John Last

Individual field rations need to meet a couple of criteria; easy to pack, lightweight, and quick to prepare. Try to choose items that don't require cooking; you may not have a chance to make a fire and prepare them. To my knowledge ALL canned goods (remember ham and lima beans?) are fit to eat from the can, but they are HEAVY. Ideally freeze dried food (Mountain House, MREs etc.) is best; but expensive and not easily obtainable. Instant ramen, quick oats, Kraft mac and cheese, meat in foil pouches, powdered/instant soup mixes are all good. You can eat the ramen and oats without cooking, but be sure to chase them with plenty of water. Rice needs LOTS of water: rinse once and then fill again and boil for 20 mins. or so; sticks to pot. Lots of labor to prepare and cleanup, so it's never my first choice. A guy named Bear Independent carries a good sized bag of peanuts and some granola bars. I like instant coffee/hot chocolate/tea and raisins for morale. Claw Hammer mentioned hard candies.

I'll be the first to agree that women generally don't do as well as men on strength related issues, like combat training in the US military. That said, ESPECIALLY AS PERTAINS TO MILITIA... use ALL your resources to their maximum potential. For example: a 27 year old female UPS driver/warehouse worker will probably make a better infantry soldier than a 58 year old male insurance salesman/stock broker, all other factors being equal. As others have mentioned, Israel is a perfect illustration. They don't have the option: it takes ALL HANDS to accomplish the mission. Put another way; a squad that's short a fire team won't do as well as one that's up to strength, even if one team only operates at 70%.

Field (782) gear aside, here's my take. If you expect to be working with/attached to US forces, then I think you should look like them as much as possible If so, they should issue you the uniform required. Under different circumstances: wear a different uniform, so as not to be confused with US forces. My personal choice is woodland, although I do use the UCP pattern for extreme cold weather trousers. Keep in mind that I have seen footage of police units wearing, navy blue, gray, OD, black, coyote, and different camouflage patterns for their operations. You could be mistaken for the "wrong side" no matter what you wear. One solution is to wear some easily identifiable marking; a blue? scarf, an orange? armband etc. Another option might be to wear a specific mix; say a woodland top with OD trousers. I do believe that any UNIT should be suited out in the same uniform, if at all possible. If that's not possible, then definitely use the armband idea.

Perhaps many of you know that dyeing them in apple green Rit dye works wonders for the color/pattern.

Your reasoning?

Since we've altered the tone a bit, and this has become a real discussion, here's a thought I'd like to share in hopes of getting some guidance. Here's the purely hypothetical scenario: You're on patrol with the militia on US soil. You come upon a scene of beheadings, rape, torture and what-have-you (clearly criminal behavior). There are three enemy combatants just finishing up scavenging jewelry from the dead (or they are half mile down the trail with the jewelry, bloody clothes etc.). Scenario II: After a fight there are two enemy left. These are 'occupying forces" (civilian round-ups, detention camps etc.) on US soil. Do you take them prisoner or exact punishment on the spot? This is a question I wrestled with for some time, and I would appreciate your input. Remember as Militia, you don't have the resources to tend POWs, also that summary execution itself is a crime.

Yeah... but he sure does have some nice dentures!

Thank you for taking the time to investigate. It may be that there is simply nobody in that position, which completely escaped me until I thought about it. Elkhart County, Indiana could be be a void, which I failed to consider. All the more reason to make sure the … infrastructure? of every militia command is rock-solid. Thanks again for the feedback.

November 9th, 2019. SATURDAY: followed on the 10th by the USMC birthday, followed on the 11th by Veteran's Day. I have no knowledge of any ulterior motives for picking this date, other than the obvious Saturday nearest the anniversary of the WWI Armistice (a long holiday weekend)... Not to say there aren't any, but normally we don't celebrate the Beer Hall Putsch or Krystalnacht in this country. The commies, like SPLC however, would be only too happy to make this coincidence known far and wide and try to (successfully it looks like) lay it on ALL militia members. I don't know Chris Hill or his beliefs. IF he's a Nazi/white supremacist then I would recommend that you steer clear, but if he's simply a firebrand III Percenter, take that too for what it's worth. I do agree with his sentiment that precious little has been accomplished in the last several years, and I attribute that to a basic lack of management. There's surely no lack of enthusiasm for any potential coming fight, but organizing, recruiting and preparation, as others have mentioned, is sorely lacking. No structure can be too sound, if the foundation is weak. The only contact I've ever had with III% led me to believe they were itching for a fight with anybody... even those who were interested in possibly joining their ranks. Fair enough then, but I would hope there are other choices available in militias: if we can just get them to manage their "logistical" affairs a little better. People are looking for units to join: why is it so difficult to find one???

Hidden agendas not withstanding, if you want to get a wide-spread "militia movement" going, we'll simply have to do better. A couple weeks ago, I managed to contact somebody from the (only functioning?) Indiana militia. They have Proboards, Facebook, Militia.com, Indiana defense website, ICVM, ICM etc., all as contact points. Susan replied and said "Someone will contact you shortly." They didn't. Even Susan didn't get back to me for follow-up. Having twenty different "points of contact" is fine, but they should all funnel into a central site and that site should be managed consistently. Recruiting isn't easy in this political climate, but to drop the ball so easily, is a sure way to cripple ourselves. Logistics in personnel support is just as important as field training exercises. Honestly, I have no interest in joining an organization that is so severely handicapped in it's management. It's a reflection, in my opinion, of the quality of it's overall leadership. Now, lest you say this belongs on the "Indiana board", I'll wager it's a shortcoming for every militia command across the country, and needs to be addressed before we can inrcease membership. I believe there are lots of folks across the nation who are preparing for the civil strife looming on the horizon, but they're flying alone and blind unless we can reach out with some degree of professionalism and include them, at least at the introductory level. I understand security is an issue, but letting somebody into the lobby doesn't mean your whole building is compromised. That's my two cents on the matter.

I know what you mean. I keep reminding myself to stay focused on the STORY LINE, as opposed to the equipment or tactics... especially in some independent short films.

Here!

Monica: look up the OFF TOPIC forum, look for the thread: Where is the line in the sand. That will explain how some of us view the situation and "when" to know it will be time.