Minuteman Project: Week 3
Finally getting a chance to post for this week.
I'll start off with a conversation that was overheard in Spanish on 2-way radio near the Huachauca Mountains outside of Sierra Vista, AZ:
"We've got to get down, to get our loads down!" [Meaning drug loads]
Reply: "We can't, man - those f***ers are everywhere!".
He he...
This time Mike and I were able to spend four days on the border, so I have quite a few photos. As we were stationed a few miles into Arizona, our weekend was very quiet. This is essentially because the border is completely secured by the Minutemen at the border itself.
Our first two nights were spent watching for people coming out of the Huachaucas again.
Our first night we were again posted at a wash just past a culvert. This one was more of a drainage pipe and the wash was quite deep.
Here is Mike NOT getting ready to sleep. After all, he slept the entire trip from Tucson to the border and he is wide awake and ready to watch the wash for illegals:
Here is Mike watching the wash for illegals:
I had the privilege of working the night with two very nice legal immigrants, both from Sweden I believe. This is a bad photo, both of them are in photos later on in the post. I am bad with names, I should have written them down.
Morning on the Arizona border:
Here is a photo of the wash we were watching. Before we left we took a walk down into the wash to see if there were any new footprints, which there were not.
Mike sure is tired after staying up all night watching the wash...
Here we are at noon. I was able to get about three hours of sleep, but Mike STILL has not slept a wink!
For a while the next day we sat at the same location where we saw the three illegal immigrants the week before. We were technically off duty, but I figured it would be good to park there anyhow. I was able to get in some time playing Neverwinter Nights on my laptop. Mike finally got some sleep.
That night the section leader met up with the new shift just across the wash from us. He stationed a new group there and moved us to a new location.
Once at our new location we met up with Chris Simcox who let us play with a thermal camera for a while. That was FREAKING COOL (for lack of a better term). We chatted for a while and moved into position above the new wash. We had a great view, even at night, only about 20 feet from the wash. Once in the car, I told Mike I was going to take a 30 minute nap since I had only had 3 hours the night before. It was tough, Mike had barely slept at all, but he still got a photo of me sleeping to get me back for all the photos I got of him watching the wash:
This is the wash we were watching:
After getting about 3 hours of sleep, we met up with Chris Simcox at an orientation for new members:
Chris told us that we would get to work a different section for the next two days near the San Pedro Riparian River. He warned us not to actually go onto that land since I had my Beretta (funny how the government feels it necessary to "protect" the river from me but allows the illegals all the access they want). During the orientation meeting we got buzzed by the Border Patrol UAV:
After the meeting our wives arrived for lunch at the Trading Post:
After lunch we waited for Chris Simcox to show us where our new post was. Then we waited some more. And waited... It's alright, we got to visit longer with the families.
Chris finally arrived, he had been at a meeting, so I decided to forgive him for not being there. Again. No really, he is a VERY busy guy. Frankly, I was ready to give up after four days, I don't know how he does it.
We followed Chris to the house of a local resident so they could show us around (I won't say names, several of the residents have hits on them because of their efforts to stop illegal immigration and the drug flow). We had a chance to talk to a few of the neighbors, and I can't express in words their frustration with this problem, or how much they appreciated the Minutemen being there. They told us that since we got there, they have finally been able to sleep through the night without their dogs barking at passing illegals all night long.
Below is a photo of me (red shirt) and a local resident (camo).
One thing that struck me was the fact that quite a few of the local residents were wearing camo, which they apparently wear all the time. They talked to us about their nightly patrol through the surrounding desert. What a way to live.
They led us to one of the illegal camps. I could post photo after photo after photo of all the trash, but I'll post one:
This went on and on and on. Clothing, bottles, used diapers and worse. Absolutely everywhere. I asked if it was left because they had to leave quickly when Border Patrol shows up, and the response was "No! They leave it because they don't need it any more."
As we walked back to the house to get our vehicle and begin our patrol, one of the neighbors stopped us and told us that we had just missed 18 illegals being loaded into a pickup vehicle across the street from where we were. He had called the Border Patrol, but there was little they could do now.
We kicked ourselves for a while, but then went to our car and drove out into the desert where we were going to observe for the night:
Because we were having trouble with one of the locks on my car, one of us stayed with the car while the other walked out a bit. We were sure to stay within visual range.
That whole night was uneventful. About 2AM the moon went down, and the Generation 1 night vision that the local let us borrow was useless. We decided to call it a night and get some much needed sleep. We drove back to the house and slept in the car hoping to get up again before morning, because that is when the illegals are on the move. Unfortunately our lack of sleep got the best of us and we over slept until 6. I drove back to the Trading Post and we got some more sleep.
About 9, I heard a lot of noise outside the car. I got out and Jim Gilchrist was there yelling to me to turn my radio on, do a channel check and follow the column of cars heading to the Naco Border Patrol Station for a rally. Well, at least I got about 6 hours that night...
At the rally:
The guy in the light blue shirt behind Jim is one of the immigrants from Sweden I worked with the first night.
Here is an interesting photo of the ACLU Legal Observers video taping me taking a photo of him. OK, it's not as good as the photo of one of them rolling pot. I like the Colorado flag in the background though...
After the rally we followed Jim Gilchrist to the border. Finally I got to see the actual border up close. One thing that I noticed is that there isn't a single sign ANYWHERE informing anyone that this is an international border. Not on our side, not on theirs.
Here is a panoramic shot of the border:
And this is Jim talking to one of the Minuteman aircraft on the radio:
When I walked to border the very first thing I saw was a hole. I didn't even have to look, there it was right in front of me. Jim was nice enough to let me get a photo with him at this hole:
Now I voted for Bush in 2004. I was not completely pleased with him, mostly because of the Patriot Act. I voted for him anyway, also largely because of the alternative. Then came this Real ID Act, which pushed me closer to the edge (see my other posts). But ever since he called me and the patriots I have been working with for the last few months "vigilantes," he lost my support. These people are true Americans, heroes, and he called them "vigilantes." I will never vote liberal, but there is more than one conservative party out there. I am not saying I won't vote Republican, they just have to earn my vote now. If that's what it takes...
I kept my bumper sticker on my car until I got to the border to let Bush know what I think about his comment (like he will ever read my blog):
As always, media follows Jim everywhere! The man in the blue shirt is the other immigrant from Sweden I worked with on the first night.
More ACLU on the border... it's ok, the Mexicans intending to cross can't tell them from us. Makes us look even bigger.
Driving back to the Trading Post, we drove past the rally at the Border Patrol Station.
Before night fell, we went back to the same place we were the night before. We walked through the camp again to see if there was any new trash (and therefore if anyone had been there). There didn't seem to be, but with that much it's difficult to tell.
One thing I did find this time through was a "terrorist mask." Apparently they are worn by the Mexican Army. I'll leave it to your imagination how it got several miles into Arizona.
Here is Mike. The fence behind him is the San Pedro Riparian River area. It's amazing that if I had placed only a foot across that fence while carrying a pistol and someone saw me do it, the federal government would have shown me just how much respect it has for the Second Amendment. No, I didn't test them- I am there to watch for illegal activity. Breaking the law would not help anything.
I was able to fiddle with the lock on my car and finally got it secure. Armed with REAL Generation 3 night vision, we were able to move around a bit away from our car.
Again the night was quiet. The "gun-toting vigilante militia" on the border were just too effective and no one was getting in. That's ok, I prefer it that way, and it gave my brother and I lots of time to chat about things.
Eventually the sun came up. Using nightshot on my camcorder early in the morning looks very similar to what I would see using the Generation 3 in starlight:
Before heading out, Mike and I walked back to the camp to see if anyone was there or if there was any new trash. Notice the path we are on in the photo. It is caused by illegals.
On the way back we found some flowers for the wifeys. We had to chuck them, they were full of bugs.
We slowly and quietly walked into the area, if we saw or heard anyone we would turn around immediately as to avoid contact. No one was there and there was no new trash as far as we could tell.
We left the camp and decided to check out another one across the street- the one that the 18 had apparently been at the night before. Again we walked in slowly, ready to turn back if we heard anything or saw anyone. It was empty too, except for all the trash. This one was larger and had even more trash:
Walking back to the car we finally saw another living being:
We drove back to the trading post and slept for a couple hours before returning to Tucson (contrary to my Week 1 posting, I don't like to drive while sleepy).
I'll start off with a conversation that was overheard in Spanish on 2-way radio near the Huachauca Mountains outside of Sierra Vista, AZ:
"We've got to get down, to get our loads down!" [Meaning drug loads]
Reply: "We can't, man - those f***ers are everywhere!".
He he...
This time Mike and I were able to spend four days on the border, so I have quite a few photos. As we were stationed a few miles into Arizona, our weekend was very quiet. This is essentially because the border is completely secured by the Minutemen at the border itself.
Our first two nights were spent watching for people coming out of the Huachaucas again.
Our first night we were again posted at a wash just past a culvert. This one was more of a drainage pipe and the wash was quite deep.
Here is Mike NOT getting ready to sleep. After all, he slept the entire trip from Tucson to the border and he is wide awake and ready to watch the wash for illegals:
Here is Mike watching the wash for illegals:
I had the privilege of working the night with two very nice legal immigrants, both from Sweden I believe. This is a bad photo, both of them are in photos later on in the post. I am bad with names, I should have written them down.
Morning on the Arizona border:
Here is a photo of the wash we were watching. Before we left we took a walk down into the wash to see if there were any new footprints, which there were not.
Mike sure is tired after staying up all night watching the wash...
Here we are at noon. I was able to get about three hours of sleep, but Mike STILL has not slept a wink!
For a while the next day we sat at the same location where we saw the three illegal immigrants the week before. We were technically off duty, but I figured it would be good to park there anyhow. I was able to get in some time playing Neverwinter Nights on my laptop. Mike finally got some sleep.
That night the section leader met up with the new shift just across the wash from us. He stationed a new group there and moved us to a new location.
Once at our new location we met up with Chris Simcox who let us play with a thermal camera for a while. That was FREAKING COOL (for lack of a better term). We chatted for a while and moved into position above the new wash. We had a great view, even at night, only about 20 feet from the wash. Once in the car, I told Mike I was going to take a 30 minute nap since I had only had 3 hours the night before. It was tough, Mike had barely slept at all, but he still got a photo of me sleeping to get me back for all the photos I got of him watching the wash:
This is the wash we were watching:
After getting about 3 hours of sleep, we met up with Chris Simcox at an orientation for new members:
Chris told us that we would get to work a different section for the next two days near the San Pedro Riparian River. He warned us not to actually go onto that land since I had my Beretta (funny how the government feels it necessary to "protect" the river from me but allows the illegals all the access they want). During the orientation meeting we got buzzed by the Border Patrol UAV:
After the meeting our wives arrived for lunch at the Trading Post:
After lunch we waited for Chris Simcox to show us where our new post was. Then we waited some more. And waited... It's alright, we got to visit longer with the families.
Chris finally arrived, he had been at a meeting, so I decided to forgive him for not being there. Again. No really, he is a VERY busy guy. Frankly, I was ready to give up after four days, I don't know how he does it.
We followed Chris to the house of a local resident so they could show us around (I won't say names, several of the residents have hits on them because of their efforts to stop illegal immigration and the drug flow). We had a chance to talk to a few of the neighbors, and I can't express in words their frustration with this problem, or how much they appreciated the Minutemen being there. They told us that since we got there, they have finally been able to sleep through the night without their dogs barking at passing illegals all night long.
Below is a photo of me (red shirt) and a local resident (camo).
One thing that struck me was the fact that quite a few of the local residents were wearing camo, which they apparently wear all the time. They talked to us about their nightly patrol through the surrounding desert. What a way to live.
They led us to one of the illegal camps. I could post photo after photo after photo of all the trash, but I'll post one:
This went on and on and on. Clothing, bottles, used diapers and worse. Absolutely everywhere. I asked if it was left because they had to leave quickly when Border Patrol shows up, and the response was "No! They leave it because they don't need it any more."
As we walked back to the house to get our vehicle and begin our patrol, one of the neighbors stopped us and told us that we had just missed 18 illegals being loaded into a pickup vehicle across the street from where we were. He had called the Border Patrol, but there was little they could do now.
We kicked ourselves for a while, but then went to our car and drove out into the desert where we were going to observe for the night:
Because we were having trouble with one of the locks on my car, one of us stayed with the car while the other walked out a bit. We were sure to stay within visual range.
That whole night was uneventful. About 2AM the moon went down, and the Generation 1 night vision that the local let us borrow was useless. We decided to call it a night and get some much needed sleep. We drove back to the house and slept in the car hoping to get up again before morning, because that is when the illegals are on the move. Unfortunately our lack of sleep got the best of us and we over slept until 6. I drove back to the Trading Post and we got some more sleep.
About 9, I heard a lot of noise outside the car. I got out and Jim Gilchrist was there yelling to me to turn my radio on, do a channel check and follow the column of cars heading to the Naco Border Patrol Station for a rally. Well, at least I got about 6 hours that night...
At the rally:
The guy in the light blue shirt behind Jim is one of the immigrants from Sweden I worked with the first night.
Here is an interesting photo of the ACLU Legal Observers video taping me taking a photo of him. OK, it's not as good as the photo of one of them rolling pot. I like the Colorado flag in the background though...
After the rally we followed Jim Gilchrist to the border. Finally I got to see the actual border up close. One thing that I noticed is that there isn't a single sign ANYWHERE informing anyone that this is an international border. Not on our side, not on theirs.
Here is a panoramic shot of the border:
And this is Jim talking to one of the Minuteman aircraft on the radio:
When I walked to border the very first thing I saw was a hole. I didn't even have to look, there it was right in front of me. Jim was nice enough to let me get a photo with him at this hole:
Now I voted for Bush in 2004. I was not completely pleased with him, mostly because of the Patriot Act. I voted for him anyway, also largely because of the alternative. Then came this Real ID Act, which pushed me closer to the edge (see my other posts). But ever since he called me and the patriots I have been working with for the last few months "vigilantes," he lost my support. These people are true Americans, heroes, and he called them "vigilantes." I will never vote liberal, but there is more than one conservative party out there. I am not saying I won't vote Republican, they just have to earn my vote now. If that's what it takes...
I kept my bumper sticker on my car until I got to the border to let Bush know what I think about his comment (like he will ever read my blog):
As always, media follows Jim everywhere! The man in the blue shirt is the other immigrant from Sweden I worked with on the first night.
More ACLU on the border... it's ok, the Mexicans intending to cross can't tell them from us. Makes us look even bigger.
Driving back to the Trading Post, we drove past the rally at the Border Patrol Station.
Before night fell, we went back to the same place we were the night before. We walked through the camp again to see if there was any new trash (and therefore if anyone had been there). There didn't seem to be, but with that much it's difficult to tell.
One thing I did find this time through was a "terrorist mask." Apparently they are worn by the Mexican Army. I'll leave it to your imagination how it got several miles into Arizona.
Here is Mike. The fence behind him is the San Pedro Riparian River area. It's amazing that if I had placed only a foot across that fence while carrying a pistol and someone saw me do it, the federal government would have shown me just how much respect it has for the Second Amendment. No, I didn't test them- I am there to watch for illegal activity. Breaking the law would not help anything.
I was able to fiddle with the lock on my car and finally got it secure. Armed with REAL Generation 3 night vision, we were able to move around a bit away from our car.
Again the night was quiet. The "gun-toting vigilante militia" on the border were just too effective and no one was getting in. That's ok, I prefer it that way, and it gave my brother and I lots of time to chat about things.
Eventually the sun came up. Using nightshot on my camcorder early in the morning looks very similar to what I would see using the Generation 3 in starlight:
Before heading out, Mike and I walked back to the camp to see if anyone was there or if there was any new trash. Notice the path we are on in the photo. It is caused by illegals.
On the way back we found some flowers for the wifeys. We had to chuck them, they were full of bugs.
We slowly and quietly walked into the area, if we saw or heard anyone we would turn around immediately as to avoid contact. No one was there and there was no new trash as far as we could tell.
We left the camp and decided to check out another one across the street- the one that the 18 had apparently been at the night before. Again we walked in slowly, ready to turn back if we heard anything or saw anyone. It was empty too, except for all the trash. This one was larger and had even more trash:
Walking back to the car we finally saw another living being:
We drove back to the trading post and slept for a couple hours before returning to Tucson (contrary to my Week 1 posting, I don't like to drive while sleepy).
posted by Calan at 22:16
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