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Spike

@spikesguides

Sep 7

You’re moving through the woods.
It’s quiet. Too quiet.

Would you recognize the signs of an enemy lying in wait, or stroll straight into their kill zone? 🧵

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance, or recon for short, is the deliberate collection of information relating to hostile forces, terrain, and the environment that forces will be operating within. Recon’s central objective is to gather intelligence, not to engage in kinetic actions. The intelligence gained from recon operations can give smaller fighting units the tactical edge that they need to leverage against a larger, hostile force. Without recon, forces are operating blindly in an area, working against the whims of the battlespace, but when teams are operating with the intelligence gained from proper recon, they can set the terms of their fights.

Purpose of Reconnaissance.

There are five primary objectives of the recon mission and the use of recon in general. They are: gathering information on the enemy, learning the area’s terrain, providing an early warning against enemy activity, supporting operational planning, and giving a psychological edge.

When gathering information on enemy personnel, recon teams can quantify and note things such as the number of enemy personnel, their uniforms, units, weapons, locate supply lines, and even estimate morale. Recon teams also observe and note movement patterns, keeping eyes on when guard shifts change, patrol timings, and convoy schedules.

Teams that are performing terrain study, also known as area study, are identifying potential choke points, highlighting natural cover and concealment, obstacles, and defensible terrain. Teams also take note of important local resources such as water, shelter, escape routes, and in some cases even food sources.

With regards to early warnings, recon teams sweep areas to detect likely ambush locations, or even identify actively manned ambush positions, IEDs, land mines, or enemy troop concentrations prior to contact. Recon teams identifying threats before the rest of the element enters the area can save lives by having maneuver elements avoid ambushes entirely or maneuvering around area denial assets.

Operations that are planned with good area intelligence are doomed to fail. The intelligence gained by recon teams can be the difference between a successful raid or ambush or total failure. Teams that identify and locate defensive positions based on avenues of approach are spotted during recon operations. While ambushes can be conducted in an ad-hoc way, an ambush planned around good area intelligence will almost always go better than the one without.

The mind is as important of a battlefield as the physical one, the status and soundness of it influence every facet of operations from the command level to the individual. Units that know the ground they are working on and the basics about their enemy in the area will operate more confidently and effectively than those who are working in the dark, giving them a psychological boost. At the same time, an enemy that knows they’re being scouted are likely to be more paranoid and apprehensive when working in the field. Finally, leaders that are equipped with quality intelligence will make faster, and better decisions.

Recon operations are conducting much more analysis than squinting on top of a hill at an enemy base (despite what Guntubers will tell you). Proper recon is as integral to the planning and conducting of operations as well as the overall proper functioning of a unit as equipment and supplies. Reconnaissance is how the intelligence that makes or breaks plans is gathered.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Aug 31

You bought the gear. You read the manuals. You played the sims.

But when it comes time to move, fight, and survive, are you actually ready? 🧵

Training isn’t optional. It’s what separates a functioning unit from a group of armed civilians

Training Methods for Small-Unit Preparedness

No matter how many technical manuals you read, how many times you and your buddies played SWAT 4 and Arma, or how much everyone spent on their kit; without training, everyone will be useless in the field. Luckily that isn’t the end of the story. By adhering to a training regime and sticking to common training methods, prepared citizens can become more robust in their personal skills and the skills their team brings to the field.

Why train?

As stated, owning gear is not the same as being ready. If I own a jet fighter it doesn’t mean I know how to use a jet fighter. I may have seen a few films and watched a tutorial video on YouTube but I am not a jet fighter pilot. Theory and one’s knowledge of it, such as field manuals, is a wonderful starting point for small units and individuals but without practice, they will not succeed in the field when the time comes to utilize that theory. It’s much like running a marathon, nobody starts running a marathon right out the gate. They need to work up to it.

Training builds three core elements of a successful unit. They are muscle memory, cohesion, and trust. Muscle memory allows teams to perform automatically under stress. Cohesion means the unit learns to move and think as a singular unit rather than a collection of individuals. Finally trust means that everyone feels confident in themselves and the other members of their team.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Aug 27

ALRIGHT WE GOT CONFIRMATION. TIME FOR A CONSOLIDATION THREAD 🧵

WHO IS THE MINNEAPOLIS MASS SHOOTER ROBIN WESTMAN?

Robin was born with the name Robert and changed their name legally to Robert to coincide with their gender transition.

Robin's mother had a tight association with the school that Robin would target later on.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Aug 10

🧵Most prepared citizens want to be fit.

Most people have no idea where to start.

Here’s the no-BS guide to getting there. 🧵

Getting Fit:

It’s no surprise that most people in the US and Western civilization as a whole are not physically active enough. Many people are overweight, have little muscle endurance, and absolutely no cardiovascular ability. By not maintaining some basic level of physical fitness one is put at much higher risk for various health conditions such as heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and a number of cancers by up to 40% in some cases. From a more practical and less abstract approach, US Army data shows that soldiers with higher aerobic capacity and muscle endurance had less non-combat injuries in the field, as well as being more effective in their roles in the field.

From a prepping perspective, not being mildly to moderately fit puts yourself at a massive disadvantage and makes one a liability. Fitness means you can do the physical tasks such as walking home with a 30 pound get-home (bug out) bag, it means you can haul water from a body to your home for purification, it means you can cut up and remove the fallen tree after the tornado in your front yard, it means you can properly engage a potential threat if the fight lasts longer than a minute. Prepping is often thought of a “hobby” where you are just hoarding goods and items (something I have fought vehemently against and wrote 2 books because of it), as a byproduct of that mentality, the body is often neglected. Both from a medical perspective and a fitness perspective. Prepping is as much about “weathering the storm,” as it is about being able to effectively operate after it. You can’t be a basement shut-in forever.

Thankfully getting a basic level of fitness doesn’t require you to become a psychopath who lives in the gym and eats nothing but liver and chicken breast for ever meal. You can make minor adjustments that grow your abilities with TIME without even needing a gym membership! Americans tend to want to go hard and fast with things, expecting instant results, this is one of the many cases where that is not realistic. To become better we must slowly build ourselves up. The purpose of this piece is to help those who are just starting find initiative, assess their current abilities, build a weekly exercise regimen, and then stick to it. I also want to briefly touch on diet at the tail end of this.

Assessing Current Abilities.

Before determining what sort of exercise plan one is going to adhere to, they need to determine what their current abilities are. This unfortunately is a usually a very humbling experience and needs to happen. Without knowing what one’s limitations are, they risk injury, overtraining, or wasting time on an inappropriate plan.

Cardiovascular endurance can be tested in a high impact and low impact test, ideally one performs both. The high impact test begins with a 5 minute walk, then try to cover 1.5 miles as fast as one can without harming themselves. This does not mean push yourself beyond your limits and risk injury. If you need to stop or walk, that’s okay. After achieving 1.5 miles the time taken is noted and checked against a generic reference. If it takes less than 13 minutes, one is an above average point for a beginner, for between 13 and 16 minutes, that is a relatively average start point, and if it is longer than 16 minutes, they are below average (and that is okay!). The low impact test is a 6 minute walk on a flat surface and after 6 minutes the distance is noted, healthy adults often exceed 500 to 600 meters (~1600-1900 feet). Note all of this information for the next section and for goal planning.

Testing muscular strength likewise is a relatively quick process and does not require any specific equipment, bodyweight is a decent enough baseline. Begin with testing pushups, see how many you can do without breaking form. If you can’t even do one, try knee pushups, if you can’t do one, try against a wall! Then try squats, perform as many as you can in one set. Then try a pull up if you have a pull-up bar (very cheap online and cheaper if bought used), if you cannot do one, try a flexed arm hang, if you can’t do longer than a second, note it. Finally try a forearm plank and hold it as long as you can with good form. Note all of this information for the next section and for goal planning.

You can also test your mobility and flexibility with a sit and reach test where you sit flat on the ground, legs extended, knees straight, and reach forward. Not being able to reach past your toes is generally regarded as a negative score and is something to work on.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Aug 2

The air in MN right now is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes an hour thanks to Canadian wildfires.

But for less than $100, I can breathe much easier. 🧵

Here’s how a DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box can clean your air and protect your lungs.

First some background on why I researched and built this. Canada is burning and the AQI in Minnesota is atrocious and will continue to be for a while. This is also becoming a yearly issue where Canada bursts into flame and pollutes the entire country.

Today I woke up and could smell smoke and my throat hurt in spite of my home air filter on the HVAC system. I investigated my options and everything was expensive and overpromising. You realistically cannot expect 1000sqft of HEPA filtration from a device the size of a soda can.

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Spike

@spikesguides

Jul 27

Obstacles don’t stop you. Poor planning does.

Breaching is more than door kicking. It’s a battlefield art. Here’s how real fighters clear the way under fire.🧵

Breaching and SOSRA.

Breaching, the act of creating lanes through enemy obstacles to allow assault forces to pass. In the zeitgeist breaching is just when tier 1 guys blow up doors with C2 charges but breaching is a very broad action and the drill of breaching a mined wire obstacle is actually one of the 14 primary drills taught by the US Army for infantry to be competent in the performance of. Breaching can be conducted on minefields, razor wire fields, walls and roofs of buildings, vehicle based obstacles like dragon’s teeth and tank ditches, and even the clearing of trees or crossing rivers! Breaching at its core follows the doctrinal sequence of SOSRA, where no matter what the application may be, the team can follow the steps and achieve a positive outcome when performing breaching tasks.

Breaching.

As previously stated, breaching is the act of clearing an enemy obstacle to create a lane of passage for assault or friendly forces to pass through safely. Breaching is often conducted under fire and almost certainly covered by enemy observation. To put it succinctly, breaching is conducted to restore mobility for friendly forces while minimizing casualties.

Doctrinally, breaches come in three forms. The deliberate breach, the hasty breach, and the in-stride breach.

The deliberate breach is a pre-planned operation and is generally very resource-heavy in nature. The team plans ahead of time where to approach a well-prepared obstacle and how to remove it. These types of breaches are used against strong defenses and obstacles that are covered by direct or indirect fire. For example, the D-Day sea wall obstacle breaches as seen in films like Saving Private Ryan depict a preplanned breach. They knew the obstacles were there, engineers brought charges, and the SOSRA sequence (which we will cover shortly) was followed.

Hasty breaches are rapidly conducted breaches when an unexpected obstacle is encountered and while contact with hostile forces has been made. Hasty breaches are used when momentum is critical and planning is not a reasonable option. Hasty breaches make use of the assets available to the team at the time. If it is an armored division they may have tank plows, if it’s an infantry team they may have to manually cut wire, whatever the situation may demand, the team employs what they have and act as fast as possible. Hasty breaches put more men at risk due to the limited planning associated with them. Examples of hasty breaches include infantry in a CQB environment blowing open a door with a shotgun or a sledgehammer, another is an infantry team cutting barbed wire that they encounter while crossing a field under fire.

An in-stride breach is performed while the team is on the move as part of an offensive maneuver, often with mechanized forces. In-stride breaches are very similar to pre-planned breaches but conducted as part of a greater maneuver and done while forces are already on the move. They are deliberate breaches but done while still on the move. This type of breach was common in soviet doctrine for decades. During Desert Storm, 1stInfantry breached Iraqi minefields with prepositioned mine clearing vehicles while the rest of the brigade flowed through behind them without a major slowdown to operational tempo. In-stride breaches are best described as “deliberate-lite.”

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