Know Your History: The Swamp Fox – Inside Francis Marion’s Guerrilla War Against the British Redcoats

The Swamp Fox – Inside Francis Marion’s Guerrilla War Against the British Redcoats

 

One of the most enlightening studies of early Guerilla Warfare tactics was my study of Francis Marion and Rogers Rangers during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.

Study Up.

 

Fire and Maneuver in Urban AO’s

From the Archives, 2015.

In a recent Article, Law Enforcement told how they found a very large collection of ‘tactical writings’ in the home of Dallas Police Shooter and Army Panty Bandit Micah Johnson.

According to Police, the tactic of “Fire and Maneuver” or “Shoot and Move” was the tactic seen most often in Johnson’s “voluminous” notes.

Since Johnson’s MOS and military career was devoid of any real Combat training or experience while in Afghanistan, Where Johnson actually learned these tactics is up for debate. Most Combat and Firearm Tactics Instructors and Combat Veterans agree  that Johnson was taught these tactics by somebody who had participated in Mil-Sim (Airsoft).

My personal opinion is that Johnson at some time or another, post-Army career, received training by Black Power militants within the BLM community, who are most likely, according to Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch connected with HAMAS through the help of CAIR, which is widely known to financially support Terrorism.

The student of history and Guerilla Warfare does not have to look very far back to see the deadly nexus between 1960’s  Black Power militant movements, like the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan, so the BLM/HAMAS-CAIR connection is by no means a conspiratorial stretch.

Below is a vid from a Black Panther rally in 2015 in Austin, Texas where armed black militants called for the death of “pigs” (Police Officers) with the ominous chant “Oink, Oink Bang, Bang.”

When one starts piecing together the Dallas attack, the “Shoot and Move” tactic used by Johnson was one of the main reasons police thought there were facing MULTIPLE shooters, instead of just one shooter, as the fire was coming from many different positions. Gunfire echo in an urban setting combined with the chaos and high stress most likely attributed to this confusion.

This is a very important lesson to learn, both in the study of Guerilla and Counter-Insurgency Warfare (COIN). The guerilla must use any and all “force multipliers” to his advantage to try to overwhelm the enemy (both mentally and physically). One of the greatest force multipliers is the APPEARANCE that the Guerilla (or the Guerilla Force) outnumber the Conventional Force.

This tactic most often manifest itself as a psych-warfare tool first. Keeping the enemy confused and fearful creates hesitation in how they will respond both tactically and strategically, which gives the guerilla more time to plan and attack. We can understand this point better as we listen to the Police radio traffic from that day of the attack in Dallas.

Now that we have briefly touched on some of the offensive aspects of fire and manuever warfare, let’s talk about the DEFENSIVE aspects.

The armed citizen must understand that regardless if it is you and a perp facing off at 10 feet in a gas station parking lot or you pinned down in an urban shootout like the one in Dallas, MOVEMENT = LIFE!

 I will be touching on some of the more detailed aspects of urban sniping and fighting in some later installments, but right now the key thing for you to remember is to ALWAYS MOVE TO SOLID COVER AND KEEP MOVING UNTIL YOU ARE OUT OF THE KILL BOX. 

In Combat Shooting you will often hear the maxim: “GET OFF THE X!” (With the “X” Being the Kill box.) For those of you that understand how the OODA loop works (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) when you MOVE In a fight, regardless if it is empty hand, stick, knife or gun, you force your enemy to RESET their OODA Loop. Even something as simple as a side-step can buy you 1/2 a second of reaction time in a fight and that half-second may be all you need to neutralize your opponent or escape.

When we are talking about a situation like the Dallas shooting, where civilians were caught out in the open with a shooter in an elevated position, Movement can be a tricky thing. Depending on the shooter’s elevation, your cover may be of little use since the shooter may be able to position themselves to look OVER and DOWN onto your position. This is what I mean by having SOLID or 360 degree COMPLETE cover. Remember, If you don’t have a solid roof over your head, he may can see you and consequently, shoot and kill you.

Combine this fact with the shooter using “Fire and Maneuver” tactics and this is how you or your squad can end up being PINNED Down and eventually overwhelmed and killed. I cannot stress enough how important movement is in these situations. Staying “planted” in a kill box, regardless of how “safe” you feel, is a sure-fire recipe for a funeral.

Pictures from that day show how officers and civilians alike were “hugging” the ground, Getting as LOW as possible behind vehicles or any cover that was available.

Staying as Low as possible is a good tip anytime shooting is taking place, however, in an urban setting where the shooter is elevated, it is mandatory. We will discuss more on “Urban Sectors of Fire” in another post, but right now it will suffice for you to understand that in an urban setting, depending on how elevated the shooter is, he may be able to shoot further on the “oblique” than he can straight on.

Many elements factor into this equation of course, one of the primary ones being the type of rifle being used and the shooter’s skill level.

I highly recommend John L. Plaster’s The Ultimate Sniper and his chapter on Urban Sniping for further reading on this subject.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Asymmetrical Warfare and 4GW: How Militia Groups are America’s Domestic Viet Cong

Civil War 2 appears to be the new buzzword among both sides of the brewing conflict in the US, no longer considered some fringe notion. The Right and the Left find themselves at an impasse, and its rapidly becoming apparent that one side is not only readily engaged in the early fighting but is actively…

via Asymmetrical Warfare and 4GW: How Militia Groups are America’s Domestic Viet Cong — American Partisan

Modern Warfare: Booby-Trapped AK Mags

Boobytrapped Mag in Bosnia

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Something to think about when battlefield pickups are your only option…these bastards are getting more and more crafty.

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!

Surveillance State: Anti-Drone Defenses for the Privacy Minded Citizen

Anti-Drone Defenses: Some Ideas Are Better Than Others

(click on the above title to be re-directed to Source Page)

This is an interesting and very funny article for the simple fact it raises some very important questions for the Civilian Operator who wants to keep his Private life well, PRIVATE: How do we not only LEGALLY combat DRONES that violate our Privacy around our homes and businesses but also PHYSICALLY Combat Drones that violate our Privacy?

Bottom line: Think like an Insurgent and use Deception and Deceit (and some other very creative methods)

Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!