Trust in Combat

The following post was a forum topic, where I have taken my comments from the forum and created a blog post, absent the various other comments that were made as the conversation continued. I have recently made a login necessary for the forum (still free), in order to keep out the casual revolutionary communists (for the same reason, I have made private the vast majority of my YouTube videos).

Trust in Combat

One of the students at the last HEAT 1 class specifically mentioned this passage from Red Platoon. I didn’t think anymore of it until I read it. I’ll paste the passage below.

We mention this to classes all the time. We always tell you that Small Unit Tactics (SUT) is “not about you.” We tell you that it is your job to keep the other guy alive. His job is to keep you alive. It is all about trust.

This also goes to the latest points of Scott’s and my arguments about the weakness of the “right.” The lack of trust and the myth of the “rugged individual.” Not only is there no trust, but there is no authority or leadership. Thus, in combat, how do we conduct any sort of small unit tactics, which is all about trust and executing actions under the stress and fear of combat? I would suggest that only within a group that has operated under conditions of stress, or training, can this happen.

A family is close enough to do this. But your family is not only not trained, but you probably don’t want your wife / kids on the front line. An infantry squad or platoon is close enough to do this, forged by training and hardship. A group of guys in some mutual agreement? Not so much. Not forged by hardship of discipline. So who moves? Nobody moves!

Second comment:

There is a little bit more to the story here. Allow me to speak in simple terms with some ‘made up’ examples.

1) There is a myth of the ‘rugged individual’ that pervades society. We live in a safe and secure society that allows people to carry on with such notions. Same way it let’s people be communists. It just isn’t practical, but the security of society lets people carry on with their fantasies.

2) “Back in the day” people survived by being part of a community. This is not the same notion as ‘the collective’ which so many mean when they refer to community. It was a community of free men who banded together to provide security for their families. Some people were better at some things than others, and thus this was how leadership came to be. However, I have said this before, but you have all heard of the saying that you need to be a good follower to be a good leader? You may be a leader at whatever it is you are good at, but you will be a follower in other aspects. If you think about a small community, some would specialize while others made use of that specialty. On a personal note, I have found myself a leader in some things, and a follower in others, it simply depends on where the expertise lies.

3) The sort of unbridled and unproven EGO that destroys contemporary prepper groups only happens because the groups are NOT YET NEEDED. Your prepper group wanted to be ready for the inevitable, but you trained and prepped in a time of plenty. This is an unavoidable situation, but that time of plenty allowed the egos to play. It may seem like a good idea to train and prep in advance, but that goes against the times we are living in, and nobody is ready, not mentally. The best you can hope for is to prep as a family and survive. The time of dying is coming, but only under those situations will people wake up, shelve the BS ego, and be ready to knuckle down. Sadly, the time of training will then be over.

4) During all of those conflicts that people like to spout off about, such as the Civil War and the Rev War, the units that were employed were military units. Some to a greater extent of professionalism than others, some more like Militias (real ones, not your 90’s political militia). However, the key point is that they had sworn an oath and were subject to military discipline. That discipline, together with shared hardship of soldiering, was why they stood together and received volley musket and cannon fire.

There is of course more. But you aren’t ready for it yet.

This third comment was made in response to a comment about Federal Agencies doing all in their power to prevent organization of mutual support groups:

That is the other aspect of this that is concerning: partisan politically motivated Federal Agencies. It is incredible that even at this time, ‘White Supremacist’s” are considered the greatest threat despite the fact that you have an active revolutionary communist movement in this country. If you look at the threat briefs put out by these various agencies, Antifa is not mentioned, but “white supremacists” are.

This is probably one of the greatest betrayals of the Republic by these federal agencies. Deep State. It is disgusting. You have these simple prepper and mutual support groups lumped in with largely fictional “white supremacist’s” where they will do all they can to disrupt the groups. It is precisely at this time that these groups are needed, as we face a communist threat to the Republic and our way of lives. It is simply nothing but self-protection of the people in these groups.

When you look at the groups that have actually been arrested, you see things like the plot to “abduct” the Governor of Michigan, and it turns out that the group involved were, again, anarchists / communists.

Reading this, Mr. Agent? Fix your shit.

Fourth comment:

It seems that after all the efforts individual people all across this nation have made, in their small groups, trying to create a mutual support network, that mostly these groups will fall down. What is the greatest threat to both training and groups? EGO. I have said that for the longest time.

What this means is that groups formed beforehand do not work. You may think you have a group, but under the stress of collapse and combat, what will that really mean? This puts us in a bind. We cannot train up these groups effectively before hand.

One of the things that used to happen is that guys would show for a class and expect to go back to their group as “train the trainer.” Really? Never gonna happen. On the other hand, many of you alumni have trained yourselves to be effective light infantry fighters, simply by attending multiple classes over time at MVT. But many only as individuals, with no group to work with. The next step to that is that you must attend these classes with your ‘group.’ This could simply be you and a buddy or a four man team. Something where there is real trust. But this must be an ongoing effort to build that trust through suffering and hardship. You should not only train at MVT together, you should also do other activities such as, whatever, mountain hiking etc. Hard stuff. Trust building stuff.

Training next year will depend on the operating environment for next year, and whether I can schedule classes or not. Let’s hope that we can train. I will likely wait till December / January time to put up a schedule for next year.

Things need to change for people, to put them in the right mindset. Sadly, Commies are going to have to start killing people so that we understand the seriousness of our situation. Normalcy bias must go away. These things are not at the top of the priority list right now, we are still consumed with normal work and family life.

The upshot of all this is that groups might start to form in the face of a growing threat to the Republic, a need to protect kith and kin. This means that they will not be trained, and will not be trusted. Just groups forming. What is missing from that? Military discipline. That is your big kicker right there. What holds these groups together as things get hard? Currently, they will most likely fragment due to EGO and things being a little bit hard compared to your normal work life and what your wife wants (mostly none of this prepping and training stuff).

What do men fight for? It is mostly the group. It is wanting to not be shown up in front of their group. Men fight for the squad or platoon, not for high ideals of patriotism or politics. Professionals fight because it is their job to fight. Amateur’s because of the group loyalty. But to get to that point, where you have built the group trust, and trusted leadership, you also need to be held together by military discipline, so that EGO and FEAR does not derail the whole thing.

All these things are for after the hammer falls, when shit gets real. That is a pretty crappy situation, but it is what it is. What can you do in the meantime? Prepare yourself, prepare your family. Become an MVT alumni where you and your group are trained as best as you can. Stay as fit as you can. Prep. Survive.

Fifth comment:

I am currently reading “The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Combat.” This was specifically quoted in Red Platoon, an extract if which began this thread. This book has been very interesting so far. It is written by a philosopher who served for several years in the European theater of WWII. Initially a Private, then a battlefield commission as a 2LT.

There is a lot in this book. I feel it makes the points I have already made. The extracts that I will attach discuss individual and community freedom, the use of this by non-democratic forces, the use of the group / community specifically applied to combat.

Yet here in America we are tied to the myths of the rugged individual and “no one tells me what to do.” This must change, but it will not change in our current environment.

The discussion will continue…

Max