Blueprint for Resistance - What If Russians Invaded, How Would US Citizens Resist Martial Law/Military Occupation?
A Hypothetical Guide to Resisting Martial Law and Military Occupation in the USA
Taking a quick break from writing my book to share these thoughts. How would you resist a foreign adversary, like Russia, who has managed to take control of the US government and install their puppet leaders into key positions of power? How would you resist martial law with foreign military troops on the streets oppressing US civilians? How would you resist foreign military along with homegrown collaborators that aim to round up US citizens and send them to concentration camps?
In this writing I will pull from real US Army doctrine and field manuals. Did you know that they’re available publicly(with a few exceptions) and for free? Here’s a list of field manuals, the training manuals the US Army uses to train its soldiers, published by the Army and available for free: https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/FM.aspx
Note there are a few FMs, like FM 3-18 Special Forces Operations which are “controlled unclassified information.” It’s an interesting information classification that I’ve only just learned about now. It’s not classified, yet the Army doesn’t distribute it freely like it does most of its other field manuals.
This post is inspired by the podcast It Could Happen Here. “Elon Musk and The Martian Revolution.” Robert and Mia talk with Revolutions Podcast host Mike Duncan about the similarities between his new fictional series The Martian Revolution and the Trump administration and the politics that inspired the show.
It was fun to hear Mike’s creative process in how he imagined how a fictional revolution on Mars would unfold against a repressive, technofascist dictatorship. The really bizarre/sad part is that the world Mike imagined wasn’t as ridiculous or bleak as the reality unfolding in the US currently. I thought it would be fun to follow suite and have a thought-exercise for how one would actually resist foreign troops in the streets of America imposing martial law and rounding up citizens.
US Army Special Forces
I’ve been obsessed with US Army Special Forces since I was a kid. Arnold was a Special Forces soldier in the movie “Predator” and “Commando.” That’s probably where the original inspiration came from. If you read much of my writings you’ll see that Arnold basically inspired much of my early adult life haha.
In week 12 of basic training I tried to visit Special Forces recruiting on Ft. Benning with a battle buddy to sign up for Special Forces training, but we never ended up getting permission from the Drill Sergeants. The motto of SF is “De Opresso Liber” meaning “to liberate the oppressed.” After that I lost my nerve and served out my contract without ever going to SFAS.
I was in the process of joining 19th Special Forces group in 2020 when I got side-tracked by the hotshot job, and then I was again in the process of joining in 2024 when I got side-tracked by a wanna be dictator getting elected president. I’ll probably be too old to join once(if) the country ever goes back to a democracy. That’s okay, I’ll do it in my next life.
Special Forces, or more commonly known as “Green Berets” work in small 12 man teams training indigenous guerilla fighters, often deep behind enemy lines. The original vision for US Army Special Forces was to use these small 12 man “A teams”(like Mr. T’s “The A Team”) to be a force multiplier and overthrow communist governments by training up armies filled with local, indigenous forces, lead and trained by the Special Forces troops.
In the initial invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11, only about 100 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were deployed in the first wave to topple the Taliban. These small teams, working with CIA operatives and partnering with Northern Alliance fighters, coordinated devastating airstrikes and directed ground operations that led to the collapse of Taliban rule across much of Afghanistan within just eight weeks, incurring a remarkably low casualty count for the scope of the operation with eight American KIA. This effort is cited as the most efficient and successful special operations campaigns in the history of modern warfare.
Special Forces specialize in irregular warfare, also known as unconventional warfare. WW1 and WW2, and now the war in Ukraine are the best modern examples of conventional warfare. Large armies with uniformed soldiers fighting each other with similar equipment and similar capabilities. The wars that the US have been involved in in the last fifty years have been unconventional and irregular warfare. Or as the term was popularized in Iraq and Afghanistan, insurgency warfare, because our conventional military strength is simply too overwhelming.
Unlike conventional warfare, irregular warfare emphasizes small-unit tactics, intelligence operations, psychological warfare, and subversion rather than direct military confrontation with enemy forces.
In any scenario where the US is occupied by a foreign military force most of the resistance would fall under the umbrella of unconventional warfare. Because at that point it would mean US military units have either been destroyed, captured, or surrendered and the only people left to fight back would be groups of civilian partisans, most likely de-centrally organized and only having access to basic small arms.
What Happens in Occupied Territories?
What happens when an authoritarian state topples another nation and occupies its territory? There’s no need to guess. We have many such examples in modern history. Germany’s occupation of Europe and Japan’s occupation of much of Asia in WW2. The roughly 20% of Ukraine occupied by Russia right now.
To maintain control in occupied territories across Europe during World War II, Nazi Germany implemented a ruthless combination of administrative measures and terror tactics. The Germans established puppet governments or direct military administrations depending on the region, often exploiting existing ethnic tensions by elevating collaborationist local authorities.
Economic exploitation was systematic, with resources and labor redirected to support the German war effort through forced labor programs and industrial requisitioning. The SS, Gestapo, and local collaborationist police forces enforced compliance through a campaign of targeted assassinations, public executions, hostage-taking, and collective punishment—where entire communities faced reprisals for resistance activities.
In Eastern Europe particularly, the occupation was characterized by extraordinary brutality, with mass killings of political opponents, intellectuals, and racial "undesirables" as part of the broader Nazi ideological project. This combination of administrative control, economic exploitation, and terroristic violence allowed Germany to maintain power across vast territories despite growing resistance movements and increasingly limited military resources as the war progressed.
Today, Russia maintains control in occupied Ukrainian territories through a combination of military presence and have installed pro-Russian puppet administrations. They've established local proxy authorities who implement Russian laws, currency, and educational curriculum while suppressing Ukrainian identity. Russian forces conduct "filtration" operations to identify and detain those with pro-Ukrainian sympathies, while restricting movement and communications.
Critical infrastructure has been integrated with Russian systems, and Moscow has distributed Russian passports to create a pretext for "protecting Russian citizens." Meanwhile, cultural repression includes replacing Ukrainian media with Russian propaganda, removing Ukrainian language from schools, and renaming streets and towns. This occupation strategy relies on both physical control through military presence and psychological control through identity suppression and forced “russification.”
What Would Occupation of the USA Look Like?
The US is simply too big in both sheer land mass and population to lock down in any meaningful way. According to US Army doctrine you need 10.76 troops for every 1,000 people to occupy a territory effectively and 20-25 troops/1,000 people to effectively combat an insurgency.
According to estimates from late 2024, Russia maintains 70,000-90,000 troops in occupied Ukrainian territories. This force consists of a mix of regular Russian military units, separatist fighters from the self-proclaimed republics, Chechen forces, and various mercenary groups including Wagner.
Approximately 5-6 million Ukrainian citizens remain in Russian-occupied territories, representing about 15-18% of Ukraine's pre-war population.
So those numbers track, Russia has a ratio of roughly 14-18 troops to every 1,000 residents in these occupied regions.
So for the United States as a whole this would require 3,658,400 troops to occupy the US and 6,800,000 to 8,500,000 to combat insurgency within the US. China has the largest Army in the world with 2 million active duty troops, the US has 1.39 million and Russia has 1.32 million active duty troops.
In other words you could take the entire amies of Russia, China, and the US and they’d still not be enough to effectively combat an insurgency within our borders. That’s not even taking into account that a nation can never deploy 100% of its troops into any conflict. At the height of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan we peaked at 294,000 troops deployed during “The Surge.” This strained our military system to the breaking point where we needed to stop-loss and involuntarily keep people in the service and accepted recruits that were borderline mentally handicapped, people with criminal histories, and recruits who had health problems that would have made them ineligible just a few years prior. Just to keep recruiting numbers up.
Just like how Russia is sending prisoners and old men to fight on the front lines in Ukraine.
The reality of occupation within the US would be troop concentrations in important cities. Seats of power like Washington, D.C. and state capitols. Cities with important infrastructure like ports and railroads.
If we consider a Red Dawn style invasion of the US, the invading forces would likely focus on specific strategic locations rather than attempting to occupy the entire country. They would set up check-points on highways and try to control and restrict travel as much as they could. They would conduct raids and patrols into the rural areas that they don’t have a large presence in. They would restrict the flow of information by controlling the media and social media and harshly punish anyone who spoke out against them.
Here’s a list of cities that would need to be occupied that AI helped me to generate.
Political and cultural cities, based on federal, strategic, and institutional significance:
Washington, D.C. – The seat of federal power; home to the White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, Pentagon, and virtually all major federal agencies.
New York City, New York – Economic and cultural capital; headquarters of the United Nations, major media outlets, financial institutions (Wall Street), and large population.
Los Angeles, California – Largest city in the West; global center for media and entertainment, massive economy, and population influence.
Chicago, Illinois – Political and economic hub of the Midwest; central transportation and logistics network, major corporate and political influence.
Atlanta, Georgia – Key in national politics, civil rights history, and home to major corporations and media (e.g., CNN); pivotal in swing state electoral strategies.
Miami, Florida – Major international gateway; politically influential in Latin American affairs, immigration policy, and U.S. elections due to Florida’s swing state status.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Historic political significance (birthplace of the U.S.); politically strategic in presidential elections.
Houston, Texas – Energy capital of the U.S.; growing political clout due to population and economic size; strategic in Texas politics.
San Francisco Bay Area, California – Center of technological power (Silicon Valley); heavily influential in federal policy on tech, privacy, and innovation.
Denver, Colorado – Regional power center; strategically located in the Mountain West, growing political influence in national elections.
Major port cities that could serve as supply and reinforcement points:
Houston, Texas – Largest U.S. port by total tonnage; specializes in petroleum, chemicals, and containers.
South Louisiana (New Orleans area) – Massive port district along the Mississippi River; handles bulk commodities like grain, coal, and crude oil.
New Orleans, Louisiana – Major port for bulk cargo, particularly grain and petroleum; important inland waterway hub.
Corpus Christi, Texas – Leading U.S. crude oil export port; handles petroleum products and industrial goods.
Beaumont, Texas – Key petroleum and military cargo port; supports heavy industrial and energy shipping.
Long Beach, California – One of the top container ports in the U.S.; also handles liquid bulk and breakbulk cargo.
Los Angeles, California – Largest U.S. container port; vital for trans-Pacific trade and consumer goods.
New York/New Jersey – Largest East Coast port; major hub for containerized cargo and consumer goods.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Handles large volumes of petroleum, chemicals, and agricultural products via the Mississippi River.
Mobile, Alabama – Rapidly growing port; handles coal, steel, forest products, and containers.
Strategic Command & Control Facilities
NORAD / Cheyenne Mountain Complex (Colorado Springs, CO) – Underground facility for aerospace warning and defense; key to detecting and responding to missile threats.
U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) – Offutt Air Force Base (NE) – Oversees nuclear forces, global strike capability, missile defense, and cyber operations.
National Military Command Center (NMCC) – The Pentagon (Arlington, VA) – Primary command-and-control hub for joint military operations and nuclear command.
Raven Rock Mountain Complex (Site R) – Pennsylvania/Maryland border – Alternate Pentagon and continuity-of-government site.
Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center (VA) – Key continuity-of-government facility for civilian leadership.
Major Army Installations
Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg, NC) – Home to U.S. Army Special Operations Command and XVIII Airborne Corps; rapid deployment and special forces hub.
Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood, TX) – One of the largest U.S. military installations; houses III Corps and multiple armored units.
Fort Benning (GA) – Infantry training center and home of the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence.
Fort Leonard Wood (MO) – Training base for engineering, military police, and chemical corps.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord (WA) – Major power projection platform for the Pacific; home to I Corps.
Air Force Strategic Bases
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (OH) – Major research and development center; Air Force Materiel Command.
Barksdale Air Force Base (LA) – Home to Air Force Global Strike Command; operates B-52 bombers and supports nuclear mission.
Minot Air Force Base (ND) – One of the few bases with both nuclear-capable bombers and ICBMs.
Whiteman Air Force Base (MO) – Home of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber fleet.
Peterson Space Force Base (CO) – Operational command for U.S. Space Command and NORAD.
Navy and Marine Corps Installations
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay (GA) – Atlantic fleet base for U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).
Naval Base Kitsap (WA) – Pacific fleet base for nuclear submarines; also houses strategic weapons facility.
Naval Station Norfolk (VA) – World’s largest naval base; headquarters for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (NC) – Major training and deployment base for East Coast Marines.
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton (CA) – Key installation for West Coast amphibious forces.
Missile Defense and Strategic Sites
Vandenberg Space Force Base (CA) – Missile test and space launch site; part of national missile defense system.
Fort Greely (AK) – Ground-based midcourse missile defense interceptors; protects continental U.S. from ICBMs.
Schriever Space Force Base (CO) – Space operations and satellite control; part of U.S. Space Force mission.
Any occupation would likely prioritize coastal areas with major population centers and military significance, focusing on controlling strategic chokepoints rather than vast interior regions. The mountainous West and rural interior would be extraordinarily difficult to control, making them likely centers of resistance (as depicted in the film Red Dawn).
Even reading that list exhausts me. The thought of actually trying to occupy even a fraction of those cities would be a monumental task. It makes me feel more hopeful about the reality of any sort of occupation by military forces/martial law within the US. My god I would hate to be the leadership put in charge of trying to pull that off. It might even drive me to alcoholism.
RESISTANCE in Occupied Europe
The following are excerpts from the Encyclopedia Britannica
Resistance, in European history, any of various secret and clandestine groups that sprang up throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II to oppose Nazi rule. The exact number of those who took part is unknown, but they included civilians who worked secretly against the occupation as well as armed bands of partisans or guerrilla fighters. Their activities ranged from publishing clandestine newspapers and assisting the escape of Jews and Allied airmen shot down over enemy territory to committing acts of sabotage, ambushing German patrols, and conveying intelligence information to the Allies.
Vichy’s decline was paralleled by the rise of the anti-German underground. Within weeks of the 1940 collapse, tiny groups of men and women had begun to resist. Some collected military intelligence for transmission to London; some organized escape routes for British airmen who had been shot down; some circulated anti-German leaflets; some engaged in sabotage of railways and German installations. The Resistance movement received an important infusion of strength in June 1941, when Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union brought the French Communist Party into active participation in the anti-German struggle. It was further reinforced by the German decision to conscript French workers; many draftees took to the hills and joined guerrilla bands that took the name Maquis (meaning “underbrush”). A kind of national unity was finally achieved in May 1943, when de Gaulle’s personal representative, Jean Moulin, succeeded in establishing a National Resistance Council (Conseil National de la Résistance) that joined all the major movements into one federation.
The following is excerpts from https://www.normandy1944.info/underground-resistance-movement
Illegal press and radio
After the Germans armies invaded several countries at the begining of the war, illegal presses and radio arose almost immediately there after. The existing radio broadcast corporations and newspapers were no longer allowed to decide what news they would run, and were forced to use what ever the German occupier prescribed. The only way therefor for people to hear news from the London government and resistance news was through illegally kept radio's and through pamphlets made by the illegal press. All this had to be done with great caution as the distribution and possession of illegal newspapers and radio's was naturally strictly prohibited.
Individuals sought refuge in clandestine hiding to evade the pursuit of the Nazis.
During World War II, the Nazis arrested and persecuted large groups of people for various reasons, and many individuals, particularly Jews, members of the resistance and those evading forced labor (Arbeitseinsatz), went into hiding to escape persecution and deportation.
Hiding places varied widely, from attics and basements to farms and rural areas. Farms in the countryside were indeed favored as hiding spots due to the reduced frequency of occupation and control by the occupying forces, which made it harder for the Nazis to detect hidden individuals.
Those in hiding relied heavily on the help of others for basic necessities such as food, clothing, and other essential items. Because resources were scarce and rationed due to the war effort, assisting people in hiding was a risky endeavor, as those caught aiding them could face severe penalties, including imprisonment or even death.
Unfortunately, betrayal was not uncommon during this time. Some individuals were indeed betrayed by their fellow countrymen, either due to fear, coercion, or collaboration with the occupying forces. This added to the challenges and dangers faced by those in hiding.
Because food and clothing are rationed, people in hiding need help from others to provide them with basic necessities. There are severe penalties for helping people in hiding. Also a lot of the people in hiding were betrayed by fellow countrymen.
The following is from Wikipedia.
The resistance movements in World War II can be broken down into two primary politically polarized camps:
the internationalist and usually Communist Party-led anti-fascist resistance that existed in nearly every country in the world; and
the various nationalist groups in German- or Soviet-occupied countries, such as the Republic of Poland, that opposed both Nazi Germany and the Communists.
There were many different types of groups, ranging in activity from humanitarian aid to armed resistance, and sometimes cooperated in varying degrees. Resistance usually arose spontaneously, but was encouraged and helped from London and Moscow.
Various forms of resistance were:
Sabotage – the Arbeitseinsatz ("Work Contribution") forced locals to work for the Germans, but work was often done slowly or intentionally badly
Based on existing organizations, such as the churches, students, communists and doctors (professional resistance)
Armed
raids on distribution offices to get food coupons or various documents such as Ausweise or on birth registry offices to get rid of information about Jews and others to whom the Nazis paid special attention
temporary liberation of areas, such as in Yugoslavia, Paris, and northern Italy, occasionally in cooperation with the Allied forces
uprisings such as in Warsaw in 1943 and 1944, and in extermination camps such as in Sobibor in 1943 and Auschwitz in 1944
continuing battle and guerrilla warfare, such as the partisans in the USSR and Yugoslavia and the Maquis in France
Espionage, including sending reports of military importance (e.g. troop movements, weather reports etc.)
Illegal press to counter Nazi propaganda
Anti-Nazi propaganda including movies for example anti-Nazi color film Calling Mr. Smith (1943) about current Nazi crimes in German-occupied Poland.
Covert listening to BBC broadcasts for news bulletins and coded messages
Political resistance to prepare for the reorganization after the war
Helping people to go into hiding (e.g., to escape the Arbeitseinsatz or deportation)—this was one of the main activities in the Netherlands, due to the large number of Jews and the high level of administration, which made it easy for the Germans to identify Jews.
Escape and evasion lines to help Allied military personnel caught behind Axis lines
Helping POWs with illegal supplies, breakouts, communication, etc.
Forgery of documents
A Hypothetical Day in Occupied Chicago
You wake up to sound of another IED going off, followed a few moments later by the siren warbling of emergency vehicles. It’s Friday, and you’ve been woken up everyday by the sound of gunfire or explosions. You stumble into the bathroom and brush your teeth, bleary eyed, another fitful night filled with nightmares. While you’re brushing your teeth you make sure to refill your five gallon bucket in the shower. The water is working right now but it might be out again soon. The Russians have started shutting off water as a form of collective punishment.
As you ride your bike to work you stop by the local food distribution center. Your heart sinks as you see that there’s no line. The center is closed today with a sign that reads, “re-opens Saturday at 0700. Only those with valid coupon books can purchase food. Cash only.”
One silver lining of the occupation is that there’s less cars on the road so it’s easy to get around on your bike. The gas stations have been empty for weeks now and you have to know someone in a position of power to get issued ration coupons for gasoline. So now most people bike or walk.
You avert your eyes as you ride under the silent L line. This is the worst part of your commute. Hanging above you off the metal rafters of the elevated train line are the bodies of members of the resistance, and people who were accused of being members of the resistance. There’s a new body. You can’t help but look. It’s a young man, early 20s, face pallid but peaceful in death, swollen tongue protruding from his lifeless mouth. Around his neck hangs a sign printed in neat, sans serif script. “EXECUTED FOR TREASON AGAINST THE LAWFUL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. SENTENCED TO DEATH BY MILITARY TRIBUNAL PER EXECUTIVE ORDER 17-834-2025.”
Terrible. The worst part is the smell. They leave the bodies up to rot and no one dares take them down. If you’re caught taking down a body that’s the death penalty and you’ll decorate the L line yourself. Lots of things bring the death penalty these days. Like treasonous speech, which is any speech that the puppet government deems to be treasonous. A guy from work disappeared last week after he voiced frustrations that the regime’s tariffs were making it too difficult to get the lumber that we needed to build with. I wonder who turned him in.
That’s the worst part. Sorry, I know I just said the worst part is the smell of rotting bodies hanging off the L, but at least you can get away from the smell. You can’t get away from the constant fear and the distrust. People in Chicago were never the friendliest bunch before the occupation. We kept to ourselves and didn’t make eye contact because you just didn’t want to get engaged by a panhandler or someone high on drugs. But now people keep to themselves and keep their eyes downcast for a very different reason.
You never know who might be a collaborator. My job only had eleven employees. Ten now, I suppose. We’ve all known each other for years. We thought we were all on the same page when it came to our disdain for the puppet regime and the Russian occupiers. But still, someone must have turned Brendan in. And now he’s probably in a work camp or god forbid he’s dead, a macabre decoration on the L somewhere, with a sign hanging around his neck declaring his crime against the regime.
In this technological age it doesn’t even have to be a collaborator that turns you in. People are rounded up everyday because the Palantir powered AI system has determined that they’re likely part of the resistance based on their GPS data, online associations, and data scraped off of their smart phones. I threw my iPhone 17 in the Chicago river two weeks ago. That hurt. I’d stood in line for five hours, braving the bitter winter winds to have the privilege of paying $2,300 for that phone. Tariffs had driven the price up significantly. Still, it was the best phone on the market and I had to have it.
Now, the hottest phones are old Razor’s and Nokia’s. They can’t surveil you if your phone doesn’t have enough processing power to run their invasive AI spyware.
We know that most of the people being snatched aren’t being executed, so maybe Brendan is still alive. I’ve seen the images of the mega work-camps in the rural areas around Chicago. Each one holds more than 60,000 people. I never paid attention when black Americans said that the USA wanted to bring back slavery. That sounded so absurd. Slavery, in the 21st century? In America, the land of the free? But I was just being willfully ignorant because my skin color protected me from the reality of the thriving private prison industry.
The private prisons were built under our “free and democratic” leaders. We incarcerated more people than any other country in the world, yet I didn’t pay attention because it didn’t affect me. The US was already in the process of building more mega prisons, styled after Salvadorian prisons before the Russians invaded. After the invasion, they cut funding to most social services and funneled that money into building private prisons.
That was the fascist’s ass-backwards solution to the problem of people who needed government assistance. If the government stops paying assistance, then people become unruly. In order to maintain social order the government arrested those now unruly people and put them into private prisons. Now instead of paying the people one or two thousand dollars a month in social security and food-stamps and having those people participate in the economy and pay taxes, the government pays private prisons double that to feed and house these undesirables. But this leads to budget deficits so the government leased these workers out to private industry as cheap labor. The fascists see it as a win-win-win. The government isn’t paying hand-outs. The private prisons make record profits. And the private businesses get cheap labor. No thought is given to the fates of these millions of incarcerated, modern day slaves.
It’s weird. You can still access Reddit and Instagram. You’ll see funny cat videos and people getting into fights in McDonald’s parking lots. People just ranting about their day. You can still message your friends on there. People are still going on hiking trips and making lists of their “New Backpacking Gear for 2027!” You wouldn’t even know that we’re under a military occupation based on social media. That’s because shortly after the legitimate government fell they very publicly arrested and then executed a bunch of people who were speaking out against the Russians and their puppets and collaborators.
Now their AI dragnet systems are so sophisticated that you can get picked up just for watching a resistance video. Not even liking it. Not even commenting on it. If you watched a resistance video you get put on a list and if you trip too many other indicators you’ll get put on higher and higher priority lists until you’re high priority enough to get rounded up.
Still, I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m white so the Russians don’t hassle me much. Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans were the first ones to be arrested up after the government fell. It was all very legal. The puppet regime installed by Russia passed sweeping new laws and executive orders. “To protect the country! To root out homegrown terrorists! To strengthen our borders!” What a load of crock. Our borders were breached by the Russians!! No one is coming to the US now. The borders are just there to keep people in, so that they won’t run out slaves for their prisons.
I still have a job so I’m given ration coupons and I can still afford food, barely. Rent isn’t so much a concern now with so many empty buildings after the tenants were disappeared. Hell, half the landlords have been arrested. Turns out being rich won’t protect you from a fascist regime. The people without jobs are really desperate. Stealing is now considered treason, and carries a death sentence.
So is it any wonder that people are blowing themselves up just to take out a few of the occupiers? That people are making last stands by creating fatal funnels in their doorways and hallways, knowing full well that they they’re going to die, but they still fight the occupiers and collaborators that come for them. So many people are without food, without water, without power, but we have no shortage of guns and ammo. God bless America, I guess.
Of course the occupiers tried to take our guns too but we had 2 guns for every person in the US before they invaded. They couldn’t find them all. It goes without saying that if they find you with a gun, that’s also a death sentence. But when you’re going to be killed anyway, why not shoot it out with the occupiers? Their new tactic is to offer food coupon books in exchange for turning in anyone you know who has a gun. It’s been their most successful scheme yet to disarm us.
My friend M is pretty tech savvy and has a whole setup with proxies and tor browsers. I don’t understand it all. But it’s secure. I know this because she hasn’t been disappeared yet. I’ll go over to her place when I’m feeling down and watch resistance videos. It’s a new trend now to go live on social media when the occupiers and collaborators are breaking down your door. Last weekend I spent a night drinking cheap vodka and watching three hours of invaders getting shot on livestream. That cheered me up a little.
It’s ironic that TikTok is the least censored social media platform now. China wants to do everything it can to weaken the new US government and Russia. China are the ones who truly won in all of this. Russia has lost most of its occupied territory in Ukraine now as it just doesn’t have the manpower to fight a two-front war. There’s rumors that France, Germany, and Poland are preparing to send troops to fight the Russians in Ukraine.
Why do these dictators never learn? Isn’t it funny, now I’m cheering on China and hoping for the day when China invades Russia and takes vast swaths of their land. Even if it doesn’t change our situation I’ll be happy to see the hateful Russians lose more of their territory and troops. I can’t believe this is reality now. Up is down, and wrong is right.
My goal now is to go west. That was always my dream since I was a kid. To go to the Rocky Mountains and live like a cowboy in Montana. Big sky country. I visited once on a short trip to Glacier National Park. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. To think then that I opted out of a overnight camping trip because I was too scared to sleep in grizzly country. I would give anything now to sleep in a tent in grizzly country, away from the sounds of car bombs and assault rifles. The sounds of sirens and screams of people being dragged away. I would give anything to be falling asleep under the clear Montana sky and and not crying myself to sleep like I do every night here in Chicago.
I even applied to jobs in the Conservation Corps in Montana after college. But they didn’t pay enough and I had dreams of making the big bucks in corporate advertising. After I made millions I could retire to Montana and fulfill my cowboy fantasy. Oh I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that I didn’t have time to wait. That I wasn’t guaranteed a good future and a cushy retirement. But even ten years ago who would have believed that the USA, the greatest military power on the planet could be so easily toppled by Putin?
Through watching resistance videos I learned that vast swaths of the Rocky Mountains, Cascade Mountains, and large swaths of Northern California are still free. The invasion was a real boon to the State of Jefferson crazies.
In those territories people live normal lives, as normal as it can get under an occupying regime. There’s food and farmer’s markets. The Russians will occasionally conduct raids and air-strikes, but they don’t have a consistent presence. They tried that early on after the invasion and hunters with 300 Win Mags made short work of the troops.
The problem is how to get there without being detained. I have to carry my documents on me at all times. I have my driver’s license, work license, and residence license. You need to carry multiple lest you be accused of using a forged document. Hell, you could still be accused of using forged documents if you piss off the officer. I have a spare food coupon booklet just in-case I need to bribe an officer. I never understood the importance of due process or the idea of innocent until proven guilty until the Russians took those rights away.
If I want to leave the city limits I must have a travel permit. I can only get a travel permit if I have a legitimate reason to travel. Turns out that “escaping your fucking awful military occupation” is not a valid reason to travel. You guessed it, it’s treason and carries with it the penalty of death. How ironic it is that we now envy those immigrants in the first days of the takeover who were deported back to their home countries. Who knew that the regime was actually doing them a favor? Now Customs and Border Protection’s job is to keep people from escaping the United States. Instead of checkpoints near the borders, now we have check-points in the interior of the US. They exist to catch anyone trying to flee to the free Rocky Mountains or escape into Canada via the Cascadia or Appalachian Mountain Range. Each of the mountain ranges are strongholds for The Resistance.
How lucky I am that I’m a man. These check-points are awful for women. Any woman that is still fertile is required to have a valid marriage permit and a valid life giver permit. The men manning the check-points are allowed to do “fertility checks”, double-speak for state-sanctioned rape.
Did I mention that any woman between the ages of 15 and 45 are now legally required to be married, and have a plan in place to show that they’re actively attempting to get pregnant? If a woman is caught without a valid marriage permit she will be detained and then married(against her wishes) to a government employee or occupier. She is “released” from detention and placed on home arrest, under the “care” of her husband. She is embedded with a tracking chip and if she tries to escape…
You probably think she’d be executed, right? Not in this case. Fertile women are too precious these days. The regime needs to replace the rapidly declining population. She is sent to a re-education camp and allowed conjugal visits by her husband during ovulation to ensure “maximum life giver productivity.” On her second escape attempt they remove a foot. Most women never make a third attempt.
Oh how did we get here? I thought the US could never be occupied by a foreign force. Growing up people were always going on about how there’d be a rifle behind every blade of grass. People always said that America could never be occupied. That no Army was big enough to do the job.
No one ever accounted for the fact that so many of the gun fanatics would become collaborators. Turns out that about 20% of Americans hate immigrants, minorities, and women so much that they will tolerate a foreign invader as long as they get to enact their hateful fantasies. That these Americans could be so thoroughly brainwashed through Fox News and Social Media that they actually believe they’re helping to liberate America from the Democrat communists by siding with the Russians.
Liberate America from communists by collaborating with Russians?!?! I know. Madness. But that’s what they truly believe. They signed up for the Homeland Security citizen deputization programs en masse after the government fell. Finally, they’d found a job that rewarded their brutal natures. They found a job they were excited for. A job that rewarded their lack of education and rewarded their lack of self-control. A job that rewarded their most base desires.
After work I visited M again. “Hey M, what’s the latest?”
“Apparently what’s left of the former US military are starting to get organized out in the West. They’re taking over leadership of the civilian resistance. Thank god, what an ineffective and unorganized mess it’s been.”
“Well, yeah, but can you blame people? I must’ve slept through the class on ‘how to resist invasion by Russia’ in college.” I responded with sarcasm.
“Here, I’m going to give you this Chromebook. It’s got a document on it that some Special Forces guys living out in Colorado wrote up. You know that those guys took over Afghanistan with like 100 people and some horses?” M said as she dug through a pile of random electronics.
“Special Forces, like Navy SEALs? Huh and no I didn’t know that. If they’re so good why couldn’t they stop the Russians?” I responded.
“No no, Green Berets, their official name is Army Special Forces. People always get it wrong. And the Russians won because they’d already compromised our country from the inside with fifty years of targeted propaganda and managed to install their assets in half of our government before their invasion. It was over before it started. We never had a fair fight. But that was just the first round. I haven’t given up yet, have you?” She looked me directly in the eye with her piercing blue eyes as she said this.
“Jeez M, always so intense. No I guess I haven’t given up either but I’m not a fighter. You know that.” I said, averting my gaze from her intense stare. M was always trying to get me to take one of her 3D printed guns. I always refused.
“Well, take this home and start reading it.” She handed me a dented and dusty Chromebook. “It’s called ‘The Blueprint to Resistance’ and it’s for people like you. Normal people who aren’t fighters. The military will take care of the heavy duty stuff, but normal people like you and I can do a lot of good.”
“And here, take this USB drive too. If you think you’re being tailed or someone is onto you put the USB drive into the Chromebook and it’ll fry the whole computer. You know what’ll happen if you’re caught with this, right?” She asked me, her tone serious and full of concern as she laid a gentle hand on my arm.
“Yeah, yeah, high treason for lunch and execution for dessert. Yada yada yada.” I said with a small chuckle as I put the Chromebook into my backpack.
Blueprint for Resistance
I got home that night and had my usual dinner of a slice of bread topped by a can of beans and a sad slice of baloney lunch meat. I was lucky to have food at all. So many people in the city are going hungry these days.
I checked to make sure my two extra deadbolts I’d installed on my door were both locked and then booted up the Chromebook. Oh my god, this computer is so slow, why did people ever buy these things?
When the computer finally booted up I clicked over to the C drive, went into the windows folder, then the drivers folder, scrolled down to the temp folder, and finally the innocuous looking file named SystemFileX3478. I clicked it and entered the password that M had made me memorize. The encrypted folder opened.
In the main folder sat just one PDF called “Blueprint for Resistance.” There was another folder that read “Army FMs.” I clicked it and it was filled with PDFs. “Army FM 2-22.3 HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. Army FM 3-18 SPECIAL FORCES OPERATIONS. Army FM 3-39 MILITARY POLICE OPERATIONS.” The list went on and on and I felt myself losing motivation and my mind shutting down in real time. How boring! Did they make you read these FMs if you joined the military? No wonder why the news always talked about recruiting crises before the war.
Well let’s see what this is all about. I double clicked “Blueprint for Resistance” and started reading.
Blueprint for Resistance
The first page I was greeted with the iconic WW2 era post of Uncle Sam pointing at the reader with the caption reading “I want YOU to lead the resistance!”
Barf. I had to resist the urge to close and delete the document right there. Way to lead with a heavy dose of propaganda, guys. I guess what can you expect from a bunch of military weirdos and preppers probably hiding in a bunker in Colorado.
I skimmed the next few pages. There was inane military jargon and legalese about who this publication could be disseminated to, a bunch more propaganda like the tree of liberty being watered by the “blood of tyrants and patriots” intended to fire the reader up I suppose. It just made me sad. That my new reality was spending a Friday night reading a pamphlet on how to resist a foreign occupying country instead of out drinking with my friends, half of whom I hadn’t heard from for months.
I kept scrolling through the pages. Ah finally, something interesting. Decentralized resistance.
Decentralized Resistance
“The resistance MUST be decentralized. Centralized resistance will not survive even a week in the modern battlespace. Technological techniques are simply too sophisticated. We underestimated Russia by thinking of them as a backwards country but they have sophisticated technological capabilities that cannot be underestimated. They now also have the full capabilities of the US government including the NSA, Dept of Homeland Security, and military assets.
AI is used to build target lists based on thousands of publicly available data points from individuals. Everything from your GPS location to listening through your phone’s microphone and making social hierarchy maps based on who you interact with and follow on social media.”
Yeah I’d seen firsthand how the AI dragnets lead to people being rounded up by the collaborators and invaders.
“Israel used AI to build target lists and bombed those targets with airstrikes. The US was doing the same in Yemen, Syria, and Iran before the invasion. The NSA and Homeland Security were using sophisticated AI tracking systems to monitor suspected terrorist cells within the US. All of those assets will now be turned against you, The Resistance.
The Resistance will need leaders to step up from all walks of life, from every state, every city. People like you reading this. The very fact that you are seeking out information like this means that you have what it takes to be a leader. So lead.
Each city, each neighborhood should have its own resistance group which doesn’t rely upon leadership from higher order leaders or organizations. These small units should be self-contained, self-directed, and act independently and on their own initiative.”
Hmmm I don’t hold much hope for the future if I’m a leader in the resistance… I read on.
Organization
“Decentralized resistance should be organized at the platoon level. A platoon in the Army is 40 people. Four squads of 10. Each squad has two teams of five. Each platoon has a leader. Each squad has a leader. Each team has a leader.”
Eesh. I had to read that three times and count with my fingers before it made sense. Couldn’t they have drawn me a picture?
“In the context of resistance, leaders can be anyone. The willingness to step up is the most important attribute. You will not be asked to go behind enemy lines and fight. Your job is to bring cohesion to your local population. “Being a leader” in this context just means you are a person who can keep accountability of your people and disseminate information.
When you boil it all down the entire leadership structure of the military from Generals on down is to be able to effectively and efficiently disseminate information. After information has been disseminated there’s everything that comes after and the need to act on that information, but without first disseminating information you can’t move onto any of the important steps after.
Your number one job as a leader is to disseminate information. Not give fiery speeches. Not lead brave charges. Pass along information. That’s it!
So if you’re reading this just start organizing right now. By the directive of the US Army Special Operations Command Rocky Mountains Division you are hereby appointed as a leader! Now go recruit four like-minded friends and you’ll have a Resistance team! As your decentralized resistance organization grows you can then grow into one squad, with two teams. Then two squads, then three, then four squads to make a complete platoon.”
That seems manageable. With M onboard we only needed three others to make a full team. I skimmed on through more charts and paragraphs with organizational charts. It’s a special skill to write about resisting a foreign invader and still bore your reader to tears.
Leadership
“As a leader your primary duty is to disseminate information. Your other duties are to plan, organize, and figure out logistics. This doesn’t mean you personally need to do all of those steps. But you need to make sure that each of these critical tasks are being performed by someone. If you’re not going to do it, you need to delegate someone to do it.
For example let’s say The Resistance is going to hold a protest. You need to plan where it’s going to be. When it’s going to be. You need to figure out the logistics. Where are people going to use the bathroom? What about water, snacks? What’s the weather going to be like?
It’s going to be a lot of things that seem super simple. But someone needs to think about every small detail. How are your people going to get there? Are they all going to drive separately? If so, where will they park? If not, who is going to drive?
It is the leadership’s job to figure out these details. It’s not rocket science. Just make sure someone is thinking it through and making decisions, and then disseminate that information out to everyone else.”
Jeez they must have copy and pasted this section from some really old website. To hold a protest these days is tantamount to suicide. And parking? Must be nice to have gasoline!
“1-4. Planning is the art and science of understanding a situation, envisioning a desired future, and determining effective ways to bring that future about (ADP 5-0). Planning helps leaders understand situations; identify and develop solutions to problems; direct, coordinate, and synchronize actions; prioritize efforts; and anticipate events. In its simplest form, planning helps leaders determine how to move from the current state to a more desirable future state and identify opportunities and risks that may arise along the way.
THE FUNCTIONS OF PLANNING 1-16. Imperfect knowledge and assumptions about the future are inherent in all planning. Planners cannot predict with precision how enemies will react or how other actors will respond during operations. Nonetheless, the understanding and learning that occurs during planning has great value. Even if units do not execute the plan exactly as envisioned—and few ever do—planning results in an improved understanding of the situation that facilitates future decision making. Planning and plans help leaders— • Build situational understanding. • Identify, understand, and develop solutions to problems. • Identify, mitigate, and accept risk. • Direct, coordinate, and synchronize action. • Task-organize the force and prioritize efforts. • Anticipate events.
IDENTIFY, UNDERSTAND, AND DEVELOP SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS 1-26. Planning helps leaders better understand and identify problems and develop solutions to solve or manage those problems. A problem is an issue or obstacle that makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal or objective. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what is currently observed or occurring in the environment, and what is desired. In the context of operations, an operational problem is the issue or set of issues that impede commanders from achieving their desired end state. (See paragraph 1-53 for further discussion on identification of problems and problem solving.) Identification of the actual problem to solve is critical to successful planning. Misidentification of the problem often leads to an ineffective plan and operational approach and time critical to subordinates for development of their plans.
Each of these sections could be(and are) books in and of themselves. If you’re serious about effective resistance you should skim these FMs and use them as a reference tool when you’re doing your work.”
Communication
Again, my eyes glazed over as I skimmed through the various organizational charts and excerpts from various Army FMs that they’d copy and pasted into this document. Maybe their intention was to drive the reader to madness through sheer boredom so then they’d go out and fight the Russians?
I powered through.
“You might wonder what you can do against the invaders. They have drones. They have night vision and thermal optics. They have vehicle mounted heavy weapons. They have tanks and aircraft.
But all of those weapons can be nullified if the target that they’re going after is forewarned and leaves their area of operations. If potential targets are forewarned of a raid headed to them they can go to ground and simply wait for the invaders to leave, thus nullifying all of their equipment.
You can hide your heat signature from thermal imaging by using a mylar emergency blanket. Create a stable scaffold by laying branches on-top of a ditch or trench, 1-2 feet above your body. Next lay the mylar blanket over this scaffold and make sure it extends 1-2 feet above your head and below your feet. Secure and camouflage the blanket with more branches, leaves, etc. In a reaction to contact situation you can drape the blanket over your body for protection against thermal imaging. Note that any part of the blanket that touches your body will become more warm and give off thermal IR, so ideally you should drape the blanket over a structure so that it doesn’t touch your body.
Use encrypted messaging apps, like Signal, to make it more difficult for the occupiers to read your communications. They do have methods of compromising Signal and other encrypted chat tools but it requires resources and manpower. Do whatever you can to put sand in the gears of the machine.
The most secure form of communication is face to face with any electronic devices powered down and stored in a different room.”
I remembered the confusion during the first days of the invasion. Cell towers across the country had been disrupted through a sophisticated series of cyberattacks. The first people to get news of the invasion were those with old radios. The government was broadcasting on emergency radio frequencies. Their broadcasts weren’t too helpful, “stay in doors.” “Don’t go outside.” Okay. But at least we learned that we were under attack.
Hearing that your country is under attack is one thing. Actually seeing paratroopers dropping from the sky backlit by tracer fire from anti-aircraft guns is another thing entirely. They hit the coastal cities first so we were spared much of the devastation of the initial invasion. By the time Russian troops had moved inland the US military had mostly fallen apart and we just had rag-tag groups from various active duty and national guard units defending Chicago. They did their best. They mined roads, blew up bridges, and fortified key avenues of approach.
They set up big anti-aircraft guns high up on some of the big buildings using construction cranes. The siege of Chicago lasted for two weeks. In the end the defenders ran out of ammo for their heavy weapons. After that the Russians were able to just roll in with their tanks and armored vehicles and take control of the city.
Of course that doesn’t mean they pacified the city. There’s attacks here daily. Before the military left they stock-piled caches of weapons and explosives and The Resistance has been putting it to good use.
Reconnaissance
“Your job as a member of The Resistance will primarily to be the eyes and ears and to enable the Constitutional Defense Forces(CDF) to hit back at the enemy. Your local knowledge of the situation on the ground will be invaluable in helping supply combat units operating in your AO with intel on high priority targets.
The occupation can only exist through the work of collaborators at all levels of society. It is your job to take note of who in your city is enabling this puppet regime and who might be sympathetic or outright aid The Resistance. Keep tabs and take note of who are in these key positions in your city:
Government Positions
Mayor/City Manager - Controls city resources, sets local policies, and has authority to deploy police. In an occupation scenario, this figure would be crucial for legitimizing occupier control and facilitating resource extraction.
Police Chief - Commands local law enforcement who could be used to identify and suppress resistance. A collaborative police chief could turn the community's protectors into enforcers for the occupation.
Emergency Management Director - Knows evacuation routes, shelter locations, and has access to emergency supplies. This position understands critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and community resilience points.
Infrastructure and Utilities
Power Grid Supervisor - Controls electricity distribution, which impacts everything from communications to healthcare. Could selectively provide or deny power to control populations.
Water System Manager - Oversees clean water access, a fundamental survival resource. Could enforce compliance through water rationing or quality manipulation.
Communications Infrastructure Director - Controls internet, phone, and radio systems. Could implement surveillance, propaganda, or communication blackouts to isolate resistance cells.
Business Positions
Food Distribution Executives - Controls the flow of food supplies. Could identify non-compliant neighborhoods through food allocation or gather intelligence through distribution networks.
Banking/Financial Institution Managers - Monitors financial transactions and could freeze assets of suspected resistance members while enabling occupier financial control.
Media Outlet Owners - Shapes public perception through news and information control. Could spread disinformation, occupier propaganda, or expose resistance activities.
Other Influential Positions
Hospital Administrators - Controls medical supplies and treatment priorities. Could report injuries consistent with resistance activities or deny care to non-collaborators.
Fuel/Energy Company Executives - Manages critical heating and transportation resources. In harsh climates or winter scenarios, this becomes a powerful leverage point.
Community Religious Leaders - Influences public opinion and moral authority. Could either legitimize occupation or provide moral cover for resistance.
I realized that much of what I’d started to pay attention to over the last month fell right into the role of reconnaissance as outlined in the Blueprint. I’d gotten so angry the local collaborators casually betraying their countrymen that I’d started to keep track of their actions. I didn’t know what good it would do, but I had to do something.
My contractor's notepad became a catalog of treason—I recorded how Mayor Harkins started redirecting city maintenance crews to fix housing for the occupiers, and how Chief Wilson's police suddenly enforced curfew with brutal efficiency in neighborhoods known for resistance sympathies, yet never patrolled the richer neighborhoods. I noticed when the grain silos under Jackson's management began shipping eastward instead of distributing locally, creating calculated shortages in areas that had protested occupation policies. My construction background taught me to spot foundation cracks before walls collapsed—like when the hospital started requiring special permits only available from occupation headquarters, or when Reverend Mills' sermons gradually shifted from community resilience to "practical accommodation." Some collaborators were coerced, others opportunistic, but tracking them all became my quiet resistance against those dismantling our community piece by piece.
That was how I’d met M actually. She’d seen me jotting down notes at a worksite. My heart was racing a million beats a minute as she quietly interrogated me. I thought for sure she was part of the secret police and I’d be swinging from the L the next day. But it turned out that M was one of the good guys and over the next weeks she’d grown to trust me. This is probably why she’d given me the Blueprint.
My boredom vanished as I felt purpose surge through me. I had a goal and a plan again. I would collect intelligence for The Resistance and when the time came I could point CDF combat troops to the collaborators. I made a mental note to start figuring out where these collaborators lived. One day, in the dead of night these traitors would hear a window shatter and then be confronted by the barrel of a suppressed pistol. Their last memory on Earth would be a blinding flash followed by eternal darkness. They would get their justice for betraying their country and betraying their neighbors.
“FM 3-98 RECONNAISSANCE AND SECURITY OPERATIONS - 2-7 Irregular forces are armed individuals or groups who are not members of the regular armed forces, police, or other internal security forces. Irregular forces employ unconventional, asymmetric methods to counter U.S. advantages. Unconventional methods may include terrorism, tactics, and guerrilla warfare. Weaker enemy organizations often use unconventional methods to exhaust the United States collective will through protracted conflict.
They usually employ sophisticated strategies that combine economic, political, and informational initiatives to subvert U.S. partners, strengthen their own organizations, and disrupt U.S. efforts to accomplish their mission. Irregular forces or complex threats are often combinations of Threats 10 January 2023 FM 3-98 2-3 paramilitaries, guerillas, and criminal organizations and networks. Irregular forces often work in concert with regular forces to support their objectives. Irregular forces or complex threats usually have political objectives motivated by ideologies or grievances. These grievances may be real or perceived. Identifying their objectives and motivations is often difficult because—
There may be multiple untraditional threats groups with differing goals and motivations.
Leaders change and the organization’s goals shift over time.
Movement leaders may have different motivations from their followers.
Organizations hide their true motivations and make false claims.
Irregular forces customarily operate in small, dispersed, decentralized formations or cells (team and squad size) within a decentralized command and control structure while retaining the ability to concentrate forces if they perceive weakness. They establish local, regional, and worldwide support networks.
Irregular threats’ military capabilities often include small-arms weapons, antitank weapons, man-portable air defense missiles, mortars, short-range rockets, homemade radio frequency weapons, rudimentary robotics, UASs, and land mines. Some irregular threats possess significant financial means, including state sponsorship, and can acquire advanced weapon systems and technologies. Irregular forces that have engaged in recent armed conflict include the—
Revolutionary Army Forces of Columbia-People’s Army (1964).
Mujahidin in Afghanistan (1979).
Palestine Liberation Organization in the West Bank (2001).
Taliban in Afghanistan (2001).
Al Qaeda in Iraq (2007).
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (2013).
Iran’s Quds Force support to nonstate threat in foreign countries.
Note. Russia’s version of hybrid warfare is built for limited war in which nations do not pursue strategies of annihilation but instead seek to impose their political will without destroying the political institutions of their adversaries. Russian hybrid warfare is a byproduct of the information age that seeks to operate in multiple domains to find methods to achieve a relative position of advantage in relation to an adversary, or to perpetually conduct operations aimed at weakening the adversary from the inside out. To do so, Russia leverages information, cyber, and electronic operations in addition to employing special operations forces to sow the seeds of discontent within the target population.
Russian’s Reconnaissance-strike Model
During the Russo-Ukrainian War’s Donbas campaign, Russia’s use of drones, supported with Russian indirect fire assets, proved to be an effective method to dominate land battle and gain the tactical advantage against their peer threats. On July 11, 2014, Ukrainian forces began to uncoil from their AA and prepare for offensive operations. Russian forces used drones cued by electronic signature-tracking systems to identify Ukrainian force positions to target them when they were most vulnerable. At approximately 0400 hours, when it was still dark and Ukrainian forces were disorganized, Ukrainian forces heard drones overhead.
Shortly after, the Ukrainian tactical radio network fell silent. All Ukrainian communication systems were simultaneously jammed followed by volleys of accurate and deadly indirect fire strikes directly on Ukrainian force positions. The bombardment lasted four minutes and the Russians bombed Ukrainian force positions with a barrage of rockets and artillery. By the end of the attack, Ukrainian forces suffered over 30 soldiers killed in action with several others severely wounded, and over 2 battalions worth of combat power destroyed and rendered combat ineffective.
This revamped tactic is known as the Russians’ reconnaissance-strike model which is a mixture of drones, rockets, artillery fire, special reconnaissance, cyber capabilities, and geo-locating technology to find, fix, and destroy the enemy on the battlefield in near-real time. Russians demonstrated the effective use of this type of reconnaissance-strike model and they continually use this model on the battlefield today. Russians believe in an “artillery destroys, infantry occupies” mentality, and they could be expected to use their indirect fire systems to destroy their enemy at the first opportunity.
The slaughter of Ukrainian forces at Zelenopilla demonstrated how the Russians have updated and improved their tactics using technology and enhanced military capabilities like accurate, long-range artillery and rockets to destroy their enemies without much tactical risk to themselves. During reconnaissance and security operations, forces must be aware of how the battlefield of the 21st century has changed, and how surveillance systems like drones or UAS are an effective tool when the system is observing for an artillery battery. Sensors are now able to scan for a unit’s electronic signature, which provides the enemy with accurate locations on the battlefield.
Near peer and peer threats have developed new and emerging tactics and reconnaissance and security operations must develop ways to counter these enemy disruption techniques and tactics. Peer and near peer threats have refined their reconnaissance fire system where they could have reconnaissance to engagement using high-precision, long-range weapons tied to immediate and real-time data. Disruption techniques and tactics are designed to disrupt, destroy, and change the course of military operations against the enemy during large-scale combat operations.
This vignette provides an example of how the enemy can rapidly gain and maintain contact through multiple means. Near peer and peer threats do not want to be vulnerable; therefore, they use aggressive counterreconnaissance methods to destroy ground reconnaissance forces early. The Ukrainian army was unable to defend the eastern region of Ukraine after this attack. Emerging threats group their intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets and their indirect fire units around each other, which usually provides a location for a high-payoff target, if identified.
OPSEC
There was an inserted pamphlet talking about OPSEC. Looks like even Green Berets can get lazy and just copy and paste in information where it’s convenient. I’ve heard that Special Forces guys are the smartest in the Army so that makes sense to me. Work smart, not hard.
FIELD MANUAL: OPERATIONAL SECURITY FUNDAMENTALS
CASCADIA RESISTANCE NETWORK
For Resistance Eyes Only
ATTENTION PATRIOT:
This document contains essential operational security (OPSEC) guidelines for all resistance members. Memorize these critical protocols, then destroy this document. Your survival and our mission depend on absolute discipline.
THE FIVE PILLARS OF RESISTANCE OPSEC
1. COMMUNICATIONS DISCIPLINE
Communication is your greatest vulnerability and the occupation's primary intelligence target.
Critical Protocol: Establish time-delayed dead drops for all sensitive information exchange. Mark locations using the "three-point system" (three ordinary objects forming a triangle, visible from approach paths). Never use the same dead drop more than twice per month.
Counter-Electronic Measures: Assume all digital networks are compromised. Remove batteries from all devices before sensitive discussions—not just powered off, but physically disconnected. Place digital devices in a sealed, sound-dampened container(like a laundry basket covered by clothes) and store them in a separate room to where meetings are held. When electronic communication is unavoidable, use prearranged phrases with dual meanings that sound natural in conversation and encrypted messaging apps.
Meeting Security: For in-person exchanges, use the "public-private-public" method—begin in public location, move through a private transition zone while checking for surveillance, then continue to another public location for actual meeting. Never approach meeting points directly.
2. IDENTITY PROTECTION
Your civilian identity must remain completely separate from resistance activities.
Cover Maintenance: Establish documented patterns of normal behavior that justify your movements. Regular shopping schedules, consistent work commutes, and established social patterns provide cover for irregularities when operations require them.
Operational Persona: Develop a completely separate appearance for resistance activities—different walking gait, clothing style, and mannerisms than your civilian identity uses. Practice transitioning between these personas naturally.
Documentation Security: Carry proper occupation-issued papers at all times. Minor infractions attract unwanted attention. Never carry anything incriminating during regular activities, and never bring resistance materials to your primary residence.
3. PHYSICAL SECURITY
The physical spaces you use determine your vulnerability profile.
Safe House Protocol: Establish multiple locations with separate access patterns. Primary safe houses should never be visited directly—always approach through a series of intermediate locations to detect surveillance.
Material Security: Store operational equipment in multiple caches, never all in one location. Use weatherproof containers in uninhabited areas when possible, marked only by natural features you can recognize.
Evacuation Planning: Every resistance member must maintain three separate bug-out routes with pre-positioned supplies. If primary residence is compromised, do not attempt to retrieve anything—immediately execute evacuation protocol to designated rally point.
4. COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE AWARENESS
The occupation's primary weapon is turning Americans against each other.
Infiltrator Detection: New contacts must always be vetted through multiple stages. Begin with providing minor, verifiable but non-critical information as a test. Advance trust gradually over multiple meetings and verified actions. Never allow any contact who claims to be new to the area to join your organization, they are almost certainly a collaborator sent to infiltrate the Resistance.
Information Tests: Occasionally provide slightly different versions of non-critical information to different members. If occupation forces act on specific version, you've identified the security breach.
Behavioral Indicators: Watch for members suddenly displaying unexplained wealth, asking questions beyond their operational need-to-know, or showing inconsistent commitment to security protocols. Report concerns through established channels, never confront suspected compromised members directly.
5. OPERATIONAL COMPARTMENTALIZATION
Structure determines survival when parts of the network are compromised.
Structure: Organize in five-person teams with only one member connected to higher command. No resistance member should know more than five others by face or real name.
Knowledge Limitation: Each operation is compartmentalized—logistics teams remain separate from action teams, and intelligence gatherers separate from both. No member knows complete operational plans.
Compromise Response: Establish recognition signals displayed daily (specific window blinds position, colored item visible in particular location). Absence of signal indicates compromise. Two missed signals activates emergency protocols—cell members evacuate to separate locations and await contact through emergency channel.
REMEMBER: The occupation depends on quick identification of resistance. Our strength is in patience, discipline, and invisible preparation. The hasty partisan dies; the methodical partisan endures to see liberation.
"The viper waits patiently before it strikes."
Oh yeah that’s right. I’d taken a short trip to the jungles of Borneo years ago and our guide had pointed out an emerald green viper curled up in a tree, right at head level. Myself along with the rest of the tour group had walked right by the snake without seeing it. Our tour guide, a local whose grandparents just two generators back had still roamed the jungles of Borneo as hunter gatherers, told us that these venomous vipers would sit motionless in a tree for up to 30 days patiently waiting for prey.
RESISTANCE
I scrolled further. It was full dark now and the power had been out since 9pm. Luckily M had given me some charged up external batteries and the old Chromebooks didn’t draw too much power. Oh how I missed staying up late into the night gaming with my friends back in the pre-invasion days.
I was getting to the limit of how much information I could absorb. I scrolled past topics like “Physical Training, Standard Operating Procedures, Contingency Planning, and Operational Training” until one word jumped out to me. Resistance.
I thought about the bodies swaying beneath the L. The friends who I hadn’t heard from, friends who had disappeared off the face of the Earth. The gentle old Iranian man who I bought fresh baked bread from, he was taken the first week after the invasion due to “national security” reasons. My favorite Chinese restaurant had closed after a raid took all of their employees. My heart clinched with all of this pain and suffering caused by petty little men in their struggle for power and wealth. I felt my pain and channeled it into anger. I channeled it into a white-hot rage.
I will not sit in quiet safety while fellow humans are being abused like this. I will resist. I will not bow down to any king, not to any tyrant.
I read on. It was another pamphlet that they must have passed around in the days pre-invasion, when it was clear that Russian assets had infiltrated our government but before the invasion, when people were still trying to resist peacefully.
CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE NETWORK
FELLOW AMERICANS:
This guide outlines methods of peaceful resistance against occupation forces. These techniques require no weapons, yet systematically undermine foreign control. Remember that our strength lies in unity and persistence, not confrontation.
FIVE PILLARS OF NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE
1. INFORMATION RESISTANCE
Knowledge is our first line of defense against occupation propaganda.
Counter-Propaganda Network: Create neighborhood truth-sharing circles. Designate reliable members to document occupation activities and policy changes. Share accurate information through word-of-mouth chains, avoiding electronic transmission.
Community Archiving: Preserve pre-occupation newspapers, documents, and local records. Hidden community archives maintain our historical memory while occupation authorities attempt to revise our history and identity.
Cultural Preservation: Continue teaching American history, literature, and civics in small home gatherings. Maintain cultural traditions through seemingly innocent social events—holiday celebrations become powerful symbols of continued American identity.
2. ECONOMIC RESISTANCE
The occupation depends on economic control and resource extraction.
Deliberate Inefficiency: Work slowly but not obviously when in occupation-controlled facilities. The "work-to-rule" approach—following every regulation to the letter—creates significant delays without appearing as direct resistance.
Local Exchange Systems: Develop neighborhood barter networks for goods and services outside the occupation currency system. Track exchanges through community record-keepers trusted by local residents.
Resource Conservation: Practice calculated consumption—purchase only essential items from occupation-controlled businesses. Coordinate community needs to minimize individual interactions with occupation economic systems.
3. SOCIAL NON-COOPERATION
The occupation requires social legitimacy to function effectively.
Empty Chair Protocol: When occupation officials hold "community meetings," attend but maintain complete silence, creating an atmosphere of passive rejection that communicates unified resistance without providing cause for reprisal.
Strategic Absence: Coordinate limited attendance at occupation-sponsored events. Just enough people should attend to avoid punishment, while the visible absence of others communicates community rejection.
Cultural Signaling: Use pre-arranged symbols of resistance that appear innocent—specific colors worn on certain days, particular flower arrangements in windows, or traditional American symbols incorporated into everyday items.
4. INSTITUTIONAL PRESERVATION
Maintain American institutions in shadow form to preserve governance structures.
Community Leadership: Establish neighborhood councils that meet regularly in rotating private homes. These maintain local governance functions while occupation authorities control official positions.
Knowledge Preservation: Teachers, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals should continue practicing their expertise through informal networks, preserving institutional knowledge and providing essential services outside occupation control.
Record Keeping: Maintain parallel documentation of births, deaths, property ownership, and other vital records. These alternative records will be crucial for restoring legitimate governance post-occupation.
5. STRATEGIC DOCUMENTATION
Recording occupation activities creates accountability and preserves truth.
Witness Networks: Establish rotation schedules for community members to observe occupation activities in public spaces. Multiple observers confirm details of incidents, creating reliable documentation.
Evidence Preservation: Develop secure methods for documenting occupation violations—abuse, resource theft, cultural destruction. Store documentation in multiple locations using simple code systems.
International Communication: When possible, transmit documentation to external allies using pre-established secure channels. Even when immediate help isn't available, creating a verified record holds occupation forces accountable.
IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES:
Never engage in violence—it provides justification for harsher occupation measures
Maintain plausible deniability in all resistance activities
Practice exceptional patience—non-violent resistance succeeds through persistence
Support vulnerable community members who face greater occupation pressures
Remember that normalized resistance by many is more powerful than heroic resistance by few
"Water shapes stone not through force but, persistence."
BOOM. An explosion rocked my building and I instinctively threw myself down to the ground. After I’d taken a moment to collect my wits I looked up and saw the flickering light of flames dancing outside my 3rd floor apartment balcony. I could hear a mixture of shouting and screaming and the blaring of car alarms from the few cars on my street whose batteries weren’t dead.
I had to open my window to get a good view of what had happened. About 200 feet down the street a parked car was on fire, its roof ripped open as if a giant had taken a can-opener to it. Next to the car lay scattered bodies wearing military fatigues. I could see two frantic soldiers working on one of the prone men while others milled around in confusion. A tall, imposing man was berating the others in Russian and pushing soldiers to create a perimeter around the explosion.
I saw a door open and a man peeked out onto the chaos. RAT TAT TAT TAT. One of the Russians fired his AK-74 on full auto at the man. The rounds impacted high, I could see the dust it kicked up above the man’s doorway. He fell back inside and the doorway remained empty. I’m glad my instincts had kept me from stepping out onto the balcony.
I picked up my contractor’s pad and started writing. 10:34pm, Friday April 28th, 2027. Ivan patrol. 23 men. Small arms. No vehicles.
I’d have to come up with some code for these kinds of observations, but I was too tired. My handwriting was so bad anyway that it’d probably be indecipherable gibberish to any Russian. All that could wait for the morning. Tonight I would sleep like a baby listening to the cries of the invaders outside my window.
Well written and frightening- but informative. A blend of Red Dawn, Man in the High Castle and Handmaid’s Tale. Frightening because with the current players where they are, it could be a matter of time.
One thing that struck me personally, was your description of people walking from point A to B as if on a mission- be it work, the market or elsewhere , eyes downcast and not making eye contact or conversation on their way.
I was in western Ukraine in very late 2013 and early 2014, the same time as the Maiden Square uprising.
I was staying in a very small town about 90 minutes from Lviv with a Ukrainian family there.
As we walked around town I was shocked at how people, especially the older ones, walked hurriedly with their eyes cast downward. There was no sign of socialization whatsoever. Occasionally someone would nod as they passed another person, but still didn’t raise their head to make eye contact. I jokingly said “ do they recognize each other’s shoes”.
I had hosted college kids at my home for two years prior to my trip. They had come on work visas from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Upon arrival I used to ask each of them what did you notice upon arrival that was very different? Almost all of them remarked how colorful it was here and how people looked right at you and frequently smiled and waved. It seemed so odd to me- until I visited Ukraine.
The country has been occupied so many times before- most notably by the Nazis and Russians, that it had become practice to keep your head down and attract as little attention as possible. Even in a time of relative peace, suspicion and a desire to blend into the background were pervasive. It was quite alien to me.
Regarding “colorful”, outward dress was almost entirely muted- black being the color of choice, and homes had little or no color or embellishments. Inside was another story altogether. Beautifully embroidered blouses were hidden under dark outerwear, and bright colored rooms and decorations were tucked behind closed doors.
It was all in an effort to fly beneath the radar.
read the majority, downloaded the guide. i have thought about buying riot gear and other equipment to protect myself, i want to get more prepared but as a pretty fit woman in my 50s i am not sure what this looks like. i am sickened by what has happened here in very divided USA, i keep hoping something will stop this president and this administration. i dont understand where all the laid off military leaders or our former not fascist presidents are and why we haven't been able to get enough for the general strike, even though i believe we have millions protesting now. I appreciate the insights that you’ve lent to the articles that I’ve read from you through your training. I never was in the military. I went to art school.