Patriots Page 7

  To start working from home, Todd bought himself a 1.8 GHz IBM clone with a twenty-gigabyte hard disk and dial-up modem. All of the accounting software that he needed was supplied free of charge by his firm. After he began working from home, Todd’s boss noticed an increase in his productivity almost immediately. When he mentioned it to Todd, Gray replied, “Well, it only stands to reason that if I’m spending four hours less each week on the road, I’m sitting at my computer that much more, right?”

  A year later, when Todd was offered a raise in salary, he asked to start working entirely from home, instead. When the senior partners in the firm heard about this and were told about his increased productivity, they gave him both the raise and the go-ahead to start working from home full-time. He was Bolton, Meyer, and Sloan’s first full-time employee with a “work from home” arrangement. Todd joked that the firm had finally emerged from the Dark Ages.

  When Mary heard about Todd’s raise and new working arrangements, she was ecstatic. They talked until late in the evening about the possibilities of moving to Idaho. When Todd mentioned how late it was getting, Mary asked, “What are you worried about? You’re commuting down the hall in your slippers tomorrow.”

  The next person to join the group was Dan Fong, an Industrial Design major who eventually landed a job as the engineering manager for a large canning company. Dan, a second-generation Chinese-American, had a passion for guns. Fong was frequently criticized by the other group members for being a “gun nut.” Specifically, they chided him for continually adding to his large gun collection, which mainly consisted of exotic guns in oddball calibers.

  While Dan kept buying guns, his cache of food, ammunition, and medical supplies remained pitifully small.

  Dan was always a bit chubby, but ate remarkably little. He prided himself on his frugality. His only extravagance at dinnertime was premium beer. He had a taste for Anchor Steam, Samuel Adams, and ales from various Midwest micro-breweries. He once told T.K., “I save major bucks by eating cheap.” Typically he ate a light breakfast, skipped lunch, and after returning from work, made a dinner that was invariably dominated by rice. He only cooked meat or fish twice a week. From these few high-protein meals, he saved his meat drippings to make a sauce to flavor his rice later in the week. He attributed his rounded belly to beer rather than overeating.

  Fong’s gun collection changed drastically after he joined the group. It never numbered less than twenty guns, however. When he first joined the group, his collection consisted primarily of target rifles, big game hunting rifles, and black powder muzzleloaders. Later, the composition of his collection had shifted more toward the paramilitary, but was still exotic.

  Among others, Dan owned a Belgian FN/FAL assault rifle, an early 1960s Portuguese contract version of the Armalite AR-10 (predecessor of the AR-15, but chambered in 7.62 mm NATO), a SSG “Scharf Shuetzen Gewehr” sniper rifle made in Austria, a Beretta Model 92SB 9 mm pistol, two Browning Hi-Power 9 mm pistols, including one with a tangent rear sight and shoulder stock, a stainless steel Smith and Wesson .357 magnum revolver, a Winchester Model 1897 twelve-gauge riotgun, a McMillan counter-sniper rifle chambered in the .50 caliber machinegun cartridge, a scoped Thompson-Center Contender single shot pistol chambered in .223 Remington, and several World War II vintage guns including a Walther P.38 pistol, an M1A1 folding stock carbine, and an M1 Garand. Eventually, with much prodding from the group, he also bought a full set of the group standard guns and spare magazines.

  Jeff Trasel joined the group at roughly the same time as Dan Fong. At twenty-five, Jeff was lingering in junior college for the fourth year. He still lived at home with his parents, in a small bedroom crammed with bookshelves.

  Shortly after high school, Jeff did a hitch with the Marine Corps. In the Corps, Jeff was assigned to a Force Reconnaissance Team. An excellent athlete and a bright student, Jeff spent most of his time attending special service schools. No one ever figured out how he wangled it, but in rapid succession, Jeff attended the Marine Corps Force Recon School, the Army Airborne School, the Army Air Assault School, the Marine Corps Sniper School, the Navy SCUBA School, the Navy Underwater Demolitions School, the Army Ranger School, the Army Pathfinder School, and the Navy SEAL course. In all, Jeff logged more time at special schools than with his actual unit of assignment.

  When Jeff left active duty in 2002, he had a hard time readjusting himself to civilian life. Despite his academic talents, he could not bring himself to enroll in a regular university. Instead, he loafed around the house, worked out, and attended a few junior college courses. At one point, he considered working overseas as a mercenary with Blackwater or one of the other “contractors.” But the choice jobs in Iraq went to soldiers who had served two or more tours in

  “The Big Sandbox.”A quirk of fate had kept Jeff out of the Middle East. Thus, there were no prospects for “merk work” for him aside from the Légion Etrangère—the French Foreign Legion. Jeff scoffed at the idea of fighting for the government of France. Even though he admired the fighting record of the Legion, he said that he wanted nothing to do with the French Army. The French, he said, “could screw up a two-car funeral procession.”

  Trasel contented himself by keeping his military skills current in the Marine Corps Reserve. Because he was not employed, and only a half-time student, it gave Jeff the time to take several extra short tours of active duty each year. He typically did two, two-week annual training tours each year instead of just the one tour required. He also put in extra drill days at his unit, doing administrative tasks and keeping the unit’s intelligence briefing book up to date. He eventually attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

  Jeff added a distinct paramilitary flavor to the organization. During his tenure as the group’s tactical coordinator, Jeff insisted that all of the group members get physical exercise regularly, and that the group hold bimonthly field training exercises similar to those conducted by small military units. Starting with “tactical hikes,” Jeff taught the group the essentials of traveling quietly through the bush, hand and arm signals, keeping a proper interval space between members of foot patrols, and so on. Under Trasel’s tutelage, the group eventually graduated to night patrols, defensive fields of fire, immediate action drills, standing listening post/observation post (LP/OP), picket shifts, raids, and ambushes. On these “field trip” days, the group members ate military surplus Meal, Ready to Eat (MRE) rations. Jeff often joked, “MRE: That’s three lies for the price of one.”

  Most of the group members, including the females, enjoyed the field training exercises. Curiously, one of the most enthusiastic participants was Kevin Lendel. Kevin frequently volunteered to be the point man on patrols.

  Typically, Kevin was armed with his riot shotgun equipped with a strip of white bandage tape running down the top of the barrel to provide better sighting in low light-conditions. Kevin proved to be an excellent point man.

  He had acute hearing, outstanding night vision, a fencer’s fast reactions, and a curious “sixth sense” about potential ambushes. He liked the position of point man, and quickly earned the respect of all the group members—even the super warrior, Trasel. Previously, Trasel had his doubts about how Kevin might react to a “terminal situation.”After seeing him in field training, however, Jeff felt as confident as everyone else about Kevin’s skills and calm nerve.

  Because most of the training was done in civilian clothing and without carrying their weapons, it never attracted the attention of law enforcement. When questioned as to their particulars, they were simply “a hiking club.”

  Mike Nelson, as a Chicago police officer, had developed the cover story of “training aggressors for my department’s SWAT team,” but he never had cause to use it, or even to flash his badge. The group was careful to conduct their armed training patrols (using blanks and blank-firing devices) in only civilian clothing, and only in remote areas of the northern Michigan peninsula. The standing rule was, “If we are carrying guns, no camouflage clothing, but if we ar
e unarmed, camo uniforms are okay.”

  Jeff had a few habits that annoyed most of the other group members. Their biggest complaint was that he was notoriously late for group meetings. He also occasionally missed group meetings and other appointments. When confronted about these incidents, he would shrug his shoulders and say, “Sorry about that.”With a large circle of drinking buddies and several lady friends, Jeff often found too little time available for group meetings. Jeff’s other annoyances were his booming voice and his tendency to verbally chastise other group members for relatively minor faults.

  Jeff Trasel was a member of the group for only three years. At his last group meeting in 2006, he announced that he was quitting the group because he was “bored,” and because the group wasn’t “going anywhere.” When pressed, he wouldn’t be any more specific about his complaints. He just got up and left the Nelsons’ apartment.

  With the exception of Trasel, the original group was still intact when the Grays activated their retreat in Idaho during the stock market crash. After so many years, the group seemed almost like an extended family. All of the group members felt that they could trust each other with their lives. With the gloomy scenarios they envisioned, they knew that they might have to do just that.

  CHAPTER 4

  Gearing Up

  “Oh how great is the interval between the conception of a great enterprise and its execution. What vain terrors! What irresolution! Life is at stake—much more is at stake: honor!”

  — Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

  Throughout its first five years, the Group “geared up” and trained with varying intensity. The 9/11 terrorist attacks first inspired the formation of the group, but their interest was redoubled with the advent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

  There was no such thing as a “typical” training session for the group. Training was a loose term with eclectic boundaries. It ranged from anything from an evening learning how to can fruit, to a night of target shooting using tritium sights, to a practice session suturing induced wounds on a dead piglet. One memorable three-day weekend training session was “The Bucket Weekend.”

  The weekend was designed to teach the importance of prioritizing. Everyone was limited to packing all of their food and camping supplies for the weekend in one five-gallon plastic bucket. After 9/11, meetings were held twice a month in the winter and once a month in the summer. At least one of the two meetings was dedicated to training. With the greater resources derived from holding full-time jobs, the group members embarked on a well-calculated buying spree.

  Purchasing for each member began with a battle rifle, a riot shotgun with a spare “birdgun” long barrel and screw-in choke tubes, a .45 automatic pistol, and a .22 rifle for target practice and small game hunting. Next came all of the paraphernalia to support these guns: ammunition, dozens of magazines, cleaning kits, spare parts, holsters, and an Army LC-1 “web gear” harness with canteen and gun magazine pouches. Next, each member was expected to buy a good quality cold weather sleeping bag, and a good quality “four season” backpacking tent. All of these purchases had to conform to specific standards set by the group.

  The first major point of disagreement in standardizing the group’s purchases came when they selected their field uniform. Some of the group’s members thought that wearing a camouflage uniform might attract more attention than it was worth. Eventually, however, it was decided that camos were a must when Jeff pointed out that they would assure positive identification of group members at a distance. He explained that this would make it difficult for a non-group member to slip into the perimeter of their retreat without being noticed. By the time that the Group was standardizing their uniform, the U.S. Army had long since issued the woodland camouflage battle dress uniform (BDU), which replaced the old olive drab fatigues. The issue of digital pattern Army Combat Uniform (ACU) camouflage to the U.S. Army starting in 2005 did not alter the situation significantly, since woodland pattern BDUs were so ubiquitous.

  Rather than buy woodland BDUs or ACUs, which were widely available on the surplus market, Todd’s group decided to standardize with the British DPM (disruptive pattern, marine) camouflage fatigues and jackets, which were then available as surplus at a reasonable price. The reasoning behind the DPMs was that because the BDU pattern was so widely available as military surplus, it had become ubiquitous. It was Kevin Lendel that made the cogent observation that if the Group were to standardize with the BDU pattern, then outsiders might still be able to slip into their perimeter without being noticed. It was better, he said, to be in camouflage, but in a different pattern than that normally seen in the States. The only serious drawback to the decision to standardize with DPMs was that the dollar lost value on foreign exchange markets in the early “Aughts.” Just before the Crunch, the price of DPMs had risen to ninety dollars a set. In retrospect, Todd wished that that they had standardized with a civilian camouflage pattern like Real Tree or Advantage. And at the time there was yet another option available—the plethora of surplus uniforms from former Soviet Bloc countries that flooded the market. Any of these would have been less expensive options than continuing to pay high prices for the increasingly scarce DPMs.

  The second point of disagreement over standards, which was never fully settled, was about the group’s standard rifle. Most of the group’s members realized the potential of the powerful 7.62mm NATO cartridge (also known as the .308 Winchester), and wanted to standardize with either the Springfield Armory M1A (a civilian version of the Army’s M14) or the West German HK91 battle rifle. Others, mainly the women and those of small stature such as T.K., wanted to standardize with the less powerful 5.56 mm NATO cartridge, (also known as .223 Remington). A number of good defensive rifles were available chambered in this cartridge, including the Colt AR-15 (a semiautomatic version of the Army’s M16) and its collapsing stock and short-barreled sibling, the Colt CAR-15, later called the M4. Two other well-made alternatives were the Ruger Mini-14 and the Armalite AR-180. One of the main lines of reasoning for .223 was that more cartridges per pound could be carried than with .308. This weight would make a difference on long-range patrols.

  The argument over a group standard semiauto rifle raged for three meetings. Dan Fong voiced the key question:“Why do we need a standard rifle anyway? All we need is a standard cartridge. Everyone can just stock their own spare parts.”

  Jeff Trasel rebuked: “When we are out on a patrol, and get into a firefight, some of us will undoubtedly run out of ammunition so darn quick that they won’t believe it. At a time like that, when they are shouting to other patrol members for spare ammo, they certainly won’t want to be worrying about whether one magazine will fit in another weapon. That’s why we absolutely need to have a standard rifle. Interchangeability of magazines is the key factor, but interchangeability of spare parts is also a plus.”

  When the issue could not be resolved, Todd finally put his foot down and set a “dual standard.” Group members preferring the .223 cartridge could go ahead, but they had to be either an AR-15 or CAR-15, because they used the same magazines, and had compatibility for critical spare parts. Those preferring

  .308—mainly large-statured members—would buy a Heckler and Koch Model 91. Period. Anyone who already owned a nonstandard rifle could keep it, or those desiring to do so could buy one, but they also had to buy one of the group standard rifles and at least ten spare magazines. Further, every standard semiauto rifle also had to be equipped with radioactive tritium night sights.

  Luckily, the arguments over standardizing a shotgun, pistol, and .22 caliber rifle for the group were neither as lengthy nor intense. The group eventually decided to standardize with the Remington Model 870 in twelve-gauge, the Colt .45 automatic pistol, and the Ruger Model 10/22 rifle for target practice and small game shooting.

  When the issue of exactly what model of the .45 auto to standardize on was raised, it was decided that “any model of the .45 (such as the Government Model, Gold Cup, or Commander), as long a
s it is Colt or Kimber made” was sufficient, because they all used the same type magazines and had largely interchangeable parts. Eventually, most of the group members bought the Gold Cup model with adjustable sights. Typically, they bought the factory standard Gold Cup and added extended slide releases, extended safeties, and Trijicon tritium sights. After a failure of one of their Gold Cup’s fragile rear sights, those members who owned Gold Cups also had them drilled out for a larger solid cross pin to replace the thin roll pin that came from the factory.

  The trend toward stainless steel guns was in full swing when the group was gearing up. Most of the group members either bought stainless steel handguns from the outset, or later upgraded to them. In some cases, they sold their old blue steel .45s when they upgraded to stainless steel. Others decided to keep their older blue steel Colts as spares, or for barter. Kevin Lendel spent more than the other group members when he upgraded to stainless steel. He used an annual Y-Dyne bonus check to buy a “factory custom” stainless steel model that the Colt Custom Shop called the “Special Combat Government.” It came from the factory with Bo-Mar sights, an extended thumb safety, and a beaver-tail grip safety. Kevin added Pachmayr rubber grips and an extended slide release. In all, he invested more than a thousand dollars in the pistol.

  Dan Fong got the group members to sell off all of their old seven-round magazines, and buy supplies of the new eight-round magazines for their guns chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). The newer magazines held an extra round. At twenty-eight dollars each, the new magazines did not come cheap, especially when most of the group members had eight or more magazines for each of their .45s.

  Although each group member was expected to acquire basic skills, specialization was encouraged. The theory was that each group member would develop a specialized skill, and then, as time permitted, cross-train other members. Todd chose logistics as his specialty. T.K. chose personnel. Mary became medical officer, Mike Nelson chose explosives and demolitions, and his wife Lisa chose martial arts. With expertise on nearly every firearm, Dan Fong became the “unit armorer.”