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The Quiet Retooling of the Militia Movement
Training
Posted: September 7, 2004
Many recruitment efforts center on invitations to attend militia trainings. In June 2004, a Florida militia organizer began inviting people to attend an upcoming November militia training in Lee County: "We only ask that you are a USC law bidding [sic] citizen. No nut cases."
To what extent these "new" militia groups have been successful in attracting adherents is open to debate. However, at least some have seen a certain amount of success.
• Washington: The Washington State Militia announced in March 2004 that "due to the unexpected influx of new recruits recently, a multi-Battalion decision has been made to divide the training program for the 42nd Field Force into two halves: north and south. The dividing line…will be the state capital of Olympia." The group organized frequent trainings in 2004, and also formed a "Pacific Northwest Militia Coalition," claiming (almost certainly untruthfully) "several dozen" militia groups as members.
Militia paramilitary trainings range from target shooting to elaborate training exercises, with tremendous variation depending on the groups involved. Overall, there appears to be a greater emphasis on paramilitary training in the "new" militia groups than in many of the militia groups that emerged in the mid-1990s. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the 1990s-era groups that have survived the longest, such as the Michigan Militia and the Kentucky State Militia, are those that place an emphasis on paramilitary training. Such paramilitary training is not uncommon among "hardcore" militia units.
One east Texas militia member described a May 2004 militia training:
We met and saddled up at 0830. Hand signal class was conducted; this is a
refresher class that we perform so everyone is on the ball. We then ran a
class going over the basic ambush drills. We covered Linear (line), L
shaped, Z shaped, T (X) shaped, area ambush, closed triangle, and open
triangle. We had a spirited discussion on the types of ambushes our unit
would pull, due to size and terrain. Next up were actual ambush patrols.
Since the group is small we had one dummy patrol, and one ambush patrol. The
purpose of this exercise was to set up ambushes and pull them off, this way
we become familiar with the drills and get some experience of actually
sitting in an ambush and maintaining noise discipline. Next on the list was
a gear check. We went thru 1st, 2nd, and 3rd line. After check we mounted up
3rd line gear and conducted a patrol of a road and an enemy held
installation. After successful patrol we debriefed and headed for home.
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