Why We Need Community

We just wrapped up 10 days of training here at Veteran’s Camp Ponderosa. We had 3 instructors covering 5 courses, and about 60 people came through the various courses. Some stayed the entire time and some came and went.

 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

Romans 14:7

We began with NC Scout’s flagship course, RTO. It’s a beginning radio communications course, teaching you to establish a communications plan and set up your gear for communications. Students learn UHF/VHF short range communications, CB medium range, and HF long range communications, including sending digital traffic over a common Baofeng radio. Field expedient antennas are built and tested. We got over 21 miles with a jungle antenna that the students built with a DM 32 UV digital radio. The capstone exercise included establishing field expedient communications and sending salute reports via digital and analog radio.

The second course was NC Scout’s SIGINT course. This course discusses how to intercept communications and map the RF situation in your area. You learn how to find, fix, and finish your opposition using information gathered via communications intercepts. Radio direction finding using field expedient directional antennas and spectrum analyzers are covered. A new addition to the course is drone detection and direction finding the drone operator using your tools. The capstone exercise involved developing information via radio intercepts, developing a line of bearing on the operators, and then taking active measures to interfere with their communications.

Next up, NC Scout ran his outstanding Night Operations course. This course covers all aspects of fighting at night. We began with zeroing visible and IR lasers and then firing under NODs. Team react to contact drills were ran using NODs. Thermal demonstrations and mitigation were covered along with practical exercises. A bear was found during the thermal period of instruction. If you intend to fight using NODs and IR lasers, you need this course.

K from Combat Studies Group ran his excellent CQB 2 course. The course began with a day of marksmanship instruction, covering the essentials of marksmanship at close range, like you encounter inside a building. K then ran students through our Lodge Building, where you could find every possible room configuration as well as having a stairwell to negotiate. The course included hostage scenarios and multiple targets. The course culminated in force-on-force combat inside the building.

I rounded out the schedule with Community Security Operations. In my course, students learned to conduct static and mobile security operations in a contested environment. We learned about Entry Control Points, Checkpoints, Roadblocks, Interior Guard, Area Studies, Defensive Intelligence Gathering, Tactical Questioning, Caches, Safe Houses, and Secure Vehicle Operations. The class is focused on getting out and running scenarios with very realistic interactions. Each skill builds on the next. It’s really a must for any group planning to secure & defend a retreat, neighborhood, or compound.

More importantly than the course content, each night we gathered for meals, fellowship, and movies. Most nights ended with a campfire. People arrived as strangers and left as friends. This is the most vital part of what we do here at Camp Ponderosa and at the G Camp in North Carolina or our outpost in Missouri (IYKYK).

For millennia, humans have built fellowship around a fire and a meal. Relationships are built, friendships forged, and bonds solidified. You cannot build trust through online-only interactions. You absolutely MUST meet people face to face.

You cannot even secure your own home by yourself. You need to sleep sometime. You need a tribe; you need a crew. You need to get out and build relationships and create partnerships. You can’t do that in online forums or Twitter. The only way you can do that is via face to face events.

Trying to “go it alone” or by being a “lone wolf” will only get you killed. You need to develop a local defense group. In addition to that, you need to know and develop partnerships with other local defense groups for information sharing. Only by knowing each other can you detect the new people or anomalies in your area. Develop community.

I attend a lot of homesteading, self-reliance, and prepper events for this very purpose. We are hosting Shield Field Days here at Camp Ponderosa for that purpose. Plan on joining us July 25-27 in Bigfork, MT. Folks from all over the country will be here. We have unlimited camping on site.

I urge you to get and meet each other. There are classes and events all over – go to them and find your people. Spend time around the table or around the fire pit, building community. Without a community, you can’t survive.

If you like this content, support me by joining the TW Community at tacticalwisdom.locals.com as a monthly supporter for only $5 a month. There is a lot more exclusive content there. Youc