Apache Tactics

APACHE TACTICS

 

You can never read enough about Guerilla Warfare tactics and history.

I would urge everybody to invest in a flash drive where you can keep reference materials like this handy.

I would also urge all my readers to go over to Active Response Training and sign up for email alerts.

Every month they post Free Amazon Kindle e-books. The genre’s are mixed but mainly involve Prepping, Tactical Shooting, Self-Defense Strategies, Crime Awareness, Self-Help, Crime Fiction, Post-Apoc Fiction, etc. It’s a really easy way to build you a nice library of reading material for FREE. I have been doing it for a few years now and have over 1,000 titles in my digital library. (Heads Up: These books only remain FREE for a very limited time, so the best time to download them is the day you get the notification email!)

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Know your WW2 History: The revolutionary fuse that won World War II

The revolutionary fuse that helped win World War II

 

Some very interesting reading on a device that helped shorten the war considerably.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

 

U.S. Marines and the U.S. Mail

Via DTI

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a Proverb! Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, ‘Press On!’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.”

Calvin Coolidge, US President, 1923-29

 

During the “Roaring 1920s,” our national economy was booming, and US Troops, particularly US Marines, were being sent to Turkey, China (multiple times), Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, et al, in an effort to provide protection for Americans and American interests and to assist in putting-down local brushfires.

By design, US Marines were instantly mobile, and thus represented the standard “go-to” military option for Presidents Harding (1921-23) and Coolidge (1923-29).

(Warren Harding died, suddenly and unexpectedly, probably of cardiac arrest, at the age of 57, on 2 Aug 1923. Harding was succeeded by his vice-president, Calvin Coolidge, who served-out Harding’s term and was himself subsequently elected President in 1924)

Throughout the decade, Marine personnel and resources were understandably stretched to the limit. Most foreign postings were dangerously understrength!

Europe was in a deep economic depression during the decade of the 1920s. America successfully escaped, until “Black Tuesday,” 29 Oct 1929, when the US stock market precipitously crashed, ushering-in the “Great Depression” of the 1930s, as well as the infamous “Gangster Era!”

The Gangster Era was actually pretty well established during most of the 1920s, with armed gangsters regularly robbing banks, trains, and mail trucks. It was not uncommon for mail-truck drivers and mail-handlers to be murdered in the process.

The latter became such a formidable problem that in 1921 President Harding instructed his Secretary of the Navy, Edwin Denby, to consult with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Maj General John Lejeune, to:

“Detail as guards for the United States mails a sufficient number of officers and men of the United States Marine Corps so as to protect the mail from the depredations by robbers and bandits.”

Placed in charge was two-time Medal-of-Honor-winner, Marine General Smedley D Butler (“Ol’ Gimlet Eye”), veteran of WWI and guerrilla wars of Central America. Not one to mince words, Butler brought unconfused, no-nonsense leadership to this assignment!

US Marines thus served as armed domestic mail guards for four months in 1921 and for several more months when they were recalled in 1926. After the first posting in 1921, the US Mail Service organized its own security service, but it proved not up to the task, so Marines had to be recalled five years later.

No robberies were ever attempted when US Marines were guarding the mail!

For this duty, all Marines assigned were continuously, visibly armed with pistols, shotguns, rifles, and Thompson SMGs. They rode in mail trucks and trains, often seated with the driver, sometimes in with the mail itself. Such details were always understrength, often consisting of only one Marine, by himself.

And, unlike mealy-mouthed, sissified, tenebrious ROEs of today (issued by politicians, in and out of uniform, who are far more interested in leftist political agendas and in the welfare of their precious criminals, than in the lives of their own men), standing orders got right to the point!

And, they leave scant doubt with regard to our duty and to whose side we’re on!

Denby himself told these Marine Guards:

“To the Men of the Mail Guard, you must keep your weapon(s) in-hand and, when attacked, shoot and shoot to kill. When two Marines are covered by a robber, neither must put up his hands, but both must immediately go for their guns. One may die, but the other will get the robber, and the mail will get through. When our Corps guards the mail, that mail must be delivered, or there must be a Marine dead at his post. There can be no compromise.

When necessary, in order to carry out the foregoing orders, you will make the most effective use of your weapon(s), shooting any person engaged in theft of the mail entrusted to your protection.”

It is no wonder that these Marines were so proud of their Corps, so proud to serve, and so unafraid of their charge and duty. They were sure of the righteousness of their cause and orders, and they knew and understood that those up the food-chain, right up to the President himself, would steadfastly stand behind them (unlike today)!

A short manual was written in an effort to provide additional, specific guidance to Marines assigned to these details. The “FAQ section” of the manual tells the story:

“Q: Suppose the robber is using a gun or making threats with a gun in trying to escape?

A: Shoot him

Q: Suppose the thief is apparently unarmed but running away?

A: Call ‘Halt’ twice at the top of your voice, and when he does not halt, fire one warning shot; when he still does not obey, shoot him.

Q: Is it permissible to take off my pistol while on duty; for instance, when in a mail-car riding between stations?

A: No! Never take off your pistol while on duty. Keep it loaded, locked, and cocked.

Q: Is there a general plan for meeting a robbery?

A: Yes! Start shooting and meet developments as they arise thereafter.

Q: When I hear the command ‘Hands Up,’ am I justified in obeying this order?

A: No! Fall to the ground and start shooting.

Q: Is it possible to make a successful mail robbery?

A: Only over a dead Marine.”

It is no wonder no one ever called their bluff!

That same manual, if written today, would be several reams long!

It would be chock-full of confusing, mealy-mouthed, self-contradictory legal terms, would require a team of Philadelphia lawyers to “interpret”, and all assigned to the actual details would know and understand that if they ever so much as touched their (unloaded) weapons, the manual would be scoured, front to back, to find some obscure place where it could be said that they “violated policy”

They and their “mission” would thus be a joke!

We’ve come a long way!

“Bad as political fiction can be, there is always a politician prepared to make it look ‘artistic,’ by comparison.”

Christopher Hitchens

 

US Marine MIA for More Than 70 Years on Tarawa Atoll Returned to Home Town from Pacific Atoll

Good Stuff!! 👍

depolreablesunite

H/T War History OnLine.

R.I.P. P.F.C. Thomas Frank Johnson, it has been a long road home to your final resting place.

In three days of intense fighting, more than six and a half thousand American, Japanese and Korean soldiers were killed in the Battle of Tarawa. Many bodies were never found, and a number of victims were marked as MIA, or missing in action.

One of these men, a fallen US Marine called Thomas Frank Johnson, has, at last, been identified and his remains have been repatriated to his hometown of Red Bluff, California, where his relatives still live. Johnson died on the 22^nd November 1943, and in a poetic twist was buried almost exactly seventy-seven years later on the 23^rd November 2020.

Marine Cemetary on Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa was the first serious incursion by the American military in the Central Pacific area, taking on a…

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The Bad Ass Files: The OverMountain Men

The Overmountain Men

 

If there was ever an inspirational story that was needed for this specific time in history it is this one!

Sometimes I think our Continental and Confederate forefathers are looking down on us yelling “You can start shooting Anytime you know!”

 

I absolutely love the Footnote!

Side note: One of the Overmountain Men commanders was a guy named John Sevier. After the Revolution, Sevier declared the Overmountain Towns a separate state, which he named the State of Franklin. He was tried and convicted of Treason for this, but instead of going to jail he ran for State Legislature, won, and then passed a law pardoning himself of Treason. He went on to become the first governor of Tennessee, a 3-time U.S. congressman, and once very nearly fought a duel with Andrew Jackson.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!