On Saturday, August 19, local militia members deployed to Camp Stasa in Shiawassee County for a field training exercise.

Several of our hardcore members arrived Friday night and stayed over. Kudos to these hard working, dedicated patriots. You must admire the way they go out early to withstand peace, quiet, fresh air, and personal range time. Way to endure, people!!!

Anyway, we arrived at 10AM (on time!!!), and started the two mile walk shortly thereafter. We also did some brief review of some drill and ceremony, namely, port arms, order arms, right shoulder arms, and present arms. Not everyone is interested in learning these, but for those who are, we will teach it.

Additionally, I became more familiar with a GPS system. Every team or squad should carry at least one of these, not to replace your compass, but to add to it.

Along the march, one intrepid mother pulled along her two-year old daughter in a wagon...through some mud, too. Just about eliminates any excuse about not coming because of the kids, now, doesn’t it??

Along the march, we encountered some kind of snake along our path. We caught this on film, but the film cannot fully convey the olfactory experience furnished by said beast. Hey, you learn something new all the time….

Anyway, it was a good start.

Something we should all probably do a bit more is to wear our gear around. Once every two weeks or so can really make your shoulders sore. This is why we suggest "H"-type suspenders, they will bind less….

We then worked on some left-handed, around the corner shooting. We incorporated some slightly camouflaged bowling pins, and even had a couple of small fire barrels to try to further obfuscate the targets.

Here is where training with some of these twisted militia people is of utmost value: doing stuff you have not done before, or didn’t think of, or would not be whacked out enough to actually do. We do this stuff.

Have you ever actually shot a rifle or pistol with your weak hand? How about around a corner? With camouflaged targets and fires? Yeah, I thought so….we did.

The hardest part of shooting with your weak hand is forcing yourself to do it. It requires a great deal of conscious effort to do so, for some. If you are shooting around a corner, or if your strong hand becomes

injured, you will have no choice but to shoot weak handed ...or be defeated. And some people have not yet done this…

We have.

We looked at Mike’s AR magazines to see why they were double feeding. Comparing them to my GI Issued mags, we found that they were cut a bit low in the front, allowing for the second round to come forward with the bolt. We will post pictures of what I am talking about here, on the web page, and we will bring these mags to the next meeting, so you can see what to avoid…

Two of us purified a quart of water each, from the well. Not that the well water is bad, but we wanted to keep this skill fresh, and see if our iodine tablets were still functional.

We then did some prisoner capture and search practice. We have this on tape, too. One of the points that we touched on was the intelligence value of the overall health and condition of the prisoner.

Then we did some team movement, using hand and arm signals.

It was a good day, one that makes me want to say, "Nyah, nyah, see what you missed…" -Lee