Economic Collapse & Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare

email | Aug 3 2011 | NewAmericaNow

[Noumenon]

Economic Collapse & Security: I Am Your Worst Nightmare

By Jeff T.

I am the leader of a band of 8-to-12 looters. I have some basic military training. We move from place to place like locusts devouring everything in our path. My group is armed with light weapons and can develop and follow simple plans of attack. We take what we want by force of arms. We prefer none of our victims survive because that could cause problems for us in the future. It has been six months since the grid went down. You and the other five members of your party have settled into what may be a long grinding existence. The every day tasks of growing and gathering have now become routine. The news from the outside is extremely limited but you don’t really miss it much. Life is simple but physically demanding.

Although things may seem stable you will need to keep your team focused and alert. This is your first and most important layer of defense. You should hold an immediate reaction drill once per week. Keep things simple. Practice a specific response to such threats as injury, fire, attack and evacuation. Despite the challenges you must maintain contact with those around you such as neighbors for vital clues that trouble is brewing. Regular monitoring the radio will be critical in providing an early warning of trouble. You may be able to safely interview refugees with risking your party. Keep in mind the information you get from them may not always be reliable.

While you have been farming I have been learning the best tactics to employ to seize your property and your goods. I have been refining them since we hit the road right after the lights went out. I have conducted eight “hits” so far and have been successful seven times. Here are some of my “lessons learned”.

Intelligence gathering and target selection is critical to my success. Targets include those who have large quantities of fuel, food and other valuable supplies. My posse is constantly questioning anyone and everyone we contact searching for this our next victim. Anyone who has ever had knowledge, even second hand, of your preparations is someone of interest to me. I may approach them directly or indirectly. If anyone knows something I will find out about it. Who seems well-fed? Who still has transportation? Who has lights? Who was prepared? Where are they exactly? Somebody talks, either in person or on the radio. They always do.

We search for victims night and day. During the day we are listening for the sounds of machinery, cars, tractors, gunfire or generators. Day or night without a lot of wind those sounds can carry for miles. At night I look for any sort of light. Even a small flash indicates somebody with electricity and that means a rich target. I always have somebody listing to the scanner for any news, leads or insecure chatter. Operational Security (OPSEC) is an important concept for your entire group to understand and maintain. If somebody outside your circle doesn’t have a real need to know about your plans, preparations or procedures then they shouldn’t know period. Develop a cover story and live it like was a bulletproof vest. It is no less important to your protection and survival. During an event you need to blend in with the surrounding environment. Carefully observe noise (such as generators and other engines) and light discipline especially at night. If you need to test fire weapons do it in one sequence to avoid a prolonged noise signature.

Once I find and target you reconnaissance of your retreat is my next step. Only a fool would try to rush in and try to overwhelm a group of “survivalists”. We had a bad experience with that during our second hit. Now we spend at least a day or two trying to size up a large opportunity and the best way to take it down. I will observe retreat activity from a nearby-concealed position. I will get an idea of your numbers, weapons, routines and so much more by careful surreptitious observation. If your group seems alert, I will try and trigger a false alarm with a dog or child to watch your reaction to a threat. That helps me know how you respond, where you are strong and how to attack. I may also obtain a topographical map of the area to identify likely avenues of approach and potential escapes routes you will try to use. I may coerce your neighbors into uncovering a weak spot or access point or other important intelligence. I also have a Bearcat handheld scanner. I will be listening for any insecure chatter from your radios.

Regular patrols at irregular intervals focused on likely observation points and avenues of approach could keep me at bay. You could put down sand or other soft soil in key choke points as a way of “recording” if anyone has recently traveled through the land. Dogs, with their advanced sense of hearing and smell are able to detect and alert you to intruders well in advance of any human. Motion sensing infrared video cameras as a part of a security plan could play a part in your layered defense as long as you have power. A 24 hour manned observation point equipped with high quality optical tools is a must. It should be fortified and if possible concealed. It should have a weapon capable of reaching to the edges of your vision. Seismic intrusion devices, night vision and thermal imaging are phenomenal force multiplying tools. They can give you critical intelligence and warning. You should use them if you have them. Understand they are not fool proof and I can often neutralize them if I know you have them.

These tools and techniques provide you reaction time. Time to plan your response and time to execute that plan. Recognize that a “defender” is always at a disadvantage. By definition a defender will be reacting to my attack. Modern warfare has emphasized the ability of the attacker to operate faster than opponents can react. This can be explained by the OODA loop. Below are the four steps of the classic OODA loop. These are the steps a defender goes through when under attack.

1. Observing or noticing the attack.

2. Orient to the direction, method and type of attack.

3. Deciding what the appropriate response will be.

4. Acting on that decision.

As an attacker I will try and operate at a pace faster than you as a defender can adjust to. I will change my direction, pace, timing and method to force you to continue to process through the OODA loop. This creates confusion and wastes your precious reaction time. As a defender you will need to disrupt or reset your attackers timing with a counter-attack. When you are successful you become the attacker. Your defensive plans should utilize and exploit this concept. Here are a few scenarios:

1. Snipe & Siege

I will begin the attack when I can engage at least half of your party’s military age personnel in one coordinated effort. I will infiltrate my team into concealed positions around your retreat within 50 to 75 yards. I will target any identified leadership with the first volley. Two thirds of my people will be engaging personnel. The other group will target communications antennas, surveillance cameras and any visible lighting assets. I want your group unable to see, communicate or call for help. The members of my band will each fire two magazines in the initial exchange. Two thirds of my group will change to new concealed positions and wait. One third will fall back into an ambush of the most likely avenue of escape. We will stay concealed and wait until you come out to attend to your wounded and dead. We repeat the attack as necessary until any resistance is crushed.

Ensure you adjust the landscape around your retreat so that I don’t have anyplace offering cover or concealment within 100 yards of your residence. You can create decorative masonry walls that can be used to offer cover for personnel close to your residence. Fighting positions can be built now and used as raised planting beds and then excavated for use in the future. These can be extended or reinforced after any significant event. These structures or other measures such as trenching must be sited carefully to avoid allowing them to be used effectively by an attacker if they are overrun.

2. Trojan Horse

For one hit we used an old truck. We forced a refugee to drive it to the retreat gate. We concealed half our group inside the truck. The truck was hardened on the inside with some sandbags around the edges. The other half of our group formed an ambush concealed inside the tree line along the driveway. We killed the driver to make it look good and had one person run away. Those preppers almost waited us out. After nearly three hours they all walked slowly down the driveway. They were bunched up in a group intent on checking out the truck and driver. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

They could have worked together as group to sweep the area 360 degrees around the truck and they would have surely found us. A dog would have also alerted the residents to our presence. They could have taken measures to eliminate the vegetation offering us concealment on the road near the gate. They could have used CS gas or something similar to “deny” any suspicious areas. Lastly they could have done a “reconnaissance by fire”. Shooting into likely hiding spots, including the truck, trying to evoke a response. They should have established an over watch position with the majority of their group. This over watch group would have provided visual security and an immediate response if there were an attack. They were not expecting any additional threats. They didn’t consider that there might be additional danger lurking nearby aside from the truck and they died.

3. Kidnap & Surrender

A few weeks ago we surprised and captured a couple of women out tending a garden. It was totally by chance. We were traveling through a very rural area on our way to another town when somebody heard a tractor backfire. We immediately stopped and I sent a small team to recon the noise. They bumped into a small party tending a field at the edge of their retreat. They seized two women and immediately dragged them back to our vehicles. We began negotiations by sending a finger from each one back to the retreat under a white flag. The rest was easy.

This didn’t need to happen. Better noise discipline would have kept us from discovering their retreat. Some simple boundary fencing or tangle foot could have delayed us. The women should have been armed and aware of such a threat. If they has established an over watch for the garden they could have engaged us before we took our hostages or at least alerted the others that there was a problem. They also could have had a quick reaction Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)developed prior to this incident. That Quick Reaction (QR) force could have followed the kidnappers back to our vehicles and set up an ambush of their own. Rural retreat security is a full time job. If you snooze you may lose everything.

4. Fire and Maneuver

I don’t like this option but sometimes the prize is just too tempting. We typically infiltrate quietly at night to prearranged start points. We begin our attack just before dawn when your senses are dulled by a long night watch or from sleep. Based on our reconnaissance we divided your retreat into positions or zones that need specific attention. We prepare for battle by using an air rifle to target any lights or cameras. Our first priority is to engage any site and destroy or degrade them as much as possible. I split my forces into two supporting groups. One group keeps the target position under constant fire. The other group also fires and maneuvers, closing on the target and destroying it with gunfire or improvised weapons. Many times these positions only have one occupant and the task is relatively easy. Often these positions are easy to spot and are too far from each other to provide any effective mutual support. We will work from one position to the next. In the darkness and confusion most of the defenders are disoriented and ineffective. They fall like dominos. We have also used motorcycles to negotiate obstacles and speed through cuts in the perimeter fence. Then throw Molotov Cocktails into any defensive position as they roar past. If you fall back into your residence we will set up a siege. If we can maneuver close enough, perhaps by using a distraction, we will pump concentrated insecticide into your building or we may introduce liquid Propane gas from a portable tank into the house and ignite it with tracer fire.

If there was enough warning time from your OP you could execute a pre-planned response. Your planned response should be simple, easy to understand and execute. Half your group occupies your fighting positions, two to a position. The rest of your party establishes an over watch and concentrate its fire at the enemies trying to fix your positions. If you had more than enough prepared positions the enemy might not know where to attack. It would also provide more flexibility in your defense based on the direction of attack. I would use Night Vision if available or illumination from flares or lights as a last resort. Rats hate light.

Usually people keep main access points blocked from high-speed approach. Likely avenues of approach should also be blocked or choked and kept under observation. Remember though what keeps me out keeps you in. Typically the common techniques of parking vehicles in roadways will only delay my approach not stop it altogether. An ordinary 12-gauge shotgun, shooting slugs, can stop most types of non-military vehicles at close range.

Don’t forget the threat of fire or other non-traditional weapons in your defensive plans.

You could create the illusion of a “dead end” for your main access road by positioning a burned out trailer home or a couple of burned out cars at the false “end” of the road. Concealing the fact that the road actually continues to your residence.

Lastly, develop a plan to evacuate and evade capture. When faced with a significantly superior force it may be the only viable option. This should include simple, reliable communications or signals such as three blasts on a dog whistle. Your fighting positions and barriers need to be constructed to allow coordinated withdrawal in an emergency. You should establish a rally point and time limit to assemble. I believe this should be a priority in your practice drills. During a real emergency you may be able to rally, rearm and plan your own version of the “snipe and siege” to retake your retreat.

Key messages:

Your rural retreat defense can be visualized as a set of concentric rings:

Location – Location – Location: High and remote are best OPSEC – Think of it as a form of armor or shield: Practice it and protect it. Observation Post / Listening Post: Your first best chance to counter attack Gates / Fences / other barriers: May slow me down. Might keep you in. Fighting positions: Must provide mutual support and allow for evacuation. Residence: Last line. Don’t become trapped People, Planning and Practice

Remember:

An aggressive and unexpected counter strike can win the battle. Stay alert for multiple threats or diversionary tactics. Criminals excel at feigning weakness to lower your guard.

Don’t underestimate me.

My reason for posting this is obvious but should be a reminder survival is always best done as a community. During difficult times there are always things to be done and no one can do everything and still sleep. Everyone can bring something that aids the group. Just a little friendly reminder. - NewAmericaNow

[andy58-in-nh]

Bump

[Gilbo_3]

indeed, good teaching points...

ive been beating my head, tryin to 'cover all the bases' for a while now, but realistically, i dont have 'enuff' options to do so...

ive come to the conclusion that i can only do so much, and trust the Lord for the rest...

at the end of the day, I believe Im no match for 'organized' BGs...but again, God help the fools who come out here willy-nilly...

[CodeToad]

“Six months after the power goes out, the bands that are still operating will be pretty effective.”

But also same with defensible neighborhoods. We, too, will have learned how to defend our territory and it will no doubt involved hunting parties going out and killing anything that doesn’t belong.

[ottbmare]

I am a middle-aged single lady, living at the line between suburbia and countryside, outside of DC. Have thought about what the future may hold, and I have a small and inadequate but tolerable collection of guns, and ammo for it all. Like many people I’ve laid in a good stock of food, medicine, water, personal supplies, and firewood, but this house is not really defensible in a situation in which things collapse altogether. No, I do not have any relatives in the area. I also have a good horse and a small hunting hound.

I’ve seen what the roads are like around here on the average rainy Friday afternoon, and if anything bad did happen, it’s clear that getting out of town by vehicle would simply not be possible.

I have a girlfriend in the same situation, ten miles away, in a more well-protected and rural location. If things get bad, I intend to saddle up and ride to her place, where we would be harder to find and the area is more defensible, with plentiful game and a source of water as well as off-road access by horse. But in the event of total, long-term collapse, military friends who live in a true back-country area in the midwest have strongly urged us to come join them. The people in their area are already organized and in communication; they’re ready and they’re tough and experienced.

So knowing that this is not going to be a one-day drive on the interstates, I’m thinking about planning a route to get as far west as possible by horse and foot.

What would be the best route to head west, in general? I was planning on riding up the towpath trail along the Potomac to West Virginia, staying strictly away from any road. This part I know well, and anticipate no problems. But then what? One has to cross the Ohio and the Mississippi. Gee, how did our ancestors do it?

[ottbmare]

In the 19th century one of my peeps drove his hogs from Ohio to Baltimore along the present route of 40, sold them, then walked back. Barefoot. So it can be done.

[Squantos]

You have the tools.....:)

Between yer ears buddy.

Not complex at all...

12 gauge an a handgun for defense with a bow or .22 for pot meat.

[300winmag]

A lot of good points, so far. I'd like to add a few more to the mix.

Murphy's Laws apply equally to bad guys and good guys. Unless someone is so stupid that random chance is more powerful.

Remember, you also get a vote in the enemy's plans, too.

The feral will start out killing and eating their own weak as their easiest first step. Their surviving weak will quickly learn the value of "the great equalizer". Not everybody on the wrong side of the line is your enemy.

Deception works both ways. Some "weakness" in your defense may be your setpiece ambush for somebody who sees what they want to see because it worked in the past. Study your own situation as if you were the enemy, and then add in your own touch of "something extra" for the enemy.

Teach everyone in your group how to spot the alpha, and the prime beta. In a firefight, every weapon should be used on them until they're down, making the remaining omegas easier game.

I personally will not defile an enemy body, but that won't stop me from using spray paint or a magic marker to leave some "inspirational" message on the corpse. Even bad guys get worked up seeing a hacked-up comrade. There's a different reaction when the corpse has a sign with a happy face on it, or "thanks for the weapon, as crappy as it is" on the sign. Hat-tip to Bruce Willis in Diehard 1 for that.

[The Theophilus]

I personally will not defile an enemy body, but that won't stop me from using spray paint or a magic marker to leave some "inspirational" message on the corpse

I always recommend the tried and true head-on-a-pike warning. Maybe it should be updated a bit, using frat house artwork on their passed out buddies such as a crude drawing with a Marks-a-lot of a penis on their forehead, Q-tips in the nose and ears; mustard and shaving cream piled on the head. What we need is a special "Lord of the Flies" version of Martha Stewart's decoration program where she can bring in recognized talent in arts and crafts to give us some creative, home-made tips. You never know what a flaming Sodomite with a string of christmas lights and a can of clear acrylic could do for your public warning.

[familyop]

"You think it’s a joke? You think that six months after lights out, the surviving marauder bands will be clowns? You think you can guard every tree line and culvert within rifle range of your home 24/7?

You must be superman. "

You made some assumptions about trees and culverts.

I've actually always been more of a hillbilly than a soldier--even once during a little over three months at Ft. Leonard Wood--especially on military and civilian (police) ranges here and there. Hillbillies, per capita, are better on ranges. They also have more discipline and can be far more cohesive, tending to reject effeminate politics ("politics" in some circles known as organized crime).

Remember, freepers, make sure that you have ways to see robbers first, even if a *beep* is required to wake you up in advance (in case robbers killed the bark). Turn those four-foot fences into six-foot fences with alarms now. Place obstacles against vehicles driven by robbers. Install other alarms, and even video, if you want to study and install it for low cost. If you must use those evil firearms to defend your women and/or children from deadly force by groups of robbers, place some of the rounds to the hips and the heads of those mustachioed bad guys. Watch plenty of westerns in advance to know who the bad guys are (hint: mustache). ;-)

[papertyger]

ping for later

[Nachoman]

I have a variety of weapons I could use to kill myself.

[familyop]

I’m still laughing. ...won’t even be able see “marauders” with a telescope from here. And let’s see...disasters...

* Hurricanes: uncheck

* Tsunamis: nope

* Nukes: nope—several hundred miles downwind from the nearest possible targets.

* Economy: too far, traffic, likely checkpoints, too cold most of the year, surface water sources too far apart, too windy, possible targets of robbers too far and few between. No fuel. Too many dangerous animal predators for long-distance, hiking couch potatoes (including athletes who can’t run far at high altitudes). Hundreds of thousands of much fatter targets much closer to the cities.

I saw the foolishness of bipartisan political and business directions a long time ago: global dirty deals with foreign communists for manufacturing and slavery, anti-family policies, reluctance to properly defend the USA, all (shoulda done the source: Iran). They made their bed. They’ll lay in it.

[familyop]

Well said in your comment #35. It appears that you've been on duty, where each call/mission can lead to a surprising and different scene. And yes, I was assuming a longer rifle with the ruck, carried at port arms or something like that.

[familyop]

Yep, a swamp can slow a city boy down and wear him down real fast. ...reminds me that I’m up here in the high, dry and cold after finally wimping out on tropical weather (childhood years and military training).

[Billthedrill]

Yep. Best defense against this sort of thing is communications if the goblins are in the area and open hunting season when they are. Some of the hard guys have goodies I'd like to have myself. Be a shame if an accident were to happen to one or two of them and, oh, I don't know, a couple of RPG's should end up in my rumpus room, maybe.

The recce assets possessed by a group of this size have no chance against a relatively alert set of local eyes. Even little kids can watch from the weeds. Watch, watch, watch. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Sooner or later they'll screw up and get surrounded. I don't envision a pleasant end to that one. Personally I'm in favor of impalement but then I'm a traditionalist at heart...

[driftdiver]

‘Of course and I was just making a point that 8-12 people are not going to run roughshod over the general population”

Mohammed (pig feces upon him) started with a very small group and within a few years controlled a massive area. While unlikely I wouldn’t say its impossible for the scum to band together for their own survival.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yeh scum always bands together. They just won’t thrive in the N GA mountains. They may thrive in the inner cities like intown Atlanta or even the burbs but when you get out into the boonies the natives are scarier than the scavengers. Trust me. Those kinds of little bands will be wiped out very quickly.

[Gilbo_3]

Diehard 1

'now i have a machine gun...ho-ho-ho...'

classic...

[Shadowstrike]

I think you should have said 'some women". The women of my family have been preparing all their lives. Grandmother canned, and Mom not only bought the guns she wanted, but gives the gift of ammo to everyone at Christmas. I have women, tough as a Marine, women in my family. The ones you are talking about are little girls. ;)

[ronnyquest]

You are, unfortunately, the exception to the rule. Congratulations.