Every Citizen a Soldier

 The best way to contact me “currahee(at)live.com"  I'd like to recommend a couple of videos that cover “CQB” and home security for the civilian. It's always good to think about tactics. It takes a lot for me to recommend a YouTube video (these guys should be on Rumble) but last night I watched a couple of vids with Drew Estell of Baer Solutions . The first vid is “ 3 Ways To Secure Your Home ." The video is broken down into 4 points, simple things to think about for home defense.  I'll share them, but after reading you should definitely check out the video. 1) Use the Outside (vs) Inside Lighting of Your Home: If you have inside lights on in your house, people can look inside your home and you are seriously hindered looking out. And visa versa. If you keep your porch light on anyone that comes to that part of your house will be illuminated and if you turn the lights off inside your house they will not be able to see in, for several reasons. Obviously if yo...

  Video:  Budget Night Vision Helmets Helmets and Set Up You can use your NOD as a handheld, glancing though it occasional, or even mount it to a weapon. But the best way to use a GEN3 NOD, the way to “own the night,” is to have a good helmet set-up. This allows hands free activities, weapon manipulation and navigation. IN this article I am going to describe all the parts that you need for a helmet set-up. It is way more complicated than it seems. This article is describing the components as simply as possible. In this article I will to refer to the NOD as in the image intensification tubes talked about in part 1. I'm also going to be referring to a couple of companies as I introduce parts to your helmet. Norotos (norotos.com) and Wilcox (wilcoxind.com) are both quality manufacturers of night vision accessories, especially mounts. Ops-Core and Pro-Tech are both manufacturers of helmets. The Tactical Night Vision Company (TNVC.com) is a large retailer of night visi...

I can think of no word more overused in the past decades than “tactical.” I just got done reading a bit on the internet with a person asking advice on which “tactical pants” to get. Most of the time this is used the word “fighting” should replace tactical. My fighting gear etc. Because gear, or other items are not “tactical.” People and groups are tactical. Don't worry about having tactical stuff, worry about having smart tactics. How do we become "tactical?" There are several time tested principles of tactics that are so universal they apply to all fighting situations. Whether defending yourself from a home invasion at 3AM or ambushing an enemy column in Red Dawn (classic.) I am going to follow this article up with a series of articles and videos on tactics, but before you begin reading about the nuts and bolts of tactics you need to learn and live this mantra. Surprise: It does not matter how awesome you are at doing something- if the bad-guys know you are going ...

VIDEO: NIGHT VISION HELMETS VIDEO: INTRODUCTION TO NIGHT VISION I used night vision while I was in the military, and about ten years ago began dipping my toes into the civilian night vision world. In that time both night vision and thermal have become much more common. Ten years ago, while I wrote about being a citizen soldier, I considered it a luxury. Now it has become a near necessity. It is easy to get lost in looking at this stuff, and can be cost prohibitive. If I could I would spend $15,000 on night vision and thermal equipment. But with about three grand you can start taking back the night. Generations There are many aspects to this. I am going to break this information down in to three parts. The starting point IMO is getting a NOD. Many hunters today use thermal, and if you know where you are going to hunt from, stay in a relatively fixed position, and aren't worried about someone hunting you, a thermal weapon sight only is fine. If you want to own the night yo...

It is easy to deplore the degeneration of our social order, difficult as it may be to explain it. But it is not impossible to do something about it. Before doing so, however, one must admit that it exists. The news tells us that we live in a savage society in which subhumans prey with relative impunity upon the innocent and the decent; but, as with death, these facts are hard to accept. Since most people respond to hypothetical peril with the assumption that it will not come to them, the first step in adjusting to our present social situation is the hard, clear, unflinching understanding that it can indeed come to us—personally. It is amazing to read of people who did not choose to believe this until after they had been victimized. They all knew that burglary, robbery, assault, and murder were not only possible but frequent, but they took no precautions because they simply would not admit that they, themselves, could be the victims. Once you accept the fact that you actually may be the...

  Video: The OODA Loop and Self Defense Application: The OODA loop is a formalized decision making procedure that is especially important when the decisions have to be made quickly, as in a threat situation. The development of a rapid decision making process can give you or your team huge tactical advantages. Most people, when confronted with threats, take a “chess player role” where they make a move and wait for you to make a move. You do not have to wait until the other guy makes a move!  Your moves should be as rapidly as possible to keep the threat off balance and keep the initiative on your side. Background : The OODA loop was developed by US Air Force fighter tactician John Boyd. It has been applied to business and computer programming as well as military strategy and tactics. My greatest understanding of the OODA loop came from reading Paul Howe’s excellent book Leadership and Training For the Fight. O-O-D-A stands for Observe-Orient-Decide-Act It is a “loop” beca...

  “ Stronger People are harder to kill and more useful in general.” The US Army realized, some time between the first and second world wars, that the most cost effective way to up combat survival is physical fitness. I think that before WWII the United States was still primarily an agricultural nation. As such, recruits would be more likely to be fit at the time of induction. This is, obviously, not the case today. With our sedentary lifestyles and easy access to more wasteful calories, an American civilian is more likely to be unfit, often grossly so. This is a huge obstacle for the defense of our nation and our rights. There are several reasons why this is true. Being out of shape severely limits your tactical options. Shoot-move-communicate, these are the things you have to do in a fight, being out of shape makes it harder to do all of them. Being very out of shape basically limits you to dyeing in place in anything but a simple home defense situation. A person can learn m...

I am writing this post to accompany my "CCW skills" that I will be uploading to rumble. There are several things a person must master before they can consider themselves competent enough to be a “good” carrier of concealed firearms.  First, and not really a “skill” is the ability to actually conceal their firearms on their person.  Second is the knowledge of local laws and the common sense to know when using deadly force is the right thing to do.  We can not address these in a blog post or in a video, there are far to many different variables and situations for us to discuss. I would like to discuss the weapons handling skills that I consider important for a person who wants to carry a firearm for self defense.  They are accuracy, the draw (or presentation), failure to stop, contact shooting situations, shooting at night, and unconventional draws.  These skills might or might not have been covered in classes you had to take to get your concealed weapons permit....

  Our Video on Firearm Safety A firearm is a tool. A tool that can be a joy to practice with, but one who's original purpose should never be forgotten. Put bluntly, firearms started out as a tool meant to kill other living things. All firearms retain that ability and there is inherent danger in their misuse. Nothing (that we can control) can hurt the public image of firearms owners than demonstrated unsafe firearms handling. Years ago, the father of modern shooting, Jeff Cooper, outlined four redundant rules of gun safety. Redundant means that the rules overlap, if you break one the rest will prevent a firearms accident from being a tragedy. If you follow them diligently you will probably never have a firearms mishap. Or, if you do, the damage will be minimal. Rule #1 All guns are always loaded. Always assume, and treat any gun as if loaded, especially if you have not personally cleared it. This prevents the very common “I thought it was unloaded” mistakes. Rule #2 Never l...

Our Video on Practical Shooting Practical shooting is shooting with a purpose, another end in mind than just getting hits on target. That end can be surviving a gunfight, winning a competition or putting meat on the table. In any of these practical situations time is just as important as accuracy. Distance, angle and position can vary from moment to moment in practical shooting. There are four principles that I have discovered are the key to success; (1) Safety (2) Stability (3) Sight Picture (4) Squeeze. Practical shooting is a “loop process” in that- as soon as you engage one target you start the loop over again with safety. I Safety Guns are dangerous, no doubt and safety comes from a rigid application of Colonel Jeff Cooper's four rules of gun safety. But strictly speaking, firearms safety is not the only concern here. Practical shooting does not happen on a square range. When you think safety you have to think about the positions of the other shooters, your buddies o...