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Advice for Convoy Travel |
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Before you hop into vehicle an hit the highway radio blasting Stephen Wolfe.
First your need to do a METT-T
Mission; Are you after supplies, survivors, or just nosy? I.e.; recon
Enemy; situation; Are there zombies still, marauders, cannibals, or whatever?
Time; How long do you plan on being out? Is winter coming?
Terrain: Will you be in mountains, high plains, swamps, or forest?
Troops; available; How many people can you take and still leave your home defended?
OK now you can start planning.
Mission; your going out for the above reasons and then maybe more. What kind an where to find. All right you need commodities, and military weapons. So you look up where the walmart dc’s (example) and the military bases are, and the roadways to them.
Enemy situation; for this It’s best to say there are enemies and a lot of them. They are also as well armed if not better then you. Better safe then sorry.
Time; How long will it take you to get there and back. Take the distance and divide that by the speed you’re planning to go. That will give you the drive time. Now add in breaks for sleep, food, bathroom, and stretches. Now double that because the roads will be bad, or triple because they are really bad and clogged with wrecks. Now you have rough Idea how long it’s should take if all goes well. Does this time frame put you into winter, hurricane season or anything?
Terrain; What is the route going thru. Simple enough. But it also tells you that you may need extra gear. If you need semi’s, get truckers’ map books, pc miler comp program they have the route restrictions in them. More water for deserts, Tire chains for Winter Mountain passes and other things as such.
Troops available; How many people can you take and still have security at home? Drivers security and such you’ll be able to take with you.
Now having done that an, yes there is more to it then that, you can start to build a plan. You have; The idea of what type of supplies your after, The thought of enemies trying to stop you, The time you will be gone roughly, The route and alternate routes, the terrain, number of people.
With these you will be able to break it down to how many trucks you’ll have, repair vehicles, troop transports, command and control vehicles. Your situations will all be different. Some will be able to take a company of troops for security plus medical transports, tow trucks, electronics trucks, supply trucks, fuel tankers, and other needed transports. While others may only be able to come up with two people. (Smokey and the Bandit time.) But the mission will be the same GET SUPPLIES!
Your individual reasons for going will also be different, Some will go for glory and adventure, the annoying little sister that always wanted to “pway wit big brubber or sistah” now cries her self to sleep from hunger, the plump mother that used to make the booboo go away is now skin an bones, or the cute neighbor that said they’ll curl your toes when you get back. Whatever the reason you’ll want to do it, you’ll need to do things like plan, train, and practice.
And you’ll need weapons, radios, scanners, gear, food, fuel, vehicles, and RULES. The size of your force will matter in that. One group maybe large enough to risk going up to a possible hostile, where as another has no option but to avoid them. But you will want to do whatever safely for much is riding on you. Hence the rules.
Let’s begin with the convoy make up.
The basic is made up of 2 parts. Main body and security, which in turn are broken down into even smaller elements. For those that only have two people, you should still break it down to two elements. A recon/forward security and the main body.
A bigger force should have a forward recon, forward security, flank security, and rear security, in conjunction with an internal security force. These forces/elements also are broken down into smaller units, and jobs.
Main body.
In it you need a transport vehicle at least. Into which you will have to cram in commo units, scanners, extra fuel, food, ammo, maps, and anything else that maybe needed.
A larger force will have the ability to separate all the gear and spread it out to multiple vehicles. An they will also be able to add more flexibility into their plans. By adding indirect support weapons, more Intel gathering devices and other support vehicles.
Well you have got all your people and gear to take. If you think your ready for the open road, your are wrong.
You have to drill your people and yourself. Just because they can shoot an drive does not make your mission a success. Here are some of the things you’ll need to practice; Battle drills, Elint, Humint, and Comsec.
You will also need a set of ROE's (Rules of engagement). Why you ask? If you shoot the first person you see, what is to say that he is alone.
Battle drills will be needed so that everyone knows what to do in case of a near ambush, far ambush, contact to the front/flanks/rear.
Now you ask what are Elint, Humint, and Comsec.
Elint is electronic intelligence.
Humint is human intelligence.
Comsec is communication security.
An each of these need to be practiced an trained into your people.
ROE’s I’ll begin with the accidental moving encounter.
You or your forward recon is driving along, scanners scanning freq’s and nothing, all of a sudden a vehicle is coming in your direction. First thing is to stop get into a defensive position and send a Salute report using comsec to your convoy commander or the snowman (Bandit).
That is a battle drill.
The main body will of course perform a battle drill of its own.
Now is the vehicle coming straight at you or is it in the other lane? You should already have your weapon at the low ready. Get some cover, If it is coming straight at you non-stop. At a reasonable distance from you, you may want to fire a warning burst in front of the vehicle making them stop. If it continues straight at, and now appears to be hostile in intent you should fire it up for your safety.
If it is in the other lane an keeps on its’ course you may want to go to high ready and as it comes along side your position then starts to go beyond you may go back to the low ready. If it stops a reasonable distance you may stay at the low ready or go to high ready. At this time you should have commo with your main body and find out if your Elint has anything, all the while using good comsec. The occupant may be wary of you as you should be of them.
If you/your commander wish to meet, take a small team forward of your vehicle at the low ready not so far as to be out of running distance back. Allow them to see your overture gesture. They may/should follow suit if they do leave the team in place for near security as you advance to the half way distance between vehicles. Move as slow as they do since this will put both parties a disadvantage it will allow for a safer meeting.
This is also a battle drill an can be used for road blocks or other such encounters.
Now; accidental point meeting.
Your convoy is moving to its goal when the forward recon element sees a road block. Again they should stop get in a defensive position an call back a salute report using comsec. With the Intel from the Elint and Humint now the commander can decide the best way to handle the situation. Does he wish to precede and meet them, gather more Intel, attack them or just find another way?
By now your asking what is a SALUTE REPORT?
S. Size; How many men?
A. Activity; Are they getting into positions? Are they ready?
L. Location; using good comsec give there position.
U. Unit/uniform; Are they dressed the same? Any ID marks?
T. Time; Simple.
E. Equipment; Weapons, Lbe, Vehicles.
That’s it and using that with any Elint or lack of it will give you/your convoy commander more Intel then just what the forward scouts have.
IE; they are ready an in position yet no radio traffic is heard gives him 2 bits of Intel. 1 They have a lp/op out somewhere. And 2: They have a secure form of commo be it a land line, burst, or freq-hoping encrypted radios.
Now the deliberate meet.
Your Elint people have the location of survivors do to them not using comsec or just plain telling everyone where they are. You want to meet them, so form your convoy up and head over near them to an ORP (objective rally point).
From the ORP you can send out area and point recon to ascertain more Intel on these folks. Do they have road blocks? And where are they? Are they manned? Do they have a wall and is it manned? Do they have crops outside the wall? If outside who tends them? Are they guarded? How do they react to the guards?
All that plus more will give you Intel and help build up the info on these folks. All this will help to better decide if you really want to meet them or not.
Why not go right up to them? (Because you don’t now them; are they killing people for supplies? Are they slavers? Do you really want to have survived whatever calamity just to be someone’s food, slave or worse?)
I am not going to give a ROE for when someone is shooting at you. If you can't figure it out, you deserve what's going to happen.
OK, almost ready to hit the road. you should have a basic idea of where your going how to get there an back. A group of trained people that are going. Vehicles, supplies an other gear that is needed. Just one thing left.
Passage of friendly lines.
That is mainly a bunch of questions such as what to do if you get hit leaving? What if they get hit while your leaving? How far before you are truly on your own? Upon your return what is the far recognition signal an the near? Will they still be here when you return? If not where will they be? Well that's it. (maybe!)
Some things or reasons may need more explaining. Like Passage of friendly lines, battle drills, Comsec, Humint, or Elint. Those are as long or longer then this little convoy battle drill.
