Enemies of Liberty are ruthless. To own your Liberty, you'd better come harder than your enemies..

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Don't use your musket if you can kill 'em with your hatchet...

Standing Orders

  1. Don’t forget nothing.
  2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s warning.
  3. When you’re on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.
  4. Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don’t never lie to a Ranger or officer.
  5. Don’t never take a chance you don’t have to.
  6. When we’re on the march we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can’t go through two men.
  7. If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it’s hard to track us.
  8. When we march, we keep moving till dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us.
  9. When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps.
  10. If we take prisoners, we keep ‘em separate till we have had time to examine them, so they can’t cook up a story between ‘em.
  11. Don’t ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won’t be ambushed.
  12. No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank, and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can’t be surprised and wiped out.
  13. Every night you’ll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force.
  14. Don’t sit down to eat without posting sentries.
  15. Don’t sleep beyond dawn. Dawn’s when the French and Indians attack.
  16. Don’t cross a river by a regular ford.
  17. If somebody’s trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you.
  18. Don’t stand up when the enemy’s coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, hide behind a tree.
  19. Let the enemy come till he’s almost close enough to touch, then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet.
  20. Don’t use your musket if you can kill ‘em with your hatchet.
The above is from one of our better blogs in the community.

Don't get fancy, folks.  Keep it simple, even when the issue is complex with a steep learning curve (like modern comms) and especially when it really is a simple issue - like killing something that is Evil.  Read #20 - over and over and over, until you feel that premise creeping into everything you do.

If armor in your AO concerns you, don't fret that you don't have armor piercing widgets - blow the fuel depot and every fuel re-supply effort. 

Sparks needs to be on everyone's daily read list.  Here's his main link.

Kerodin
III 

2 comments:

  1. I thought these looked familiar. The book "Ranger Handbook" that was a Christmas gift to me from Major Wolf states these on page 1. They are 'Standing Orders, Rogers' Rangers' Major Robert Rogers 1759. Quite the words to learn to live by.
    In Liberty,
    Israel
    III

    ReplyDelete
  2. The area where I live is prime armor country - flat and not a lot of large trees to stop them.
    Yes, we recognize that and plan for it.

    ReplyDelete

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