This is the eighth installment of my short story “The Wars”. If you haven’t already read Chapters 1 – 7 you can

< click here to read Chapter 1 >

< click here to read Chapter 2 >

< click here to read Chapter 3 >

< click here to read Chapter 4 >

< click here to read Chapter 5 >

< click here to read Chapter 6 >

< click here to read Chapter  >

Please read the Chapter 1 intro to understand a little more of this story.

Also, there is a disclaimer that you can read there as well.

Alright, let’s talk about the military. Kinda boring, but a needed conversation according to you.

After all the crap started and the federal government went all Rambo on everybody, well, people just got fed up. At first it was dozens of groups, militia groups, that started taking care of business in their areas, their communities. Restoring law and order, clamping down on criminals, especially the illegal alien gangs that sprouted up everywhere. Within a week it was hundreds, then thousands. People were just sick and tired of crime, illegal aliens, politicians, criminal cops, gangs, and especially the cops who going down the road of martial law and authoritarianism.

So, people got together and formed Committees of Safety, some called themselves Committees of Patriots. But they were basically the same thing. I already talked to you about what happened in our county. People were just sick and tired of not being listened to, not being represented, being taken advantage of, and being at the mercy of government that didn’t give a damn about them and their rights, freedoms, and liberties. So they took action just like our Founding Fathers and Minutemen did.

What does this have to do with the military? Everything! It is all tied together.

Remember how it went on the national level? Three distinct things started to happen from everyday, ordinary people wanting it to be different. People wanted their freedom back, wanted to keep their money in their pocket, and really, really didn’t want to be controlled every minute of their day.

It all began with the First Constitutional Convention. All 50 states were represented with appointed delegates, 2 from each state. Some were elected, some appointed; one state, I don’t remember which, two people just appointed themselves. Odd, no one else from that state ever voiced an objection. Well, at least none that we heard of.

So they get together in Pierre, South Dakota. Yup, BFE South Dakota. Why there? Pierre is the capital of South Dakota for one. But Governor Noem offered it up for them to meet and promised them the protection of the South Dakota State Police, the South Dakota National Guard, and the newly formed South Dakota State Militia. Pierre was actually a great choice, small town and people who didn’t belong there would be noticed, as in federal agents would stand out in the crowd.

That meeting actually went really well, fantastic really. They had a few goals; 1) Decide what exactly to do about everything, 2) form a Continental Congress for a standing body to act on behalf of the new patriot movement. The Continental Congress would be located in Pierre for now; and again, protected by the state. The other thing they did was formed a committee to look at how they might breakaway from the USA as a new country or reform the existing USA. They decided to use the Declaration of Independence and the committee was to figure out exactly how it applied and how to use it all legal like.

They also looked at two additional issues; 1) how to review the Constitution and how to adapt it to the new temporary government they were forming, 2) what that new government should look like.

What only a few folks knew at the time was the presence of the military at that meeting. There was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff there with an aid, unofficially representing the military. See, there was a core group of military leadership that was sick and tired of how the military was being used by the politicians.

Don’t get me wrong, they were loyal to the USA and to the Constitution; and they were also not looking to initiate a coup. The point is the suicide rate among the military was more than 50% higher than the rest of the population. Divorce rates were almost double, drug and alcohol abuse was sky high among vets, as was homelessness. All of it far worse than the general civilian population. And then there was the senseless casualties from needless and endless wars, especially Afghanistan and Iraq.

A whole lot of military leadership was fed up with it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of generals and admirals were hooked into the military-industrial complex with sweetheart deals. They were bought and paid for, literally.

There were some folks at the Convention that were real uncomfortable with their presence, but most never knew they were there. It was good they were.

At the end of the Convention assurances were made were made by those military reps that the ‘loyalists’ would keep the ‘traitors’ kept in check and that they would do everything they could to keep the military out of it. The loyalists were those who were loyal to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and their sworn oath. The traitors were those who were bought off. But that was just the leadership. Most of the average soldiers and sailors were just part of the machine and would do what they were told, for the most part.

Later it became known that a rough plan was laid out for the new government to work with the ‘breakaway’ military. Fifth Corp (V Corp) located at Ft Knox, Kentucky would secure the Ft. Knox gold repository. It would be timed with the training deployment of the 101^st Airborne and the 33^rd Armor Regiment, both of whom would be present at Ft Knox on training. They weren’t sure at the time but they felt pretty sure they could count on the 180th Fighter Wing out of Ohio. There was also the outside possibility of A-10 support from Air National Guard 184th Fighter Squadron located in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The gold in Ft Knox was crucial to the soon to be government. It got rid of the whole fiat currency thing and could back any new potential currency with gold. That there is credibility son. Fiat currency never ever worked in the history of the world. It always brought down any country or empire that ever tried it. Our was no exception.

I think it was maybe 3 or 4 months later the Continental Congress formed the Patriot Provincial Government (PPG). Also, located in Pierre, South Dakota. At that announcement South Dakota announced its allegiance to PPG and pledged protection from the 114th Fighter Wing located in South Dakota. Units from Ft Meade rotated deployments to Pierre to provide security for the new government and the Continental Congress.

By the next morning Lieutenant General Walter Anderson released a statement that the V Corp, 101st Airborne, 33rd Armor Regiment, along with the Ohio ANG 184th Fighter Squadron had taken over security duties at the Fort Knox Depository. He went on to say that this was only a precautionary measure to provide additional security and ensure the safety of the government’s gold reserve in thee unstable times. What was absent in his statement was “which” government, he had just used the generic term. Those college educated folks sure know how to talk real fancy.

That sent a shock wave through the US military as well as the Washington DC sewage system [Dad meant government as you probably figured out]. There was nothing public about anything that followed but the shit hit the fan at the Pentagon. They tried to deploy troops to expel the ‘security troops’ but there was some real hesitancy about going up against the 101^st and a whole armor regiment that knew what they were doing. The Pentagon dismissed using air resources against US forces on US soil. I think the 184^th also was a bit dissuasive as well. But, the DefCon was raised and leaves canceled; tensions went through the roof. But, to everyone’s credit, no one got crazy and did anything stupid.

You know, I honestly think that the military from top to bottom was just tired. Tired of the political crap, tired of constant deployment away from family and community; fighting and dying on foreign soil for stupid insane reasons. I think they wanted peace, stability, family, security, and just to be normal folk taking care of America. Yup, that’s what I think.

What I thought was interesting, V Corp started recalling its units from Europe all on its own. Some support wing from Ohio started doing the lift. All together the combined forces at Fort Knox along with those in Ohio and Arkansas were a pretty potent and impressive force to be reckoned with.

What the Pentagon did though was put into motion an SOF [Special Operations Forces] operation. They got together combined units of Delta and SEALS to take out the leadership, command and control, of the units at Fort Knox and the air units in Ohio. Well, that didn’t go over too well son.

Some members of the units involved didn’t like the idea of killing fellow soldiers and US citizens on US soil. The planning for the operation began to fall apart and the CIA was called in. The CIA brought in their Special Activities Division [SAD for short, ironic]. These are mostly former Delta and DEVGRU operators that had left the military and joined the CIA. These guys are Tier 1 for sure! But strangely enough, even in the US military the SAD guys were known as psychopaths in the literal sense of the word.

And no one should be surprised that the CIA would operate on US soil, against the law. They had been doing it for decades at the order of some of the Presidents and of course the deep state.

Well that SOF operation plan fell apart initially as well. Some of the current military guys got into it with the CIA guys and it got ugly. Yup, shots fired, guys died and pretty messed up. Finally any loyalists were purged, some lucky ones simply left on their own before the purge went down. Most of those that left ended up in Fort Knox as defenders. Those guys in Fort Knox were joined by some retired SOF vets. I heard at one point there were some 200+ SOF operators in and around Fort Knox. A few were in Ohio with the 184^th as well as some of the V Corp MP troops. They became known as the “1L’s”. Yeah, short for “First Loyalist Special Operations Forces”. Their numbers swelled to over 500 by the time everything was all settled a couple years later.

Anyways, the CIA plan went forward and they hit Fort Knox. Well, they tried to. The 1L guys were deployed all around the area in deep cover. And by then the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade [part of V Corp] were back in Fort Knox from Frankfurt, Germany and had set up shop. So there was no “surprise” attack. A bunch of firefights broke out around the area; and a few of the CIA guys did breach the base fence but never reached their intended targets. After that, SOF and the military in general kept to themselves and minded their own business allowing the politicians to deal with the situation.

Rumor has it that whatever SAD guys didn’t make it out of the country after the botched Fort Knox raid were eventually hunted down by the 1L’s and disposed of as trash and garbage should be. What really amazed me all along was the fact that a spy agency had this secret military branch to begin with. They operated all on their own, few rules, if any. Able to kill at will, overthrow governments, assassinate sovereign country leadership, and even operate on US soil. Why in the heck did we allow that? Well, truth be told, virtually no one knew they even existed or what they actually did.

You know, I truly believe, that the military rank and file didn’t want another Civil War with the American Army killing other Americans. Especially true when it would be their buddies that they knew. Yeah, there were ‘sides’ in the US military but they kind of kept each other in check. The US Navy just kept to themselves patrolling the oceans, doing their jobs.

Now, let’s fast forward, today’s US military.

The US Navy is pretty much intact as the US Constitution outlined. That includes the US Marines which is part of the US Navy, always have been. Oh, one major change, the US Coast Guard was absorbed into the US Navy. The Navy’s main mission is to protect shipping lanes for US flagged merchant ships as well as protect the US from threats that originate from the oceans.

Several countries and rebel groups learned the hard way not to mess with US ships, navy or merchant. Or US citizens as well. Do you remember Iran? Now there was a lesson for the history books! They seized that US merchant ship in 2028, maybe 2029, I don’t remember. [It was 2028, late fall.]

So the new US government simply told Iran that that ship needed to be leaving their port where they had taken it. The ship needed to be undamaged and its cargo intact. And the crew uninjured. And the ship needed to be leaving by 9am the next morning. If not, the US Navy would begin sinking one Iranian ship every hour until the US ship was released as required.

Yeah, Iran thought the US was bluffing. By noon the next day the US ship was still being held in Iran at the Port of Anzali. And, the Iranian navy was missing the IRIS Alvand, the IRIS Jamaran, and the IRIS Naghdi. All of which were sunk, or smoking and sinking. Then it got ugly.

The Iranian Muslim supreme d*ckhe*d of something or another declared they were at war with the Great Satan and for their crimes one of the US ship’s crew would be put to death. And they slit the crewman’s throat on live TV, it was as ugly as anything I’ve ever seen. It was very, very slow, lots of blood and a chorus of “Allah Akbar” in the background. Bastards!

That was a huge mistake on their part. By 3pm, just 3 hours later, the Iranian naval base Bandar Beheshti ceased to exist. Well, it was smoking and all its facilities were no longer usable. Seems that 30+ cruise missiles can do some pretty serious damage. Another 9 capital ships of the Iranian navy were sunk or sinking. The US Navy also surfaced 3 nuclear capable submarines near the Iranian coastline so Iranian intelligence services could clearly see them. Then the subs went back to work waiting for the word to strike.

And then Israel got into as well. Their air resources pounded Iranian air bases till the next morning.

By daylight the US merchant ship was pulling away from the pier, 20 million in gold was being transferred to the dead sailor’s family, and Iran had learned a lesson. Well, that lesson had taught the entire world that you just didn’t mess with the US anymore. We don’t take crap from anyone when it comes to our people and our resources anymore. We just don’t!! We never should have.

Oh, we were talking about how the military is structured now.

So the US Navy operates as per the original and current Constitution. The Coast Guard is no more, the Navy does its job here at home or around the world.

The US Army is a strange one, as is the US Air Force. They both no longer exist as they use to. Today all the US military forces are bunched together under the US Defense Force [UDF]. There are 3 branches; US Navy, Army Corp, Air Corp. They had to rename it to the US Defense Force to make clear what their use was, what their ONLY mission was.

See, in the old days the US military evolved over time to become an offensive military used around the world to advance US “interests”. And those interests were almost always to expand US corporate businesses, to expand US government power, or take over sovereign countries and make them US states like Hawaii. Yeah, think empire building. We had started about 140 wars in the world from the late 1800’s until about 2024. Yup, we were a war-loving, war-mongering country. We threw our military weight around like a fat cheap whore.

Don’t misunderstand me, our military folks were basically good men and women. The military leadership were essentially mostly psychopaths that loved the thrill of war, the adrenaline rush, and the power they controlled. Well, they also loved the millions they got from the scum in the military-industrial complex.

It was decided early on that the US military would only be used to defend the US. No longer would we be involved in defending other countries. The US military was for the US, period. Now, there was an exception to that, something akin to WWII. If needed we would use US military resources to stop a situation like Nazi Germany. We didn’t have a single US military instillation anywhere in the world, period!

Once everything settled down all military resources were pulled back from foreign countries. I mean every last man, women, and bullet. Well, that isn’t exactly true. We left almost all our equipment and supplies in South Korea and Taiwan to help them protect themselves. We left every last plane, ship, gun, bullet, nut, and bolt in Japan. They held a lot of US bonds, that equipment was to settle that debt.

[Dad started laughing and I had to figure out why, so I asked him.]

Remember China? They heard what we did in Japan to pay off that debt. So China, those stupid idiots, had the balls enough to ask us to pay off their debt held in US bonds. I mean they did own the second largest amount behind Japan. BigT told them to go f**k themselves. China made it clear they were going to make a play against us, we knew it. And they had the nerve to ask us for our military equipment to pay off the debt we owed them!!

Yeah, BigT not only said no, but he said the debt the old US owed them was gone, forgotten, never to be honored. I think that was a major straw that made them attack us 2 years later.

We were a little more generous with England. I think we owed them about 600, maybe 700 billion in old US bonds. We left a bunch of cargo hauler planes and some bombers when we left. It served them well since they cranked up their commerce and did a lot of air shipping to mainland Europe later. It also softened the blow that we pulled out of NATO that same year.

So we got all the military resources back in the US. First to get reorganized was the Air Force. First off, it became the “Air Corp”. That wasn’t just a change in name. The name change was to make it clear that it had changed competently. Every bomber squadron was demobilized. All of those planes were transferred to the boneyard in Arizona and put away for long-term storage. Then all of the fighter wings were moved to free-state Air Militia units. Their only mission was to provide air-to-air defense for the continental US.

Those states received a pretty decent subsidy each year to keep those fighters in top shape. They also had to keep them ready 24/7. Not all of them obviously. But at least one pair from each of those border free-states that could be airborne within 15 minutes. Why 15? Because that would be enough scramble and flight time to intercept anything trying to fly into US airspace. And should aircraft get past the fighters, then there were the air-to-air missile batteries to deal with. Those were also controlled by the Air Corp. But the Navy took care of most of the coastline defense from their carrier-based and land-based aircraft patrolling the oceans off the coasts.

That whole transition went pretty smoothly, everything considered. They didn’t have a choice really. BigT, as Commander-In-Chief gave the orders, the military leadership said “yes sir” and did as they were told. Once the initial resistance started to crack there was a lot of retirements, and then the real progress began. Ironically, the retirement pensions were filed with the old US federal government Department of Defense. Yeah, that didn’t work out real well. Later I can talk about that a little more if you want me to.

The Army was a little more difficult. The Continental Congress made it clear to the Patriot Provincial Government that the Constitution didn’t authorize a standing army. Also, not a single Founding Father advocated for or advanced the concept of a standing army. Why? Because they knew the extreme danger and threat from that concept. Odd, we didn’t learn our lesson from England, British tyranny, and our Founding Fathers or even the Constitution, we just had to have that standing army back in the day. Sad.

It’s obvious in retrospect. A standing army gave the US federal government an ultimate power at home, and unlimited power around the world. Both of which are the exact opposite of the founding principles of our country. So it had to be corrected.

If I remember correctly, at the time of the mass reorganization there were just shy of a million members of the US Army. Something like ½ of that were active duty, the other half reserves and national guard.

Remember what the goal was, US self-defense, not military adventurism, not empire expansion, not nation building, just defend the United States. Period! Boy did we get off-track by 2024!!

I am not sure if it was the 2^nd or 3^rd Continental Congress where the proposal was made. Maybe proposed at the 2^nd and approved at the 3^rd after the military folks had a chance to review the plan and give feedback. But I’ll tell you this, the Army troopers were telling their commanders that they wanted to be home with their families and not going off to endless, needless, senseless wars.

Anyways, army unit designations remained the same for the most part. But all units would be assigned to individual states as militia units. There simply would be no full-time army units at all. Well, there would be a very small command and support staff located in the capital. I think it was limited to 10 or 15 folks, something like that. There would be no full-time soldiers at all, no standing army. Finally!

Each state could request whatever units’ designation they wanted. And units were now multi-function. There were no single purpose units anymore. Let me see if I remember it right, but you can go online and look it up for the details. So communities had companies, there could be multiple platoons based on smaller areas within a community. Counties were battalions, made up of multiple companies. If a county was large enough there might more than one battalion, then they were a brigade. A couple of states did have enough militia to actually have a couple of brigades, made up of a couple of battalions each. Now states are divisions, meaning they have multiple battalions; or if they are large enough, the divisions have a brigade thrown in there. Compact-states have ‘corps’.

In time of need an ‘army’ is formed for a limited amount of time; I think the Constitution limits it to two years. At that point, after approval by the states’ governor, the soldiers belong to the US government until the 2-years expires. And they are paid by the federal government also. And they get paid well for their service.

Now if the country needs to defend itself there are, I think, 3 million members of the various state militias that can be called up. Probably that many more could be recruited quickly by local militias as a reserve force. Nice thing is the country has never needed to activate a single militia unit, ever! Why? Because every country in the world knows how many guns we have and the people know how to use them. Any country would to have to be suicidal to try and invade us.

We mind our own business and expect other countries to do the same when it comes to us.

What I love about the present army situation is a pretty long list. First off, soldiers are home with their families like they should be. They are also integrated into the community as actual citizens not segregated into bubbles of military mindset and the downside to all of that. What is cool to see is the serious camaraderie among the troopers.

Don’t think for a minute they are not well-trained. They drill every month, officially. Lots of times they will get together more often to train but they just aren’t paid for it. And there are lots of hunting trips thrown in there as well for “training”.

See, as you know you can join a militia at the age of 18. They do have the ‘support units’ where you can join at 14. They do lots of good support role work, they just aren’t combat troops. They do get to train with live weapons after they go through their own boot camp. At 18 they can join the regular militia. Every state has annual boot camps to train the new folks. Until you graduate from boot camp you can only fill a support role, not a combat role.

There are plenty of advanced training courses available, some county level, some state, and some on the national level. Airborne is national, so is scout-sniper and ranger school. Even though you can get qualified as airborne there are no dedicated active airborne only units. There are the 2 airborne units, the 82^nd, and 101^st. But they only have a small command staff. Once a year they gather airborne qualified troops from around the country for 2 weeks of training. If you don’t make the annual training you lose your airborne rating.

Those specialty qualified troops are still members of their local units. If they were ever needed for some reason, those airborne units would be activated and qualified troopers would be called into the unit to act as a dedicated unit.

So rangers and scout-snipers are regular unit members but with special skills. Normally they take those skills back and train local guys who can’t or haven’t made it to the schools yet. Keeps those skills and that knowledge spread out on the ground helping their fellow soldiers.

There are no more Green Berets since we don’t embed our troops with foreign armies or try and create coups any more. They just are no longer needed. And those that were Green Berets have all retired or left. As for Delta, well, they no longer exist anymore either in a way. Delta troops kinda turned into folks that were really bad *$$. Don’t get me wrong, they were the best of the best. But, they were abused and misused by the powers in the Pentagon and the White House.

Today they are called simply ‘commandos’ and they have a very small command staff at the capital called the Special Operations Group (SOG). There are maybe 50 – 100, that isn’t public knowledge. They get together 4 times a year to train. Members are invited to be selected to join from militia units. These guys are highly trained, extremely effective, and almost never used. Why? Because they really aren’t needed except for extreme situations.

The Navy still have their SEALs and had been used fairly often in the early days for hostage rescue and intelligence gathering. Now I am not sure what they are used for, probably intelligence work for the Navy. Commandos train annually with the SEALs and can support them as needed.

Here is the really, really cool thing; soldiers, meaning militia members, are some of the most respected members of their communities and the country. Why? Because these are folks that are willing to put their lives on the line to protect us. They dedicate time every month to stay trained. They respond regularly to local emergency incidents to help whenever and wherever they can. They are exactly what our Founding Father envisioned and hoped for…the ultimate patriots.

Are those April 19^th and July 4^th parades something to see or what!!! The bands, then the flag, then all those militia members marching brave and proud. Gives me chills just thinking about it. Wish I was younger!

And that my friend is another wonderful aspect of the army we have now. There is no upper age limit to to being a militia member. You get too old to be a combat troop then you can be an instructor, a cook, push paper, handle logistics, or any other support role. They don’t push you out, they keep that knowledge base where it belongs!

God help the foolish country that would ever try and invade us! We have a strong, decently-trained bunch of dedicated citizen soldiers. Committed to defending their families, their communities, their states, and their country to their last breath. No one will ever be able to attack and defeat the United States.

Damn proud of those men and women!!

<- click here to read Chapter 7                                           click here to read Chapter 9 ->

Short Story Chapters –

• The Wars: Chapter 1
• The Wars: Chapter 2
• The Wars: Chapter 3
• The Wars: Chapter 4
• The Wars: Chapter 5
• The Wars: Chapter 6
• The Wars: Chapter 7
• The Wars: Chapter 8
• The Wars: Chapter 9
• The Wars: Chapter 10

Related Articles –

• We are a Warlike People !
• Firewood & War
• 4th of July – Independence Day 2022

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This is the seventh installment of my short story “The Wars”. If you haven’t already read Chapters 1 – 6 you can

< click here to read Chapter 1 >

< click here to read Chapter 2 >

< click here to read Chapter 3 >

< click here to read Chapter 4 >

< click here to read Chapter 5 >

< click here to read Chapter 6 >

Please read the Chapter 1 intro to understand a little more of this story.

Also, there is a disclaimer that you can read there as well.

Okay, I’ve thought about it and let’s talk about the first year or so. That is, if it’s alright with you. If it isn’t, too bad. [Dad still chuckles once in a while. He use to laugh a lot. Not so much since Lisa died.]

I already told you about your escape from Florida and getting here. You guys all went straight to bed, didn’t blame you a bit, I would have too. Lisa started cooking, a real feast that night! Me, well I got geared up and went to guarding the place. I had no idea if anyone was following you, who it might be, what they might do, nothing. So, guns it was. Sometimes violence is the answer.

I just kept moving around, find a spot sit there for 30 minutes, move, repeat. Stayed on the higher ground mostly. No problems showed up. Glad for that tender mercy. Should have stayed put longer. Anyone with a brain that was watching the place would know to lay low for an hour or so and just watch for movement. My mistake.

Funny, how the house was so full of people sleeping everywhere. Man, Robbie could snore. Sounded like a freight train at times. The kids were cute, all flaked out, blissful slumber. Oh, how I wish we could have frozen life in that moment! Just kept it right here.

That night was one for the record books! We ate till we almost busted apart at the seems, laughed, carried on, and enjoyed that campfire like there was no tomorrow. Actually, I think most of us thought there might not be a tomorrow, or at least not many of them. Thankfully we were wrong. There were plenty of tomorrows, just not all of them real pleasant.

And you didn’t fool me for a minute, I knew you and Robbie had a bottle.You guys would “go check on” something or another and sneak a swig. I could smell it on you. Never said a thing to you, it had been a hard few days. Me, well I downed 3 cans of Pepsi that night. What a party!

The next morning we started. Yeah, got out the checklists from the website and went down them item-by-item. Of course you and I and Robbie were into the threat of violence more than the other lists. But we got a reality check pretty dang quick. Food!

I don’t even remember the day of the week it was but it was the second day I know. We got the tractor fired up and tore up the yard, disc’d it up, then planted the rest of the Anasazi beans, more potatoes, then what corn seed we had left. It all looked good, and I am thankful we did that extra planting, we needed that food to help subsidize the stored stuff.[I think he meant supplement.]

I do remember we held back 10 of the Anasazi beans. I said I wanted enough beans for seeds leftover in case the stuff we planted got trashed. It was important to have something to plant next year. We never did need them, but I am glad we kept them all the same. Then we went to work on planting the rest of the raised beds.

It was hilarious! We were out there all arguing about what to plant and where and how…a real clown show. Then Alice came out. Yeah, we turned it all over to her and we became nothing more than day labor. That was real tough for me to do since it was my garden. But I remember my ICS days, turn over areas of responsibility to those with the most skill in that area.

Dang, we got a great harvest out of the garden that year, even with the annual hail storm every September. I can’t imagine what that first year would have looked like without the garden. We had enough food but I definitely think there would have been some food fatigue had we not had all that fresh stuff.

And Hayden, I didn’t think I had any competition for loving strawberries until I saw him pack em away. And you and your blueberry obsession! Lisa cut you a lot of slack there son, she sure did. Those blueberries came in real handy when it came to stepping up all that oatmeal. Remember all the care we took with the canes starting new berry plants that fall and winter. Even starting new blueberry plants. It was hard work but it sure did pay off. I wish the fruit trees had done as well. But man-o-man, no one has a berry patch like we do! It was really nice having all those sister plants to share and barter with the neighbors.

Thank goodness we had planned for this eventuality and had a decent stock of food stored. Without it we would have been like so many other families, starving and desperate. There was so much compassion and charity back then at first. Families who ran out of food were offered the basics, sometimes more. Most of those families were very grateful, some even exchanged work for food; they got preference.

Then there a few families and individuals that raised a stink over being given wheat, oats, and beans. How many times we heard “we can’t eat wheat!” or “I hate oatmeal!” and then there was “beans give me gas.” They wanted meals, lasagna, fresh bread, meat, french fries, and steak!! They thought those of us with food were holding out on them, that we were selfish somehow, that we had an obligation to share. The worst of those folks would use the line, “Christians are supposed to have charity.” I hated that one. We are Christians, we did have charity, we did offer food, we didn’t want them to starve. They just wanted to be treated like damn kings and queens!

We sure did back off after a couple of months, even with the Frisks. Remember them, Earl and Marry just south of us; you gotta remember them. Of course you do. I mean Robbie and family took over their place after they were killed.

[Of course I remembered them. I don’t know why Dad would have thought I didn’t. I just nodded my head to let Dad know I remembered them.]

Earl was a nice enough guy, a little lazy maybe. Then again he did say he was a disabled veteran with a knee replaced and all sorts of PTSD. He got stuff done, but he was real slow about it. He bought his place in 2018 I think. Had to gut it. Lisa and I did as much work on his place as he did, maybe a bit more. I kept telling him to step up the pace but he just plodded along. By the time everything went down the crapper he had the basics done to the house but nothing more than that. No garden for sure. And they only had about 10 days of food on hand when it hit.

He did try to put in a garden, used that junkie little roto-tiller. Or at least tried to. I told him that thing didn’t have the power to work that rocky soil. Even if it could, that soil was dead as a door nail, nothing but sand and rock. I told him from the get-go he needed raised beds like ours, even tried to help him. He was so cock-sure that a regular in-ground garden would work; he thought I just didn’t know how to do it. Not a damn thing grew in that garden! No organic matter, didn’t water it enough, doomed from the start.

We had them eat with us a few times, he wasn’t thrilled with the strews and soups; said there wasn’t real meat in them. There was, but only a fraction of what he thought there should be. We augmented the meat with cooked wheat berries and sometimes meat flavored TVP. He chided us about the TVP, said it was laced with estrogen and would make women out of us guys. He never realized he wasn’t eating near enough TVP to make any kind of difference at all. He just wanted meat, meat, meat.

I remember that day we offered food to him on a more regular basis if he would work on our place and in our garden, etc. I saw him turn red, red as a beet. He said he was our security to the south and we had a mutual defense agreement and that should be plenty, after-all he was a combat vet. Well first off, I was never convinced he actually saw combat himself. Second, by the way he acted and planned in defending his place, well, let’s just say I had my doubts.

I still regret not treating him better. The day he and Mary were killed still haunt me, I regret it. I regret it a lot.

Son, you remember that day? It was mid-afternoon late summer, maybe September, yes? We heard his dogs start barking their heads off. By the time we figured it was a serous problem, maybe 1 – 2 minutes went by, then shooting started. It was a bunch of shots, I mean a bunch. Remember all that brass we found?

Our first obligation was to our own people. We got the kids gathered up and to safety inside the main house. The women finished getting tactical. You, Robbie, and I started that way; probably 10 – 12 minutes after the shooting stopped, probably not more than 15 – 20 minutes after the dogs had started barking. Robbie and I headed straight down the 2-track between our places, you were flanking them to the west. I hated what we found, still can see it in my head like it was this morning. All that blood on the front porch.

The dogs were gone off their chains, Mary was crumbled up on the front porch. She was dead, maybe 15 or so pieces of brass laying around her. I know it had to have been from her AR. Earl was in the living room, shot maybe, what, 5 or 6 times. He was still in his underwear. Not a single piece of brass near him, or anywhere else in the house. Those boys who hit them were gone by the time we got there, carried off what they could. Mostly they got Earl’s guns. They didn’t have food to speak of just laying around to steal. They did leave a 5lb bag of oats we had given them. Picky pricks.

I still say Earl was taking a nap in the bedroom, Mary had been in the living room or kitchen. She heard the dogs, grabbed her AR, and headed out the front door. She put up a short fight but died doing it. I think somewhere in all of that Earl woke up with the sound of shooting and headed into the front room. By then they were already inside and shot him where he stood.

Man, do you remember that discussion about going after them!? I think we all argued both sides of the idea and then some. Three of us, 15 different opinions on what to do. I am glad we made the decision we did. Robbie headed back to be with the families, you and I started tracking them. That wasn’t hard, they made no effort to hide their tracks. I guess they figured no one had the balls to follow them. We did, for damn sure!

There was four of them, we got to their little shack about an hour later where there were those two women, if you want to call them that. I still think they were all meth heads. They sure did start to whoop it up celebrating their hit and run. I am so glad I listened to you. I just wanted to start shooting them right then and there, but you said no, we had to wait. You were right, glad I listened.

God, that was an awful night! I would never have guessed how bad it would get. They built that big old campfire like they were having a party. Started drinking the homemade hooch of theirs. Man, they got drunk. Then they started smoking that crap. The big guy walked over to Frisk’s dogs tied up to the tree. Before I could realize what he was doing he slit the throat of the smaller of the two dogs, Zephyr was his name. Poor dog never knew what happened, he bled out in just a minute or two. The other German Sheppard, the big young one, Ace, he went ballistic but that big guy hit him in the head with is pistol and I think knocked him out. Remember that?

Twenty minutes later the dead dog was gutted, skinned, and on a spit over their fire. I really think I was in shock at the time. But I did know I was going to kill that guy, kill him, kill him. And I did. [Dad drifted off for a minute. I let him be. I think he was back there in the past reliving it. His eyes reddened.]

Yeah, finally all of them were around the fire in a pretty close group, all drunk, high, or whatever. I told David I was going to take the big guy first, he took the guy that appeared to be the leader. We were going to leave the women for last.

I popped the big guy with a shot to the head, you fired almost at the same instant taking out the other guy. We both took our second targets with the next shot. It did surprise me that the women moved as fast as they did. They were disoriented at first with our initial shots and sound. But we dropped both of them as they were shouldering their guns. Remember that?

One of the most satisfying moments of the last 25 years was the fact that the big guy was still alive when we walked up to the campfire. I thought I did a clean head shot, nope. It hit his clavicle and took the snot right out of him. And although he was till alive he was stunned, bleeding and staring up at me. He didn’t say anything but looked at me like he was asking for help. I helped him alright!

I remember that smile of mine. Not sure what it looked like to him, I hope it looked as evil as he had ever seen. I pointed that AR of mine at his head and pulled the trigger as slowly as I ever had. I wanted him to know he was about to die. I was never so glad to kill someone as I was when I pulled that trigger.

We took all the guns and ammo we could find and hid them about 100’ from their shanty in some thick stand of junipers. Only took a couple of minutes. We talked about taking the guns, but there were too many and too much ammo. We came back later and recovered all of it. We didn’t want to hang around too long right then just in case someone came to help them or see what what going on.

Poor Ace, he was banged up pretty bad and kinda out of it. When I walked up to him thankfully he recognized me and allowed me to untie him. He ran off like a missile, other than a little stumbling at first.

We leap-frogged back to our place not wasting time, but not going too fast to forget the danger we might be in. The last 150yds we covered our tracks by dragging Juniper branches. Didn’t know if that helped or not, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Ace found us just as we crossed through the gate. He never left after that, he was ours from that moment on. I wonder why he didn’t just keep running?

Talking through it the next day, we decided that Robbie’s family would take over Fisk’s place. If any of their family ever came around to claim it Robbie would give it up. But it made no sense to just leave it there to rot away or have scatters come in and take it over. They are still there to this day. Place looks pretty damn nice if you ask me. Did a great job on it. Well, all of us did. No way Robbie could do that much work on his own!

[Yeah, dad smiled at that too. He has always given Robbie a hard time about his work ethic. Dad kids around with just about everybody. If he doesn’t, then he doesn’t like you or doesn’t trust you. Most people get Dad, some don’t. I thinnk I got his sense of humor…unfortunately.]

It really hurt to have to bury them. In the cold light of day though, I don’t think they could have made it very long anyways. Just not the right combination of skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation, logic, and willingness to do what was needed fast enough. Then again, there was only two of them, and both in their 50’s. They needed more people there. Maybe if their kids and family could have gotten there soon enough, but they didn’t for whatever reason. What a shame.

[Dad kinda drifted again off at that point. I suggested a break, he didn’t even respond. I am worried when he gets like this. It is happening more and more. It’s like he goes somewhere, back into memories about all the stuff that happened.]

We were talking about the first year or so after you guys got here. A lot was going on, a whole lot. I remember the most frustrating thing was the Ham radios. Dang! We had all that nice Yaesu equipment, all the right antennas, power, all of it. And we struggled for months to get it all up and running right. Thankfully we had all the manuals and some third-party tip documents. The best of it was the Yaesu FT-897D multi-band. We had those two long wire antennas along with the dual-band antenna hooked up tot hat antenna switch. It sure gives us the ability to reach out and talk to folks. A reliable way to communicate with the right kind of people to get real information.

Man, it was nice that Elon Musk was as smart as he was, and as rich as he was. He kept that StarLink system running when the Internet was basically shutdown by the NSA and CIA for awhile. Musk opened that system up to everyone and kept the web running for the most part. All those little satellites and servers worked. You remember how they called him the ring leader of domestic terrorism for a while. They tried to kill him so many times. That little army of his saved his butt! Those billions bought him those retired special ops guys who were extremely devoted to him. The government never could touch him. Thankful for that.

He really showed who he was when the rebuilding started. He built those vehicle plants so they could start building those EV’s and other stuff with almost no real worries. And those EV’s without all the government mandated BS. Now those trucks rocked! He almost single-handedly brought back manufacturing to America. I don’t begrudge him a single dollar he made, he earned every penny of it. The coolest thing of all was how he built those plants in solidly libertarian and conservative communities, then supported the communities with money to build up infrastructure, homes, shops, and everything else you can imagine. But did you ever think how he never gave a dime to schools? He was all about home-schooling not government schooling.

Back to the radio thing. It was tough with the bigger radios. But, those little walkies-talkies were incredible and valuable beyond belief. I’m glad we had the larger radio batteries for them along with plenty of extras. Some of them are still running just fine. But in those early days I just don’t know how much harder it would have been without them. Gave us a serious edge with good communications.

Remember when we ran that comm wire to Robbie’s place? Ran two sets of wire, one kinda underground, the other strung from tree to tree. Then put in those WW2 army surplus telephones. Didn’t have to really use those because of the radios but it was nice for the kids or when we wanted to talk in the open and not over the radios.

The women sure gave us a hard time about the two set of wires, remember that? We kept it to ourselves for two days till Lisa figured out it was for a back-up. The wire run in the trees was a decoy more than anything but it worked!

You know when you think about it, those checklists we used really paid off. Using the 7 areas of prepping made all the sense in the world, gave us order and organization to what needed to be done. You know, priorities.

[Dad, how easy was it for us to get reliable information that first year?]

Damn near impossible if truth be told!

The government always told lies since I can remember as a kid even. I never could figure out why they thought it was necessary to always lie about everything. It was as if they had to build this reality that suited them vs just telling the truth as it was. Now, looking back, it made sense; they just wanted to manipulate everyone about everything. Had they just told the truth I don’t think people would have lost trust and confidence in the government. And the crap would never have happened.

Governments are always about power, even our own back then. The Declaration of Independence laid out the sole purpose of government. The Constitution pretty much limited it to that. But over the years, based on the lies out of Washington, they were able to manipulate the US into that dark version of authoritarianism. I give them credit, those bastards in Washington were smart, they did it real subtle like. Hell, they actually made people beg for some of those changes.

Don’t ever trust government! Don’t ever trust politicians! Neither can be trusted, ever! PERIOD!! You have to stay on them, verify everything they are saying and doing. Then pounce on them even the first time they get out of their lane or lie. And I mean pounce!! If you don’t, then they just lie more and more.

I will give the new folks credit, that pre-law Constitutional review process is one of the best things to come out of the 3^rd Constitutional Convention. I think something like that might have helped prevent the authoritarians from building their little US Empire back in the day. Maybe not stopped it entirely, but helped slow it down. Maybe stopped it. Back then there just wasn’t the tools, the courage, or the balls to stop those slime ball politicians. Today they know if they start pulling their crap they pay a price and quick. Should have always been that way.

I don’t want to talk about this any more. Reliable news was hard to come by period. Nothing in the mainstream media was true. Nothing, or almost nothing, that came out of cable news was true, or at least agenda free. Most websites pundits were idiots, just idiots. Some were government assets, most were just plain idiots. Almost all of them had agendas, including me. My agenda was classical liberalism [civil-society libertarianism] like our Founding Fathers, advocating for the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. And damn limited government!!

I’m going for a walk in the south garden, leave me alone for awhile. Have the kids come get me when supper is ready.

[Dad gets so frustrated talking about this stuff. I shouldn’t have pushed him. He gets so disappointed with himself that he couldn’t have done more with his website. He tried, man he tried. But, he just couldn’t reach enough people, or the right people, to make a real difference in the big scheme of things. There are dozens of families that I know who he helped. I am sure there are more. He just gets frustrated, then mad. The walk will do him good, he likes the garden. I am worried about him though. I don’t know what to do to help him. Having the kids around helps a lot. They tease him as much as he teases them. It’s good for him.]

<- click here to read Chapter 6                                              click here to read Chapter 8 ->

Short Story Chapters –

• The Wars: Chapter 1
• The Wars: Chapter 2
• The Wars: Chapter 3
• The Wars: Chapter 4
• The Wars: Chapter 5
• The Wars: Chapter 6
• The Wars: Chapter 7
• The Wars: Chapter 8
• The Wars: Chapter 9
• The Wars: Chapter 10

The Check Lists –

• Check List – Introduction
• Check List – Violence
• Check List – Injury or Sickness
• Check List – Communications
• Check List – Organization
• Check List – Starvation (food storage)
• Check List – Dehydration (water storage)
• Check List – Exposure
• Check List – Misc.

Related Articles –

• Layering & the Common 7: Introduction

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