Recently there have been posts in several of the forums I participate in about the Oath Keepers organization going “Operational” and what that could mean to you and I in the big picture.
I received an email from an acquaintance through another preparedness group to let me know there was a meeting of the local chapter of Oath Keepers scheduled in a couple of weekends from then and that it would be held in a nearby town at a local restaurant’s meeting room. As usual I was running a few minutes later than I had planned, and when I arrived at the restaurant and made my way to the meeting room, it was interesting to see that it was filled to capacity, probably 50 or more people were in attendance. I recognized several other friends that had already arrived and made my way to one of the last open chairs in the place. As it turns out my acquaintance is the local chapter organizer for the Greater Nashville area and in attendance was the State level Coordinator as well as several other State area members that would be participating in the meeting.
Opening the meeting was Jim, the State of Tennessee Coordinator, and he explained that basic premise of the Oath Keepers organization to this point had been to encourage active duty Military personnel, Law enforcement officers, and First Responders, both active and retired, to Obey the Oath that they swore to the uphold the constitution when they first joined.
From the Oath Keepers website:
Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That oath, mandated by Article VI of the Constitution itself, is to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and Oath Keepers declare that they will not obey unconstitutional orders, such as orders to disarm the American people, to conduct warrantless searches, or to detain Americans as “enemy combatants” in violation of their ancient right to jury trial. See the Oath Keepers Declaration of Orders We Will Not Obey for details.
Oath Keepers reaches out to both current serving and veterans to remind them of their oaths, to teach them more about the Constitution they swore to defend, and to inspire them to defend it.
Our motto is “Not on our watch!”
Jim continued that national level leadership had recently decided that in order to raise awareness within the general public that they would begin to assemble area and regional groups of Citizen Preservation Teams. These team’s goals are to have trained & prepared individuals to help out with response and relief after an event such as a house fire or tornado might impact their subdivision or town. Somewhat modeled or compared to the current local CERT groups. (CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team).
The improvement over the CERT qualifications would be to have specialized and better trained individuals on the teams. Modeled loosely on the military’s Special Forces “A” Team concept, their primary mission is to teach, organize, and lead, rather than to directly fight. That said, all would be trained and capable of engaging a threat if the situation called for it.
The teams are to be made up of 12 individuals, Two Communications Specialists, Two Engineers, Two Weapons Specialist, Two Medics, an Operations NCO, an Assistant Operations NCO that does the Intelligence role, a Commanding Officer and an Assistant Commanding Officer.
The primary goal of the initial meeting I attended was to gauge local interest, and it seems to be very good based on the turn out, and to solicit people to become involved with the organization. The national level directors realized that each State and local municipality have different issues to deal with, i.e. Hurricanes in coastal states, Forest fires and Earth Quakes in the Western region or Ice storms in the Northern States, that the local groups would be better served if they custom design the training modules to address their areas conditions and environment.
Even if you are not Ex-military or Law Enforcement, the organization has an Associate Level membership that is open to the general public, you do not have to have prior military, law enforcement or first responder. By joining as an Associate member you can support the group and be involved.
They are encouraging all patriotic, liberty loving Americans to join and help them accomplish their goals and mission.
I would also encourage you to take a look at their website where they have reams of information, discussion forums for National and State specific topics as well as links to other resources. There are also links so you can contact your State and local coordinators for more information on local groups forming and to check out the training that’s being offered.
Without a doubt, Oath Keepers could be a valuable resource for you as an individual, for your family and could be a key part of your personal preparedness plan if things get rough in the times to come.
Here is the direct link to the Oath Keepers site on the new awareness and activity program:
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/10/21/oath-keepers-is-going-operational-by-forming-special-civilization-preservation-teams
And this is their home page:
Patrick
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