Psyware

Time for another book review from the library. The title today is: Modern Minuteman by @spikesguides (Providing for the Common Defense) Out of the gate I want to say I really like this book. It is exceptionally well done for a self published title. Spike is a great account to follow and generous to enough to take the time to write articles that he posts often on his X account. Definitely a great account to follow on this app. On to the review: If you abide by the ethos of "you are your own first responder" and "no one is coming to save you" this book will be right up your alley. Who this book is for; simply the prepared citizen responder who takes the security of family, friends, and providence seriously. TL;DR- if you train with the homies get this book. This is written for a non-technical audience without prior military background. The writing is straightforward and easy to understand. (The longer review) The more in-depth context is that this book provides the who, what, where, when, why, and how of all things at a level beyond baseline for the individual seeking to elevate their personal readiness to that of a Modern Minuteman. Introduction. Section 1 - The book begins with a solid disclaimer statement on all things legal, the seriousness of this subject, and then jumps into the introduction of the subject and the history of the Minuteman in America. (the WHO & WHY foundation) Section 2 - The next section "Prerequisites", covers Basics of Fitness, OODA Loop, Situational Awareness, and Combat Medicine. Books have been written in great detail on these individual subjects but this section gives a great intro to each of these topics to get the reader pointed in the right direction on good footing. Section 3. Combat Fundamentals - This section begins to set the stage of the meat of the book. Here you get into weapons, marksmanship, buddy teams, fire teams, squads, team leadership, and training methods. The beauty of this section is each topic generally has an accompanying set of physical drills that build topic by topic in this section. If you LARP'd these drills with a group of buddies a few times a month, you would improve your personal (and small team) proficiency to a level above 90 percent of the US civilian population in a relatively short period of time. It really comes down to repeat rehearsal of basic drills. Section 4. Small Unit Tactics - This section takes the squad element to the next level of function and builds upon Section 3 in the book. This section covers kit planning, movement and ops (including patrols, observation posts, patrol bases, & recon), immediate actions (including react to contact & breaking contact), support by fire (the fun topics of ambushes, raids, and harassment ops), area control and defense (checkpoints, area denial, perimeter defense, & combat outposts), environments and specialized skills (drones, specialized threats, night ops, fundamentals of urban warfare, and much more). Section 5. Support & Sustainment - This section covers considerations around civilian vehicle implementation, logistics, and field telephones. The book closes out with some excellent case studies including: Hill 3234, Grozny, Mumbai attacks, and an essay on historic guerillas. In closing this is an excellent book. It take the very complex topic of "the Modern Minuteman" and distills that subject down to simple terms that can be understood, trained and implemented by the common prepared citizen. If you are looking for a starting point on this subject this book is solid. Buy it, read it, practice the basics and then take that knowledge and refine it with training from a real, professional instructor. At the time of this post the book is $19.99 on Amazon. For the price, the book is absolutely packed with quality information that is very easy to read and understand. It's a fantastic book and recently published in January of this year (2026). 10/10 highly recommend! A fine addition to the library. You can get the book here: amzn.to/4BaPD1Y