Thursday, February 15, 2024

VIDEO: "Preppers, Stop Emulating The Infantry"

The author writes in the video description: "Obviously if you're in the National Guard, that's different. The Infantry can be your actual job. If you're Bob from the block, prepping like an Infantryman is absolutely a money pit exercise in being counterproductive. Does that hurt? It shouldn't, it should be obvious."

His basic arguments revolve around logistics (including resources) and training. And, basically, he argues that an infantrymen has a vast amount of time and money and other resources devoted to his training. On the battlefield, he has a vast logistical and support organization backing him up: delivering food and ammo (lots of ammo! he notes that a small unit might expend thousands of rounds of ammo just to "break contact"), providing a medivac and professional medical care in fully stocked hospitals, providing close air support or artillery fire, etc. You, as a prepper don't have any of that.

And, he points out, even if you, personally, have the physical strength and stamina, training, and kit that an infantryman has, do the people backing you up have the same? The other "fighters" in your prepping/survival group (assuming you are part of a group), your wife, your teenage son or daughter?

He doesn't pursue that trail any further, but it does raise more issues, the most basic of which is that you, as a prepper, don't have access to the manpower to act like infantry. If your group is just your family or a couple close friends and their family, you will be lucky if you have enough "fighters" to put together a single rifle team, let alone a squad. And how do you deal with the concept of an acceptable rate of loss? As a prepper, your acceptable rate of loss is zero. 

Beyond that, the prepper has a very different mission from the infantry. The infantry's primary role is to seize ground from an enemy. The prepper's primary mission is to survive, including, if necessary, defending a static position. There are tactics and lessons for the prepper to take from the military, but it is a mistake to blindly copy what they do.

Anyway, here is the video:

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