FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

(AND SOME NOT-SO-FREQUENTLY ASKED)

A: I used to get bombarded with this question, but ever since I put THE RALLY POINT up, not that many people have asked. You can post an ad there, or respond to one. How it works is, when someone posts an ad, I assign it a number and keep their E-mail address on file (yes, I plan to destroy these files before I let them fall into the wrong hands) rather than post them on the page for the whole world to see. When someone responds to an ad, I forward their message to the one who posted it, and from there the two of you are on your own. That's one option.

The "American Survival Guide" (ASG) magazine used to have a personal ad section, but they've changed their name (to something more PC, but I can't remember it) and I believe they no longer have the personals section (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Jack McLamb's Police Against the New World Order published "Operation Vampire Killer" in the early '90s and in it offered to match people to local groups. I imagine the groups were of the paper-shuffling variety, and I don't know if that offer still stands. I haven't seen a new issue of "The Resister" for years (maybe because I haven't been looking), but they could probably hook you up, and they've got a pretty intricate security procedure to thwart Big Brother. Most will tell you that the best way to start a group is with family or friends you've known for a long time. I would agree, if you're lucky enough to have friends who share your convictions and commitment. Maybe the next best option is to hang out at survival expos, gun shows, and events like the Knob Creek Machinegun Shoot. That's the kind of place where I made my first contact over 10 years ago. I overheard part of a conversation in which someone was spouting off the very things I'd been thinking. Up until then, I was afraid I was the only one who felt that way. Turns out there are lots of folks who feel the way I do, and they also thought they were the only ones.

Don't overlook the web, either. A search with certain keywords could open new doors for you. You can find a group in your area, even in places like New York and California. Most of these groups with a web presence are just birching, but as you get to know the members, you will probably find what you're looking for.

A: Thanks for the high praise. I know of no website with the type of info you want. Probably there are a lot of survival oriented sites on the web, but few addressing your specific needs.I'll try to answer your questions here:

The first thing you should invest in are some GI arctic mittens and liners. These are the ones with the separated index finger (so winter triggers are not neccessary) and they keep your hands very warm in severe cold. Next, get some cold weather boots if you don't have any. "Mickey Mouse" or "Bunny Boots" are good, as are some of the hunting boots made specifically for extreme cold. Gortex boots are probably the best, but if you can't afford them, at least try to get some Gortex socks. If you're not familiar with Gortex: it's a miracle material that is completely waterproof, yet allows your skin to "breath". GI wool socks are well worth the money--wool traps heat in even when wet. Polypropeline is another miracle material (used in sock-liners and some long johns) which wicks moisture away from your skin. Living in (that butt-cold area), I'm sure you're aware that keeping dry is a big part of keeping warm. One of the most critical times for fighting The Hawk is when you're trying to sleep, so a sleeping bag designed for extreme cold is a worthwhile investment. The GI bags come in 3 levels of cold protection, and they're all heavier to carry around than some of the better civilian bags. Even light or intermediate bags, however, can be improved by using a sleeping bag liner (outer shell) or putting a wool blanket, poncho liner or space blanket inside. Space blankets are cheap, light, and do a great job at keeping you warm--some of them are even colored OD Green on the outside--but they're not very durable. Of course, just laying in your bag out in the elements won't cut it in the kind of cold you're talking about, so a tent is a good idea too. I'm sure you know about keeping your head covered even inside the bag to help keep your body heat from escaping--same goes with your feet. Slipping a plastic garbage sack or GI waterproof bag over the bottom of your sleeping bag will help trap heat in. In emergencies, you can even put your bare feet in plastic bags and tie them off around your ankles.

The only way to survive extreme cold without a fire (when you're static--if you're moving you can't have a fire anyway) is with shelter. A good tent is a start. But it's just a temporary shelter. If you'll be staying in one place for very long, depending on the terrain and circumstances, you should either build a sturdier shelter around your tent, dig a shelter in the ground and put a well camoflaged, thick roof over it, or build some sort of igloo out of the snow. So as far as equipment goes, invest in a good wood saw (I have 2 folding "camp saws" with my bug-out gear, which work very well), and an entrenching tool (folding shovel). When shopping for an E-tool, avoid the aftermarket glossy green ones at all costs--they're flimsy Red Chinese junk that falls apart easily. The current GI E-tools (alluminum painted flat black) are OK, but don't last long with hard digging. The old GI E-tool is my choice. It has a wooden handle and a steel shovel head (sometimes with a pick blade on the other side). It is a little heavier than the furshlugguner kind, and doesn't fold up as small, but it stands up to hard use. Of course, depending on your mode of transport, a pioneer box full of real picks, shovels, saws, axes, etc. would really come in handy when it's time to build a shelter.For traveling in the snow, snow shoes and cross-country skis can really make life more pleasant. I prefer the skis--provided you know how to use them.The gear I mentioned, plus a lot more, can be picked up at flea markets, gun shows, pawn shops and mail-order catalogs. Of the latter, there are 2 I use more than any other: Sportsman's Guide (good place for boots, long johns and all sorts of foreign military surplus) and Gold Nugget Army Surplus (mostly GI surplus, but I've also found hex-dome tents in their catalog). These 2 generally have the best prices, and there is some overlap in the range of inventory. If you've never gone dumpster-diving outside your local National Guard Armory, that can net you some surprising finds--for free!

Another thing to consider if you're just now starting to collect the gear you'll need is the new GI field packs (CFP-90s or the MOLLE). With one you can carry a lot more gear far more comfortably than with the old rucksack/ALLICE pack (even the large ones). The designers of this new pack really put a lot of thought into it. It has more useful features than I can list here, but one I will bring to your attention is the intentional ski-toting capability. 2 things to consider, though, are 1) troops have complained about failure of the internal pack frame (on the CFP-90) during hard use with heavy loads, and 2) when in the prone, the pack prevents you from lifting your head to sight down your weapon.

A: Well, if you haven't read my tactics pages, you might want to start there. First of all, you need to organize yourselves into a unit. You can use my training and organization page for a guide. Next you need somebody to be in charge of the training. If your group has a leader, this should fall to him. If you don't, you should elect one (based on knowledge, experience and ability, not popularity or gift of gab). Since you've taken the initiative on this matter, you yourself might be da man.

That leader should plan some productive, hands-on training for the time alloted. If you've got a weekend, go camping and train all day long. Start with very basic stuff--moving through the woods in the wedge, the battle-drills from my group movement page. Lots of repetition on this stuff--don't try to cover everything at one outing.

As for SOPs, most can be devised in the comfort of somebody's living room. I would start with hand-arm signals, and all of you can agree on what works best. If you don't have any point of reference, you can always PLAGIARIZE THE US INFANTRY and modify the universal SOPs as needed. As for whistle commands, one man probably just ought to put it on paper, then make copies of it and pass them out at a sit-down meeting. Crossing danger areas would be a good SOP to learn early (feel free to use the SOP I wrote, if you want), and the challenge/password and POW search are easy ones. As you all become competent at the simple things, you can develop the more complex SOPs, like the hasty ambush, setting up a base camp, striking camp, and so on.

Just having these guys out in the woods, trying to do anything as a team is going to give you a few ideas for tuning, tweaking, and creating brand new SOPs. Every time you guys train, build on what you learned last time.

A: I have a backwards problem from yours: I feel comfortable with a rifle, but not with a pistol. Yet I have a sidearm I intend to carry along--'cause ya never know. I make an effort to practice with it, because there are some situations I can imagine in which my life may depend on it. I advise you to adapt the same attitude toward the rifle, because the rifle is the queen of the firefight (king being belt-fed MGs). Not to be confused with the King and Queen of Battle (Artillery and Infantry). Your enemy will be armed with weapons with a much greater maximum effective range than your pistol, which means they can engage you long before you can engage them--all other things being equal. Now if, through some combination of good fortune and stealth, you are able to get right on top of the enemy without him detecting you, then by all means take him out with your pistol and save the rifle ammo for a situation less advantageous. But don't count on this happening with regularity.

I've never actually had a weapon freeze up on me, but this is probably because I've never been hunting or training out in the kind of weather which will cause this. I have been exposed to it, just not with a firearm. So I'm ignorant as to the best lubrication for extreme cold weather Though I've read that the Finns mixed gasoline with their lube oil, and they should know). However, weapon selection is also a factor in avoiding freeze-ups. Of the rifles currently available, the SKS might be your best choice for the money (depending on how cold it gets in your area) because its action is so simple and rugged (doesn't hurt that it's cheaper than everything else, either). Once again, I must laud the reliable design of the Springfield M1A (civilian M14) and the Ruger Mini-14. Although neither have been the primary battle rifle of any cold-weather campaign I'm aware of, both of them utilize the M-1 Garand action. The M-1 Garand was used in such places as the Aleutians and Korea and proved rock-solid during the cold seasons.

One of the most important things you can do to protect your weapon from the cold is sleep with it INSIDE THE BAG WITH YOU. This will also ensure that you know exactly where it is if you must get up in the middle of the night.

In an emergency, if your firing pin is frozen and you don't have the time or means to thaw it enough to get your weapon firing some other way, you might have to urinate on it. It may be crude to suggest this now, but when people are trying to kill you, you do whatever it takes. I know of at least one GI during the Korean War who had to piss on his BAR to free the firing pin and join battle.

A: Out of all the comments I've posted on the web, my opinion of the M-16 has proven the most controversial. Who'da thunk it?

I state my opinions strongly when I feel very passionate about something. I get passionate about things that my life depends upon. When I religiously clean and care for a tool, and that tool still fails me in the field, my frustration with that tool is passionate. Aside from officers, most of whom rarely use their rifle, I've never met a combat veteran who didn't share my feelings about the M-16. The US Army tried to snow us with a story about Jessica Lynch and those with her heroically fighting off the Iraqis before their capture. But after her return to the States, Lynch admitted that there was no fight. The REMFs were defenseless, as their M-16s jammed. Lucky for the US forces at large over there, the outcome of the war was decided by air power, armor, belt-fed weapons and a poor effort by Iraq's military. Not by the main battle rifle. Sorry fellahs, my opinion of the black stick remains very low.

A: On my historical model page, I talk about the use of base camps. Non-mission-specific gear should be left there with the rear party when conducting tactical operations.

A: A knife (multi-tool or Swiss Army style would be best), some sort of fire-starter like a "metal match," and a compass (a small Silva compass can fit in your shirt pocket, lunch bag, briefcase or whatever).

A: Well, first of all, there is nothing on any of my pages taken from "a paper I wrote for ROTC." I used the 1812 Russian campaign as an historical example of a flexible defense in depth. I believe I stated on the page why I thought the example was relevant. I sometimes use sports analogies to introduce new concepts to those with no background in military history or strategy. The purpose of the historical model page was not to convince anyone "how noble the Indians were," and I never used the word "noble," as that would be condescending to my way of thinking. Is that really all you got out of the entire page?

A: Yeah, you're right. Part of the reason is myopia on my part--I've only met a few women inside the Patriot Movement that don't think we're all a bunch of lunatics. Usually the wives or daughters of active militia men. The other part of the reason is that I'd be stepping into an area outside my knowledge base, and all the info I could address specifically to women would be sketchy at best. However, if you have a site tailored to female patriots, e-mail me. I'll look it over and, if it's good, I'll link it. Or if you don't have a site, you can write something up and send it to me. If I like it, I'll turn it into a page and add it to my site (giving you writing credit, of course, unless you want to remain anonymous). Sound like a plan?

A: The last book of the Bible ends this way: He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon (rapidly)." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.

"Maranatha" comes from this, and stands for "come, Lord Jesus."

A: I believe the Bible literally, except where it is obviously metaphoric, as in the parables. I believe in Biblical prophesy, which uses symbolic terms to predict literal events. To understand the book of Revelation (written by John), you have to study the Old Testament prophesies. There's no way I can do justice to it in a paragraph or 2, so I'll just try to summarize this one concept in my clumsy way:

We group years by 10 and call them "decades." The Israelites grouped years by 7 and called them "weeks of years" or "sevens." There was probably a more specific Hebrew term but that's the concept in English. Daniel the prophet was inspired to put down on paper the future history of Israel. He prophesied about events that would occur later during his own lifetime, hundreds of years after his death, and thousands of years after his death. Those prophesies which have already been proven accurate are so annoying to the God-haters of this world, there have been many attempts to "late date" them--claim they were written after the events had already taken place (therefore it's all a hoax and you can't take any of it literally--especially the prophesies yet to be fulfilled). Anyway, careful scholarship will enable you to calculate Daniel's prophesies and find they are accurate down to the very day. An angel appeared to Daniel and told him that 70 "weeks" were alloted to his people (the Israelites). In other words, the Lord will work through Israel for 70 of those weeks. But there's a gap there. 69 of those weeks have taken place already. Since the conclusion of the 69th week (when the Messiah was "cut off"), God has been working through the Church (by "Church" I don't mean any specific denomination. I mean followers of Christ, not the pagans who are often called Christians). We live in the "Church Age"- -that gap between the 69th and 70th week. In the book of Revelation, John was inspired to divulge more detail about the forthcoming 70th week. Jesus Himself provided the phrase people use to describe the 2nd half of that week: "great tribulation." It's also referred to as "the time of Jacob's trouble" by the Old Testament prophets. All the prophesies in both testaments dovetail beautifully, and as time marches forward this becomes more and more obvious. Daniel was instructed to "seal up" the meaning of the prophesies until the end times. This is why much of it still doesn't make sense to us, but also why it is revealed more and more as we approach the end of this age. I believe the "Bible codes" are just the tip of the iceberg. We are building toward an explosion of understanding. All the prophetic passages, which are spread around, mixed together and seem disjointed to us now, will one day be assembled into a clear picture for those who believe. I'm convinced we are very close to that explosion, because I'm convinced we are very close to the end of the Church Age. The aspects of end-time prophesy we do understand so far paint a scenario which is falling into place before our very eyes. For those whose eyes are opened. Maybe I'll write and post a page on this subject where I can expound on this, share some of my own findings, and maybe do a little better justice to the whole concept. Yet another thing on my "to do" list.