The one thing I've always been confused about organized militias, trust and following through.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The one thing I've always been confused about organized militias, trust and following through.

Posted: 4/20/2014 12:58:44 PM EDT

The US armed forces have UCMJ and the ability to enforce it if you don't do your job or go AWOL.

Say a group of guys organize a militia, how does one guy know the other guy actually has his back? Rounds start flying or shit gets real, seems it would be likely a member would see the light and say "fuck this noise." There isn't anything forcing him to abide by the pact he made with the others and what does he gain sticking his neck out for another?

Are these groups doomed to dissolve when faced with a real situation?

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:47:14 PM EDT

[#1]

The ones that call themselves militia tend to be nuttier than a payday bar. The smaller ones organized along the lines of a group of friends planning for mutual support in a crisis might do better.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:49:55 PM EDT

[#2]

I trust all the guys I know 100%

Groups like the Mich or Oh militias not so much.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:52:36 PM EDT

[#3]

Ha, militias...

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:55:04 PM EDT

[#4]

The militia members generally all came from the same town. Also the officers generally bought their commission by buying the equipment for those they commanded. If someone ran off wearing a uniform they bought and carrying equipment they paid for, they were willing to send someone after them. Nowadays if a militia member ran off the ATF would send a car to pick up their agent.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:55:35 PM EDT

[#5]

This was actually a huge issue back in the day. That said once the bullets start flyin is not the time to turn and run. At that point it's fight or die.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:56:35 PM EDT

[#6]

That's the problem with militias in the 21st century.
Being combat effective requires discipline and money. Lots of money, for equipment and training. And lots of discipline. If the kinds of people in most of these flashy, in the media, everyone-is-a-colonel/general militias had self discipline, they would already be in the military.

There is a possibility of a militia being effective, but it requires dedication and experience most don't have, and can't get.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:59:08 PM EDT

[#7]

There were some joes I wouldn't trust to have my back. There are some cops I wouldn't trust to have my back.

I'm sure militias are no better. More than likely much worse.

Posted: 4/20/2014 1:59:48 PM EDT

[#8]

If there are 20 guys in the militia group, then generally the 19 of them who are undercover FBI agents will enforce the rules on that one guy who isn't and just joined without having any idea what is really going on.

Posted: 4/20/2014 2:11:16 PM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:

If there are 20 guys in the militia group, then generally the 19 of them who are undercover FBI agents will enforce the rules on that one guy who isn't and just joined without having any idea what is really going on.

View Quote

You'd probably only need one agent. As soon as he's got a couple slam dunk felony convictions on just a few the rest would be falling over themselves to flip first and avoid jail. Like fucking dominos.

Posted: 4/20/2014 4:00:59 PM EDT

[#10]

Interesting thread about militia discipline. In the movie "Gods and Generals," there's a subplot about two college students -- one, a VMI cadet, joins the Virginia militia. The other, a Bowdoin College student, joins the 20th Maine. Their professors turn out to be their commanders (Stonewall Jackson amd Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, respectively). Both students eventually lose their nerve. The Confederate deserts, and Stonewall Jackson has him shot. The Yankee asks tearfully to go home and Chamberlain lets him.

Posted: 4/20/2014 4:05:12 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:
This was actually a huge issue back in the day. That said once the bullets start flyin is not the time to turn and run. At that point it's fight or die.

View Quote

Yet back in the day, they were notorious for the former.

And those were real militias, active participants in their respective communities - not antisocial losers hiding out in the woods.

Posted: 4/20/2014 4:32:14 PM EDT

[#12]

We lost the Battle of Camden over that kind of shit.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The one thing I've always been confused about organized militias, trust and following through.

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