tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post7786165501967290217..comments2024-03-28T11:58:42.109-07:00Comments on Raconteur Report: A Few Not-So-Random ThoughtsAesophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07834464741531503378noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-48610524721962603212018-08-24T14:00:51.436-07:002018-08-24T14:00:51.436-07:00All the planning, PT and preps are a foot up if yo...All the planning, PT and preps are a foot up if you're planning an insurgency ala the Viet Cong etc. Another path things may take is more akin to "The Resistance" in Europe during WWII where you live a "normal" life of a subject during the day and act in small groups or individually (a secret known by two or more is no secret) when opportunity presents itself. And sometimes you must lay low following path 2 till you have the resources and support to move too path 1.Dannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-46385482119960584682018-08-24T12:38:06.645-07:002018-08-24T12:38:06.645-07:00That's the point. It's a self-evaluation e...That's the point. It's a self-evaluation exercise, with the underlying point that there's no such thing as "enough".<br />You are where you are, and you'll do what you can, where you are, with what you've got, as will we all, but more than anything, most people have to realize how piddling and bankrupt their imagined readiness for anything like what they imagine actually is when seen in the light of day.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqQlCOmXuHM<br /><br />"Because you see, when the Zombpocalypse happens, the first question they're going to ask is not going to be, 'Does he have a hat?'"<br /><br />I suppose it's a little bit Zen, but the starting position should probably be to realize that the only thing we've done, is that we've done nothing.<br />Or near enough to it as makes no difference.<br />And work upwards from there.Aesophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07834464741531503378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-63884234659872257952018-08-24T10:31:27.150-07:002018-08-24T10:31:27.150-07:00Oh nice. You asked numbered questions. I'm he...Oh nice. You asked numbered questions. I'm heavily compelled to give numbered answers! Here we go!<br /><br />1: I need to get two wisdom teeth removed, and that'll be it.<br />2: Have never timed my 3 mile run, but my two mile run is about 14 minutes. I've maintained that rate of speed for almost 5 miles several times. So I'll conservatively estimate that my 3 mile time is 22 or 23 minutes.<br /><br />3: I can tuck a M249 SAW and a full compliment of ammo and spare barrel, wearing body armor, sidearm, in boots, sleeping set, small tent, water, E-tool, wet weather gear, etc.<br /><br />4: I can ruck it a long way. I think the longest in training in one sitting was 13 miles or something, and I stopped because the march was over. I don't really know how much longer any of us could have gone with it.<br /><br />5: How fast? I can ruck that a mile every 15 minutes or so. My first mile is closer to 13 minutes.<br /><br />6: Got my zero on irons and optics on AR-15.<br /><br />7: Got 4 or 5 pairs of broken in boots and at least 2 new pairs.<br /><br />8: I have 2 or 3 pairs of glasses that are a good prescription, 2 or 3 that are passable, plus a pair of good prescription sunglasses, plus my old Army BCGs that still allow me to see plenty well enough to shoot at 300m. I don't have any prescription meds, neither do my wife and kids.<br /><br />9: Have a will, have no legal affairs, finances are pretty good, and I do have a cash stash, though it's only about 20% of what I think I will need it to be.<br /><br />10: I'm a RN who currently works in the ER, but I've also got several years of work on a trauma/surgical floor dealing with gun shot wound treatment and other treatments on various traumatic injuries and surgeries. I've got quite a stash of tourniquets and chest seals and other medical gear that I've acquired.<br /><br />11: I've got a fairly new military issue gas mask that the Army screwed up on and issued me two. Then later only asked for one back. So I've got one. Also a bunch of the little 3M respirators.<br /><br />12: I have two Kevlar helmets, but no body armor right now.<br /><br />13: Got a bunch of rice, beans and salt and pepper. A bunch of sugar. I have some Mountain House stuff. I'm growing about half of the vegetables we use and my wife cans a lot of fruits and veggies as well. We stock up and can stuff every few months.<br /><br />14: I need more bullets. I've got in the four digit range, and I am sorely lacking. I will say though, I've been hitting the practice ranges hard lately. Really hard. I went through 600 rounds of 9mm this week, alone.<br /><br />15: Commo? Ugh, I'm a Commo dunce. I've got several different sets of two-way radios, but when it comes to radio theory and CB and ham and all that, I'm not joking when I say that I'm a dunce. I'm working on it but it's not my talent, to be sure.<br /><br />16: We are still talking about Commo, right? See above. I'm working on this though. Thing is, who am I trying to communicate with? My group? I don't have a group. I want a group, but I don't have a group.<br /><br />17-25: I'll keep this to myself for OPSEC reasons but I'm willing to admit that while some of the answers are satisfactory to me, others are nowhere near good enough.The Gray Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15098168056466325559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-57166459570888641762018-08-24T08:56:41.412-07:002018-08-24T08:56:41.412-07:00Jeez Aesop, who/what wound you up? T'was/is BR...Jeez Aesop, who/what wound you up? T'was/is BRILLIANT stuff but looks a bit like you lifted the safeties on #2 boiler, there. <br />One note; I'd druther have some damn good LCpls and Cpl's than a buncha SNCO's and Company-grades running around. I just want the Gunny someplace elevated and half-pistol shot away overseeing the preps and available for consultation. <br />Yeah, I'm well past my physical prime but I'm working out every day and attending to my planning/training/acquisition responsibilities as well as my IPB. I can fill a two-"person" hole 24/7 and she's coming along very nicely thank you, - as is the next generation fire-team. <br />Returning to the place-of-my-youth has reconnected me with "shovel-and-quicklime" friends of past decades; they too have gotten older but that really means they've learned a LOT. <br />As I noted in comments a day or so ago; every day it doesn't start is a day to prepare. I'm hoping it doesn't ever start but that's not the way I'm betting. <br />Thanks for your blog<br />Boat Guy<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-5944122818836225752018-08-24T06:07:12.726-07:002018-08-24T06:07:12.726-07:00Sorry, this was the closest thing I could find...
...Sorry, this was the closest thing I could find...<br /><br />https://www.amazon.com/Action-Figures-soldiers-Bucket-Soldiers/dp/B00BT5JBVY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1535115857&sr=8-8&keywords=bucket+of+green+army+men<br /><br />You'll need about 50 buckets to get a whole division though, and they may prove to be too small to meet the challenge.Aesophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07834464741531503378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-20306051099879751352018-08-24T05:01:13.031-07:002018-08-24T05:01:13.031-07:00I'd like a link to that "bucket of Dehydr...I'd like a link to that "bucket of Dehydrated Airborne Division from the Wise Company"<br />...Please?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-36154956820013118002018-08-23T21:58:43.230-07:002018-08-23T21:58:43.230-07:00OTB,
Knowing your limitations are limitations, you...OTB,<br />Knowing your limitations <i>are</i> limitations, you're still ahead of the game.<br />people with your years generally know they should focus on what they <i>can</i> do and what they <i>must</i> do, and not on what they cannot.<br /><br />It bugs me only that people who should know better think they want a war to start, having made absolutely no preparations to do anything in such a thing except soak up a few bullets.<br /><br />If you place is far away from trouble, be a refuge.<br />Trust me: If you build it, the refugees will come.<br /><br />If it's not, imagine the things a man not perceived as any military threat by an opposing military could see, and to whom he could pass along such information, come the day.<br />And where he could go, and who he could take along with him unbeknownst, and none of TPTB any the wiser in either case.<br /><br />Read the stories from back in your youth told years later, by men who had received a weekly haircut and shave from the old man in the nearby village, only to one day discover that when they finally bagged the One Shot Rice Paddy Sniper who'd plagued them with casualties for months, it turned out to be the same smiling old gentleman who'd had a razor at their throats every week.<br /><br />Does anyone really think it matters for ultimate victory if the enemy battalion gets taken out by Audie Murphy in half an hour, or by Simo Häyhä over three months?<br /><br />As for government informants, time sorts that out. They're in it for the short term: either for bonus money, or to get out from under something pending that's hanging over them like the Sword of Damocles.<br />If you don't do anything illegal, the odds of them hanging around for months to years hoping you will do so someday diminish by the week. (It doesn't guarantee that you won't be bothered by feds looking to get a notch on their gunbelt, but it certainly makes it far less likely.)<br /><br />You want the secret?<br /><br />You should start by finding people your trust with your life, <i>five years ago</i>. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.<br />It isn't too late though. Start now, and see who's still around in a few years. We may have as long as that, perhaps more.<br />If we don't, and things get ugly faster, it really doesn't matter, does it?Aesophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07834464741531503378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-714028479313834812.post-83885474111947482252018-08-23T20:59:05.649-07:002018-08-23T20:59:05.649-07:00You are one of my daily reads. I'm almost 70. ...You are one of my daily reads. I'm almost 70. My knees are shot. I don't think I'll be doing much running with a 50 lb. pack. Seems like I don't have much choice but to hunker down on my place with my guns, ammo, food and supplies. But even if I was more mobile, how does one find a group.....militia....or whatever....that doesn't have at least one government informant in it?On The Beachnoreply@blogger.com