You can’t fight alone.

You fight as a fireteam — four men acting as one.

This is where real tactics begin. 🧵 Fireteams.

After mastering the buddy team and understanding the basics of how to maneuver as a unit composed of individuals, the next logical step is the fireteam. The fireteam is composed of four to five men and makes up one half to one third of a normal squad. The fireteam is compact, easy to maneuver, and much more self-sufficient than a buddy team. The fireteam is the smallest unit that is capable of coordinated simultaneous fire and movement.

Fireteams in their most basic form are composed of a team leader (TL), a rifleman, an automatic rifleman, and a grenadier as per US military doctrine. In a more irregular context, the team may be composed of three rifleman and a TL, one automatic rifleman, a TL, and two riflemen, or even a situation where there is a TL, a rifleman, a breacher, and a medic. Generally specialized inserts are added based on the mission and tasks needed to be conducted or threats that are anticipated; at the same time manpower constraints can lead to more unique fireteam compositions.

Regardless of the composition, the functional principles are that fireteams feature firepower, command and control, flexibility, and ideally specialization. This is what allows fireteams to operate as cells within the greater body that is a squad.

Two men. One covers, one moves.

The smallest tactical unit in existence.

Before fireteams or squads, you master this: the Buddy Team. 🧵 Buddy Team Fundamentals

Before we run we must first learn to walk, prior to that we must crawl. Before jumping into working with a full squad of ten men, one must first become comfortable and fluid working with another, a buddy. Starting with duos after becoming comfortable with the basics of weapons handling and individual movements builds safety and cohesion as well as communication skills that are all transferable upwards as the number of men working together increases. Buddy teams are simple two-person units that operate as a single warfighting element, they are the building block that get us to fireteams. They are the smallest tactical element and they share in responsibility of each other, maintain mutual security of each other, communicate clearly, and move with purpose.

Buddy teams ensure that nobody fights, moves, or survives alone.

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.

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.

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.

🧵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.

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.

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.

You’ve got minutes before they’re on top of you.

Is your defensive position secure, or will it collapse at first contact? 🧵

Knowing how to build a fighting position properly is a lifesaver. Here's how you do it. Basic Fighting Positions

For as long as man has found it pertinent to kill one another, there has been a need for field construction to build defensive and offensive structures to gain an advantage over an adversary. From the siege towers of medieval Europe to the hastily built trenches of modern Ukraine, fighters have felled many trees and dug many pits to defend positions, obfuscate their location, and protect them from fire. While every rifleman is not a combat engineer, every rifleman should have a repertoire of the basic fighting positions that they can dig in the field under their belt.

Fighting positions are more than simple holes to hide in during artillery barrages. Fighting positions do provide a lot of protection from enemy fire, shrapnel from explosives, and other forms of indirect fire but they also provide an easy way to organize a team into fields and sectors of fire to overwatch large areas with little overlap. Positions can be built in a manner that allows units to defend a location of any shape or size, offering opportunities for even full 360-degree coverage if the situation demands it.

He’s been watching you for hours. One shot. One kill.
You never saw him, but he saw everything.🧵

This is just one of the specialized threats modern riflemen face.

Here’s what you need to know before it’s too late. Specialized Threats and Countermeasures.

“You can't say that civilization don't advance, for in every war they kill you a new way”
-Will Rogers

The postmodern battlefield is radically different from the battlefields of the Second World War or even those of the Global War on Terror. Bringing with it unique and specialized threats that riflemen should be keenly aware of in order to avoid meeting an untimely end. While a number of the threats that are encountered in the battlespace today are the same as they were 100 years ago, the tactics used by the threat actor and those countering it have changed. Snipers, IEDs, ISR assets, and landmines have all adapted to the 21stcentury in various ways while threats such as peers using NVGs and thermal observation equipment, and drones are relatively new to the western battlespace.

It should be noted that this is not a be-all-end-all guide to identify and mitigate these threats perfectly. There are entire books dedicated to each subject. The goal is to familiarize yourself with them and understand the basics of them. Not everyone is going to encounter the same threats and some may never encounter any of them. Having a basic understanding, at the very least, puts you in a space that allows you to more proactively approach situations where they may be present or react to them in a more level headed way. Every threat encountered in the battlespace is unique in it’s own way and not every strategy is perfect to engage it, use common sense and discretion in the field.

Shots ring out. Chaos erupts.

Do you immediately know who's shooting, where to move, and what to do, or are you frozen in confusion?🧵

Situational awareness isn't instinct, it's a trained skill. Here's how you stay sharp and stay alive under pressure. Situational Awareness and Tactical Observation

Situational awareness and tactical observation are two skills that are critical to success in chaotic and kinetic environments. Whether conducting a security sweep in a trench or simply moving through a busy shopping mall while armed, the ability to identify cues, distinguish threats from friendlies, and when to anticipate action, are all basic skills everyone should have. By following the process of perceiving the area, comprehending it, and projecting the next moment in their mind, the warfighter, or armed citizen, is able to more appropriately approach any potential scenario, particularly using the Cooper Color Code, shifting the individual from a Condition White (completely relaxed) to a Condition Yellow (relaxed awareness).

Tactical observation is the active action of this process. Passively seeing and hearing the area is not enough, systematically sweeping areas with fixed reference points allow the individual to properly alternate between a fine and a wide focus of an area, keeping the individual well informed, propping up their situational awareness.

You rely on your car every day—but if bullets started flying, would your ride get you and your team out alive, or get you killed? 🧵

Consumer vehicles are often adapted in survival and tactical situations. In civilian life, particularly in the United States, few items are ubiquitous to almost everyone as the automobile. Used daily to get to work, home, the store, or even driven for work if you are a pizza delivery guy. In a crisis - whether it be natural disaster, civil unrest, or worse- vehicles become an invaluable asset. Vehicles are a force multiplier, without a doubt. Even without access to formal military vehicles, everyday vehicles can provide mobility, protection, and flexibility to tactical situations.

If your buddy took a GSW RIGHT NOW—could you actually keep them alive until help arrived? Or would your lack of basic combat medicine skills get them killed? 🧵

Combat medicine saves lives yet many shooters have no idea how to do it in a calm setting, much less under pressure... Quick disclaimer. I AM NOT A DOCTOR. THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. SEEK ALL MEDICAL TREATMENT FROM A PROFESSIONAL! This article provides basic educational information only and does not substitute professional medical training or advice. Always seek proper medical training from qualified instructors. The author is not liable for any actions taken based on the information provided.

Would a well-trained militia using harassing tactics stand a chance against a conventional army?

Why or why not? 🧵

Throughout history, smaller forces have bled larger armies dry—disrupting supply lines, forcing overcommitment, and grinding them down without ever fighting head-on." Harassing operations are the bread and butter of guerilla armies or for any force that benefits from utilizing small-scale attacks to disrupt hostile morale, logistics, or effectiveness in the field.

They are tools for longer-term conflicts where it may be more strategically advantageous to save manpower and focus on exhausting the enemy. The general goals of harassing operations are:

Exhaust the enemy psychologically and physically - preventing enemy forces from resting, recuperating, or generally maintain a well mental state due to a constant state of hyper arousal and worry as well as preventing them from organizing effective offensive strategies.

Force the enemy to overcommit resources towards defense – drawing resources away from the hostile force’s primary operational objectives, further wasting their resources.

Reduce their operational tempo from interference – by forcing their command structure to waste time, resources, and manpower redirecting efforts towards countering the harassing operations.

Disrupt their supply lines – logistics interdiction reduces hostile force sustainment capabilities as well as further wasting their resources.

Disruption of their communications and command structures – eliminating key positions and personnel to create disorder amongst the ranks, further hurting their collective psyche.

Impose disproportionate costs on the enemy relative to your force – self explanatory.

If we were to summarize these objectives into a single sentence it would be that it aims to “prolong the enemy’s suffering, reduce his strength over time, and prevent him from consolidating his gains,” as written by Mao Zedong in “On Guerrilla Warfare.”

But that then begs the question – what are these operations and how are they conducted?

🧵Would you survive if you had to escape an ambush right now? Why or why not? How would you tryu?

Most people think they know what to do, but when bullets start flying, plans fall apart. Do you have a strategy for breaking contact, or are you just hoping for the best? Breaking Contact:

What happens when the mission doesn’t go to plan? Intelligence thought there was only a squad sized element in this grid square but it’s actually a platoon sized element and now you are in danger of being overrun, captured, or annihilated. What do you do? You break contact.

Breaking contact is when a unit identifies that their adversary is the superior force and that continuing their current engagement will not end in victory but instead almost certain defeat. Other factors that may influence a unit’s decision to break contact include unfavorable terrain that may trigger a sustained fight or being low on ammunition or supplies. Breaking contact can also be used in a hasty plan to setup an ambush or to reposition for a counterattack. Breaking contact is often mentioned in various manuals and handbooks but isn’t explained much beyond the statement of “create a plan to break contact,” even useful tool such as the Ranger Handbook only gives a single battle drill that boil down to saying, “use movement and fire to escape.” But how is that done, exactly?

The act of breaking contact is generally a reactive decision that may be part of a contingency plan but is not something deliberately planned ahead of time such as a tactical withdrawal. When breaking contact, the team attempts to completely leave the engagement and move to a different and more secure location.

Intro to Prepping – Implementing Your Plan

Throughout this article series we have covered topics that may initially feel like separate ideas just floating around in the proverbial ether. As a fitting conclusion to this article series, we will talk about wrapping all these concepts together into one comprehensive plan that will allow you to slowly chip away at building your protective plan for emergencies. Prepping is not an action that happens overnight, it requires you to gather items and learn skills that take both time and money to accomplish. Few of us are billionaire savants and as such, we need to work on these things with time to accomplish our goals. We will be doing just that in a series of nine steps. They are as follows:

Step 1. Setting Objectives
Step 2. Assessing the Situation
Step 3. Developing a Family Emergency Plan
Step 4. Gathering supplies
Step 5. Ensuring Medical and Health Preparedness
Step 6. Establishing a Communications Plan
Step 7. Implementing Security
Step 8. Promoting Sustainable Living
Step 9. Regularly Reviewing and Updating

Step 1. Setting Objectives.
Much like in the earlier articles of this series, you need to know what you are preparing for. By utilizing the skills given in that article, one can determine what various potential events they may encounter realistically and begin to plan around them. From there, the individual should set specific and achievable objectives with regards to your well being during the event. As much as we might like to imagine we can keep the AC running through a nuclear war, it might not be realistic to write it down and work around it. On the other hand, ensuring you have water and a food supply is more realistic. Start with the bigger ideas like food, water, security, etc. From there you can create sub-goals to achieve these bigger ones.

For example, if I want to ensure I have water in case the water supply is stopped due to power grid failure or ignoring my bills for too long, I might set a goal of simply “water security.” From there I can determine how I am going to do that, so I might have sub goals of “multiple water sources,” “water filtration,” “water purification,” and “water storage.” From there, based on the knowledge I have gained from research I can write down how I am going to do that. For water sources I may simply need to find nearby lakes and rivers that aren’t too far to walk and carry water to and from. Water filtration could be solved with a filtration system like a Berkey. The list goes on and on and sub goals may even require their own set of sub goals, do not be afraid of getting specific.

Specificity matters and is very important to your well being. Having a vague statement of “water” and then just writing “clean it” and then simply getting a Brita filter isn’t going to be as robust as actually getting into the nitty gritty and solving each of these issues. It might seem and feel dull, and that is okay, you don’t need to do this in one sitting. You can take days or weeks to get it done, that is fine. The important thing with building this list of objectives and sub objectives is that it full accomplishes what you need to get done. Do not be afraid to build a list for each major part of your well being that you may need or even building a list and sub list for every scenario you may be planning for. This is a good thing and you will be surprised to see how much overlap there is between the various types of emergencies that may occur. As you work through your objectives, do not be afraid to go back and edit them as time goes by. When you learn a new skill or piece of equipment, a whole new world of possibilities may open up to you and you may find that you can add or remove aspects of your objectives list. This list is not the 10 Commandments, you are allowed to edit them and return to them as needed. With that said, once these initial lists are done, you are ready to approach the next step.

Step 2. Assessing the Situation.

Once you have a clear set of objectives to work with you need to objectively take a look at your current level of preparedness. This requires you to be a little harsh on yourself so if you are a narcissist, have a friend do it instead. You need to evaluate your actual current preparedness level for the issues that you think you will be facing. You need to compare what you have now to your goals. You need to ask yourself things like, “do I already have some of these objectives partially or fully completed?” You should try to identify the gaps and areas of improvement you have. This is for both things that require skill or physical items. One way to approach this is to simply take your objectives list and create a checklist of items and skills you may need to accomplish them and simply check off what you already have and make notes on what you are missing. Fill in those notes by commenting how you are going to accomplish them. If you want to learn fishing and hunting as an aspect of a larger food plan, you may want to start building those skills. Note how you will start researching or looking into equipment needed and then work through these notes in your life. Do not be afraid to get hyper specific here, too. While we won’t become experts in everything, Da Vinci’s renaissance man comes to mind, where we want to become as close to experts in many of these fields as we can. Do not succumb to the intellectual laziness of watching one YouTube video while your browse Twitter and call it a day. You need to commit to these topics because you very well may rely on them in an emergency and you do not want to be left wondering how to do something when your life depends on it.

Working through this list, while it may feel tedious, will ultimately lead you to becoming a better and stronger person. Even if the emergency never comes, you will still have valuable information that you can share with your family and friends that could help them in their time of need. Note that you do not need to finish every actionable activity on this list to proceed onward, if anything, this step is one you will return to repeatedly, like step 1, and update it as time goes by.

Step 3. Developing a Family Emergency Plan

(Note that if you are single or living with friends, this step is still relevant to you. You can replace the words family with roommates or simply adapt this section to simply cover yourself.)

Developing a family emergency plan, or FEP for short, is a multifaceted process. A FEP can cover many different scenarios and even be kept in a physical place like a binder for ease of reference for specific scenarios. A FEP can be as simple as something we discussed in the home defense article, where you have your family simply escaping the home during a dire threat via different access points and then egressing from the area to set up somewhere else, or it can be a plan of action during whatever emergencies you may be planning for. Ideally, your FEP should contain as many permutations of scenarios as possible without writing an entire textbook. You can begin with some simple things like assigning basic roles and responsibilities to family members, something we touched on also in the home defense article. Ensure that each member knows and understands the roles and responsibilities that they are entrusted with. Do your best to reinforce the importance of that role and foster their practicing of any skills associated with it.

For example, if you have a doofus adult brother who lives with you but has always had a keen eye, make use of it. Assign him roles that cater to his characteristics. If he can’t be trusted with labor but is good at spotting things, he can take an overwatch/lookout role as well as being given a designated hunter position. From there you can encourage, or even go out, hunting with him to build those skills and refine those already strong characteristics.

Once everyone is given a role, start by drawing a map of the home and the area you live in, maybe even make photocopies for multiple plans. Now you can build escape route plans in case of fire or any other type of threat. You can also use this map for defensive plans or things like assigning roles like gardening and perimeter lookout. For plans that require everyone do specific tasks, such as tornado drills, fire drills, attacks from ne'er-do-wells, you can then practice these drills on a regular basis so that once the time to act is required, everyone is calm and collected. In cases with young kids, you can even gamify the situation in order to keep their attention and prevent them from worrying of worst case scenarios.

A FEP doesn’t need to be created out of a sense of paranoia that leaves the home full of dread in case an emergency comes, the creation of a FEP can actually become a bonding activity. With the doofus brother example, it could actually be a positive thing in their life that ultimately creates a better outcome for them. A FEP should be created with input from everyone so that everyone feels listened to and all variables are accounted for. Regular practicing of these plans can also become a fun activity if gamified, like stated earlier, or simply just conducted during times where everyone seems a bit bored. Creating a FEP shouldn’t feel too much like a chore and shouldn’t feel like it brings a sense of doom and gloom, remind your family that you are simply preparing the same way you would for a fire drill.

Step 4. Gathering Supplies.

Finally we are onto a step that is specifically relating to gathering items, rather than implying them or checking them off a list that you created. This is where you are actually putting the pedal to the metal and getting things. Obviously this means getting the items you need for your lists created in steps 1 and 2 but it also means getting the items for things such as Bug-Out-Bags/BOBs/72 hour bags/get home bags.

Beginning with using the criteria laid out in the article for these bags you can build, you guessed it, another list! This time it’s an assembly list of what you need for your bags. If you have multiple family members who leave the house regularly for work or at least drive a car, you should hopefully have a pack ready for them to leave in their car for emergency use. Recall, that these bags are personalized to each person, their situation, their life, their circumstances, and what emergencies they may encounter. The goal of this step is to get these bags done!

Not only BOBs, this step is where you will want to start getting the other items from your lists. Focus firstly on getting enough supplies for a 72 hour long emergency, that means food and water and anything else laid out in your previous lists that pertains to the short term. This is because a 72 hours emergency is most likely to happen in the grand world of statistics over a greater event happening, and having the bare necessities is better than being caught with your pants down because you were saving up for the $40,000 off the grid electrical setup. The goal is to be prepared and being prepared for the most common scenario first makes logical sense.

Another thing of note is rotation of supplies. If you are going to have a horde of food and water, make sure you regularly make use of items that are close to going out of date to prevent spoilage while still building your dragon’s horde of whatever it is you are stocking up on. While we may be willing to eat expired beans after nuclear war, it doesn’t mean I particularly want to eat them during a power outage that is going to only last a few days.

Step 5. Ensuring Medical and Health Preparedness

As tempting as it would be to simply state “read my other book,” I won’t. What I will say right off the bat is I wrote a book about medical prepping and it is available on amazon! It is also available online as a free PDF, if you need help finding it, shoot me a DM on twitter. It is also available as a 6 part article series on my twitter account, just go to my twitter profile and look under the highlights tab! You don’t need to spend money on any of this information, purchases are simply done for the benefit of the creator.

With that out of the way, I am going to simply cover a few pointers that anyone can and should do in regards to medical prepping. Firstly, we are going to build another list! Build a list of all the medications, OTC and RX, that you will need in case of an emergency, whether it be 72 hours or for a longer period. From there you can also plan around common medical issues that can arise in short and long term periods. Things such as food poisoning, common illnesses, common infections, performing proper wound care and treatment. All of these and any other things you can come up with will require resources that you may not have on hand. Building a list that you can easily follow will help greatly.

When it comes to stockpiling drugs let me say, I do NOT recommend that you go and get any illicit or illegal drugs or gather any drugs in an illegal matter. Don’t buy Oxy’s from the guy in the hood, it isn’t worth it, get Advil. Look for OTC options when possible as these drugs will be the easiest to get. When it comes to RX drugs, things get more complicated. One thing you can do, I will describe in a scenario: If grandma needs her heart medication, next time she gets it refilled, ask if she can request a 90 day pack, or if there are some left over from the last bottle that she hasn’t taken, start a little pill savings account to build medication stockpiles. You can also simply ask your doctor for prescriptions for things in case of their need. While this is likely to not work, if you are close with your doctor, your odds of success do improve (I do not know if this is legal so do not take this as legal advice. Do not break the law.). There are also telemedicine options out there such as the one shilled by conservative talking heads that allow you to get an emergency kit with Azithromycin (an antibiotic) and Ivermectin (antiparasitic).

Other things you can do are get yourself and your family trained in first aid. The Red Cross offers courses all the time on basic first aid skills, stop the bleed courses, and other basic trauma skills. Other organizations will offer similar skills, just start searching for courses of that type in your area. From there, you should try and regularly practice these skills so you don’t forget them. You can get wound packing and tourniquet trainers on amazon for reasonable prices along with other similar trainers depending on what skills you want to hone. You should practice first aid scenarios for various emergencies regularly.

Step 6. Establishing a Communications Plan.

In an emergency, communications can be the difference between help coming or not. While the severity and size of the emergency certainly can inhibit your ability to call the police, you can contact family, friends, and neighbors for assistance in an emergency or offer your assistance in an emergency.

We have covered this topic before but I want to retread shortly here but having a communications plan in place with your loved ones and associates ahead of time is beneficial both because they can offer help but also as an avenue to stay in contact with them during an emergency situation. Begin with looking into what mode of communication makes the most sense to you financially and realistically. For some, a Baofeng radio to talk to the neighbors is enough, some may need shortwave radio, others may need to look into satellite phones if the distance is truly great (like other side of mountains or other side of the world). There are a number of tricks to stretch radio signals as well that I won’t cover here as I am not remotely qualified enough to even think about them. Let me simply say, do the research now on what mode of communication will make the most sense and start learning. From there you can teach others on the proper use of the equipment. I also highly recommend that if you are interested in the radio aspect, purchase the ARRL ham radio license manual, it is a great resource and can teach you a lot of basics that I am certain you don’t know if you are a newcomer.

Once you have a modality of communication established, you should establish your actual contact plan. The first question you need to ask is: what frequency will you be talking on? Find a frequency that isn’t being actively used and establish that as your primary frequency, you can also set a secondary or tertiary in case of jamming or traffic, some radios will allow you to simultaneously listen to multiple frequencies at once to monitor incoming traffic. Next you want to ask: what times of day are you and your other party(ies) going to talk at? You can’t guarantee that they will have the radio on all day if the power goes out, but if they know that you will have the power on at say 20:00 (8:00 PM) they know that they can use the precious power in their batteries then. Set a small window for initiating conversation like 5 or 10 minutes where the radio is powered and someone is actively listening to any and all frequencies for communications. After that time has passed and nobody has spoken, you can safely assume they have nothing to report or talk about at this time and power off for the day to conserve battery.

Setting systems like these up can be a chore, especially with people who are generally uninterested in this aside from humoring you. In cases such as that it might be beneficial to provide a short manual of operation with your communication plan written out with basic equipment use explained so that if it is needed, they have access to it. Something like this can be especially beneficial if you have elderly family members who may find technology a bit confusing. Laying out a simple step-by-step guide can be something anyone can do, just ensure you write clearly and explain everything in a way that makes sense for their level of understanding.

Other things to keep in mind are the local emergency services radio frequencies along with the national weather service frequency in your area. Write these down as they can be beneficial to listen to in case of emergency, particularly if other communication systems are not available.

Step 7. Implementing Security.

This topic was well covered in a previous article so I just want to lightly recover some of the basic topics and add a few others here.

Firstly, securing your home from animal and human threats is a must. Performing security audits and reinforcing your home are relatively simple steps that won’t draw too much attention or cost to yourself (as long as you aren’t buying Kevlar or steel wall panels). Things like high security doors, locks, deadbolts, bars, or other security measures are relatively common and can be a bit pricey up front but like with everything else in this article, you don’t need to do them right away. You don’t need to be afraid to b u i l d a l i s t. You can do it. I know you can. You might be running out of paper but that’s okay, can always buy more and fill a binder. Other things you can do are to train in self defense now. This can be in any form that you wish as long as it fits your personal security criteria. It could be firearms training, less lethal training, hand to hand, swords, anything. It also isn’t unheard of to be trained in both firearms and martial arts. Martial arts can come in any flavor you want as long as it is actually useful. Some forms of these, americanized “karate” is rife with these, are total scams that don’t teach you anything actually useful in a fight. Do some research and find one that interests you and begin studying. You may be required to take courses or learn from a singular individual selling classes on craigslist depending on how obscure your interest is. Lastly, like with everything else, practice. Without practice, skills atrophy, and then when needed, you are not as sharp as you thought you were and things can take a turn for the worse rapidly.

Step 8. Promoting Sustainable Living.

This sounds like hippy garbage I know. It isn’t. Sustainable simply means that is a process that can be repeated with time safely. There are things that we can do now in our daily life with our current hobbies that can make our lives easier should things go south.

For example, if you live near a lake or other body of freshwater, consider not using heavy insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers in your lawn or garden that will runoff into the water. While firstly, they are dangerous to your health, they also can upset the ecosystem that you may very well rely on in an emergency situation. The old adage of “don’t shit where you eat,” comes to mind. You should try and do your best to keep the area around you healthy so that should you need it, you can easily utilize it.

Other things you can focus on are sustainable food production. Look into gardening, start with learning the basics of gardening in a way that is organic or using as few chemicals as possible for both your health and for the health of the land. Remember that the goal is to grow your own food indefinitely, not just one season. Look into crop rotation and other forms of farming. Consider what the Native Americans did with their crops and consider emulating their systems. Once harvest comes, look into preservation techniques. Food preservation in the form of canning is very useful if done safely and correctly but other options have been around for hundreds of years. Consider researching these methods and practicing them.

Finally start building a network in your community. Meet the farmers, make friends with your neighbors, be known as the guy who helps your community. This is both because it’s generally a good thing to do but also because should an emergency happen, you have a greater network to both assist and rely on. Humanity developed civilization out of a need for survival, we didn’t just do it because it was nice to be near a guy you could get along with. We did it for protection and food benefits to one another. Should some of the gears of the great clock that is postmodern society halt, you can at least rest assuredly knowing that you have some rudimentary form of social safety net assembled. You can also look into starting a local preparedness group to pass on your knowledge and gain some from others while also building a community of like minded individuals.

All of these seemingly separate ideas fall under the idea of sustainability. All of these ideas promote a lifestyle that can sustain itself should an emergency situation develop, particularly larger and more severe ones.

Step 9. Regularly Reviewing and Updating.

We finally have arrived at the final step. This one is also fairly self explanatory. You should regularly check your plan and see if it is still relevant to your needs and that the goals laid out in it are effective. Review your lists, all of them, make sure they seem fine, do not be afraid to change them entirely. As you work through your various scenarios and drills and skill building, reference your lists and update them as needed. You should always be in a state of semi-fluidity with your planning. Man plans and God laughs so being able to adjust as circumstances change can benefit your prepping prognosis should things go south.

I also want to add on that you should always be working on improving yourself. Anyone who decides that they have done enough is someone who has done not enough. Self improvement is not a task that can be truly completed, it is a process that begins and never ends. If we sit on our laurels and retire, we die, both intellectually and physically (seriously look into how retired people just die all the time). By building yourself up constantly, you will be building those around you up as well and it will help ensure everyone does better should the unthinkable happen.

Conclusion.

By creating lists and plans you are able to take theory and convert it into tangible things that can help your survival during an emergency situation. Prepping is often a lot of theory and many people get tangled up in it and end up never executing on anything meaningful when it comes to their actual survival. Build assembling lists and working through them in a logical manner you can better prepare for whatever situation you may encounter. It also is very important to start small, don’t drain your bank account and your personal energy trying to do to much at once. If you are worried collapse is on the horizon, you should prepare in a way that doesn’t kill you before it even happens! What good will you be if you overworked yourself and barely know how to use all the goodies you bought? Taking it small and getting good at a few things is better than having a lot of things you can’t use. Paul Harrell and others use a similar philosophy with firearm ownership. What’s the best gun for self defense? The one you have now. You can get a better weapon down the line but starting with what you have and learning it can teach you skills that make you better with others later. This philosophy rings true in prepping as well. Take it easy. Even if the collapse is just around the bend, you can’t reasonably get everything squared away overnight. You can take a brisk pace, sure, but don’t go crazy.

Lastly, being fluid is important. Being rigid in your planning and prepping won’t help you should the situation and circumstances change. Take in information as it comes and process it, don’t be ignorant and assume your plan will always work. Don’t be afraid to admit something you did was wrong or something you planned for was incorrectly scenarioed out. Life is a series of changes and your list can be one of them, or your threat matrix, or your choice of water system, anything. To paraphrase Howard Zinn, ‘we can’t afford to be neutral on a moving train.’

Act accordingly.

🧵Hill 3234: How 39 men successfully defended against hundreds

The story of this defense is possibly the best example of how elevation can make or break any battle. While an insignificant battle in the grand strategy of things, both sides fought with ferocity and valor. In 1988 as the Soviet-Afghan war was drawing to a close, a single platoon was left to defend a tactically important mountain pass that allowed trade and logistics to flow into the surrounding area. The troops were stationed at Hill 3234 - named after its elevation in meters.

The Bronze Age Collapse - More Than an Aberration of History?

The bronze age collapse occurred between 1200 & 1150 BC and saw the collapse of many societies and nations. Why does this matter? Because as Nietzsche said, "time is a flat circle," and similar patterns are emerging. Beginning with the actors involved. You had the Myceanean Greeks, the Hittites, Cypriots, the Palestinian City-States, and a partial collapse of the Epyptians and Assyrians. These were the major powers of the world at the time. Encompassing a majority of the worlds trade.

PSA CAMOUFLAGE 🧵

This is a joint effort between me and @dataskinwalker give him a follow and check out his work. I'll be covering more pattern/uniform related stuff while he has done more on the basic nature of camouflage. Camouflage patterns.

It literally doesn't matter what you pick as long as it meets @dataskinwalker's laid out criteria which can be summed up as:

BREAK UP YOUR SHAPE.

Unless you're a ghillie in the mist, you'll be spotted. The goal is to be harder to hit at distance.

PSA. Shadows: Evading the All-Seeing Eye of the Postmodern Age 🧵

Staying hidden from the surveillance state.

Data is the new oil and everyone is a well. Don't get tapped. Historically surveillance involved physically recording the subject, either by phone tap, hidden microphones, spies, and informants. The digital revolution introduced all of these into everyone's homes many times over, many of which are recording you now to sell your data.

PSA 5TH GENERATION WARFARE 🧵

War has changed.

War is one of man's earliest inventions and most effective. War has evolved with the generations to become better suited to its environment and our postmodern age is no different. Each generation builds atop the other, everpresent Previous gens.

Gen 1 warfare is line tactics. This goes back deep into human history and remained unchanged through the advent of muskets.

Gen 2 is trench warfare and the massive armies seen during the first World War.

Gen 3 is maneuver warfare. Pioneered by the Nazis...