This included radiators, starters, alternators, fuel pumps, water pumps, batteries, voltage regulators, starter solenoids, hoses, and belts.
Next, Ken would rework the vehicle’s suspension, usually modifying it for tougher off-road use, and do an alignment and brake job, sometimes involving replacing the master cylinder. In most cases, the vehicle’s existing wiring harnesses did not need to be replaced. By the time he was done, Ken had in effect built a whole new vehicle that would be good for at least ten years of strenuous use.
After getting their vehicles back from Ken and recovering financially, most of the group members went on to further modify their vehicles to their own liking. Most of the four-wheel drives were equipped with extra fuel tanks, beefier bumpers, and roll cages. Typically, most of the group members also added Bearcat police/weather scanners and Cobra 148GTL single-sideband forty-channel citizens’ band radios. It was Kevin that convinced the group to standardize with a more expensive single sideband (SSB) model. With the SSB feature, their CBs could be set to the full band, the upper sideband, or the lower sideband. This effectively made them eighty-channel radios. SSB transmission was also more efficient, so it provided longer-range transmissions. Since SSB broadcasts are unintelligible when heard on the much more common standard AM CBs, it added a modest level of security.
All of the group’s communications equipment was standardized soon after the debate on standardizing weapons was settled. The primary communications system was in the form of the TRC-500 headset type 500-milliwatt walkie-talkie. The “Trick Five Hundreds,” as they were soon dubbed by the group members, turned out to be an ideal choice. They were inexpensive, reliable, and because they had a hands-free, voice activated (VOX) switch mode, they proved to be ideal for use on patrols.
The only drawbacks to the TRC-500s were their limited range and that they were only available in one of two frequencies. Both of these frequencies were well known and subject to interception. This problem was solved by the electronic wizardry of Kevin Lendel. Through ads in the back of a ham radio magazine, Kevin was able to find a supplier who cut custom crystals. Kevin selected a frequency just below the 49.830-megahertz frequency of the group’s TRC-500s. Realizing that what he was doing was not exactly legal, Kevin placed an order using an assumed name. He had them delivered to a commercial post office box company in downtown Chicago that didn’t ask a lot of questions when one rented a box.
When soldering in the custom crystals into all of the group members’ TRC-500s, Kevin also took the time to seal all of the seams in the radio cases with RTV silicone sealant. This made them much more waterproof, and hence even more suitable to rough field use.
On the advice of Jeff Trasel, the group also decided to buy several military field telephones. As Trasel so pointedly put it, “If you haven’t got comm, you haven’t got jaaack.” The field telephones, connected by WD-1 two-conductor wire, would reduce the group’s reliance on their radios in the immediate area of the retreat. The two models considered were the TA-312 and TA-1. Both were available as military surplus. The audio quality of the TA-312 was better than that of the TA-1, but it was more expensive. The TA-1 was wholly sound-powered, and thus did not require batteries. The TA-312 could also be used in a sound-powered mode, but it was normally operated with a pair of D-cell batteries installed to give it better range. Because the group only anticipated needing short-range field telephone communications, they settled on the TA-1 model.
Eventually, four TA-1 field phones and over a mile of surplus WD-1 were bought as a “group purchase.” Unlike most preparedness purchasing, which was done individually, a few items such as the field phones were bought for the benefit of the entire group. The cost of most of these group purchases was shared equally, while some were “gifts to the group” on the part of individual members, and a few were paid for with unequal shares, based on the varying financial resources of the individual members.
One optional but encouraged item of equipment for group members was body armor. Mike Nelson recommended that each group member buy an extra heavy-duty bullet resistant vest of the variety worn by police SWAT teams. Mike recommended the Second Chance brand Hardcorps 3 model with extra ballistic inserts. Unlike the relatively thin vest that Mike wore on a day-to-day basis while on police duty, these extra heavy vests would stop virtually every type of pistol or shotgun projectile. With luck, they could even stop some rifle bullets. The vests were not a panacea. They could only stop a high-power rifle bullet only if it stuck directly in the small trauma plate over the chest area. And they could do nothing, of course, to stop a head shot, groin shot, or disabling shot to a limb. However, the vests were better than nothing.
Eventually five of these relatively expensive vests were bought by the Grays, the Nelsons, and Tom Kennedy. Most of the other group members promised to buy vests, but never got around to it.
Another piece of ballistic protection that was recommended was a helmet.
In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Army started issuing a helmet for its ground troops that was molded out of woven Kevlar, the same material used in modern bulletproof vests. The new helmets were immediately nicknamed “Fritz helmets” by soldiers, because they had a lip that extended below the wearer’s ears, reminiscent of the steel helmets worn by German soldiers in both of the world wars in the twentieth century. Like the vests, Kevlar helmets were expensive, so not all of the group members bought them. When they first came on the surplus market in the late eighties, they cost three-hundred-and-fifty dollars apiece. By 2002, the supply of surplus Kevlar helmets had increased to the point where their price on the civilian market dropped to roughly a hundred. Occasionally, they were found at gun shows or flea markets for even less.
Very early on in the development of the Group, the issue of exactly what scenario they were preparing for was raised. Most members were thinking in terms of banks runs and an economic collapse, followed by a general breakdown in law and order. Others leaned more toward nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare.
Dan Fong insisted that the main emphasis should be on preparedness for resistance following a takeover of the government by socialists, fascists, or communists. In the end it was decided that the group had best prepare for all conceivable scenarios, rather than just one. As Todd put it, “It would be kind of embarrassing to get ourselves all prepared for some big socioeconomic collapse, and then get nuked.”
The only preparation that Todd’s group made that they decided to keep an absolute secret was their purchase of blasting supplies and equipment. When Mike was doing research for his graduate work, it brought him into contact with a broad spectrum of loggers, farmers, and ranchers. One rancher that Mike met was Spence Loughran. Spence and his wife had a 640-acre spread twenty-five miles north of Moscow. Spence’s ranch was used to both run cattle and harvest timber. When he first met him, Mike discovered that Spence was in the middle of a project blasting some stumps on his ranch, clearing a logged-over area for hay cutting.
Mike mentioned to Spence that he had an interest in explosives, and offered to help out. They had a great time, as they both liked to “see things blow up.” By the end of the day, they were great friends. When Mike bemoaned the fact that there was an “ocean of paperwork to wade through” in getting set up with an explosives permit in Illinois, Spence offered to add Mike to his blaster’s permit, listing him as an “employee.” Five weeks later Mike got a copy of the updated permit in the mail, along with a copy of The Blaster’s Handbook, which was crammed with safety information and useful tables.