Expatriates
Page 6
Chuck found that his intended cache space was bisected by a piece of AC electrical wire that angled down to the outlet box. The wire would get in the way of storing the rifle, so he made a trip to an electrical supply store where they sold wire by the roll or by the meter. It was twice as expensive when it was purchased by the lineal meter, but he only needed to buy 1.5 meters. He also bought an assortment box of wire nuts, a combination wire cutter/stripper tool, and a roll of electrical tape.
After again returning to the cottage, he found the circuit breaker for the living room outlet and de-energized it. Once he had the junction box open to extend the wire, he realized he had the opportunity to hardwire in a GoldenRod dehumidifier. So he substituted larger wire nuts and stubbed off a short length of wire, and he capped its conductors with wire nuts.
He oiled the SMLE heavily and stowed it in the wall cache along with the bandoleers of ammunition, even including his cleaning supplies. He didn’t want to leave anything out in plain view that might arouse suspicion. The Enfield rifle fit nicely in the shallow space, but only when its bolt handle was removed.
The Velcro tabs worked wonderfully. The cache was virtually undetectable, yet he could access it in just a few seconds. The finishing touch was adding a row of cup hook screws inside beneath the top stud to provide a place to hang his cotton bandoleers of ammunition.
He ordered a twelve-inch-long 220/230 VAC GoldenRod dehumidifier on the Internet. It arrived a few days later and took just a few minutes to wire in. The dehumidifier drew only 50 watts, so the expense of operating it was negligible. Chuck slept better knowing the rifle and ammunition would be protected from corrosion. Rust was a constant enemy in Australia’s Top End.
Chuck took the rifle out only for occasional outback target shooting and roo hunting. He eventually bought another 280 rounds of .303 ammo but was able to find just one spare magazine. He was careful to always carry the rifle in a guitar case, in case any of his neighbors were nosy.
—
A few weeks after he bought the Enfield rifle, Chuck Nolan met Caleb Burroughs through Randall Burroughs, his younger brother. Caleb was a warrant officer in the Australian Army with a specialty in logistics. He found his job frustrating because although he handled logistics related to the Australian Army deployments in Afghanistan, he never had the opportunity to go to Afghanistan himself. He resigned himself to “pushing paper” for the Army but often grumbled that as a logistics planning officer, it was unlikely he’d ever have a chance to go to “The Sharp End.” He kept himself in top-notch physical condition, always hoping that he would be deployed to Afghanistan, but he never was.
Randall introduced Chuck to his brother when Caleb was home on semiannual leave, and the two immediately hit it off. In Chuck’s estimation, Caleb was a much different man from his brother. While Rabbit was crude and impulsive, Caleb was refined and reserved. And unlike Rabbit, Caleb was well educated, and well read. Rabbit’s tastes ran toward men’s magazines like Maxim, while Caleb read Guns & Game magazine and Journal of Military History. He also subscribed to Quadrant, a conservative literary magazine. Born in the same year and just three days apart, Caleb and Chuck also shared tastes in movies and novels—particularly old Westerns—and both were shooting enthusiasts and admirers of the Australian novelist Nevil Shute.
As a serving army officer, Caleb was rarely at home in Darwin, but he and Chuck continued their friendship via e-mail and Skype. For months on end, they had wide-ranging debates on everything from politics to the peculiarities of the ballistics of various .303 British cartridge loadings. One of their longest-lasting e-mail debates concerned the multiple voting scheme proposed by Nevil Shute in his novel In the Wet. Caleb liked Shute’s “seven vote” scheme, while Chuck proposed having only one vote per citizen, but making land ownership, an IQ test, and/or military service prerequisites to voting rights. As an Australian Republican Movement (ARM) member, Caleb suggested that anyone with a title of nobility who received a welfare payment should be excluded, which started another round of debate. Caleb and Chuck became good friends, politely sparring over these issues.
10
DOWNLOADS
“Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli.” (Loosely translated: “According to the capabilities of their readers, books have their destinies.”)
—Terentianus Maurus, De Litteris, Syllabis, et Metris
Casuarina, Northern Territory, Australia—March, the First Year
Chuck Nolan and Caleb Burroughs were both news junkies and watched world events closely. When it became apparent that another global credit crisis like 2008 was approaching, they began sending each other permalink URLs for articles from news websites like DrudgeReport.com and WorldNetDaily.com. Links from these sites led them to “hard money” investing websites like TheDailyReckoning.com, ZeroHedge.com, SovereignMan.com, and GaryNorth.com. Investment websites then provided entrée to a plethora of Austrian economics, libertarian, and survivalist sites.
Four months into this shared web wandering, Caleb declared in one of his e-mails, “I’ve taken the Red Pill, bro. I can now see that the mainstream media has been feeding us horse by-products. We need to get ready. There’s a storm coming.”
Chuck sent a reply. “I concur. It looks like it’s going to hit the fan in less than two years, and possibly much sooner. We need to get smart on bartering, gardening, self-sufficiency, commo, advanced first aid, the whole works. Suggestions?”
“I vote that we start out with resources out there that are free for the picking. I can download hundreds of military manuals as PDFs. There are also thousands of free books on the Internet. We should download those and put them on redundant memory sticks. The cost of storage media like thumb drives has gotten ridiculously low. I just saw an ad for a sixteen gigabyte stick for just twenty-two AUD. That’s about the same price as a sixteen megabyte stick was just a few years ago! Just one stick could fit many hundreds of books and manuals, especially if they are compressed.”
Chuck responded, “Okay, you start with military manuals, while I gather civilian books. We make two copies of each, plus copies on our laptops, and then mail the redundant copy sticks to each other.”
Forty-eight hours later, Caleb wrote back, “Great idea. I started out with more than forty Aussie army manuals. I also have access to an Australian Defence Force mirror website of the American military database site called Army Knowledge Online (AKO). It is a treasure trove of information.
“Here are the manuals I was able to download just this evening:
Survival and Evasion, FM 21-76-1
USMC Survival Manual, MCRP 3-02F
Camouflage, FM 5-20
Camouflage of Vehicles, FM 5-20B
Field Hygiene and Sanitation, FM 21-10
Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs, TM 31-210
Infantry Rifle Platoon-Squad, FM 7-8
Ranger Handbook, SH 21-76
Survivability, FM 5-103
NBC Protection, FM 3-4
NBC Decontamination, FM 3-5
Special Forces Unconventional Warfare, TC 18-01
M16 and M16A1 Rifles Operator’s Manual, TM 9-1005-249-10
Sniper Training, FM 23-10 å
USMC Sniping, MCWP 3-15.3
Counter Guerilla Operations
Jungle Operations
Long Range Surveillance Unit Operations
Military Mountaineering, FM 3-97.61
Special Forces Use of Pack Animals, FM 3-05.213 (FM 31-27)
Claymore Mine, FM 23-23
Obstacles, Mines, Demolitions, FM 90-10
Ordnance and Explosives Response
Ranger Unit Operations, FM 7-85
USMC Scouting and Patrolling, MCWP 3-11
Military First Aid Manual, FM 4-25-11
US Army Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) Correspondence Course
NATO Emergency Wa
r Surgery
Combat Lifesaver Home Study Course
Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook (2001)—Note: there is a newer edition, but it isn’t in the online free libraries and it is beaucoup expensive.
Have you had the chance to search for civvie books?”
Later that evening, Chuck sent an answer: “You betcha. I already downloaded the LDS Preparedness Manual from the Mormon Church and went to the Hesperian Foundation website and downloaded ‘Where There Is No Doctor’ by David Werner and ‘Where There Is No Dentist’ by Murray Dickson. I also found mention of sites where I can download the following, gratis, and will do so over the course of the next few evenings:
Survival and Austere Medicine: An Introduction
Ship Captain’s Medical Guide
Medical Drugs and Equipment for the Team Physician
Journal of Special Operations Medicine
“I also read a recommendation that I get physical copies of these books:
Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition, by Paul S. Auerbach
2012 Nurse’s Drug Handbook
Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures for Emergencies by Hugh Coffee
Medicine for the Outdoors by Paul Auerbach
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy
Primary Surgery: Volume 1: Non-Trauma by Maurice King
Primary Surgery: Volume 2: Trauma by Maurice King
The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy 2012 Edited by David Gilbert
Tactical Medicine Essentials by E. John Wipfler
Wilderness Medicine, Beyond First Aid, 5th Edition by William W. Forgey
Wilderness 911 by Eric Weiss
Wounds and Lacerations: Emergency Care and Closure by Alexander T. Trott, MD
The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook by Joe Alton, MD and Amy Alton
“Buying all those could blow my budget, especially if I have to order them from book companies in the States. I’ll have to be selective about what I buy. That last one by Joe Alton of ‘Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy’ fame is a real prepper medical book written by a real deal prepper MD. From fish hooks to frostbite, surgery to stockpiling medications—it’s all in there. I will let you know what else I find. OBTW, over the next few evenings, I plan to dig into the following:
“Project Gutenberg: 33,000 free public domain e-books! But be advised that some books there are way out of date, so they do not follow modern fire safety, lab/chemical safety, and machinery safety standards.
The Australian Small Farm Permaculture and Sustainable Living website has lots of free e-books.
E-Books Directory
Steve’s Pages: Another gold mine! Thousands of free firearms manuals and military manuals. At a minimum, we should be sure to download the exploded diagrams and the user manuals for each of our guns.
“I think AKO has only current manuals, so you might check GlobalSecurity.com. They have lots of free military manuals (text only).
“And a civilian site called PR68.com has lots of links for U.S. military FMs and TMs—especially radio manuals.
“Oh, and Wikipedia has some links to PDFs of U.S. military manuals. For advice on stocking up, I downloaded a copy of ‘The Alpha Strategy’ by John Pugsley. And for some good Christian doctrine and Bible study, the Institute for Christian Economics site, established by Dr. Gary North, has lots of free books. I’ll be getting a lot of those.
“I’m also considering buying the forty-two-year compendium of The Mother Earth News on CD-ROM. Ditto for the compendium of Backwoods Home magazine. Both are American ‘back to the land’ magazines with a wealth of info on self-sufficiency.
“I just had another idea. How about all of those instructional videos (outdoor survival, gardening, shooting schools, etc.) on YouTube? I found a website called YouTube Downloader that has free software, so we can SAVE those videos onto our hard drives or to memory sticks. Way cool.”
The following week, Chuck e-mailed Caleb: “Just when I thought we had assembled a fairly complete library, I found out that there are a couple of websites that offer ALL of Wikipedia on DVD. There are a couple of options. The skinny version is text only, but the fat one has all the photos and illustrations. This might be a good idea for something to add to our library.”
Caleb replied: “
11
THE MISSING UMBRELLA
“All politicians will allow, and most philosophers, that reasons of state may, in particular emergencies, dispense with the rules of justice, and invalidate any treaty or alliance, where the strict observance of it would be prejudicial, in a considerable degree, to either of the contracting parties. But nothing less than the most extreme necessity, it is confessed, can justify individuals in a breach of promise, or an invasion of the properties of others.”
—David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 1777
Surabaya, Indonesia—August, the Second Year
Soekirnan Assegaf was excited to get his first command, even if it was one of the smallest ships in the Indonesian Navy. His most recent assignment had been as a weapons officer aboard the large patrol boat KRI Tenggiri. (The ship had formerly been called the Ardent when it was in service with the Royal Australian Navy.) Much of that time had been spent cruising the Strait of Malacca. It had only been three months since Assegaf had been advanced in rank from Letnan Satu (first lieutenant) to Kapten (captain). Unlike most of his contemporaries, who were receiving logistics and staff officer assignments, he was getting his own ship.
The bad news for Assegaf was that his new home port would be at Manado on Sulawesi island. This port was considered the gateway to the Celebes Sea. It was 675 miles from Surabaya and more than 1,000 miles from his family’s home in Jakarta. He would have only one or two leaves each year, and undoubtedly his transport to Jakarta would be on slow and noisy C-235 or C-295 combination cargo and passenger logistics flights, with several island-hopping stops along the way.
Assegaf’s new assignment was to command KRI Sadarin. Depending on the perspective of who saw it, Sadarin could be described as either a large boat or a small ship. It was fifty-one feet long and displaced twenty-three tons when fully fueled. It was in the Hawker de Havilland Carpenteria class, powered by a pair of MTU diesels. These engines produced 1,360 horsepower and gave Sadarin a top speed of twenty-nine knots. The boat had been built in 1977, but since then it had been re-engined twice—most recently in 2010.
With its standard fuel tanks, Sadarin had a range of 950 miles at eighteen knots. A typical patrol was five days, but the frequent picket duty patrols were an agonizing fourteen days. Living for such a long stretch of time in cramped quarters and subsisting on plain, uninteresting rations often led to short tempers. Stowing extra fuel in 45-liter bladders strapped down in spare berths, extra water in crates on deck and extra provisions in every available space made the small ship seem even smaller.
The crew of Sadarin was normally ten, but for picket duty the crew had just eight men, and three of them weren’t even sailors. They were otaks (“brains”) that had been detailed from Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara—the Indonesian Air Force. These three men had no other duty than to stare at air-surface radar screens around the clock.
Assegaf loved the power and agility of his boat. He became famous for shouting in English the command, “Ludicrous Speed,” a quote from one of his favorite American comedy films. Seldom content with cruising Sadarin at the nominal fuel-conserving sixteen knots, he often came back into port dangerously low on
fuel. Behind his back, Assegaf’s men called him either Speed Racer or Kapten Ludicrous.
In 2002, Indonesia had been forced to cede the islands of Ligitan and Sipadan (near eastern Borneo) to Malaysia by order of the International Court of Justice. This made the entire Indonesian military machine obsessed with defending their territory and exclusive waters. In particular, the Indonesian Navy had closely watched the oil-producing Ambalat region of the Celebes Sea since 2002. The frequent patrols of Sadarin were just one small part of that increased vigilance.
Even before he was given command of Sadarin, Soekirnan Assegaf had earned a reputation for being impulsive and stern in handing out reprimands to subordinates. But he was also fairly sensitive to the needs of his men while on long patrols. Unlike most other skippers of patrol boats, he encouraged his men to fish once they were well away from the port of Manado. The fresh fish supplemented their usual diet of yams, breadfruit, rice, sago, kangkung (water spinach), dried fish, krupuk crackers, canned chicken, and canned mutton.
Assegaf also allowed movies and music to be played on board, often piping songs from MP3 players directly into the ship’s speakerphone system. Both when he was a naval cadet and later in his career, he spent an inordinate portion of his pay on movies for his collection. Many of these were pirated copies that he bought on the back streets of Surabaya for only twenty thousand rupiah apiece or about two dollars each. Some of the more recently released films were muddy duplicates that had actually been surreptitiously videotaped inside Jakarta movie theaters, so occasionally they’d see the silhouette of a head popping up at the bottom of the screen, or the conversation of obnoxious movie patrons would be mixed in with the movie’s dialogue. On board Sadarin, almost every night at sea was movie night, and there was seldom a repeat. The exception was usually Maria Ozawa movies.