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  So, being a 'contractor' in Iraq is not the same as being a contractor building stuff or serving food in the DFAC right? Out on the ground we were effectively involved in combat operations, we took casualties, lost a guy to a sniper in Fallujah etc. Guys lost their legs to EFPs. As well as regular enemy small arms fire and IED ambushes, when operating low profile I had the dubious honor of being shot at by the US Army, the Iraqi Police (when moving at night into a check-point south of Mosul) and we also got massively lit up by the Marine Corps in Fallujah one time when they mistook our SUVs for a team of foreign fighters. Luckily, the vehicles were armored and they were dismounted, not using .50 cal's. They don't mess about, those boys.

  After my three years in Iraq I went and worked security for the Brit government in Helmand for two years, working hand in hand with Brit Mil, protecting personnel as they went about their business.

  After settling in the US with my American wife I decided to join the US Army Reserves, essentially to try and give back some service in return to my new country. It was also my hope that my experience would be useful to help train others. I attended basic training in 2011 and qualified as a combat medic, before re-qualifying in civil affairs and becoming a team sergeant.

  Training Facility

  When I decided to start Max Velocity Tactical and start running civilian training classes, I was determined to bring the high quality style of training that I wanted to bring. I didn't want to become 'just another tactical trainer' and it has been my aim to use my previous training and experience to bring a high quality of training.

  I soon realized that to bring a professional standard of training that would equate to the standard received by my Parachute Regiment trainees I would need two things: 1) a suitable facility and 2) suitable targets.

  It was because of this that I invested in the 100 acres of land in West Virginia, which I selected because it provides natural ranges with ridges that provide not only terrain to train on, but also natural backstops. I combined this with the purchase of suitable electronic pop-up targets that operate by remote control and will sense hits - they fall when hit. This allows me to bring the quality of training that I intend, and is the reason that I prefer to train at my facility, rather than travel where I am limited in what I can do with people.

  After giving it much thought, I have gone heavily back to the 'old-school' ways of light infantry style training. I believe that this is exactly what is needed to prepare people for the kind of SHTF or resistance to ‘enemies foreign or domestic’ situation for which we are all training. I reject 'tacticool' in favor of battle tested light infantry team tactics. I am also influenced by my close protection background in order to bring an amalgamation of training and operational experience to give you what I sincerely consider is the best such training available in this field.

  CHAPTER ONE

  STARTING POINTS

  The Threat

  For the purposes of this manual the threat is considered to be hostile individuals or groups who are intent on endangering the safety of you and your group/team/family. They are doing this because we are in a post-event situation, lawlessness has broken out and supplies are limited. Their purpose will be to take from you, by force, whatever it is that they want: whether it is food, fuel, water, vehicles, equipment, weapons, your children or your spouse or partner.

  The fact that you may be identified as a prepper makes you a target, because you are able to remain healthy and well fed and you have supplies that others will want to get hold of. The purpose of this manual is not to discuss in detail what may have led us to this situation, but by form of introduction let us consider some situations that may form ‘The Event’ and that may have led to a situation of post-societal collapse. Some of these will feed, relate to, or be caused by the others.

  The list is not intended to be exhaustive:

   Economic decline/collapse: resulting in a collapse in currency and the economy.

   Environmental collapse: resulting in shortages of resources.

   EMP attack or Solar EMP: this could have a widespread destructive effect on the power grid, causing the knock on effect alluded to above.

   War or terrorist attack

   Natural Disaster: i.e. storm, earthquake, flood, volcano or combination of these events.

   Cyber-Attack: a very real threat which can be ‘weaponized’ in the form of physical results against infrastructure and notably including the power grid. A threat from national or non-national actors.

   Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear attack.

   Failure of the political system; widespread civil disorder and rioting.

   Viral outbreak or disease.

   Slow slide societal collapse brought about by increasing use of violence by the video game generations, lacking family and societal structure.

   Zombie Apocalypse: yes, of course this has to be included! Joking aside, of course we all love zombie shows, but is it really a metaphor for those starving unprepared masses trying to break through your front door, allowing us to disassociate ourselves mentally from the requirement to use lethal force against our fellow citizens?

  The specific threats that this may result in that are the purview of this manual are:

   Assault, with or without a deadly weapon.

   Mob violence or civil disorder.

   Home invasion or assault onto your group’s base or retreat.

   Illegal Traffic Checkpoints (ITCPs) or roadblocks.

   Ambush.

   Raid by hostile forces.

   Hostile use of firearms.

  The types of weapons that may be used against you are whatever is available for sale in the US today or in the past. This may include military weapons taken by looters or deserting military personnel. However, for the purposes of this document the main threat we will be concerned with is the use of standard firearms against your group by hostile elements, up to and including automatic assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles.

  Some types of weapons to be considered:

   Knives

   Sticks/clubs/bats

   Handguns

   Rifles

   Assault or battle rifles

   Automatic weapons and machine guns

   Vehicles: ramming and with weapons mounted

   Explosives & Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

   Military ‘liberated’ gear examples:

  o Grenades

  o Grenade launchers

  o Heavy machine guns

  o Anti-tank rockets

  o Mortars

  o Armored Vehicles

  You should not just consider the situation at the time of the collapse but also give thought to how things will develop as time goes on. If there is a total collapse then people will get desperate very quickly. It may be that the government is still functioning to some degree and there may still be troops under command trying to restore order under martial law. Criminal gangs may coalesce to loot for supplies and exploit the lawlessness of the situation.

  Groups will form for defense, such as around towns or neighborhoods, and they will likely be very suspicious of ‘outsiders’. Your better defense will be in numbers, preferably selected, trained and of sufficient size and ability to be able to defend against raids by armed and motivated enemy groups.

  It is likely that most people will be averse to the dangers of physical injury in a post collapse scenario, but that may be a simplistic view; you can’t assume that a raid will not progress onto your property or location simply because you are armed. People will be desperate, and if they feel confident with their group, perhaps buoyed by other successful raids, they will be emboldened. They may already be committed to an attack before they realize that your defense is effectively putting some of their number down. It depends on the exact circumstances if they are already too committed to go back by then.

  It is also true that a group of amoral looters may well h
ave become a raiding band and, in a similar way to a criminal band or drug cartel, they may be very well organized as a group. This situation will result in relationship, group and leadership dynamics that will make it hard for them to:

  1) Not seek to exact retribution from a prepper location that has mauled the gang and

  2) Create a group-think and unwillingness of individuals to countermand orders (along with machismo) that may allow an attack to be pressed despite the theory that personal survival should be their paramount consideration.

  Thus, some groups have dynamics that override our feeling that it would be ‘suicidal’ or ‘crazy’ to keep pushing forward under such circumstances. You would not do it, but don’t discount the possibility that others will.

  By all means, you have to be able to defend your home or location, which will include your family and friends. But before you decide to make a stand you have to consider if making a stand at that location, and with the resources that you have, is going to be effective against the threat you face. If you feel in any way that your location is not defensible against the threat, then you need to bug out. You need to have a plan to be able to withdraw or escape.

  It may be that you decide to stay, but then perhaps a new threat from strong well-armed looter gangs emerges; you will be better served by leaving. Any defended location needs an escape route, but one of the most difficult maneuvers is to withdraw while in contact with the enemy. Getting out and breaking contact may be hard, may leave you without vehicles, equipment and means of transport. Imagine trying to do this while surrounded and under fire, with your children?

  The alternative, staying in an Alamo kind of situation, could be fatal for your family. Historically, any city that defended itself against siege was raised to the ground when finally taken by assault. The people were raped, killed and taken into slavery. What you do will all come down to judgment and assessing the situation and threat. Don’t become tied to a location if you feel that staying there will become untenable. Make a decision early and make a planned withdrawal with all your gear and vehicles. You may not be able to take it all, but don’t be tied to a location simply because your painstakingly acquired stash is there.

  Even if you prepare to stay, have extraction plans and routes ready in case you have to go; try and assess and make the decision early so that you can get away in safety with as much of your survival gear as possible. You may not have a retreat, and you may decide to initially stay in your home and assess the severity of the event. If you do, have a bug out plan ready, with locations to go to (even if it’s a remote wood to camp and hide in) and routes to get there. Make a load carrying plan involving the ability to load gear onto vehicles with roof racks and trailers so you can get out with your supplies.

  No-one really knows how the situation will develop post-event: a lot will depend on the type and severity of the event. We can know that it is a good thing to be trained and prepared. We can also know that it will be important to be self-sustaining and self-reliant so that your group can fend for itself and not become victims or refugees. Although we can expect that post-event both Federal and local aid and response will be insufficient, don’t expect that an event will suddenly ‘wipe the slate clean’ and suddenly we are in a total ‘post-government’ environment.

  Yes, we will have to provide for ourselves and we will be up against huge dangers from looters and desperate people, of both the organized and disorganized types. But don’t expect Federal and State government to simply go away. Uncle Sam doesn’t give up that easily. Whatever is left after the event, expect efforts to regain control, return law and order, and bring aid and disaster assistance in whatever way is feasible. Consider the possibilities of martial law, Federal and State disaster relief and aid; also consider the possibility of international aid and perhaps international assistance.

  Also, if Uncle Sam is mortally wounded, consider other nations taking advantage of that and bringing more than aid, perhaps even ‘peacekeeping or stabilization aid’ which could be an invasion masked as assistance. Don’t become a freedom fighter/insurgent at the expense of your family. Don’t shoot at those Chinese troops from your house! Don’t involve your family in the fight, if you choose to fight. Establish a safe, protected, location for your family and then take off with your Resistance group and fight the invaders, if you so choose.

  There is an element to the prepper mentality where, after all the expense and preparations, you can almost hope that something would happen so you can go ahead and implement it all – get to your retreat and survive etc. Some of this may come from a desire for change for changes sake, or the tiredness with the ‘rat-race’ of modern living and a desire for the freedom of some kind of apocalyptic situation. How cool would it be if we really had a Zombie Apocalypse?

  But think about it: if it really all did go away, and we were back to the middle-ages with guns, would that really be that cool? There is another disturbing side to this that will need to be paid particular attention post-event: false ‘militia’ groups, criminal gangs, and the like. Many preppers get together and plan to defend a location, and we can expect that small towns will form some sort of true Militia or defense force. But there is a danger of extremism and fanaticism and in fact there are, today in America, many groups that are styled as ‘militia’ but which are in fact extremist groups with political agendas.

  A genuine Militia at its basic level is a historical part of American history and tied in closely with the right to bear arms in defense of Citizen Liberty (i.e. the unorganized Militia). Some false ‘militia’ activity is politically motivated by extremism (or alternatively is the result of mainstream media bias and psychological operations against militia groups). It would definitely not be good to encounter such a group post-event, particularly if you are not someone included in their view of ‘the right sort of people’. Be aware of this. This sort of problem will also be encountered in the form of criminal gangs, and in fact ‘militia’ should not really be used as a descriptive for such groups.

  While the efforts of genuine Militia and defense groups to establish a security zone are admirable, what is not acceptable would be an agenda that discriminates against groups within society, harming them simply because they do not ‘belong’. It may also be possible that, emboldened by collapse, such groups will become insurgents against Federal government and fight efforts by such to get the country back on its feet.

  The statement in the previous paragraph clearly does not apply when Militia and Resistance groups find themselves forced to fight domestic or foreign enemies who have attacked Liberty, and are a threat to the Constitutional Republic that is the United States of America. In fact, this manual is designed to provide you with the tactical tools to allow such groups to train as unconventional warfare (UW) Resistance fighters in such a situation – it is a continuum from being able to protect your family all that way up to fighting a domestic or foreign enemy on the side of the Constitutional Republic in a future resistance campaign.

  The novel ‘Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises’, also by the author, is a fictional story of how such a situation may play out, based around a collapse and ensuing civil war. The novel is designed to be a vehicle to describe the use of the tactics covered in this manual, and as such it is a helpful companion read, to really bring to life the concepts that are described here.

  The flip side of the false ‘militia’ thing is that you are much more likely to survive within a community or ‘tribe’ that can work together in sufficient numbers to allow specialization of tasks and the training of tactical teams. For such an endeavor to work, the tribe must be made up of people with an identifying culture and outlook who can trust each other and work together. There are obvious cultural and racial issues that divide America and while it is hoped that your group would not exacerbate these things, at the same time a level of realism has to be applied so that your ‘tribe’ will be aware enough to defend itself against hostiles, rioters, those who otherwise feel like they are e
ntitled to your supplies, or those who simply want to riot and kill people in your area perhaps based on racial or cultural differences.

  It is certainly true that those groups, whose members identify with each other allowing a strong trust and bond to develop, stand a greater chance of survival than disparate individuals or scattered families. It is part of human nature to psychologically ‘other’ outsiders and this is one of the mechanisms by which humans are able to engage in warfare and kill to defend their ‘tribe’. The previous paragraphs are essentially discussing the difference between a group that is able to survive as a result of their established ‘tribal’ identity and trust and conversely one that displays deliberate hostility towards others based on extremist reasons.

  Although many preppers have opinions on topics such as the size of government and State versus Federal powers and rights, the ‘Feds’ are not ultimately the bad guys. At least, they are not supposed to be. Yes, we worry some about sinister thoughts concerning martial law, seizure of our supplies post-event, and increasingly restrictive gun laws. These things are to be worried about. But remember, a government reflects its society, in the same way that an army reflects its society – many people don’t get the gun thing, in the same way that they don’t get prepping.