Recently I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not Frost from CSG, I can't run eight six inch steels plus a reload in two and a half seconds, while checking my secure tablet. I'm not Sam Culper, I can't gather information and form intelligence out of it while running a real life SIGINT exorcise with SPARKS, while drinking turmeric tea. I'm not John Mosby, I can't roll out with 190 pounds of gear, and carry a Private over each shoulder while booting the LT in the ass. I'm not Nate Gushwa lifting five-hundered-fucking-pounds off the ground.
It was heart breaking but I got over it. Who I am, is me. What I do naturally is team build. It's some what of an odd skill to have, but it's something that I really enjoy doing. I am able to assemble people I am surrounded by into a group and accomplish a task. It might be messy, and we might not all be super great friends after, but we'll get the job done, or we'll cohere together and form an even deeper team and accomplish even more.
Identifying problems:
What I hear more often than anything in our community is our inability to come together as a group... Just like every other group out there. I just got done listening to Sam and Cav talk about exactly this. The whole time I was nodding my head as they discussed the Oath Keepers and III% being fractured and split into multiple little factions. Why? Well, there's about a billion different reasons, probably 100 reasons for each little faction. But none of that matters. Because we're still divided. We're still looking at each other saying "No, you have to be a IIIper like this... Not like that, like THIS!" we're standing there preaching a message that the choirs' already heard and agrees with, for the most part, while the people behind us are starting to get up and leave. We're focused on keeping a group of people who believe the same basic ideals of: True Liberty, True Freedom, and Limited Governance, together instead of looking over our shoulder and seeing there are a bunch of people watching us.
As a community we have a Ministry, sales pitch, mission, whatever you want to call it, based in our actions. What we do and say. One of my favorite things to do is find hobbies in people. I love to see where their imagination takes them when they're not providing for their families of themselves. Keep in mind that there is always a tie in. Since being a rational person implies we think about what's around us and how it effects us, we "prepare" for instances that may occur to prevent us from living a normal life as we see it currently. What does that have to do with hobbies? All hobbies tie into rational preparedness. Reach really deep and think of something completely unrelated. Video games? Maybe origami? What about landscaping? These become causeways of conversation for you to interject some truth. Take a sixteen year old guy who's interested in reading medieval fantasy novels. What on earth could that have to do with preparedness or team building? If we separate the person, and the person I am thinking of is an awesome kid, from the perceived team member niche to identify specific traits we need to accomplish a mission we find:
If I have a physical limitation, but I'm hell on a keyboard, I need Boots. Guys who can follow directions and use their legs where I may not have any. If I am prone to depression, I need a squad leader who is going to push and pull in just the right manner to motivate me, not bully me. If I turn into an absolute whiny bitch when I'm hungry, my spotters going to need to know to feed me when I start acting like Roseanne. Finding people who are strong where others are weak, and not asshats about it is difficult, but not impossible.
Actions:
For those of us who are driven by action, often times keeping our mouth shut and just doing is best. If we aren't an awesome verbal communicator, or written communicator, we can communicate by picking up a shovel digging beside our neighbors. One of my favorite exorcises is to stop where I am and think: "If crap cut loose right now. Who would have my back." This exorcise is for your immediate area. If you're at home, in your boxers, with your cat. It's you and Fluffy. That's your QRF (Quick Reaction Force), that's your Cavalry. That's it. It doesn't have to be. What if Mr. Rogers across the street could help too? What can he do, he's 89 years old with a bad hip and can barely pick up a rifle? Well, this war isn't going to be won by bullets, not if we can prevent it. It'll be won, before it gets started, by convincing him you're not one of those "long haired hippy punks listening to all that rap music." His vote matters just as much as yours does, at least we all perceive that it does, who knows anymore. But I digress.
Mr. Rogers is going to remember that time when you helped him rake those leaves he couldn't get to, and spread that bark, and hang Christmas lights. He'll also remember that time you invited him over to dinner, he didn't go, but he still thought it was nice. So when the MRAP full of DHS Ranger SEAL SF's come to a screeching hault outside, and you, by the grace of God slip out the back. You can circle around to Mr. Rogers place and hide in his crawl space for a couple hours. He might have even let you store a small duffel bag there, you know, just in case your house burnt down? All of that is a form of team building.
If we're going to say we believe in each other, as a whole Nation, regardless of our differences, then we better start raking each others leaves.
Most of us consider team building more as squad building. While thats hugely valuable, it's macro versus micro. I have a group of guys I train with. We're all safe, we're all proficient - I at least pretend to be - and we are all current on events. Building a squad is a micro event. You have to look at your selves as a family, a brotherhood. Not everyone is going to get along, not everyone is going to be as proficient in a skill set, but we all work together to accomplish the mission at hand.
As a squad we all have to train together every week, and we spend the hours we're not training, talking about it... Back to reality. Have you tried to get 5-8 people together at one place at one time? Its like hurding cats. Once a month barely happens. So, based on this, do we really think if some emergency kicks off all of us Avengers are going to assemble? Not bloody likely! If you're, or were, an NCO you need to be training squad leaders not squad mates. A patrol class is great, an OpOrder class is better. We, the prepared ones, will be looked to. Because we saw something coming and we got our crap together before it got here. I would encourage you as Veterans, LEO's, EMT's, and anyone with a solid base on this, start training squad leaders, so they can train others.
Especially you SOF guys. We NEED you. We will pay you!
Lets use a practical example:
If two shit bags with training, tools and a half baked plan can send all of Paris into lock down, imagine what it would be like if there were dozens of these small teams. Imagine instead of being batshit crazy douche bags who assasinated satirists and a fellow Muslim, they were fighting against an tyrannical police state straight out of 1984. See how long its already taken the French to get them? All ribbing aside, the French do have their crap pretty well together, and its taken them two days to wrangle these murdering goat sodamizers into an industrial district. If FREEFOR had to, it could. Easily. But it wouldnt get very far without team building.
Go, build a team. Start next door amd move on down the block. The life you save may be your own.
It was heart breaking but I got over it. Who I am, is me. What I do naturally is team build. It's some what of an odd skill to have, but it's something that I really enjoy doing. I am able to assemble people I am surrounded by into a group and accomplish a task. It might be messy, and we might not all be super great friends after, but we'll get the job done, or we'll cohere together and form an even deeper team and accomplish even more.
Identifying problems:
What I hear more often than anything in our community is our inability to come together as a group... Just like every other group out there. I just got done listening to Sam and Cav talk about exactly this. The whole time I was nodding my head as they discussed the Oath Keepers and III% being fractured and split into multiple little factions. Why? Well, there's about a billion different reasons, probably 100 reasons for each little faction. But none of that matters. Because we're still divided. We're still looking at each other saying "No, you have to be a IIIper like this... Not like that, like THIS!" we're standing there preaching a message that the choirs' already heard and agrees with, for the most part, while the people behind us are starting to get up and leave. We're focused on keeping a group of people who believe the same basic ideals of: True Liberty, True Freedom, and Limited Governance, together instead of looking over our shoulder and seeing there are a bunch of people watching us.
As a community we have a Ministry, sales pitch, mission, whatever you want to call it, based in our actions. What we do and say. One of my favorite things to do is find hobbies in people. I love to see where their imagination takes them when they're not providing for their families of themselves. Keep in mind that there is always a tie in. Since being a rational person implies we think about what's around us and how it effects us, we "prepare" for instances that may occur to prevent us from living a normal life as we see it currently. What does that have to do with hobbies? All hobbies tie into rational preparedness. Reach really deep and think of something completely unrelated. Video games? Maybe origami? What about landscaping? These become causeways of conversation for you to interject some truth. Take a sixteen year old guy who's interested in reading medieval fantasy novels. What on earth could that have to do with preparedness or team building? If we separate the person, and the person I am thinking of is an awesome kid, from the perceived team member niche to identify specific traits we need to accomplish a mission we find:
- He's young and healthy. Properly trained he could be an outstanding asset to a team for simple physical prowess.
- He has an interest in a code of honor and ethics.
- He has an interest and practices some of the austere living conditions and skill sets of the time period (Fletching, Squiring, and Ferrying).
- He reads closely and can spot typos in published works.
- He is able to retain a lot of what is read.
- He is observant.
- Excellent with horses.
If I have a physical limitation, but I'm hell on a keyboard, I need Boots. Guys who can follow directions and use their legs where I may not have any. If I am prone to depression, I need a squad leader who is going to push and pull in just the right manner to motivate me, not bully me. If I turn into an absolute whiny bitch when I'm hungry, my spotters going to need to know to feed me when I start acting like Roseanne. Finding people who are strong where others are weak, and not asshats about it is difficult, but not impossible.
Actions:
For those of us who are driven by action, often times keeping our mouth shut and just doing is best. If we aren't an awesome verbal communicator, or written communicator, we can communicate by picking up a shovel digging beside our neighbors. One of my favorite exorcises is to stop where I am and think: "If crap cut loose right now. Who would have my back." This exorcise is for your immediate area. If you're at home, in your boxers, with your cat. It's you and Fluffy. That's your QRF (Quick Reaction Force), that's your Cavalry. That's it. It doesn't have to be. What if Mr. Rogers across the street could help too? What can he do, he's 89 years old with a bad hip and can barely pick up a rifle? Well, this war isn't going to be won by bullets, not if we can prevent it. It'll be won, before it gets started, by convincing him you're not one of those "long haired hippy punks listening to all that rap music." His vote matters just as much as yours does, at least we all perceive that it does, who knows anymore. But I digress.
Mr. Rogers is going to remember that time when you helped him rake those leaves he couldn't get to, and spread that bark, and hang Christmas lights. He'll also remember that time you invited him over to dinner, he didn't go, but he still thought it was nice. So when the MRAP full of DHS Ranger SEAL SF's come to a screeching hault outside, and you, by the grace of God slip out the back. You can circle around to Mr. Rogers place and hide in his crawl space for a couple hours. He might have even let you store a small duffel bag there, you know, just in case your house burnt down? All of that is a form of team building.
If we're going to say we believe in each other, as a whole Nation, regardless of our differences, then we better start raking each others leaves.
Most of us consider team building more as squad building. While thats hugely valuable, it's macro versus micro. I have a group of guys I train with. We're all safe, we're all proficient - I at least pretend to be - and we are all current on events. Building a squad is a micro event. You have to look at your selves as a family, a brotherhood. Not everyone is going to get along, not everyone is going to be as proficient in a skill set, but we all work together to accomplish the mission at hand.
As a squad we all have to train together every week, and we spend the hours we're not training, talking about it... Back to reality. Have you tried to get 5-8 people together at one place at one time? Its like hurding cats. Once a month barely happens. So, based on this, do we really think if some emergency kicks off all of us Avengers are going to assemble? Not bloody likely! If you're, or were, an NCO you need to be training squad leaders not squad mates. A patrol class is great, an OpOrder class is better. We, the prepared ones, will be looked to. Because we saw something coming and we got our crap together before it got here. I would encourage you as Veterans, LEO's, EMT's, and anyone with a solid base on this, start training squad leaders, so they can train others.
Especially you SOF guys. We NEED you. We will pay you!
Lets use a practical example:
If two shit bags with training, tools and a half baked plan can send all of Paris into lock down, imagine what it would be like if there were dozens of these small teams. Imagine instead of being batshit crazy douche bags who assasinated satirists and a fellow Muslim, they were fighting against an tyrannical police state straight out of 1984. See how long its already taken the French to get them? All ribbing aside, the French do have their crap pretty well together, and its taken them two days to wrangle these murdering goat sodamizers into an industrial district. If FREEFOR had to, it could. Easily. But it wouldnt get very far without team building.
Go, build a team. Start next door amd move on down the block. The life you save may be your own.