The Seniors – Chapter 1

We were getting up there in years and were now both retired. In addition to Social Secu-
rity both Beth and I had pensions. I was 3 years her senior and we both retired at the
same time, with me getting a full pension and her getting the smaller amount by retiring
at 62. We lived on 10 acres, long since paid for. Our bills included insurance, medical
co-pay if we saw a doctor, electricity and propane for our tank. That’s not counting
things like the occasional trip to the grocery store. We bought our gasoline in bulk and
stabilized it with PRI-G. I can still remember the day we first visited the acreage, years
back.

“The house uses propane for the stove, furnace and hot water heater. The hot water
heater was replaced about 3 years back. That generator uses diesel fuel and hasn’t
given us one bit of trouble since it was installed. The spare filters and oil are in the shed
out back. Oh, and the fireplace will burn wood or coal, but we’ve always burned wood.
Had a sweep in 2 years back and he cleaned the chimney.”

“You said something about a storm shelter?”

“It’s behind the house; hang on and I’ll show you.”

“How large is your diesel tank?”

“Big. Let’s put it this way, if you decided to fully fill it, you’d probably need to take out a
bank loan. I bought it used and had it certified. It holds 30,000 gallons, but only has
about 1,000 gallons in it, give or take. I was planning on producing biodiesel, but that
didn’t work out.”

“What are the other buildings?”

“There’s a barn, a hog house, chicken house and that shed I mentioned. I sold off my
land to a developer except for the home place and room for a garden and what not. If it
was up to me, we’d stay here, but since the wife had the stroke, we’re moving to town
where medical services are readily available.”

He led us out the back door to a mound of dirt with a spring loaded door which opened
into a flight of stairs going down to the storm shelter. The shelter was actually bigger
than the mound of dirt seemed to suggest. It contained extensive shelving holding all
manner of canned goods.

“We plan on taking the food with us and storing it the basement of the home we bought
in town. The shelving stays and you can refill it, or not.”

“This is awfully large for a storm shelter.”

1
“I wondered if you’d notice. It’s about 800ft². Had to replace the old storm shelter and
decided to make this one bigger. It’s more than a storm shelter, unless you consider a
nuke a storm. You see, ever since we invaded Iraq, the Missus and I have been con-
cerned about another attack against the country. The ATS is mounted near the genera-
tor which is through that door over there. I never got around to moving the spare parts
for the generator down here, but you would have enough for about 2 years.”

“How much are you asking?”

“I want thirty for the land and thirty-five for the house. That includes the things we’ve
talked about. The well is good and can produce >25gpm; a shallow well is not a shallow
well because it is not as deep as the norm in the area. A shallow well is a well where the
drawdown of the water while pumping is at twenty-five feet or less. It doesn’t matter how
deep the well goes. A deep well is any well where the drawdown of the water when
pumping is more than thirty feet. There’s a little overlap in that twenty-five-foot to thirty-
foot area. A hundred foot well with the water level at eighteen feet while pumping is a
shallow well. A well sixty feet deep with a drawdown to thirty-five feet is a deep well. It is
because of the type of pump that must be used."

“We’ll go the sixty-five cash and split the costs if you leave the generator, gasoline, die-
sel fuel and propane.”

“Deal.”

He said he’d be ready to move out before escrow settled. We agreed to split the costs
associated with the sale and Beth and I started to look into some other things we want-
ed at the acreage. She wanted an outside kitchen for canning with a wood stove. There
were several other things she wanted relating to canning like jars, lids, a new pressure
canner and so forth. She wanted wall mounted kerosene lamps in case of a power fail-
ure and the generator refusing to start.

Beth also wanted me to build shelves in the basement to store the canned foods. She
said it was because she didn’t relish walking through 3 feet of snow for a jar of green
beans. And don’t forget the chest type deep freezer, she wanted a second 25ft³ to go
with the one we already had. She agreed to grow chickens and said we could have a
milk cow if I was willing to milk it. ‘No hogs’; she said, ‘pigs stink’.

That was about 6 years ago, IIRC. Our internet was simple dialup service because we
were nowhere near a phone company. I’d spent some time on the internet daily catch-
ing up on the news. During those same six years, we’d acquired PRI-G (one case = 6
gallons) and PRI-D (5 cases = 30 gallons). We’d also acquired 4 Appaloosa geldings
with tack for our grandchildren and us to ride when they’d come visiting. We’d pur-
chased a small Ford tractor with a plow and straight disk to till a garden spot. It made it
far easier to turn the soil in the fall and disk and rototill it in the spring.

2
My son, David Jr., helped me harvest standing dead trees and dead falls. I bought a
fairly good used hydraulic wood splitter. During those same 6 years, we’d accumulated
over 100 cords of split and stacked firewood. My son and his family couldn’t visit as of-
ten as we’d like and Beth and I learned to ride so the horses didn’t get frisky. We got
lucky there, the horses could get by with an occasional ride. We’d gotten our money out
of our retirement accounts long before the bubble burst and felt very blessed. Gold and
silver were down around that time and Beth and I put half of what we had into gold and
silver. Later, that uninspired decision would prove to be one of the best decisions we
ever made.

I’d never really had time to hunt so many people were surprised at my gun collection. I
liked guns, handguns, rifles and shotguns and had accumulated more than a few. Win-
chester might be out of the business of making firearms, but I bought a long time ago
and had all I wanted. I had a Remington 870, but rather than getting a short barrel for it,
I bought a Marines Corp Mossberg, the 590A1. My ‘hunting’ rifle was a model 70 in .308
caliber fitted with a Leupold scope. After we bought the acreage, I bought 4 Marlin 1895
Cowboys in .45-70. I added 4 Ruger Vaqueros in .45 Colt with 5½” barrels plus plain
gun belts and holsters. ‘For the grandchildren’ I told myself.

Except, I read a patriot fiction story talking about gun belts and someone posted pic-
tures of the Paladin gun belt and the Laredoan gun belt. Beth got me the Paladin gun
belt for Christmas one year with 7½” right side holster. In turn, I went shopping for a 7½”
Vaquero revolver, good used.

I had other guns, too, including a PTR-91, a M1A Super Match, a Bushmaster M-4 for
Beth plus some semi-auto pistols, a Browning Hi-Power for Beth and a Kimber Custom
Tactical II pistol for me. David’s wife, Geena, was a big city girl and terrified of any kind
of firearm. Usually, David would take the kids shooting while Beth engaged Geena in
some other task. Since I didn’t believe it good to start a youngster on a .45-70 rifle, I al-
so had 5 Marlin 1894s in .45 Colt and a Ruger 10/22 and my old H&R 922 long barrel.

The country was in one hell of a mess. The housing bubble burst, the big financial com-
panies were all going broke, unemployment stood at 10% and our new president was
up to his hind end in alligators. Major retailers were closing up shop, like Circuit City
had. The consensus seemed to be that the country and the world was entering the sec-
ond Great Depression. The president had called for the troops to be pulled in 16 months
fulfilling a campaign promise and the Pentagon had a plan ready to implement.

When the president asked Congress for an additional 1 trillion dollars to save the econ-
omy, Congress split down party lines and he got the money. Except for the fact that
groceries went up each time we went to the store, Beth and I were in good shape. Our
Social Security plus our company pensions plus the income on our nominal savings
kept pace with the economy, but just barely.

3
Since the acreage was fenced with a good wooden fence (probably for horses) we’d
turn the horses out every day to graze. We bought horse feed in bulk from the local ele-
vator and chicken feed from the feed and grain. When the pullets were available, we
usually bought 8-10 dozen to feed and butcher. We also had hens for eggs but no
roosters and rotated the old hens out periodically into baking hens.

We were generally unaffected by the state of the country in early 2009. Beth and I were
worried that it might change and decided to make some preparations, just in case. The
diesel tank was about half filled when the price of #2 went through the ceiling. More re-
cently, the price was down and we had it topped off. Hell, we had all the tanks topped
off, who knew what the price would be the next day or later the same day?

The basement shelves were full due to our double buying and canning. We placed an
order with Walton Feed out in Idaho for 8 deluxe one year food supplies for the shelter.
It wasn’t the best time to place an order, but we eventually got the shipment. Every time
we went to town, we’d stop by Wally World and buy more ammo. Usually .22 but what-
ever they had on sale that we could use. I had a few thousand rounds of military surplus
.308 NATO and some of the Black Hills 165gr and 168gr ammo, 2 cases of the former
and 8 of the latter. There wasn’t a single firearm in my collection that I didn’t have at
least 1,000 rounds of ammo available.

That thing between Russia and the Ukraine over natural gas threatened to become a
shooting war, just like Georgia. Israel pulled out of Gaza, but the Hamas rockets kept
flying. They had a new policy, respond in kind, ergo, if you fire a rocket, we drop a
bomb, 1:1. Ban Ki-moon chided Israel over the new policy. Mubarak was seen as
somewhat of a hero for brokering the cease fire. Periodically, Hezbollah would fire a few
missiles into Israel, forcing them to adopt the same policy with regard to Lebanon as
they had with Gaza, 1:1.

It was always something. Back in December, they had a swarm of earthquakes at Yel-
lowstone that had many worried. There was an earthquake in Sumatra that some
thought would produce a tsunami. You knew that North Korean revealed that they’d
weaponized their supply of plutonium, yielding enough for 4-5 warheads, right? Worst of
all, was the weather; it had turned cold for the last two winters with record cold and rec-
ord snow. It doesn’t matter where we live, but the closest town is Branson, Missouri, lo-
cated at 36°38’16”N, 93°15’18W. Hard to find 10 flat acres in hill country but the home-
stead for the farm had been in a valley.

So, how do you fill your days when you’re retired? In addition to the things I mentioned,
Beth and I took classes, EMT-Basic and EMT-Intermediate. It was a way to fill the time
and gain a hopefully useful skill. She was first in every class and I was usually second
or third. Our family doctor was impressed enough with our new found skills to prescribe
the type of things typically found on ambulances and Paramedic trucks. We didn’t have

4
a lot and it required rotation. There were other things that might come in handy, too like
those blood stopper bandages, ACS.

Did we have the radiation equipment? What good is a shelter if you don’t know when it’s
safe to leave? We had four meters and a bunch of dosimeters. They ranged from the
AMP 200 with a range up to 10,000R to a CD V-700 with a range of 50mR. The dosime-
ters were either CD V-742s with 200R ranges or the Victoreen Model 252s with a
200mR range. Yes, we had radiation equipment and plenty of that Potassium Iodate.
However, whether or not we would need it was an open question and I hoped that it
never came to that. But then, don’t we all?

Geena told Beth that they probably wouldn’t be up before March at the earliest. She
said that Dave was working on a project and couldn’t be free before then. She refused
to tell Beth what the project was other than, ‘it’s a surprise’. My David is a machinist and
can use just about any machine in a machine shop, be it a metal lathe, a milling ma-
chine, you name it. These days they often use computer controlled lathes and he took
classes on those too.

I told you about my firearms collection, but didn’t mention his. He had a M1A Loaded,
the Mossberg 590A1, a Colt M1911A1 and a Walther PPK in .380. Geena, of course,
didn’t own any firearms and wouldn’t let Dave buy any for their kids, David III or Benja-
min. Geena was pregnant with their third child and she is hoping for a girl. Geena matter
of factly stated that she’d keep going until she had a daughter. David was an only child.
Beth and I began to wonder if we had enough horses and to that end, bought more Ap-
paloosa’s, a stallion and 2 mares for breeding stock.

The agricultural products we needed were usually purchased on the open market, like
the chicken feed and horse feed. I’d buy straw for bedding and baled Timothy instead of
baled Alfalfa for the horses. I did that because the breeder who sold me the horses told
me to feed them Timothy and specify the horse mix from the elevator.

My name is David Morgan and before I retired, I was an accountant for a company in
Springfield. Beth worked for the Springfield Public School system in administration. My
wife is Elizabeth Morgan née Sampson, but she calls me Dave and I call her Beth. Our
parents are all long gone to meet their maker. When David was born, there were ‘com-
plications’ and we couldn’t have any more children. We talked about adopting but never
did.

“That order is here, I had them put it the garage. You’ll have to move it to the shelter.”

“We ordered 8 units and they weigh about 770 pounds each, it may take a day or two.”

It was, in fact, over 3 tons of food and I found it hard to believe that we could eat that
much food in a little over a year (counting our kids and grandchildren). I got my cart and
began by loading the buckets, 4 at a time. That got them to the shelter, but not down the
stairs. It was better, I think, to be going down rather than up. There were a total of 88

5
pails or 44 loads. I had it half done before I took time off to rest my back. The following
day, I moved the other 44 pails and called it quits. The boxes were much easier and on
day 3, I moved them all.

6
 The Seniors – Chapter 2

“You need to get that stuff moved to the freezer in the basement so we can rotate our
food. We have the side of beef and two hogs to pick up at the Locker Plant and I want
them in the shelter.”

“Are the hams and bacon ready?”

“He said it would be this week. I’ll help if it’s too much for you.”

“No, I’ll do it, but I think I’ll put it off until tomorrow and give my back a bit of a rest.
Those boxes didn’t weigh near as much as the pails so I’m not hurting like I was yester-
day and the day before.”

The pails only averaged around 40 pounds each, give or take. It was the stairs that did it
to my back far more than the actual weight. A little Icy Hot and I’d be good to go the
next morning. I did it one box at a time and had to move around 25ft³ of frozen food. At
least I could fill the boxes only as full as I wanted, but it would take more trips, up and
down the stairs. So, I loaded them as heavy as I dared and was done well before noon.

“Is it all moved?”

“Got done around 11:30.”

“Want to go pick up the meat from the Locker, they called?”

“Can it wait until tomorrow?”

“You’ll regret it if Russia attacks during the middle of the night.”

“Then, you’re saying no.”

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. I’ll come with you and help.”

The hams and bacon being ready saved another trip to the Locker. The half of beef and
two hogs half filled the freezer. There was still room for some things and Beth said that
we’d go shopping the following day and finish filling the freezer. We went to a meat
market and bought slab bacon and canned hams. Next, we went to the grocery store
and bought canned meats like tuna, chicken, beef, corned beef hash and some conven-
ience foods. She had homemade pasta sauce and bought the large bags of several
kinds of pasta. Between what we had canned and what we bought, we could eat fresh
food for a year before going to those items in the shelter.

Our garden always produced a good crop of eating and canning tomatoes plus green
peppers and onions. We planted a large crop of potatoes and when the kids came up, I
usually threw 2 50# bags in their trunk. There were carrots, peas, the green beans, sal-

7
ad lettuce and a small amount of radishes that we ate fresh during the summer. We also
grew cabbage and fermented it into sauerkraut that was nothing like store bought. For
the amount of work corn required versus the yield, we bought sweet corn from a neigh-
bor who had a roadside stand.

“You think you have enough ammo?”

“Are you saying I need more?”

“I was being sarcastic. How much do you have?”

“That’s like asking how much toilet paper we have, there is no such thing as having too
much ammo or toilet paper.”

“You forgot coffee.”

“We have enough; there are 90 cans in the shelter and 36 cans in the basement.”

I avoided Beth’s question because I had an order placed for more ammo. If I told her the
exact quantity I had when more came in, she’d have a hissy fit. I had ordered more of
the Black Hills 168gr BTHP, bringing me to 5,000 Match BTHP and 1,000 hunting
rounds. The Super Match was downright expensive. It was the Springfield Armory
SA9805 and ran well over $3,500 plus the mounts, scope and sales tax. If you don’t
know the number, that’s the one with the Marine Corps camouflage stock and SS Doug-
las barrel. All 20 of my magazines were from them too, although they were a bit pricey.
Fortunately, the store didn’t charge me full retail. I added the Leupold Mark IV 4.5-
14×50mm scope because you don’t put a cheap scope on an expensive rifle.

It was winter and not that cold, but we kept the horses in the barn for most of the day.
Although they eat all day, I fed them morning and evening and added a small amount of
the grain mix for the evening meal. The chickens were generally good layers until it
came time to butcher. We bought fish from the grocery store; it was easier and a more
uniform product.

When the nursery got in the tomato and pepper plants, we picked them up and grew
them in the living room window. I could plant them as soon as I made the pass with ro-
totiller and the ground was warm enough. We kept some of the horse manure for the
garden and a neighbor took the rest for his fields.

I served in the Army from 61 until 64, missing Nam by the skin on my teeth. We were
trained on the M14 rifle and it began a lifelong love affair with the 7.62mm rifle, M14.
The government paid a little over $100 dollars for the rifle I was issued; compare that to
what I spent on my Super Match. We trained on the LAW rocket, the M61 hand grenade
and sometimes the M-79. I hated to think about how much I had invested in my ‘sniper
rifle’. But, every Saturday morning that it wasn’t raining, Beth and I went to the range
and put at least 100 rounds down range in both our rifles. It was expensive replacing the

8
ammo, although without practice, the rifle was almost useless. I had a replacement na-
tional match flashhider with a bayonet lug I’d gotten from Fulton Armory and had the
gunsmith install. My M-6 bayonet came from Springfield Armory, genuine USGI.

As far as my shooting went, I generally maintained 1 MOA or less. The real problem
came in at long ranges when I had to dope the wind, something I wasn’t good at. I
couldn’t blame the rifle or my scope, so that left me to take the responsibility for poorly
placed shots. I would shoot at anywhere between 500 and 1,000 meters while Beth kept
her range down to 500 meters, maximum. I wanted to buy her a 5.56 that used the M-16
magazines and a short gas piston. I had a MR-556 (HK-416) on order but the dealer
said it would take a while to fill the order. We could then relegate the Bushmaster to a
backup weapon.

Survivalists? No, we’re preppers. And every single prep item was well thought out. We
had food, water, shelter, a Yaesu radio with both a vertical and beam antennas. We al-
so had the FRS/GMRS radios and they were licensed. Beyond that, I had my old CB
base station, 40 channel SSB, and mobile versions of the same radio in our vehicles
plus hand held radios. The rule of threes is: 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shel-
ter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. The other rule of threes seems to
suggest that bad things happen in threes, an old wives tale.

I mentioned insurance earlier. We each had a $250,000 term life policy and a final ex-
pense policy in addition to our health insurance. We decided to wait on Beth’s supple-
mental Medicare insurance until she qualified for Medicare, and my coverage was a
Medicare plus while she had full coverage including dental and eye care. Her Medicare
wouldn’t kick in until age 66.

The new president hit the ground running and his first proposal, the extra trillion, was
slapped down. He implemented the troop pullout and asked Congress to re-implement
the Assault Weapons ban. The first 30,000 pulled from Iraq were replaced with an addi-
tional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, fighting that lost cause against the Taliban. Most
people that tried to subjugate the Afghans had paid high prices to win. In modern times,
Russia and the US had little luck in their quests.

However, since we hadn’t surged the troops yet, that remained to be seen. If I were to
guess, we could move all 130,000 troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and still lose. The
Soviets used 115,000 troops and they lost; how could we win with a smaller force? The
opposition raised an initial force of 150,000 that grew to 250,000 before it ended.

March rolled around faster than you’d believe. It’s like that when you get older or, may-
be it’s just me. Dave and Geena came up with the kids and it was all I could do not to
ask what the surprise was. If I found out, it wouldn’t be a surprise, though, so I waited
patiently. Dave asked to borrow my Super Match and I asked him why. He said, “It’s a

9
surprise and you’ll know soon enough.” Several thoughts occurred to me, a Surefire
Suppressor, or perhaps a rail system.

One of those was partially right, it was a suppressor, but homemade by my master ma-
chinist son. He explained that he knew someone in Fountain Valley, California and was
able to learn what metals Surefire used to build their baffles and get general details
about their design. He purchased Surefire adapters, the muzzle brake model
(MB762SSA) and built the suppressor essentially conforming to the Surefire design.
The beauty of it was, he said, the two suppressors were totally off the books. I reminded
him that jails are houses with bars on the windows and he laughed. “Are you going to
turn me in ‘cause I’m sure not.”

He built two? That makes sense, one for me and one for him. Missouri law says: It is
unlawful to knowingly possess, manufacture, transport, repair or sell a machine gun
without the appropriate federal license. A machine gun is any firearm that is capable of
firing more than one shot automatically, without manual reloading, by a single function
of the trigger. It is unlawful to knowingly possess, manufacture, transport, repair or sell
any rifle of less than 16 inch barrel length, shotgun of less than 18 inch barrel length,
rifle or shotgun of less than 26 inch overall length, any silencer, any switchblade, or ex-
plosive bullets. The use or possession of “metal penetrating bullets’’ during the commis-
sion of a crime is a felony.

We took the rifles out to the range and used Black Hills Match ammo. The suppressor
changed the point of aim about ½ MOA. The body of the suppressor was made of alu-
minum alloy and feather light. The baffles were a mystery because he wouldn’t tell me
what he used. For all I know, he bought some of the same metal Surefire used. I was
surprised that the rifle made as much noise as it did and he had me walk out away from
where he was shooting and fired a few rounds. I’ll take that back, at long range, it was
virtually soundless except for the sonic crack.

“How do you clean it?”

“There’s a set screw in the front and back. Loosen the screw and turn the front plate
clockwise or the rear plate counter clockwise. These rifles have a right hand twist and
the plates will tighten if they move at all.”

“Why don’t you take a case of the Black Hills?”

“I have some Dad, my rifle isn’t as fancy as yours, but it shoots especially well. I hear
you picked up a new revolver.”

“Vaquero 7½” in .45. Your mother bought me the Paladin rig and I had to have the gun
to go with it. We bought more horses since there are six of us. We also added to the
shelter food stocks. And, of course, we just filled the freezer recently.”

“What’s your take on the president?”

10
“I wish him luck; he’s up to his butt in alligators. I think he should pull the troops from
both Iraq and Afghanistan, but I’m not on his list of advisers. How long are the suppres-
sors good for?”

“I guess probably about the same as the Surefire, 30,000 rounds. Your barrel will be
worn out before the suppressor. It sounds to me like you think we’re going to have a
war.”

“We’re already at war with Iraq and Afghanistan. We could go to war with Iran, Mexico
or any number of other countries. Most folks our age don’t fear nuclear power but your
mother and I do. I was just out of high school and she was still in high school during the
Cuban missile crisis. We’re leery of anyone with the bomb, except for our allies and
sometimes even over them.”

“But they’re our allies.”

“Today, sure. What about in the future?”

“You’re a little paranoid, aren’t you?”

“I suppose I am. What was your drive time up here, 3½ hours?”

“About that, yes.”

“If terrorists or another country were to attack, we might not have any warning up to
about 30 minutes warning. That would barely get you out of Little Rock. You have your
stuff ready to go at a moment’s notice?”

“That we do. The trailer is packed and has extra diesel fuel. I make sure either the cross
bed tank or the regular tank and reserve tank are kept full. Our range is at least double
the distance here.”

“What would you do if you got a warning of an impending attack?”

“I’d bail out of work and Geena would pick up the boys. Lucky for us that they attend the
same school and it’s close to home. By the time I got there, they’d have the trailer
hooked up, my firearms in the truck and be ready to go. We’d be clear of Little Rock in
about 20 minutes.”

11
 The Seniors – Chapter 3

“There would be a lot of traffic on the roads.”

“I realize that and we have alternative routes to follow for every segment of the trip.
There’s nothing in your area or in the area we’d be passing through to attract much at-
tention were there an attack. Our LTS food and several changes of clothing plus extra
cans of diesel are in the trailer. The rifle and shotgun would be in the window rifle rack
plus I’d be carrying the 1911.”

“If that happens, I’m hoping that it will be telegraphed in the MSM. The trouble is that
the MSM has been so narrowly focused these past few years they totally overlook im-
portant stories. It’s Obama this and Obama that and to hell with the world as a whole. I
never personally cared for Walter Cronkite, but he was a real reporter. The other real
reporters were Huntley and Brinkley.”

“Which forums do you read?”

“Mostly Frugal’s Forums; they have a lot of discussion and some pretty good authors
cranking out that PAW fiction. You’ve got to know it won’t be like in the stories, if some-
thing ever does happen. After we put the guns up, do you want to get the ATVs and
take a turn around the place?”

“You have something in mind?”

“Well, I’ve been giving some thought to the prospect that we might have to defend the
acreage sometime in the future.”

“Sure, we can look, but there aren’t many places that provide good cover. There’s a dif-
ference between concealment and cover and to have cover, we’d need fighting posi-
tions.”

“What?”

“Foxholes.”

“Can’t do that, the horses might fall in and break a leg.”

“I see what you mean. However, given the lay of the land, it’s the only option I can think
of. When did you get the ATVs?”

“We got them used late last year. We got two, one for your mom and one for me. They’ll
handle a second passenger so we could always haul two people. They’d been rode
hard and put up wet and it took some tinkering to get them back up to good condition.
Still need sanded and repainted but that doesn’t affect how they run.”

12
“Mechanicals?”

“All sound. A little body putty, some sandpaper and some camouflage paint and they’ll
be ready. Should have them done by spring.”

“Keep your eyes open and if you can get a good deal on two more, give me a call. Say,
what are these?”

“Honda FourTrax Recon’s the bottom of their line.”

“Putting two on one might be a tight squeeze.”

“No problem if it’s an adult and a kid.”

“I can see that, but two adults might be a little too close.”

“Hard times call for hard measures Dave. Take that garden for example, there’s space
for a two acre garden but we’ve only ever planted part of one acre. Should something
happen and Geena and you end up on our doorstep, we’d have room to grow a lot more
food.”

“Let’s hope that never happens, Dad. A big garden is about 2,500ft². An acre is
43,560ft². It would take a crew to handle one acre.”

“Amen to that. Tell me something, just how much .308 NATO do you have?”

“Remember when Aim Surplus had South African for $187 plus shipping for 980
rounds? I bought 6 of those cases and ended up with 5,880 rounds. I filled the four cas-
es full to 1,260 rounds each plus loaded all of my magazines. That left me with a partial
case and I put the Black Hills in with the remaining battle packs. So, it’s 6,880 rounds
less what’s been shot up when I get a chance to shoot. Probably close to 6,000 rounds.
My shotgun ammo is all cases, Remington LE shells, all low recoil. I have slugs and 00
buck. I bought 1,000 FMJ and 500 Gold Dot, both 230gr for the Colt pistol. I also got
some .22 ammo from Wal-Mart for when the boys shoot the .22s.”

“Ready to go?”

“Lead the way.”

We drove around the property boundary, ergo, inside the white fence. I noted a couple
of places I’d need to come back and add a nail to a board. For some reason known only
to God and the former owner, the boards were on the inside of the posts. I had imag-
ined it was so the horses wouldn’t push the boards off the posts. However, he never
said anything about owning horses. The former owner’s new home was in Springfield
and I can only imagine it was because a large city has more and/or better hospitals. I
don’t know, he never came back and we have no idea how his wife did after her stroke.

13
“You boys want to go shooting tomorrow?”

“Can we?”

“I think I can get grandpa to dig out the rifle and revolver and let you shoot for a while. I
brought one box of .22s.”

“Is that all?”

“Five hundred twenty five rounds.”

“Oh a big box, good.”

That evening Dave and I got out my 25 round magazines and loaded them up for the
boys. Using the ten round magazines (I had two) would result in them spending more
time reloading than shooting. We could probably keep up with them if we reloaded while
they took turns shooting. The H&R 922 was a snap out cylinder and fairly easy to re-
load. I brought up the subject of the Vaqueros and the Marlin rifles.

“I don’t believe they’re quite ready for a .45-70 or a .45 Colt. If you want, we can take
out one rifle and one revolver and let them try them.”

“Let them try what?”

“The rifles and revolvers dad and mom got for the boys.”

“I don’t think so Dave.”

“Why not Geena, they have to learn sometime. It’s better to know something about fire-
arms than not, especially safe handling. We may not live in this ‘perfect little world’ for-
ever, the boogie men might show up.”

“It’s all foolishness, this prepping thing of yours. Do you really think Russia or China will
attack the US? They won’t because we’ll wipe them off the face of the earth. The only
reasons those kids turn to gangs is because they’re disadvantaged.”

“And the only reason for illegal immigrants is because our borders aren’t high enough?”

“They seem to find work doing things that no one else will do.”

“Yeah, at less than the minimum wage.”

“Wait a minute you two, don’t let this go too far. Geena, Russia and or China could at-
tack the US. I’m not saying that they will, but they could. China has more nuclear weap-
ons than the United Kingdom and France combined. Russia has roughly parity with the

14
US. It almost happened once and who’s to say it won’t happen? It’s unlikely, but not im-
possible. Kids join gangs for many reasons having nothing to do with their being disad-
vantaged. For some it’s a status symbol and lets them step out of their everyday exist-
ence. Bush tried to do something about illegal immigration but Congress refused to
pass it, blame the Congress. Dave and I go shooting every Saturday that it isn’t raining
and we don’t have company. The safest firearm is unloaded in a gun safe. The next
safest is a loaded firearm in the hands of a skilled marksman. Gee, I think I just made a
speech.”

“You said a mouthful Beth.”

Beth had bit her tongue for too long on the issue of Geena’s attitude about prepared-
ness. David had been shooting guns for as long as I can remember, supervised at first
and alone later. She expressed just her opinion on about everything where she disa-
greed with Geena. It could have gone in one ear and out the other, or, perhaps it might
set Geena to thinking.

“How do you do it?”

“How do I do what?”

“Have all the things you have, dad.”

“We’ve always been frugal Dave, you remember that. Once we retired, we had two So-
cial Security checks and two pension checks and very little expense. We don’t run to
town because we’re out of something, we do without. Then, the next time we’re in town,
we stock up, buying double unless it’s on sale; at which time we buy extra. Money that
doesn’t get spent accumulates in our account and when we want to buy something, we
usually can just write a check. The garden cut a lot of our food expense and so did buy-
ing 2 hogs and ½ beef every year. We grow chickens and get eggs plus broilers.”

“I wish we could do that. But, we have two growing boys and a third on the way. It’s re-
ally hard to accumulate money.”

“When we lived in Springfield, it was hard for us until the house was paid off. That’s one
of the reasons we were so frugal. Once the house was paid off, though, being frugal
had its benefits. We kept living the same way that we had become accustomed to and
most of the house payments went into savings. When we wanted this acreage, we had
at least half the amount in the bank and more than the property cost when we sold our
house.”

“Home, not house.”

15
“It was a house. Home is where the family is together, not some building. Some say
home is where the heart is and I think that amounts to the same thing.”

“If something happens, what should we expect? I mean will another country attack us or
more terrorists? What about global warming; there’s a real debate going on if we’re
warming or cooling off.”

“The old saw is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The idea is that should
something happen, you and your family would come here. We have most of what we’d
need to maintain a decent standard of living for some time to come. There are a few
things we don’t have, but have time to get like what’s in the two freezers. All we need to
breed our own chickens is a rooster. We have two mares and a stallion so we can breed
horses. We can trade horses for other things we need. We have enough firepower to
fight a war or two, should it come to that. There might be some things I’d like, but I can’t
get them so we’ll just have to do without.”

“For instance?”

“Hand grenades of various kinds, anti-tank rockets, maybe a 40mm grenade launcher
and some grenades. They’re illegal and wouldn’t be worth the risk it would take to get
them.”

“Want me to take the suppressor back home with me?”

“What suppressor?”

The next morning after breakfast and chores, we took the boys out shooting, plinking at
cans at irregular intervals. The chores didn’t amount to much, some hay for the horses
and scatter some chicken feed plus gather any eggs we found in the chicken house.
The boys were getting good at their shooting with the .22s and I brought out my Marlin
1894 Cowboy and my Ruger Vaquero to let them try shooting those with cowboy loads.

The results were mixed. Both did reasonably well with the rifle, but the revolver proved
to be too much of a handful for Ben. I had brought cowboy loads for the revolver and
they’re a little less powerful. Included in those Winchesters I’d acquired was a rifle in .45
Colt, an Original Legacy 24”. In fact, I had one in each of the four calibers offered that
year, .30-30, .357mag, .44mag and .45 Colt. I didn’t have matching handguns, yet; but
before spring I would, Vaqueros with 5½” barrels (.357mag and .44mag). A .30-30 is
primarily a deer rifle and sort of stands by itself.

16
 The Seniors – Chapter 4

“I think if you give Ben another year and let his hands get a little bigger, he’ll do fine with
the .45 Colt revolver. If that happens, who know what Santa might put under the tree for
both boys?”

Times can change in the blink of an eye. Maybe Osama bin Laden is past his prime or
dead, but there are millions of Muslims, many who would give anything, including their
lives, to bring the ‘Great Satan’ to its knees. Those Mexican drug lords want an open
border to serve us, their clientele. So far they haven’t had much trouble getting it in. If
there were no customers, they wouldn’t be dealing drugs in the US, would they?

The reason I brought up those drug cartels was that on the day before Barack Obama
was sworn in there was an article on one of the news wires.

(Reuters)MEXICO CITY - Indiscriminate kidnappings. Nearly daily beheadings. Gangs

that mock and kill government agents.

This isn't Iraq or Pakistan. It's Mexico, which the US government and a growing number
of experts say is becoming one of the world's biggest security risks.

The prospect that America's southern neighbor could melt into lawlessness provides an
unexpected challenge to Barack Obama's new government. In its latest report anticipat-
ing possible global security risks, the US Joint Forces Command lumps Mexico and Pa-
kistan together as being at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse."

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police
and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal
gangs and drug cartels," the command said in the report published Nov. 25.

"How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact
on the stability of the Mexican state."

Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden told reporters on Friday that that Mexico could rank
alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama - perhaps a greater problem than Iraq.

The US Justice Department said last month that Mexican gangs are the "biggest orga-
nized crime threat to the United States." National security adviser Stephen Hadley said
last week that the worsening violence threatens Mexico's very democracy.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told The New York Times he
ordered additional border security plans to be drawn up this summer as kidnappings
and killings spilled into the US.

17
The alarm is spreading to the private sector as well. Mexico, Latin America's second
biggest economy and the United States' third biggest oil supplier, is one of the top 10
global risks for 2009 identified by the Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm.
Mexico is brushing aside the US concerns, with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez-
Mont saying Wednesday: "It seems inappropriate to me that you would call Mexico a
security risk. There are problems in Mexico that are being dealt with, that we can con-
tinue to deal with, and that's what we are doing."

Still, Obama faces a dramatic turnaround compared with the last time a new US presi-
dent moved into the White House. When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the na-
tion of 110 million had just chosen Vicente Fox as president in its fairest election ever,
had ended 71 years of one-party rule and was looking forward to a stable, democratic
future.

Fox signaled readiness to take on the drug cartels, but plunged them into a power vac-
uum by arresting their leaders, and gangs have been battling each other for territory ev-
er since.

Felipe Calderon, who succeeded Fox in 2006, immediately sent troops across the coun-
try to try to regain control. But soldiers and police are outgunned and outnumbered, and
cartels have responded with unprecedented violence.

Mob murders doubled from 2007, taking more than 5,300 lives last year. The border cit-
ies of Juarez and Tijuana wake up each morning to find streets littered with mutilated,
often headless bodies. Some victims are dumped outside schools. Most are just
wrapped in a cheap blanket and tossed into an empty lot.

Many bodies go unclaimed because relatives are too afraid to come forward. Most kill-
ings go unsolved.

Warring cartels still control vast sections of Mexico, despite Calderon's two-year crack-
down, and have spawned an all-pervasive culture of violence. No one is immune.

Businesses have closed because they can't afford to pay monthly extortion fees to local
thugs. The rich have fled to the US to avoid one of the world's highest kidnapping rates.
Many won't leave their homes at night.

The government has launched an intensive housecleaning effort after high-level security
officials were accused of being on the take from the Sinaloa cartel. And several soldiers
fighting the gangs were kidnapped, beheaded and dumped in southern Mexico last
month with the warning: "For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10."

But the US government is extremely supportive of the Mexican president, recently hand-
ing over $400 million in anti-drug aid. Obama met briefly with Calderon in Washington
last week and promised to fight the illegal flow south of US weapons that arm the Mexi-
can cartels.

18
While fewer Americans are willing to drive across the border for margaritas and handi-
crafts, visitors are still flocking to other parts of Mexico. And the economy seems harder
hit by the global crisis than by the growing violence.

The grim assessments from north of the border got wide play in the Mexican media but
came as no surprise to people here. Many said the solution lies in getting the US to give
more help and let in more migrant workers who might otherwise turn to the drug trade to
make a living.

Otherwise the drug wars will spill ever more heavily into America, said Manuel Infante,
an architect. "There is a wave of barbarity that is heading toward the US," he said. "We
are an uncomfortable neighbor."

There was a second story the same day talking about vigilantes killing the drug gang
members. “We cannot tolerate the presence of these types of faceless, anonymous
groups,” said Manuel del Castillo, a spokesman for the state government. When a gov-
ernment cannot protect its people, eventually the people will take the law into their own
hands.

And, come to think about it, so are the illegals. Apparently we didn’t have enough trou-
ble and had to import some. They took off after Sunday lunch because Dave wanted to
be in Little Rock well before dark.

“How did the boys do with the large guns?”

“Both did well on the rifle but Ben’s hands are a little small for the Vaquero. Give him a
year and he’ll grow into it. That was quite he speech you made to Geena.”

“I should have done it years ago but didn’t want to get in the middle of anything. Do you
think we are foolish to prep?”

“If we had the money, I’d probably buy more LTS food. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not
hurting on money; but, I have some things I want.”

“Like what?”

“I want matching revolvers for my .357 and .44 magnum rifles.”

“I want a 5.56 that doesn’t jam when it gets a little dirty. We should go shopping and find
one.”

“I couldn’t agree to that.”

“But you can agree to buy yourself two more revolvers? How fair is that?”

19
“Totally fair because I ordered you a HK MR-556. You’re on a waiting list but you’ll have
it the minute it comes in and we can put up the Bushmaster as a backup rifle. It uses
STANAG magazines so we won’t need to buy any magazines unless we find some at a
bargain price.”

“When are you going to buy the revolvers?”

“Hopefully before spring. I don’t want to let the balance in the account get below
$3,000.”

“What did it cost?”

“I don’t know; probably as much or more as the Bushmaster.”

“When you do get it, order the HK magazines.”

“Dave wants me to keep an eye out for two more used Honda ATVs. He said to call him
if I found some. Does the hatchery have a date when the chicks will be available?”

“They said around mid-April on.”

“Should we buy extra? Might not be a bad idea to have a gross rather than 8-10 dozen.”

“If we can get them into the freezer, we might as well.”

“I’d also like to get some pullets and roosters and keep them separate from the main
flock. I want to try our hand at breeding more chickens.”

“Why not grow some fish.”

“It’s more convenient to buy them in a store.”

“We could grow Tilapia in a large stock tank and feed them night crawlers. A story I read
on Frugal’s talked about raising rabbits and allowing their dropping to fall into a worm
bed and then using the worms to feed the Tilapia.”

“I’m not sure I want to do that.”

“Why not, it wouldn’t be much work and we’d add rabbit and fish to our diet.”

“Only fish; I’m not partial to rabbit.”

“I’m sure someone would take them or buy them if they were dressed. What’s your ob-
jection to rabbit, ever eat it?”

“Not that I remember.”

20
“Try it, you might like it.”

A Washington newspaper had an article about some plot that had been upset against
the president. Did those plotters think we’d be any different under Biden? America is a
nation where, much of the time, we agree to disagree. The far left liberals have one
agenda while the far right conservatives have another and rarely do the twain meet.
They meet when an outsider makes a move against America. Like on December 7,
1941 or like just after September 11, 2001.

Our new president was trying, very trying some would say. Others spent their time pick-
ing him apart rather than supporting the institution. The office of president is an institu-
tion, just as are the judicial branch and the legislative branch. No president is Superman
with a red cape and blue uniform; he/she is just a person trying to lead the country in
the way they see fit, right or wrong. We seniors have seen presidents come and go. In
my lifetime, there was Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon,
Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and now Obama. If I live a while longer I
should see a new one and the odds are he/she will be a Republican or a Democrat.

I had to laugh at the presidential oath of office. The Chief Justice said, "I do solemnly
swear (or affirm) that I will execute the Office of President of the United States faithfully,
and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States." The actual oath written in the Constitution is "I do solemnly swear (or
affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to
the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States."

The flub was by the Chief Justice who tried to wing it. That caused the new president
problems because he obviously had memorized the properly worded oath. I watched
the coverage of the Inauguration on Fox, well into the night, a first for me. I didn’t vote
for the guy. However he is my president until someone replaces him because I am a
patriotic American.

I voted for Bush Jr. twice, but found him to be a bit bullheaded. As I said, each one has
his/her own agenda. We the people have examples in both parties of presidents who
didn’t represent our best interests. Give the man a little time; if he’s a bum, the truth will
out. He didn’t get the best start by suspending the military tribunals at Guantanamo.
Some of his other decisions in the so important ‘first hundred days’ were just as bad, if
not worse.

He thinks he can negotiate with Iran. No president has been able to do that since
Reagan and he released 10 billion in impounded Iranian funds to secure the release of
our hostages. Years ago, someone said to me, ‘I could give a care what you think’. The
man never used a cuss word in all the time I knew him and that was the closest he
could come to saying, ‘I don’t give a damn what you think’.

21
 The Seniors – Chapter 5

As long as the president leaves me and mine alone, I’ll do the same. I think there’s
more to worry about than who the president is. Russia and China come to mind and in
the Western Hemisphere, Mexico and Venezuela. And don’t forget the report that al
Qaeda lost about 40 or so of its members after experiencing a leak in a biological or
chemical weapon in Algeria. One source suggested it might have been the bubonic
plague, the ‘Black Death’.

There is enough trouble in the world without going looking for it. We have enough peo-
ple who wish us harm without pushing any buttons. Do you want a sneak preview? Mex-
ican police and soldiers crossing our border chasing suspects; that report about al
Qaeda, the Afghans wanting to dictate to the US and NATO concerning how we prose-
cute the war; and, Iraq indicating they wouldn’t mind if we leave early. Any economic
stimulus the government uses to restore the economy will be seen as having failed to
work. That’s because many of the programs have a lead time of 2-4 years. Our new
president will be seen as a failure in his efforts to restore the economy.
If the new president’s first hours and days in office were any indication of his first four
years, we’re in trouble.

“Dad, this is Dave. Are you still interested in those things that you said you couldn’t get
because the risk was too big?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The hand grenades of various kinds, anti-tank rockets, a 40mm grenade launcher and
some grenades.”

“Well of course I am but you can’t build those on your lathe.”

“There is an arsenal in Pine Bluff primarily dedicated to destroying chemical weapons,

have you heard of it?”

“Pine Bluff Arsenal? Sure, what about it?”

“They have some of the things you mentioned, do you still want them?”

“We’re not that long on cash at the moment.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

“In that case, the answer is yes. How is this going to work?”

“I’m found someone in dire need of cash to pay off some gambling debts. I told him
what I wanted and he said their security people used most of those things. He said it

22
would take a few weeks to assemble what I want and wanted payment for each partial
delivery.”

“Do you have enough cash?”

“If I get into the money for the ATVs, yes.”

“How about we buy the ATVs and you buy the ordnance. We can settle up when you
bring the stuff up.”

“It will probably be June or July.”

“No matter; at least we’ll have the stuff. Try to get it by the case or carton. What does he
have available?”

“Three crates of the old M72 LAW from the Vietnam era or shortly thereafter. Any color
of smoke grenade you want plus concussion and fragmentation grenades.”

“Which frag?’’

“The lemon shaped ones. He said they’re obsolete. The offensive grenades are
Mk3A2s.”

“Does he have any Thermite?”

“No but he does have Thermate. They’re called the AN-M14 TH3.”

“How about demolition kits, the M183s?”

“Are they Army issue?”

“No, Marine Corps issue, but I’m sure Army engineers have something similar; like the
SLAM or PAM.”

“I try to get all I can. Once he’s paid off his gambling debt I doubt he’ll continue to sell
ordnance.”

I think Dave was wrong for a couple of reasons. First, gambling is addictive and if that
soldier was in trouble over gambling debts, he would soon be in trouble for the same
problem. Point two, having gotten away with selling the ordnance he’d be very tempted
to continue. We’d continue to get ordnance until he got caught. And, knowing Dave the
soldier could never reveal who he was because the soldier wouldn’t know.

I was beginning to get an awful feeling in my gut that suggested whatever bad that
would happen was going to happen sooner rather than later. Beth and I checked over
all of our preparations and ordered two more deluxe food packages from Walton Feed

23
for priority delivery. We went to Springfield and she shopped for baby clothes from new
born to about age two. Not knowing if Geena would get her daughter or have a third
boy, she mostly stuck with yellow. We also loaded up on cloth diapers and any infant
food with a long shelf life.

After the dust settled over us having our first black president, the country divided clearly
into two camps, the sheeple who weren’t a bit worried, and the preppers. With the bad
economy, even the preppers were hard pressed to buy more preps and while firearms
and ammo remained unavailable or high priced the demand for food items had fallen.
We received the food shipment within three weeks.

“Do you think we should get a third freezer?”

“I don’t think so Beth. Money is limited and I really want to get those revolvers. Unless
you can think of a way to do both, I’d say no.”

“We could buy used Dave. I saw an ad in the paper and they aren’t asking much for
their freezer, $175.”

“If it’s not already gone, buy it. I think we can squeak by for one month.”

“Why one month?”

“I’ll need more ammo for the two new revolvers. Maybe I can find some that are used,
but in good condition. We have the money, but I don’t want the balance too low.”

“Did you finish with the worm bed and tilapia tank?”

“Yes and I’ve stocked the tank. Those fish sure do like the worms.”

“Any rabbits big enough to butcher?”

“Not yet, thank God.”

It remained to be seen if I’d like the fish but surely some of us would and I could eat
macaroni and cheese if nothing else. The fish were temperature sensitive and I had a
heater on the tank to keep the water at 84° plus or minus 2 degrees. Supposedly they
grew fast and got fairly big so we’d have to see what this experiment resulted in. I
couldn’t plant their favorite diet, aquatic plants, in the tank so they would have to live on
the worms.

Tame rabbit might not be like wild rabbit when it came to taste. Surely the tame rabbits
wouldn’t have that gamey taste I despised. No matter what people say, the only thing
that tastes like chicken is chicken. The advantage to rabbits was that they could be
grown in a cage and fed a proper diet readily available from the feed and grain. I

24
wouldn’t mind raising turkeys but heard they could be a pain in the butt. It was far easier
to simply buy them from the grocery store.

Beth and I picked the new ‘used’ freezer, another large chest type. We managed to get
it in the basement using the outside entrance after much grunting and groaning. She
then announced she had called the meat market and ordered more hams and bacon
slabs. We could go now or wait until tomorrow. I told her we’d go today, provided I could
stop by the gun shop on the way and get my two revolvers. She wasn’t the only person
in the house who knew how to dial a phone and order things.

I picked up the two used Vaqueros, 2,000 rounds of ammo for each and the generic gun
belts I’d asked him to order. I could be Tom Mix in several calibers if I so chose. The
meat market had a case of 6 Pullman hams, two full cases of cure 81 hams and 8 slabs
of bacon. Between the gun store and the meat market, the checkbook balance was al-
most zero. Not really though, because there was still $1,000 in the account that was
never included in the balance. That was a trick I picked up a long time ago so we were
never really out of money. Our Social Security and pension checks were due next week
and would restore much of the balance in the bank.

We paid the few bills we had, topped off the tanks and did some minor grocery shop-
ping to pick up some sale items. We still had a fair amount of money so I went looking
for used ATVs like I promised Dave I would. I found one that looked about like the two I
bought for us. It needed work but seemed to be mechanically sound. I bought it plan-
ning on doing the same to it that I did to the previous two. I hadn’t painted our two yet,
but had sanded the rust and applied the body putty and then sanded again and primed
them.

I had a project to work on for a few weeks after that, getting the third ATV ready to paint.
The following month, we paid the bills, topped off the tanks and did the usual shopping
for sale items. We had more money left this time and I found a fourth ATV to buy and
bought it plus the parts the third one needed. The four ATVs were all 2008 Honda
FourTrax Recon’s. The previous owners of those four ATVs were probably kids be-
cause they weren’t well cared for.

“I guess I’m ready to paint the four ATVs.”

“What color?”

“I don’t know, maybe some Real tree camouflage pattern. With our terrain, maybe I’ll
paint it with a pattern similar to the Advantage Max-4 HD. It won’t be the same, just aw-
fully close.”

“What will you need?”

“About a dozen spray cans of paint.”

25
°

“Dave called and wants you to call him back.”

“Dave, this is your dad, you called?”

“I have the remainder of the things we wanted, the M203 to mount on the Bushmaster,
the 40mm stuff, HEDP mostly, and the Thermate.”

“Well, I have your two ATVs all fixed up and ready to paint. I’m going to use a camou-
flage pattern of some kind.”

“How about we come up next weekend?”

“Getting nervous with all of that ordnance in your garage?”

“I’m not, but Geena is beside herself with worry. I’ve managed to load it into my trailer in
front of the usual contents, but had to pull out the food.”

“We’ll see you next weekend. I’d better build a bunker for what you’re bringing.”

I picked up the paint and had the ATVs painted quickly. Then I used the tractor to loos-
en the dirt where I’d put the bunker. I managed three layers before my back gave out.
While I rested, I called the lumberyard and order the concrete block and mortar. By Fri-
day, I had the blocks laid and the bunker covered, needing only the front hatch which I
intended to make from road plate. I’d located the plate and they said they’d deliver it late
Friday. Dave could help me install it and we could unload his trailer.

We didn’t shoot Saturday because the kids were coming. The road plate had been
dropped right next to the bunker entrance and I had the concrete bolts I intended to use
to hold it in place. I’d used a saw and cut out a door with it then attached with heavy du-
ty hinges and bolted a latch and plate on for the padlock, a four number combo lock. I
set the lock to the first four numbers of my social security number. I had also drilled the
holes for the bolts, working late into the evening.

“Wow that was quick. You built that between Monday and today?”

“All it needs is the plate attached. If you help me we can set it in place and spray the
bolt holes to mark the concrete and then install the bolts.”

“How heavy is that plate?”

“One inch.”

26
 The Seniors – Chapter 6

“That wasn’t what I meant, how much does it weigh?”

“It weighs too much to just pick up and hold in place. We’ll use the loader to lift it into
place. I’d imagine Geena will be happy to be rid of the ordnance.”

“I just told her it was smoke grenades, she has no idea what’s really in the trailer. By the
way, the baby is a girl. I guess that means we can quit now.”

“We bought some new baby clothes so you two should take them with you when you go
home.”

“Pink?”

“Yellow.”

We worked for about 3 hours securing the plate in place and began to unload the trailer.
Dave had managed 3 cases of white smoke and one case of each of the available col-
ors (red, green and violet). There were indeed 45 LAW rockets, a M203 and several
cases of 40mm grenades. He had several cases each of M61, Mk3A2 and one case of
AN-M14 TH3. All of that ordnance would make one hell of a bang if it got set off, thus
the bunker.

He was extremely happy with the ATVs and it turned out he owed me rather than the
other way around. He told me it would be about 3-4 months before he could pay the
balance. I decided to mount the M203 on the new MR-556 rifle as soon as I picked it up.
The dealer had called Thursday and said it had arrived. I asked Dave if he could make a
suppressor for the new rifle. He said he’d make the suppressor, but would have to see
the rifle before he could figure out how to attach it. He didn’t know anyone at H&K.

It later turned out that the M203 would be difficult to mount on the MR-556 so I mounted
it on the Bushmaster. It would appear that we would have one grenadier in our ensem-
ble still armed with the Bushmaster. That might be the perfect weapon for Geena if we
could get her to learn to shoot a firearm. Surprisingly, she talked to Beth about learning
to shoot, for safety’s sake, after the baby was born. She was as big as a barn and the
baby was due anytime now.

Rather than having us come down when the baby, Shelia, was born, they came up
here. Geena had a couple of pink outfits, but most were those yellow outfits Beth
bought. Dave handed me a check saying he’d pick up some extra work. That surprised
me concerning how high the unemployment was. He also had a Surefire clone suppres-
sor for the MR-556. He said he’d mail me the adapter and I should screw it into the si-
lencer and then screw the silencer on the flashhider threads. It would not only make the
firearm quiet, it was a far superior flashhider. He also told me to be sure and tighten the
set screw so the silencer would stay attached.

27
°

I guess we’re about as ready for WW III as a family can be; come on, I dare you. It is
sometimes said to be careful what you wish for because God has a sense of humor. I
can tell you that it wasn’t WW III, but in some ways nearly as bad. The initial reports
came from the CDC announcing that there was suspected bubonic plague in several of
our large cities. The president immediately grounded all airlines and halted all train and
bus travel.

In modern times, several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating bubonic plague.
These include the aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin, the tetracyclines tet-
racycline and doxycycline, chloramphenicol (Pneumonic) and ciprofloxacin (Bubonic).
Patients with plague in the modern era usually recover completely with prompt diagno-
sis and treatment. Our medical supplies included both doxycycline (rotated yearly) and
ciprofloxacin. The rare Septicemic Plague is caused by something like a rodent bite and
you may die before symptoms present.

Dave and Geena arrived about 3 hours after we first heard the news of possible plague.
He said they heard at work and he called Geena and told her to get around, he’d pull
the boys out of school. He had the adapter with him because he hadn’t had a chance to
mail it. I can only say one thing about my new suppressor, nice. They were pulling the
trailer and had the meat from their freezer in two large coolers. We added it to the ‘new’
freezer.

“Do you remember that story on the news around when Obama took office?”

“Which story?”

“The one about al Qaeda having a problem with a chemical or biological weapon in Al-
geria?”

“Vaguely, they never said what kind of weapon.”

“I now believe that it may have been the bubonic plague. It would be much easier to
spread that than to hijack 4 airliners and crash them into some tall buildings.”

“A poor man’s atom bomb?”

“That applies both to biological and chemical weapons but the biological weapons are
probably more effective. If it is bubonic plague, it can progress to pneumonic plague and
become highly infectious. Pneumonic plague is not vector-borne like bubonic plague;
instead it can be spread from person to person. Maybe what we’re dealing with is
pneumonic, not bubonic plague. With pneumonic plague, the first signs of illness are
fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of
breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery sputum. The pneumonia

28
progresses for 2 to 4 days and may cause respiratory failure and shock. Without early
treatment, patients will die. You treat it with Streptomycin, gentamicin, the tetracyclines,
or chloramphenicol.”

“What do you have?”

“Cipro and doxycycline.”

“Will they work?”

“Sure will. I believe we should quarantine ourselves for a few days while this thing works
itself out.”

“I took vacation and told them that I didn’t know when I’d be back. The company gives
you your vacation pay in advance and I use direct deposit. We should have some mon-
ey in the account in addition to what I paid you.”

“You mother pulled a ham out of the freezer when she saw you pulling in; how does
ham, mashed potatoes and a vegetable sound?”

“Good, I’m hungry.”

“We’ll make some tuna sandwiches for lunch, ok?”

“Sure.”

“I think Christmas is going to come early this year Dave. I’m going to give the boys their
rifles and revolvers. You can take them shooting after lunch using some of those cow-
boy loads.”

The gun belts were universal, fitting a 36” waist but having enough holes to go down to
a 26” waist. There were two slides to hold the extra belt in place. There were enough of
the Marlins and Vaqueros to outfit Geena too since they only had 2 big boys and Shelia.

“Were there any reports of plague in Little Rock?”

“We listened to the radio as long as we could while driving here. None of the Little Rock
stations said anything about any signs of infection there although they did report the
CDC story several times.”

“I listened to KOMG from Springfield, that classic country FM station. They only made
one announcement about the CDC announcement and said that there were no signs of
it in Springfield.”

“What about Branson?”

29
“I haven’t turned on the TV and I don’t pay any attention to Branson World Radio.”

“It would make sense; a lot of people come to Branson.”

“They come through Branson Springfield Airport. If it flew in, it should be in Springfield
too.”

“But…”

“Pneumonic plague is highly contagious Dave. If it flew into the airport, people in Spring-
field should have it. Since the CDC made the announcement, everyone with so much as
a cold have been showing up in emergency rooms.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“That’s just the way people are. I doubt we’ll have to maintain the quarantine long; we
don’t get the plague in this area of the country. It’s most prevalent in the southwest. An-
yone coming down with the plague will probably have pneumonic plague and with
treatment the death rate is only about 14%.”

“It’s a bacterium, right?”

“Yes, Y. Pestis. I checked the CDC and they were talking about al Qaeda and pneu-
monic plague in Algeria. I wonder if that is the same case that we heard about on Inau-
guration Day.”

“Bring the website up again and check.”

“I tried and I couldn’t find the thing I thought I read, it must have been some other web-
site.”

“Getting old dad?”

“Must be.”

We turned on the TV and watched the Fox channel. They were reporting, among other
things, ongoing reports concerning outbreaks of the plague. The CDC confirmed that it
was the pneumonic plague, not the bubonic or septicemic plague. The pneumonic form
was perhaps the most dangerous because it didn’t need a vector (the fleas). They were
recommending isolation among other things because this form was transmitted by per-
son to person contact. The outbreak was compounded by the group of people suscepti-
ble to spring colds, many of the symptoms being similar to some degree. An addition
step in the diagnosis was required to distinguish between the two.

30
We continued our self-imposed quarantine for four weeks. By then, Dave was out of
paid vacation and there had been no new outbreaks in Little Rock for some time. There
had been a few, but authorities met incoming airliners and quarantined the passengers
and flight crews. With all airplanes grounded, it quickly became a non-issue.

By the time the four weeks had passed, both boys were doing very well with both the
Marlin rifles and the Ruger Vaqueros. During the third week, Beth managed to get
Geena out to the range and shooting the Bushmaster. She followed up by teaching
Geena the use and care of the Browning Hi-Power. I dug through my gun case and
found a 9mm pistol she could use until we could get her a Hi-Power. When they re-
turned home, Geena had the Bushmaster and the pistol, a Glock model 17 that I didn’t
care for. Dave asked if the gun were a gift or a loan and I told him to take his pick. He
said they’d keep it rather than buying the Hi-Power because Geena liked it. He would
pick up two additional 17 round magazines bringing the total to 5.

Beth and I discussed the situation and decided to buy additional firearms. We wanted
two Vaqueros and four Marlin cowboys (2-1894; 2-1895) for Dave and Geena. I sug-
gested a spare Browning Hi-Power or two and assault rifles for the boys. Beth objected
saying that if we were buying for the boys, we should be buying for Sheila too. I called
the dealer and told him what I wanted. The Bushmasters were on backorder and he
didn’t know when he’d get more. Most of the guns I mentioned except for the Marlins
and Rugers were unavailable, but he’d get those in right away. I placed orders for the
other guns I wanted and told him to call me when they came in.

Back tracking to locate the source of the infection revealed that it was brought in by a
Palestinian. The government didn’t disclose whether she had ties to al Qaeda. As the
days passed and the new president continued to implement his agenda, more and more
people became concerned. The renewal of the assault weapons ban made it through
Congress and he signed it in front of MSM cameras. It wasn’t immediately effective and
I called my gun dealer asking what he COULD get before the AWB went into effect. The
only things available in large quantities were Springfield Armory M1As. If I wanted pis-
tols, he could get Glock 17s, 21s and 22s.

Beth and I decided to go with the Glock 17s and the M1A Loaded, ergo, the guns that
he actually had in stock. He also had 124gr Lawman and Gold Dot +P and we pur-
chased more to go with the new pistols. The only .308 NATO he had in stock was Bear
and Winchester. Although the Winchester cost about 3 times as much as the Bear, we
bought American. We had been saving in anticipation of the Bushmaster rifles and
Browning Hi-Powers so we actually had the money. The upside was that the M1A rifles
were main battle rifles and much more powerful. The 9mm pistols were selected in con-
sideration of the sizes of the hands that would be holding them.

31
 The Seniors – Chapter 7

Everyone now had, or would soon have, a semiautomatic rifle, a lever action rifle, a re-
volver and a pistol. The dealer said he could also get shotguns because they weren’t
part of the AWB. We opted to order Mossberg 590A1s. Those, he said, would be
banned but he’d get them in immediately. Interestingly, the 590 wasn’t banned, only the
Marine Corps version.

In addition to various rifles, certain shotguns and pistols (like the HK USP) were
banned. Military caliber ammo was subjected to limits and reporting of the names of the
purchasers to the BATFE by the sellers. That applied to all ammo in military calibers,
even the 8mm Mauser (7.92x57mm).

Once the existence of pneumonic plague was known and known to be in more than one
location, doctors changed their assumptions about what was wrong with people. Com-
mon symptoms were the cough, fever and headache. However, the plague also includ-
ed homoplysis (coughing up blood from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs), weak-
ness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough,
and sometimes bloody or watery sputum. Streptomycin was readily available to those
that needed it. Without treatment within the first 24 hours, the survival rate was very low.

There arose a black market in which military calibers freely flowed, at a price. We had
all of our weapons in our possession before the AWB became effective. However, the
new list included 5.56×45mm and 7.62×51 caliber firearms including even bolt action
rifles in the so called military calibers. The new president directed the BATFE to secure
all 4473s from the gun dealers and to pick up any illegal arms. By Executive Order, he
banned all military caliber ammo.

This inevitably led to acts of insurrection. Not organized acts, but individual acts, the to-
tality of which constituted an insurrection that failed to fall within the purview of the In-
surrection Act of 1807, as amended. The acts were principally aimed at Democratic
members of the government and a few Republicans. Alea Jacta Est. It wasn’t Caesar
crossing the Rubicon, it was probably more significant. The crossing of a small stream
in northern Italy in 49BC became one of ancient history's most pivotal events. From it
sprang the Roman Empire and the genesis of modern European culture. Today, when
someone is said to have “crossed the Rubicon,” it means that they have crossed the
point of no return, or have burned their bridges behind them. The die has been cast and
there’s no turning back. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon, there was absolutely noth-
ing he could do to turn back the clock; the war had begun. Caesar wasn’t headed north;
he was headed south to Rome and brought his legions in violation of the law.

“Dad? This is Dave. It appears that there’s no plague here in Little Rock. What’s your
take on the latest news?”

“Which news?”

32
“I’m talking about people taking on the government. We’ve had 4 Federal officers killed
in the last 24 hours. It doesn’t seem to be a concerted effort or particularly organized.
Someone shot a US Marshal in the back of the head with a 9mm handgun. Someone
else killed a federal Department of Agriculture employee using a 7.62×39mm rifle. An-
other employee was shot with a gun using the .308 NATO round and finally, a TSA em-
ployee was shot. So far the Little Rock Police have no leads on the shooters. There has
been some talk about the Governor calling out the National Guard and possibly declar-
ing martial law. Can he do that?”

“Hmm, can the Governor declare martial law? He can call up the National Guard to re-
store civil order. It goes without saying that under martial law, a curfew is imposed, usu-
ally from dusk to dawn. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspend-
ed, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. That’s
in the Constitution Dave. However the National Guard is under the control of the Gover-
nor unless they’ve been nationalized so I suppose he can call out the Guard to restore
order like the Governor of California did during the Rodney King Riots.”

“We’re coming up this weekend and bringing our firearms. Since some of ours violate
the new AWB, I’d like you to secure them for us.”

“Say, on the subject of guns, I bought some more for your family.”

“What?”

“Glock 17s, M1A loaded standards and Mossberg 590A1s.”

“Do I need to buy ammo?”

“I sort of got carried away and cornered the market in several calibers. You might give
some thought to more of the 7.62 suppressors but I doubt you can have them ready in
time for this weekend.”

“I’ve made several and was thinking about selling them to some of my friends. This is
better and will keep it in the family. Anything else?”

“Is that soldier still available?”

“He’s in the stockade.”

“Never mind, we’ll have to get by. I was thinking about a M107 and some of the Mk211
and M1022 ammo.”

“They’re illegal or at least the civilian versions are.”

“Never mind, there are less expensive civilian .50 caliber rifles.”

33
“Well, I see what I can do, but you’d better talk to your gun store and see if they can get
one.”

“They can, but the cheapest I could find was close to four grand without the scope.”

“And you want the whole enchilada, right?”

“Yes, including the ammo I mentioned.”

“What is so special about that?”

“The Mk211MP is HEIAP made by Raufoss and loaded in this country by Winchester.
It’s expensive, about seven-fifty a round and the BATFE construes it as a destructive
device.”

“Now I know what you’re talking about. I’ll try, but no promises. Maybe I can trade a
couple of suppressors for a rifle and ammo.”

“That would be an uneven trade. I doubt anyone would go for it.”

“I think I may know a guy who could arrange it, I’ll let you know before we come up. If I
can’t, you’d better find that rifle quick.”

“Anything not on the books is better than stuff that’s on 4473s.”

“Know something I don’t?”

“I do, tell you this weekend.”

“Who was that honey?”

“Our son with news from Little Rock. There have been 4 federal employees killed down
there in the past 24 hours. He said the Governor might activate the Guard and declare
martial law. I told him about the guns we bought; well part of them anyway. I asked him
for more 7.62mm suppressors and he apparently made more than two. I also brought
up finding a .50 caliber rifle and some ammo. He’s looking into it but no promises.”

A .50BMG rifle would be illegal too because it was a military caliber. The BATFE also
construes M61 and Mk3A2 hand grenades as destructive devices as well as the M72
LAWs. That also applied to the M183 demolition kits Dave had acquired. If we got
caught, they lock us up and weld the doors shut. For all practical purposes we were as
well as or better armed than a National Guard unit. The only thing we lacked was auto-
matic weapons. Automatic weapons might be nice in limited circumstances, but 99% of

34
the time there was nothing wrong with a semi auto. That said, the new AWB eliminated
ALL semi auto firearms including semi auto shotguns and pistols.

The problems with an organized insurgency are that others know of the actions you’ve
taken and even if they can’t convict you of that activity, you can be charged with and
convicted of a conspiracy. A conspiracy has minimal legal elements: In the criminal law,
a conspiracy is an agreement between natural persons to break the law at some time in
the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agree-
ment. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most coun-
tries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect.

The motto of a sniper is, ‘one shot, one kill’. If said sniper acts totally alone without any-
one’s knowledge, there is no conspiracy, only a murder. Why is that important? If they
can’t find the firearm, they can’t connect you to the crime excluding an eyewitness. A
properly conducted sniper action leaves no witness(s). What would a witness say?

“I saw someone in a burlap suit which concealed his face and body. He was about 6’ tall
and the rifle didn’t make much noise.

“What kind of rifle?”

“I couldn’t really tell he was a long ways off.”

“Show me where he was when he shot.”

“I’ll show you where he was when I saw him, will that do?”

“It’s a start.”

“Recognize the boot pattern?”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“Where?”

“Wal-Mart sells that boot; you see them all of the time.”

“See any brass?”

“He must have picked up after himself. Maybe the bullet will help?”

The Black Hills 168gr match bullet leaves few distinctive marks because the round flat-
tens when it enters the human body. You can tell the caliber and maybe the manufac-
turer. Does Black Hills make their own bullets, inquiring minds want to know. I suspect
they use Sierra MatchKing bullets. The 165gr soft point appears to be the Sierra
GameKing.

35
They arrived around noon on Saturday. We did a gun exchange although all the rifles
would end up being stored here. Each had a tag for the owner. Dave had the rifle but no
ammo. He thought he’d have it within the week and if it came in, Beth and I should drive
down to Little Rock and pick it up. After comparing the amount of money we spent com-
pared to what he spent, he came out a bit ahead. Once he got the ammo, the shoe
would be on the other foot and he said they really needed the money.

Dave brought 4 suppressors with adapters and we installed them all. We were gun poor
at the moment but our money was coming in again next week. He wouldn’t tell me who
his new source was other than he was the guy who turned in his former source. He
suspected the new guy had done that to take over his former source’s business. He was
willing to part with the .50 caliber ammo for $1 per round. On Monday, Beth and I went
to the bank and took out a loan using our gold coins as security. The loan was for
$8,000, the approximate price of the ammo I wanted. The bank transferred the money
to Dave’s Little Rock account.

“Dave, the bank wired eight grand to your account to cover the cost of the ammo. Con-
centrate on getting the Mk211; we can always pick up some match grade ball later.”

“I’ll call the guy and arrange for delivery. I think 8 grand will be close enough, he’s very
greedy.”

“Deliver it where? You don’t wanting him to know your name or where you live in case
he gets caught.”

“I have that covered, but thanks for the thought. Are you coming down next weekend?”

“Yes we are. I’m going to put the topper on the pickup so we can protect the contents.
We’ll be there around 1 on Saturday.”

“What about your livestock?”

“We can turn the horses out and put out extra chicken feed. We don’t plan on staying
the night, maybe next time.”

What Dave actually got was 35 cans of the Mk211 and 30 cans of the M1022, probably
a lifetime supply. More than a lifetime supply, perhaps, because the acreage was really
short on defenses. I’d been thinking about what we could do and not risk the horses.
The only thing I came up with was building small concrete bunkers covered over with a
manhole cover.

For the next 3 months while the insurgency grew, Beth and I saved our money to repay
the loan and to pay for a tunnel along the frontage of the property with the road. The
property was rectangular, 2 acres wide by 5 acres deep, giving us a frontage of just
417’. We decided to put one bunker every 60’ making for a total of 7 bunkers. We con-

36
tracted it done and the tunnel was made of corrugated oval pipe. The bunkers were
poured concrete with a dirt floor. A few sandbags were filled using some of the leftover
dirt and put in the bunkers. We also added one case of MREs and a five gallon water
container and a box for the shorter people to stand on. Ammo could be moved through
the tunnel as needed, assuming it was ever needed. We were far enough from Branson
and enough off the beaten path we might be able to avoid a shootout.

37
 The Seniors – Chapter 8

There was a bunker on each end of the tunnel and one every ~60’. I cut up plywood to
lie on tunnel floor so I could pull our little red wagon filled with ammo either direction. It
was either direction because one bunker was right in front of the house and one to the
south with the remainder being to the north. The next project was to move the gun safe
and ordnance somewhere that no one would find it. I dug down next to the shelter and
built a small room using concrete block up against one wall of the shelter. I carefully re-
moved blocks from the shelter wall leaving a slightly jagged opening.

Inside the shelter I mounted a new bookcase onto the wall using a heavy duty piano
hinge. I used a standard bolt lock with a twist, you had to hinge up one back panel to
reach the bolt. To explain why the bookcase wouldn’t move, I added several short bolts
where the bookcase was ‘bolted’ to the wall. Beth helped me move everything to our
new armory except one single action revolver and one Winchester rifle apiece. I took
the .44 and she took the .357. Her ammo was evenly divided between 158gr SJHP and
158gr SJSP. My ammo was the same except the bullets were 240gr.

So far they hadn’t outlawed single action revolvers or lever action carbines. Dave and
Geena had taken back their new ‘legal’ arms when they returned home and they each
had a .45-70 and a .45 Colt rifle plus a .45 Colt Vaquero. Except for Sheila, of course;
you can’t teach them to shoot until they’re out of diapers. I think we were pushing it with
Ben as far as the revolver went, but he was game and never complained.

“Dad, Dave, I need some advice.”

“What’s up Dave?”

“With economy in the toilet, the company isn’t getting as many orders and they’ve cut
everyone from 40 hours per week to 32 hours per week. We weren’t getting that far
ahead on my 40 hour pay, especially with the inflation we’ve seen on food prices. What
should I do?”

“That’s 32 hours for sure, is it? You still get full benefits like medical?”

“That’s what they said.”

“Keep the job, a good job will be hard to find and it’s likely that a small company like
yours will remember who stuck with them through this. I’ll have to talk with your mother,
but I think we can make up what you come up short, at least for the short term. Don’t go
off selling things just to make ends meet.”

“If push comes to shove, can we have the trailer pulled up there?”

38
“Of course, we’ll try to set some money aside to pay for that, it won’t be cheap.”

The problem with the economic stimulus package was just what the CBO said it was,
the money wouldn’t be spent for about three years, probably after the economy turned
itself around, creating more inflation. The new president had ordered the troops out of
Iraq in 16 months, probably counting from January 21, 2009. Just about everything the
conservatives feared would happen, did happen. A part of that was Bush’s fault but
most of it fell on the shoulders of the new president.

Couple that with the small insurrection gaining steam around the country and it was
clear to me that war wouldn’t end; it would just be fought on American soil. We’d had
trouble in St. Louis, Kansas City and a lesser amount in Springfield. Our Governor only
sent the Missouri National Guard to the trouble spots where they worked with police to
restore order.

It seemed to be a combination of things. The blacks said ‘whatever’ wasn’t illegal be-
cause we had a black president and more conservative members of the community took
on not only federal employees but some of those blacks. That led to the first stages of
what could only be described as a race war. Since it was only a few blacks who re-
ceived unusual publicity, an effort was made to nip it in the bud before an actual race
war evolved. The real problem remained with the policies of the new president and his
democratic majority in both houses of the 111th Congress.

In the Senate, the Democrats were one vote short of blocking filibusters and in the
House, the difference was larger. It almost seemed like the Democrats were trying to
make up for lost time since they last controlled Congress. It wasn’t all bad, but it mostly
was if you were a patriotic American who still believed in the 2 nd Amendment.

“Will we be able to help them?”

“We can for a while Dave. They aren’t hit any harder by inflation than we are. The only
differences I see are that we’re on fixed incomes and have no debt.”

“Plus I can’t spend more money on guns.”

“We have enough. The only thing we might be short of is ammo and I don’t know where
you can get it except from the black market.”

“I’m not paying a buck a round for ammo made by Privi Partizan in Serbia.”

“Why not, it is boxer primed and brass cased?”

“‘Cause, I don’t like the Serbs, not after what they did in Kosovo and the other parts of
what used to be Yugoslavia.”

“Maybe you should learn to reload.”

39
“It wouldn’t do any good; the new AWB has limits on primers and powder. Some rifle
powders are basically unavailable because demand outstrips the supply.”

“Getting back to your original question, we can help them for a while. If it goes on too
long, we’d be better off paying for them to pull their trailer here. We can grow a larger
garden and can or freeze more food. Now that we have rabbits and Tilapia, all we’d
have to do is buy the whole beef and a couple of extra hogs. We could increase our
chicken flock, too.”

“Lord knows we did without for a very long time.”

“It’s strange you should say that Dave, you managed to buy at least one gun per year.”

“Long term security Beth for when the country went to Hell in a heartbeat.”

“Does this qualify?”

“I’m beginning to think so. It remains to be seen, the first AWB expired.”

“This one doesn’t have a sunset clause.”

“There is that. I wonder how the Supreme Court will view challenges to this new AWB.”

“Dad, Dave. They’ve gone and done it, they shut down the company due to faltering
sales. They were able to pay our accumulated leave and one year worth of sick time,
but that’s it. The company is too small for them to be required to give a 60 day notice.
Can we pull the trailer up there soon?”

“You find a company to tow it and call me back. Your mother and I will come down and
make arrangements with the company to pay for it.”

“Dad, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, you did your best. I may have an idea how you can earn some money, do you
still have the machines in your garage?”

“I have both the lathe and milling machine.”

“Can you get any more of that alloy you used to make our improved flashhiders?”

“Some, it’s expensive. I think I know what you have in mind. We wouldn’t dare get
caught doing this; they’d lock us up and throw away the key.”

40
He called back the next day and a moving company could pull their trailer and provide a
truck to haul the contents of their garage. I asked how soon and he said as soon as day
after tomorrow. Beth and I pulled cash from our account to make the deposit the moving
company required and drove down the next day, staying in a motel overnight. The fol-
lowing day we were there when the moving company showed up with a bob truck to
haul the garage contents and a semi to pull the trailer. The owners of the trailer park
had been out early, disconnecting the utilities. It was then that I realized I hadn’t made
provisions for the trailer. They would need electricity, water, sewer and gas. We could
add another propane tank and there were the two of us to install the things they needed.
Until then, they could stay in the big house.

One feature of our home that I’ve not previously mentioned was that old furnace. When
the previous owner ‘replaced’ the wood/coal furnace with a propane furnace, he set the
new furnace next to the old furnace and had the ducting rerouted. The old furnace was
still there and if push came to shove, we could reconnect it and burn wood or coal. It
had been a selling point (for us) when we’d looked at the house. The new furnace could
be disconnected until it was needed and later be reconnected.

The Cummins generator in the shelter was a DGCG 120/240 single phase stacked and
could power both houses and more if needed to do so. All of the tanks were topped off
each month when our checks came in so we weren’t short on fuel. They’d had natural
gas and I’d told Dave to pick up propane jets for their appliances. The mover took the
deposit, hooked up to the trailer and took off. It took 3 hours to move the things out of
the garage and when they finished, we headed back towards Branson.

The company had failed to pull all the permits for Missouri and the trailer got held up at
the border. We arrived ahead of the trailer by three hours and ahead of the bob truck by
90 minutes. We directed the contents of the bob truck to the shed and some to our
basement. It was starting to get crowded down there. I called the propane company and
ordered another 1,100 gallon tank and for it to be filled. I explained the deal with con-
verting the appliances from natural gas to propane and they wanted to know if we had
the jets or should they bring them. I said we had them and he said they’d swap them
out, no charge. Gee, I guess there is still a free lunch. We could run a phone line for
their computer to use dialup and Dave pointed out that they could use it as the phone
line when they weren’t on the computer.

We spent the next day getting the trailer leveled. The propane company bought out their
tank, changed their jets and filled the tank. The following day, we rented a trencher and
dug the trench for the water, sewer and electrical conduit, routing it by the propane tank
and adding the propane line to the trench. It took yet another day to route everything
and to get an electrician out to run electricity from the ATS switch in the shelter to the
trailer. Beth called a plumber we knew and he installed the water and sewer. By the end
of the week, they were back in their trailer.

Saturday morning was spent on the range keeping everyone fresh with their shooting.
The boys not only fired their .45-70s and .45 Colts, they fired the Glocks and M1As. It

41
took Geena a while to get used to the extra recoil of the M1A, but it was necessary that
she learn to use the rifle. Admittedly she’d be carrying the Bushmaster with the M203,
but everyone had to be familiar with all of the arms we’d regularly use. Not that I ex-
pected we need to use them, still…

“It’s an older mill and lathe so I can’t turn these improved flashhiders out as fast as I
could at work.”

“But you can make them, right?”

“I can until I run out of material.”

“I think I know where we can sell them, the guy who sold me all of my M1As.”

“I’d have to have the actual rifle in my hands if the adapter is for anything besides a
M1A/M14.”

“What about the .223s?”

“M16/AR15 clones or I need the rifle. This guy you bought your rifle from, a class 3
dealer?”

“Not so you’d know it, no. The thing is that he’s all but out of business, so I think we may
have a chance. If not, we’ll mount them on our other M1As. How much do they cost to
make?”

“Not counting labor or electricity, maybe $100 to $150. I’ll do them in batches. But, I’ll
only make them if you can assure me that they won’t be traced back to us.”

“Did you buy the metal in your name?”

“I paid cash and they didn’t ask my name. I’ve only been in the place once before, when
I bought the alloy earlier.”

“Are they likely to remember you?”

“I doubt it; it was a stock item for them.”

42
 The Seniors – Chapter 9

“And the remainder of the parts?”

“An aluminum alloy.”

“How big of a batch were you thinking of?”

“I can average one per day.”

“How many can you make from the supplies you have on hand?”

“Thirty? Give or take, it depends on whether I have to re-cut something.”

“I think we can get away with this if it’s a one shot deal. I could be wrong, of course, but
I believe we can. So say we sell them for $350 each. That’s a gross profit of $200 each
or $6,000.”

“One time only, not counting what I make for us.”

“Agreed.”

Dave set up his machines and began to turn out the suppressors. It turned out that he
had enough material for the 30 plus those that we needed for our rifles. I started a fish-
ing expedition with the gun dealer, making an inquiry about a silencer and slowly mov-
ing the conversation in the direction I wanted. The new AWB had so eroded his busi-
ness that he finally said, “If I could find some, I might just sell them to a few select
friends.”

“What if you could acquire, say 30, 7.62 suppressors for the M1A rifle with the fast at-
tach adapters?”

“I guess it would depend upon how much they cost.”

“Speculating, say $350 each.”

“And sell them for?”

“You could sell them for whatever the market would bear.”

“How good would these mythical suppressors be?”

“They would be as good as the Surefire suppressor.”

“God, an easy $750 and a bargain at that; I could clear twelve grand.”

43
“You’d have to be sure you didn’t get caught.”

“I could sell 50 if I could get them.”

“Sorry, this is a onetime deal.”

“It’s so bad that the cops might even buy some at that price.”

“Whatever. I’m not the one who is selling them, call me a go between.”

“I hand you $10,500 and you hand me a box containing 30 suppressors?”

“Something like that. I’d point out the box or suggest where the box might be, but I’d
never put hands on them.”

“How long?”

“About six weeks until all 30 are available. There will be no paperwork trail, under-
stand?”

“Absolutely.”

“Got any ammo?”

“What caliber?”

“NATO .308.”

“Pretty hard to come by. How much?”

“About as much as you can get.”

“South African surplus be ok?”

“Full cans?”

“Twelve hundred sixty rounds per. Say $400 per can, bargain price.”

“How much is available?”

“How much do you want?”

“Six thousand dollars’ worth?”

“That’s half my supply. Ok, the ammo for the suppressors.”

44
“I’d actually take $10,500 worth if you could spare it.”

“Sorry Dave, I can’t do that.”

“Ok, 15 cans for 30 suppressors.”

“I like this; I only have to come up with $4,500.”

1,260 times 15 equal 18,900. We could fight a couple of wars with those 15 cans of
ammo. However, we were burning though 500 rounds every Saturday that it didn’t rain.
Do the math; it wouldn’t last that long unless we cut the amount of practice to maybe
one magazine per weekend each, in which case, it would last for about 3½ years.

“I made the deal, 18,900 rounds of South African for the 30 suppressors. Is that ok with
you?”

“No cash?”

“$4,500 cash for you. What kind of alloy do you use for the baffles?”

“Inconel, principally made up of nickel and chromium. It’s very difficult to machine. The
fewer passes the better. That why I said it depended on how many I had to cut.”

“You do realize that we’d need a class 2 license to legally build suppressors.”

“Don’t remind me. It would probably end any idea of me remaining a machinist.”

“You still want to do it?”

“Dad we need the money, both for our needs and to repay you for paying for the move.”

“No rush Dave, you’ll give it to us when you get it. I don’t know anyone else I could ap-
proach with a similar deal though so this will remain a onetime deal.”

“The upside is that I get some money and we have a truck load of ammo. Do you be-
lieve this resistance will spread?”

“Probably, there are around 250 million privately owned firearms in the US. I don’t sup-
pose they’re all owned by our fringe, but most probably are. I have over 30 guns all to-
taled, not counting yours.”

And indeed it spread. There was no indication of any organization behind the attacks so
maybe if it were a concerted effort, the organization was divided into cells. Initially I was
convinced that the only connection to the killings was that they were primarily federal

45
employees. Investigation of the murder of a federal employee comes within the purview
of the FBI and as the toll rose, they were thinly spread out resulting in a large number of
cases that were reclassified as cold cases.

Few of the deaths involved close in shooting, with most shots coming from over 300
meters (984’). It was a long shot for your average hunter, but less so for someone who
spent time behind their rifle learning to estimate the range, dope the wind and place the
shots where they wanted them. Few public officials wore anything more protective than
level 2A vests which were ineffective against rifle fire.

Once Dave had finished, I called my dealer and asked if he was ready to make the
trade. When he said yes, I picked a secluded park where we could do the swap. He
started off by handing me the cash and then asked to examine the merchandise. He
seemed to be happy and we began loading the 80 some pound cans of ammo into my
pickup. It went without complications and we went our separate ways.

Dave finished the remaining suppressors for our rifles, mounting them as they were fin-
ished. We only had one problem, the sonic crack. The only way I knew to avoid that was
subsonic ammo, but that wouldn’t cycle the actions because the gas pistons weren’t ad-
justable. Why, you may ask, would I encourage him to build suppressors? This is Mis-
souri folks and you can’t have them here so the demand would be high, especially
among our crowd who weren’t taking our present situation lying down.

“Are we going to get involved with the rebellion?”

“Eventually, yes; my thinking is that we should watch and let things sort themselves out.
The closest shooting occurred in Springfield and only three Missouri cities have been
involved to date. Now that some people have the means to remain invisible when they
shoot, that may change. The Finns have a saying, “A silencer does not make a marks-
man silent, but it does make him invisible.”

“They do? Where did you learn that?”

“Wiki, where else?”

“So, although we have enough ammo for the next three world wars, you want to limit our
shooting to 20 rounds per week?”

“We’ll go through those 19,000 rounds in about 42 months just keeping our edge. Since
you can’t buy ammo in military calibers anymore, it only makes sense.”

“Couldn’t we reload?”

“We don’t have the equipment and there is some restriction on powder and primers. Be-
sides, most of the ammo is Berdan primed and difficult to reload. I read somewhere that
it can only be reloaded a few times because the anvil becomes deformed.”

46
“Why would anyone use that kind of primer?”

“I think the military uses it so the opposition can’t come along, pick up their brass and
reload it. We have three real sniper rifles, the model 70, the Super Match and the M107.
We also have match grade ammo for all of the rifles. When we do join the effort, we’ll be
effective.”

“Who is going to shoot which rifle?”

“You’d better get to practicing with that Barrett. I’ll stick with my Super Match for two
reasons; one, it weighs less; and two, I’m accustomed to it. You’ll be the primary shoot-
er and I’ll observe. We can switch roles for closer in shots.”

“And three, you’re getting old.”

“I am that; but I wasn’t going to bring it up.”

“What about the girls?”

“What about the girls? Someone needs to keep the home fires burning and the boys
can help them do it. We can’t just leave here and leave the acreage unattended. Frank-
ly, we have too much at stake. We have a large supply of food, fuels and things that the
less fortunate would kill to have. We’ll leave the boys to guard with our wives to back
them up.”

“So you really do intend to partake in this rebellion or whatever you call it?”

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot
be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in pro-
portion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such
misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What coun-
try before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can
preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The
tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.

“Jefferson?”

47
 The Seniors – Chapter 10

“Yep. We’re more than a little overdue, wouldn’t you say?”

“I’d say that unless the new government mends its ways, somebody has to do some-
thing. If we let them sell us out, it will take decades to undo the harm.”

“And, in so saying, you’re inviting insurrection, a crime.”

“Only if you lose dad, only if you lose.”

By the time the troops were home from Iraq, the country was engrossed in a rebellion.
We two Dave’s did our part, be it from a distance. If there was a problem, it was that you
couldn’t put a silencer on the Barrett rifle and when it spoke, everyone could hear it. We
found, based on something we read, that shooting the rifle through a cylinder of tires
helped to reduce the sound. Other, less expensive single shot and/or bolt action .50 cal-
iber rifles could use suppressors with a varying degree of success. Reflex claimed that
their .50 caliber suppressor could be used on a Barrett M82. “Not only will installing a
suppressor void your warranty, you may also damage your rifle by doing so. Repair bills
for damaged Model 82A1s often total over $1,500. The safe and effective use of a sup-
pressor requires coordinated engineering of the rifle, the suppressor, and the ammuni-
tion. Rest assured that when Barrett offers a suppressor for your Model 82A1, Model
95, or Model 99, it will be safe and effective.”

We were able to acquire, by nefarious means, a Reflex suppressor and that spring they
showed in their online webpage. While the Barrett was roughly equal to my unsup-
pressed Super Match in sound, the flash was gone and so far the rifle held up well. No
more hauling around a half dozen used tires and no more light signature. Dave kept a
close watch on the Barrett, looking for any sign of distress to the internal parts. So far,
so good.

We kept a shooter’s notebook recording information about our shots. We were not
counting bodies; we were recording conditions concerning each shot. I was highly effec-
tive out to 800 meters and marginally so to 1,000 meters. We divided our targets based
on effectiveness and my son took everything over 800 meters. The M107 came
equipped with a Leupold Mark IV 4.5-14x50mm LR/T M1scope. Not quite as good as
the scope on my Super Match, but good enough.

It seemed like every day another patriot was quoting the Founding Fathers. One making
the rounds was Patrick Henry’s, Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course oth-
ers may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Was our president a tyrant? That’s not for me to say, but his administration sure
seemed to be. He was surrounded by a group of far left liberals who sought and rel-
ished power. In his first 100 days, he had undone most of what it took Bush 8 years to

48
accomplish. What about Bush? He has a house in Midland and a ranch in Crawford plus
that property in Paraguay. You don’t hear much about him these days, but I’d imagine
he divides his time between his ranch and Midland. Due to that law passed during the
Clinton Administration, Clinton was the last president to receive protection for life. The
protection is now limited to 10 years.

On one trip we’d run into a small, like minded group. It happened to be our second trip
to the Springfield area. We tried our best to stay within an hour of home. We found a
location and settled in. While we watched and waited a man approached from our rear
and damned near gave us heart attacks when he said, “Hello friends, I see we’re not
alone in our fight.”

“We’re?”

“Chuck, come on up.”

A second man appeared as silently as the first. Speaking in low voices barely above a
whisper, they introduced themselves as Chuck and Rob, no last names, OpSec don’t
you know. They briefly outlined what had been happening in their AO. Chuck was carry-
ing a scoped Winchester model 70 in .30-06 and Rob had a more practical arm, a
PTR91K. We assumed that Chuck was the sniper and Rob the observer. They ex-
plained that at certain times of day, the feds went out to lunch or left for the day. There
were four basic chances to get one, when they arrived in the morning, when they went
to lunch, when they returned from lunch and when they left for the day.

Considering our weapons they suggested a different location a bit further away. At that
location, there were targets around 750 meters and a second group around 1,500 me-
ters. They’d been limited to the current location because of the effective range of their
weapons. That said, Chuck explained that he was using match grade hand loads with
fairly consistent kills out to around 750 yards (685 meters). They noted the suppressors
and indicated that they give almost anything short of their wives to have them.

“What would you have to trade if we could get you one?”

“What do you need?”

“More match grade .308 NATO.”

“Any particular brand? Federal, Winchester? Black Hills?”

“Bingo. This Super Match really likes the Black Hills.

“How much for two .30 caliber suppressors?”

“Two cases of Black Hills, 500 rounds of soft point and 500 rounds of hollow point.
We’re out of Inconel for the baffles. It’s a Nickel Chromium alloy.”

49
“I know, 600, 625 or 718?”

“Dave?”

“625.”

“He’s Dave; and you are?”

“I’m Dave, his father.”

“And, you’re from?”

“Missouri.”

“Us too. Been doing this long?”

“Our second time.”

“Good results the first time?”

“Two for two. We tend to shoot and scoot.”

“Haven’t seen you before.”

“This is our first trip to this location. We’ll go ahead and move. Concerning the suppres-
sors, you’d be responsible for getting your barrel threaded. They’ll screw on and have a
set screw to lock them in place.”

“Cheap at double the price, can’t get them here you know.”

“You can, provided you know someone who makes them and are willing to pay the go-
ing rate. Get us the 625 Inconel and you can have them in a week.”

“Have you heard about the National Guard Armory being broken into?”

“What’d they get?”

“A bunch of M4s, a dozen M9s, 4 SAWs and 2 M240s.”

“M4 is the three round burst version?”

“It is. About 6 had those short grenade launchers from the SOPMOD kits.”

“That’s some serious firepower.”

50
“I think there have been more burglaries than that one but government is keeping a lid
on it. They’re hard pressed to admit that the American people have a belly full of their
politics as usual. Here’s the deal, meet us back here in 3 days and we’ll have the 625.
We’ll be back a week after that to trade the Black Hills for the suppressors. If we don’t
show up, we’ve been compromised and don’t come here again.”

“Compromised how?”

“There are still a bunch of those lily livered liberals out and about. They try to earn favor
with the authorities by identifying patriots and turning them in. Obama may have out-
lawed water boarding the terrorists, but that rule doesn’t apply to patriots. I understand
you’ll give up your mother after just a few seconds of that.”

“Do you think we’re making a difference?”

“I think so, but it remains to be seen, we’re way outnumbered. Call it what you may, a
Revolution, an Insurgency or a Civil War, not everyone agrees with us. They still have
jobs, haven’t been booted from their homes and just plain don’t like guns because
they’re dangerous. You damned right they’re dangerous, that’s what they’re made for.
You read about them every day, complaining because an armed intruder broke in and
raped their wife. If a firearm had been present, it could have been different.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, now Chuck. Everyone in our family, except for Sheila, is
armed to the teeth.”

“Why not Sheila?”

“She’s still in diapers.”

“Three days?”

“Agreed.”

We moved to the location they suggested and sat up. All of that whispering suggested
that I needed to get my hearing checked; I really had to work to hear them. We only got
one shot, a long range shot at about 1,400 yards. We pulled up stakes and returned
home.

“Do any good?”

“We only took one shot. We met two other patriots, Chuck and Rob. We worked a deal
with them; they’ll supply the alloy for the baffles and Dave will make them two .30 cali-
ber suppressors. In return for his labor and what not, they’ll give us two cases of Black
Hills ammo, one each hunting and match.”

“Sooner or later, this is going to end up biting us on the butt Dave.”

51
“Maybe Beth, I hope not.”

We stayed around home the next two days, doing chores, sorting through our food in-
ventory and other mundane jobs. On the third day, we returned to the spot we had relo-
cated to earlier and set up. It wasn’t long before Rob and Chuck showed up and set up.
We moved cautiously to their location, identifying ourselves when they heard us. I guess
Chuck had no idea how much alloy it took to build 2 suppressors; he had enough for
maybe 50. He also had the aluminum alloy tubing that Dave must have told him he
needed, enough for 100.

“I got all I could of both. I didn’t pay for it and didn’t steal it, the guy who runs the shop is
a patriot and when I told him what I wanted, his eyes lit up. He gave me all he had and
asked what the going rate was. I replied the alloys and 500 rounds of Black Hills .308
per. He said to tell you that he can get more and that he has 10,000 rounds of the Black
Hills Match he’s willing to let go.”

“Thirty caliber?”

“Fourteen .30 caliber and six .223. You can do the .223s, right?”

“Certainly. We’ll be back in a week with your two. Tell your friend he’ll have his 20 four
weeks after that.”

“How’d you manage to get caught short on ammo?”

“I never said we did. The Black Hills is for this task, but we have more than enough for
the time being for practice.”

“So, you’re turning your son’s machining skills into ammo?”

“He’s out of work and has proven to be good at building them. You can’t say that this
group of patriots can’t use them. A suppressor makes them invisible.”

They helped get the materials part way to our truck. We cased our rifles and put the ri-
fles and the supplies in the truck to return home. Once home, Dave immediately began
to work on a batch of 5 more .30 caliber suppressors. He put in some long hours and
actually had started the batch of six .223 suppressors before the end of the week.

We had found that the suppressors didn’t need cleaning and he changed his assembly
method eliminating several steps. The cans were now sealed and could only be cleaned
by soaking them in a cleaning solution, should they ever need cleaning. Several manu-
facturers of suppressors, Reflex for example, make sealed cans and claim they never
need cleaning. This is especially true using jacketed ammo.

52
 The Seniors – Chapter 11

Why would we want to be invisible? For one thing, we’re outnumbered by a large mar-
gin. To me, a patriot is the guy or gal who took the oath when they entered service and
acts like the oath had no expiration date (which it doesn’t). They will protect and defend
the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, for as long as they are able.

They’re Joe the plumber, the carpenter who lives next door, the guy who runs the gun
shop and many, many more; almost all veterans, whether or not they served in combat.
Although, from watching the History Channel, not all veterans are patriots, like that guy
on a tank during Desert Storm who was ashamed of what he did.

A Revolution is the overthrow of a ruler or political system. An Insurgency is a rebellion,

revolution, revolt, uprising, mutiny or a riot. A Civil War is a war between opposing
groups within a country. If you think about it, the US has had all three; the Revolutionary
War was a Revolution/Insurgency. Then there was the Civil War, called by some the
War of Northern Aggression. The name seems to depend on which side you were on. I
wonder what they will call this. It may depend upon who wins.

Do you remember the lines from the movie? Soldier, how did you get so close to me?”
“Sniper approached the instructor by being a sneaky bastard, Sergeant Major! I hate to
say it but that’s the essence of being a sniper, getting as close as you can without being
discovered. Next, it’s placing your shot exactly where you want it. And, it helps if you’re
invisible, doesn’t it? Why? So you can get away and live to do it again. Even Lee Har-
vey Oswald knew to get away, he just didn’t go far enough away and he left a rifle that
could be traced back to him, eventually.

That changed some when Armies started using bigger rifles for sniping like the .338
Lapua and the .50BMG. The former could penetrate better than standard military body
armor out to about 1,000 meters. The latter had more range and an even larger bullet.
Our .308 rifles were generally in the category of a Designated Marksman Rifle.

This would be a long campaign. The American Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 to
1783. We were a tiny country then with a total population of 3.9 million during 1790
when the first census was conducted. The total US population crossed the 100 million
mark around 1915, the 200 million mark in 1967 and the 300 million mark in 2006.

Have you noticed how expensive food has become? Have you noticed how obesity
seems to be a main issue in this country? It’s not just us; consider this from back in
2009:

In a move branded “Government nannying at its worst”, the teams – operated by coun-
cils across the country – will be recruited to visit homes at meal times before handing
out advice on diet and how to reduce waste.

53
Eight thousand Food Police, or Love Food Champions under their official title, will be
paid up to £8.50 an hour of taxpayers’ cash.

And if a pilot scheme is successful, the idea could be rolled out across the country, cost-
ing the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds.

Employed by a private contractor, the teams will advise householders on how to plan
their shopping carefully so that they do not over-cater.

They will also explain the difference between “best before”, “use by” and “sell by” dates,
before giving out tips on home composting. Advice will be given on how to cook with
leftovers and how best to use your freezer.

That was from the Daily Express. Back at home, it started with 4 deaths in Little Rock
and then, it spread. It was all those people with those awful Assault Weapons and bolt
action rifles that were nothing more than sniper rifles. The ammunition was illegal,
where did it come from? The same place the booze came from during prohibition, gun
and ammo runners. The ammo was available across the borders and only 90 miles
south of Florida. You don’t think they’re transporting tobacco in the Tobacco boats, do
you? The tobacco boat first came into the public eye when Miami Vice aired. That boat
was a Wellcraft Scarab 38KV, twin 440-hp boat that sold for $130,000 in 1986.

Yes, I looked it up. The death toll had topped 1,000 and every federal law enforcement
agency we had was involved in providing protection. Those agencies included: DEA,
FBI, DHS, Marshals Service, Secret Service and the Coast Guard. And those are just
the big names and don’t include the Postal Inspectors, etc. One of the oldest, the FPS,
dates back to 1790 along with the Marshals Service, 1789, and the Coast Guard, 1790.

Speaking about things that occurred in the past, when did this whole anti-gun move-
ment begin? Ask Sarah Brady, she probably knows better than me. Working backwards
and probably missing some major events, there was the present law that outlawed near-
ly everything except slingshots. Before that was Bill Clinton’s AWB. Before that was the
Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act in 1993. Bush Sr. issued an EO and Reagan
signed the FOPA. Back in 1968, we had two laws, the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Before that, you had the National
Firearms Act of 1934 and before that you had Wyatt Earp who would shoot you for car-
rying a gun.

The first attempts to control firearms occurred early during the nineteenth century. An
appetite developed for protecting people from themselves or their neighbors. Did crimi-
nals obey the gun laws? Silly question, they didn’t and confessed their sin to their priest
or whatever. Gun laws seemed to be as nearly old as our country. The new AWB wasn’t
working; the murder rate recently has increased, especially among federal employees.

54
We maintained our routine, practicing on Saturdays but using the suppressors now to
avoid attracting attention. Geena and I worked with Beth getting the two acre garden in
While David finished up the suppressor orders. I made the deliveries and collected the
additional ammo in return. It was like David got stuck in a rut, cranking out .223 and
7.62 suppressors until he ran out of material. Towards the end, he was making seven a
week. I looked up Chuck and Rob at their usual shooting spot and told them Dave had
produced more suppressors and they were available for either a case of 7.62 or .223
Black Hills. I wanted the usual loadings, 168gr HP or 165gr SP in .308 NATO or the
52gr Match HP or the 55gr SP. The former case is 500 rounds, the latter 1,000 rounds.

I wasn’t planning on a long war, just a different commodity to trade; military ammo
would become very hard to get in quantity lots of high quality ammo. Price wise the val-
ues of the silencers was nearly the same if you compared the pre ban price of Black
Hills ammo. The 7.62 suppressors could be used to replace the flashhider/muzzle brake
on a M1A and the 5.56 could replace the flashhider on an M16/M4/AR15. These were
the suppressors that were intended to be mounted on the end of the barrel, but I told
them that fast attach mounts could be made available.

Not that it was our doing but more feds started dying, killed by invisible snipers. A radio
broadcast reminded the listening audience that suppressors were not only totally illegal
on the federal level, but prohibited under Missouri law. That sounded almost like a dare
to me but Dave said he needed to take a break and he’d used up his stock of 625.

He enjoyed shooting the light fifty and I enjoyed him carrying it. I was loaded down
enough with my rifle, 8 spare rifle magazines, 6 grenades (3 smoke and 3 fragmenta-
tion) and the observation scope. We both carried .45s with 4 extra magazines and he
carried the Light Fifty with all ten magazines, 5 loaded with M1022 and the other 5 with
Mk211.

When the opportunity presented itself, I picked up a new HF/VHF/UHF radio, a Yaesu
FT-857 all band mobile with the antenna tuner and two antennas. It allowed us to keep
in touch with Beth and Geena on our outings. Unlike most PAW stories I’d read, our on-
ly real disaster had been the outbreak of pneumonic plague, but this insurrection may
well qualify as the second.

Article 2 of the Bill of Rights, aka the 2nd Amendment, says the right to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed. The SCOTUS said in Heller that it was an individual right.
Did Congress pass this law and Obama sign it just to learn how long it would take the
SCOTUS to overturn it? Now, there’s a thought, it could take years at which point it’s a
moot question because they’ve either gotten the guns or killed the gun owners who
stood up for their rights.

The body count this past week around the nation reached 500 plus, an all-time high.
People were becoming reluctant to apply for federal jobs for fear of getting killed. Plus, it
was only a matter of time before we had another Ruby Ridge or Waco where some pa-

55
triot, most likely a Medal of Honor recipient, was surrounded by the ATF and FBI for a
1903A3 Springfield rifle. It’s clearly a military weapon being used as recently as Vietnam
and shoots military ammo, .30-06. The DCM (CMP) cleaned out its supply of Greek .30-
06 in a hurry when the new AWB was passed.

I’ve noticed that the more of them we killed, the harder they tried to stop the carnage,
forsaking their methodical approach and grabbing at straws. Some time back, I signed
up for the FBI’s weekly update, although I typically receive more than two updates a
week. To be sure, none of what was happening now was reported unless they arrested
someone, usually for a firearm violation.

While I wanted to scream, “What part of shall not be infringed don’t you understand,” we
were now speaking in a much louder voice, albeit unorganized.

It got to the point where government LEO types began going door to door quizzing the
residents about the situation. “Have you heard any shooting recently? Do you know an-
yone who owns illegal weapons? Have you seen anything that you think we should
know about?”

Our neighbors were in the know about my gun collection but only because they were
patriots through and through. The few liberals knew not and they hadn’t heard any
shooting in some time because of the suppressors. Plus, we’d reduced the shooting
from 100 rounds each to 20 rounds each. When they’d come by here, they had a hand-
ful of 4473s and wanted to see the weapons listed thereon. I up and lied, telling I’d sold
them all off as the economy worsened and I could no longer afford the expensive am-
mo.

They asked if I minded them searching the place and I told them I’d rather they didn’t.
Out came the John Doe search warrant and they began to fill in the lines. When it was
completed, they kept us in the living room of the big house while they searched every
nook and cranny, including the shelter (after getting the key from me). I had decided
that if I didn’t resist, they might consider something amiss and I’d heard about those
John Doe search warrants. Having been handed a totally illegal warrant, I relented
knowing that they wouldn’t find anything we didn’t want them to. Remember, our .45
Colt single action revolvers and the lever action rifles were still legal.

The rifles were in the rack next to the door and the gun belts hanging from pegs on the
other side of the door, clearly visible. They had one agent secure those until they fin-
ished searching. And then, the questioning resumed. “Who bought the guns? Did you
run background checks? Did you have high capacity magazines? How many? Yada,
yada. All they knew when they left was it was apparent to them that the firearms they
were looking for were either unavailable or hidden and that the replacement firearms
were no match for what they had.

You see, although the AWB applied to everyone, it didn’t apply to them, just everyone
else! They weren’t wearing the Ninja suits and the guy who flashed his badge was a US

56
Marshal. He might have been wearing body armor under his shirt but we couldn’t tell.
He was dressed in twill pants, loafers, a blue dress shirt and his badge was in a case in
his shirt pocket. After he flashed it, he folded the case so the case was in his pocket and
the badge hung outside. He was reasonably polite in the circumstances, surprising me.
But he wasn’t the FBI or the BATFE, so that may explain his demeanor, although, I
should point out the US Marshals started the problem at Ruby Ridge. The ATF and later
the FBI was responsible for Waco.

I think it was more than the liberals could bear when the SCOTUS handed down Heller
and affirmed it in Parker. The test will come if Obama replaces any of the 5 judges who
defined the 2nd Amendment as an individual right. Until then, he has his new law and a
test case in the federal district court ruled the new law legal. Why should people care?
After they’ve gutted the 2nd, they’ll go for the 1st and maybe the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Me, I’d like a Tommy gun, but they’re about $20,000 and illegal. There’s just something
about the ratta-tat-tat sound the Thompson makes. They made a semi-auto clone, for a
while. The short barreled models required a tax stamp from the ATF due to the overall
length. The new law took care of that because they used a military cartridge (.45 ACP)
and were semi-auto. I’m telling you; this new law is your worst nightmare, come true.

“We’re going out tomorrow and trying a new location.”

“Where?”

“Fayetteville.”

“Arkansas?”

“Alabama is too far.”

Fayetteville is a common name in the US and 12 cities bear the name. You can check
that on Wiki.

“Why Fayetteville?”

57
 The Seniors – Chapter 12

“There are a large number of federal offices there, hence a large number of federal em-
ployees. We’ll have to be careful, though, they include the FBI and the USMS.”

“What other offices?”

“All of the armed services plus recruiting offices. This one is going to require all of the
skill you can muster.”

“Why me?”

“I don’t want to get close enough to use my Super Match. With the suppressor on your
Barrett, the sound is reduced to the level of the unsuppressed .308. We should get a
few shots before we have to bail. The main thing is to keep them widely spaced.”

I’ll admit that my son wasn’t a senior, but my wife and I were leading this show, for the
time being. And, we’re both, shall we say, long in the tooth. Most people would probably
dismiss the diminutive little old grandmother, but they did so at their own risk. She’d
been carrying that single action revolver for a while now and could draw and fire it accu-
rately in the blink of an eye. It couldn’t be that the revolver was lighter. Remember, I told
you I took the .44 and she took the .357? She had a Blackhawk Vaquero and I had a
Super Blackhawk with those big old sights. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone
makes a .44 magnum revolver in single action besides Ruger (don’t quote me on that).

Fayetteville was the third most populous city in Arkansas. Besides, Hillary Clinton hailed
from Fayetteville. The capital, Little Rock, was where this all started. It was the largest
city and the second largest was Fort Smith, where they liked to hang people. Judge
Isaac Parker served as US District Judge from 1875-1896. He was nicknamed the
"Hanging Judge" because in his first term after assuming his post he tried eighteen
people for murder, convicted fifteen of them, sentenced eight of those to die, and
hanged six of them on one day. Over the course of his career in Fort Smith, Parker sen-
tenced 160 people to hang, of those 79 actually were executed on the gallows. Judge
Parker represented the only real law the rough and tumble frontier border town had at
the time.

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii – Twenty-four F-22 Raptors and hundreds of Air-
men deployed to the Pacific region for a three-month deployment in support of the Pa-
cific global deterrence mission.

Twelve F-22s deployed from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, arrived Jan. 18 to An-
dersen AFB, Guam, and the week prior 12 F-22s from Langley AFB, Va., began arriving
at Kadena Air Base, Japan.

58
The F-22s and Airmen are part of ongoing rotations of forces to ensure security and
stability throughout the region. Members of both squadrons will conduct air combat
training with Air Force and other US military assets in the region.

F-22s are the Air Force's newest and most advanced fighter, combining stealth, maneu-
verability, supercruise capability and superior avionics to provide the US with un-
matched air dominance.

There had been a list of favorite songs on Frugual’s. I copied down the names and went
to youtube and downloaded the following:

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth

Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction
Mike and the Mechanics - Silent Running
Red Riders - Lunatic Fringe
The Clash - Guns of Brixton
Three Doors Down - Citizen Soldier
Metallica - Don’t Tread on Me

I can’t say that I liked all of them, but I had Real Player and downloading them was
easy. I had previously down loaded other songs I liked, like all of ABBA. But to the busi-
ness at hand, we can’t keep this up all day, according to the TV salesman. That water
absorbent cloth had been around for years, and the one he was selling was probably
the imitation.

We setup just off the 540 just east of 112 near Enterprise Drive. That was after ducking
and dodging all the way from Branson to Fayetteville. The LEOs were thick as thieves,
or maybe like a bad case of lice. Factory district unless I miss my guess, lots of ware-
houses. Whatever, I wasn’t taking names, just looking for a good position where a sin-
gle shot wouldn’t give away our location. We moved three times before we found a loca-
tion that didn’t seem like it would produce echoes. Echoes are the enemy of snipers be-
cause they reflect the sound and draw attention to your general area. From my point of
view, the best sniping spot is in the open.

“I got one.”

“What is he?”

“Can’t tell, wearing a suit, but that’s the building that the FBI uses.”

“Don’t shoot if you can’t tell. It would hurt our cause if we killed a civilian.”

Kaboom.

59
“Weren’t no civilian, he was wearing a .40 Smith and Wesson.”

“Are you sure?”

“He pulled out his badge and flipped it over like that marshal did. It was a badge, but I
don’t know what a FBI badge looks like.”

“It doesn’t look like the one Efrem Zimbalist Jr. had on that show, The FBI. Real stories,
but everything else was fake, especially the badge. I saw one once, looked like a cheap
piece of yellow tin underneath an eagle.”

“That’s about right.”

“Ok time to move.”

“We just got here.”

“Unless you want to be planted here, case that rifle and let’s go.”

It went on like that for about 3-4 hours, shooting, moving and setting up again. No two
shots from the same place and the interval varied widely. There is such a thing as too
much luck; it was better to close up shop and come back tomorrow from another direc-
tion. I had decided that considering the drive down, we’d camp out overnight. We found
a park and erected a tent, got out the Coleman stove and made coffee. A Deputy Sheriff
happened by and asked what we thought we were doing.

“Sorry Sheriff, I didn’t see a ‘no camping’ sign.”

“Are you from around here?”

“I’m from Branson and my son is from Little Rock.”

“Can I see your ID?”

“It checks out. What’s the deal, meet halfway between?”

“Exactly, how did you know?”

“Figured. Camping is allowed in county parks so you’re ok.”

“Say Sheriff, just after we met up, we heard something that sounded like gunfire. Know
anything about that?”

“Some more of those wanttabe patriots, killing more federal officers.”

60
“You don’t say. If it wouldn’t be rude to ask, how many did they shoot this time?”

“Four. They’re using a .50 caliber rifle. It’s got a range of…”

“A mile and a half? I read that on Wiki. The longest shot with a .50 caliber rifle was a
shot of 2,430 meters (7,072’) by some Canadian Corporal.”

“His name was Furlong. That’s the guy. The previous record was held by another Ca-
nadian and before that by Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam.”

“You don’t say. Do they suspect some soldier who went off his whack and is shooting
federal employees?”

“Why would you say that?”

“It should be obvious. Fifty caliber rifles are illegal. The only people who have them are
the military and police. Maybe some of the federal agencies, but I wouldn’t know about
that.”

“You seem to know a lot.”

“Years ago I collected guns. When hard times came I had to sell them off. Had the US
Marshal at my place looking for the guns on the 4473s. Filled out a John Doe search
warrant right on the spot. I figured it was illegal, but who’s to say. I let them search and
they didn’t find anything except for our cowboy guns.”

“Our?”

“Me and my wife Beth.”

“What’s that you’re carrying?”

“A Ruger Super Blackhawk. Any problem?”

“No, you’re carrying openly. Have any other guns?”

“Marlin 1895 Cowboy rifle. That’s a .45-70.”

“I know what a Marlin Cowboy is.”

“Yes sir, Sheriff.”

“It’s Deputy, remember that. The Sheriff rarely leaves his office these days.”

“Why’s that?”

61
“He wears a suit and is afraid he may be mistaken for a fed.”

The Deputy left and Dave and I decided that after one more day of sniping it might be a
good idea to head home. Tomorrow we’d come in from the west and set up just to the
west of 16/540. We ate dinner and crawled in our sleeping bags. It wasn’t too bad, we
had air mattresses.

“What’s for breakfast?”

“Coffee, scrambled eggs and toast.”

“How are you going to do that on a two burner stove?”

“Set the coffee off to the side while the toast burns.”

I knew the moment that he said that, he’d end up burning the first batch. It’s called toast
for a reason; it’s browned, not burned. My son was not a chef. I guess next time I’d bet-
ter do the cooking. It would be just my luck to end up burning the toast too. After we ate,
used the park john and packed up the truck, we headed west. We actually drove over
where we would later setup. We took 540 to 45 and went west for a while. We turned
north and came in on West Wedington Drive. We actually ended up near West Maine
Street and barely within range of the big rifle.

After three shots, we called it a day and headed back to Branson, driving rural roads
whenever possible. We missed some roadblocks, but couldn’t avoid the one at the state
line.

“Where are you headed?”

“Home.”

“Where are you coming from?”

“Little Rock. I drove down to pick up my son. You see, he’s out of work and my wife and
I…”

“Got any ID?”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, the ID checks out. You haven’t been near Fayetteville have you?”

62
 The Seniors – Chapter 13

“No sir, we came all the way up on US 65. I swear, it seemed like we were getting our
ID checked about every 20 miles. What’s going on? And, why Fayetteville?”

“They had some shootings. Seven federal employees were either killed or wounded.
You’re ok, move along.”

“Did you miss one?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Which round were you using?”

“The Mk211, they blow up when they hit the body armor or after they pass through the
body, so there isn’t any evidence.”

“We’re going to have to lay low for a while, we drew too much attention this time out.”

“Time to hoe the garden?”

“And other things, like getting a pregnant milk cow and maybe our own small herd of
hogs.”

“I thought mom told you that you couldn’t have pigs because pigs stink.”

“She did, but she likes pork chops, bacon and ham. I got a feeling that unless we have
our own, we may not be able to get any.”

“What about feed?”

“We can grass feed the cow and buy a hog mix from the grain elevator.”

“How does that differ from cattle feed?”

“I’ll be damned if I know; it may be the same thing. I hope you like rabbit; it’s getting time
to butcher them.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Good, I won’t have to share my macaroni and cheese. A few more weeks and we’ll be
harvesting our first home grown fish.”

“Well, farm-raised rabbit is lean, slightly sweet meat with a closely textured flesh that
has virtually no fat and is very high in protein. Rabbit is an alternative to chicken, with

63
the additional advantage that it is commonly raised without the use of hormones or ster-
oids.”

“I’ll take your word for it. I’ll try the fish one time. If you can keep the bones out, I may
end up eating it, I like cod and several other species.”

“What fish do you like the least?”

“Halibut, flounder and salmon.”

“What’s your favorite fish?”

“Canned albacore.”

“Any particular brand?”

“Bumble Bee solid pack.”

“I ran out of cigarettes. Do you have any?”

“I roll my own using a cheap machine I bought on the web. I buy menthol tobacco, but I
have a bag of regular Bugler in the freezer.”

“Are they any good?”

“They’re not Kool’s, but they’ll do. I gave up on factory smokes when they upped the
federal tax a buck a pack. They said it was a revenue measure, but increasing the price
to over $40 a carton has a lot of people quitting and they’re cutting off their nose to spite
their face. If they don’t stop raising taxes, we’re going to end up on the dole. Geena and
you should already be on the dole, why aren’t you?”

“It just doesn’t feel right.”

“Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a hard fall. Go ahead and
sign up right after you get your Missouri Driver’s license. Forget unemployment, that
system went broke. Try for food stamps and Medicaid. Use our address as your perma-
nent address. And be sure not to mention your mobile home. If the subject comes up,
tell them your mother and I own the home and letting you live rent free for the time be-
ing.”

“How long are we lying off for?”

“Until we’re done with the garden. Fuel your pickup and drive around the farms in the
area. Tell them you’re looking for a bred milk cow and two bred sows. We keep in prac-
tice at the same rate, 20 rounds per week per person. We don’t want to attract any at-

64
tention. What you’re out and about bring up the fact that you’ve heard shooting in the
area and wonder if they’ve heard the same.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Forewarned is forearmed. You might also get a sense of their attitude towards firearms.
I expect most, if not all of our neighbors, have at least a shotgun, a .22 rifle and a hunt-
ing rifle. Don’t press them on it and make sure you’re wearing your revolver.”

The results of Dave’s trip were rewarding. He got two bred sows and one bred milk cow.
He also acquired a market weight steer and 4 market weight hogs. He learned that sev-
eral of the neighbors had heard the shooting in the past, but thought nothing of it be-
cause they knew I was a gun nut. Only one claimed to have heard any shooting recently
and as luck would have it, I knew him to be a gun collector too. We had a choice of pay-
ing for the livestock in cash or gold. I didn’t want to get into our supply of gold or silver
just yet, so we paid in cash and asked the sellers to deliver the livestock to the locker
plant and our acreage. We only had enough room in the freezers for a side of beef and
2 hogs so we checked the papers for another used freezer. This time we came up short
and had to order one from Sears. We ordered their large upright to put in Dave and
Geena’s trailer, a 20.6ft³.

Beth ordered cases of lids and a second pressure canner from Canning Pantry in Utah
and we drove up to Springfield when the canning jars first hit the store shelves. When
you consider it, canning jars are bulky. I had attached our trailer, an old U-Haul 6’x12’
cargo trailer, painted tan. It would hold 396ft³, not enough for the jars we bought. The
bed of the pickup was loaded five layers deep and the load covered with a tarp and tied
down. We took our time getting home. Had I been thinking, I’d have brought a tape gun
and taped the outside layer of boxes together for added strength.

“Help me unload this, would you?”

“How many cases did you get?”

“All they had; we got quite a few strange looks. Since we doubled the size of the garden
and not all of the jars from last year’s canning were empty your mother and I loaded up.
There must be at least a couple of thousand jars in quarts, pints and jelly jars.”

“Where are we going to put them? The shed is full, the basement is full and there isn’t
much room in the shelter.”

“We’ll leave the boxes in the trailer in the trailer. All we’ll unload are the boxes on the
truck. Let’s put down a few pallets to stack the boxes on and cover them with a tarp.”

“How many pallets?”

“Four, two wide and two long.”

65
“Where are they?”

“Stacked against the far end of the shed.”

“You only had four.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you to bring six.”

They were standard grocery pallets, 48” long by 40” wide and the most common pallet
in the US. They would create a platform 8’ long by 6’8” wide. The bed of the pickup was
8’ long and around 4’ wide. When we stacked the boxes, we ended up with only 4 lay-
ers. I was convinced we’d never need to buy canning jars again. The Sears Freezer ar-
rived just in time to pick up the full steer and four hogs. As was usually the case, Beth
and I went to the meat market and picked up the additional hams and bacon she’d or-
dered. The summer was long, hot and dry. We irrigated to ensure we had a good crop
and that rich soil, enhanced with the horse manure, produced a bountiful crop. They
were canning up to 8 loads a day between the two canners, starting with green beans.
The peas we grew were blanched and frozen, I hate canned peas.

The sows had their litters and we had enough pigs that we could keep some gilts,
butcher the barrows and still have some to sell. The calf came later, a heifer. Consider-
ing the amount of meat we’d frozen, Beth and I decided to keep the heifer and breed
her. Several of our neighbors had bulls and offered breeding services for a nominal fee.

We were having our usual 4th of July, Independence Day picnic with fireworks and the
whole nine yards. Just to frame this for you, the six of us with guns never went any-
where without at least the revolver, even on the 4th of July. We had fried chicken, potato
salad, coleslaw, baked beans, homemade French bread, home churned butter and ice
cold watermelon. We’d tried our hand at homemade beer and the results were drinkable
but not Sam Adams, not enough hops.

We were just slicing the watermelon when the men in black showed up. “ATF, remain
where you are and raise your hands.”

We complied and they disarmed us and used flexi cuffs to bind our hands. The leader
unfolded a properly executed search warrant and asked, “Where are the guns?”

“You just took them. The rifles are in the rack in the house, right next to the door.”

“Not those, the M1As. You have several, a Bushmaster carbine and a HK MR-556. You
also have several semi-automatic pistols.”

66
“I explained that the last time the law showed up and searched the place. I had to sell
them due to the economic times. I didn’t get their names or run background checks, but
they seemed like nice enough people. Go ahead and search, all you will find are legal
weapons.”

“We’ll be the judge of that.”

It was getting on to supper time when they finally gave up. We had everything your av-
erage survivalist would have, except for prohibited weapons and ammo. Admittedly, the
.45-70 was once a government cartridge, but hadn’t been so for well over 100 years and
was exempt. It was last used in quantity during the Spanish-American War and was not
completely purged from the inventory until well into the 20th century.

“Where are they?”

“Are you deaf? I told you I was forced to sell them. The US Marshal who was here a
while back couldn’t find them either because there is nothing to find.”

“Our source said he’s heard firing from this place weekly.”

“That’s right; we practice every Saturday morning with our Marlins and revolvers. Since
real firearms are illegal, we need all the help we can get.”

“You’re lying.”

“Prove it by finding those guns that I sold off somewhere in this acreage. Use your
ground penetrating radar, you’ll find nothing because there is nothing to find. You’ve
done your search so how about taking off these flexi cuffs and returning our revolvers.”

He polled his people, they could find nothing. I overheard them talking about the book-
case in the shelter. Assuming it might be a covering for a door way into an armory; they
checked it thoroughly and concluded that it was indeed bolted to the wall. They hadn’t
thought to remove the shelf and pulled out the shelf pins that I’d added later as an extra
measure of protection. The back wouldn’t swivel until the pins were removed.

“We’ll be back.”

“Funny, you don’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

“Ok let them go. Put their revolvers in the house and let’s go.”

“Wait.”

“What now?”

67
 The Seniors – Chapter 14

“How about a note saying that you searched the place and found nothing?”

“We’ll be back and search until we find them.”

I was almost afraid if I kept talking, we’d end up in one of those new FEMA Camps they
built pursuant to the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act. If you haven’t fig-
ured it out by now, the government isn’t on your side. Do you know what they call a
government employee? A target!

We still had to work the garden, tend to the livestock and all the usual chores that came
with our reluctantly becoming farmers. That is if you can call a few chickens, hogs, two
cattle and the rabbits and Tilapia farming. Despite outward appearances, we weren’t the
tame group some mistook us for. To date we were one for one on the body count, one
shot, one kill. We could keep it up for years with our ammo supply and I’m referring to
the Black Hills, the M1022 and the Mk211.

Our approach to acquiring the Black Hills ammo had been inspired although we hadn’t
realized it at the time. After harvest and canning were finished, we headed back towards
Springfield to see if Rob and Chuck were still around. Were they ever and Rob was now
sporting a .50 caliber rifle and using M-33 Barrett ammo.

“Where have you been?”

“A man’s got to eat; we’ve been working on our garden and taking care of the livestock.”

“Was that you down in Fayetteville?”

“What happened in Fayetteville?”

“Come on you guys, .50 caliber rifles are few and far between. McMillan raised the price
of their TAC 50 to $7,000 for the rifle only and $9,000 for the rifle package; military and
LEO sales only, unless you know someone. I spent over ten grand for this setup with
the accessories.”

“Nice rifle.”

“Yeah, you can really reach out and touch someone. Say are you still making suppres-
sors?”

“We ran out of material, the 625.”

“I guessed that. I came up with more. You should have had enough tubing for 100 and
625 for around 50. I have tubing for 200 more and enough 625 for 400 more. Interest-
ed?”

68
“Can you get more tubing?”

“I’m not sure. Since the suppressors appeared on the scene, they’ve been watching
metal sales. All I can do is try.”

“Same deal on the ammo?”

“Black Hills is getting scarce, but we can get Federal match. There seems to be lots of
that floating around. Sometimes you can also find Winchester and Remington in 168gr
boat tail match. How about I give you the material we have and you get started while I
line up more tubing and buyers with match grade ammo?”

“Any complaints about the new manufacturing method without the disassembly fea-
ture?”

“Not one. Say have you tried the cans filled with water?”

“Nope, why?”

“Cuts down the sound another 4-5db. They’re virtually silent on a bolt action rifle.”

“Don’t forget to tell them that the fast attach feature is separate.”

“No sweat, nobody has asked for one.”

“Dave, are you willing?”

“We won’t get to do much sniping.”

“Two hundred fifty, minimum, will take most of the winter. Hell, I’ll still be making them
come spring.”

“How fast can you deliver them?”

“If I get on a roll, seven a week. Do you want me to start with, .30 caliber or .223?”

“Go for the thirty’s. We have a guy who will thread the barrels on hunting rifles, like .30-
06 and .308.”

“Ok, that will take around 15 weeks. How many .223 do you think you’ll need?”

“Not as many, some guys use those 7.62x39mm rifles.”

“Those rifles are notoriously inaccurate.”

69
“We’ve had a change of strategy; we’re now running some ambushes. Range in those
cases isn’t as important.”

“But silence is?”

“The longer we keep them guessing where we’re coming from, the greater our ad-
vantage.”

We were out of the sniping business into the suppressor business for the time being. It
wasn’t any safer than being a sniper, not with the ATF breathing down our necks and
our being subject to yet another raid. That’s life, I guess. Life has 3 distinct stages,
you’re born, you live and you die. I prefer to put off stage three for a few more years, if
possible. When you’re young, you think you’re bulletproof. But, as you age, you begin to
realize the folly of that. Friends, sometimes younger than you are, have heart attacks
and drop dead. One of my other favorite quotes comes from the Bible, “To everything
there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes, Chapter
3, Verse 1. You may recognize the words from a song by the Byrds, Turn, turn, turn.

I didn’t mind taking a year off from the insurrection, someone had to stay here and give
Dave a heads up if the feds showed up again. If we were caught with the suppressor
components, it would be the Graybar Hotel. That comes from a careful reading the Na-
tional Firearms Act and the ATF’s position that if you have any part of a machinegun
without the tax stamp, you’re in violation. Since a suppressor is also a NFA item, I pre-
sumed if you had any part of a suppressor, you were in violation; the so called rubber
washer violation mentioned in Unintended Consequences.

Aside from the harassment of being searched from top to bottom twice, I had no axe to
grind with the AFT or the USMS. I’d challenged them to use their ground penetrating
radar knowing that it was capable of locating the armory off the shelter, but the tactic
worked, they didn’t look. The axe I wanted to grind was much further up the tree, close
to the executive level. With 230 ± million guns in the US, what was so fascinating about
the thirty or so that they thought I had?

Some of the more obvious excuses, ‘I lost them from my boat’ didn’t fly because I don’t
know anyone who uses a rifle to fish. The same applied to ‘they were stolen’ because in
order to file an insurance claim there had to be a police report. Most homeowner poli-
cies don’t cover over a certain amount for guns, usually $1,000. The NRA sells a sepa-
rate policy with higher limits. I’d dropped mine when I’d ‘sold’ my guns.

In all the company history, Barrett firearms had only made so many light fifties. The one
we had showed up as being sold to the US Army and would be considered stolen gov-
ernment property if we were caught with it, multiplying the offense. Chuck and Rob con-
tinued to supply the tubing and 625 and Dave kept cranking out suppressors. Before all
was said and done, he’d made over 365, this time. My grandsons, David and Ben spent

70
a considerable amount of time on the range during the summer, perfecting their shoot-
ing skills with every weapon we had except for the Barrett.

The time frame for this exercise was fall to fall. The ammo we received was .308 Feder-
al 168gr match and the rate of exchange was still 500 rounds per can. The 5.56 cans
were 1,000 rounds of Federal Gold Medal 69gr match or the equivalent. Eventually we
ran out of places to store the ammo and put it in .50 caliber ammo cans with desiccant
packs and buried it under the floor of the tunnel connecting the fox holes.

When Dave called it quits, he still had a large supply of 625 and tubing which was
sealed in plastic and buried near the ammo cans. During our year off, the insurgency
grew and more than a few National Guard troops walked away from the Guard, often
citing their oath to protect and defend the Constitution rather than supporting the Com-
mander in Chief. Whenever possible, it seemed, they took their issue weapons with
them when they left and ammo when they could get it.

I don’t know when the military established the policy of not storing ammo at National
Guard Armories, but when they began that, each state had one or more depots where
the ammo was stored and issued from. Clyde Barrow frequently burglarized Armories
taking 1918 BARs and ammo. However ammo wasn’t a problem because we had South
African surplus and thousands of rounds of match grade .308 and 5.56 NATO.

The departing troops represented a blow to the state and federal governments. Gover-
nors found it increasingly difficult to use the Guards to assist law enforcement in main-
taining order. The active duty military couldn’t help because of Posse Comitatus. An end
run to restore the John Warner Act couldn’t get through the Senate, dying there. The
John Warner Act allowed the president to declare a national emergency and use regular
military to restore law and order despite Posse Comitatus. It had been repealed the fol-
lowing year.

The insurrection was gaining momentum, albeit slowly. During our absence, the number
of open confrontations had risen dramatically, generally starting out as ambushes. What
had initially been individual efforts morphed into group efforts, obviously organized to an
extent. From history, we knew about groups like Roger’s Rangers who fought for the
British during the French and Indian War and the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan
Allen in what is now modern day Vermont. After initially helping the American cause, the
Green Mountain Boys turned neutral but later fought in the War of 1812 and the Civil
War. They’re the basis for the current Vermont National Guard.

At least all of the 48 continental states had someone going against the federal govern-
ment. In those states where the state government supported the feds, the actions were
also directed against the state government. Did the feds think that the 10th Amendment
to the Constitution was meaningless? The powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respective-
ly, or to the people” For that matter what about the 9th? The enumeration in the Consti-

71
tution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by
the people.

By the time we were ready to return to our previous pursuit, it wasn’t an option for a
number of reasons. We’d been offered a chance to join with Rob and Chuck’s group but
decided against working that far away from home. Branson had lost a significant portion
of its tourist dollars, primarily because of the economy. Dave found work helping a
farmer who had fallen and broken his leg. While the guy didn’t have a lot of money to
pay Dave, he did supply us with livestock feed. I should point out that this was the guy
who admitted to hearing the shooting.

After he was sure that Dave was trustworthy, he’d shown Dave his gun collection. It was
larger than ours and included 4 HK 41s and 4 HK 93s. His 93s were late models with
the 1:7 twists and had their flashhiders replaced with suppressors. They had been re-
worked by a gunsmith back to the HK 33 select fire version, but hadn’t had their barrels
shortened. The HK 41 was the semi auto version of the G3. Few were imported and
many of those that were had been converted back to select fire firearms. The HK 41s
also supported suppressors. His .50 caliber rifle was the AW50 bolt action with a Zeiss
scope and a suppressor, costing on the order of $13-$14,000. He said he got his ammo
from Cabela’s and it included 750gr HP, 750gr A-MAX and 650gr SP plus several cases
of Barrett M-33. Many of the ‘older’ arms were Uberti reproductions.

When Dave mentioned the suppressed M82, his response was, “That’s a bad idea, it
will only work for a while and you’ll have a screwed up action.”

“Well, it’s worked so far.”

“Maybe so, but I know for a fact that it won’t continue to work. Put the Barrett muzzle
brake back on and forget it. Your other choice is to get a Barrett model 95 or 99, bolt
action. They’re also illegal, but can be found right around the MSRP.”

John had an assortment of Glocks, several Kimbers, a full set of Cowboy Action Shoot-
ing weapons, Colts, a Stoeger, a Rossi and a John Wayne coach gun, Trapdoor Spring-
field’s, both rifle and carbines, and a full set of the last Winchester’s before they closed
up shop. He had everything we had and more. Not necessarily the same brands, but at
least the same calibers. As for ammo, he had more than we did and he had a large
supply from Buffalo Bore Ammunition. Dave said the only thing he found lacking was
the Mk211. That was easy to remedy, Dave took John 4 cans of the M1022 and the Mk
211.

Dave examined the Barrett’s action more closely and removed the suppressor, replac-
ing it with Barrett muzzle brake. He set the suppressor aside and told me he’d see if he
could get a model 95. I had my doubts he could, but John seemed to think it was easier
than we thought, especially given the amount of match grade 5.56 and 7.62 we had.

72
 The Seniors – Chapter 15

Have you ever heard Ravel’s Boléro? You should, it was used in the movie ‘10’ to great
acclaim; the character played by Bo Derek kept restarting the music on a phonograph,
while trying to seduce the character played by Dudley Moore. The song, to my way of
thinking, described this growing insurgency and we were getting to the point where you
could really hear the music. But what did I know; we hadn’t participated since Fayette-
ville, at least not directly. We hoped that the insurgency, like the song would keep build-
ing to the crescendo.

The last thing that Dave brought back from John’s was a Barrett model 95 rifle with the
same scope I had on my Super Match and the BORS. He claimed that he didn’t know
how John got the rifle, scope, etc. but that we owed him some of the Federal match
ammo we had in 5.56. John had offset the value of the .50 caliber ammo against the
cost of the rifle. That was fairly steep, but given how hard it was to get the forbidden
weapon, we paid the freight.

Starting with the fourth year of his first term, the president had lost a lot of his support. It
was not nearly as bad as it had been for Bush during his second term, but it was a 40
odd percent approval rate. He’d brought the troops home from Iraq and was beginning
to talk about pulling out of Afghanistan. It had begun as MSM speculation, did someone
know something? The insurrection and the results of the mid-term elections when the
Democrats lost their filibuster proof margin in both houses of Congress was taking a toll.
The selection of Michael Steele as chairman of the RNC had removed some of
Obama’s glitter. Steele was a black conservative and had helped the Republican Party
regain some of its fundamental roots. (In September 2008, Bush's approval rating
ranged from 19% – the lowest ever – to 34% in polls performed by different agencies.)

Within each state, there existed an insurgency. Some were bold and didn’t try to hide
their identity, but most were shadow warriors, grey men. They concealed their identities
using military face paint and sometimes masks; balaclavas (ski masks) were popular
with some groups and bandanas with others. The universal constant, if there was one,
was that the insurgents battle cry, ‘Restore the Constitution’. Other issues, like states’
rights, were frequently heard, more often in the south.

“Resolved, That the union of these States rests on the equality of rights and privileges
among its members, and that it is especially the duty of the Senate, which represents
the States in their sovereign capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate either in rela-
tion to person or property, so as, in the Territories – which are the common possession
of the United States – to give advantages to the citizens of one State which are not
equally secured to those of every other State.” You know it right? No? Jefferson Davis,
leading to the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression.

The first revolution was against the British, the second against TPTB. One problem we
had was that the other side had the same weapons we were using, or better. With
weapons to spare, the active military supplied things to the Guards that they didn’t usu-

73
ally see, like up to date arms and munitions advances. The other side of that coin was
that the US Military still gave M4 carbines to everyone except Special Forces. Not to be-
little the M4, but like the M16, it gets dirty and won’t feed, double feeds, etc. After a sol-
dier went through his standard load out of 210 rounds, he needed to be thinking about
cleaning the carbine. A good dose of CLP would get him to 300 rounds and then he be-
gan to run out of choices.

Army Guard and Air Guard units couldn’t burn through their ammo quite so fast with the
A2s. And because a few state employees had been mistaken for federal employees, the
Guards were out in force, but not nationalized. Keep in mind that the M16 came out in
1963, the A1 in 1967, the A2 in 1982, the A3 and the A4 circa 1996.

Here in southern Missouri, they were sent door to door. The Guard is made up of citizen
soldiers, many of whom may well have had their own gun collections tucked away,
somewhere. Those that did report, e.g., didn’t desert, didn’t seem to be that entirely
gung ho. They went door to door, politely asking if you had any weapon to declare dur-
ing this amnesty period. What amnesty? The Governor ordered no arrests for people
who turned in guns when asked. If I were to bet on this one, about all they got were a
few 10/22s.

A small group started up in Northern Arkansas, led by a National Guard deserter. The
nameless deserter wasn’t from Ridgedale, but that’s where he centered his group.
Ridgedale was on the Missouri side of the line and not all that far from where we lived.
We’d been chomping at the bit to get back into the fray and this seemed like the perfect
opportunity. This Sergeant First Class had quite the history, if he were to be believed.
He’d spent a year in Korea, 6 months in Kosovo and a year in Iraq. He’d started in ar-
mor and switched to artillery when he returned from Iraq.

There was a young man who was part of the group, his son, who hailed from Bolivar,
Missouri. The Sergeant’s personal weapons collection included a M1A Super Match, a
Mossberg 590A1, a Taurus PT1911B and a .32 Sauer und Sohn semi-automatic. ‘Inher-
ited’, he claimed, hence, off the books. Names were not shared within the group,
OpSec, so everyone resorted to a handle. He was Sarge, his son, Kid, I was Bookman
and Dave, Mechanic. Dave and I switched to using the suppressed Barrett model 95
and Super Match. The Kid had has grandfather’s M1A Loaded with a FA762S suppres-
sor and a Leupold Mk IV scope sitting on A.R.M.S. mounts plus a Browning Hi-Power
with the Gold Dot 124gr +P.

Interestingly, Sarge had a TAC-50 with a Night Force 12-42×56mm Mil Dot scope and
the McCann Night Vision Rail Mount supporting an AN/PVS-27 MUNS. He explained,
when asked, that he ended up with one third of a trust fund when his father died and he
kept a promise to his father to buy a TAC-50. The only ammo he had was the Hornady
750gr A-MAX match and we traded him some Mk211 and M1022, even up. His rifle had

74
a suppressor from a place in Texas he called a Jet suppressor. John joined the group
when he healed up under the handle of Farmer.

Our group could field 4 .50BMG caliber rifles, three silenced and one not. The most
common arms beyond the fifties were 7.62×51mm semi-automatic rifles and .45ACP
pistols. Apparently Sarge’s wife had a 9mm CZ pistol and an old .30-30. She didn’t par-
ticipate, staying home and raising their 3 kids. Kid came from the union of Sarge and his
first wife and had mostly been raised by his maternal grandfather.

There were a total of 15 in our group and we came from both sides of the state line. I
was the oldest of the group, followed closely by John, uh, Farmer. Farmer had been in
the Marines during the ‘in between’ years and hadn’t seen much combat, only the tail
end of Vietnam. After Vietnam, he’d served a second enlistment, making the rank of
Sergeant. And man, could he shoot.

Since there weren’t any targets in our immediate AO, we branched out, despite the risk
the extra travel caused. We’d travel sometimes as far as 3 hours away from our central
location. We’d even made a trip to the Kansas City area; there was a military ammuni-
tion plant there, Lake City. While Lake City tests handgun ammo, they manufacture rifle
ammo, 5.56, 7.62, .50BMG plus 20mm which is considered to be a small arm caliber,
the largest. Their ammunition is accumulated in warehouses before it’s shipped out.

We came in through their defenses and began checking warehouses looking for particu-
lar ammo. We had in mind M993, M995, M855A1, Mk 262 Mod 0, M118LR, M1022 and
hopefully Mk 211. That Mk 262 is 5.56mm sniper ammo. The only item on our list that
we had trouble locating was the Mk 211. It is manufactured by Winchester and other
ammunition companies, but we were hoping that it was being accumulated at the Lake
City plant for distribution.

We’d about given up looking when we found those distinctive 120 round cans of Mk 211
which weigh almost 40 pounds per can. Ammo is heavy and we ended up hauling it well
away from the warehouse, but not all of the way to our vehicles. When we had ⅔ of
what we wanted moved, we divided up with ten of us hauling the ammo to the trucks
and the remaining five bring the remaining ammo to the drop off point. We finished be-
fore sunrise and a caravan of widely spaced pickups headed south, on country roads
when we could and avoiding nearly every town and city.

One of the first things Sarge did was to replace the .50 caliber ammo we’d given him.
The remainder, M1022 and Mk 211, was divided among those with .50 caliber rifles. A
count was made of how many 5.56mm and 7.62mm rifles were owned and the ammo
was divided accordingly. We found that there were even some XM994 and M996 apt
ammo in the mix. The XM994 was intended to replace the M276 generic dim tracer cre-
ating a 7.62 apt. Farmer didn’t return the .50 caliber ammo we’d given to him since it
covered a portion of his cost of the M95.

75
Were we happy with the results of our trip to Independence, Missouri? Man, I hope to
tell you. The M118LR was ideal in the Super Match with its 1:10 twist but less so in rifles
with 1:12 or 1:11 twists. However, 168gr match was perfect for a 1:11 twist. I’ll be the
first one to admit that we had more ammo than we’d (probably) ever use. That said,
would you rather have it and not need it or need it and not have it? Not having it proba-
bly meant that you couldn’t get it because it was illegal ammo for everyone except the
LEOs and military.

The country was so deeply involved in the throes of the insurgency that the president
didn’t really have much time to campaign for reelection and that task fell to Joe Biden.
Biden wasn’t the speaker that Obama had been and it showed. The Republican ticket
was Sarah Palin for president and J.C. Watts Jr. from Oklahoma for vice president. A
woman and a black man? This should prove to be interesting. Apparently Watts didn’t
have a first and middle name, just initials. Obama had broken the color barrier for the
presidency, would Palin break the gender barrier? Both Palin and Watts were conserva-
tives but could they pull the female and black vote?

One Tuesday, November 6, 2012 the voter turnout was larger than 2008. There were
problems with the votes in Ohio, Florida, Minnesota and for the first time, California. If
one was to believe the broadcasters it was Palin and Watts by the narrowest of mar-
gins. However, recounts were underway in those 4 states.

We had an operation scheduled the next day over near Jefferson City, the state capital.
Initially, we’d engage in a sniping operation and then, when they came to find us, am-
bush them. Dave and I supplied 5 LAW rockets and 15 fragmentation grenades. The
sniping would be done by Farmer and Mechanic with Sarge and Bookman as observ-
ers/backups.

“Range to target 1,135 meters. Wind?”

“Five mph, left to right.”

“I’m putting in two clicks for windage; it seems to be gusting slightly. Stand still damnit.”

Kaboom, one down and how many to go? Until someone figured out where the shooting
was coming from, that’s how many we had to go. At that point, we’d case the fifties and
switch to MBRs or carbines.

I’d loaded the M118LR and re-sighted my scope. All four members of the sniping team
were ‘designated’ marksmen with scoped MBRs. Dave and my scopes were mounted
using #18 A.R.M.S. mounts and #22H Throw Lever Rings (High) and could be removed
quickly. The diameter of the objective of my scope was 2.3 inches and half of that was
1.15 inches. The high mount was 1.450" (Measured from the center of the optic to the
base) while the medium was 1.15” and left the scope resting on the barrel or too close

76
for my comfort. It may well be the best setup for an M1A. You can also remove the
scope and put on a Trijicon reflex sight or a CompM2 red dot.

Our recalibrated radiation equipment came that day and Beth signed for it. The AMP
200 came from Rolla, ND and the rest from Gonzales, TX. It was only a day trip, but it
took us longer getting home because of the roadblocks the Guard put up. It doubled our
return travel time because we had to find so many alternate routes. Three hours there, 6
hours fighting and 6 hours return, 15 hours; from before dawn to well past sunset.

“Have you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court died.”

“Oh no, not that.”

“Was he the swing vote in Heller?”

“That’s the guy. Now Obama gets to appoint one judge and the Court will probably
swing the other way. Ginsberg had cancer surgery for her pancreatic cancer and addi-
tional treatment after. If he had to have replaced her, it wouldn’t have made any differ-
ence.”

“Well, what happens if the election ends up in the Supreme Court?”

“Hard to say, maybe 4 more years of Obama.”

The media was wrong. After the recounts, Obama and Biden carried the election by
0.75% of the popular vote, but more importantly, undisputedly won the electoral vote
although not but not by much. Even so, there was no basis for a court case. The Repub-
licans had blocked Obama’s selection for the empty court seat, but that too, passed and
a liberal judge was seated. She was no one I’d ever heard of and came from San Fran-
cisco. A judge from the 9th Circuit. The 9th Circuit the largest Circuit covering many
states including most of the western US. Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam and the Northern Marianas are the dis-
trict courts it handles appeals from.

The Insurrection was given new blood by the results of the election because Obama
took the results as a mandate. He began pressing the Attorney General to move the
cases involving the AWB through the courts. He ordered the US troops out of Afghani-
stan, yesterday. In his state of the Union Address, he called for the authority to use mili-
tary forces within our borders to maintain order.

77
 The Seniors – Chapter 16

He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and
recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and ex-
pedient." (Article II, § 3)

I could be wrong, but he was assuming that if the Supreme Court heard more gun cas-
es, they would overturn Heller, not the AWB. Not every Supreme Court appointment
turns out like the president would like. Kennedy had been appointed by Reagan, the
conservative president. Then the oldest judge on the court, John Paul Stevens died and
Obama filled a second seat. Stevens was a liberal, the new appointee proved to be a
strict constructionist. You can read that as a conservative and the balance of the Court
was returned to what it had been before Kennedy and Stevens died.

Just as Obama and Biden had barely squeezed by, so did the Democrats in Congress,
losing more seats than they gained. Liberals were becoming very unpopular in the USA
in 2013. The country’s morality had hit new lows and Christians objected. In some ways,
we were a victim of our technological advances. Hah, we couldn’t even build a reliable
replacement warhead.

Well, it wasn’t that we couldn’t, it was more like Congress and the Administration
wouldn’t. They should have, but that comes later.

The threat of a filibuster in the Senate blocked the attempt to re-adopt the John Warner
Act. However, there are exceptions to Posse Comitatus:

There are a number of situations in which the Act does not apply. These include:

● National Guard units while under the authority of the Governor of a state;

● Troops used under the order of the President of the United States pursuant to the In-
surrection Act, as was the case during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

● Under 18 USC §831, the Attorney General may request that the Secretary of Defense
provide emergency assistance if civilian law enforcement is inadequate to address cer-
tain types of threats involving the release of nuclear materials, such as potential use of
a nuclear or radiological. Such assistance may be by any personnel under the authority
of the Department of Defense, provided such assistance does not adversely affect US
military preparedness.

But wait, it gets better:

On October 1, 2008, the US Army announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade
Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army
service component of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal re-

78
sponse force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist at-
tacks.

This marks the first time an active US Army unit will be given a dedicated assignment to
NORTHCOM, where it is stated they may be “called upon to help with civil unrest and
crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning
and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield ex-
plosive (CBRNE) attack.” These soldiers will also learn how to use non-lethal weapons
designed to “subdue unruly or dangerous individuals” without killing them, and also in-
cludes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or
controlling traffic; shields and batons; and beanbag bullets. However, the “non-lethal
crowd control package [...] is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in
the US [...]”.

Let’s get real here, beanbags against bullets….Sorry, Charlie, you lose. We want tuna
that tastes good, not tuna with good taste. Has anyone looked up the range of a bean-
bag? I didn’t think so. A beanbag is lethal, within a certain range; about 10 meters.
However, one website says, “This round is effective on targets from 7 to 25 Yards.
DANGER: This ammunition has a high probability of being lethal or producing Severe
Damage at a distance less than 12 feet. This is a 2¾” shell.”

It turned out that there were more than one type of beanbag; some were the originals,
some had a cloth tail for stability and some a liquid dye marker added to the pellets in
the bag. The military also used those rubber batons and they had an even longer range.
So, what happened to the microwave gadget we all saw on the military channel? It was
supposed to make your skin so hot you had to move out of the path. What’s more, the
military had resolved the problem with their body armor and they wore plates rated level
V.

Not only was it difficult for some to shoot OUR troops, it was difficult to find a place to
shoot them. The legs seemed to be popular targets, no effective body armor. He sent
the troops with, ‘a heavy heart’. Yeah, right. A majority of the resistance seemed to orig-
inate in rural areas as opposed to, say Iraq where it came from the cities. And next the
military had within its rank a mutiny of sorts. The non-lethal rounds missed, the micro-
wave whatchamacallit was improperly aimed. The patriots didn’t open fire when it was
apparent that somebody was on our side or they were out of the effective range of the
non-lethal munitions/devices.

They also had the M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition (MCCM), a non-lethal munition
used to incapacitate a large group of personnel with the Flash Bang and Impact of rub-
ber balls. It was the non-lethal version of the Claymore mine. The MCCM uses 600 PVC
balls (.32 caliber) set in a two-layer matrix of inert binder chemically similar to children's
"glow-dough". Sheet explosive of .042" thickness is used as the propellant. You had to
be a knucklehead to aim those in the wrong direction, so they were effective within their
operational range of 5 to 30 (~100’) meters with 60° coverage.

79
°

While we heard about their capacity, we didn’t see it because the Missouri Guard was
tasked with protecting the federal employees in Missouri. Their number dwindled be-
cause the government was unable to hire replacements. In some respects, it was just
like 2009 when the only available jobs were federal jobs. Since there was no unem-
ployment to lose, people referred to federal jobs simply didn’t go. You do recall that in
order to keep drawing unemployment, you had to do 2 contacts per week.

Other jobs were few and far between; however, Dave finally got a job offer up in Spring-
field. It was a long commute, 44 miles from Branson to Springfield and we were south of
Branson. He figured it was worth the 5 gallons of gas per day because he could fill up in
Springfield, daily and empty his tank to top off our farm tank. The pay was surprisingly
good, $23 per hour, 40 hours per week with overtime if he wanted it.

When he inquired further about the overtime, he was asked a series of questions in a
casual manner to avoid alarming him. That didn’t work because certain questions were
alarming. Example: “Do you know what a suppressor is?” Answer: “Yes.” Example:
“What’s your attitude about suppressors; should they be controlled?” Answer: “I’m not
sure.” Example: “Were you aware that in some countries suppressors are available
over-the-counter?” Answer: “Yes, but they heavily regulate the sale of firearms.” They
put him through the hoops but declined to say what the overtime entailed. You didn’t
have to be a rocket scientist to guess that it might have something to do with suppres-
sors.

After he’d been working there for 3 months and they got to know him, he was ap-
proached about the overtime. The owner of the shop, an old Master Chief, knew a thing
or two about making suppressors. During his 30 years of service, he’d learned to oper-
ate every machine typically found in a machine shop, lathes, milling machines, welders,
etc. His favorite expression was, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

His pattern for a suppressor was different from those we’d made. He admitted that his
design was adapted from a commercial model, but not the Surefire. He said that the
problem with the Navy’s Hush Puppy was that the rubber washers rarely lasted one full
magazine. He wanted to know what Dave knew about machining Inconel.

“Inconel? That’s a tough one, but I’ve had some experience.”

“Recent?”

“Yes.”

“Machine any 718?”

“A few times. Most of it was 625.”

80
“We also use 300 series stainless.”

“No problem. Time and a half?”

“You realize what this is all about?”

“Sure, you’re making suppressors using 300 series stainless for the body and ends and
Inconel for the baffles.”

“It’s illegal; you don’t have a problem with that?”

“I’ll tell you what, once you see my work, you’ll understand, but the bottom line is I won’t
tell if you don’t.”

“I take it you’ve made them before?”

“I won’t answer that Chief, but just you watch.”

“Say, you’re from Branson, right?”

“No, I’m from Little Rock, but we’re temporarily living in Branson.”

“Ok, I get it.”

“What do you get?”

“Forget it, I promise that I won’t say a word to anyone. How are you fixed on military cal-
iber ammo?”

“Why?”

“I know where someone who wanted some could pick up some Speer Gold Dot 124gr
+P 9mm and 230gr .45ACP Lawman and Gold Dot.”

“What, you made a trip to Lewiston, Idaho?”

“Not exactly; it doesn’t matter. I can pay you time and a half or the same value in car-
tridges.”

“How about 50-50?”

“Done. I’ll do that on the ammo too, 50-50.”

81
Why suppressors? The long and short of it is that a suppressor reduces the sound and
eliminates the flash. The sound is usually sufficiently distorted to make locating the
shooter difficult. Only the Hush Puppy was totally silent and that was only for the first
shot. The passage of the bullets wore out the rubber washers and ruined the silencer.
The point of having a silencer was avoiding getting caught.

We did an inventory of our 9mm and .45ACP ammo and decided that we really only
needed a few cases of each. That might have been different if I’d had my Tommy Gun
or we had some MP5s. However, we didn’t and I was about to tell Dave to limit the am-
mo when Beth interceded.

“You’ve been accumulating ammo with an eye to selling it, right?”

“Yes.”

“What are the most common pistol cartridges?”

“Probably .22LR, 9mm and .45ACP.”

“How many bricks do we have of the .22?”

“Maybe 50.”

“How about the 9mm +P and .45ACP Gold Dot?”

“A lot less.”

“So, get the ammo, it is military calibers and isn’t going to become more plentiful.”

Do you argue with your wife? I don’t, especially when she has a point. I suggested to
Dave that he switch the arrangement from 50-50 cash and ammo to 100% ammo, di-
vided 50-50 between 9mm and .45ACP. I also wondered aloud if perhaps the Chief
might have any .22LR ammo. I also raised another issue having to do with a .22, but
this was totally different.

“Do you think that’s it’s possible to get a .22 pistol with an integral suppressor?”

“I don’t know Dad. Gem-Tech made them and so did SRT Arms. High Standard made
that one they used in WW II. Advanced Armament also made a rimfire can and Arms
Tech Ltd. made some reproductions but they were expensive, around $2500. The num-
ber of manufacturers may have dropped since the new law went into effect.”

“Can you make anything for us?”

82
 The Seniors – Chapter 17

“I can make a .223 can with an adapter that slides over the front sight of a Mark II and
locks in place with a twist. The diameter of the 5.56mm bullet is .224; however, that
should be close enough because the .22LR is .223 in diameter. I’ll build one and we’ll
try it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll make a smaller baffle.”

“How much clearance does the current baffle have?”

“No much. What the hell, I’ll just cut it down to a baffle of .223 and we’ll give that a try.
We can always make it larger.”

“Thank you, I’ll see if I can find a Mark II.”

“You mean you don’t have one?”

I don’t know how, but I had completely forgotten about the Standard that I had. I had
one of the originals with the red eagle that my father had purchased in 1951. I hadn’t
shot it for at least 10 years, maybe more. Ruger changed the eagle to black in 1952
when Alexander Strum died. That made my handgun very rare and worth a bundle. With
that in mind, I started to shop for a Mark II. I talked to John because he seemed to know
where to get almost anything.

“A Mark II? Which barrel length?”

“Whatever would be best to build one with an integral suppressor? Dave says he can
manufacture a slip on attachment that slides over the sight and twists to lock in place.”

“Could you get by with the Ruger they built for the Navy SEALS? It has the integral sup-
pressor and that would save you a lot of fussing around trying to adapt one of your sup-
pressors.”

“You don’t need it?”

“Yes, I do; however, I have two. What would you have to trade?”

“Gold Dot, 230gr .45ACP and 124gr +P 9mm.”

“Do you have any subsonic .22LR ammo?”

“No, although we do have about 50 bricks; some each of standard velocity, high velocity
and hyper velocity.”

“There are a variety of different types of .22 LR loads. They are often divided into four
distinct categories, based on nominal velocity:

83
● Subsonic, which also includes “target” or “match” loads, at nominal speeds below
1100 feet (335 m) per second.
● Standard-velocity: 1120–1135 feet (340–345 meters) per second.
● High-velocity: 1200–1310 feet (365–400 meters) per second.
● Hyper-velocity, or Ultra-velocity: over 1400 feet (425 m) per second.

I’ll trade you one brick of the target loads for two bricks of the high velocity loads. I want
1,000 rounds of .45ACP and 1,000 of the 9mm for the pistol. Don’t worry about the tar-
get ammo, it works just fine in the pistol. Actually, I’m surprised you don’t have a Ruger
automatic.”

“Actually, I do although it had slipped my mind. It’s the Standard model from 1951 and
has the red eagle. I’d rather not use that; it’s a collector’s item.”

“Doesn’t that just frost your butt?”

“What?”

“Having a perfectly good firearm you can’t use because it’s too valuable.”

“We may still make the adapter and a suppressor, but I doubt we’ll use it except in an
emergency.”

“Ok, done deal. You bring the ammo and I’ll provide the pistol and target ammo.”

“What if we need more?”

“Hang onto some of the Gold Dot and we’ll work something out.”

Typically, you fire hundreds of rounds of pistol ammo for every round you fire in a life or
death situation. We fired up all of our Speer Lawman keeping in practice and were re-
duced to our supply of Gold Dot. The opportunity to get more was too good of an offer
to pass up. The main difference between the two was that the Lawman was FMJ.

“Chief, I talked it over with my father; can I get all of my overtime in ammo?”

“Sure, Gold Dot or Lawman?”

“You have both?”

“Of course. Gold Dot is awfully expensive to use up in practice. How about this, 50% .45
and 50% 9mm divided in 60% Lawman and 40% Gold Dot?”

“Sounds good; but 75% Lawman and 25% Gold Dot sounds better.”

84
“Planning on changing your mind again next week?”

“I don’t believe we will. Know anyone with either a Ruger Mark II suppressed SEALS
model or maybe a High Standard HDM?”

“I sure do, but he wants three grand for the HDM pistol. I might be able to get you the
SEALS Ruger for around a grand.”

“Hot?”

“Smokin’!”

“Does your little group of patriots have a name?”

“You know about that?”

“I was guessing but based on some reliable information.”

“No, no name as a group. Each member has selected a handle instead of using their
name. We only know the actual name of one other member, a neighbor of ours.”

“And, I take it, it’s a small group. That seems to be in your character. I take it you made
some suppressors using 625 for the baffles? You took the hard route. Advanced Arma-
ment Corp. has right on their website that their silencers are made out of 718 for the
baffles and series 300 stainless for the body.”

“How many do you intend to make?”

“All we can Bubba; we’ll supply every patriot in the country, God permitting. I don’t plan
to sell them until we’ve stopped manufacturing them. I have an old service buddy who
will be my go between. I’ll sell to him; he’ll mark them up 10% and sell them either di-
rectly or to dealers willing to run a little side business.”

(That’s how Dave became Bubba. Bubba is a relationship nickname formed from broth-
er, given to boys to indicate their role in the family, especially the eldest male sibling.
For some boys and men, bubba is used so pervasively it replaces the given name. The
nickname may also be used outside the family by friends as a term of affection.)

The overtime amounted to 4 hours per night, 5 days a week, and Bubba was drawing
time and a half or 30 hours of regular pay paid in Gold Dot or Lawman ammo. How
much ammo will $690 per week buy? A lot, there were no taxes taken out and this was
strictly off the books. Everyone working for the machine shop was working 4 hours per
night, turning out suppressors.

85
Perhaps seeing the handwriting on the wall, a Republican Representative introduced a
Bill to repeal all federal firearms acts going all the way back to and including the NFA.
Unfortunately, it died in Committee while igniting a firestorm of support from over 40% of
the population. Even had it passed the House, passage in the Senate was seen as un-
likely. To be effective, it had to pass by a majority signaling the president that his veto
could be over ridden. That would take passage by a two-thirds majority (or higher) in
both the House and Senate. Both the Republican and Democrats were voting along par-
ty lines and the Democratic National Committee opposed the Bill from the start.

“I’m going to change my handle in the group.”

“What’s wrong with Mechanic?”

“Nothing; nevertheless, I’ll be going by Bubba from now on. Our group doesn’t have a
name, does it?”

“Not that I know of, did you have something in mind?”

“How about Ghost Riders?”

“We can bring it up next week when we’re supposed to meet up to do that thing in St.
Louis.”

“St. Louis is a long way to travel for a few hours of work. Why not something closer to
home?”

“It’s not that far. US 65 to I-44 and I-44 to St. Louis. Driving time is under 4 hours.”

“Not counting the roadblocks.”

“Not counting the roadblocks. There shouldn’t be roadblocks on the Interstate, just at
the exits. But, I see your point, it’s roughly 250 miles and we’ll no doubt be stopped and
searched when we exit.”

“Especially since they’ve had a lot of shootings in St. Louis.”

“You’d think we’d run out of targets sooner or later; I understand they’re having trouble
hiring.”

“Do you remember the stink that was raised a few years back about all the federal em-
ployees who were allowed to carry guns?”

“I think I have a link to the list.”

5-App. Inspectors General and specified staff

7-2270 Dept. of Agriculture Office of Inspector General

86
7-2274 Certain workers at the Dept. of Agriculture
10-1585 Dept. of Defense civilians
12-248 Federal Reserve Board law enforcement agents
14-95 Coast Guard agents
16-1a-6 National Parks employees; any federal employee selected by the Secretary of
the Interior, with that employee's agency approval
16-559c Forest Service law enforcement officers and agents
16-670j Dept. of Interior, Dept. of Agriculture, and state employees by agreement
16-3375 Anyone in federal or state government, or an Indian tribe, to enforce hunting
and fishing laws
18-922 Federally licensed manufacturers, importers, dealers, museums, researchers
and others are exempt for firearms testing and evaluation, per subsection (b); all gov-
ernment authorities are exempt from the assault-weapons descriptions in subsections
(v) and (w).
18-925 Federal and state governments are exempt from Title 18 Chapter 44 (the main
gun laws)
18-926B Qualified off duty police may carry concealed nationwide
18-926C Qualified retired police may carry concealed nationwide
18-930 Restrictions at federal facilities and federal courts do not apply to proper authori-
ties
18-1715 Authorities exempt from mailing restrictions
18-2277 Possession of firearms on a vessel are at the control of the ship's master or
owner; proper authorities are exempt
18-3050 Bureau of Prisons officers and employees
18-3051 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
18-3052 Federal Bureau of Investigation
18-3053 US marshals and their deputies
18-3056 Secret Service
18-3061 United States Postal Service
18-3063 Environmental Protection Agency
19-2072 Customs officials
20-60 Smithsonian Institution curators (for display)
21-372 Health and Human Services Dept.
21-878 Drug Enforcement Administration; local law enforcement officer authorized by
Atty. General
22-277d-3 International Boundary and Water Commission
22-2709 Dept. of State and the Foreign Service
22-2778 Government people who are not restricted by the US Munitions List
25-2803 Bureau of Indian Affairs
26-4182 Armed forces are exempt from firearms taxes
26-5844 NFA weapons can only be imported for proper authorities or research and test-
ing
26-5851 People working with proper authorities may be exempt from certain taxes and
requirements
26-5852 Certain taxes are waived for proper authorities and the military
26-5853 Certain taxes are waived for proper authorities and the military

87
26-5872 Proper authorities can get confiscated firearms
26-7608 Internal Revenue Service agents
28-566 US Marshals, deputies and officials of the Marshal's Svc.
31-321 Treasury Dept.
38-902 Dept. of Veterans Affairs
39-3001 Proper authorities are exempt from nonmailable firearms provisions
40-13n Supreme Court Marshal and Police
40-193t Smithsonian Institution police
40-210 Capitol Police
40-318d General Services Admin. officers and employees
40-490 GSA protection force
40-1315 Dept. of Homeland Security; Federal Protective Service
42-2201 Atomic Energy Commission and contractors
42-2456 National Aeronautics and Space Administration and contractors
42-7270a Dept. of Energy
43-1733 Dept. of the Interior
44-317 Government Printing Office employees
49-114 Transportation Security Administration
49-44903 Air transportation security personnel
49-44921 Federal Flight Deck Officers (deputized pilots)
49-46303 Proper authorities may have firearms on aircraft
49-46505 Proper authorities may have firearms on aircraft
49 App 2404 Dept. of Transportation employees at Washington National Airport
49 App 2428 Dept. of Transportation employees at Dulles International Airport
50-403f Central Intelligence Agency
50 App 2411 Dept. of Commerce Office of Export Enforcement

That was circa 2005, a long time back; 8 years to be exact. Did the new president dis-
arm federal employees? If he did, he kept it secret. The feds did buy more body armor
and you didn’t need to carry a gun to apply for and receive level IIIA body armor. In fact,
word had it that they measured you when you were hired and issued it to you the day
you started. By the revised 2006 definition, level IIIA was resistant against .357 SIG and
.44 Magnum. It may or may not been stab resistant, that was a different issue.

More likely he armed more of them and really created a ‘you against us’ mentality. Fed-
eral employees were paid by we the people and accountable to we the people, although
I doubt many saw it that way. It was we the people who were eliminating as fast as we
could. The lack of new hires seemed to suggest it was working.

"The DPRK (North Korea) will never 'dismantle its nuclear weapons' unless nukes in
South Korea are dismantled to remove the nuclear threat from the US," a spokesman
for the North's General Chiefs of Staff was quoted as saying by the official Korea Cen-
tral News Agency.

88
 The Seniors – Chapter 18

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitors media in the communist state, said
the spokesman's statement was carried on state television.

The spokesman said denuclearization of the Korean peninsula does not only mean dis-
armament of the North but should also include verification of alleged nuclear facilities in
South Korea, according to KCNA.

South Korea denies having any atomic weapons.

"There are no nuclear weapons in South Korea," defense ministry spokesman Won
Tae-jae told Yonhap.

China will accelerate the build-up of its nuclear and conventional arsenal to form a cred-
ible deterrent, the general in charge of the country's strategic missile force said.
“We will accelerate the building of our nuclear and conventional combat strength,” said
Jing Zhiyuan, the commander of the Second Artillery Corp, in an article he co-wrote for
the authoritative journal Qiushi published on Sunday.

“We will strengthen the build-up of combat systems and improve the training of high-
quality personnel,” said the article.

China will also develop “a nuclear and conventional missile force corresponding to the
needs of winning a war” in conditions changed by modern information technology, it
said.

The Second Artillery Corps is an independent branch of the armed forces directly under
the control of the powerful Central Military Commission. It is armed with hundreds of
strategic and tactical missiles.

“The Second Artillery is the core of our nation’s strategic deterrence. It is the main sup-
port pillar and backup force of our national security and development,” the article said.

The corps’ jobs include “deterring other countries from using nuclear weapons against
China, and for conducting nuclear counter-attacks and precision strikes with conven-
tional missiles,” China said in a recent policy paper.

Update: North Korea still had whatever weapons they had when they issued the state-
ment in 2009. China had expanded its missile force to nearly double and was estimated
to now have up to 1,000 weapons. Historically, China was reported as having on the or-
der of 400 weapons. They had finally succeeded in MIRVing the MF-5A. Their inventory
included 24 DF-5As, 24 DF-31s with a single warhead and 60 DF-41As with an estimat-
ed range of 10,000km, up from 8,000km and 3 warheads.

89
We also had a threat from Iran. They’d launched their first satellite in February 2009 in-
dicating that they had developed long range missiles. What about Israel?

In the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other
Mideast nations gathered Tuesday for a hastily convened meeting that represented a
more assertive effort by pro-US Arab governments to push Hamas toward an Egyptian-
mediated truce – and away from Iran.

It made starkly clear the split in the Arab world between US allies and the pro-Iranian
camp, particularly Syria, which backs Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbol-
lah. Syria was not invited to the meeting – nor was Qatar, which has taken an increas-
ingly pro-Hamas turn since Israel’s Gaza offensive.

“We have to ensure with our unity that unwelcome, non-Arab parties do not interfere in
our affairs in an unneeded manner,” the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, Sheik
Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said in a clear reference to Persian Iran.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and allied Arab nations accuse Iran of using its alliance with Hamas
to increase its influence in the region and gain a foothold on Israel’s doorstep. Iran gives
millions of dollars to Hamas and is believed to supply the militants with weapons –
though Tehran denies this.

Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen and Abbas’ Palestinian Authority also at-
tended the meeting.

The peace was holding, one month at a time. Hamas didn’t stop firing rockets and Israel
hadn’t stopped bombing. The brokered deal was less than any of the parties wanted ex-
cept for the universal condemnation of Iran.

There were wars in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and right here in America. Hil-
lary Clinton was urging Obama to call in the UN to restore order, but in an unexpected
move, he rejected her suggestion. Aside from being a socialist out of the FDR mold, he
was a reasonable president, all things considered. Compared to Bill Clinton, it was
Obama by 5 furlongs (3,300’) and compared to what Hillary might have been, it was
Obama by a mile.

Am I suggesting that a big war was in the offing? Not really, but then a person never re-
ally knows. Why in the past 3 years has China seen fit to expand their military and es-
pecially their missile forces and nuclear weapons? Maybe they’re just getting ready to
finally invade Taiwan, who knows. Before the missile and weapon expansion, they went
through a 10 year period of building ships and subs as fast as they could. Possibly
they’re going to war in installments, ships first, missile and nuclear weapons second. As
far as North Korea is concerned, they’re nothing more than an irritant unless they’re
planning on China saving their bacon like they did 60 years ago.

90
I’d be more worried about Russia and Iran. Iran has developed ICBMs and they still
won’t talk about their nuclear program despite sanctions being imposed by most of the
world. The last thing I heard about Russia was a while back when they seemed to be
trying to defuse their sharp rhetoric concerning the missile shield in the Czech Republic
and Poland. Now that Iran actually has missiles capable of reaching Europe, perhaps
they’re rethinking the matter.

Here at home, our group decided to adopt the Ghost Riders name. The main problem
was which version of the song they’d adopt, Vaughn Monroe, Johnny Cash or another.
There were over 50 versions of the song. However, Vaughn Monroe won solely be-
cause it was the best-selling one, originally recorded on March 14, 1949. The recording
first appeared on the Billboard charts on April 15, 1949, lasting 22 weeks and peaking at
position #1. The actual title of the song was (Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Leg-
end.

An old cowpoke went riding out on a dark and windy day

Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky, and up a cloudy draw

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny, and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
He saw the riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry
Yippie-aye-oh, yippie-aye-ay, ghost riders in, in the sky

Their faces gaunt their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
They're riding hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught them yet
'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire, as they ride and hear their cry
Yippie-aye-oh, yippie-aye-ay, ghost riders in, in the sky

As the riders loped on by him, he heard one call his name

If you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
A-trying to catch the devil's herd riding across these endless skies
Yippie-aye-oh, yippie-aye-ay, ghost riders in, in the sky
© Stan Jones, 1949

Our group was short one person for a few months while ‘Bubba’ worked overtime earn-
ing ammo. I said earlier there was a black market supplying ammo. The Coast Guard
did what they could to halt the importation via the oceans and the Border Patrol went all
out to block it coming in from Mexico and Canada. The Russians needed what they
were making for their own forces, curtailing that supply.

91
Eventually, people like us became the only game in town. It wasn’t any more illegal than
making suppressors, violating a different provision of what some thought was the same
law. The ammo ban was actually an EO, not the law. The law dealt with the guns and
magazines only.

The president seemed to be faced with two choices, suck it up and keep going the way
he had been or admit that he’d been wrong and strike the EO and urge Congress to re-
peal the new permanent AWB. Very few politicians are willing to admit they’ve been
wrong.

We found it humorous that the Border Patrol was trying to block ammo from coming
across the borders; however ammo came in boxes and didn’t have two legs. Most of
which were now headed south. The Minutemen were still watching and now passing out
water and food, if needed, so they could keep going south.

Into this mix, a twist on a previous activity emerged. Do you recall that Central and
South Americans were bringing M16 rifles and hand grenades north with them? They
now had a new customer base, the patriots. They were doubling their money, $400 for a
rifle and $6 each per grenade; all USGI products, not imitations.

When the Chief announced the project was done, Dave went back to working the
standard 40 hour week and I entered into the ammo business with John. We only used
the handles when we were on a Ghost Rider mission, lest we slip and inadvertently ID
ourselves.

The BATFE came back, twice. At least they didn’t cuff us; they just secured our cowboy
guns and searched. Because the floor of the tunnel seemed to get muddy, Dave and I
laid down ¼” metal plate. I don’t really know if that’s why they couldn’t find the stuff bur-
ied beneath the tunnel floor or not, but they didn’t find it. For all I know, it could have
simply been operator error. Another fact I later learned was that moist soil reduced the
depth of penetration to a few cm. It had something to do with ground conductivity and
only a highly experienced operator could sort it all out.

Do you recall that we built an ammo bunker? That was early in the tale, maybe chapter
3. Anyway, we couldn’t use the bunker for ammo and turned it into a cold cellar. It was
probably the most secure cold cellar in the whole country with block covered over with
dirt and 1” thick steel front panels. Come to think of it, I don’t remember ever telling you
that I moved the contents of the bunker to the armory off the shelter. Consider yourself
told. I thought my memory was still pretty good, considering…I didn’t quite have the
spring in my step I used to, maybe I should some shoes with springs.

“David, you’re going to need to slow down. I don’t want to lose you to a heart attack or a
stroke.”

92
“Beth, I’m fine; I just move a little slower. Doc says my Cholesterol is 66 LDL and 35
HDL and the total counting that VLDL is around 125. My triglycerides are around what
my Cholesterol is at roughly 130. Hell, at this rate, I’ll live to 100.”

“Are all of your other body chemicals normal?”

“You know they show up when they’re out of range and my last lab reports didn’t have
any exceptions.”

“Still…”

“What about you Beth, were your readings ok?”

“Well, my calcium was a bit on the low side and my sugar was borderline high at
130mg/dl.” (To convert mg/dl of glucose to mmol/l, divide by 18 or multiply by 0.055.
The new standard measurement prefers mmol/l.) Normal fasting blood sugar is between
70 and 110 mg/dl.

“Did he give you something for the calcium? What about your glucose level?”

“I have to take a once per year shot for the calcium and watch our diet for the blood
sugar.”

“Our?”

“You could stand to lose a few pounds.”

“Maybe that’s what slowing me down.”

“That and you being 69.”

“No sweat, I’m a businessman now.”

“What kind of business?”

“Ammo dealer. We’re so heavy on military calibers we should have enough to last sev-
eral years. This business is going to be by referral only; it’s the only way I know how to
prevent getting caught.”

93
 The Seniors – Chapter 19

“Geena doesn’t like Dave’s long commute.”

“Maybe but gas and diesel are cheap and he has almost as good a job as he had in Lit-
tle Rock.”

“At least you aren’t running around the state trying to get you heads shot off.”

“We’re still part of the Ghost Riders, but Sarge put us on hiatus. He said he wants to
wait about 6 months and see how the president responds to the continuing insurgency
and the threats from overseas.”

“What threats?”

“You can choose from North Korea, China, Iran or Russia; but Russia doesn’t seem
much interested in another war now that their economy is finally beginning to turn
around. They are a major oil and natural gas supplier and also supply diamonds and a
metal called Rhodium.”

Rhodium is a silver-white metallic element, is highly resistant to corrosion, and is ex-

tremely reflective. It is used as a finish for jewelry, mirrors, and search lights. It is also
used in electric connections and is alloyed with platinum for aircraft turbine engines.
Another use is manufacturing of nitric acid and used in hydrogenation of organic com-
pounds. Rhodium usage is dominated by auto catalyst applications where it is used to-
gether with platinum and palladium to control exhaust emissions

South Africa is the major source, accounting for almost 60% of the world's rhodium sup-
ply. Russia is the second largest producer, although its sales are, as with the other
PGMs, volatile and subject to political intervention.

High rhodium prices during the late 1980s led to increased rhodium production from
South Africa. This increased supply was primarily responsible for a declining rhodium
price during the 1990s. Interruptions to Russian supply since early 1997 have helped
the rhodium price to recover strongly. (source Kitco)

Up to this point in time, we’d had one apparent terrorist attack, the pneumonic plague,
and an internal strife aka an insurrection. The plague had long since passed and the in-
surrection might go on for years. There had been minor natural disasters, the Alaska
Volcano that erupted at a lesser level than anticipated and another minor eruption in
Hawaii. Redoubt put up some ash, while the latter just poured more lava down the
slopes of Kilauea. At least Yellowstone had gone back to sleep for now. Hell, we hadn’t

94
even had any Cat 5 hurricanes. We did have some flooding on the Missouri and Missis-
sippi due to high snow levels.

In March of 2013, not long after Obama was sworn in for his second term, TSHTF big
time. All thoughts of our ongoing insurgency were shelved when the country was at-
tacked by outside forces. Relatively small nuclear weapons had been smuggled in,
placed and exploded in Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Denver, San Francis-
co and Los Angeles. They were reported to be roughly the size of the bomb we used on
Hiroshima, ~13kt.

It wasn’t so much damage, although it was bad, it was the very idea that someone actu-
ally managed to sneak the bombs in and detonate them. An investigation concluded
that the bombs were manually activated, by suicide bombers. The cries went out, “FE-
MA, where are you?” They were probably hunkered down waiting for the radiation level
to subside IMNSHO.

That evening, Obama was on TV making a live announcement about the tragedies ear-
lier that day and promising to get to the bottom of who was behind the attack. I don’t
know, but offhand I’d speculate that it wasn’t the Russians, Chinese or Israelis. The
source of the bombs could have been North Korea, India, Pakistan, France, the UK, the
US or Iran. Beyond the obvious list were Syria via North Korea, Belgium, Germany, Ita-
ly, the Netherlands and Turkey via the US through NATO in the weapons sharing proto-
col. Wouldn’t it have been ironic if the 6 bombs had been built by the US?

We gave them a break, albeit brief. With the initial investigation results released to
MSM, we resumed our revolt. The bombing had taken the spirit out of some of the patri-
ots but enough remained to keep the revolution inching forward. As people slowly be-
gan to go back to work, they lacked time for the various activities we had found our-
selves engaged in. Dave periodically checked with Little Rock and when the company
reopened, he got his job back.

“What do you think; should we move the mobile home back to Little Rock or leave it
here and do something else there?”

“Dave, it would depend on what you could find. Maybe a trailer you could rent or a rea-
sonably priced apartment?”

“It wouldn’t be an apartment, there’s nothing reasonable about the rents they charge in
Little Rock. We could look for a mobile home to rent; I’d like that better anyway.”

“Whatever you decide, your mother and I will help as much as we can. You could leave
your machine tools set up here and come up on weekends if you have something you
want to make.”

“What’s the deal on the ammo I earned working for the Chief?”

95
“When it’s sold, the money is all yours, of course. I may buy a little myself, at the going
rate and boost the quantities I store for our weapons.”

“Could you buy some now, we might need extra money for a deposit.”

I figured he must be thinking about renting the Taj Mahal because they had virtually no
expenses during the time they had lived with us and he was pulling in a good wage
working for Chief. I had to hem and haw before he got my point.

“Either you don’t have it to spare or you think I have enough saved up, right?”

“Both, actually. I can buy some of the ammo when our checks come in but we do have
to refill the larder. We need staples like beans, rice, flour, wheat, oats and…”

“I know what staples are dad. We’re going to take back the same amount of food as we
brought with us, is that okay?”

“Of course David.”

Over the course of the years that we’d been buying from Walton, we discovered that we
ate more of some things than others. Oatmeal was a prime example; quick rolled oats
only cost about $21 plus shipping for a 50 pound bag and the hot cocoa, also in a 50
pound bag, went for around $70 plus shipping. We hadn’t gotten into our LTS foods to
any particular degree that couldn’t be replaced with single items.

When the pensions came in, I/we bought 1,000 rounds each of Gold Dot and 2,000
rounds each of Lawman. There was enough left over to pay off the debit card we’d used
to make the purchase from Walton and to make a good buying trip up in Springfield.
About the only thing they took with them was their upright freezer with a used portable
genset he bought to keep it cold and the food they brought up. He only really had to wait
two weeks for the money and they had much more food than that.

“We found a rental trailer in the same park we lived in. It needs some cleaning but it’s
okay now. It’s furnished but I think they must have gotten their furniture from Goodwill.”

“You could always bring that furniture up here and swap it out for the furniture in your
trailer.”

“We’ll talk it over; we may just do that sometime in the future.”

We visited for a while, mostly nothing in particular, and the battery on his cell phone
started to go dead ending the call.

“Are they ok Dave?”

96
The kids? Yes, they’re fine Beth. They got a rental trailer in the same trailer park where
they lived before. It came furnished, apparently by Goodwill. He said they may eventual-
ly swap out the furniture with what’s up here.”

“Put their good furniture in a furnished rental unit? That doesn’t sound too smart to me.”

“Actually it was my idea, I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“So with them down in Little Rock, are you done with the Ghost Riders?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard from Sarge in a while. The problem was that David and I
were a team with him being the shooter and me being the observer. Unless I can work
something out with John, I don’t believe I want to continue.”

“Why John?”

“I swear, he has the eyes of an eighteen year old kid and with him being an ex-Marine,
he’s one hell of a rifleman.”

“There’s no such thing as an ex-Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

“His (gun collection) is bigger than mine too.”

“You left yourself wide open, care to rephrase?”

“You obviously knew what I meant. No, no rephrase.”

“Was John the shooter or the observer?”

“John is a shooter.”

“That’s perfect, you can be his observer.”

“If, as and when we hear from Sarge, I’d be happy to team with you John. We old farts
have to stick together. I don’t know about you, but maybe we should just go it on our
own. We could be really selective and only take out those at the top. The way to kill a
snake is to lop off its head.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

“Which, going alone or killing a snake?”

“Both.”

97
John and I took to surfing the web with a vengeance. We both had 56k internet connec-
tions and made up a list of places to check, dividing it in half. He had semi-retired after
the broken leg and rented out that hilly cropland he had. We were looking for any high
ranking member of the administration that was making stops in Missouri. None in Mis-
souri were listed, how far is Dallas? Oh well, it’s not FEMA, or Brownie. I must say he
hasn’t done well since he ‘quit’ FEMA. Some have implied that it wasn’t voluntary so I
put quit in quotes.

It seemed, after much research, that the feds only visited St. Louis, Kansas City and oc-
casionally Jefferson City. Those weren’t day trips for two old men, more like overnight-
ers. We could drive up one day and scout the location. Maybe ask a few innocuous
questions; if there were any such thing in the midst of a revolution. We could pick our
spot, go out to dinner, maybe grab a beer and get a good night’s sleep. The next morn-
ing, we could get up early, clean up, have breakfast and check out before going to our
spot.

Once there, John would take his AW50 and one magazine of each type of .50 caliber
ammo while I took my Super Match loaded with M118LR and 8 spare mags of the same
and the observation scope. We’d work together doping the wind, verifying the range
with a laser range finder, etc. When our quarry came into view, we only had moments to
verify the wind and take the shot. One shot and one shot only, hit or miss (Give me a
ping, Vasili. One ping only, please). John didn’t miss; John never missed. We’d quickly
pack up and take off in the general direction of where the quarry had been because
they’d be looking for people running away, not towards them. The side benefit was we
sometimes found out right away the status of the quarry.

The whole idea was picking just the right person. And then, target only him/her instead
of trying to kill the entire federal government. You might be surprised just how well that
worked. We’d check into the motel using an alias, pay cash and we’d take turns doing
that. Sometimes, Beth would come along and do the checking in and go shopping while
we did our thing. What with this being a free country, lacking internal passports and no
travel permits, about the only way someone could place you in the location was if you
got a traffic ticket. BTW, Russia still has internal passports.

“Ever seen one of these Dave?”

“I saw something that looked like that back in the ‘80s. That one of those Spetsnaz
knives isn’t?”

“Yes, a Russian ballistic knife made by Ostblock and supplied to their Special Forces.
They’re only good out to about 20’ but could come in handy someday. Here takes this,
it’s for you.”

“Well, thank you. Do you have one for yourself?”

“No. No I don’t; now I only have eleven left.”

98
 The Seniors – Chapter 20

“Huh?”

“An importer, down in Florida I think, had a bunch for sale years back and I had some
money and bought a dozen. Put ‘em up; sort of figured they’d come in handy someday.”

“I thought that if you got close enough to use a knife, you were too damned close.”

“That’s good in principle, especially since we’re snipers. Thing is, you don’t always have
a choice. Military rifles have bayonets; how many times when you were in the Army did
you fix a bayonet that wasn’t in training?”

“Never.”

“Right. And you had the M14 rifle, right?”

“Sure did. It didn’t make any sense; the bayonet only had a 6⅝” or 6¾” blade.”

“I’m not sure why they did that; I suppose just to put a sharp point on the rifle, not for
actual combat. That bayonet they had for the ’03 Springfield was a real knife. I think
they started using them on the Garand at the beginning of WW II and then switched to a
10” blade and recalled the longer ones back to cut them down. Ten inches was still
enough, barely. The bayonet for the M16 was nearly identical to the M6.”

“Few of my rifles have bayonet lugs.”

“Your Mossberg’s do and they use the M7 & M9 bayonets. If was me, I’d get one of the
new OKC-3S knives the Corps is using as a replacement for the M9. It’s kind of a cross
between a bayonet and a bowie knife or the old Corps fighting knife.”

“Expensive?”

“What isn’t these days? About $160.”

“Each?”

“Yep.”

I looked at the checkbook and called a knife dealer I knew in Springfield, explaining
what I wanted and what I wanted it for.”

“A Mossberg 590A1?”

“That’s what I said.”

99
“You’re one of those patriots, aren’t you?”

“And if I am?”

“Patriots get them for cost. How many shotguns do you have?”

“I have 7 counting my son, his wife and three kids. I was only planning on buying two.”

“Are all seven 590A1s?”

“Yes, they have the ghost ring sight and an 8 round magazine.”

“I know, I have two. Seven at $90 each is $630. I can carry you for a while if you’re
short.”

“No, we have the money; it’ll have to come out of our hold back money. You know that
little extra you keep in the account for a rainy day.”

“You can send me a check or write a check and I can hold it.”

“Thank you, but it’s really not necessary. Beth and I will be up this weekend.”

“I’m closed weekends. My number is 417-555-1324. Call me when you get to Springfield
and we’ll have coffee.”

“I hope you weren’t thinking Starbuck’s.”

“That swill? Hardly.”

I knew that Springfield had over a dozen Starbuck’s locations. Maybe some people like
the stuff, I didn’t; we either drank Folgers or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate was a late
evening drink and we sometimes made buttered toast and dipped it in the cocoa. We
needed some of those fill in groceries too. So, after coffee and buying the knives, we’d
do our grocery shopping and head home. We were both carrying; I had my Kimber in
my middle of the back IWB holster and Beth had her Galco purse with a Hi-Power.

“Joe, Dave. Beth and I are in Springfield.”

“Where are you?”

“Perkins on west Sunshine.”

“See you in twenty.”

In case you don’t already know, a good share of the crowd our age seems to prefer
Perkins. A few years back, we were In Phoenix (AZ) and stopped in a Perkins. The res-

100
taurant was nearly full, of grey haired people. It was during the winter when the snow-
birds fly to Phoenix so I suppose they were mostly retired people from the northern
Midwest.

I recognized Joe when they came in and he introduced his wife, Mary. I introduced Beth
and we all placed orders. While we waited, I handed him an envelope containing the
cash and he handed me a plastic bag containing a shoebox. I took a peek and they
were what I’d seen on the Ontario Knife website. It was mostly small talk about how
good/bad his business had been before 2008. He cut loose all of his employees and
Mary did the books. He was only open from 10am to 5pm Monday through Friday and
made as much sharpening knives as he did selling knives. He said that if he didn’t have
his store paid for, he’d have had to close up.

I ventured a guess and asked about the Russian ballistic knives. He pursed his lips and
shook his hand indicating they were too hot to handle. I dropped it and he asked, “How
many?”

“You can get them?”

“Can’t now, but I bought some and the law got changed so I was stuck with them.”

“How much?”

“Well, I paid around $80 apiece for them, so I have almost $500 tied up in knives I can’t
sell. You could have them for $250 total, but you didn’t get them from me. You can’t
even mail them, it is cash and carry only.”

“I’d be willing to pay that much, but we’d have to come back up after the 4th Wednesday
when our Social Security checks come in.”

“I’ll hold them. Call me before you come and I’ll bring them to the store. At the present,
they’re tucked away in a shoe box in my basement.”

“Do you have a thing for shoe boxes?”

“They’re handy for storage; most people assume they contain old shoes.”

“I’ll call first; same phone number or not?”

“Not, let me give you my card and you can call the shop after 10 or my home before
9:30. These days, it doesn’t take long to open up the store.”

After we headed to the store, Beth asked, “What is a ballistic knife?”

“They were made by the Russians in the ’80s. It basically looks like a double edged
fighting knife, but the blade is spring loaded. Some have a lever and some a button.

101
They also have a safety pin. In combat, you carry it without the pin and you can push
the button to release the blade. It will go about 12’ and wound, if not kill, your opponent.”

“And naturally, they’re illegal.”

“Naturally.”

“One of these days, you’re going to slip up and ATF will be pounding on the door with a
search warrant and there will be something you forgot to hide.”

“I already have one. John gave it to me.”

“That proves it. The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”

“It took you how long to figure that out?”

“About two weeks, but I couldn’t prove it until now.”

“Let’s get what groceries we can and pick up anything we miss when we come back in
two weeks.”

“There’s nothing we can’t live without. Let’s just go home.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, something else might come up that we’ll need the money for. I don’t mind your
gun collection, but it has become an expensive hobby.”

“These days, it’s far more than a hobby. John and I dropped out of the Ghost Riders
and are running our own little operation. You know, you rode to St. Louis with us.”

“That wasn’t a shopping trip?”

“It was, but that was a cover for what we were really there for.”

“You could have told me.”

“Did you enjoy shopping?”

“Yes.”

“No harm, no foul.”

“Don’t ask again unless you are willing to let me know what I’m getting into.”

“Fair enough, sorry.”

102
°

We didn’t find a suitable target and our next trip was back to Springfield and we went to
the store. I handed him 5 fifties and he handed me a shoe box in a plastic bag. I
checked and it contained what he said it did. We looked at some of his other knives and
a Randall caught my eye. It was a model 2 Fighting Stiletto with an 8” blade for $350.

“Go ahead; we’ll call it an early Christmas present.”

“I’ve always wanted one but I’ve never bought one because of the price. Early Christ-
mas present, huh? Ok, that works for me.”

We did all of our grocery shopping in a single stop, pretty well filling the camper topped
pickup. We stopped for lunch at Perkins and headed home. We managed to unload the
pickup and restock the shelves with what we’d purchased. I sat down the next afternoon
and wrote checks to pay the bills, finding we still over half of what we’d received. There
was a note saying UPS had attempted to make a delivery and would try again tomor-
row. That had to be our order from Walton.

Now, rather than being gun poor, we were knife poor. We would give everyone an OKC-
3S plus a Russian ballistic knife. The next time Dave and family came up to visit I gave
him the knives with explanations.

“What do you do after you’ve fired the blade and can’t recover it, dad. The knife is use-
less after that.”

“Throw it away?”

“I’ll make two replacement blades for every knife the next time we come up. I can get
the proper high carbon steel in Little Rock.”

“Is there any way you could modify the muzzle brake adapter for the rifle suppressor to
include a bayonet lug? We could get double duty if we could use the OKC-3S on our
M1As.”

“I’ll look into it. A rifle bayonet on a sniper’s rifle? Who ever heard of such a thing?”

“John and I dropped out of the Ghost Riders and have been going it on our own. You
should have noticed that I only gave you 5 of those Russian knives. The guy I got them
from only had six.”

“We won’t need anymore.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 21

“Why not?”

“Geena had her tubes tied; her idea, not mine. She said she didn’t want to bring any
more children into a world like this.”

“No more babies? I bought firearms assuming you would have four children. “Your
mother and I talked and that suggestion I made about moving your good furniture down
to the rental trailer was a bad idea.”

“I’ll bet it was mom; Geena said the same thing.”

“As a matter of fact, it was. But you will look into the bayonet lugs?”

“Sure I have the bayonet and the adapter, it shouldn’t be that hard. I may be able to
come up with a lug we can weld onto the existing adapters.”

“Make a couple of spares while you’re at it, I’m sure we’ll find a use for them.”

The following week, I called Joe and asked if he minded my driving up to visit him in his
shop. He said he’d be glad to see me and asked if I knew anyone with military caliber
pistol ammo. I told him I might and asked what he wanted. He said two sizes, the size
the military used both before and after 1990. Hmm, .45ACP and 9mm, this I could do. I
set aside 1,000 rounds of Lawman and Gold Dot in each caliber to take with me.

“Hi Joe.”

“Dave. What did you want to talk about?”

“Before we get into that, I brought you 1,000 rounds each of Lawman and Gold Dot for
9mm and .45ACP. The ammo belongs to my son so I’m afraid I can’t just give it to you.”

“No problem, I’d be more than happy to pay the going rate. How much do I owe you?”

“I can round it off; $2,000.”

“Ouch.”

“I can hold your check.”

“Will you settle for four ounces of gold in one-tenth ounce American Eagles?”

“Aren’t you overpaying? Of course, I’ll take the gold, but gold is almost $1,200 an
ounce.”

104
“I paid $50 per coin and those 40 coins cost me $2,000. I’d be happy if you would.”

“Done. Help me haul it in.”

“We’ll move it from your pickup to the trunk of my car, pull your pickup around back and
park next to the SUV.”

“Thank you.”

“How did you end up with so much ammo?”

“That’s a long story, but my son worked for a guy who paid for overtime in ammo or
cash.”

“Doing what?”

“My son is a machinist.”

“I don’t need to know any more than that; loose lips and all that crap. Now, what did
you want to talk about?”

“I’d like to ask a couple of questions and you’re free to answer or not, your choice. I
have an extensive collection of Springfield Armory M1A rifles, do you have one?”

“No. But, I do have 2 HK 91s with extra magazines, but very little extra ammo. I also
have two HK 93s, same story. Why?”

“You know I’m one of the patriots, right?”

“That 590A1 was a dead giveaway, they’re illegal.”

“Would you be interested in joining a group?”

“I already belong to a group; do the names Chuck and Rob mean anything to you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do know two people by that name in this area.”

“They’re out of the picture, they got caught. They’re locked up in one of those FEMA
Gulags pending trial. Well, it’s actually the military base’s detention facility.”

“I didn’t know that, they seemed like nice guys.”

“They are; Chuck is my son.”

“The group I belong to is small, just the two of us. We previously belonged to the Ghost
Riders.”

105
“Now, I’ve heard of them, or maybe of their exploits. The interesting part I heard was
that the leader, some guy they called Sarge, didn’t actually desert the Arkansas Nation-
al Guard. He really did believe in his oath and was pulling Guard duty the same as al-
ways and doing his thing on his off time. The reason he dropped out of your group was
that he got activated.”

“He had a Tac-50.”

“Do you know the story about that rifle?”

“Only what he told me.”

“His father wrote patriot fiction and posted most of it on Frugal’s Forums. Now, his father
had always wanted certain firearms, but living in California made that all but impossible.
The one he wanted the most was a Tac-50 in his later years. Besides the fact that they
cost a fortune, they were and are illegal in the People’s Republik. Sarge’s grandfather
left his son’s share of his estate in a trust fund that would be divided three ways when
the son died. Sarge and his brother each got a third and the son’s wife the other third.
When he died, Sarge got the money and bought the rifle. He also inherited all of his fa-
ther’s firearms.”

“He told me some of the things he had.”

“The German .32 was rare and worth a lot. His father’s M1A turned out to be especially
accurate and Sarge arranged for his father to have that Taurus PT1911, which, like the
Barrett wasn’t Kalifornia approved. His father also had an OKC-3S for his Mossberg.
There’s more to the story, but you get the idea.”

“A friend, John, and I have been going it alone. I got a wild hair and decided to talk to
you since you’re obviously a patriot too.”

“And do what?”

“Where is Chuck locked up?”

“Fort Chaffee. The feds shut down the base back in ’97 and turned all but 6,000 acres
over to the Arkansas National Guard. Under that National Emergency Centers Estab-
lishment Act, they built a camp at Fort Chaffee. Rob and Chuck are locked up in their
detention facility.”

“And, when you think about it, we have an insider there, Sarge.”

“But you don’t know his name, if what you told me was correct; you used handles be-
cause of OpSec.”

106
“Do you know his father’s real name?”

“I sure do.”

“And, do you know where the son lived?”

“I do because his father wrote about it in his stories. I don’t know if he still lives there,
but he lived in Flippin and went to college in Mountain Home. If they moved, it was
probably to Jonesboro. He attended Arkansas State University, the only College in
Mountain Home.”

“Do you know Sarge’s actual name?”

“Derek and that son who lives in Bolivar is Derek Jr.”

“We could consider a mission to Fort Chaffee to secure the release of Rob and Chuck.”

“Count me in.”

It took weeks of planning and a trip or two to Arkansas. We located Sarge’s wife and
she put us in touch with him. She said our bona fides would be to ask him his favorite
version of the song (Ghost) Riders in the Sky. If he answered Vaughn Monroe, it was
cool and Johnny Cash meant it wasn’t. She gave us his cell phone number and we
headed over towards Ft. Smith. Fort Chaffee is a little Southeast of Ft. Smith. We spent
a day or so scouting the area before calling Sarge.

“Hello?”

“What’s your favorite version of Ghost Riders in the Sky?”

“Vaughn Monroe.”

“This is Bookman.”

“Where are you?”

“Outside Fort Chafee checking the place out.”

“What for?”

“I have a friend whose son is locked up in that detention facility you have.”

“Where can I meet you later in the day?”

107
“Pick a place and we’ll be there.”

“Who is with you?”

“Farmer.”

“Ok, George’s Restaurant in Ft. Smith. Make it around 6:30 pm.”

“George’s; got it.”

The restaurant was located right in downtown Ft. Smith. We went early and were seat-
ed. To hold our table, we ordered appetizers and something to drink. When Sarge
showed up, he joined us.

“I have to tell you, I know who you are now because of my friend in Springfield who is
Chuck’s father. I won’t mention any names, of course, Sarge. Is there anything you can
do to help us spring those two guys?”

“Let’s order, they close at 8:30.”

Sarge seemed to be lost in thought. Either he couldn’t make up his mind over what he
wanted to eat or he was thinking about the question I raised. After we ordered, he said,
“Very little, but I’m willing to do what I can.”

“What can you do?”

“Not everyone who is a patriot deserted the Guard. I didn’t but told you I did so you
wouldn’t be afraid of me. It will take me a week to talk to some of the others I know to
determine what I can actually do.”

“Fair enough, by the way, dinner is on us.”

“How is Mechanic?”

“Got his job in Little Rock back and went back home.”

“If we needed help on the outside, how big of a force could you muster?”

“Four for sure; maybe more. I don’t know how big the Springfield group is or if they’d be
willing to participate. You can count on the two of us, Chuck’s father and my son. I’ll
know next time I see you.”

108
 The Seniors – Chapter 22

“You have my cell phone number, call and say how many Ghost Riders were herding
the cattle.”

“Good idea.”

We finished our dinner and Sarge took off. John and I had more coffee before we left
and then returned home, arriving late.

“You were gone longer than I expected.”

“We ended up going to Jonesboro and from there to Fort Chaffee and finally ate dinner
tonight in Fort Smith. Now we have to wait a week to see what Sarge can work out.
Meanwhile, I have to contact Joe and see how much help that group in Springfield can
offer.”

“You actually plan on taking on the entire Arkansas National Guard?”

“Not really, I’d be willing to guess that the Governor has most them spread out around
the state, especially in areas with large populations of federal employees like Little
Rock, Fayetteville and Pine Bluff Arsenal.”

“Are we going to Springfield tomorrow? I’d like to do a little shopping and can drop you
off at the knife shop to work on some of the details with Joe.”

“Good idea; why don’t you call Mary and see if she’d like to go along. When Joe paid
me for the ammo, he paid using tenth ounce Gold Eagles based on his cost and not the
market value. I’m going to take him 2 cases of the Federal Match in .308 and 5.56.”

“Two of each or one of each?”

“Oh, two cases total. I’ll still come out ahead and I’ve got to either get the gold coins to
David or hang onto them until when they come back up.”

“Hello?”

“Mary, this is Beth Morgan from Branson. I’m sorry I’m calling late.”

No problem, we were watching a DVD.”

“Dave and I would like to come up tomorrow. I want to do some shopping and Dave
wants to talk to Joe.”

“What time?”

109
“Around 10am.”

“That should work; I’ll get cleaned up and meet you at Perkins at 10. If you’re hungry, go
ahead and eat, don’t wait on me.”

“Thanks Mary, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Hi Joe.”

“Hey Dave, Mary told me you’d be in today.”

“I parked my pickup in back, I brought you something.”

“Ammo?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s get it into my car.”

“Wow match grade no less. How much?”

“1,000 rounds of each.”

“No, how much for the ammo?”

“Nothing. You way overpaid me for the pistol ammo, this is on the house.”

“Ok, thank you. Is that what you wanted to see me about?”

“We tracked down Sarge at Fort Chaffee. They moved to Jonesboro so he could finish
his undergraduate program. By the way, does your group have a name?”

“We call ourselves the Springfield Hornets after one of the local High School teams.”

“How many can you get to help if we try to spring Chuck and Rob?”

“Counting me? Only six for sure. Some of the others dropped out after Chuck and Rob
were captured.”

“I can guarantee 4 and 2 more if we get our wives to go with us. My grandsons aren’t
quite ready for the big leagues.”

“Make that 7, if Beth goes Mary would kill me if I didn’t let her go too.”

“No disrespect, is she capable?”

110
“Is she ever; wait, you’ll see.”

“Ok then, I’ll tell Sarge we can supply a total of 13. Now, sell me something so I have an
excuse to be in here.”

“Here’s a nice one, the Buck Colleague. It’s $7 more if you get one with NRA logo.”

“Any sharper?”

“Nope, both are made in China.”

“How much?”

“No charge, thanks again for the ammo.”

“I’ll call when I have more details. Now, we’re supposed to meet the wives at Perkins at
1pm for lunch.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, exactly what do you have to fight with?”

“Several M1As, mostly loaded models and a Super Match; A PTR 91; a Barrett light fifty
and a model 95; a bunch of 12 gauge shotguns; my Kimber Tactical II; a few Hi-Powers;
two 5.56 carbines, an 870 with a hunting barrel, and all kinds of single action revolvers,
4 Winchester lever actions with single action revolvers in the same calibers; a pile of
Marlin 1895 Cowboys; and, miscellaneous .22 rifles and hand guns. We also have
some ordnance, LAW rockets, M61 hand grenades, M183 demolition kits a M203 and
some 40mm grenades. Our ammo assortment runs from surplus to Black Hills match.
Between my friend John and me, we have about every standard cartridge available for
the .50 caliber rifles, including MK211.”

“What did you do, rob the NRA Armory?”

“I mostly bought them one at a time over a period of years. Say, do you need silenc-
ers?”

“I have one for each of our battle rifles.”

“The ones that Chuck got?”

“How did you know?”

“My son David made them.”

“He does good work. Wouldn’t mind having those fast attach adapters.”

“‘He can make them but he needs the rifle to fit them.”

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“Expensive?”

“Cheaper than Surefire but he uses their design. No doubt he’s infringing their patent
but that’s tough chit. I have him working on an attachment for the muzzle brake adapt-
ers, a weld on bayonet lug so we can use the OKC-3S bayonet/fighting knife on our
M1As.”

“I thought it was the M9.”

“It was but the new one replaces the M9 because their blades tended to break.”

I called Sarge and told him there were 13 Ghost Riders. He asked how many were 60 or
older. I had to tell him only 5 for sure possibly more. He said he was trying to arrange a
veteran’s tour of Fort Chaffee that he would conduct himself as a recon. Some places
would be off limits even then, including the ammo bunkers and detention facility. We
could, however, get a feel of the place and develop our own plan for his approval and/or
assistance.

“Joe, Dave. I didn’t think to ask, how many of the people you can put together for this op
that are over sixty?”

“Including the women? Six, but there are a couple of guys with grey hair that look older
than their actual age, so make it eight. Why do you need to know that?”

“Sarge is arranging a veteran’s tour of Fort Chaffee.”

“It will include the veteran’s wives?”

“I didn’t ask; let us assume so for the moment. I’ll get back to you.”

“Sarge, does that include the veterans’ wives?”

“It could.”

“Ok, there will be eleven.”

“It’s set up for the Saturday after next, 09:00 at the front gate. Leave the hardware
home, you may be searched.”

When you’re waiting for something to happen, the clock always seems to slow down.
That doesn’t seem to change much as you age. It’s almost as if you are trying to syn-
chronize yourself with that slowing clock because you generally slow down too. A cou-
ple of follow up calls from Sarge apparently using the number he got for my phone from

112
his caller ID and the visit was set. He suggested that we consider a strike early on a
Sunday morning, the one time the detention facility had a minimal staff. These soldiers
were God fearing, church going Christians. He’d do his best to get a fellow patriot who
was an MP to volunteer to pull duty at the facility whenever we planned to strike.

Frankly, the tour was boring, if you’ve seen one military base, you’ve seen most of
them. Our group of 13 had increased to 15 because 2 of the wives who accompanied
their husbands on the tour volunteered for the mission. We agreed to do it the following
Sunday and I called Dave and filled him in. He said they would be up Friday night after
work and not to wait dinner. Joe and I agreed that everyone would assemble at our
place late Saturday night and we’d leave for Fort Chaffee around oh-two-hundred.

It was about 165 miles, but we allowed 4 hours, rather than 3, just in case. We were
armed with shotguns and pistols. The shotguns were loaded with non-lethal shells and
the pistols with FMJ rounds. We agreed that, were we forced to shoot, we’d start with
the shotguns and only use the pistols as a last ditch defense. It’s easy to say shoot to
wound, but it’s harder to do especially in low light conditions. We discussed it openly
and left it up to each individual to make his/her own decision at the time.

We gained access just where we were told to go and moved silently to the detention fa-
cility. A guard was just leaving and another guard came out to take a smoke break. He
fit the description of the patriot Sarge had identified to us. John and I moved up and
asked, “How’s it going soldier?”

“You damned neared scared the life out of me. Ok, here’s how it’s going to go down.
There’s a roll of duct tape and you tape me to a chair. Your friends are in cells 4 and 6.
Let them out and take off. I’ll be relieved in 30 minutes, so your time is limited.”

You can probably imagine the expressions on Chuck and Rob’s faces when they saw
me. They were even more excited outside when they saw their parents. We left the way
we came and were moving towards home when the breakout siren sounded. Our trip
home was much faster than our trip down. It was decided to put Chuck and Rob up in
Dave and Geena’s trailer for the moment because the first place the authorities would
look would be in Springfield.

“Now I know how those detainees down in Guantanamo felt. Being locked in a cage is
no fun at all. Don’t let anyone kid you; they’re still using waterboarding on some of the
prisoners.”

“Did they use it on you two?”

“They didn’t actually catch us in the act, so they were speculating at best. We hadn’t
even gotten completely set up. They got our rifles, too. We’re going to have to replace
those.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 23

“I have a pre-64 Winchester model 70 in .308 with a good scope, will that do?”

“Sure will, thank you.”

“I’ll donate a HK91 to the cause to replace the PTR91K,” John said.

“Man, a real H&K, thank you.”

“You’ll be able to spend some time on our range but it’s only around 1,000’ deep.”

“There’s just one thing I need to warn you about. It’s possible that the ATF might turn up
at any time. They’ve thoroughly searched the place and before that, it was a US Mar-
shal. They think that they’re Arnold Schwarzenegger. You should have a little warning
and will need to head for the hills.”

“What are they looking for, the silencers?”

“No. They’re looking for my firearms and refuse to believe my claim that I sold them be-
cause times got hard.”

“Can they find them?”

“If they knew where to look, yes. I took a hint from a patriot fiction story I read where the
gun room was behind a bar. ‘For a minute or two, Clarence was at a loss; he then no-
ticed two identical statuettes, one on either side of the back bar. He tugged on one and
it slid toward the center of the back bar about 3”. He tugged on the other and it, too slid
toward the center of the back bar about 3”. He stepped back and pulled on the back bar.
It slowly came forward on the tracks. He pulled it as far as he could then stepped
around behind the back bar and pushed it up to the front bar. Taking a flashlight, he
looked in the 8’ deep by 16’ wide room. He sucked in his breath.’ I sort of did something
like that but not as elaborate.”

“A hidden gun room?”

“You could find it with ground penetrating radar. When the ATF was here, I challenged
them to bring their radar and look. It was pure bluff, but they haven’t tried.”

“I notice that your soil is very moist, is all of the soil like that?”

“Mostly, why?”

“Well, moist soil prevents the radar from penetrating deeply, sometimes only a few cen-
timeters.”

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I told you earlier that I later learned about the radar; this was that occasion.

The more I considered our current circumstances, e.g., a few of tons of illegal ammo,
enough illegal rifles to arm, after a fashion, a platoon of infantry and all of those things
that went Kaboom in the night, the more I realized we needed to reevaluate everything
and make changes as needed. A successful ‘run for the hills’ seemed unlikely. It wasn’t
a lack of hills; we had more than we need in this part of Missouri. The problem would be
time; the ATF had managed to interrupt our Independence Day picnic and we had virtu-
ally no warning.

Most assuredly, if the ATF found everything the list of charges would look like a tele-
phone book running hundreds of pages. When I voiced my concerns out loud, Rob and
Chuck began to ask questions looking for a solution. Their first proposal was to move
the armory to a different location. Since we had an ammo bunker, why not excavate a
large space underneath, form walls with concrete block and pour a concrete floor?

“And get to the weapons and ammo how?”

“We’re working on that, it can’t be hard for the people who live here, but it has to nearly
impossible for outsiders.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“How big is your stash?”

“Come down to the shelter and I’ll show you.”

“We entered the shelter and I showed the mechanics behind locking and unlocking the
bookcase covering the armory.”

“Do you actually have any idea how much stuff you have here?”

“Guns, yes, ammo no. Some of the other things we only have small quantities of, like
anything explosive.”

“And from what we can see, it’s not buried any lower than the floor of the shelter, right?”

“That’s about the size of it. You have that pondering look of some who has his gears
grinding.”

“Here’s what I think, but it’s only a thought. Let’s assume for a moment that the ATF
knows about the bookcase.”

“You don’t have to assume that, they do. They couldn’t figure out the combination it
takes to open it.”

115
“So, if they came back, they might try harder to gain entrance?”

“Like what?”

“Explosives. Can you imagine what would have happened if they chose that option?”

“A lot of dead ATF agents.”

“How about they blow it and find nothing?”

“How do you propose doing that?”

“Temporarily empty the armory and dig down from the top like you must have done. Ex-
cept, we dig deep enough so we’re under the floor level of the shelter. We can construct
a larger bunker and store everything there. Then, we build a thinner floor for the present
armory so when they look inside all they will find is whatever you decide to store there.
That could be your communications equipment and your radiological equipment or
maybe your spare legal firearms. It could even be a combination of all three.”

“Clarence is never around when you need him.”

“Who’s Clarence?”

“Clarence is a character out of a patriot fiction story who found a man’s gun collection
hidden behind the back bar of his family room or whatever.”

“Do you have a back bar we could do something like that with?”

“I don’t even have a bar, let alone a back bar.”

“What do you think of the idea?”

“It might work, or might not, who is to say? I will say that simple is good and simpler bet-
ter. From what I see, the only thing it will accomplish is making the guns harder to get at
when we need them.”

“I see your side of it; we’ll keep working on it.”

“Thanks fellas.”

The bottom line was that 2 weeks later, they hadn’t come up with a better idea. They
had abandoned both the subterranean chamber under the ammo bunker and building a
new armory under the shelter floor. It left us just where we had been; no better or worse
off. Their wives and children came down and met them in Branson unsure whether or

116
not they were under surveillance. The wives checked into a motel in adjoining rooms
and Chuck and Rob came in through the back windows. Murdering a federal employee
is a capital crime. With Six You Get Eggroll (movie title). If that was indeed the case,
most of us were entitled to a 7 course Chinese meal. And, we weren’t the worst of the
patriots or the most prolific.

Since there was no way to directly connect us to the Fort Chaffee breakout, we went
about our normal business. That included farrowing more sows, calling the vet when a
mare foaled and gardening. To date, we hadn’t had the type of national emergency that
affected the country widely. I know, I know, the plague and 6 nukes. We didn’t get sick
and they didn’t set off a nuke in Missouri. Rob even took a turn breaking a 3 year old
filly. They aren’t mares until they’re 4 years old. While the vet said we could breed her,
we held off for a year. Our horse herd had started with 4 geldings and we added two
mares and a stallion. With the new foals we were up to nine but only had seven we
could ride.

John arranged for us to get feed from the guy renting his land. In turn, we gave him a
market weight hog and a side of beef. Then we made our usual trip buying extra hams
and bacon. This time, Beth added two smoked loins (Canadian bacon). Next, Chuck
and Rob helped Beth and I to do a thorough inventory of our food stocks. We were in
the best shape we’d ever been in and had another small order from Walton on the way.

The COLA used by Social Security and our pension funds wasn’t keeping up with infla-
tion, one more worry. With food prices changing faster than we could keep up, we modi-
fied the basic quantities of food we stored. For example, we averaged inventorying 120
cans of Folgers. That was increased to 180. We doubled our supply of bathroom tissue
and canned meats like Spam, tuna, etc.

I was the only one who wouldn’t eat either the rabbits or Tilapia so we lay in extra bun-
dles of macaroni and cheese. We could have made it from scratch, but I’d been eating
the boxed stuff so long I preferred that.

After weeks of searching in the Springfield area, the feds stopped looking for Chuck and
Rob. They didn’t forget them, not one bit; however, they were chasing more recent es-
capees. Once we’d pulled off the prison break at Fort Chaffee, proving it could be done,
more and more patriots worked to free their friends. It was turning into a 3 ring circus
between them trying to nab the patriots in the first place, keeping them securely con-
fined and looking for them after they’d been sprung.

The economic stimulus package hadn’t worked, unless you call creating inflation work-
ing. Unemployment fell slightly but more people were living on the dole than any other
time in history. These days, everyone had paid into FICA most of their adult lives. The
federal government was supposed to hold the funds in trust until you retired, earning
money on the trust funds. For many years the feds couldn’t access the trust funds;

117
eventually, they found a way, buying US government bonds or some such. I could look
it up, but it isn’t that important.

As a result of the 1983 amendments, particularly the tax increases, the Social Security
system began to generate a large short-term surplus of funds, intended to cover the
added retirement costs of the "baby boomers." Congress invested these surpluses into
special series, non-marketable US Treasury Securities held by the Social Security Trust
Fund. Under the law, the government bonds held by Social Security are backed by the
full faith and credit of the US government. Because the government had adopted the
unified budget during the Johnson administration, this surplus offsets the total fiscal
debt, making it look much smaller. There has been significant disagreement over
whether the Social Security Trust Fund has been saved, or has been used to finance
other government programs and other tax cuts.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Too late now. Full faith and credit? Get real!

“Sure hate to see you fellas leave.”

“Our wives will be happy to have us home. Again, thanks for everything, you were a real
lifesaver. We sure would like to pay you for the rifles, especially the HK 91, it is worth a
lot.”

“Take it with thanks giving. We’re not particularly short on firearms. Tell Joe hi for me.”

“We will.”

With that they were off, driving Joe’s car that he’d dropped off for their return trip. Joe
had taken Chuck’s pickup to use until his car was returned. On another front, each year
since the AWB had been passed, a Representative would introduce a bill in the House
to repeal it and a colleague in the Senate would do the same. During the first 4 years of
the Administration, the bills never got out of Committee. They were simple bills and
identical, eliminating the need for a Conference Committee to bring the bills into align-
ment.

However, after the mid-term elections of 2014, the Republicans had a small majority in
both the House and Senate. This time, the bills were tied to a spending package that
Obama insisted he must have to ‘finish his work’. Is that the same as finishing us off?
The spending bill, including that tiny little Amendment, passed both the House and Sen-
ate with better than ⅔ majorities. He had no choice; he had to sign the legislation. And,
we got our guns and ammo back!

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 The Seniors – Chapter 24

I should say most of us did because states like the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia
adopted the full text of the repealed AWB. That also applied to Massachusetts, Illinois
and couple or three other states. Anyone who previously had some sort of magazine
ban now had a full blown AWB. Kalifornia was the worst of the lot, even banning BB
guns and air rifles.

Kalifornia wasn’t our problem, securing the release of those people who ended up in the
FEMA camps was. It was disgraceful the way they kept those camps. You were sup-
posed to have a bed, food, sanitation and medical care. Why were the compounds sur-
rounded by chain link fences topped with razor wire? Why did they have watch towers
with the machine guns pointing inward?

The law said:

Purpose of National Emergency Centers- The purpose of a national emergency center

shall be to use existing infrastructure-

(1) to provide temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals

and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster;

(2) to provide centralized locations for the purposes of training and ensuring the coordi-
nation of Federal, State, and local first responders;

(3) to provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, re-

sponse, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-
based organizations; and

(4) to meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Se-
curity.

It reminds me of the ATF regarding their interpretation of the Firearms Owner’s Protec-
tion Act. As debate for FOPA was in its final stages, Rep. William J. Hughes (D-NJ)
proposed an amendment to ban the civilian ownership or transfer of any fully-automatic
weapon which was not registered by May 19, 1986. However, any such weapon manu-
factured and registered before the May 19 cutoff could still be legally owned and trans-
ferred by civilians. There were many people, like John for example, who had automat-
ic/select fire weapons that weren’t registered. Plus, there was the issue of Missouri law
prohibiting suppressors.

However, the problems weren’t over. Obama said we could negotiate with Iran. Do you
remember when Vice President Joe Biden warned that the US stands ready to take pre-
emptive action against Iran if it does not abandon nuclear ambitions and its support for
terrorism?

119
But in his first major policy speech as President Barack Obama's No. 2, Biden also de-
clared the US open for talks with Iran and Russia to repair relations. And he reached out
to the world with a promise that the Obama administration will work with allies to solve
global problems.

The matter at Fort Chaffee was resolved when several hundred men and women carry-
ing state of the art assault weapons showed up, burst through the gates and surrounded
the FEMA camp. A single volley of fire into any one of the towers would have taken out
the guards. The guards weren’t fools, they gave up and left the gates open when they
left. The story repeated itself until all of the FEMA camps were empty and faith based
organizations took over helping the internees.

Apparently Biden wasn’t just talking. The US and Iran did enter into negotiations. And
they talked, and they talked… All the while, apparently, Iran was building additional mis-
siles and nuclear weapons. Pakistan let A.Q. Khan out of prison and he disappeared
shortly thereafter. It was finally determined that he’d flown out of Karachi using a Saudi
Passport. After Saudi Arabia, he’d simply disappeared. Some claimed to have seen him
in Iraq and others claimed to have seen him crossing the border into Iran.

Whatever the case, he’d had almost five years to do what he did best. In the very early
spring of 2015, North Korea, who wouldn’t give up its nuclear weapons, China, who had
built many more nuclear weapons and Iran, who we weren’t sure had nuclear weapons
announced a joint action. It’s that Axis of Evil again, but with nukes. And only one dead-
line, Taiwan.

In reverse order, Iran said that if its neighbors didn’t help it, it would take on Israel on its
own. North Korea said they were transferring their missile forces and nuclear weapons
to China. China said Taiwan had seven days to accept reunification or they would at-
tack.

We’d had our attack, 6 nukes set off by terrorists in 6 major cities. The cities were still
being cleaned up and rebuilding wouldn’t begin until it was deemed safe. The govern-
ment was operating out of multiple locations around the US, no longer concentrated in a
single location. Obama was in Cheyenne Mountain and Biden at Mt. Weather. The
Congress had essentially taken over the Greenbrier resort. Basically they used whatev-
er space was available. Unknown to the general public, there were far more bunkers
than Offutt, Cheyenne Mountain and Mt. Weather. Everyone knew about the Greenbri-
er, they gave tours. It didn’t take long to reequip the location when Congress wanted it
done.

“We got the radiation equipment back, recalibrated.”

“I hate spending the money Beth, but it doesn’t do us much good if we can’t count on it.”

“They are our insurance plain and simple. Are you feeling ok? You look peaked.”

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“A little tired, that’s all. I probably ought to get into see the doctor and have a physical.”

“I’ll call and make both of us appointments, better safe than sorry.”

We drove up to Springfield and had the physicals. The office said they’d call if the lab
results showed anything. Four days later, they called back and said they wanted to see
me. My lab work was a bit off; my RBC was down. The doctor wanted me to have an
endoscopic stomach exam. He scheduled it with an associate for the following week
and we returned for the exam.

“Have you been worrying about something?”

“Just the normal stuff, why?”

“You have two bleeding ulcers. I’m going to put you on Nexium and I’d like to see you
again in three months. If you have problems, please call.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Here’s a two month supply of Nexium to get you started and a prescription for more.”

“How long will I need to take it?”

“Possibly forever, but you can call anytime you want more samples. You should check
with your regular doctor and get another blood test in a month to six weeks.”

“Did he say what caused it?”

“I forgot to ask. I’ll tell our regular doc and see what he says.”

Our regular doctor was surprised and put me on clopidogrel (Plavix). The manufacturer
of Plavix says don’t take it if you have a bleeding ulcer.

Note: In 2006, generic clopidogrel was briefly marketed by Apotex, a Canadian generic
pharmaceutical company before a court order halted further production until resolution
of a patent infringement case brought by Bristol-Myers Squibb. The court ruled that Bris-
tol-Myers Squibb's patent was valid and has patent protection until November 2011. In
2007, the production was halted to many retail pharmacies and will be changing back to
Plavix.

Neither Beth nor I took many pills. I attributed that to our healthy lifestyle which included
plenty of exercise taking care of the livestock and our huge garden. Once we got started
planting a very large garden, it was like eating peanuts and we couldn’t stop. Geena
would come up and stay during canning season for a share of the food. Another few
years and I’d have Sheila on the range, but for the moment it was my two teenaged
grandsons.

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John called me one day asked me if I was free to stop by. I said sure and was over
there in ten minutes.

“Man, you don’t look so good.”

“Well, neither do you.”

“All I have is a pair of bleeding ulcers and I’m on Nexium. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing you can cure with a pill, pancreatic cancer. The thing is I don’t have any living
relatives. My wife died about ten years back and our only son was shot by some gang-
ster in Kansas City.”

“I’m sorry to hear that John. Hell, I’m sorry to hear about everything. Is there something
I can do to help?”

“Not really, I’ll be going into a hospice in Springfield soon. I’ve sold my land off and I
want your family to have my gun collection to do with as you see fit.”

“Thank you, but I don’t know if we can accept that.”

“Why not? I assure you there are no living relatives and it’s mine to do with as I see fit.
You have 3 grandchildren, keep them in mind. I have, my will provides that any remain-
ing monies be equally divided among them.”

“If you insist, of course, we’ll accept you firearms for the family. When are you going into
the hospice?”

“Next Monday.”

“Dave will be up tomorrow, how about we come over on Saturday and haul it over to our
place then?”

“You have your pickup, let’s load up the firearms and you can come back for the ammo
on Saturday.”

“Ok, thanks.”

“What did John want honey?”

“To tell me he has 4th stage pancreatic cancer and will be going into a hospice in
Springfield on Monday.”

“What a shame.”

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“It is that. However, he said he had no living relatives with his wife dead several years
and their only son being shot in Kansas City some years back. He insisted we take his
entire gun collection. I have nearly a pickup load of firearms to get into the shelter and
David and I will go on Saturday and pick up the ammo.”

“What does he have?”

“A lot of everything, especially H&K rifles.”

“Do you need help?”

“Oh please.”

“He had more than we had.”

“Did you notice that some of those Colt revolvers were still new in the box? There is a
well-used set, but altogether it appears he had about 4 complete sets of SAA .45 Colt in
each barrel length, including the ones with the 3½” barrel called the Sheriff’s model.”

“What would you suppose that gun collection is worth?”

“Considering the AW50, the scope, the H&Ks, thirty grand easy; and, that not counting
the ammo.”

“My Lord.”

“Our collection is worth nearly as much as his, but he has us edged out a little.”

One thing I haven’t mentioned is the cigarettes. Between the feds adding 61¢ a pack
and Missouri adding another 39¢ a pack, the price of a carton of smokes went up a
buck a pack. I wouldn’t have minded the new Sin Tax, provided it went to treat illnesses
attributed to smoking. But no, it went to benefit children who never smoked. The gov-
ernment was trying yet again to legislate morality. One of the company attorneys I knew
when I worked in Springfield said that he learned in law school that despite government
attempts, legislating morality always failed and gave Prohibition as an example. So, I
rolled my own.

I had never smoked in the house, Beth forbade it. Nonetheless, she would buy my ciga-
rettes if I asked, which I never did. We rarely drank and it wasn’t as if we were support-
ing several bad habits. You may recall we tried to make beer, but only once. Unless col-
lecting guns and ammo was a bad habit; we had way more than two guns apiece and
I’ve never found a way to shoot more than two at a time. Looking back, I thank God that
we’d never overspent when it came to ammo. We may have been able to get a higher
return for the suppressors, but chose not to.

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 The Seniors – Chapter 25

If you’ve been following the timeline, China did not attack Taiwan. They did, however,
impose a naval blockade. I had stopped watching the news for a few days over my
stomach problems. I then learned that John had 4th stage pancreatic cancer. He asked
that I drive him up to Springfield to the hospice when we went over to pick up the ammo.
I told him that Beth and I would both go, if that was ok with him.

A hospice is a nursing home for the dying and rather a gruesome place. Before we got
out of the truck, he gave me something I hadn’t expected, an H&K USP Tactical with a
Knight’s Armament suppressor. I don’t know why I was surprised, it was one of his fa-
vorites, or so he claimed. I would have thought he’d favor the Kimber. We checked him
in and stayed to visit for a while but a nurse gave him a pain shot and he soon drifted
off.

Except for what happened next, we would have continued to visit him. He’d mentioned
on the drive up that everything was prepaid and not forget the small inheritance he was
leaving for our grandchildren. I guess I hadn’t realized how close we had become be-
cause both Beth and I got all choked up with emotion. But, John was a God fearing man
and shouldn’t have much trouble getting into the great beyond. That is unless God didn’t
much care for snipers.

It took several days to sort through the ammunition and firearms. It was necessary to
remove all of the ammo from the small armory just to hold the firearms; which got me to
thinking that we’d never actually built a hidden ammo bunker. There was nothing wrong
with the one I’d built and I transferred all of the ammo into it since it was large enough to
use both as an ammo bunker and cold cellar. The only change I made was to the lock-
ing system. Where I’d had a single 4 roller combination lock with standard hasp and
ring, I replaced it with two case hardened hasps and rings and a pair of Master Lock Pro
Security Iron Shrouded keyed locks with the same keys. They ran $42 each for the pair
and were nearly indestructible. I figured if they were good enough for the government,
they’d work for me.

Dave was back up the following weekend and the first words out of his mouth were,
“Have you been following the news?”

“Not really. We took John to Springfield on Monday. Then I spent Tuesday sorting
through the ammo and Thursday and Friday moving it into the ammo bunker. Here’s a
key, the locks both use the same key and they came with two per lock. I also gave one
to your mother and another to Geena. So, what did I miss?”

“I’m not sure where to start.”

“You might try the beginning.”

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“Ok, China imposed a naval blockade on Taiwan and gave them 7 days to accept reuni-
fication.”

“I heard that and the blockade came instead of the attack they threatened.”

“Did you know that North Korea transferred its missile and nuclear weapons to China?”

“I heard that too.”

“How about Iran saying that if its neighbors didn’t help them, they’d take on Israel on
their own?”

“I heard that too. However I haven’t heard anything since I heard those three things.”

“The US sortied the George Washington from Yokosuka and the Reagan from San Die-
go to be joined by the Stennis and Lincoln from Washington.”

“That’s most of our Pacific carriers!”

“They moved the Nimitz to Pearl.”

“That’s all of our west coast carriers, damn.”

“I spoke to our supplier at Pine Bluff and he told me the military was at DEFCON 3/
THREATCON BRAVO. The Navy is sailing at Condition III, Material Condition ALPHA. I
asked if there was anything available at the moment and he said, ‘Nada’.”

“Come out and check out the bunker, I doubt we need any more now that we have
John’s complete gun collection and ammo. Now, don’t repeat what I’m about to tell you
to anyone besides Geena. John had no family and his will provides that your children
will inherit any remaining estate. He didn’t say what they were to use it for, but I would
assume college.”

“How is he doing?”

“Not good. I’d give him 3 months, tops. Want a Kimber Custom Tactical II or a USP Tac-
tical to replace your 1911A1?”

“I’m good for now. I don’t really have the time to spend on getting used to a different pis-
tol.”

“Back to the Navy; did they say anything about where they’d join up the Task Force(s)?”

“I sort of doubt it will be in the South China Sea.”

“Anything about the submarines?”

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“Same source said the west coast boomers are all deployed and most of the Los Ange-
les I class boats are sailing to support the Carriers. The Seawolf class boats are based
in the Puget Sound. The Virginia class boats are all east coast based.”

“What about the SSGNs?”

“All on the east coast but I suppose they could move some of the east coast vessels to
the Pacific.”

“Provided they have time.”

“Dad, I think they may have been begun moving them the moment China issued that 7
day warning. For all we could know, they may be half way to Hawaii.”

“I don’t like it. Thanks for filling me in. I do have another concern though.”

“The ATF?”

“No, the food police, aka FEMA. Are you aware that there are a series of Executive Or-
ders giving the president or his appointees nearly unlimited powers in case of a National
Emergency? I sometimes read Dan Quayle’s website and he has a link to Stan Deyo’s
website.”

“That’s Steve Quayle, not Dan Quayle; Dan Quayle is the former Vice President under
Bush Senior who can’t spell potato.”

“Anyway, he has a list of Executive Orders on his website. I saw a similar list in a patriot
fiction story by TOM. One of the EOs allows the government to seize food if you’re
hoarding.”

“Do you believe that this will turn into a shooting war?”

“That just might happen. I want you to take a CD V-742, a charger and the CD V-715
survey meter when you go home tomorrow. What’s the condition of your bug out bag?”

“Fully stocked and good for three days.”

“Let’s get one of those 6 gallon food pails and stock it for a thirty day supply of freeze
dried food. You be sure to take your rifle, shotgun and pistol. Say, did you ever get the
extra blades made for the ballistic knives.”

“Damn, I meant to bring them, they all done.”

“Put them in your pickup so you don’t forget again. John had a dozen and he gave me
one. Somewhere in all of his stuff are the other eleven he kept.”

126
We eventually found them in an ammo can along with the OKC-3S bayonets modified to
fit his H&K rifles. That reminded me and I asked Dave about the bayonet lugs. He said
they were done and he’d have to bring them up and use a MIG welder to add them to
the rifles. He had enough to do both the adapters and the original flashhiders. Then, I
remember that Joe had said he wanted a fast attach adapter.

John died a week to the day after he’d been admitted to the hospice. I checked and
learned that his instructions were for direct cremation and interment next to his wife. A
lawyer called a few days later and asked Beth and I to drive to Springfield for the read-
ing of the will. If the grandchildren and their parents were available we were to bring
them too. Dave couldn’t get the time off so Beth and I accompanied by Geena and our
grandkids made the trip.

The estate, before attorney fees was in the vicinity of $160,000 to be divided three
ways. Cost and fees were estimated to be between 5 and 10 thousand dollars. That
surely would give the kids a foot up on paying for a college education in a few years.
Once the will was filed and court approval granted, the checks would be forwarded to
our address and we could give them to Geena.

As luck would have it, the kids had their checks in 3 weeks. Canning season was near-
ing an end and school season was fast approaching. After reaching record highs of over
$1,200 an ounce, gold had fallen to $650 an ounce and silver proportionally lower, close
to the 50:1 ratio. The price seemed to be falling daily as the economy finally began to
improve.

After the kids were in bed, we four adults sat down and discussed what to do with the
money. One suggestion was high interest saving accounts. Another was to convert it
into gold and silver coins. Each had its risks; the bank could go broke but the FDIC
would cover losses up to $100,000 per individual. An investment in precious metals
could see their inheritance cut in half or double. The final decision was to do both, put
half in a high interest saving account and the other half in gold and silver, minus $500
that they could spend as they wanted.

All the gold would amount to ~38.5 ounces. All the silver would amount to 1,924 ounces.
A 50-50 split would result in 19.25 ounces of gold and 982 ounces of silver apiece with
~$25,000 in their savings accounts. Since the US mint at West Point was again produc-
ing coins, we went with Gold and Silver American Eagles. The remainder purchased a
relatively high rate CD. The boys wanted to spend their money on camping equipment
and Sheila, now walking and talking, simply didn’t understand. Geena held her money in
a savings account.

Because the kids rode our horses every chance they got, they typically wore jeans, long
sleeve cowboy shirts, cowboy boots, cowboy hats (Resistol 5X Buck Outs). Even Sheila

127
wore jeans and a shirt but no cowboy boots until her feet were stronger. Geena had
helped her pick out a Hill Country. The kids all selected black hats. Beth and I added
extras, rifle scabbards, saddlebags, and Lariats. Not knowing what to buy, we selected
Classic Ranch Ropes, 7/16” in diameter, 35’ long.

The US Fleet stopped short of Taiwan, around 200 miles east. China began raining
missiles on the island. They’d done this before however, not recently. The missiles were
relatively short ranged and could only fly from the mainland to the island. The thing
about it was, even if we’d have put guided missile destroyers and cruisers in the Taiwan
Straits, we could not have intercepted them all. We supplied extra Patriot III missile
units, flying them in on C5Bs and C-17s. Around the world, the tension increased and
sooner or later the pot was going to boil over. Around 2:00 on a Wednesday, Dave
called.

“I just talked to the soldier. The family and I are headed up to you place. We’ll be leav-
ing just as soon as we finish putting things into the trailer. If you need anything, this
might be a good time to get it.” Click, he hung up.

“Who was that honey?”

“David. He said he talked to that soldier and they’ll be leaving Little Rock shortly head-
ing here. He also said that if we need anything, we’d better get it. Do we need any-
thing?”

“Nothing comes to mind. What now?”

“I suppose we’d better see to the livestock. Get ‘em boarded up and feed laid out for an
extended period. Do you suppose that this has something to do with Taiwan?”

“You should know better than I would; has there been anything on the news?”

“It’s funny you should ask, there’s been a dearth of world news recently and that’s most
unusual. MSM has been focused inward, digging up every little bit trash they can find
and trying to win another Pulitzer Prize.”

“Come on, I’ll help with the livestock. Do we want to harvest the fish?”

“We probably should, it won’t take long to fillet them and get them ready for the freezer.
None of the rabbits are big enough to butcher, thank God.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 26

About 90 minutes later, we had all of the tasks completed and things moved from the
house to the shelter, just in case. It was mostly the things in the refrigerator and if we
overreacted, they’d be easy to move back. I disconnected the communications gear,
except for a single radio, from the antennas and grounded the antennas. I could com-
municate with Dave with that radio.

“This is Dave on mobile two, can you hear me base?”

“Five by five, where are you?”

“About to cross the state line, we’ll be there in 30 minutes or less. Have you moved eve-
rything to the backyard?”

“Ten-four.”

“Mobile two out.”

The only thing in our backyard was our shelter and near that, the ammo bunker. Our
just in case thinking had borne fruit; but what kind of fruit, mushrooms?”

“Dave just radioed and asked if we moved everything to the backyard. Have we? Is
there anything else we need to move, just in case?”

“Just the guns in the rifle rack.”

“I’ll get them. Why don’t you go to the shelter and get supper started? Do you have any-
thing out?”

“The fish isn’t frozen yet.”

“Yuck. I’ll have macaroni and cheese, thank you.”

“No HEMP yet?”

“No Dave, no blinding light in the sky. Yank those radios and we’ll put them in the shel-
ter.”

The radios were mounted on plates that allowed them to slide out of the mounts. Geena
told Sheila to go to the shelter with her brothers and she’d be down in a minute. The ra-
dios, firearms, ammo and any fresh food were moved to the shelter.

“You aren’t watching the news?”

“I figured you’d fill us in.”

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“Turn on the TV.”

We had a Direct TV satellite dish to receive our TV signal. Do you know who was be-
hind Direct TV? Howard Hughes. Anyway, we had the package that cost $35 per month.
I didn’t want to spend the extra money having high speed internet would cost. Now,
about that HEMP; scientists determined that a low yield fission weapon could produce
greater HEMPs than fusion weapons. We first learned about EMP from the Starfish
Prime test detonated 400km above the Pacific that took out lights, etc. in Hawaii. A sin-
gle 10kT fission device detonated 300 miles (480km) above the center of the US could
wipe out all unprotected devices from coast to coast and border to border.

It would also take out most, if not all, low earth orbit satellites over a period of time.
Don’t worry about it if you lose Sirius Radio, your car probably won’t start anyway.
When we turned on the TV and switched to Fox News, the international logjam of news
was broken and they were reporting on the situation in the Far East. North Korea had
crossed the DMZ, invading South Korea. (They didn’t comment on the M-14 and M-16
mines.) South Korea was falling back while US forces rushed northward to join them.

China had invaded Taiwan and the US Carrier aircraft were bombing the Chinese ships
and both our submarines and aircraft were launching Harpoon missiles. (The Harpoon
missile provides the Navy and the Air Force with a common missile for air, ship, and
submarine launches. The weapon system uses mid-course guidance with a radar seek-
er to attack surface ships. Its low-level, sea-skimming cruise trajectory, active radar
guidance and warhead design assure high survivability and effectiveness. The Harpoon
missile and its launch control equipment provide the warfighter capability to interdict
ships at ranges well beyond those of other aircraft.)

It appeared to the Fox Correspondent (Shep Smith) that the Chinese were losing. He
went on to report that a portion of the CGs and DDGs were steaming north to intercept
ICBMs in the boost phase, but that was unconfirmed. They can do that using the block
IV-A SM-2 missiles, he said. Now we all know how China feels about losing anything
and not just the money they invested in US Treasury Bills. Satellites revealed that they
were getting their missiles ready to fly, you know, the ICBMs.

Before they could launch, Iran launched on Israel, opening another can of worms. Israel
lifted off the small force of always nuclear-armed fighter bombers and launched Jericho
III missiles at Iran. Next, a missile came over the pole and exploded at 320 miles over
Kansas City and the lights went out. All we lost immediately was our old TV, it was fried.
I’d disconnected the radio when Dave and his family arrived.

“Where’s the macaroni and cheese, I’m hungry.”

“I fixed you some of the fish fillets from the grocery store. Now you can eat what the rest
of us eat.”

130
“That was good fish; I hope that someday we can get more from the grocery store.”

“We have a lot of it in the freezer, so don’t worry.”

“But the only fish that we have a lot of in the freezer is Tilapia.”

“Bingo.”

“You didn’t have to trick me, you could have told me.”

“If I had, would you have eaten it?”

“Of course not.”

“I guess it would be fair to say that you left me little choice. Any radiation yet?”

“Nothing on the meters, but with communications out, they could wipe out the country
and we wouldn’t know unless a bomb fell in our backyard.”

We considered our options, concluding that until we had a reading on the CD V-700, the
Geiger counter, we would be safe outside the shelter. Dave and I left with plastic pon-
chos on, just in case, and carrying the Geiger counter went to check on the livestock.
We added an extra bale of hay for the horses and gathered the few eggs we found. I
was truly concerned about the animals but more concerned about the safety of my fami-
ly. It seemed to me that if we did get fallout, it might well come from Colorado Springs,
Albuquerque or Oklahoma City.

The long and short of it was that I was getting too old for this chit. The only thing I felt I
had going for me was 70 plus years of accumulated knowledge and not all of it on the
computer. One thing for sure, at my age, I wasn’t worried about getting cancer from the
fallout. We had medium duty Tyvek suits and the fancy Millennium gas masks from Ap-
proved Gas Masks with the CBRN filters and plenty of spare filters. I had picked that
brand of mask because they came in small, medium and large. Spare filters came 6 to
the case. As for footwear, there was nothing wrong with my goulashes (HazProof HD
Chemical Boots).

You know how it goes if you’re a prepper; you don’t know what kind of hazard you have
to prepare for, so you cover all of your bases. The only thing that limits most people is
having the money, a persistent problem. However, you just do it a little at a time; we
started with Beth and me and expanded it to include David and his family. When we
couldn’t buy ammo, we traded for it and, once, stole it. And now, look at us, 3 .50BMG
caliber rifles, enough assault weapons for a full Platoon or more, plus enough stored
ammo for David’s lifetime.

131
Speaking of firearms, again, we didn’t have any of those fancy ‘elephant guns’ like the
Winchester model 70 in .458. I am convinced that the .50 caliber rifles would probably
kill an elephant. However, this is still North America and the only elephants I’m aware of
are in zoos or belong to circuses. But if those animal rights activists have their way,
there’ll be no more elephants in circuses. As far as I knew, the only company making a
rifle in .458 Winchester was Remington in their model 798. There were two calibers,
.375 H&H and .458 Winchester. Remington didn’t sell .458 ammo, only Winchester did
and they only had one load, 510gr Super-X Soft Point. Better to buy from someone like
Buffalo Bore.

“I’m getting a reading on the 717.”

“How high?”

“It’s on the lowest range and the needle just lifted off zero. Write it down every 15
minutes, right?”

“That’s right. After it has peaked, we’ll plug it into that spreadsheet. I know there is a
way to actually figure out the original reading and we should use that as the peak. I’ll
have to look for the yarn that explained how to do that. I do know that we have to be
able to guess the location where it was detonated and how long it took the radiation to
get here. That’s why I have the weather station.”

The radiation crept up slowly and peaked around 100R. We guesstimated the location
based on the ‘elapsed time’ and wind speed. Then I plugged in 1,000R and compared
the spreadsheet to our peak reading. I had to get up to 3,000R before the readings all
fit. The location was Colorado Springs, not unexpected. Now, was the Cheyenne Moun-
tain Complex toast or not? There had been speculation that a direct hit on the mountain
above a certain size would destroy the shelter. The center was designed to withstand
up to a 30 megaton blast within 1-nautical-mile (1.9 km).

The underground Combat Operations Center (COC) was originally intended to provide a
70% probability of continuing to function if a five-megaton nuclear weapon detonated
three miles (5.6 km) away, but was ultimately built to withstand a multi-megaton blast
within 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi). It was also designed to be self-sufficient for
brief periods, have backup communications and television intercom with related com-
mands, house personnel during an emergency, and protect staff against fallout and bio-
logical and chemical warfare.

Although the dissolution of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War and greatly reduced
tensions between the United States and Russia (the Soviet Union's formal successor
state), both nations remained in a “nuclear stand-off” due to the continuing presence of
a significant number of warheads in both nations. Additionally, the end of the Cold War
led the United States to become increasingly concerned with the development of nucle-

132
ar technology by other nations outside of the former Soviet Union. In 1995, a branch of
the US Strategic Command produced an outline of forward-thinking strategies in the
document “Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence”.

The former chair of the United Nations disarmament committee states there are more
than 16,000 strategic and tactical nuclear weapons ready for deployment and another
14,000 in storage. The US has nearly 7,000 ready for action and 3,000 in storage and
Russia has about 8,500 on hand and 11,000 in storage, he said. China has 400 nuclear
weapons, Britain 400, France 350, India 160, and Pakistan 60. North Korea is confirmed
as having nuclear weapons, though it is not known how many (a common estimate is
between 1 and 10). Israel is also widely believed to have nuclear weapons. NATO has
stationed 480 US nuclear weapons in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and
Turkey, with several other countries in pursuit of an arsenal of their own.

A key development in nuclear warfare in the 2000s has been the proliferation of nuclear
weapons to the developing world, with India and Pakistan both publicly testing nuclear
devices and North Korea conducting an underground nuclear test on October 9, 2006.
The US Geological Survey measured a 4.2 magnitude earthquake in the area where the
test occurred. Iran, meanwhile, has embarked on a nuclear program which, while offi-
cially for civilian purposes, has come under scrutiny by the United Nations and individu-
al states.

Recent studies undertaken by the CIA cite the enduring India-Pakistan conflict as the
most likely to escalate into nuclear war. During the Kargil War in 1999, Pakistan came
close to using their nuclear weapons in case of further deterioration. In fact, Pakistan's
foreign minister had even warned that they would “use any weapon in our arsenal”, hint-
ing at a nuclear strike against India; the statement was condemned by the international
community with Pakistan denying it later on. It remains the only war between two de-
clared nuclear powers. The 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff again stoked fears of
nuclear war between the two countries.

Despite these very serious threats, relations between India and Pakistan have been im-
proving somewhat over the last few years. A bus line directly linking Indian and Paki-
stani administered Kashmir has recently been established. But with the November 26,
2008 Mumbai terror attacks, India does not rule out war with Pakistan if the Pakistani
government does not act on the perpetrators.

Another flashpoint which has analysts worried is a possible conflict between the US and
the Chinese over Taiwan. Although economic forces have decreased the possibility of
military conflict, there remains the worry that increasing military buildup and a move to-
ward Taiwan independence could spin out of control.

A third potential flashpoint lies in the Middle East, where Israel is thought to possess be-
tween one and four hundred nuclear warheads (this has never been officially confirmed
by Israel; however, Mordechai Vanunu, the former nuclear technician on whose 1986
revelations much of the above is based, was kidnapped by Mossad agents from Italy,

133
spent 18 years in detention on charges of “grave espionage”, and is still forbidden to
leave Israel and is subject to severe restrictions – which tends to lend credence to what
he told the British Sunday Times).

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 The Seniors – Chapter 27

It has been asserted that the submarines which Israel received from Germany have
been adapted to carry missiles with nuclear warheads, so as to give Israel a Second
strike capacity. Israel has been involved in wars with its neighbors on numerous occa-
sions, and its small geographic size would mean that in the event of future wars the Is-
raeli military might have very little time to react to a future invasion or other major threat;
the situation could escalate to nuclear warfare very quickly in some scenarios. In addi-
tion, the fact that Iran appears to many observers to be in the process of developing a
nuclear weapon has heightened fears of a nuclear conflict in the Middle East, either with
Israel or with Iran's Sunni neighbors.

Now I ask you, how does that obviously dated piece compare to what’s happening now?
It is dated because Britain doesn’t have 400 nukes anymore. The last I heard, they were
cutting down from 200 to 160.

Never mind the shelter stay; we could stay as long as we needed to. However, there
were livestock to feed, eggs to gather, a fish tank to clean so I volunteered myself to
handle those duties. I carried a dosimeter, wore the protective clothing and the whole
nine yards. Apparently the livestock had better resistance to radiation than humans,
none died. They were all in the barn so they didn’t have any direct contact with the radi-
ation. I’d wash myself down with a garden hose when I returned being careful to get it
all off.

David would take my dosimeter and record the reading, keeping a separate log of my
exposure. Finally, one day he said, “That’s enough! The radiation is way down and I’ll
do the livestock from now on. You, sir, are remaining in the shelter.”

I tried to find his log to see how much exposure I’d gotten and couldn’t find it. Finally, I
flat out asked him.

“150R, dad. Now, if you don’t get any more exposure, over the 120 day period, you
should be ok, provided you don’t get cancer.”

“What’s the difference David? I mean I’ve lived my life and you have yours ahead of
you.”

“The difference is that at the current level of fallout radiation, I won’t accumulate any
appreciable amount of radiation, period.”

He wouldn’t be dissuaded and I was forced to give up. He did have one thing right; the
readings he kept of his exposure wouldn’t rise to my accumulated dosage for a long
while, if ever. I didn’t feel much different, my hair had been thinning for years and I had
some nausea with no vomiting, probably that damned fish Beth kept cooking.

135
We ended up spending about 6 weeks in the shelter before David said that it was safe
for everyone to come out and stay out. I can’t remember being so tired, it was all I could
do to keep going. My appetite which was usually good wasn’t what it had been. Enough
about my aches and pains, here’s how things shook out.

David raised hams on the Yaesu radio after about three weeks. I noticed that the more
the time passed, the greater the range he could reach. I assumed it had something to
do with ionization of the atmosphere. With both beams and vertical antennas, we could
hear several miles out and then move the beam until the signal maxed out. The destruc-
tion was widespread; most large metropolitan statistical areas had been hit in an appar-
ent attempt to maximize civilian casualties. From what Dave said, it worked.

They had, indeed, nuked Cheyenne Mountain. Obama and the personnel stationed in-
side the mountain survived. The same couldn’t be said for the residents of Colorado
Springs, the Air Force Academy or Fort Carson. Denver had also been hit, with 2 nukes,
perhaps the other two warheads in a 3 warhead MIRV. Few military installations were
hit, only those with large numbers of personnel.

At one time the US had a program called Civil Defense and I never really understood
why it had been abandoned. Wait, I remember, it was replaced with FEMA. Lord love a
duck, we’re doomed. There was a bright side though; you could buy used Civil Defense
equipment from Radmeters4U, calibrated too!

I didn’t really feel like rolling my own anymore and dug around in our stores. I knew that
somewhere in all those boxes was a box filled with Kool’s 100s that I’d purchased be-
fore the dollar a pack price hike. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of Bugler regular
tobacco so David could use the machine to roll his own. However, he left early one
morning and, when he came back he was ears to ears smile. It didn’t take long to find
out what he was smiling about, he’d cornered the marked on factory made cigarettes.
Grand theft cigarettes; well, at $42 a carton, it didn’t take many cartons to make you a
felon, like anybody cared. He’d worked over a tobacco store but good, leaving the gro-
cery stores to the unprepared.

Considering those 150R I’d taken, I wasn’t particularly worried about smoking. “Float
like a butterfly, sting like a bee; if the left one don’t get you, the right one will.” He
stopped going by Cassius a long time ago. The last I heard, he wasn’t doing well. An
interesting sidelight to his career was his refusal to step forward when drafted. At the
time, I thought his behavior was unacceptable. However, we mellow with time and I re-
viewed his case on Wiki. He applied for conscientious objector status. His draft board
followed all the proper steps, contacting the Justice Department who had the FBI inves-
tigate, etc. They then held a hearing where the hearing officer recommended upholding
his claim as he met at least one of the three criteria. The Justice Department wrote back
to the Draft Board recommending that the status not be granted. He wouldn’t step for-
ward when inducted and was charged under the law.

136
It only took the jury 21 minutes to convict him and the 5 th Circuit upheld the conviction.
Ali appealed to SCOTUS where his conviction was reversed because he clearly met at
least one if not two of the three criteria. Yet another case of our beloved government
doing just exactly what it wanted, regardless of the law. But then, you could fill a very
thick book recounting instances like that. Come to think of it, they didn’t do so good
providing for the common defense, did they? We had the beginning of the 2nd Revolu-
tion before the law got changed.

Need a job? The government now has thousands of vacancies between the Revolution
and the GTW. The question is, how will they pay you, in FRNs? Forget it, insist on gold
or silver and if they won’t agree, tell them what they can do with their job.

“Are you losing weight?”

“I don’t really know, I haven’t weighed myself.”

“Go do it, I need to know.”

I had only lost 10 pounds, not enough to worry about in my opinion. I’d had a little nau-
sea and so forth when we were still in the shelter.

“Yeah, but it’s only a couple of pounds.”

“It looks like you’ve lost more than that. Do you have any weakness? No bleeding gums
or anything?”

“I’m fine Beth, just a little tired. I must have overdone.”

“Overdone what? David is doing all the chores.”

“Stop worrying, I’ll be fine. Maybe I got a little too much radiation, but I haven’t had any
since and I believe it’s okay to average your exposure as long as you don’t get in large
dose in a single exposure. I’ll try getting a little exercise, we didn’t get much while we
sheltered.”

“Will either you or David sit down and explain all you know about what is happening and
what happened during the war?”

“I suppose we should, but he’s been the one on the radio most of the time. He can give
you an overall picture and I’ll add anything I know.”

“Where did he go when he took off the other day?”

“He went shopping.”

“Shopping for what?”

137
“Tobacco products; he pretty much cleaned out a smoke shop.”

“You really should stop.”

“Et tu Brute? I’ve been smoking since I was 15 and it will be nearly 60 years in a couple
of years. What’s the point?”

“Have you ever considered how much you’ve spent on cigarettes?”

“I haven’t added it up, but when I was in the Army, they only cost $1.90 a carton.”

“And now they’re twenty times that.”

“You haven’t allowed for inflation. What cost $1.90 in 1961 would cost $13.03 in 2007.
And, this is 2015 for crying out loud.”

“How do you figure?”

“There used to be a web calculator. As far as I’m concerned, my smoking isn’t open to
discussion so long as I don’t smoke in YOUR house.”

“What do you mean MY house?”

“Well, if it was MY house, I could smoke in it.”

“Fine, but you’ll have to confine it to the basement with the door closed.”

What, you thought I didn’t smoke in the house because it was my idea? The trade off,
from my viewpoint, was being allowed to pursue my hobby, gun collecting. Between
what we’d bought and those we’d inherited from John, we might just have enough.
Maybe.

“Dad said I was to give everyone an update based on what I’ve heard on the radio. I
managed to pick up BBC a couple of times and Europe was hit as badly as we were.
There is no news coming out of Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan or North Korea. As
nearly as I can tell, our warships were able to knock down about half of the Chinese
missiles in boost phase. We had so few missiles in Poland that all we could do was to
intercept the Iranian missiles. Israel nuked the Iranians back to the Stone Age but didn’t
come away scot-free. The Iranian missiles were erratic and the support they hoped to
get from their Muslim neighbors failed to materialize. Apparently France failed to fire a
single missile and received only a single strike. Britain didn’t fare as well, but only took
about a dozen or so strikes for all of the British Isles.

“There is no effort being made to follow up on the Iranian strike of Israel because the
Israelis finally announced their nuclear weapons count, 560, less those used on Iran.

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Around the US, most major metropolitan centers were hit with one or more weapons,
some might have been MIRVs. None of the six cities hit by the terrorist’s years back
when were hit again.

“FEMA is attempting to get organized but they have too few people and too many loca-
tions to cover. The only locations in our general area they hit were Kansas City and St.
Louis. By the way, I don’t know who ‘they’ are, it could have been either China or Rus-
sia, but my money is on Russia. The military is making an effort to do what they can to
assist survivors and using those FEMA camps. However, they’re not locking anyone in
and are following the law carefully, unlike FEMA. Dad, do you have anything to add?”

“Yes I do. Your log showed that I accumulated about 150R. I’ve lost a small amount of
hair, as you can see, and experienced some nausea. Beth asked me to weigh myself
and I fibbed, telling her I’d only lost a couple of pounds, when in fact, I’ve lost 10
pounds. I don’t want anyone to worry about me; I’m gradually starting to feel better. That
much radiation could eventually lead to cancer, but at my age, it’s not a concern. You’re
born, you live and you die, that’s just life’s cycle. I’m already at the life expectancy for a
male. It’s about time I put on my cowboy hat and spurs, mounted a horse and said,
Ride, boldly ride and search for El Dorado.”

“How’s that go?”

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old,

This knight so bold,
And o'er his heart a shadow,
Fell as he found,
No spot of ground,
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength,

Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow;
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be,
This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the mountains

Of the moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,

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Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
If you seek for Eldorado!"

Edgar Allan Poe, 1849. James Caan omitted the second verse in the movie El Dorado.

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 The Seniors – Chapter 28

“That’s just plain foolishness,” Beth said. “But if you’re going I’m going too.”

“I wasn’t thinking about going any further than Springfield, Beth. I’d like to check on Joe
and Mary, Chuck and Rob.”

“What do you figure 2 days up, 2 days there and 2 days back?”

“I’d guess that would be about right. I think our horses can walk at 4mph with a 4 beat
walk. It’s around 60 miles give or take and we’d need to rest the horses every couple of
hours.”

“What about our luggage?”

“We’ll pack it on a third horse, we won’t need that much, a coffee pot, Dutch oven or fry-
ing pan, and our set of camping plates, flatware and cup.”

“The blue enamel?”

“That’s what I had in mind. Maybe two changes of clothes, our rifles and revolvers. Say
a six-day supply of food, just in case.”

“Anything particular you don’t want to eat?

“No homegrown fish or rabbit.”

There wasn’t any way to keep either of those frozen, fortunately. Beth could take some
Jiffy cornbread, some pork and beans, pancake mix, syrup and canned beef stew. The
coffee and cocoa could go premeasured into plastic bags. We’d need the first aid kit,
some feed for the horses and water and we could take our Katadyn water filter. Spare
ammo could go in the saddle bags with a spare pistol or revolver.

We didn’t know where Joe and Mary lived and would have to find a phone book and
hope their address was included in the listings. Zeroing our dosimeters and wearing
them seemed prudent along with hauling the CD V-715 because I never trusted that
NukAlert.

The trip was initially uneventful. We rode 2 hours and then gave the horses a rest and
ate a snack. Two hours later we repeated the rest period and ate the lunch Beth had
packed. That was followed by a mid-afternoon break and we stopped for the night
around 2 hours later. We unsaddled and haltered the 3 horses. And then set up the tent
and dug a fire pit. Beth cooked the cornbread in the Dutch oven and warmed a large
can of pork and beans for supper. Dessert came in the form of those small cups of Jello.

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We left earlier the next day and arrived in Springfield well before dark. Beth found a
phonebook and we got Joe and Mary’s address. There was no dial tone on the pay-
phone, so we headed to their address. When we arrived, Joe was sitting on the front
porch of their home with a shotgun on his lap and a rifle leaning against the wall. As you
should recall, Joe had rifles in 7.62×51mm and 5.56×45mm. That silencer we supplied
was on his .308.

“I didn’t know you had horses.”

“Quite a few although some are too young to ride. How did you two make out when we
were nuked?”

“We did fine; we have a basement shelter and it was fairly well stocked with food. The
Mountain house stuff ran out after 30 days and we were forced to eat beans and rice.
Not bad to eat, but I forgot Beano. How did you folks make out?”

“Dave called and alerted us. We bedded the livestock, moved the perishables from the
house to the shelter and got ready. When they showed up, we quickly unloaded neces-
sary items from his pickup and trailer. We buttoned down, but I later went and checked
on the livestock. We later got fallout, but I risked quick trips tending to the animals. That
worked out because we didn’t lose any.”

“Why horses, won’t your truck run?”

“It runs just fine Joe, but I think maybe I got too much radiation so while we were dis-
cussing what to do next, I said I was going on a trail ride.”

“Well, unsaddle, pull that pack and we’ll put the horses in the backyard. There enough
grass to last them a day or two.”

“Heard from Chuck or Rob?”

“We’ve heard from both of them. Chuck and his family stayed in our shelter and Rob
came by after he could leave his shelter.”

“Have you been shopping lately?”

“Many people came out of their shelters too early in order to loot the grocery stores. By
the time we came out, the food was mostly gone. We have meat in the freezer and sta-
ples for about 3 months. It’s going to be tough being one of the few with electricity and
food supplies.”

“I can hear your generator and so can others. You’d be better off moving down to our
acreage than staying here. We’re well stocked on food and have a huge garden. Does
your truck run?”

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“It does; it’s a pre electronic diesel with full tanks.”

“You’ve been to our place before, do you remember how to get there?”

“I do; we have an Airstream trailer I pull with the pickup. Only things we’d have to do are
move the remaining food and freezer plus the guns and ammo.”

“What about your generator?”

“It will take some muscle power, but we can get into the pickup. How’s your supply of
diesel?”

“I’ll have to calculate it. The generator is a Cummins DGCG 120/240 single phase and
burns around 1.6 to 5.6gph. We were in the shelter for 6 weeks and have been out 4
days. During the shelter stay we were probably only running ¼ power so that’s 1,008
hours at 1.6gph plus 96 hours at 2.8gph. Call it 1,882 leaving, um, 28,118 gallons of
stabilized diesel. Our farm tank holds 1,000 gallons of stabilized gas. By the way, the
generator is configured to put out a maximum of 333 amps. We have 2 55 gallon drums
of kerosene.”

“Enough juice for 3 homes?”

“At least 3, maybe 4 if we didn’t run air conditioning.”

“How do you heat your house?”

“We’re using a propane furnace; however, the original wood/coal burning furnace is sit-
ting right next to it and we could switch back to conserve propane. That shouldn’t take
more than an hour; the guy we bought the place from kept the old ducting.”

“Do you have coal or wood?”

“No coal and 100 cords of firewood. That kerosene I mentioned is for the oil lamps
mounted on the walls in every room and on some of the tables. Beth bought a few 25
yard rolls of wick material so that base is covered.”

“It might be a good idea if I added a wood burning stove to the Airstream.”

“Would you have room?”

“It’s a 34’ Classic Limited but there’s little free floor space. We’d probably have to move
the freezer to one of your buildings. The wood stove is a ‘maybe’ item depending on the
size of the stove and my being able to rearrange a few things. It’s a humdinger and I re-
ally like the trailer. Heat is propane with electronic start. Six gallon electric hot water
heater and 54 gallon water tank plus 39 gallon black water and 37 gallon grey water

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tanks. It has a 50 amp electrical hookup and I installed a propane generator but don’t
use it much.”

“Big enough to live in full time?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about Chuck and Rob?”

“If you have room, they could tow trailers down and use their own residential standby
generators. Their generators are only rated at 100 amps, but they are diesel. Say, how’s
your supply of PRI-G and D?”

“Enough for the time being, but we’ll need more in the future.”

“Both of them have PRI-D, about 6 gallons between the two of them. I have some too, a
full case of 6 one gallon jugs.”

“Your 12 gallons and our 14 gallons will keep us going until we find more. I figure to use
a portable 3 phase generator to power gas station pumps and empty their diesel tanks.
We’re going to need to find a tanker of some kind.”

“Hell, drive along I-44 for a ways, you’ll find one.”

“I’d thought about it; however we’ve only been out of the shelter for 4 days including the
2 we took to ride up here.”

“Do you want me to find some more PRI Products?”

“If you can, sure. I won’t use Sta-bil in my fuel, but you’re free to use it yours.”

“We will be down sometime next week. You’ll stay for dinner and spent the night?”

“I had hopes, thank you.”

“Why the lever action and not the M1A?”

“The only way the M1A fits in the scabbard is sans magazine. I’m even wearing my
cowboy boots and spurs.”

“So I see. Well let’s go inside and see if the two of them have solved all of the planet’s
problems.”

“That may be a bit hard even for our Wonder Women.”

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“There should be a large supply of coal here in Springfield somewhere. We could find a
dump truck or two and haul it down to Branson before winter.”

“That may come sooner than you think; do you remember the TTAPS study?”

“That nuclear winter thing?”

“Yes.”

“I thought that’s been re-studied and they drew different conclusions.”

“Could be, I don’t really know. Regardless, we should know soon, if it starts snowing.”

Joe said that they would check around the Springfield area and try to come up with coal
and wood stoves. I looked in their phone book and couldn’t find any coal dealers. The
good coal was either the anthracite from Pennsylvania or low sulfur sub-bituminous coal
from Wyoming. I had a feeling that we would end up burning wood. We left the next
morning, staying only one night rather than two. It took the same two days to get home,
but we were home a day early.

“You’re back early.”

“I talked to Joe and they’re going to pull their Airstream down here. We need to set up
three spots for trailers with sewer, water and propane. Can we come up with 3 more
1,100 gallon propane tanks and the plumbing?”

“I think so, what about the fuel?”

“Titan Propane in Branson.”

“I’ll look there first for tanks.”

“Good. Joe has a small propane fueled generator so we can hook him into our grid.
Chuck and Rob have diesel fueled Residential Standby generators. Joe said he’d look
for coal in and around Springfield, but there weren’t any Yellow Pages listings. The only
source I can think of is that new coal fired generating plant they put online about 5 years
ago. It’s somewhere on the Southwest side of town.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 29

“Are we going to switch you back to the old furnace?”

“I think we will because if we do that, our 1,000 or so gallons of propane will only be
used for the hot water heater and the kitchen stove. As far as that goes, we can always
move that wood burning kitchen stove in from the back patio and store the propane
stove somewhere.”

“We’ll go looking the first thing in the morning. You know, you do look a little better, I
guess that trail ride agreed with you.”

“It was fun David.”

“No banditos?”

“Not this time. That doesn’t mean we’ll never see any.”

Long story short, we found several 1,100 gallon propane tanks with cradles, loaded and
hauled all of them back home. We set them in place and returned to find a delivery
truck. We filled it and drove it out to fill the tanks. That done, we picked up another load
to top off our tanks. On our last trip to Titan, we topped off the truck we were using plus
their second truck. I left a note nailed to the door explaining what we’d done and told
them where they could find their tanks.

From there, we went shopping for plumbing and electrical supplies and in the process,
borrowed a trencher from a rental place. Since I didn’t know how wide the other trailers
would be, we allowed a bit of extra space between the sites. They were made available
on a first come, first served basis and while Chuck and Rob had some older 14’ wide
singlewide mobile homes, Joe and Mary only had their Airstream. Working on one trailer
per day, we had all three ready to live in by the end of the third day. Since Joe and
Mary’s trailer could stand alone, it was hooked up last and connected to our generator.
The grey water and black water tanks were plumbed into the sewer line, the water line
connected to the water tank using a hose and a flexible high pressure line run from the
propane tank to their Airstream. His residential standby was stored for future use.

I don’t know if it was the exercise I got when we put in the system and hooked them up
or the multi-vitamin I started taking, but I actually felt better. We kept the livestock on the
baled hay for the time being and decided, as a group, to try and find more hay and
mixed livestock feed. While David, Joe and I did that, Rob and Chuck went shopping on
I-44. They were willing to bring back anything that would aid in our long term survival;
food, fuels, even an M1A2 Abrams tank if they happened across one sitting on a HET.

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We located a large supply of small bale hay plus corn, oats, soybeans, barley and a
hammer mill. With that, we could produce our own livestock feed, powering the hammer
mill with the tractor’s PTO shaft. As they began hauling in food trailers, we opened each
one and examined the contents. Anything that couldn’t handle cold weather was moved
into the ammo bunker. It was the only place we had to put it and since nobody lived in
there, we could use a kerosene heater to keep it above freezing. We wanted just
enough heat to keep the bunker around 45-50°. That meant finding more kerosene or
perhaps Jet Fuel A. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. Add ‘em up, a gun bunker behind the
bookcase, ammo bunker/cold cellar and 7 bunker/foxholes.

Since the temperature hadn’t fallen, yet, we were able to empty the wet goods into the
bunker without having a heater. Our concern was carbon monoxide. The bunker dimen-
sions were 60’ long by 24’ wide or 1,440ft². We picked up a 75,000 BTU Buddy ProAir.
It would heat up to 1750ft² and run up to 11 hours on the 6-gallon fuel tank on low set-
ting. It had an adjustable heat control (built-in thermostat). The heater shut off with loss
of flame or power supply and supplies instant heat. It is economical, efficient and clean
burning with continuous ignition. And, while we were at Tractor Supply, we picked up 3
43,000 BTU wood/coal heaters made by United States Stove Co.

We divided the firewood evenly among the five families. When Chuck and Rob stopped
checking I-44, they began to haul dump truck loads of coal from the new power plant.
The truck held 5 yards of coal and there was a coal room in our basement. If the others
wanted to burn coal, they would have to haul it from the coal pile in a pail. Apparently
Chuck or Rob figured that out and brought 4 garden carts that could hold several scoop
loads. And then, a question came out of the blue.

“Honey you do look better; however your cheeks have a hollow look, are you watching
you weight?”

“You want me to check again?”

“Please. It might be nothing but we still get trace radiation on the CD V-700.”

“Damn, she was right; I was down another 8 pounds. I hadn’t thought much about it be-
cause I really was feeling better. Still, I had to take my belt in another notch and my car-
tridge belt one notch too. The only way to get checked out was to drive up to Spring-
field. However, I had an excuse; one of those transports on I-44 was carrying medical
supplies and I was pretty sure they’d need them in Springfield. After we sorted out a few
things that would come in handy, we loaded the supplies in my pickup and trailer and
headed for Springfield. We took the supplies to Cox Medical Centers South. After some
orderlies unloaded the supplies, Beth and I went to the ER where, after a 2 hour wait,
they moved me back to actual ER from the waiting room. A harried looking doctor intro-
duced himself and asked, “How much radiation were you exposed to?”

“Around 150R over the course of about 40 days.”

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“That’s a little higher (3.75R) than the maximum daily exposure of 2.5R about 150%.
We’ll do a blood draw first and get a CBC, and a full set of tests. My first impression is
you’re suffering from a mild case of radiation poisoning but we’ll have a better idea after
I get the lab results. Did you hear that some Good Samaritan (Gospel of Luke, chapter
10, verses 25–37) delivered a large load of medical supplies?”

“What about it?”

“We were getting low on everything and those supplies might be exactly what you need.
Do you take vitamins?”

“I didn’t until recently but I am now.”

“I’ll get a lab tech to draw blood, give him 15-20 minutes to show up, we’re a bit short
handed.”

He left for about five minutes and returned. “The lab tech is on his way.”

“Doc, Beth and I are EMTs-Intermediate. Unless I need to be hospitalized, we can do

home care.”

“Do you have any equipment or supplies?”

“A portion of those supplies we….yeah, I think so; if a full bottle of aspirin and a box of
Band-Aids are okay?”

“Portion of those supplies? What did you hold back?”

“We kept some 2cc syringes with needles, normal saline, D5W, Ringers, IV sets and
some streptomycin. We also took one vial of morphine sulfate and one bottle each of
Tylenol 3 and Tylenol 4. Our first aid kit is above average and contains Cipro and Doxy.”

“Anything else?”

“Not from those supplies but we have some 50mg Benadryl capsules for allergies
and/or sleep.”

“If you run into a problem you can’t handle, try to get here ASAP.”

“We live south of Branson.”

45 minutes later…

“Your RBC is down a little but I don’t see anything to be worried about.”

“Right, take two aspirin and call you in the morning?”

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“Only if your symptoms worsen. The nurse will be giving you a shot of B-12. Anything
else? If not, I have patients waiting. By the way, thanks for the supplies.”

“Thanks doc.”

One of the many functions of B-12 relates to blood production. I got the shot and went
to pay for the visit, lab and shot. My ER chart was marked, ‘NO CHARGE’. Don’t look a
gift horse in the mouth, we said ‘thank you’ and left. A CBC stands for a complete blood
count, generally done by a lab machine these days and is a good indicator of what type
of problem you may have. Especially in the days following a GTW.

I guess it’s fair to say I’ll live until I die in about 25 years, give or take. When we got
back home, I had to explain several times that I didn’t seem to have one foot in the
grave and the other on a banana peel. In fact, I got my cowboy boots, western belt
buckle, hat and weapons. After which I listened to the shadow and went riding. Howev-
er, it wasn’t a joyride; I was looking for and noting the locations of standing dead trees.
Beth came too and we took turns mapping and marking the trees we’d fell as soon as
we found time. I had two chainsaws, both Stihl MS460 Magnums; one with a 16” bar
and one with a 32” bar.

“I set out some lean ground beef. Any idea what you want for supper? Goulash, spa-
ghetti with meat sauce, SOS or chili?”

“Uh…”

“Or, I can make hamburgers.”

“Chili.”

“I didn’t soak pinto beans, I’ll have to use those canned chili beans”

“That will be fine Beth. I’m going over to David’s and see if they eaten. If not, maybe
they can join us.”

“Either way, I’ll make a large batch; we can eat leftovers”

“Have you eaten?”

“Where have you been?”

“Marking standing dead trees; your mother helped. Now she’s making a large pot of chili
and I wondered if you wanted to join us.”

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“We haven’t eaten yet, I’ll check with Geena. Geena, what’s for supper?”

“I took out chops, but they haven’t thawed.”

“Mom and dad are having chili, care to join them?”

“Sure, that solves one problem. I’ll get the kids to clean up and we’ll be over.”

Dave and I went to the big house and sat down in the living room.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

“How many times do I have to tell you I am?”

“Until I believe you, I guess.”

“I’m just a little anemic. That’s why they gave me the shot of B-12. They were sure hap-
py to have the stuff Chuck and Rob salvaged from that truck. They didn’t charge us any-
thing for the visit, lab or shot.”

“I’ve never lived through a GTW, what now?”

“Nobody has ever lived through a GTW except for the Japanese. I’d be speculating, but
here goes. First off, we don’t need to clean out an armory for weapons or ammo. Sec-
ond, we have accumulated a large stock of both food and fuel, plus taken the time to
make sure the food that would be harmed by freezing won’t freeze. Third, we have an
alternate source of heat and it’s a renewable resource. I’m the only one really set up to
burn coal although the rest of you can if you want. Fourth, we have 2 acres available for
the garden and depending on whether or not we experience a so called nuclear winter
we may be able to grow more food.”

“You don’t believe we’ll have a nuclear winter?”

“I didn’t say that, I said ‘if’. I’m not really sure, but it feels colder than normal for this time
of year. A disaster of this scope is going to bring out the good and bad in people. Some
may not be able to cope at all and pretty much give up. Others, like us, will fumble along
doing what they think is the right thing to do, recovering what’s available to us and shar-
ing with others, needs be. The third group is what worries me. There will be a certain
element that will prefer to take rather than doing for themselves. They may prey on oth-
ers and enjoy the fruits of their labors. That’s, in part covered by the tunnel and foxholes
we constructed to keep the feds at bay.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 30

Geena and the kids showed up and Dave and I dropped the subject. Geena helped
Beth with the cornbread and the chili and cornbread were soon ready to eat. Ben said
grace and we dug in. My appetite was a bit better, just thinking about the visit to the
doctor. As I ate, I contemplated how much Geena had changed. She had gone from a
gun fearing whatever to being able to handle any firearm we had and using it well. She
was now schooling Sheila on the subject of firearm safety and had a 10/22 set back as
her first rifle.

Geena continued to carry the Bushmaster with the M203 attached. The full load out for
a grenadier in the Army is 7 magazines and 36 grenades. With her stature, we’d cut her
down to 18 grenades with more available in a separate carry bag should she run out.
(The HEDP rounds weighed around ½ pound each.) The only outward difference be-
tween the HE round and the HEDP round was the shape of the nose with the HEDP be-
ing more rounded. Both were gold colored with green bodies. She also carried the
Glock 17 everywhere she went. Beth had told me that when Sheila was old enough for
a ‘big’ rifle, she’d give her the HK 416 and switch to a M1A loaded.

“Look out the window, it’s snowing.”

Two things had happened. One, our pasture had turned into a parking lot containing
tankers and grocery delivery trucks. They looked for, but never found, solar panels,
charge controllers, inverters or batteries. Two, it started to snow something awful. The
bottles and cans subject to freezing were all safely tucked away in the bunker and it was
time to fire up the kerosene heaters. We found Jet-A at Springfield-Branson National
Airport, SGF, and transported it back to the acreage in 55-gallon drums, 6 in a pickup
and 6 in a trailer.

“You guys need to use that Ford tractor to move some snow. Get a grain scoop and
shovel paths to each trailer and the buildings.”

“Dad, the snow is wet and very heavy. We’ll do it, but don’t look for it to happen in just a
few minutes.”

“I was just saying…”

“We’ll do it, don’t get your bloomers in a knot.”

“David, we only have a 58 day supply of kerosene running the heater at its lowest set-
ting. Someone is going to have to find a way to get more kerosene or Jet-A.”

“But, the roads have to be very bad and we’d need a snowplow to get all of the way to
the airport.”

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We had an empty 10,000 gallon tanker in the pasture not far from the homestead. If
they could get that to the airport, we’d have over a year’s supply of Jet-A.

Unlike that fellow on Frugal’s, we didn’t know how this would end because we were writ-
ing the book as we went along. As far as the kerosene was concerned, we got a break
in the weather for a few days, allowing us to move that tanker to the airport and fill it
with Jet-A. I rode along, mostly out of curiosity, and from the looks of the area in gen-
eral, I had serious doubts that we’d be attacked by the third group I’d mentioned to Da-
vid.

Because we had ample room in the house, we gathered there about every 3-4 days to
discuss any news that had been picked up and our general state of well-being there on
the 10 acres. Water wouldn’t be a problem for the garden; provided the snow melted
and it warmed up substantially. I did a people count one evening and we had 17 people
consisting of: Beth and me; Joe and Mary; David’s family of 5; Rob and Chuck’s families
of 4 each. The youngest person was Sheila at age 6.

There is one thing I can tell you about this crowd, everyone who understood what it ac-
tually meant considered him/her-self a patriot, through and through. Sheila claimed she
was also a patriot although she didn’t know what it meant. While we all had ‘winter’
coats, what we really needed was some of those 1960s era military parkas with the wolf
fur around the hood. The closest thing we knew of was THE NORTH FACE Men's
McMurdo Down Parka and we couldn’t find any. What we did find was almost better, the
N-3B parka that was developed for crew personnel subjected to extreme cold climates.
It was mainly issued to air crews assigned to troop transports, helicopters and strategic
bombers.

Did we need N-3B parkas in southern Missouri just north of the Arkansas state line?
Absolutely! It was frequently well below zero at night and might warm up to zero during
the day. Worse still was the wind and its effect or the ‘wind chill factor’. According to the
chart I copied from you know where, if the temperature was minus 15°F and the wind
was blowing 40mph, the WCF was minus 50°F. Even at low winds like 10mph, minus
15°F would feel like minus 35°F. The prevailing wind was generally 10mph.

It got so cold that first winter that we had to put a 175,000 BTU kerosene heater (from
Tractor Supply) in the barn. According to the literature, this Buddy ProAir would heat up
to 4,250ft² and run up to 10 hours on the 14-gallon fuel tank on low setting. But, it was
like assembling a jig-saw puzzle. A second heater, which burned more kerosene in less
time meant that we’d have to watch our supply of Jet-A very closely. We learned one
thing from that, it wasn’t putting out enough (or any) CO to kill the livestock. Plus, we
didn’t have to keep the barn a cozy 70°. The livestock, excluding the fish, generated
some of their own heat and the fish tank was heated and maintained around 85°.

We muddled through that dreadful winter, only leaving the acreage out of necessity, like
if we needed more Jet-A. However, that was only an example, because we only burned
about 9,500 gallons of the Jet-A. At the lowest setting, I had calculated that we could

152
get by with 8,404 gallons for 180 days. That proved to be not quite warm enough and
we burned some extra in the barn. Necessity came in the form of another trip to Spring-
field to get another shot of B-12 plus a vial so Beth could administer more as needed.
The doctor gave her specific instructions which she chose not to share with me.

Next question, did the winter actually last 6 months, as in 180 days? And then some alt-
hough in the later period it was beginning to warm and the snow was melting off the
roads. Since we had several drums of Jet-A and kerosene, we waited until the tanker
was empty before venturing north to refill it. If you’re at all familiar with the area, you
know that the airport is northwest of Springfield. There was also Jet-A available at
Downtown Airport, 3DW, should you wish to risk it. We didn’t.

After we returned from our trip to the airport, Joe cornered me and asked if I like to ride
along with him to Springfield. He said it wasn’t anything special, he just wanted to check
on things. I told him I’d need a few minutes to change out of my cowboy duds into
something more appropriate. I put on 5.11 TDU pants and long sleeved Tactical shirt,
work boots, a heavy jacket and got my Kimber plus my Super Match. I put 6 hand gre-
nades in a shoulder bag a grabbed one LAW rocket. It wasn’t that I was expecting trou-
ble; it was more like I wanted to be ready if something happened.

Springfield had a pre-war population of maybe 190,000. Springfield had a reputation of

having the most varied weather in the nation, which was in keeping with our little snow
storm. The only true face to face shootout in the Wild West happened there during July
1865. Springfield helped give birth to the Wild West era when the town square was the
site of the nation’s first-recorded (and probably only) shootout, a ‘quick draw’ duel be-
tween Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt Jr. at high noon. Tutt fired a shot at Hickok from
75 yards away, barely missing his head. Hickok fired back and killed Tutt with a bullet
through the heart.

Anyway, if the population was as many as 57,000, only 30% of the previous level, I
would truly be surprised. It appears that several things had happened. Some people got
a dose of radiation from the fallout and died. Some others apparently succumbed to
other illnesses, like cholera, etc. Some had obviously starved to death, either unable to
find food or get out of their homes. Springfield had a distinct odor of death, regardless of
the source. The few people that we actually saw scurried away perhaps put off by my
rifle.

“Mighty strange, Dave. Darned few people and those we see are afraid of their own
shadow.”

“Maybe there are new PTB in town. Bad guys perhaps?”

“I suppose it could be, but I doubt it. We weren’t the only patriots in the area and any
bad guys would have to have gone up against them. A lot them were what you might
call invisible shooters, if you get my drift.”

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“Some of Dave’s handy work?”

“Exactly. I wonder if the old rules still apply. I think not, but screw them if they can’t take
a joke.”

“Try telling that to some judge.”

“If they can find one. If they live through meeting me. If, if, if. You know Dave, most of
my adult life I lived in fear that some idiot would finally launch their nuclear arsenal.
When there were just the big five, it was bad enough; then we got the smaller players,
India, Pakistan, North Korea and obviously Iran. That made ten because I always took it
for granted that the Israelis had the bomb. I never once believed that Israel would use
their weapons except in retaliation because to do so would remove the ambiguity. Man
did they relish the ambiguity. Now, I just wonder if we will get to your place in one piece.
But, I had to see it for myself. I was born and raised here, leaving only when I needed
to. Came back and have been here ever since.”

“Beth and I both worked here in Springfield until we retired. With our age difference we
were able to retire at the same time. We had that property and it was paid off, greatly
limiting our expenses. My only hobby was collecting guns. I had several before we re-
tired and after, we had more money to spend. Somewhere along the line we got into the
prepper mindset. Now, mind you, it wasn’t that we expected anything in particular to
happen so our preparations were broad based. One of the selling points for that acre-
age was the bomb shelter, fully completed and the diesel generator. Mind you, although
he only had 1,000 gallon of diesel fuel, the tank would hold 30,000 gallons.”

“One of those industrial sized tanks for truck stops?”

“I think so. We eventually got it filled after the price fell. You remember how it was back
when Obama was first elected.”

“He asked for a trillion and had to settle for 800 billion, which proved to be less than ⅓
of the money he actually needed. Then that AWB and the insurrection. You had a run in
with the law as I recall.”

“Several times; the first time it was US Marshals and second some those ninja suited
ATF guys. It was like something out of John Ross’s book. They came back two more
times and found nothing illegal.”

“What’s he going to say when he comes out of Cheyenne Mountain?”

“Iran wouldn’t listen? I remember watching those first newscasts he held, he wasn’t slick
Willy once he was sworn in. He had to think about his glib answers out of fear that what
happened to his predecessor might happen to him. He could have sent Hillary to nego-
tiate with North Korea and instead she went to reassure our allies. I wonder if the Tai-
wanese are reassured now.”

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“I guess I’ve seen enough. Is there anything that you want to see?”

“Me? No, I mainly came along to ride shotgun. It made me feel useful. When we were
up here getting that second vitamin shot it didn’t feel like this. That was only what, two
weeks back. You know that the doc gave Beth a vial of B-12 and instructions but she
hasn’t shared them with me. The label says B-12 Plus Inj. and since she’s supposed to
inject it PRN, Pro re nata, or take as needed; she’s holding out on me.”

“Do I detect a note of discord?”

“We’re both EMT-Intermediates and giving an injection as needed isn’t a big deal. So, I
have a little anemia, big deal.”

“You know, it may just be a big deal, are you sure the doctor told you everything?”

“There couldn’t be much to tell, he did blood work and I saw the results, my RBC was
below normal.”

“You’ve had that before?”

“Yes, when I got a bleeding ulcer. No problems there, I’m taking Nexium.”

“Radiation sickness?”

“I had a little, but Dave stopped me when I had ½ of a lethal dose. The only thing that
comes to me is the fact that I averaged 3¾R per day instead of 2½R per day. However,
my total exposure was only 150R in 40 days. I didn’t ingest any radiation; I had a gas
mask with a CBRN filter. I was also wearing a Tyvek suit, boots and gloves. Before I re-
entered the shelter or took the suit off, I washed it all down with a garden hose.”

“Are you still keeping track?”

“Yes, I’m now wearing this. It’s a Victoreen Model 252. Dave checks it every night and
notes it in that log he has.”

“What’s the range?”

“Two hundred mR, double the appropriate hourly dose.”

“Have you maxed it out?”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 31

“Surely not, David would have said something.”

“We’re back.”

“We’ve been talking since Springfield? It seems like I haven’t said anything.”

“Nonetheless, here we are.”

“Ok, let me get my artillery and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“But tonight is the meeting.”

“Tonight? Well, then, see you later.”

“I must have dozed off. What’s for supper?”

“It’s 11pm Dave. You slept through supper and the meeting. Do you want me to reheat
the chili?”

“I am a little hungry. I don’t ever remember sleeping through supper.”

“Joe said you fell asleep on the way back from Springfield and he didn’t have the heart
to tell you.”

“Wait a minute before you heat the chili. What is going on here? The doctor gives you a
vial of B-12 with instructions, but the instructions are a secret? I fall asleep riding in a
pickup and sit down to rest my eyes and fall asleep again? How bad is my anemia?”

“Ok, two injections per week until the vial is close to empty and we go back to Spring-
field for more blood work. We keep that up until your blood is back to normal, or close.
They don’t have a large supply of B-12 and may have to switch you to B-12 plus C or an
oral medication. That oral isn’t as effective so he’s going to continue the shots as long
as he can.”

“Thank you. I can eat the chili cold.”

“I’ll heat it. Do you want a cup of cocoa?”

“Please. Beth, I’ve been feeling better, I just don’t understand.”

“It’s those shots. Honestly, he didn’t indicate that this was something that you wouldn’t
get over, just that it would take time. Remember neither one of us are spring chickens

156
anymore. At our age the body just takes longer to heal. We think you over did it on the
exposure to radiation and some people take a year or more to fully recover. He just said
to maintain your diet, give you the shots and see that you got some exercise. He also
asked if you smoked, but I ignored that question; I’m sure he could smell the smoke on
your clothes.”

“Do you really think taking away one of my few pleasures would make a big difference?”

“Not after 60 years of poisoning yourself, no. That’s why I didn’t respond. Forcing you to
stop now might do more harm than good; the last thing you need is to be depressed
more than you are.”

“Back when I started smoking, a lot of people smoked. It was before the Surgeon Gen-
eral decided that smoking was bad for you. I started in 10th grade although at the time
you had to be 18 to buy cigarettes. I think I was paying around $5-6 a carton. The first
brand I smoked was Kent with their Micronite filter. Then when I went in the Army I
switched to Pall Mall to get more bang for the buck. I know it’s an addiction, but it has to
be the most powerful addiction there is for an over the counter product. Thank you for
not saying anything to the doctor.”

“You chili is hot, eat.”

“How come you never started?”

“It wasn’t considered lady like in my circle of friends and frankly, they stink.”

“And, you kept you mouth shut about it for 45 years.”

“You went along with my request that you not smoke in the house so I ignored it until we
had that argument a while back over your house/my house. I gave in a little but now the
basement stinks.”

“Thank you.”

“More chili?”

“Yes please. Is there anymore cocoa?”

“I warm the water back up. That’s one thing were not short of. Did you realize that we
have 3 of those 50 pound bags of cocoa?”

“I must have miscounted; I remember ordering another bag shortly before the war.”

“That won’ be a problem, it’s going to be hard to come by. That’s going to be our new
time dividing line isn’t it, before the war and after the war.”

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“Well, the other division BC/AD was tied to the birth of Christ and they were off by 6
years. They replaced BC/AD with BCE/CE. Maybe we’ll now use AB and PB represent-
ing Ante Bellum and Post Bellum.”

“That chili was good; did you make it from scratch?”

“Have you checked our supply of pinto, small pink and kidney beans?”

“A lot?”

“You have no idea. I have some Beano salted away if you need it.”

“I’m past that stage, maybe my stomach finally got the enzymes adjusted.”

“Good ahead and finish your cocoa, I’m turning in. The ground is drying out and might
be warm enough in a week or two to start plant our garden.”

“We’re going to have a lot more help with that this year; that will sure be nice.”

“Keep one thing in mind Dave, not everyone will have the seeds or be able to plant a
garden. We’ll use up our supply of hybrid seeds and use a few of the heirloom varie-
ties.”

Beth had started some of the plants in peat pots scattered around the living room, most-
ly peppers and tomatoes. I finished the cocoa and joined her in bed; ending up sleeping
until 9am. Before I nodded off, I recalled our cornering the market on canning jars years
earlier. We still had them all but didn’t use the ones with chipped rims. About every oth-
er year, she had ordered one case and occasionally two of the regular lids. A case con-
tained 60 dozen lids. She had also picked up more jars to replace those we could no
longer use.

Each year we grew large quantities of plum tomatoes for sauce. A few years of experi-
mentation had resulted in a superior Italian style sauce for spaghetti, lasagna, etc. She
had row after row of plum tomato starts to plant, if the weather cooperated. These were
a short season hybrid plants, the last of that kind of seed we had. Initially, planting was
put off due to the wet soil. It was warm enough, but wet to the point of being muddy
meaning we couldn’t till. The plants were transferred to large peat pots and set outside.
They continued to grow while the garden continued to dry off. When we were able to till,
the presence of so many extra hands helped, we planted the same day.

Over the course of 3 days, we had everything in the ground and Beth and the others
started sorting through the jars setting aside any with chipped rims. We had extra pres-
sure canners, although few were the large All American canners. Since we had two of

158
those huge 41.5 quart canners, there were more than enough once they began harvest-
ing.

The continued B-12 shots, the trips to Springfield to see the doctor and the exercise I
was getting helping out was slowly restoring my health. As we burned up diesel fuel the
empty tankers were moved to a large parking lot in Branson and parked. Chuck and
Rob went further afield looking for more fuel, food and anything we could use. They
eventually found a semi loaded with solar panels and all the components to allow us to
install a huge solar array. They brought back pre-fab buildings to store the batteries,
charge controllers and inverters. The power output was wired in to replace our electricity
from the grid and the generators got their first extended rest in months. They called it
their ‘million dollar find’.

With proper attention and maintenance, a 1,800rpm diesel generator should run for an-
ywhere between 1½ years and 2 years; although 2 years may be stretching it. You’ll go
through a lot of oil and filters during that time. When we bought the place and moved
the filters and oil to the generator room, there was nearly a full case of filters and 3 or 4
cases of oil. Over the years, I had added additional filters and 55 gallon drums of oil,
storing the oil anywhere I could find a little space.

PB, we had adopted a salvaging mentality because manufactured goods would be in

short supply for a long time, maybe forever. Dave took to riding along with Chuck and
Rob, riding shotgun and driving the pickup if they managed to find two trucks in a single
day. We were keeping our inventory on a spreadsheet because none of the programs
out there seemed to fill our needs. They’d handle food just fine, but we maintained an
inventory that included everything, including oil, filters, ammunition and every kind of
manufactured goods.

Once delivered to the acreage every truck had to be inventoried, the contents noted and
entered into the spreadsheet on a laptop computer. We left that to the teens. Once in
the spreadsheet, items were categorized and like items stored in different trailers, a
burdensome task. It eliminated looking for one particular item in 4 or 5 different trailers
however. Medical supplies were sorted through for anything we wanted and the remain-
der delivered to Cox Medical Centers South. I’m not sure, but I believe that our small
group has free medical care for life.

Lest you think that I was developing Alzheimer’s or dementia, let me set the record
straight. I had a bad case of anemia which contributed to my being oft times very fa-
tigued. No firm conclusions were revealed to me about the source of the anemia, so it
could have been anything. PB, doctors tended to cut to the heart of a matter and give
you what you needed to recover and didn’t waste much time explaining.

Over the course of this summer, they pretty much exhausted the available goods on I-
44. They found a Cummins generator the same model as ours (DGCG) with a 3 phase

159
alternator and began emptying gas station diesel tanks and gasoline tanks. They recov-
ered and stored 32,000 gallons of Jet-A for the heaters. And, on weekends, they cut
down the standing dead trees hauling them back as logs to be cut down and spit into
firewood. A large supply of propane fuel was pinned down in Springfield. There were
several dealers who sold retail plus AmeriGas who sold wholesale and retail.

We were picking up hams from all over the US, BBC which operated from an alternate
location, and some hams were speaking languages we didn’t understand. There were
obviously people besides us who had survived the war, in most countries. We compiled
the news, sharing it at our twice weekly meetings. However, our government didn’t ap-
pear to be functioning. The NWS was gone and I didn’t have a current Farmer’s Alma-
nac. Regardless, we had a successful harvest.

Farmers in the area who grew grains like corn, oats, soybeans, barley or hay also had
good crops because of the ample moisture. We made trades, battering off food, fuel and
sometimes ammo for their crops. We’d lost our Vet during the war and birthing the
calves, foals and pigs fell onto us. After a shaky start, we learned enough to manage,
barely.

“I have a question.”

“What do you need to know Rob?”

“We all have running vehicles. Why are you growing a large herd of horses and why
can’t we use our vehicles more?”

“Horses are a renewable resource. Sure, we have plenty of fuel for the moment and
thanks to Chuck and you, it’s stabilized with Power Research Products (PRI). Vehicles
will breakdown and/or wear out. Has anyone given any thought to recovering any new
vehicles? If so, forget it, you’re too late. Every vehicle that could be made to run in the
area is in possession of a new ‘owner’. You might find parts this early, but what parts
will you need? Brake parts come to mind, as do glow plugs and injectors. Your trans-
mission wasn’t subject to EMP, but how many of you can rebuild a transmission? Look
for parts and take what you can find; but while you’re at it, we could use saddles, bri-
dles, saddlebags, lariats, scabbards, halters, and harnesses to pull buggies and wag-
ons.”

“Do you want wagons and buggies too if we can find them?”

“That’s a good idea. Check museums and keep an eye out for Amish people.”

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 0The Seniors – Chapter 32

Missouri’s Amish population has been among the fastest-growing nationwide. There are
an estimated 5000 Amish in Missouri, with the largest settlements at Jamesport (120
households, begun 1953), and others at Clark (established 1954, 135 households),
Stanberry (about 30 families in the past three years, mostly from Iowa and Michigan)
and Seymour (where observance is more strict and conservative than elsewhere in the
US, and tourists are not especially wished-for). Although the Amish have been in the
state since 1850 or earlier, the oldest existing settlement is Bowling Green (begun 1948
with 11 households, now 65), with smaller groups near Mt. Vernon, Kirksville and Wind-
sor, and new settlements appearing periodically. Far from dying out, as has long been
predicted, the Amish have doubled their population in the last twenty years, due to high
birth rates and a far greater percentage of young Amish now making their permanent,
adult commitment to the church, despite the increasing difficulty of earning a living from
small-scale, low-technology farming.

Seymour wasn’t that far away, being Northeast of Springfield. The Amish were very self-
sufficient. I couldn’t think of anything we’d have to trade, except livestock. Since the
group at Seymour was ultra conservative and didn’t welcome outsiders (English) this
could prove to be most difficult. When in Rome, do as the Romans…

“You look just like an Amish farmer.”

“I hope so. That bunch in Seymour doesn’t care for the English. Plus, I don’t speak their
language. My best hope is to appeal to their Christian charity and get them to agree to
some kind of exchange.”

“Good luck.”

“Ready to go Joe?”

“Do I look as out of place as you do?”

“Two peas from the same pod.”

“So, we’re going to tow a horse trailer up to where?”

“West of Seymour. Then we’ll saddle up and ride to their community.”

“No guns?”

“No obvious guns. Take a .45 auto and put it in an IWB holster in the pit of your back.”

“I feel stupid dressed like this.”

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“I do too. We have to do whatever it takes to learn to be able to work with this group.
We’ll have to be 99.44% honest with them.”

“What’s the 0.56%?”

“We won’t mention the guns.”

“Why not just put them in the saddle bags?”

“Good idea.”

“May we get down?”

“You are not of the order?”

“English.”

“Why then do you dress like us?”

“We did not want to offend you.”

“Why are you here, we don’t make trinkets for tourists.”

“To trade, if that would be permitted.”

“What do you wish to trade for?”

“Horse drawn wagons and buggies.”

“Harnesses too?”

“Yes, if you have them to trade.”

“And what do you have to offer English?”

“We have large stores of manufactured goods and some livestock. We are unfamiliar
with your order and don’t know if we have anything you may want.”

“What kinds of livestock? Do you have draft horses?”

“I’m sorry, we only have saddle horses.”

“A bull perhaps?”

“We have a young bull that hasn’t been castrated, yet.”

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“What breed?”

“Hereford.”

“A boar?”

“Several we haven’t castrated yet.”

“What breed?”

“A cross between Hampshire and a Poland China.”

“Do you have a proven bull and boar?”

“Do you mean older animals that have sired calves and pigs?”

“Yes. We will provide two buggies with harnesses for the bull and one wagon with har-
ness for the boar.”

“Would you be offended if we used trucks to deliver them?”

“Our Ordnung do not apply to the English.”

“I take it that means no, you do not object.”

“You are correct English. How soon shall you need these things?”

“How soon will you be able to make them available?”

“Now if you want.”

“We will return tomorrow with the bull and boar.”

“Goodbye English.”

He turned and walked off. I guess he was done talking with us so we mounted up and
returned to the trailer. We unsaddled and unbridled the horses, replacing the bridles
with halters and got them into the trailer. Ninety minutes later, we were home.

“How did it go?”

“We traded our bull and boar for one wagon and two buggies plus the harnesses.”

“What are we going to use for breeding?”

163
“We’ll trade off a young boar and bull for a mature boar and bull with someone who
needs fuel or something.”

“When are you delivering them?”

“Tomorrow, Beth.”

Since the Ordnung did not apply to us, we were well armed the next day when we made
the delivery. We didn’t openly carry, lest we offend. We used a 2½ ton truck for the live-
stock and a semi and flatbed for the vehicles. The buggies and wagons were used but
in excellent condition. Well, so were the bull and boar. One buggy was a two passenger
and the other had seating for six. The wagon was a buckboard of simple construction
meant to be drawn by horses or other large animals.

Pulling a buggy introduced a new equation. Our horses had to be trained to harness.
We had to learn just how far we could count on traveling with a buggy (20 miles). Emp-
ty, a single horse could pull the wagon, but the harness was for two horses and appar-
ently intended for larger horses. The Amish man, Jacob, told us they had more harness
if we needed it.

“Does anyone know how to train a horse to harness?”

“Nobody? Any ideas?”

“That farmer we traded grain with has draft horses so he should know.”

“Hello, I’m David Morgan from up the road. We traded with you for grain.”

“Is there something I can do for you?”

“Maybe. We traded the Amish up at Seymour some livestock for two buggies and a
buckboard wagon plus harnesses. None of us know how to train a horse to harness.
One of our guys said you had draft horses and should know.”

“What kind of horses do you have?”

“Saddle horses.”

“No draft horses?”

“You mean like those big horses? I’m afraid not.”

“Have you looked over the harnesses?”

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“Yes we have.”

“Was the wagon harness bigger than the buggy harness?”

“Yes, yes it was. Is that important?”

“If you put much of a load in the buckboard, you’ll need large horses to haul the load.
The harvest is done, how about I come up and look?”

“That would be fine. What kind of draft horses do you have?”

“The breeds? I have Belgian and Percheron.”

“No Clydesdales?”

“I sold them all to Anheuser-Busch.”

“One more question. Would you be open to selling a pair of horses?”

“How would you pay?”

“Gold?”

“No Krugerrands!”

“American Gold Eagles.”

“That you about 3 miles north on the west side?”

“That’s us.”

“I’ll be up directly.”

Joe and I returned home. I got to wondering how long directly was. I guess directly is
one hour.

“That wagon harness with the horse collars is for draft horses pulling a heavy load. This
here buggy harness is for a single horse for the smaller buggy and two horses in tan-
dem, one in front of the other, for the big buggy.”

“Can saddle horses be trained to pull the buggies?”

“Yep. Have to buy yourself some draft horses to pull that buckboard, if you intend to
haul heavy loads.”

“Which would you recommend?”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 33

“Six of one half dozen of the other. Belgian and Percheron will pull about the same load.
Probably Percheron, Belgians are more than you need.”

“Will you train our horses?”

“A hundred a head. You want buy the Percheron’s, two ounces of gold per, take it or
leave it.”

“Is that a fair price?”

“You’re asking me? Well, yes it is, I figure gold is around $1,500 per so that’s $3,000 a
head. They eat a fair amount of grain and you’ll be coming to me for that too. You’re go-
ing to watch me training those horses to harness and that’ll make it a onetime deal.”

The man was pretty quick. He had a nice farm too, considering the hilly country. The
advantage to owning a section of ground in the area was that, although you had one
square mile, it probably contained much more than 640 acres with all of the hills and
dales. Our small ten acre parcel was one such dale. A dale is a broad lowland valley.

In the time before it snowed, some of our saddle horses were trained to harness. These
particular horses hadn’t been broken to saddle yet and probably wouldn’t be. It took a
third gold Eagle to buy enough grain to feed the 2 Percheron’s. They were huge, stand-
ing about 17 hands.

It started to snow the first week of October and we gathered the livestock into the barn
and began our new ‘winter routine’. Snow was cleared twice a day, keeping a clear path
among the trailers, house and outbuildings. The kerosene tanker and a diesel tanker
were moved up to make fuel available for the heaters and to refill the diesel tank if the
generators kicked in. None of the buildings or trailers was oriented to allow us to mount
the solar panels on top of them and our solar array was at ground level. The snowfall
soon buried the array and we were on generators.

Those logs hauled back from cutting the standing dead trees had all been cut to size,
split and divided among the trailers. We took a rick to use in the fireplace. The coal
room had been refilled and I was back to shoveling coal into the stoker. You know what
a stoker is, right? A mechanical stoker is a device which feeds coal into the firebox of a
boiler. It is standard equipment on large stationary boilers and was also fitted to large
steam locomotives to ease the burden of the fireman. However it also refers to a device
that feeds coal into a furnace.

Our stoker wasn’t part of the furnace as such; it was an attachment that feed the coal up
though an auger through a cutout in the front of the furnace. I usually filled it in the
morning and checked it before we retired for the night. On an especially cold day I might
need to add more coal at night, 2 or 3 scoops.

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The system obviously depended upon electricity to power the stoker and the controls. It
was a forced air system which meant that it also needed electricity to power the fan.
Absent power, the system still worked, the air rising past the fan via convection but the
furnace required direct, manual fueling via the cast iron fire door. It had an automatic
shaker grate, with a manual means to ‘shake the grates’, a ring on the outside that you
pulled and pushed to move the cast iron grates. I doubt they still build furnaces like this
anymore. The new ones are more about efficiency than usability.

We had a furnace like that one in our home in Springfield when I was growing up. Dad
replaced it with a gas furnace when Springfield got natural gas, or slightly after. I was
still in school, but don’t remember which grade. You could get compressed natural gas
for rural locations but most everyone preferred propane.

This second winter was shorter than the previous, but only by 4 weeks. We got ⅔ the
amount of snow as the previous year. We still held the twice weekly meetings and now
that I was feeling better than before, didn’t miss any. I was getting cabin fever and dug
out a CD I’d purchased from Fleataxi and read all of the stories. Of all the stories it con-
tained, I liked ‘Paradise’ the best. After I finished Fleataxi, TOM and Flight ER-Doc’s
Paradise, I went to my desktop where I had all of Jerry D Young’s stories copied and
stored. At least I think it was all of them. Very interesting, similar to TOM’s yet distinctly
different. The lessons were there, but far more subtle.

When it came to Jerry’s and TOM’s choices in firearms, there were again subtle differ-
ences. Jerry liked Steyr AUG and HK91s. Tom liked the M1As almost exclusively and of
course the Barrett M82A1M and later the Tac-50 which Derek bought after TOM died. In
his early stories, TOM was all about Remington 870s, but later it was all Mossberg
590A1s. And both of the authors had a place in their stories for single action revolvers
and lever action carbines. Had I unknowingly been influenced by something I read? No,
I think not, I liked the M14 in the Army and it followed that I purchased similar arms as a
civilian. Who didn’t grow up watching westerns on TV? I had my cowboy guns, too.

Opinions were divided, but Jerry was the better writer. Maybe I had been influenced by
both, many of their favorites were in my collection. When John’s was added in, the only
firearm missing was the Steyr AUG. It was a bullpup design that used the 5.56×45mm
NATO round.

We were waiting for the ground to dry when one of those late model mega cab pickups
pulled in. It had a sole passenger and he looked very familiar.

“Sarge?”

167
“It was a bitch finding you Bookman, all I knew was Branson. I lived in Bolivar and
worked in Branson years back so I was familiar with the area and finally tracked you
down.”

“Come in, take a load off.”

“Is Farmer around?”

“John died of cancer AB.”

“AB?”

“Ante Bellum.”

“And we’re living in?”

“Post Bellum, PB. What brings you up north looking for us?”

“The insurrection, what else?”

“We figured the insurrection ended when the war happened.”

“It could have. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Have you heard anything at all on the radio about
the president?”

“Apparently Cheyenne Mountain survived the bombing although Colorado Springs and
Denver didn’t.”

“That’s right. The Russians and Chinese, mostly Russians, targeted our population cen-
ters and a few military bases.”

“That’s what we figured out. Are you still in Jonesboro?”

“We ended up moving back to Flippin where my wife’s folks are. I take it that you don’t
know what the president has the Army doing.”

“We haven’t seen hide or hair of the military. Any military for that matter.”

“It’s an interesting situation, to say the least. The military, excluding the Navy, essential-
ly divided into two camps. The first supports the Constitution and the second supports
the president. This latter group follows all orders, legal or not.”

“We heard that the Army was putting people in the FEMA camps but leaving the gates
open. How does that square with what you just said?”

“The first group of military is operating the camps since there are only 6 of them.”

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“Where do you stand?”

“My oath was to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and
domestic, not the president. I still stand where I stood before the war and am part of a
group of guerillas operating behind ‘enemy lines’ as it were. There is no duration de-
fined in the Oath; once taken, it is a lifetime affirmation.”

“So all of us that are veterans are still bound by our oath?”

“Actually, you are. However, given the ages of some of you, no one really expects you
to fight.”

“Bull hockey. If the oath still applies and we can walk, we’re obligated. We still have all
of the ordnance and weapons. When John died, he left his guns to my family and his
estate to my grandchildren.”

“How are you fixed on .50 caliber ammo for my Tac-50?”

“We have some of just about every kind of ammo ever made for a .50 caliber ma-
chinegun and ammo made for the .50 caliber rifles. M1022, Mk211, Barrett M33, 750gr
A-MAX, you name it. What do you need?”

“A can or two of the Mk211 and the same of the A-MAX.”

“John had elephant ammo.”

“What’s that?”

“Soft point ammo for the .50 caliber rifle.”

“Where did you get that?”

“John said he got it from Cabela’s.”

“How did you fare with the attack and the aftermath?”

“I was sick for a while after, maybe a year. Beth had to give me shots of B-12 for ane-
mia.”

“Were you out in the radiation?”

“Someone had to care for the livestock. I had a good gas mask with a CBRN filter,
Tyvek suit, boots and gloves. Despite that, I received a dose of about 150R in 40 days.
Dave took over after that. But, I’m better now and able to do anything a person my age
can do. Besides, I’m a good rifleman.”

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“Are you going to join with us?”

“Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming; it’s a nightmare.”

“So you saw the Rambo movies?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“Trautman described Rambo to someone once as your worst nightmare. What’s going
on in this country is your worst nightmare come true. This isn’t an insurrection anymore;
it’s a civil war between the forces of the light and forces of the dark.”

“Which one are you?”

“I’d like to think I’m one of the good guys. What are you Bookman, good guy or not? Are
you on our side and a member of the force of light? Or, are you on the other side and a
member of the forces of dark?”

“I get a choice?”

“One time only.”

“How much ammo did you say you needed?”

Strangely, it turned out that the forces of light included as many, if not more, Marines as
soldiers. The Navy wasn’t involved. I learned that they had survived the war mostly in-
tact and had stood off our shores, sending in boat crews to gather food for the sailors
and Marines aboard the ships and boats. Sarge said they were the only neutral US
forces. I was totally confused and asked what he had been smoking, ‘cause I sure
wanted some. He handed me a Marlboro.

“Joe, I guess this means we’re going back to fighting again.”

“Darn, I was sort looking forward to curling up in front of my wood stove and watching
time pass.”

“I suppose it’s optional. Sarge didn’t say everyone had to join in.”

“You get me killed and I’ll piss on your grave.”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 34

“Fine, I do the same for you. Say, I’ve never asked and you’ve never said, were you in
the military?”

“I was at Khe Sanh.”

“A Marine?”

“I sure wasn’t Air Force, but they flew in supplies. It was awful and my enlistment was
up shortly after I got back to the world, so I got out and never looked back. However,
once a Marine…”

“Always a Marine. I’ve been reminded.”

“Oh?”

“Beth was commenting on John.”

“I knew John, sort of. He was at Khe Sanh too and I only knew him in passing because
he was in another Company. It was a real shame about his getting cancer.”

“At least he didn’t live to see the world destroy itself.”

“So, are you and I going to team up as a sniping team?”

“Have you ever fired a .50 caliber rifle?”

“M16 during Nam and 7.62×51mm as a civilian. You have John’s AW50 and your own
Barrett don’t you?”

“We have two, a model 95 and a model M82A1M. Dave can take the Barrett and you
and I will use the AW50. We’re going to need to find some place we can shoot further
that 1,000’, we should train out to a minimum of 1,500 meters. Whichever of us is the
better shooter will be the sniper and the other the observer.”

“Do we have time for that?”

“We’ll have to make time. I’ve shot the Barrett but not the AW50.”

“How are you fixed on .50 caliber ammo?”

“I’m planning on giving Sarge 600 rounds and that’s a small portion of what we have.”

“You said something about bayonet lugs for the M1As.”

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“Give your rifle to David and he’ll add one. What firearms do you plan on taking?”

“All of them. Well, I guess I mean a .45 pistol, Mossberg shotgun and an M1A or HK 91.
That will allow me to pick and choose according to the situation we face. How about
you?”

“The same, except it will be my Super Match and I might take John’s USP Tactical with
the suppressor.”

“You have a Kimber don’t you?”

“Yes, but no suppressor for that pistol.”

“Is Sarge still here or did he take off?”

“He’s gone but I have his cell phone number. Crap, that won’t work, the phones are
down. He left a radio frequency with David for us to use. We’ll have to drive my pickup
because it has a full set of radios.”

“What radios?”

“Citizens Band 40 channel SSB. Yaesu FT-857 all band mobile. We have some
FRS/GMRS radios too and they’re licensed. There are some portable CBs if they’re not
in use.”

“I don’t believe that matters anymore. Are all your radios the same?”

“Yes, the 857s. The antenna is at least as important as the radio and we have both ver-
tical and beam antennas or didn’t you notice?”

“I noticed. Quite the setup, a rotor and everything. Nice tower, collapsible?”

“Yep.”

“You really went all out; it must have set you back a bundle.”

“You’re probably right Joe, but it was spaced out over several years so there were few
large bites at any given time. Those orders from Walton were expensive; once we or-
dered eight deluxe units at one time. We even took out a loan once to buy ammo using
our gold coins as security. Dave bought some hot .50 caliber for $1 a round.”

“Hot as in powerful or hot as in stolen?”

“A buck a round? What do you think?”

“I guess that was a dumb question, .50 caliber rifle ammo goes for $4 a round.”

172
“Or, higher. Our big assortment of unusual cartridges came from John who bought them
from Cabela’s.”

“Unusual how?”

“It included 750gr HP, 750gr A-MAX and 650gr SP plus several cases of Barrett M-33.
Dave got us M1022 and Mk211.”

“No API?”

“Now, that we could get from Sarge. We don’t need it; we have the Raufoss, HEIAP.”

“And if the target is wearing body armor…”

“They’ll get heartburn, literally.”

“What’s your effective range with your Super Match?”

“Ninety nine percent out to 800 meters, about ninety five percent at 1,000 meters.”

“Those are normal standard deviations. One at 800 meters, two at 1,000 meters and
probably three at 1,200 meters; that’s 68%. That assumes a normal distribution. What
kind of scope is on the rifle?”

“Leupold.”

“How do you calculate range?”

“Laser range finder.”

“What kind of scope is on the model 95?”

“Leupold with BORS.”

“Let’s use that, it has a built in range finder.”

“Sure, less stuff to haul around plus it’s suppressed.”

Joe and I spent every free moment, e.g., all of our time firing the .50 caliber model 95
and brief amounts of time refreshing and/or refining our skills with the .308s, shotguns
and .45s. When we thought we were ready, David put out a call to Sarge. He replied
two days later and said he’d come by.

173
“What did you manage to come up with?”

“Three sniping teams with .50 caliber rifles. The first team will be Joe and me alternating
between shooter and observer; the second team will be Chuck and Rob, also alternat-
ing; and, the third team will be Dave and his son David with Dave shooting and his son
observing. We can provide two extra guards for each team; they’re young, but compe-
tent.”

“How many do you have on this acreage?”

“Seventeen.”

“And all but five are participating? How many women does that include?”

“One.”

“No offense, but it’s really primitive. We could supply one individual to fill in for her.”

“She has her mind made up and that’s not going to fly. She’s pure Tomboy anyway. So,
it’s going to be us twelve or nothing.”

“How old is she?”

“Seventeen.”

“Is she any good?”

“I wouldn’t want to be in front of her rifle.”

“What’s she using?”

“What else, a M1A with red dot sights mounted using A.R.M.S. mounts. They mounted
to allow her to either use her iron sights or the red dot.”

“Well, ok; but you will be responsible for her and if there’s a problem, she’s out. Next
question, what are you taking for weapons?”

“Each person with have a.45 pistol, a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, a M1A plus one .50
caliber rifle per team. We’ll have smoke, concussion, fragmentation, LAW rockets, and
demolition kits. Plus each person will have one of those new bayonets which will work
on the shotgun or rifle. We’re going to use ALICE gear and those folding shovels plus
lightweight tents and sleeping bags. We’ll bring our own food and water supplies and
Katadyn water filters. There will be one advanced first aid kit per team, two canteens
per person with cup and stove. We have ACS sponges for everyone to carry with them,
Mark I kits and gas masks. There will be one team per pickup. If you prefer, we can use
horses instead.”

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“Are you going to have a name for your group?”

“If it’s okay, we’re picking up the Ghost Rider name. Apparently our exploits last time
created a following.”

“Well ok, your first operation will be in Fayetteville, do you know the city?”

“Yep. Did an operation down there.”

“There are no friendlies in Fayetteville. Good luck. Call when you’ve finished the opera-
tion.”

Fayetteville was a ghost town compared to the last time we’d been there. From a popu-
lation of around 80,000, I’d be amazed if the population was 20,000. Those forces of
dark had taken over the community. As we observed, people were being executed on a
daily basis for sometimes small infractions of the ‘rules’. The people outnumbered the
soldiers about 19:1 but we never saw a single resident with a firearm. We set up north,
east and south and began our sniping.

We had identified those in charge of the soldiers and began to take the head off the
snake. The one person we couldn’t get a shot at was the man at the top; he never came
out of the building he was staying in. The silencers were working and because we
changed locations daily, the non-suppressed M82A1M was in a different location every
day. To cover all 4 points of the compass, we’d have needed 4 teams; having only three
left one cardinal uncovered and it varied daily. A compass has 32 named points, includ-
ing 4 cardinals and 28 ordinals.

Squads were sent out to look for us to no avail. One evening, Dave said he was going
to make a suppressor for the Barrett M82, regardless, when we got back home. After
four full weeks of action on our part, we awoke one morning to discover the soldiers
gone, slunk off during the dark of night. We headed home and along the way notified
Sarge that Fayetteville was back in the hands of the population. He said he needed a
few days to select a new target community and we should rest up at home for now. Da-
vid dismantled the Reflex suppressor and reproduced three identical copies.

“Why three?”

“I’m assuming we’ll get more .50 caliber rifles and I wanted spares.”

“That’s nice, but we can’t field another team of four.”

“Instead of three teams of four, how about four teams of three?”

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 The Seniors – Chapter 35

“I don’t like that Dave. Maybe we could recruit four more people from Springfield. I’ll ask
Joe about contacting any of his old group who is still around.”

“The hardest part of that will be recruiting anyone in the aftermath. Assuming some of
them survived, they’ll be busy tending to their families.”

“We could move them down here. There is no one occupying John’s place and he had a
large garden space.”

“Joe are any of the former members of the Springfield Hornets still around?”

“There should be several, why?”

“Why several?”

“They were preppers and some belonged to a MAG with a well-stocked shelter.”

“Do you think you can get in touch with them?”

“I don’t think I can, I know I can because I’m in touch with them now.”

“John sold off his home place but the new owner never took occupancy. It just sitting
there unoccupied and has a good sized garden. Dave and I were visiting about the
number of teams we have and we could use four more people to form a fourth team. He
dismantled that Reflex suppressor and made 3 identical copies. He told me that he
hoped that we could find another .50 caliber rifle.”

“There’s one in the group, a Tac-50. Plus two other guys have M24 SWS rifles in .338
Lapua. We had our share of long range marksmen.”

“How many more could join our team?”

“My best guess would be two teams of 4, but only one with a .50 caliber. We need to
find another .50 caliber rifle, any ideas?”

“In the aftermath of the AWB and WW III; I wouldn’t know where to look.”

“I just might. Say could David produce more of those ballistic knives?”

“He made extra blades for ours, so I’m sure he can.”

176
“Ask him to make eight with extra blades. They’ve been illegal for so long, many people
don’t recognize them for what they are. They just might give our people an edge, no pun
intended, in a face to face confrontation.”

“David, we’re going to need 8 ballistic knives with extra blades plus two suppressors in
.338 Lapua.”

“You haven’t heard from Sarge?”

“Not yet. Joe says some of the Springfield Hornets were members of a MAG and he’s
maintained contact with them. They have one .50 caliber rifle and two in .338 Lapua. I
suggested moving them to John’s place.

“You knew that John had a generator and a 40,000 gallon diesel tank didn’t you?”

“No I didn’t. What about it?”

“All of his piping had heat tapes so I doubt there are any busted pipes. I’ve been going
over there periodically and changing the oil in the generator. The place seemed fine to
me.”

“Why would you do that, John died.”

“It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. Maybe out of respect for John, hell I don’t
know.”

“How big is the generator?”

“It’s much smaller than ours, 15kw. However, we have that Cummins 3 phase DGCG
that we use for the gas stations and could install it.”

“I’ll arrange that, you get your machines working on the things for Joe’s group.”

“I came up with another .50 caliber rifle.”

“What brand Joe?”

“It’s a Zastava M93 Black Arrow and can be had in either the .50BMG or the
12.7x108mm Soviet cartridges. Made in Serbia, based on the Mauser action and has a
5 round magazine. The one I found has 6 magazines and cost 6 ounces of gold.”

“Bolt action? Dave can fit a suppressor.”

“I was counting on that. Each of our five teams will have one .50 caliber rifle, sup-
pressed. I wish we had more of the .338 Lapua’s but I couldn’t locate more. Besides,
we’re limited to the ammo those two guys have available.”

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“I told Dave to make 2 .338 suppressors and 8 of the knives with extra blades. He told
me that John had a 40,000 gallon diesel tank feeding a 15kw generator. He’s been go-
ing over there changing the oil and filter. About all the generator is powering is some
heat tapes to keep the pipes from busting. We can move the big Cummins 3 phase over
there and I’m going to need some help.”

“They already have suppressors, they came with them. Chuck and Rob, you and me?”

“Yeah, it weighs about ½ ton.”

Our lone female was replaced by the 18 year old son from the group living on John’s
farm. While she didn’t accuse us of gender discrimination, it was obvious she felt that
way. In an effort to placate her, Joe and I had decided to place her in charge of security
for both locations: our acreage and John’s farm. Additionally, although the land no long-
er belonged to John, it was unused and planted into grain crops and hay using John’s
old equipment. We still got Timothy from the guy down the road for the Percheron’s.

“Are you guys all rested up?”

“Sarge?”

“Yeah, are you ready to go?”

“We’ve expanded our group to five teams of four and each team now has a silenced .50
caliber rifle. Joe’s group included a MAG and they moved down from rural Springfield to
John’s farm. What’s our next assignment?”

“You may not like it. The target is Jefferson City, Missouri.”

“Who is in Jefferson City?”

“Remnants of the group from Fayetteville.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. They’re set up in the Capitol.”

“All of them? That was a large group.”

“No, not all of them, they split into two groups, but that leader you never saw is using
the Missouri Governor’s office as his headquarters.”

“Winter will be coming on soon. It’s going to be awful up in Jefferson City.”

178
“I realize that Dave, it can’t be helped. Those people need our help now.”

“Are we really making a difference? It seems like there are so many of them that 20
people won’t be able to do much.”

“When you had 12, you managed to drive them out of Fayetteville. You are making a
difference and perhaps this time you’ll get their commander.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“Not he, she. I haven’t gotten her name yet, but she was an Army Lt. Colonel. Hard as
nails and word has it she uses sexual favors to keep her immediate subordinates under
her control.”

“Sleeping with them?”

“No, sleeping with some NCO’s who ride roughshod on her officers. One guy said she
swings both ways, but I haven’t been able to substantiate that. You watch your back;
she has the morals of an alley cat and ice water runs in her veins.”

It sure wasn’t the fifties. During the last half of the 20th century, morality went into the
toilet. We learned the names of new diseases like AIDS, HIV and Ebola. We learned
that some boys liked boys and some girls like girls; and there was another group, some
boys, some girls, who liked both. And then, there were the sexual predators. Plus, as
much as it may seem out of place here, the violence, so much violence.

We hadn’t experienced violence down here on the acreage. There was more in Little
Rock although it hadn’t really affected Dave and Geena or their kids. Around the coun-
try, the violence was mostly gang related and found in the larger cities. Those same cit-
ies had been the targets during the war. Did the bombs kill the gangsters or the civil-
ians? Until we could get to some of those cities or near them we wouldn’t know.

There was only one gun missing from my collection that I really wanted. You know the
one – you insert the magazine and don’t chamber a round. Then, the gun automatically
chambers a round and starts firing with no one’s finger on the trigger. I first heard about
those from the Brady campaign. The guns even had a name, ‘Evil’ guns. They could be
revolvers but most often were ‘automatics’. Not semi-automatics, but automatics. There
were a few full auto pistols manufactured but not many and they were most definitely
military firearms.

Alas, I knew it would be an unfulfilled dream because even machine pistols need some-
one to chamber a round and pull the trigger. The bad actor wasn’t the firearm, it was the
shooter. No matter the caliber, whether it is .17 rimfire or an elephant gun the bad char-
acter was the shooter.

179
You knew who got to tell the teams that the primary target was female. What is there in
the attitude of American men that creates a reluctance to shoot a woman? Nobody re-
fused outright; however the looks on their faces spoke volumes. I repeated Sarge’s
warning, “You watch your back; she has the morals of an alley cat and ice water runs in
her veins.” Was she a flat chested dyke or a pile of curves with long blonde hair and ba-
by blue eyes? Sarge hadn’t described her, leaving me and the others guessing. A mili-
tary officer would have moderately short hair, but that had been long enough for her to
grow it out.

I could mentally compare her to a snake because some of the most beautifully colored
snakes are the deadliest. Each team took a vehicle, a mega cab pickup, with about the
same equipment as last time. The Missouri runs past Jefferson City on the northeast
side. The Capitol is in a circle, Called Capitol Avenue, near the river. While reason
would dictate arranging ourselves around the Capitol in 72° increments, with the river to
cut them off, we could go with 270° divided 5 ways or about 54° each. We could pin
them down rather than moving daily and pour fire into them until they gave up.

However, before we left, we had to make sure that our wives and families would be ok
while we were gone. That meant refilling all of the fuel tanks, hauling firewood and coal,
bringing up the tanker of Jet A and another of diesel. Extra ammo and ordnance was
pulled from the bunker, just in case. When we were ready, we left spaced out about one
vehicle every 10 minutes.

Despite having the ordnance, we hadn’t found a need to use it and still had almost all of
the stuff we had started with, excluding ammo. We were conservative with ammo too,
since it was a manufactured item and none of our group reloaded. We kept the boxer
primed cases in pails for when we could find someone who reloaded. We could reload
the shotgun shells with a Lee Reloader, a device that was designed for idiots. It dated
back to 1960 and was their initial model which my father had purchased to reload his
shotgun shells. We had molds for slugs and 00 buck and had collected wheel weights
when we could. They were too hard so we’d have to add some more lead or something.

We assembled southwest of Jefferson City, near Brazito where we dug out the ther-
moses of hot coffee and ham sandwiches. We studied maps as we ate making sure
where the locations were in Jefferson City. We agreed to drive on to the outskirts of Jef-
ferson City, this time in a convoy. A convoy had advantages, strength in numbers, and
disadvantages, an increased chance of being spotted. That’s where luck comes into
play, either you have it or not. Ours held on this day. When we arrived, we spread out to
observe and agreed to meet and set up camp at the Oak Hills Golf Center around 4pm.

After arriving and parking our vehicles in hopefully unobtrusively a manner as possible,
we moved up to observe. Joe and I ended up right in front of the Capitol and observed
with the spotting scope and the scope off of the .50 caliber rifle. Some of the group was
women, just as it had been in Fayetteville. One of those women could very well be the

180
commander but she wasn’t wearing a sign or name tag saying ‘commander’, if indeed
we actually saw her.

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 The Seniors – Chapter 36

How would she be different? One thought we had would be that the soldiers would defer
to her. Three hours later, we pulled up stakes and headed to the golf center, none the
wiser who the commander might be. We camped out in the area of trees. We set up our
Coleman stove and began working on a hot meal. Later, while we ate, we shared ob-
servations, which was akin to a military debriefing. My son Dave and grandson Dave
noted one woman in particular that stood out. Not so much because there was anything
outstanding about her, but because she traveled in an entourage of NCO’s.

“Sarge said that the Lt. Colonel got her power not from her officers but her NCO’s. If you
get a chance take her out. You should use Mk211 in case she’s wearing body armor.”

“Ok, but I’m still not comfortable with shooting a woman.”

“If she is the commander, do you believe she’d have any compulsion from ordering her
people to hold off killing you?”

“No, I suppose not.”

“And, if she’s not the commander, do you believe she wouldn’t kill you if the commander
ordered her to?”

“Again, no.”

“Then, make your shot count. You never know, we might get lucky. If we take out their
commander there will be competition to fill her position. It should leave them disor-
ganized and maybe unable to make a concerted effort to track us down.”

From that point on, all members of the forces of dark became targets; after all we
wouldn’t want to be accused of gender discrimination, we had enough problems. It
proved to be like shooting fish in a barrel in the beginning. We screwed up big time by
confining our shooting to daylight hours. During the nighttime hours, they sent out
groups to search for us. When they came close enough to the golf center to cause con-
cern, we modified our tactics.

“How many night vision scopes do we have?”

“The MAG has two, both Raptor 6X.”

“Range?”

“Typical operating range is 2425 yards in moonlight / 1695 yards in starlight / 840 yards
in cloud cover.”

“Are they sighted in?”

182
“Not for the .50 caliber rifles; we can go do that now and go back on duty.”

“Are there any objections to having 3 teams during the day and 2 at night?”

“No one?”

“Can you stay awake until we relieve you?”

“We’ll need lots of strong coffee.”

“Eat first, use the john and sight in those scopes. We’ll brew up the coffee for you.”

Apparently the forces of dark felt they were safe moving around in the dark based on
previous experience. The two teams accounted for 12 kills, half of them thought to be
female. Our five teams kept them fairly well pinned down, just like we’d planned. The
utility tunnels in and around the Capitol allowed them to move around unobserved. Not
every shot was fatal and that didn’t matter at first. They’d tie up 3-4 people attending to
the wounded and presenting more targets. When we began to work over those helping,
the wounded were left to die unless they were able to get to cover on their own.

We spent 3 months in Jefferson City. Food was beginning to get short; we were cold,
tired and wet. We hadn’t had a clear shot in over a week. We called it quits and headed
home. Bucking the snow filled roads was a challenge on its own. It took two days to
travel from Jefferson City to Branson. We called in and told them we were headed
home; not realizing it would take another day.

“Where are you?”

“Beth? We’re halfway there, the roads are awful.”

“We were planning a big dinner.”

“Can you hold it? If not, we’ll eat leftovers.”

“We’ll figure out something, be careful. There’s a new bunch in Branson.”

“Trouble?”

“No so far.”

“Security at the acreage and farm ok?”

“You a created monster; we’re fine, frustrated but fine.”

183
Jo, Joanne, was a real go getter and had taken to the security job with a vengeance.
We didn’t know that she insisted that everyone above the age of 10 be armed with a
handgun and a long arm all of the time. There wouldn’t be any defenseless women and
children on her watch. Of course almost everyone age ten and up had already been
schooled in gun safety and taught to shoot handguns, rifles and often shoguns. That
was just the way things were PB. Lessons started with safe handling of a particular fire-
arm, advanced to the mechanics of the firearm and finished with learning to shoot
same. Each step was mastered before moving to the next.

In general, our method of raising our children was sure and swift; we followed an old
rule, ‘sparing the rod will spoil the child’. Praise was given when praise was due. Maturi-
ty of thought won the highest praise. We weren’t teaching them to grow up too fast, we
hoped; the world was cold and cruel, PB.

“Sarge, come back.”

“Are you home?”

“Roger, we wrapped it up and came back. We got in about an hour ago. Can you come
by in a few days?”

“Copy, I need ammo.”

“We need night vision for 3 .50 caliber rifles.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Sarge clear.”

When Sarge showed up three weeks later, he had 3 Raptor 6X scopes. Although ITT
claimed the scopes were military and LEO only, Sarge claimed he knew of no military
designation and considering the price, cops probably couldn’t afford them. He wasn’t
looking for Mk211, but match grade ball ammo for his Tac-50. We traded him 4,000
rounds of A-MAX for the 3 scopes.

“You realize that you got her, don’t you?”

“We killed a fair share of women up in Jefferson City. Only in the beginning did one or
two of the teams identify anyone they thought might have been her. When they discov-
ered we were only working daylight hours, they came at night looking for us. We
changed the plan and had two teams sniping at night.”

“I heard. That’s when you got her, the first night you began night operations.”

“I guess that explains why it petered out. In fact, that’s why we pulled out. How many
groups are there around the country fighting?”

184
“There are forces of light and dark in every state in the lower 48. Several states had
passed legislation back in 2009 and 2010 similar to the New Hampshire Resolution.
Some even discussed seceding. Most saw it as drawing a line in the sand about the
feds abuse of power. The claim was since they had asked to join the Union, they could
withdraw their request.”

“But no one actually seceded?”

“It would have meant a second Civil War, something that no one wanted.”

“Tell me what we’re doing now isn’t a Civil War.”

“I sure wish I could, but I can’t. It’s not the North and South; it is freedom versus repres-
sion. As strange as it may sound, out in the People’s Republik, homespun patriots have
taken control of the state. America turned into a great divide, liberals and conservatives.
The conservatives were God fearing Christians who believed in earning what you had.
The liberals felt that we owed it to everyone to undo every wrong ever committed during
the history of the US.”

“You sound like a teacher.”

“I majored in History. The Great Emancipator only freed the slaves in the south. The
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit
slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was adopted on
December 6, 1865, and was then declared in a proclamation of Secretary of State Wil-
liam H. Seward on December 18.”

“Do we get to rest up or do you have another operation?”

“Not until you have your crops planted. I heard there’s a new group in Branson. Maybe
you’d better check them out. You’re known in the area and it wouldn’t be particularly
unusual for you to drive into town.”

“It almost would. We’d stop for gas or diesel and do a little grocery shopping. We mostly
went to Springfield.”

“I cleaned bank buildings in Branson years ago.”

“How did your father die?”

“Sitting in front of his computer working on some story, surrounded with the things he
valued. Apparent heart attack, they said. I think he died of disappointment about the
way he saw the country headed.”

“Let me see that Sauer.”

185
“This one?”

It was just as described in his stories. Most of the original bluing intact. Low serial num-
ber with all of the markings that distinguished the original production. Sarge pointed
them all out. .32 auto FMJ only, hollow points jammed. Sarge said he’d never tried Gold
Dot but from the looks of the pictures of the .32 cartridge, it wouldn’t work.

I asked what he intended to do with 4,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammo. He said he’d
share it. When I asked about reloading, he asked if our brass was sorted.

“It’s sorted according to caliber and primer type.”

“I’ll take it all. I’ll get the boxer primed reloaded and back to you. We’ll keep the Berdan
primed for our own use, is that ok?”

“Match grade reload?”

“Sure thing. We have a hydraulic deprimer for the Berdan. The brass is only good for 3-
4 reloading’s because of the built in anvil.”

“Which bullets?”

“Sierra 168 or 165 for the .308. Gold Dot hollow point for the 9mm and .45ACP. SS109
for the .223. Lead for the cowboy guns. Do you roll your own for the shotguns?”

“We can; however we don’t use them much.”

“We can get more shotgun ammo. Remington low recoil buckshot and Brenneke slugs.
Need any?”

“You can never have too much ammo.”

“Give me your empty shells and we’ll use them for reloading. I’ll figure out a fair trade for
the empty versus loaded shells. I’m leaving in the morning. This is a list of the frequen-
cies used by patriot radio. This book like affair contains the codes the individual groups
use. Most everyone has developed a set of code words for brevity and security. You’ll
find the list for our group under the heading ‘Ghost Riders’. While your group is using
Ghost Riders, my group is too. It makes us seem much larger than we are.”

“Gonna create a legend before this ends Sarge.”

186
 The Seniors – Chapter 37

“I don’t want to be a legend or a hero. I just want to go back home to my family.”

Maybe not, but his rank insignia was now Master Sergeant and I half suspected that be-
fore this ended it would be CSM or higher; either Warrant Officer or Commissioned Of-
ficer. Sneaky SOB too, two groups of Ghost Riders operating in different states, Arkan-
sas and Missouri, and to an extent indistinguishable.

“It’s nice to be home.”

“Are you going out again?”

“We are, sometime after the crops are in. Did the food hold out through the winter so
far?”

“We took some up to Branson to trade for things we needed.”

“Any trouble?”

“Not with Jo providing security, Rob trained her well. She can pull a six gun, fire six
shots and have it holstered before the other guy clears leather. Like the man with no
name or Trinity. Plus she has a P-14 in a shoulder holster. She prefers a coach gun for
her long arm but has a HK91 slung across her back. I don’t know how she does it, she
can’t weight 110 pounds.”

“I’ll bet every ounce is muscle.”

“You’d change your mind if you looked at her curves. Hips made for having babies and
they sure won’t starve.”

“Lungs big enough to swim halfway to Catalina under water?”

“I’d say so, she’s maturing.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Are you volunteering?”

“No, just curious.”

“Chuck’s son.”

“That’s quite the combination; he’s 6’ and she’s how tall?”

“Five six.”

187
“Not as bad as I thought. Add 2½” heels and they’d make a nice looking couple.”

“They do.”

“What about that nice dinner you talked about last night?”

“It was in the oven so I’m making turkey pot pie, casserole style.”

“There are extra cartons of Kool’s in the basement, Jo picked them up.”

“100’s?”

“No, filter tipped kings. She also got you a few boxes of Marsh Wheeling stogies.”

“No kidding. Let me get a shower and put on my western clothes.”

As best I can recall, I first saw Marsh Wheeling cigars on the TV show Maverick. They a
slender (34 ring) 7” cigar with a tip you bite off. They weren’t Havana’s, but not that bad.
They had been manufactured at a plant in Ohio, I think. Jo had even gotten me a hu-
midifier. One box was in the humidifier and the remaining boxes in an ammo can with a
damp sponge. With the boxes wrapped in cellophane, I doubt the sponge did much
good.

“Black Bart?”

“Cheyenne Brodie.”

“You’re no 6’ 6.”

“He probably isn’t either these days, if he’s still alive.”

“How old would he be?”

“Around 90. Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) is dead, but Bret Maverick (James Gardener) is
still around the last that I heard.”

“Most of the movie stars we watched growing up are dead, you know.”

“Have you looked in a mirror, we’re not far behind them.”

“A couple more missions and I will definitely quit. Sleeping in a mummy bag on a layer
of Insulite might be ok, but it’s not like sleeping in your own bed.”

After we ate, I dug out a bottle of Maker’s Mark and broke the seal. A knock came at the
door and it was Joe and Mary.

188
“Well, look at you.”

“Care for a finger or two of Maker’s Mark?”

“I could handle that, got another one of those cigars?”

“Here you go. Jo picked them up somewhere, Branson I think.”

“Yeah, Chuck and she set a date, early May.”

“They’ll need a trailer.”

“That’s covered. She found one and we’ll have to tow it down and install it before the
wedding. I’m sure it will need furniture too, so maybe a trip to Springfield is in order.”

“We have extra 1,100 gallon propane tanks, but no more generators.”

“Jo found a 30kw diesel in Springfield. They’re going up after it tomorrow. She also
brought back a wood heater to install in the trailer. She’s a real go getter.”

“Any problem towing the trailer down here now?”

“Can you get all the lines in?”

“No problem, the ground isn’t frozen as deeply this year.”

The trailer was a demonstrator with the wheels and tongue still attached. Chuck and Jo
went with us and we stopped by a furniture store to stock it. They carried major appli-
ances and they picked out a 24.7ft³ Whirlpool freezer. A trip to Tractor Supply was un-
necessary, we had the wood stove. It took 3 days to set up including leveling and hook-
ing everything up. As with the other trailers all piping was heat taped and over covered
with insulated tubing. Their Kohler 30REOZJB burned from 1.0gph to 2.8gph and pro-
duced 125 amps.

They moved the wedding date up from May to Valentine’s Day. Jo had arranged for a
Minister from Branson and the wedding took place in our house, followed with a recep-
tion. The Minister gladly took food in exchange for his services. We omitted the shiva-
ree, a North American term for a clamorous salutation made to a newlywed couple by
an assembled crowd of neighbors and friends. The shivaree was often conducted in the
middle of the night with the party of friends and neighbors sneaking up on the couple's
home, perhaps in hopes of catching them in a "compromising position". They would
bring pots and pans to bang on or other noise makers, and sometimes a few men would
stealthfully climb up on the roof, to all start making as much noise as possible on the

189
designated signal. This would of course wake up the couple and cause them to come
outside, hopefully without loaded shotguns, to see what was going on. The assembled
party would then wish them a blissful marriage, and the couple would of course be obli-
gated to serve snacks and liquid refreshments to the gathered throng.

The newly married couple slept in the following morning. The rest of us cleaned guns
and made out new menus for our next outing. But we mostly spent time with family.
Beth and Geena started a pot of stew for dinner, feeding us ham and eggs with hash
browns and toast for breakfast. Lunch was tuna sandwiches with homemade potato
chips, slightly thicker than normal chips but good nonetheless. We rested, spent time
sighting in new scopes, arranging and rearranging our kit until we could leave at any
time.

We also worked with those ballistic knives until their use became second nature. We put
a fine edge on our bayonets, the OKC-3S. LTS foods were examined to provide better
meals for when we went out on the next mission. Our first aid kits were added to, mostly
ACS sponges and tape. A set of pots and pans to be carried in one of the pickups plus
flatware and more blue enamel plates and cups were also included. We spent nearly a
month hand shelling the corn and sorting the seed from last year’s crop.

Finally the ground dried and we planted gardens at both locations and field crops on
John’s farm. We were actually close to having enough horses so everyone could ride.
With our freezers nearly full we left for the next mission.

This mission was the home of Judge Isaac Parker, Fort Smith, and would be the first
Joint Operation with the Arkansas Ghost Riders. Fort Smith is surrounded on 3 sides by
the Arkansas River and Sarge advised us to meet up at Fort Chaffee. We would have a
chance to resupply from the Arkansas National Guard stores. Assuming there wouldn’t
be much, if anything, available, we didn’t modify what we intended to take. Fortunately,
the beds of the pickups weren’t full.

We gained M118LR, M855A1, M993 and M995 cartridges, M67 hand grenades and
M136 AT-4 rockets. While there was nothing wrong with our LAW rockets, the AT-4s
were larger, 84mm. The maximum effective range of the AT-4 was 1.5 times the range
of the LAW, 300 meters v. 200 meters.

“We’ll be targeting buildings this time out so take all the AT-4s you can find room for.
We’ve reconnoitered Fort Smith and they’ve gotten themselves cornered within the
banks of the Arkansas.”

“That’s stupid; why would they do that?”

“Over confidence? Poor leadership? It could be anything and we have no idea of who is
in charge of this group. I might have been wrong; maybe you didn’t get the Ice Queen
up in Jefferson City after all. Did you check out Branson?”

190
“We went through town and asked around. The new group appears to be survivors from
Springfield.”

“Appears to be?”

“I told you that Beth and I didn’t shop in Branson often. The gas station was out of fuel
and locked up. The grocery stores were out of food and locked up too.”

“We have 20 teams and you have 5. Each team is organized the same way yours are,
one sniper, one observer and two guards. Plus each team has one .50 caliber rifle with
a good daylight scope and a Raptor 6X. We have 8 people who have rifles chambered
in the .338 Lapua and you have 2. We’ve discussed creating additional sniper teams
based on those rifles. What rifles do your guys have?”

“Remington M24A3 SWS.”

“No Accuracy International?”

“No.”

“The ones my group has are also the Remington.”

“Suppressors?”

“Standard on the A3, optional on the A2. LEO and military only; how did your guys get
two?”

“I don’t know quite honestly.”

The range of the .338 Lapua was nearly equal to the .50BMG. It was accurate out to
about 1,750 meters, which in the case of Fort Smith, was more than adequate. So, in-
stead of 25 teams, all armed with .50 caliber rifles, we had 35 teams, 10 armed with
Remington M24A3 SWS in .338 Lapua.

“So, Joe, we set up here and move forward when we have a chance?”

“That’s what Sarge said. I don’t like moving up from the previous position in a forward
direction, it makes it easier for the forces of dark to spot us.”

“We’ll be okay. Any forces of dark in front of us should be dead.”

191
 The Seniors – Chapter 38

We set up 1,500 meters from a defensive line the other guys formed. We took out three
targets and word came over the radio to move up. I picked up the M-95 and started to
move forward. Something slammed into me and the lights went out.

My eyes felt like they were glued shut. My mouth was dry enough I felt like I could drink
a gallon of water. I felt someone washing my eyes, with a gauze pad?

“What…where...how did I get home?”

“You were transported to a hospital in Fort Smith and operated on. From there, you
were transported by air to Cox Medical Centers South in a UH-60. You were released
and came home 10 days ago.”

“What happened?”

“The other side had snipers too.”

“We had completed our first round of fire and the order came to move up. I got up with
the M-95 and started to move out when something slammed into me and I woke up
here.”

“You were lucky that the Ghost Riders had a Blackhawk on call. Joe was with you and
stayed with you all the way.”

“Was he shot too?”

“No he wasn’t. He was the only witness and Sarge wanted him to stay with you. It turns
out that you are both blood type O Negative, eliminating transfusion problems.”

“How much blood did I need?”

“One liter, taken at two different times. The first was in Fort Smith and the second was
in Springfield. Joe was the donor both times and has been resting since to rebuild his
blood supply.”

“Help me up.”

“Maybe in a few days.”

“How about right damn now?”

“There’s urine bottle by the bed, use that. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re on an IV.”

“What’s in it?”

192
“30% Dextrose in Water. You had a line in your other arm for the blood transfusions.”

“Why am I home?”

“They needed the space. That’s the only operating hospital in Springfield.”

“Am I going to be ok?”

“I was told that if you came out of the coma, and retained cognitive functions, you would
be okay. However, your hunting days are over.”

“I told you I was going to quit after two more trips. I guess I’m quitting one trip short of
my goal. Where was I hit?”

“In the back.”

“But, we were moving forward.”

“Bent over so you couldn’t be sighted, I know. The bullet slid under the body armor’s
ESAPI plate, hit a rib in your back and glanced inward. Joe got the shooter, but it was
already too late. He radioed for help and four of the others came and pulled you out.
Sarge got you to a south side hospital where they opened you up and removed the bul-
let. Your insides were torn up badly and they kept you in ICU until Sarge was able to
arrange the Blackhawk to transport Joe and you to Springfield.”

“How long have I been…”

“This is the 44th day.”

“I was out 6 weeks?”

“Six weeks, one and one half days into the seventh.”

“I remember something slamming into me and waking up here.”

“The doctor said that might happen. Lacunar amnesia is the loss of memory about one
specific event. It is a type of amnesia that leaves a lacuna, a gap, in the record of
memory.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I have some broth. I’ll get you some and if you keep it down, I’ll pull the IV.”

“It looks like it’s infiltrated.”

193
“It is, I think you might have brittle veins, I’ve had to move it several times.”

“I thought that brittle veins led to extravasation.”

“At our age, either is possible. The doctor said I might have to move the IV about every
four days.”

“When can I get out of bed?”

“Ask me tomorrow.”

I ate the broth and it was a little salty; probably because I hadn’t ingested anything in
over 6 weeks. Beth pulled my IV and when she left, I went to the bathroom. I was awful-
ly shaky and had to hold onto furniture just to get there and back. No sooner was I back
in bed then Beth opened the door and let Joe in.

“You look like crap, Joe. Thanks for the oil change.”

“I thought you were going to sleep your life away.”

“Beth said that you got the guy who shot me and got help to get me to the hospital.”

“After all these years, you still wear your dog tags. Sarge got your blood type off those
and asked if anyone had O negative. I did and since my partner was all shot up, he sent
me with you. I left the .50 so they could assemble another team. They finished up and
got back last week.”

“How did they do?”

“Fort Smith is back in friendly hands. Dave has been on the HF radio talking to other pa-
triot groups around the country. He finally figured out their code phrases, they were sur-
prisingly similar, and we have been communicating with 49 states.”

“Which one haven’t we communicated with?”

“Hawaii. Either they wiped out the Islands or no one with ham equipment is up and run-
ning.”

“Has he tried 40 meters? It’s the most reliable all-season DX band, and most popular at
night.”

“Ask him yourself, he’ll be over later. It could be any residual ionizing radiation.”

“I don’t think so, but as with everything, I could be wrong.”

“When will you be back on solid food?”

194
“You’ll have to ask Beth, I had broth when I got up. I’d guess she’ll start me on a soft
diet and move up from there. I had intended that the next mission be my last, but now,
I’m done.”

“I hadn’t said anything, but I planned this to be my last mission. Mary has been all over
me for some time now. I intended to announce it once we returned from Fort Smith.”

“With us having 5 teams of four, that only leaves two vacancies unless we create two
extra teams using those Remington rifles. If we were to do that, we’d have seven teams
and need a total of 28 people or cut the guards to one per team leaving us three short.”

“We?”

“We old guys will oversee the operations from here. Get busy Joe, we need three more
people.”

By the time I was allowed out of bed for good, Dave had briefed me on his contacts
around the country, naming the groups, their general AO and size. More recently, eve-
ryone began to switch to HF Packet. Maybe if Dave could explain it to me, Joe and I
could handle it. Their successes outnumbered their failures.

“I forgot to give you this.”

“A bullet?”

“Your bullet, .308 NATO according to the doctor.”

“They had snipers that close? Why didn’t we see him?”

“I did after he fired. He was on a rooftop and I drilled him with my .308 before he could
get another shot.”

“Although Roberto Duran is widely remembered for the now famous words, ‘no más’, he
never actually said them, it was actually said by Howard Cosell. As for me, I’m done, no
more, I quit.”

“You figure out that packet radio yet?”

“Not exactly, but I’m working on it. I figure you and I can stay down on the farm, tend to
the livestock and go horseback riding, weather permitting. Of course, I intend to keep in
practice with my firearms. You and I need to scout out Branson more closely when I’m
able.”

“Has Beth removed your dressing?”

195
“Last night.”

“Mind if I look?”

“Go ahead.”

“Can you raise your T-shirt or do you need help?”

“You do it, it’s easier.”

As Joe rolled up my T-shirt, there was a sharp intake of breath. I asked, “How does it
look?”

“Like somebody plowed a road in your back.”

“Healing?”

“Healed. The flesh is pink as with any wound but it is all sealed up and doesn’t appear
to be infected.”

“Grab that chart Beth kept and let me read it.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“I’ll let you know after I read it.”

“What’s it say?”

“I got one 500ml bag of D30W per day, an IV antibiotic and I think this drug was to pre-
vent me getting pneumonia. When I wasn’t on D30W, I was on normal saline. Thanks, I
have a better idea how bad it was.”

“How close was it?”

“In the beginning, I had one foot in a grave and the other on a banana peel. The coma
allowed the physical injuries to heal. The EEG from Cox Hospital showed a normal brain
pattern according to Beth.”

“Aw hell, you’re too mean to die.”

“We supplied several loads of supplies to them; I wonder how large of a medical bill I
have?”

“I paid it for you.”

“How much was it?”

196
“Ten dollars per day. I think those were for the IV sets.”

“How do they keep going?”

“There’s some kind of stockpile of medicines, called the Strategic National Stockpile un-
der the control of the CDC. They have something called Push Packages.”

“I’ve heard of those. They were supposed to be able to deliver a package in 12 hours.”

“Maybe AB, they could. There are too many obstacles for that now; like few aircraft fly-
ing, overpasses on major highways down and so forth.”

“What’s going to happen if our side wins? A new Constitution, elimination of gun laws,
what?”

“Nothing wrong with Constitution we have; it’s all those laws in the US Code that have
been passed since 1788 when it was ratified. On March 4, 1789, the government under
the Constitution began operations. If we win, I would expect to see the gun laws go
away but not entirely. There is nothing wrong with ‘shall issue’ CCW laws. With Wash-
ington nuked by those terrorists it’s anybody’s guess which records remain.”

“How about the state records?”

“If a state capitol was nuked because it was a population center, they’re probably gone
too, Dave. Don’t worry about it; no one is taking our guns away. Not now, not in the fu-
ture; assuming that we win.”

Even at $10 per day, I assumed that Joe had laid out a fair sum of money. I asked Beth
about it and she told me that she paid Joe back in one tenth ounce gold coins and a lit-
tle junk silver. Isn’t that a terrible name for coins made out of 90% silver? The real junk
coins were the more recent ones. A penny wasn’t 95% copper anymore.

PB, gold and silver coins started to appear in circulation. These weren’t new coins,
freshly minted, rather old US gold and silver coins. Because of some people removing a
small amount of gold from 24 carat coins, they fell into disfavor. The Krugerrands, which
were 22 carat the same as US gold coins, were in widespread use. Most of those were
one troy ounce of gold or worth around $1,500 and few transactions of that size oc-
curred. While South Africa made the half, quarter and one tenth ounce coins, they
weren’t widely circulated. Plus there were those people who wouldn’t accept a Kruger-
rand no matter what, like our neighbor who sold us the Percheron’s.

So far, the draft horses hadn’t been used for field work. They did haul grain and hay in
from the fields. Since we had gasoline for the old Ford tractor and the necessary imple-
ments, we used it for the heavy work because it was faster. Agricultural chemicals were

197
unavailable forcing us to fertilize with manure and crop rotation. John had a perennial
alfalfa field and rotated crops between soybeans, oats and corn. We added wheat.

The best-known plants which contribute to nitrogen fixation in nature are in the legume
family - Fabaceae, which includes such taxa as Clover, beans, alfalfa, lupines and pea-
nuts. They contain symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia within nodules in their root sys-
tems, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow and compete with other
plants. When the plant dies, the fixed nitrogen is released; making it available to other
plants and this helps to fertilize the soil. Wheat and oats are grasses in a totally different
family. After I was healed, Joe and I oversaw daily farming operations while the teams
alternated between farming and missions. Changed tactics eliminated our people being
wounded.

198
 The Seniors – Epilogue

The wound in my back proved that I wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful
than a locomotive; or, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Because of that, I
pulled out this record and showed it to David, telling him to continue it if I moved on to
glory before the story ended. I wanted a family keepsake of sorts, to be handed down
from generation to generation, outlining our part in the revitalization of America. Maybe I
was fighting a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way. Or maybe, I
just didn’t like Democrats.

Whatever the case, Joe and I got set up with two geldings, five year olds, and we pa-
trolled both John’s farm and our small acreage. In our travels, we’d located a farrier to
keep our horses shod, hoofs trimmed, etc. As the herd grew, we needed more tack. The
Percheron’s, a mare and a stallion, provided offspring, mostly colts, which were gelded.
Vet services were provided by our neighbor 3 miles down the road. He performed
standing castration using a local anesthetic. While the procedure had a greater chance
of minor complications, the only other choice was general anesthesia, something he
couldn’t handle. Older boys were assigned to keep the animals cleaned, thereafter.

Over the course of the next year, two things happened: one, Joe and I got a year older;
and, two, having been all but eradicated, the forces of dark disappeared into the wood-
work, like the cockroaches they were. By this time, federal elections were due and
Obama was out because his attempt to get the 22nd Amendment repealed failed. Local
groups were organizing the elections and the Electoral College members were being
decided in each state. Naval vessels sent to Hawaii found survivors and reestablished
communications. There had been no insurrection in Hawaii.

We had three more wounded during that time and considered ourselves lucky that no
one was killed. David was one of those wounded, a shot in his left shoulder that left him
partially disabled having shattered bones. Assignments/missions included Kansas and
Oklahoma, making a total of four states where missions were undertaken. Beth was
asked to help with the November election. Geena rode along as ‘shotgun’. She had
come a long way and made a complete 180° turn in her beliefs concerning firearms
from where this little saga began.

Whether it was backlash against the sitting president or simply time for a change, Liber-
tarians won the election in 2016. Many identified with Ron Paul, the Texas Representa-
tive, Physician, former Flight Surgeon, Conservative, Republican, Libertarian and Con-
stitutionalist. He ran for the Presidency three times, 1988, 2008 and 2012.

We learned a lot during the 8 years of the Obama presidency, much of it not good. He
had his moments, good and bad. The same could be said for any president we’d had
since George Washington. Anyone running for the office makes a lot of promises. Some
are kept and some fall by the wayside. For example:

199
● Compassionate Conservatism: The slogan "Compassionate Conservatism" was end-
lessly used, abused, debated, and interpreted during the Presidential campaign of 2000.
"Compassionate Conservatism" is the title of a book by Marvin Olasky, with a Foreword
by George W. Bush. Bush is often listed as co-author.

● Foreign Affairs: Bush promised a humble foreign policy with no nation building. He
had criticized the Clinton-Gore Administration for being too interventionist: "If we don't
stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're
going to have a serious problem coming down the road. And I'm going to prevent that."

● Economy: Bush promised tax breaks for all, sometimes using the slogan "Whoever
pays taxes gets a tax break". The rich pay the most taxes, and the current system
weighs the income tax against the upper income brackets. Bush also supported raising
the Earned Income Tax Credit, which would primarily benefit the lower brackets of in-
come-tax-affected citizens.

● Education: policy named No Child Left Behind, includes mandatory national testing
and some support for school vouchers. The No Child Left Behind Act provides in-
creased funding for schools, while requiring greater accountability for results. It gives
parents the option to transfer their children to another school, if the current school is fail-
ing. It requires teachers to have a degree specific to the subject they are teaching,
which had not been federally required in the past. It also makes high school academic
records available to military recruiters.

● Energy: The Bush campaign supports a comprehensive energy reform bill which in-
cludes initiatives for energy conserving technologies as well as decreasing the foreign
dependence on oil through increased domestic production and the use of non-fossil fuel
based energy production methods. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR) and other domestic fields would decrease dependence on oil imports, particu-
larly from the Middle East. However, many environmentalists hold that it will produce
such small amounts of petroleum as to be effectively useless and will needlessly harm
the environment.

Some actually happened, the Education agenda and some tax breaks. Some suc-
cumbed to the 9/11 attacks, especially the nation building. There were no new oil wells
in the Arctic. He was reelected and had the same 8 years that Obama had. Comparing
the two men showed differences. Bush retired to Texas, Obama retired to Hawaii. Both
had supporters and detractors. One appealed to conservatives and the other to liberals.
Don’t depend on a liberal to protect your rights; FDR signed the National Firearms Act.

There are quite a few stories in the firearms world relating the idea that GCA68 was the
word-for-word translation of the German (Nazi) Weapons Act of 1938 (GWA38). This
certainly appears to be at least partially true. It is also apparent GCA68 was patterned
after aspects of another post WWI law, German Law on Firearms and Ammunition of
1928 (German Law 1928).

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But, there is more to GCA68 than just German gun control laws. Great influence was
provided by powerful, charismatic, forces to get German laws incorporated into US Law.
And one must realize these laws did not travel from Germany across the Atlantic on
their own; they definitely had some help.

The provisions of GCA68 had been hotly sought after by Connecticut Senator Thomas J
Dodd (a Democrat) and President LB Johnson for several years. It had victories and
setbacks along the way, and still did not have all the measures they wanted to see in
the final bill.

In regard to LBJ's influence on gun control, it has to be said that there has never been a
more convincing and powerful force over the will of Congress. He repeatedly champi-
oned the idea of total gun control in the last years of his term as President. At every
chance, he used the television and other formal appearances to shamelessly promote
the denial of Second Amendment rights to all Americans. We will include quite a few of
the excerpts from his speeches and quotes to this end.

GCA68 was preceded by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act (OCCSSA),
June 1968. The handgun control provisions in OCCSSA were amended by GCA68 to
include rifles and shotguns.

GCA68 took a very convoluted path to passage and ultimately drew upon the murder
and assassination of at least three key figures to finally get the needed Congressional
sponsorship and public support to pass.

A Republican championed the cause of the Firearm Owners Protection Act. In the Re-
port of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (February 1982), a bipartisan subcom-
mittee (consisting of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats) of the US Senate investigated the
Second Amendment and reported its findings. The report stated:

The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by eve-
ry major commentator and court in the first half century after its ratification, indicates
that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms
in a peaceful manner.

As debate for FOPA was in its final stages, Rep. William J. Hughes (D-NJ) proposed an
amendment to ban the civilian ownership or transfer of any fully-automatic weapon
which was not registered by May 19, 1986. However, any such weapon manufactured
and registered before the May 19 cutoff could still be legally owned and transferred by
civilians. There was the Brady Law and Bill Clinton’s AWB, with a 10 year sunset
clause. However it was HR 45, as amended, that became the new permanent AWB.

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So you, the future generations of my family, keep this history in mind because ‘they’
never give up, look at LBJ. It not a question of us needing firearms, it is a question of
firearms being used to protect that which we hold dear, our Liberty. Remember what
Jefferson said:

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot
be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in pro-
portion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such
misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What coun-
try before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can
preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The
tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.

David Morgan, Sr.

July 4, 2017

© 2011, Gary D. Ott

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