OPERATION: DRAGONFLY 06 AUGUST 2005

Level One. Off-hand shooting. Fire team drills. Tactical march. The "Men With Green Faces." ...and a dragonfly.

Saturday, August 6th, Camp Stasa, MI:

The corn was high, but not yet ripe, the sky was clear, and the temperature was in the mid-80's. This was a perfect day to come and train, and train we did, yes indeed.

I arrived with Militiamedic in his new Jeep, just a bit after 0800. We found a good crew already on hand, with The Men With Green Faces going through some weapons cross training class, wherein each member gave a class about his/her personal rifle. This is a valuable block of instruction to receive, should you ever need to pick up you comrade's rifle. This class was made even more useful by also giving each member a chance to act as an instructor, something that we will be giving more and more of you a chance to do soon enough. They then headed out on their patrol.

There was a small amount of zeroing and sighting in going on early, as well. This is always a god use of range time. We shortly were joined by a handful of new folks, and headed out on a short, one mile tactical march, which included hand and arm signals, tactical stops, and even a good START on some effective camouflage. We listened for rattling, sloshing, and clinking on our own gear, and also paid attention to any non-tactical sounds from our fellow militia-persons. There was a small bit of sloshing and rattling, most of which was corrected along the march. The one thing, though, that really, really stood out and made a loud, distinctive, unmistakable noise was the opening of a Velcro radio pouch cover. Velcro, while very wonderful for many things, is not, and will never be, a QUIET way to fasten things.

We covered some basic hand and arm signals, including "freeze", "halt", "get down", "move out", "en route rally point", and one of the favorites, "double time". It was positive to see the signals being relayed back along the unit as they moved.

After this, we got on top of folks to drink more water, as most of the guys were sweating quite a bit.

We then, still on schedule, covered some very, very basic fire team formations and movements, covering the line, file, and wedge formations, and when and how to use them. (This added at least three more hand and arm signals to our repertoire...) The folks formed up into two fire teams and ran through bounding and withdrawing several times, with emphasis on communications between teams. Communications between teams is NOT limited to just fire team leaders. Sometimes, the people on the ends of the formations have to be the ones to relay signals back and forth.

Fire team instruction.

The Men With Green Faces headed out on another patrol, with the full-blown camo thing going. Sharp-looking bunch of guys, what "hardcore militia" is all about, I tell ya...

A gentleman from Adrian did the two-mile for time. His gear checked out okay, with the addition of some latex gloves. His first aid gear was otherwise very sharp, as he is an EMT-type person. (I did not get a call sign...). Roadkill walked with him and their time was an impressive 29 minutes. His shooting was just a bit short, but the AK is not the best weapon to qualify with. (It's good for other things, though.)

Here I must mention the die-hard perseverance of Mad Hatter, who finally qualified with 9/10 with his AK, no less. He came out all the time, he never gave up, he had to walk almost every month, and he kept trying. He did it. Good job, Mike!

There was more shooting going on, but, keeping to the schedule, we had lunch. Chuckwagon did indeed hook us up with a most splendid feast of burgers and beans. (The cheeseburgers with grilled onions are truly tres magnifique!!!) Not to worry if you are a vegetarian, for we can feed vegetarians, as well...

Still on schedule, at 1400, we did some four pin shooting. I especially wanted to see the folks who have never done this before get a crack at it. Monkey Five did really well with a borrowed AK. A funny part of this is that he started with two magazines, but dropped one, so I picked up the dropped mag, and followed behind him in case he needed it (he didn't). I was reminded of that scene in "Enemy at The Gates" where the Russian officer is handing out rifles and ammo to every other guy. "The man with gun shoots, and the man with the ammo follows. When the man with the gun gets killed, the man following him picks up the gun and shoots." There was no need for that, today, and there never should be in a free America. We all have our own guns, thank you. The four pin shoot tests how you shoot under some slight stress. We normally shoot from prone or other expedient positions (NOT from the bench), but we still shoot under less-than-stressful conditions. The four pin shoot is one way to introduce some form of realistic stress into the training. We will be introducing more fun and exciting stress fire drills into the training....mwah ha ha ha ha.

The four-pin times were fair to moderate, and we find that we will also want to incorporate some prone reloading drills into upcoming training events. Remember, if you can hit a bowling pin under stress at various distances, hitting a terrorist or thug should be easy. Get out and do this....

It was now time, according to our schedule, to pick up and do some off-hand rifle shooting. The premise here is to get familiar with how well or how poorly you shoot with your other hand, if you need to. Everyone learned from this. It makes sense to learn to shoot left-handed, if for example, you get hurt, or you need to shoot around the left side of an obstacle or cover.

Weak hand rifle and pistol practice. Notice Chuckwagon with a Glock...

We moved in and did some weak-hand pistol shooting, for the same reasons as above. Again, make sure you can access your pistol with either hand if you need to. The shooting was not super-de-duper or anything, but once you get past the initial awkwardness, the groups will get tighter. Chuckwagon noted that you can surely feel the difference in your "weak" hand when shooting, even something small like a 9mm. (He also likes my Glock...)

And then, because, heck, the fun just should NEVER stop, we demonstrated the Tuller Drill, for the benefit of those who have never seen or experienced this sort of thing before. You can google "Tuller Drill" or ask a shooting instructor or one of us fine militia people. In short, this demonstrates that an attacker can close and engage over a distance of at least 21 feet before you can get off one or two shots. Chuckwagon did very well, by hitting a bowling pin on his second shot during the drill. (No, bowling pins are not a normal part of this drill, but he wanted an added challenge.)

Bishop does the "tap and go", while Mad Hatter reacts. If the attacker was closing on you, move behind an obstacle or back away at an angle while engaging, so that their momentum will not necessarily carry them into you. 21 feet, folks, it's always at least 21 feet.

There was much fun pistol shooting, and discussion of close range self defense issues, including defensive distances inside our homes. This is a good time for the "What if...???" type of questions.

By then we had covered just about everything on the schedule, except for some optional defensive perimeter drills, which we MUST work in for the next time. This was a very busy, interesting, and beneficial training day, with lots of stuff going on at the same time. We were tired and hot and had a good time. This is how it's supposed to be.

NOTE: When checking targets, I tend to not want to waste time, so I sort of trot downrange. Very rarely, someone will run along with me, and I sometimes look at it as a sort of race. This time Mad Hatter outran me, but I made a fair show of it. However, I ignored one of my own warnings, namely to not run or anything like this without at least a minimum of beforehand stretching, and so a suffered a very slight pull to my left Achilles' tendon. Really just a brain fart on my behalf, but hopefully I can at least serve as a warning to the rest of you: Stretch first, okay?

-Lee

Please note that September's training, which will incorporate some of the things discussed above, along with some shotgun drills, because that's what we do in September, will be ON THE SECOND SATURDAY IN SEPTEMBER (That's SEPTEMBER 10TH) AND NOT THE FIRST BECAUSE OF LABOR DAY. Maybe we can come out early and stay overnight Friday night. Bring bug juice and lots of water. See you there!!!

Report prepared by Mad Hatter, Livingston County

  A beautiful weekend, Mid 80's, Sunny, The perfect weather to test one's endurance.  That's what awaited us at Camp Stasa on August 6th.  Early morning arrivals were greeted by the Men with Green Faces, now down to four hard-core souls who were energized after an overnight engagement with the local wildlife. Yes, At Camp Stasa, Even overnight camping can be used as a tool to test ones preparedness.

  First thing, The Pioneers trained each other on the specifics of a large array of rifles. It's always important to know what you may one day have to use. This was followed by one of their legendary marches.

  While this happened, The rest of the regulars along with a new face ( Greetings Monkey 5 ) set out on a one mile Tactical walk. This demonstrated small unit communications and movement.  I was surprised how much more energy I exerted over what was usually spent on our two mile marches.

  Water was the key as we pressed on throughout a variety of other drills, as dehydration could set in quick. As always, Militia Medic and Doc were on hand to ensure our well-being.

  Food was skillfully provided by the Chuck Wagon, Who proves time and time again that he's as skillful with a grill as he is with an AK. He also showed lightning fast reflexes in one of our pistol drills. This feat was made even better by the fact that he was using Weapon M's pistol. ( There is an art to quick-drawing a Glock )

  We practiced Off-Hand shooting, Move-and-fire rifle drills, and advancing and retreating as a fire team as well as two team cover techniques.

  Weapon M kept everything moving along, As he had a lot planned for us this day, And with his leadership, We kept to the schedule.

  Oh, And by the way, I (finally) qualified level 1. With an AK!

Greetings to our friends from Adrian, MI and Ohio who made the long drive to be with us today. It's always good to have an extra pair of boots on the ground.