John “Smallberries” is a volunteer pilot for the Minuteman Projects, a group of American volunteers on a month-long watch on the Arizona-Mexico border. John is back home, and he sent this report.
MinuteMan update:
Monday I returned from 4 days of work in Arizona helping to get the
MinuteMan project up and running. I’ll be going back on Friday to
spend 10 days of my ‘vacation’ time in Arizona, flying for the
MinuteMan air corps.
La Shawn asked me to give you all an update, so here it goes.
Despite predictions of the streets running over with blood, there has
been no violence, one minor tragedy, and only a single grievous human
rights violation. I’ll give the day-day/blow-blow account below.
Wednesday: Gear load-out and check
Spent most of the day checking radio equipment that we will need to
track the aircraft involved in the project, and ensure our forward air
controllers can relay information from the ground to the aircraft.
I’ve got two other friends going – Reno (a former US borderpatrol
agent) and Mike Bigboote’ (general technical wiz) Note to readers:
about 10 of us decided to take names from the film “Buckaroo Banzai”
as sort of an inside joke (on ourselves) and to ensure nobody took us
very seriously. Somehow that spread, and I’m still getting emails from
folks who want to sign up for MinuteMan as a “Blue Blaze Irregular”
Sigh.
Probably of more interest is what we decided NOT to bring. Sidearms.
While I know that comes as a shock to some, I’ll explain why.
First – I think NOT being armed sends just as powerful as a message as
showing up ‘loaded for bear’. This is a dangerous area, no doubt about
it. However – the primary weapon needed to succeed, and stay out of
trouble is located between my ears – not on my hip. By going unarmed -
this should force us to concentrate on avoiding trouble, rather the
following my natural instinct (so it seems!) to seek it out.
Second – We are pilots (or air controllers) Our job is ‘push tin’ and
get aircraft around the sky – extra radio batteries are deemed far
more useful then a sidearm.
Third – I’m so sick of the focus on “armed vigilantes” in the desert -
it’s time to explore the possibly of being an unarmed vigilante. Much
harder, but will certainly bring the level of play up a notch. I’m not
even sure you can be a vigilante without a weapon. But – I will do my
best!
Around midnight – we have my kitchen table (where we have replicated
the cargo bay of the plane we are flying out to AZ to ensure all this
junk will fit) piled high with radio gear, antennas, body armor, GPS
stuff, laptop computers, solar panels (to run radio gear in the
forward areas) signal panels, and sleeping bags.
Looking at this, about 1am we stood back, and enjoyed a brief laugh.
We know both the press, ACLU and various other groups are expecting
redneck ‘bubba’s’ moronically stumbling around the desert, or cammo
clad Rambos tearing around in pickups with Confederate flags on the
roof. We looked at each other, the stack of sophisticated equipment on
the load table, and said “Those guys haven’t got a clue about what is
coming….”
Thursday
0500 – Wake up, final gear check – toss stuff in car for transport to
airport. Had to squeeze cargo door closed, made a REALLY long takeoff
roll, plane was at its max weight, and slowly climbed into the sky. On
our way!
Arrived in Tombstone before noon, had a local pilot pick us up at the
airport and he drove us to the “Bible College” that is being used as
HQ. The place is “rustic” to say the least. Once – I’m sure this place
was nice – but that was about 50 years ago. Some of the buildings are
burned out, some are simply decrepit, some are in marginal states of
repair. We move into the best of buildings, the one with only some
fire damage, a few broken windows, and 3 showers that work! Yay!
The rest of the day is consumed with the very un-vigilante task of
cleaning (hard to feel like a tough guy while mopping out a toilet -
but I managed a growl or two) fixing broken plumbing, and getting
electricity and lights running. By midnight – we had basic services up
and running.
Which is when the minor tragedy happened.
Reno took it upon himself to organize the 30 or so retired police
officers into some sort of makeshift security force, and started
patrolling the grounds (which are about 10 acres) of open lots, and
burned out buildings. He and his partner (Pecos) ended up at the main
gate VCP (Vehicle control point) where they were stopping cars coming
into the grounds (this is private property after all) and checking for
ID’s. Reno and Pecos had made some makeshift ‘stop strips’ out of
nails and old 4×4 lumber, and were set up to keep any crazies from
doing a drive by.
About 1:30am – Mike B and I were fooling with a recalcitrant radio,
when Reno called in from the gate “Call the Border Patrol, and tell
them I have a single (slang for an illegal found without a group) up
at the VCP. And get up here pronto with some food, water and a
blanket.
Not being a total idiot – I thought “This must be an April Fools joke”
- and I was NOT about to be the fool. However – Reno persisted – “No
really – call the BP and get up here” – Sigh. OK. I grabbed the box of
fig newtons I was munching on (love those!) and a gallon of water,
along with an old blanket, and headed up there – about a 3 minute jog.
Mike get on the phone to the BP. (who also thought we were goofing on
them)
And was astonished to see Reno sitting next to a small man, quietly
talking in Spanish to him! I had to stop and be stunned for about 3
seconds. He smiled broadly at me, I smiled back, and then he proceeded
to snarf the entire box of Fig Newtons, and drain a 1/3 of the water
jug. He had not eaten for days.
Thus – The entire rest of the weekend was conducted without a Fig
Newton in sight. Tragic. 
However – he needed them more then me.
Good 
And he was *very* happy to be found. This gent was from Guatemala, his
guide had abandoned him 3 days ago, and left him to wander in the
desert. He saw the lights of our operation, and simply walked toward
the camp, and right up to Reno and Pecos at the front gate. Despite
dire media predictions, he was not beaten, robbed, or lynched. He got
fed, and actually asked Reno to call “La Migra” to come pick him up.
Happy to oblige amigo!
This leaked out to the press the next day, and comments were basically
“well – I suppose they didn’t lynch him – but they sure would of if
they had more time!”
About 15 minutes later, a small armada of BP vehicles showed up, and
agents got the story, laughed, and took him into custody.
Friday –
Friday was spent with more very un-vigilante like activity, fixing
more plumbing and electric, and building radio masts out of PVC pipe.
If you can image 15 engineers (somehow HAM radio guys always end up to
be engineers) trying to build 30 foot tall masts to put antennas on -
you might see the humor in this. While all of us swore an oath of
non-violence – several times it was pointed out that it covered
non-aggression only to people OUTSIDE the project. We were all fair
game for each other! I was pretty sure there was going to be a
lynching, especially after one guy glued his buddies hand (by
accident) to the plastic mast pole with the epoxy. We also lost a few
hours when one of the electrical feeders (installed by a EE)
overloaded and melted about 50 feet of wire. Phew!
About 8pm we had dinner, and the human rights violation occurred when
I was fed the worst chicken stew in the history of – well – history.
About 3 of us vowed to report the cook to the first ACLU lawyer we
found. Thankfully, this meal was not available Thursday, or we could
have fed it to our hungry Guatemalan amigo, and ended up with a (well
deserved) “assault with a deadly meal” charge on our hands.
Sleep came blissfully around midnight.
Saturday
Finally – we were going to get some “vigilante-ing” done! Bright and
early, we piled into a truck, went down the road a bit to local diner,
where we met out first “local” supporter. The owner came over to greet
us, introduced himself as a former Marine (o-rah!) and then proceeded
to get behind the counter and cook us breakfast. Cool!
We had to hide money for the food under the dishes, he would not take
our cash. (there were 8 of us, and we ate a LOT of chow – especially
after the ACLU stew on Friday) Awesome guy – we promptly declared his
place the official “Vigilante chow hall” and headed out.
Just a note on this – inside the project, it has become popular to
address each other as “vigilante” – as a goof on Bush’s idiotic
comment when he labeled everyone in the project as such. Like so many
other slurs, this one has become a point of pride. We don’t have Froot
Loops cereal in the kitchen – they are now “Vigilante Loops” (written
with a crude black marker)
Mike and I flew for a few hours, checking terrain, ensuring our maps
and control points were correct, and visiting the local airports. We
also mapped out and inspected numerous emergency strips in the area,
in case one of our aircraft had a problem and needed to set down.
Reno and Peco’s ate dirt all day, hiking around the border, looking
for places to set up a radio post, and establish comms back to the
operations center.
I took some news people up for a ride, the did a little filming of the
border (not me!) and I made their cameraman airsick. Fun. (the ride,
not making him sick!)
We got done around 8pm, got served huge bowls of awesome chili
(correction – vigilante chili) and then spent the next 4 hours
plotting all the data onto 2 giant maps we had made for the commo
center. Cool! Things were getting ready!
Sunday –
This was going to be our ‘soft start’ day – day zero of field
operations. About 100 people were going into the field, and we were
going to fly our first border patrol and support mission.
After briefing on the weather (clear, but windy – going to be a bumpy
ride) I called the US Customs operation desk to let them know we would
be in the air near the border. For several weeks, we have been working
with them (and they have been VERY clear they do not endorse us – but
they also have been 100% professional) to make sure we don’t get in
their way. While I know true vigilantes are supposed to be reckless
devil-may-care types, I think even us “wild hate filled crazies” need
to take time to ensure flight safety.
We call them, give our (real) names and flight numbers, then headed
for the airport and for the field.
I have to tell you – it was a sight for sore eyes. The section of the
border we were working in was SHUT DOWN. The BP had over 100 jeeps on
the 10 mile stretch, MMP folks had set up lawn chairs, sunshades, and
coolers (for keeping soda cold) and were ‘watching’ the border. On the
Mexican side -there was a small army of orange “Beta Group” trucks,
warning people not to cross or they would be “hunted by criminals”.
Oh – and about 100 news trucks. Major circus.
If this was the case every day – we could pack it in and go home!
Things were actually pretty friendly. People on both sides of the
border waved at us – each one got a wing wiggle in return. Folks hung
out and talked. My observer thought he spotted a group moving north,
and he was right. However – the “group” in question turned out to be
four-legged upon closer inspection, so we decided not to report them
to the BP.
And that is the total sum of the first four days of wild west
vigilante action from Arizona.
Stats:
Dead – 0
Arrested – 0
Lynchings – 0
Shots fired – 0
People turned into BP – one
Suspected border crossing violations reported – 18
Fig Newtons consumed by me – 4
Fig Newtons consumed by hungry Guatemalan – 20
Human rights violated by Minutemen – 0
Human rights violated upon the Minutemen by our cook – 1
Terrorists discouraged from crossing border – unknown
Thanks for the support, and I will file more updates (with pictures)
when I get back to AZ this weekend!
John
—————————————————————————————————————————-
So what happens after the Minuteman Project comes to an end? ARIZONA WATCH.
Also see Part I and Part II of my interview with John.
Related posts: Modern Day Minutemen, We’ll See What Kind of Man George Bush Is and Who Will Protect the Minuteman Volunteers?
