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Supplies-
• There were approximately 300 cases of bottled water and other drinks.
• There was a running river accessible to us.
• Food was assorted cookies brownies and other sugar snacks.
• Saturday we had hotdogs, burgers, chicken salad. No real long term food sustainability.
• Ammo, some had thousands of rounds others came with an empty weapon.
• No medical supply point set up only personal supplies, IFAKS, first aid kits etc.
• No medical trauma area with medical volunteers.
• Shelter was a few outbuildings, cars, tents.
• Communications was CB,HAM,GMRS, FRMS. Batteries came from your own supply.
• Radios, only a few around, mix match of what everyone had brought for personal use.
• Electricity from small generator.
• Internet came from personal phones, ipads, 3G / 4G Hot spots.
• Small arms to include 1 Braveheart sword, and 1 Ninja sword, limited precision rifles or SDM’s.
Protest site located off a public road, small area used as a gathering point for the rally. General rally supporters parked vehicles in close proximity to event site. Camping took place wherever space allowed for comfortable sleeping conditions.
The rally site was located on a small out cropping just adjacent to the public road. The rally site was backed up against a gentle down slope which flattened out at the bottom. The surrounding terrain features were intermittent hills. One such hill was directly in front of the rally site. This hill was eventually occupied by Rebel Forces (RF).
Government Forces (GF) were observed at 2048 yards on top of a mesa overlooking the rally site. These GF’s had intermittent forces occupying the OP. 2 to 6 SUVs and Pickup truck style vehicles were observed parked next to 2 Easy up shelters. Long range observation devices and other devices had been seen at this OP.
Small LP/OP areas had been observed as close as 400 yards from the rally site. These LP/OPs had not been approached, only observed from a distance.
Improved fighting holes had been observed near the GF compound. Newly dug holes with dirt piled in front was observed along the perimeter of compound. During daylight hours these positions did not look occupied.
GF compound had high bermed walls made from dirt excavated on site by heavy equipment. Entrance to compound was controlled via a traffic control point. This seemed to be manned 24/7 with numerous over watch positions.
The entrance to the GF compound had a set of traffic cones blocking access. 25 yards behind the cones a dump truck was parked at an angle blocking vehicle traffic access. 25 yards behind the dump truck was a makeshift guard shack with built up cover positions nearby. Flood lights on extension booms were raised to approximately 30 feet in the air. These lights pointed out and made it difficult to see much detail inside the compound.
Flood lights on extension booms were positions around the entire GF compound. Likely avenues of approach had Flood lights positioned. One example is the dry riverbed. A dry area of river bed under the North and South bound Highway 15 were covered by Flood lights. During hours of darkness these lights were turned on but no one manned the lights. A string of yellow police tape was put up in front of the lights indicating an area not to be crossed. It is with high probability that these illuminated likely avenues of approach were all covered by rifle fire and probably sniper fire as well.
GF’s were staged at pull out locations just less than a mile North and South of the GF’s compound. During daylight hours, it seemed that SWAT, to include numerous MRAPs , numerous medical first response vehicles and several white school bus looking vehicles with bars on the exterior windows.
Numerous Ford F250 extended and crew cab trucks with camper shell that had no windows and a rear step through door with heavy locking mechanism on the door. These trucks were not marked. The drivers all wore the latest in multicam assault shirts and pants. No markings on uniform. One sticker on the back of all the trucks indicated the following (logo created to the best of observer’s recollection):
Command and control was not refined. You would have different people disseminating contradicting directions or directives to volunteers. Militia involvement was broken into “organized” and “un-organized”. Those who came as a unit, or met up at a Rally point (RP) and coalesced as a group were considered “organized”. Those who came on their own were considered “un-organized”.
An overall incident commander introduced himself and indicated he had been asked by the “family” to act as the onsite Militia overall commander. Organized Militias were asked to send command representatives to speak with the onsite commander. The organized Militia still followed there command, but the Militia command took its directives from the onsite commander.
Un-organized Militias were put under the command structure of the onsite commander.
Power struggle:
The power struggle between who is in control, who wants to be in control, and who thinks they are in control was very evident. Leaders meetings consisted of initial good information but quickly moved into less of a leadership briefing and more of a complaints and threats session.
Maps were handed out, expectations and assignments came quickly and were not fully vetted out by the “family” who apparently had other ideas of what they wanted or didn’t want the assisting Militia to do.
Specific issues came up with the look of Militia personnel wearing certain gear. Several self proclaimed head honchos came through and told Militia members to take off full battle rattle and only wear exposed pistol.
According to self proclaimed leader, he was acting on behalf of the “family” and Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers. This unknown leader went on to say it was an order that all Oath Keepers would not bear long rifles or full battle rattle as this would give off the impression we were looking for a fight.
(Personal note: If this is true that Rhodes put out an ordered to Oath Keepers who answered the call to show up and support this cause-most, at the drop of a dime and on their own expense -to not wear full battle rattle because it looks “mean”, well then that is CS (Chicken Shit).
If Rhodes really said that Oath Keepers couldn’t have the equipment to protect themselves because wearing said protective equipment makes it look like they came for a fight, well then I am done with Oath Keepers.
I don’t need to pay a yearly membership fee to a group in order to remember why and how to keep the numerous Oaths I have taken over the years. I’m unimpressed with Rhodes in how he sends out an emergency call for all Oath Keepers to show up and yet there was little support from Rhodes as far as leading his Oath Keepers. I’m sure he was too busy in the peace talk’s delegation to worry about putting out a short directive to his Oath Keepers as to expectations.
Oath Keepers did not have an official presence at this rally, if they did then the leadership sucked. The several organized Militia groups at the event had good to great leadership.)
A large number of able bodied people came to the Militia staging area and wanted to help. Many of these individuals had the following challenges:
I came with a rifle but I don’t have any ammo.
I came with a sword and I want to help.
I came and want to fight….right now!
I came to help but I don’t have any food, or water.
I came to help but…never mind it’s too hot out.
I came to help, I have lots of firearms, I have 1000 rounds 45 ACP, 4000 rounds 5.56, fully decked out in the latest tactical assault gear, but I’m 78 years old.
I came to help but all I really want to do is sit in the Militia compound and drink beer, tell war stories and eat this delicious pizza that was donated. (Drinking alcohol was outlawed by on scene commander the next day at the leadership meeting)
Radios:
Many of the leadership were worried about GF’s picking at the low hanging fruit of Militia members using HAM and other communication devices that required a license to operate. All of those communication devices that were deemed to require licensing were not used out of fear GF’s would use that as a means to throw down probable cause and arrest unlicensed operators.
A shortage of radios left many without communications. (Shoot, Move, …..) If you can’t communicate you aren’t helping to your full potential.
(Personal note: having a dozen or so standard talkabout radios or their equivalent- loaded into a go bag with batteries should be a team item. I don’t think you can show up to an event and have too many radios. COMSEC is an issue but that can be dealt with by other mitigating efforts. )
Tactical:
Lots of different everything on site, from the different weapons systems, to the type of gear, to the amount of sustainability, to the physical abilities, to the levels of tactical knowledge and leadership and experience.
Lots of door kickers. It looked like a lot of the tactical outfits were geared more toward the 1 hour raid / door kicking mission than geared toward the open desert AO we were in. Load out is important, AO considerations are very important.
Having precision long range capabilities are important and was lacking. SDM’s were lacking. Knowing how to deploy your resources such as snipers, scouts, plain clothes intel collectors etc was lacking.
Lots of amazing men and women onsite that came prepared, but physically, in my estimation would not be a good fit for combat operations. Auxiliary YES !
Operational differences were obvious. Some organized units had a handle on how they did things. It was evident this was frustrating to them when they worked with others Militia units that either didn’t do it their way or didn’t have a way of doing things.
Leadership challenges were also obvious. If you are going to lead, then lead. Don’t apologize for leading or putting out orders. Others see that as a sign you are not confident in the plan. This will affect the subordinates as they may feel the leadership is not competent due to second guessing, apologizing, and lack of overall confidence.
Esprit de corps:
Every single person I met at the rally / operation was dedicated to peacefully showing the .gov folks that we are not afraid any longer. The main theme was that despite the long running battle between the Bundy family and the government, most people were there to show support for the overall over-reaction of the government these last few weeks.
Personal feelings on why I attended the rally / operation:
I didn’t get motivated to spend $300.00 in fuel and other costs associated in showing up at the rally / operation due to the cattle. I was motivated to show up because of the way the government is treating this family. I showed up because I am tired of MRAPs being the first interaction with the government.
I was motivated to show up because this fight is not mine, but it does have implications to my future. If I conducted a full litmus test on every fact and fact checked those facts…when would I ever have the time or energy to act? I acted because what I had observed with my own eyes, because of what I had read and heard through open source news lead me to believe this was an effort worth my support.
I don’t want to be that person that runs off half cocked not fully thinking through things before acting, but I don’t want to be that person that over analyses everything to the extent of not being able to act or react when the time comes.
I had heard that others on the interwebs are saying that the Patriots that showed up in support of the Bundy Ranch rally / operation are idiots. To each their own, If this rally wasn’t important enough to show up for due to the facts, then what do those calling us idiots feel is an appropriate rally / operation to show up for?
When the fight isn’t your own it is easy to find all the reasons not to support it, until those that we are all resisting are at YOUR front door. Who will you call then? Will you call more of the same folk that believe they must not show up for YOUR rally/ operation because they need to be in 100 % agreement with all of your facts, assertions, and actions?
Maybe when the fight is at your front door you will be happy to know that I and others like me will show up just because we are on the same team.
We support each other, we don’t always agree with each other but at the heart of all matters we are in total agreement that Freedom, Justice, the Constitution, and limited government are the tenants which we believe in and will support no questions asked 24 / 7 – 365.
Even when we just get done with a long days work, low on funds, and would rather stay home with our families, we will load up our equipment fuel our vehicles and at our own peril show up and stand next to you for YOUR cause too.
As long as there are those brave enough to stand up against a tyrannical government for a cause they believe in, then I will continue to be “idiot” enough to show up and stand alongside them. I hope that when I am standing up for my cause that there will be someone to stand alongside me during my test of courage.