Organizing a Tribe

“So you also must be ready,

Because He will come at an hour

When you do not expect Him”

Matthew 24:44

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…The Book of Eli, while one of my favorites, was a MOVIE.  In what is to come, you will not be able to function as a lone wolf, especially if your intention is to assist in the Restoration of The Constitution.  You will need a tribe.

I’ve been contacted by many groups asking me to join, and I always attend a few meetings to get a feel for them, and I want to discuss some shortcomings that you should all avoid.  No group is without all of them, and some are far better along than others, but still have progress to be made.

For the record, I’m not opposed to groups at all, I’m opposed to voluntarily putting my name on a list to be handed to the FBI/DHS.

Roles

The first shortcoming you need to address in your mutual assistance group, tribe, or whatever you call it is ROLES.  Everyone wants to join, and everyone wants to be a super-secret recon shooter.  Not everyone can be or should be.

Most groups fall short because shooting is all anyone wants to do.  Shooting is a last resort.  Yes, even if it becomes necessary to use force of arms to protect ourselves or restore our Nation, it’s still the last resort, yet it’s the number one thing everyone does every time they organize and train.

Mutual assistance groups should focus more on community security, patrolling your neighborhood/area, food procurement/storage, and water procurement.  

Everyone basically organizes into infantry squad organization such as the US Army’s two 4 man teams or the USMC’s three 4 man teams (USMC is better, not just because I’m a Marine, but because it’s more versatile).  These are perfect examples of organizations that work well, but not everyone should be infantry.

You need other roles as well, which are even more essential.  

You need medics.  Real ones, not Grandma Jenny and her peroxide.  Actual, trained medical staff who can save a life.  We all saw what happened to the NFAC in Louisville, when they had a need for medics and had to call the same police that they wanted to fight to save the lives of their comrades.  Embarrassing, to say the least.

You need a supply team.  I know, it’s not cool-guy, ultra tacti-cool, but you need someone to keep track of what you have and what you need.  You also need a pool of resources.  Requiring every person to supply themselves leads to one guy without the proper gear always needing help.  Here’s what God’s Ultimate Tactical Guide has to say about having a supply unit:

Know well the conditions of your flocks,

And give attention to your herds

Proverbs 27:23

You need a leadership team, and that should include people in charge of each functional area.  You need overall command, supply, medical, security, and operations chiefs.  It’s not a democracy, but…..

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

But with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 15:22

Give serious consideration to organization, and understand that not everyone can do every job .

OPSEC

Operations Security, or OPSEC is where most groups fail.  

I realize that having a website attracts membership and tries to dispel some of the “militia” stigma, but if you have a website, you’ll be tracked and the Southern Poverty Law Center is going to call your group an “alt-right white supremacist group” no matter haw many people of color you have on your team.

For this reason, I recommend eliminating the word militia from your vocabulary.  It carries a negative connotation, despite it’s actual proud heritage.  

There are secondary concerns as well…The minute you call yourself a militia and have a defined leadership and an insignia, while openly carrying arms, you make yourself subject to the Law of Land Warfare under the Geneva and Hague Conventions.  All those hollow point rounds and cool-guy shotguns just became war crimes.  Understand the real legalities. 

Also, Militia in many communities means many different things.  Here in Metro Detroit, we have a large Russian population.  To them, “militia” is what the police are called.  The local police agency in Moscow, for example, is called the Mockva Milicya, and rather than policemen, they’re called militiamen.  Another large community we have here (even larger) is Muslim, from all over the Arab world.  To them, a militia is most often an Al Qaeda or ISIS group and something to fear.

As far as OPSEC, the biggest concern I have for most groups is that they use FaceBook and Twitter, and other social media platforms to organize, advertise, and even maintain membership roles.  That’s highly dangerous as you are giving the personal details of every member to an organization that despises everything you stand for.    I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, I’m saying understand the risk you are taking and putting all of your members under.

Many the groups I advise on this say, “Yeah, but it’s a private group, so no one sees our stuff”.  That’s untrue.  Anything you put on a social media platform BELONGS TO THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM and they can do with it whatever they like, such as forward membership lists to people you’d rather not have it.

Another argument I get is “But we’re not doing anything wrong or illegal”.  That’s most likely 100% true.  I agree.  But why make it easier for your group to be infiltrated?  The FBI and ATF have a long history of trying to infiltrate militia or prepper groups, with the intent of trying to convince them to undertake illegal activity so that they can justify the massive amounts of money spent on the efforts.  Randy Weaver was entrapped in one such case, and I know of a militia here in SouthEast Michigan that has been plagued with federal agent infiltrators.

Remember, the Michigan Militia was maligned for decades over Timothy McVeigh and he wasn’t even a member, he had merely attended a training where someone took his photo. (Hint: be careful what photos you post)

Understand, I think most law enforcement people area amazing and I work among them every day.  HOWEVER, federal agencies are agenda-driven and the federal government wants to retain it’s monopoly on violence and is therefore vehemently against organized armed groups, particularly on the right.  It’s a hassle you’d rather not have.

Don’t use platforms that hate you to organize.  You can use secure communication platforms like ProtonMail or TeleGram.

One outstanding group, AmRRON, of which I am a member, requires everyone who signs up to pick a call sign that is two letters and two numbers, completely unrelated to your name or any other call sign (like radio license) that you have.  In that way, no member can release any information about any other, because they only know a call sign and state.

Internal Security/Intelligence

Your group needs an internal security and intelligence group.  It can be as small as a two person cell.  

This group farms data from open source information and members to develop a picture of the local situation.  They should also monitor internal activity of personnel and encourage members to report anyone pushing for illegal or unethical activity.  Seek out and isolate agitators, who could be either ANTIFA or law enforcement personnel trying to push people in a direction you don’t want them to go.

Kick those people to the curb quickly.  Have no tolerance for it.

An excellent resource for learning about local SHTF intelligence gathering is Forward Observer at www.forwardobserver.com.  They also put out daily intelligence briefs.

Bear at www.BearIndependent.com also puts a daily intel brief on his YouTube channel.

Communications

You need a dedicated communications team and a communications leader.  Yes, it’s fine for everyone to have their own radio, but each team or unit you have should have a designated communication person.  This will cut down on confusion and radio traffic during a deployment or emergency.

As far as radios, first understand that there is no radio that you, as a private citizen, can buy that the US Government can’t listen in on.  Give up that thought process.  Also, give up that there are any manufacturers other than Chinese or Japanese.  No, Motorola, Kenwood, and Midland aren’t American made.

Understand also that the opposition, ANTIFA, is using the EXACT same radios and frequency spectrum that you are.  They’re not as active at radio intercept, but that could change quickly.

Without getting too deep here, and to keep from getting into FCC trouble, all I will say is, develop a method of sharing messages via radio that only your team will be aware of.

I know, I’ve covered a lot of information about organization, security, and basic comms. 

I hope that this helps new groups (and maybe some existing ones) get a good perspective on organization.

Our next article will cover some basic skills that each group should train on.

There are two main takeaways I want to leave you with:

1. You MUST get organized.  An unorganized group is just a mob.
2. Consider SECURITY in everything you do.  You can’t be too paranoid, there are risks everywhere.

Get organized, get secure, and GET OUT THERE!