1st Joint Kentucky Militia

     This past weekend, July 11th, the 1st Joint Kentucky Militia and the1st TN Rifles UMIT participated in a joint FTX. A lot of lessons were learned that day, and a lot of lessons forgot were remembered. The reasons vary on why FTX are so important to the militia. Building comradeship, teaching fireteam maneuvers, and the layout of your gear are just some of these reasons.

     Participating in FTX is a vital part of a militia's training because it builds comradeship among militia men and women. If you train using either airsoft or paintball, then it adds the element of realism. When people are working together under mock combat conditions, then they learn not just to trust one another, but how each other works, what each person's weaknesses and strengths are. People build bonds. These bonds are very important if we are to survive. If you can not trust the man standing next you when the SHTF, then you are as good as dead.

     Fireteam maneuvers are very important to the militia, as it builds small team tactics and adds to the trust and belief in the fellow militia man/woman. Small team tactics are used in every aspect of warfighting from Military Operations Urban Terrain (MOUT), to convoy ops, to guerrilla warfare. Grant it, guerrilla warfare and MOUT are gonna be the primary types of fighting that the militia will participate in, all aspects are needed to be learned in order to make use of all possible scenarios. We must learn all of our potential enemy's infantry combat training if we are smart. Yes, that is alot of information to take in and use, but if we know our enemy and how they think and operate, we can also exploit their weaknesses and avoid their strengths.

     For instance, the NWO troops are arrogant because it has a large technological power, but take the fight a place that causes this to be limited and stretched thin, you are exploiting that power. The NWO is also very aggressive in nature, and thus, hit and run tactics are best, drawing the NWO troops to where you want them to be able to ambush them. Chinese forces do not have a lot of technology, but they have strength in numbers, so you must draw them to places where the numbers do not matter, as the Spartans did with the Persians. Study your enemy.

     The final point I will make with the importance of FTXs is determining the best layout of your gear. everyone will carry some sort of gear, whether it be MOLLE vest, LBV, a MOLLE plate carrier, something. Figuring out the best locations and configurations are very important. If you do not have your gear configured to the most useful configuration, then it will become a hassle to use it and will actually become more of a hindrance than a use.

       For instance, during the FTX Saturday, I determined that the way that I had my gear, while just standing in my home wearing it seemed fine and dandy, when I got in the field, I quickly learned that my locations of my mag pouches were a pain to access during reloading, that they were too close to the center and that my canteen pouches need to be pushed farther towards my back. These lessons are only learned from trial and error. If you never train, and train exactly how you plan to fight, then you will never condition your body or mind well enough to be able to handle battle fatigue.

Sincerely,

Lt.Col. Dan Couch, Commanding

1st Joint Kentucky Militia, 1st Brigade

"Public Defenders CDRF"

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