“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves,
a cord of three strands is not easily broken”
– Ecclesiates 4:12
Many people in the preparedness and tactical training community train to defend themselves as a single entity in a Without Rule of Law (WROL) situation, such as a disaster, rioting, or emergency.
While that mindset is perfectly OK for normal life, going to work, running errands, etc, once the ability for rapid police response goes away, as in a WROL situation, you’ll quickly find that you need friends.
While you certainly can defend YOURSELF effectively as one person, you can’t defend a home, or property, or your family. You need allies for that.
This piece of tactical wisdom has been around since Solomon walked the earth, and the name of the Bible book “Ecclesiastes” means “Teacher” in English. The passage is no less relevant today.
Let’s first take the example of protecting your own home or neighborhood in a WROL situation. If you alone are protecting it, you have to sleep at some point. With 2 people, you double the amount of rest, and with 3 you triple it.
Even going out in public in an emergency situation (like our current pandemic) requires more than one person. If you’re going to the store alone, you’re focused on what you’re looking for. If you go as a 3 person team, one can look for what you need to buy, the second protect the first in close and the third can protect the vehicle (which probably is filled with supplies) and provide overwatch.
You can use the three-person method effectively for nearly any task, and remain relatively safe.
For those who only intend to work as solo operator, understand that the opposition, criminals, will be working as teams. Your odds of successfully defending yourself against a group working together, no matter how much you train, drop significantly if you’re alone, and rise dramatically with a team.
However, you can’t just grab two other people and instantly meld into a cohesive team. It takes training time and experience to work together effectively, especially when firearms are involved.
An excellent resource for small team training is Max Velocity’s book “Small Unit Tactics”, available on Amazon (no, I don’t get a commission from MVT).
If you are going to work as a team, a good suggestion is to have common gear and equipment. The crew I work with every day, all use the same sidearm and carry their spare magazines in the same place. Similarly, we all carry the same backpack, with additional magazines in the same place. In an emergency, you don’t want to have to search for something. As far as rifles, we all use the same style, in the same caliber, using the same magazines, so that we can share and redistribute if needed.
Our team trains together at least once a month on individual tactics as well as team tactics. The ability to move and reload while the rest of the team maintains a volume of fire, while also not straying into their line of fire is a skill set only obtained through training together. You will develop an instinctive feel for your teammates.
The Tactical Wisdom From the Bible that I share is always just as applicable as it was at the tme it was written, thousands of years ago.
Find teammates, plan, and train together. As the Teacher (Solomon) said in Ecclesiastes, “two can defend themselves, a cord of three strands is not easily broken.”
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