Auxiliary and Support Functions, Part One

The auxiliary in a guerrilla resistance movement performs a multitude of functions to support the more direct actions of the guerrilla force and the underground. Many of these functions fulfill the staff functions of a conventional military force: intelligence collection and analysis, transportation, force protection, PSYOP and Information Operations (IO), and evasion recovery operations, including the conduct of safe house operations. In this series of articles, I’m going to offer some conceptual approaches to the role of the auxiliary in the survivalist/prepper guerrilla paradigm. These will discuss these functions using the military staff positions when applicable (S1/S2/S3, etc).

S1—Personnel

One of the most important roles that the auxiliary plays for a resistance movement is as a recruiting element that can vet volunteers and potential recruits. Using the auxiliary for this role provides compartmentalization of potential spies and infiltrators from the active guerrillas and underground operatives.

While the threat of infiltration by federal informants or LEO is far less of a concern than many make it out to be (unless you’re doing stupid shit, like soliciting explosives from strangers to build IED), the role of the survivalist/prepper who recognizes he/she is not going to be running around the boondocks playing Gus The Guerrilla, as a member of the “auxiliary” still provides a useful function for recruitment and vetting of potential allies and preparedness group members.

While the acceptance of preparedness seems to be growing within mainstream American culture, let’s face it…we’re still a very small minority. I don’t make it a practice to walk up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in my community and start talking about stockpiling beans, bullets, and band-aids (okay, actually I do, but then, I live in a place where that’s pretty fucking normal). If you live in normal suburban America, it can be exceedingly difficult to even broach the subject with new acquaintances.

The subject of “recruiting” like-minded individuals into a preparedness group has been a topic of discussion on internet forms and blogs for as long as I’ve been looking at the subject on the internet. These conversations range from places to recruit to methods of approaching the conversation. Most—in my far from humble opinion—spend an awful lot of time trying to make a subject more complex than it actually is. I can think of three obvious places to find like-minded people, just off the top of my head:

• the gun store

• the gun range

• the surplus store

Of course, the argument can be made, when the fit, 20-something or 30-something male walks up to another person in one of those places and starts talking guns and preparedness, the new acquaintance’s mental alarms are going to go off like gangbusters. Right?

“Oh shit! This guy is a fed! A cop! A UN spy!”

Further exacerbating the problem of course is the fact that the young recruiter might be put in the uncomfortable position of trying to figure out if his target audience is like-minded, or one of the above bogeymen. Is he stepping on his dick when he mentions improving training from static, bench shooting to shoot-move-communicate training?

“Why the hell do you want to do that Rambo stuff?”

What if however, the person that approached the young, fit guy at the range wasn’t an aggressive-looking young dude who looks like he exists on a diet of barbells, Everlast heavy bags, and testosterone milk shakes? What if it was the kindly old duffer who looks like Grandpa and is asking for some advice on how to shoot his new-fangled space gun AR15?

What if it is the relatively successful looking female in her mid-30s or 40s who is looking for someone to provide some guidance on personal protection shooting with this SIG Sauer P226 she just bought? In either case, they have the ability to begin developing a conversational relationship with the targeted potential recruit in a non-threatening, non-hostile manner that can open the door to more focused questioning.

“Wow, you really know your stuff with that AR15! Were you in the service?”

“Well, yes sir. I spent four years at the 82d Airborne.”

“Hey, that’s great! I was a paratrooper too, back in my youth!”

Now, they’ve got a shared frame-of-reference and a relationship developing. Suggestion though…don’t use the brother-in-law of the uncle of your wife’s third cousin, once-removed as a reference in this case….It makes you look like a fucking retard. Why, no, I don’t know your relative who also went to Airborne School…in 1948….

“Oh wow! I never thought about how important it would be to actually get my gun out of my purse before I could use it in self-defense! You’re pretty knowledgeable about this stuff! Would you be interested in teaching me some lessons? I could pay you a little bit for them!” (Make sure he knows you mean with money. There was a time in my life—not all that long ago—when I would have interpreted that as a barter transaction in the making….Ask HH6…)

The point of this is not the methods used to initiate conversation and develop the relationship. The point is, making initial contact with a potentially like-minded individual might be more effectively conducted by the person you wouldn’t think of having do it. Of course, if your female group member is a fucking IPSC Grand Master level shooter, you might not want to take that approach….

Vetting

Another aspect of S1 obligations that auxiliary personnel might take—as part of the follow-on conversations with the new “recruit” is vetting them for suitability and background. This doesn’t mean you need to conduct a full-on background investigation, or learn PI skills to conduct clandestine surveillance by tailing them around town.

It can be as simple as having a series of questions to ask, based on the needs, demographics, and goals of the group. If my group is composed of mostly Jewish folks, I probably want to find out from the beginning if this new guy is a member of th Aryan Nations, right? That might get…well…awkward. If I’ve got members of my group who are black, Asian, or Hispanic, I probably want to find out if the new guy is a Klan member.

On the other hand, I also might want to find out what his vocational and avocational backgrounds are. The ripped, muscled-up dude at the range shooting the Bushmaster AR15 might be shooting it because he’s comfortable with it from serving in the 101^st Airborne, but that’s before he got out and became a male stripper who shoots to sober up after spending his nights partying and snorting coke off his gay lover’s navel…That could get awkward if your group is composed of fundamentalist Baptists, right?

What if he’s a welder? A mechanic? A police officer? An tax attorney? What if he’s a truck driver? How hard is it to find out what your new friend does for a living? Pretty fucking easy in a culture where people tend to self-identify by their occupation. If he has vocational or avocational interests that are relevant, but the initial contact doesn’t have the background to vet those skills, maybe it’s time to invite the new guy to a barbecue.

“So, Bob, Mark says you were a squad leader at the 82d? When were you there? Which brigade? No shit!? I was in your brigade back a few years earlier. Did you know xxx?”

The possibilities are endless, and you don’t have to be the pipe-hitting, skull-stomping, Alpha Male gunslinger to fill the role of helping to recruit new members to a preparedness group.

DOL,

John Mosby