and why hell would I scour it???
Turns out he was actually quite competent. Got us organized and we 'moved to an objective' and set up a 'rally point' and even 'linked up with another unit'. It was quite an enjoyable time in the woods. During lunch I traded a 4" square of Hudson Bay Bread to our 'squad leader' for a chocolate dairy shake and hoo ha bar. This MRE stuff ain't half bad.
MollyB asked if I'd we willing to supervise the making of HBB and LB at next month's training. She owned and ran a catering business and commercial kitchen. She had mixers, food processors, baking sheets and ovens. Everything we'd need. Hummm I guess this stuff is a bit of a hit.
Afternoon was road block training. While a little less interesting than 'patrolling' the woods it seemed a little more practical. They spiced it up with a fake IED blast and some first aid. Cadre went fairly all out with a loud BOOM and some darn realistic looking injured people. It got a little extreme when faux-jehadis swept through and 'killed' us all while we treated the wounded.
In all not a bad day. I was getting the measure of this crew. There were plenty of blow hard and wanna be's and more than a few right wingers and even a few really kooky libertarians, but then again is there anything other than kooky libertarians. In all most of the folks were pretty solid.
I was home by late afternoon, got a shower and took the wife for dinner and college basketball game. i can't hardly stand basketball but she enjoyed it and they do have killer nacho's at the civic center. There is something about neon orange, molten cheese like substance on greasy fried corn slabs with a side of ancient jalapeno peppers.
We got home and I did some surfing. Survival boards was quiet tonight, looks like my AR15.com account was back. Interesting.
More interesting a PM awaited. I wondered if it was a moderator. Odd a PM with a blank from address. The title was 'Listen to this' inside was a link to my Audible account. There was a new book waiting for me , The Guerilla Factory, even odder I still had 17 credits on my account.
Another PM arrived from 'blank'. With the title - 'write this down'.
ICM Associates - 123 Park Street - ask for Avi.
I wrote it down and decided to try to copy and paste the message. Oddly I couldn't grab the text. Weird. I tried to screen shot the message and why whole browser immediately closed. WTFO?
Logged back in and there was another PM
" ": Do not do that again.
" ": Hudson bread is good, Logan bread is excellent. BZ
" ": Listen to book.
Then the browser closed. Of course when I logged in again the messages were gone.
Guerilla Factory was all about Special Forces Qualification course.
I tried to look up ICM Associates on the web and there was nothing, zip , zero, nuffin on it. I figured I swing by on the way home from work. Park street was in a light industrial part of town. The building at 123 Park was sort of small warehouse looking with windows ringing the whole way around the top. There were a few basic pickups in the front lot but not much else. The door was solid steel and locked. It had a key pad and a buzzer.
Oh what the hell, I buzzed.
"May I help you?"
"Is Avi there?"
"Book, what book are you listening to?"
"Uh? Excuse me?"
"What book are you listening to?"
"Oh ah 'The Guerilla Factory'"
BUZZ! Click! "Come ahead."
Inside was a gym. It looked like a boxing or karate gym. Lots of mats and open space. Some heavy bags, some speed bags. Avi was a tiny little fellow, swarthy with grey hair. He had on non-descriptive loose green pants and a grey cotton t-shirt. This was a Krav Maga gym, Krav Maga being a rather practical self defense form from Israel. Avi pointed me to a locker room, telling me there was a locker in there where I could find some workout clothes. He spent 30 minutes testing my strength and flexibility and wind. He asked about my current fitness program. He explained a little more about Krav Maga.
"You keep up with what you're doing for maybe 6 - 8 more weeks then come back and we'll start training."
"Well ok, but how much will this cost?"
"Consider yourself a, ah ... , a scholarship student for the first few months."
This is getting a little weird....
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Post by texican on Dec 4, 2019 19:52:07 GMT -6
wtr,
This was followed by a whole 12 oz can of V8 Juice. In the beginning I hated this stuff and had to power slaw it ice cold. As time went but I got to actually like it and it's two servings vegetables.
power slaw Have eaten a lot of slaw, but have never power slawed a drink...
The last part was weird but surprisingly good. Starting with black coffee slightly strong add two table spoons of butter, huh? Two table spoons of coconut oil. Put it where? In the coffee? Blend or mix like mad. It was surprisingly good.
Fats in strong coffee is the way to go and a little touch of chocolate would make it outstanding...
Lunch was meat at vegetables. Lots of veggies. Typical lunch might be half a bag of frozen broccoli and half a pound of deer burger or ground pork or a big chopped chicken breast with vinegar and olive oil.
Like frozen veggies, but are hard to chew and your mouth and stomach get chilled....
Raw deer burger and ground pork or a big chopped chicken breast all with vinegar and olive oil would take a while to eat raw, but being man enough and the desire to loose weight would give it a try....
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by 9idrr on Dec 4, 2019 20:54:26 GMT -6
Keep writin' this and I'll keep readin' it. Thanks.
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 5, 2019 9:20:28 GMT -6
In the next chapter the militia treats texican for food poisoning ... evile chuckle
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 5, 2019 9:51:21 GMT -6
Chapter4
What happened next? A lot of nothing. I was getting fitter and losing weight. Every now and then a book would appear in my Audible library but my credits wouldn't go down. They were all quite good like 'On Combat' By Grosman or 'Day of Wrath' by Foretschin.
The next militia training we joked about being a Bake Off. It started with MollyB , from the unsinkable Molly Brown, doing a lecture on food safety and sanitation. Not exactly high speed low drag stuff but something that made a lot of sense to me, feeding people could be a scenario where the militia could really help. Molly sensed the boredom of some members and laid out her plan. If large numbers needed to be fed the militia could prepare food here in her big kitchen then take the food to the people. This way the food stocks would be relatively secure. She had a decent stockpile of food staples for her business that she's be willing to press into service. Her husband DuckHunter was an electrician by trade and had installed a heavy duty Generac diesel generator on the place.
The practical side of this exercise was making Hudson Bay Bread and Logan Bread . I passed out samples of each to the dozen or so in attendance. MollyB had set out butter, peanut butter and apple jelly to have with it. I explained some of the ingredients like using pure maple syrup in the mostly oatmeal Hudson Bay Bread to prevent the drop in blood sugar that comes from simple sugars that in turn provokes hunger. The Logan Bread was a wheat based change from the mostly oat based trail foods out there.
MolleyB provided white flour , oatmeal, white sugar, maple flavor syrup, eggs in a galon jug , butter in a 5 lbs block and raisins. I'd sent the recipes ahead and quite a few people came prepared with their own more expensive ingredients like nuts , dried fruit, real maple syrup and brown sugar. MollyB's commercial grade equipment made a huge difference. She had a food processor that turned oats used in HBB from oatmeal to a course oat flour in next to nothing. I think her mixers could mix cement if needed and the convection ovens baked in less time and more evenly. It was found the pans could be removed from the oven maybe 2/3 of the way through baking , the contents flipped over cut into squares and returned to the oven for the remaining time for a drier end product.
MollyB even made a chocolate version of Logan Bread by replacing molasses with golden treacle and adding coco powder and tart dried cherries. Following her lead SpeedyG , Speedy Gonzalez, made Mexican Logan bread by adding chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. While it would not be much of a treat to a hungry venture crew of boy scouts it was quite tasty in an odd way. In the end everyone had at least one full sheet pan of either Logan or Hudson and many had one of each. Since each pan yielded 54 bars everyone had 50 or 100 sealed ration bars.
The following weekend was Thanksgiving. Friday night and Saturday was an unseasonably cold snap, well below zero. Late Friday evening I received a warning order
!!Warning!! Warning!! Warning!!
Situation:
1. Extreme cold has moved into the area . Causing higher number of homeless to seek shelter at Christian Industrial League (CIL)
2. Holiday is causing short staff at churches that normally staff CIL
3. Church scheduled to provide evening meal at CIL reports kitchen issues and may be unable to provide evening meal.
Mission:
Establish a preliminary count of personnel available to respond to cook, transport and serve on the order of 250 people. Term of service not expected to last more than 12 hours.
Commanders Intent:
Upon receiving an order to execute November Company musters at MollyB place of business. MollyB to supervise the preparation, transport and set up of meal at CIL site. Once meal is set up NurseRatchet supervises serving of food under direction of CIL staff and return of supplies to MollyB place of business where MollyB supervises cleaning and stowage and dismisses company.
Administration:
Uniform is to be either Garrison or Civilian - NO FIELD UNIFORMS
Transport - CIL is in a questionable section of town - carpooling to the CIL is desirable - report availability of high capacity vehicles to Gravy
Signal/Command:
Signal - standard cell phone app - cell voice when needed
Command - Overall - Gravy
At MollyB place of business - MollyB
At CIL - NurseRatchet
Gravy sends.
Wow that looks down right official.
Over breakfast the next day I spoke to boss , I mean wife, and son's about possibly helping fix / serve food. We'd done it before but never at Christian Industrial League. Wife was up for it as was #2 son, #1 was a little less interested. The sons and I had just set down for breakfast punk'n pie when I received a 'Fragmentary Execution Order'
!!!!Execute!!!! Execute!!!! Execute!!!!
1. Order to execute is given! November Company to muster at MollyB place of business 1200 local. MollyB to supervise the preparation, transport and set up of meal at CIL site. Once meal is set up NurseRatchet supervises serving of food under direction of CIL staff and return of supplies to MollyB place of business where MollyB supervises cleaning and stowage and dismisses company.
2. Report ETA via MilitiaResponding app.
3. Cheerful Service
Gravy sends.
Garrison uniform was khaki pants, black militia polo shirt with grey t-shirt and black boots or shoes. I hadn't bothered to buy a 'militia' polo but did have a solid black Rugby shirt so threw that on #2 son put on his Order of the Arrow lodge sweat shirt and #1 son this Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity sweat shirt. I slipped my Kahr Mk9 and pocket holster into a pocket and spare 7 round magazine in the other. We were off to MollyB's in the wife's suburban assault vehicle ...
We arrived as Gravy and his daughters arrived, at the door Shorty was 'managing the muster'.
MollyB was IN CHARGE here. The menu was to be Tomato Soup 'Plus' , grilled cheese with or without ham , carrot sticks, citrus aid and brownies plus. It was obvious MollyB had this planned for a while. Tacked to the white board / wall were 'mission cards'. Each card had a task to be done and a time to start it. At the moment most people were mixing and baking brownies. One son started peeling and cutting into strip carrots. The other son began to mix citrus aid - lemonade , frozen orange juice and lime juice powder.
Wife and I got soup duty. How hard could that be, open tomato soup can, dump in giant bowl thing , repeat until full. Not so with MollyB's soup. First went can after can of stewed tomatoes. Then tomatoe soup went in, followed by 'flavorless protein thickener'. It was more work but the result was much better tasting than the red dishwater that was typical tomato soup. It takes a lot of soup to feed 250 men and that's a lot of cans to open.
Taking a break before MollyB caught us slacking and cracked the whip, Gravy elbowed me and pointed to the prep area where his #3 daughter was assembling sandwiches with my #1 son. "Seems like your's and mine are hitting it off rather well." They had quite a system going one laying out bread the other buttering it. One flipped the entire rack of bread the other drops cheese , one drops ham the other drops another slice of bread and finally butter the top. Move to another basket/ rack and repeat. I didn't know you could have that much fun while making grilled cheese.
We arrived at the CIL en mass right at 5:00 pm er 1700 hours. The staff there was both glad to see us and taken a little aback at the organization of our merry band. We sort of steam rolled in and ruined their chi for a minute but Gravy stepped up and got it all settled down. As the guests for the night began to arrive Ratchet began to notice some frost bite. He set up a station to check for serious cold injury. He called in to a buddy on the fire/ambulance service for some help. They found two men with toes frostbitten to the point of needing hospitalization.
Christian Industrial League served adult males only, and the hardest of hard core 'urban outdoorsmen'. Several came in chemically altered and were placed into a bull pen / waiting area for a while. A few scuffles broke out that were handled by off-duty police.
It took 90 minutes to feed everyone. MollyB started to call for seconds when she was shut down by the CIL staff. Molly looked hurt and mad.
"Do you have enough to give every one of them seconds? Cause if you don't we're going to have fights and then a riot here. You folks provided more and better food than most groups coming in here."
Packing up #1 son comes up and asks, "Dad do you mind if I cut out when we get back to the kitchen place? Emily and I want to catch the late showing of 'Muppet Christmas Carrol' in the 3D Imax at the museum down town."
"Sure but two things, Remember that kinda scary looking dude Gravy is her dad and Emily took my CCW class a few weeks ago, she packs a Glock and knows how to use it. Do you need some money?" He didn't but I gave him some anyways. I started to say be home by ... but he was 20 and she was 21 so I guess they could be back when they were back.
Later at home I poured myself two then three fingers of Gunpowder Proof Pusser's Navy Rum and thought about the day. We were supposed to submit after action review. Maybe after church tomorrow.
I thought about pumpkin pie but it was at least 30' away in the kitchen. A thought, I wonder what 'they' will have to say about this mission. I logged into Survival Boards, nothing. I logged into ARFCOM, nothing, WeTheArmed, nothing. The High Road, zip nothing nadda,
Damn unreliable mystery omniscient PM poster ...
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Post by 9idrr on Dec 5, 2019 20:35:37 GMT -6
Myself, I might make myself go the 30' for pumpkin pie, but ifn' it was sweet potato pie with a blob of sour cream on top I know it'd be worth the effort. Or, maybe Reload just has more self control than I.
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Post by bluefox2 on Dec 5, 2019 21:30:42 GMT -6
Myself, I might make myself go the 30' for pumpkin pie, but ifn' it was sweet potato pie with a blob of sour cream on top I know it'd be worth the effort. Or, maybe Reload just has more self control than I. Make it warm Apple pie with a double scoop of ice cream and I am in.  |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 6, 2019 8:24:08 GMT -6
Myself, I might make myself go the 30' for pumpkin pie, but ifn' it was sweet potato pie with a blob of sour cream on top I know it'd be worth the effort. Or, maybe Reload just has more self control than I. Make it warm Apple pie with a double scoop of ice cream and I am in. what kind of pinko commie puts sour cream on pie ...  |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 6, 2019 12:51:07 GMT -6
Chapter 5:
I went back to see Avi maybe 10 lbs lighter than I was the first time. He judged me fit enough to be trained, in Krav Maga. We'd start with 90 minutes two parts, a one hour group beginner class usually at 7:00 am and a 30 minute private lesson with Avi himself. After a few months I could move to two 45 minute intermediate group sessions with an occasional workout with Avi or one of his senior instructors. My first lesson would start right now. I managed to survive 30 minutes of simple, effective and more than slightly brutal training. I was going to need to invest in bulk alieve.
I really enjoyed the KM training. It seemed to fill a gap in my personal self-defense training which to now had been exclusively firearms.
The December Training was half fun training and half Christmas Party, Potluck and Swap Meet. We rallied or was it mustered, can never remember which was which. At a unused horse riding arena. It was huge. Probably 200' long and 80' wide with an attached 40' x 60' retail space. While a few days back it was unseasonably cold it was now unseasonably warm with afternoon highs expected in the 60's. We met, excuse me mustered, in the former retail space. It was a big turnout, the biggest I'd seen. We did colors and blessing.
I noticed three folks in verboten ACU. They had on the left shoulder a patch, a grey on tan downward pointing triangle that said 'Watchmen' and 'Illinois', Above that was a ranger style tab with 'FPG' in Red on a black background. They were introduced as part of the 'Watchmen of Illinois' Tomahawk, Hatchet and Bowie. They also had a company that ran Air Soft 'Experiences' parties or team building events with airsoft pistols. They were a little on the ubermilitary side for my tastes, standing at parade rest while addressing the class and using knife hands to emphasize points. Maybe it’s part of their 'schtick' for the air soft business.
The riding arena was to be a sterile areas so no guns, knives, Tasers, batons, tactical flashlights, pepper spray, billy clubs, saps or tactical pens were allowed in the area. We would be physically searched before entering and searched again if we left and re-entered. So most of use walked back to vehicles to divest ourselves of contraband. They suggested pretty much removing everything from our pockets.
Thad done we were patted down, hey big guy careful down there should I turn my head and cough too, we entered the arena. They had 'constructed' a small house using 8' poles set in car tires full of concrete like old tether ball or volley ball set ups. Between these went tarps to form walls, rooms, halls and such. Some of the walls had exterior windows. The even had movable doors in frames. I have to admit this is very cool.
The Watchmen provided nice steel replicas of 1911's that ran off propane gas stored in a removable magazine. "Do NOT DROP THESE MAGAZINES on the deck doing a speed reload! The gas inside the magazine is PROPANE so it is essentially a small bomb." Warned Tomahawk using multiple knife hands. There was one for everyone along with USGI belt and Kydex holster. Also for everyone was a gas powered CAR15 simulation complete with a web sling. They even had a few airsoft shotguns. These ran off fake shells that even fired 5 pellets at once.
Once we had eye protection on they lined us up in two lines, pistols holstered and rifles slung.
“Front rank 5 steps forward, march! Second rank on the command “Fire” draw and fire a single round into the butt or legs of the Operator in front of you.”
Say whut? Wait a second I am in the front rank!
“Scan for more targets. On the command ‘Safety, Holster’ return your weapon to the holster. Is everyone tracking? Don’t worry first rank you get to return the favor. Standby! Fire!“
Hey! Wait as sec. My mental protest was interrupted by a series of pneumatic pops. After a few seconds they stopped. Hey that didn’t hurt at all.
POP! Yeehowchhh! There was a stinging in my left butt cheek.
“Cease Fire! Safety! Holster! About! Faceeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“What is now the rear rank, the ones with sore butts, on the command ‘Fire!’ you will raise your CARBINES and fire a single round into the butt or legs of the operator in front of you. Does everyone savy?”
“Standby!”
Pause. Oh he’s being evil this time.
“Fire!”
Since the Watchmen hadn’t been ‘shot’ yet they allowed themselves to be shot with the multi-pellet shotgun thing. That looked really unpleasant.
We spent the morning getting in and out of vehicles, setting a perimeter and clearing the house room by room. We found they could rearrange the inside quickly and unexpectedly!
I’m not exactly sure when a militia unit would be storming and clearing a house. I’m also not sure how correct the training were where getting was. These Watchman sure seemed competent at what they did or at least extremely confident in how they did it. It was a blast so what the heck, if nothing else it was team building.
The Christmas party was a hoot. Pot luck with more chow than you could shake a shovel at. I made my infamous Spam chili. It started with orange tomatoes out of the wife’s garden , ok via the freezer. From my side of the garden came onions, dried red jalapenos and a touch of roasted and dried habaneros. It had the usual suspect chili powder and cumin. Of course it had pinto beans, black beans and kidney beans, you people out there screaming there are no beans in chili hush the big people are talking. The star of the show was Spam, four cans to be exact. One can of Bacon Spam, one can of Hot and Spicy Tabasco Spam, once can of Chorizo Spam and once can of good old Spam Spam . The Spam was run through the meat grinder on extra course then fried in a black iron skillet. Once the grease started to run the dried peppers were added. Once the Spam was crusted up it went into the pot with the ‘maters and beans and the rest of the stuff along with half a bottle of a local brewed brown ale.
It seemed tradition was for folks to bring stuff to swap and sell as we ate and told lies and what not. I had blocks of Logan Bread, two blocks for a buck and Hudson Bay Bread three blocks for a buck. I’d made up and vacuum sealed some blowout kits containing two rolls of kerlex gauze, one roll Ace wrap bandage, two pairs of rubber gloves, about three feet of gorilla duct tape in a small roll, plus two strips stuck to the inside of the vacuum seal bags and three safety pins. The result was a package smaller than a grilled cheese sandwich. They sold like hotcakes. I was able to make a trade plus some cash for a really slick Vickers Tactical sling and for some of the best deer sausage ever.
Later that night while surfing I was surprised to see a PM from /dev/null , how the hell does he do that.
/dev/null: What did you think of Watchmen
Me: they thought a lot of themselves – a little too military for me
/dev/null: Family Protection Group is that way
/dev/null: Contact them. Use Google.
/dev/null: Go to some events. Do not join.
Then of course my computer rebooted and when I got back the PM’s were gone.
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Post by texican on Dec 6, 2019 13:49:17 GMT -6
wtr,
He is learning....
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by bluefox2 on Dec 6, 2019 20:14:50 GMT -6
Make it warm Apple pie with a double scoop of ice cream and I am in. what kind of pinko commie puts sour cream on pie ... Ice cream, not sour cream  |
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Post by 9idrr on Dec 6, 2019 20:59:13 GMT -6
Make it warm Apple pie with a double scoop of ice cream and I am in. what kind of pinko commie puts sour cream on pie ... Listen, here, son, you gots to remember that I is in Commiefornia. Next you gonna tell me I should settle for pie crust and tortillas made without lard? And I'm such a pinko commie that I might even volunteer to be a pall bearer for Hank's daughter's funeral. Of course, that'd just be so I could be first to pee on her grave. The line would be too long if I waited more than 5 minutes.  |
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Post by wtr100 on Dec 9, 2019 11:53:13 GMT -6
Chapter 6
The gym was crazy crowed after the first of the year so I asked Avi if I could increase my Krav Maga workouts. Oddly he said no. I offered to pay, still no. "You're not ready for more. If you need more exercise, put on a pack and boots and walk."
"But it’s winter. You know snow? Cold?"
"You noticed that did you? Well then wear a scarf. Now I have work to do. Off with you or our next session will be memorable..."
Doh! I already left these sessions barely able to walk. I live on 40 acres so I could walk with a rifle too if I wished. Just have to do it before the wife got home from work so she wouldn't think I'd gone nuts and joined a militia or something. Oh wait ...
If nothing else the dog enjoyed the afternoon romps. There was only a dusting of snow on the ground at least for now. We trooped around the East field, across the damn to the North field then around that across the log walk over the culvert and up to the house. Two laps of that with an AR15 and my day back filled with enough old 2 liter soda bottles full of water to make 30 lbs.
I soon found 30 lbs of water in my day pack was ok but somewhat annoying. The pack had waist and chest straps but no frame. So it was sorta saggy. I had my Boy Scout pack but it was a monster expedition size. A trip to the local hole in the wall surplus joint yielded a couple things. First was a loathing of the place. It was dark and seedy , there wasn't much surplus to be had most of it was brand new junk from China. In a room marked 'private stock' behind the register I got a glimpse of what looked like Ayaan Nation 'stuff'. The old geezer running the place did help me root though a pile of Alice packs to get a serviceable pack and frame and kidney belt. On the way out I noticed a recruiting poster for Company B of the Tactical Militia. I stopped to take a picture of the contact info with my phone, who says old farts can't learn new tricks.
The geezer saw me and called out, "Those are good men you should check them out. They know what's what." He brought me a single page copy of the poster. I thanked him and moved on. I was already supposed to check out the Watchmen maybe I should check these guys out too. That night I did some google-fu. Their web page looked promising. I might not be fit enough for these guys and was lacking in beard and arm tats. They had a gear list that seemed pretty reasonable and they listed a pt standard, rifle standard and pistol standard. I figured I'd take some initiative and check these guys out. I bet /dev/null will be so proud. I was half way through the 'contact form' when my browser closed. W.T.H
When I opened it up again instead of my Google Homepage it opened to ZombieSquad and of course there a PM waiting for me. I wondered what /dev/null wanted. Wait this is a new person, /dev/zero.
/dev/zero : DO NOT CONTACT TACTICAL MILITIA - They sell methamphetamine
Well that is a new twist.
Me: Are you watching me 24/7
/dev/zero: could be
I started to type a reply when the browser closed. How did they do that? Darn annoying if you ask me. Course they didn't ask me. But still. When I opened the browser again it was pointed to a Suarez International AK47 Operators class hmmmm are they saying I should take a road trip? While Gabe was a wee bit of a loud mouth and very self-assured with his own self I really wanted to take a Suarez class. I wonder why the AK class, I of course own an AK, who doesn't. While pondering these imponderables my pusher - er FFL Holder of choice messaged me.
I was expanding my little firearm training business to provide handguns, belts and holsters for the basic ccw class. The initial 'early' adopters of CCW came to class with, for the most part, decent gear. My original philosophy was train with whut ya brung. As time went on students began to bring really marginal gear, floppy holsters , no belt , only one magazine. I decided to invest in some handguns and holsters, at least for the initial present from a holster. A student with decent gear already could run his own gear. I purchased four of the Shield EZ 380 for their low price and ease of operation, especially those with limited hand strength. Anyway my pusher had gotten me four of them , plus a total of five magazines per pistol. A friend makes holsters and was going to gin up some very basic kydex holsters for them. They were in so I went to his shop to fill out the king's paperwork and tell a few lies.
Looking at my class rosters we're actually looking quite full for the spring. Well this was good for my fun money.
I made contact with Watchmen in February. The Thursday night meeting was in a pizza joint that had a meeting room in the back. As a newbie I attempted to insist pretty insistently that be allowed to pay for the pizza buffet being served. As that just wasn't going to happen I figured I'd show them and bought double the pizza fee in raffle tickets. TAKE THAT! The group, Prairie State Watchmen, was larger than I thought with over 30 folks there. There was not an ACU to be seen, the uniform of the day seemed to be a green or brown t-shirt or sweatshirt with the Watchmen's logo a Black and Gold shield with a coiled Gadsden rattle snake on top. Most folks wore the t-shirt untucked, on the few that were tucked I could often see the straps or clips of a concealed carry holster.
The meeting started with a blessing and Pledge of Allegiance. It seemed to me they had the flags at their podium backwards with the state flag to the speakers right and national flag to the left. Then we got to eating. The pizza was excellent and wide selection, everything from full on Deep Dish Chicago to cracker thin NY Cheese. One of the guys in the pizza line recognized me from the Militia Christmas party. "Hey I'm Sgt Maj Tomahawk, I got some of those ration bars from you. My kids and I got into them, damn tasty. My wife found a recipe on the internet but it wasn't nearly as good. Think you could give up your recipe?" He handed me his card. Here we are feared right wing militias and we're swapping recipes. He got my handle out of me and began to introduce me around. Oddly I knew more than a few of these people. Some were scout people, others were gun show or other gun event people and a few were even former CCW class students.
The meeting started with a legislative update. A rail thin, almost anorexic lady stood up and ranted for about 15 minutes. Somebody needs to switch this chick to de-caf and feed her some cheeseburgers and jelly doughnuts. I was starting to think about jumping ship when she ran out of steam and tech time started.
This was quite interesting with a bearded bear of a man showing an Israeli Galil rifle. An interesting cross between an AR15 and an AK47 with a side folding stock. It had been designed jointly by South Africa and Israel when both countries were on the international sh1t list. Had it been made to run standard with AR15/M16 magazines it would have been quite a hit The Bear , his Watchman handle was THE BEAR , opined.
The quartermonky reminded everyone of the National ACU group buy and to get orders in ASAP.
The Airsoft Cadre spoke of an event in March at the riding arena where our Christmas Party has been. Also they had some 'commercial events' that could use some RO's. I'm not exactly sure what that was all about.
The Radio Shack was going to do HAM license study group/classes and the Baofeng radios would be in next month.
The SgtMajor spoke of the upcoming QX or qualification exercise in May. This was quite interesting to me. To obtain or maintain voting member status each Watchman did this once a year
1. Kit Inspection
2. Ruck March - two miles on flatish terrain with rifle and 35 lb ruck in one hour
3. Rifle qual - 100 yards 10 rounds into a B27 target from sitting , kneeling behind cover and standing behind cover scoring 21 of 30
4. Pistol qual - 10 yards 30 rounds into a B27 scoring 21 out of 30
5. Trek - Find three point via map and compass or GPS in 90 minutes
The also had to remain in the field for the entire event, pretty much 24 hours . Sleeping in vehicles was authorized but frowned upon and might not be authorized in the future. Any type of hootch or tent you cared to set up was ok. There would be a group fire pit or you could cold camp or bring your own stove.
FPG was having training for members , probies and whannabes. It was live fire bring ammo.
Then the meeting came completely off the rails with the 'Commanders Time'. Col Wolf made legislative chick look like a wimp. I was wondering if I needed a tetanus or a rabies shot about half way though his rant on internationalists ...
On the drive home the QX seemed like fun. Scout stuff w/o scouts .... maybe I would go.
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Post by texican on Dec 9, 2019 15:19:14 GMT -6
He is learning....
Thanks wtr for the chapter....
Texican....
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