Prepping the next generation: Inside the Florida survivalist group teaching children as young as nine how to fire AK ...

As many as three million Americans now regard themselves as 'preppers' - people preparing for the end of the world as we know itThe North Florida Survival Group claims it can teach you and your family everything you need to know to survival
Members include children as young as nine, who are taught to fire guns and go on training exercises
The group's leader says it is open to everyone except 'Socialists, Marxists, Nazis or Progressives’

By David Mccormack

PUBLISHED: 17:10 GMT, 22 February 2013 | UPDATED: 18:49 GMT, 22 February 2013

Growing fears that the end of the world is nigh due to either a natural disaster, terrorism strike or even a zombie apocalypse have sparked a sharp spike in interest in survivalism.

As many as three million Americans now fall into the category dubbed 'preppers' - people who are making detailed plans for the end of the world as we know it.

As their numbers grow so too does a booming industry of organizations ready to help teach wannabe survivalists the skills that could suddenly become very necessary in the event of a major catastrophic event.

Members of the North Florida Survival Group, including young children, wait with their rifles before heading out to perform enemy contact drills

Brianna, 9, of the North Florida Survival Group waits with her rifle as she prepares to join adults and other children in performing enemy contact drills

The North Florida Survival Group perform a land navigation drill during a field training exercise in Old Town, Florida

When's home time? A young boy sits on a child's toy and sulks because his sister got to carry the rifle that he wanted

Prepping the next generation: Leader Jim Foster teaches the younger members of the group how to survive in the wild

One such organization catering for the growing number of 'preppers' is the North Florida Survival Group, which claims it can teach you and your family everything you need to know to survive including how to live off the land, how to purify water and how to handle heavy duty firearms including AK-47s.

The group is the brainchild of Jim Foster, 57, a retired police officer, who claims he has experienced a significant increase in interest from the public since the horrific massacre at a school in Sandy Hook late last year.

According to the group’s website it now has over 200 members and that is growing with about one person signing up per day, says Foster.

As these photographs of a recent training exercise show, it isn’t just adult males taking part. Concerned parents are bringing along their children - such as 9-year-old Brianna - so they too can learn valuable skills such as how to fire an AK-47.

Brianna, 9, of the North Florida Survival Group carries an AK-47 rifle from the group leader's truck before heading out for a field training exercise

Survival of the fittest: Brianna, 9, hands an AK-47 rifle to Jim Foster, 57, the group's leader

The North Florida Survival Group is open to everyone except 'socialists, marxists, nazis or progressives'

Like father, like son: A member group puts a mask on his son as they gear up to perform enemy contact drills

The North Florida Survival Group teaches families everything they need to know to survive including how to live off the land, how to purify water and how to handle firearms

The group passionately supports the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms and on its website it states that it aims to teach ‘patriots to survive in order to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemy threats’.

‘I am an American who believes our freedoms are in jeapordy (sic),’ explains Foster on his website.

‘We want people to know that we cannot depend on our government to take care of us in a catastrophy (sic). In fact, if our government is intent on moving us to socialism, they may even cause the catastrophy! (sic).

A young boy wears the North Florida Survival Group's t-shirt which carries the message: 'I 'm willing to die to defend my 2nd amendment rights. Are you willing to die trying to take them from me?'

Family fun: An adult group member shows one of the younger members how to operate the magazine release of an SKS rifle

Group leader Jim Foster, center, critiques the performance of group members during an enemy contact drill

Growing fears that the end of the world is nigh due to either a natural disaster, terrorism strike or even a zombie apocalypse have sparked a sharp spike in interest in survivalism

A member of the North Florida Survival Group carries an AR-15 rifle as he takes the point position in performing enemy contact drills during a field training exercise

'People, your family needs you to be strong, be ready and be able to survive anything that comes our way. We're here to help teach you exactly that, how to survive!’

Foster says the group is open to everyone except ‘socialists, marxists, nazis or progressives’

Training is free, although members are asked to supply their own gear.

So if you fancy spending your  weekends conducting field training exercises in a tactical harness this might be the group for you. You never know when the training might come in handy.

A member of the North Florida Survival Group helps his daughter put on a tactical harness

Jim Foster, 57, a retired police officer and leader of the North Florida Survival Group, radios group members to check their status

Training is free but members of the North Florida Survival Group are asked to supply their own gear

A group of children, all members of the North Florida Survival Group, walk through a wooded area during a field training exercise

Stand your ground: A member of the group raises his AR-15 rifle as he takes part in an enemy contact drill

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Country singer, survivalist Craig Morgan heads to Arctics

March 01, 2013

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, March 1 — American country singer Craig Morgan calls himself a survivalist, and he is in for a frigid challenge at an upcoming sled dog expedition in the Scandinavian arctics.

Morgan (picture), a Tennessee native who is best known for hits “That’s What I Love About Sunday” and “Redneck Yacht Club”, said he could not pass up an invitation to test his survival skills in the annual Fjaellraeven Polar sled dog expedition.

“I’ve jumped out of airplanes, been on scuba trips, and I was just in the Bahamas in a cage with sharks,” Morgan, 48, told Reuters. “Still, this is pretty extreme in my book.”

The harrowing 330 km dog-led adventure from the frozen mountains of Norway to Sweden takes place April 9-13 and promises to teach ordinary people how to last through sub-zero temperatures and lashing Arctic winds.

Morgan, who will learn how to handle sled dogs along with 20 other participants, will also bring along the camera crew from his reality show “Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors” on the Outdoors Channel to chronicle the expedition.

“I had not heard about this event before I was asked to participate,” said Morgan, who will bring along his son, Kyle.

“Once they asked me I said, ‘Absolutely’,” he added. “I’m a survivalist; anytime I get the opportunity to test my survival skills I jump at it.”

On his TV show, Morgan tests his survival instincts in situations such as skydiving and aerial bow fishing.

Morgan, a veteran of the US Army whose only previous sub-zero experiences include stays in Korea and blustery Iowa, said he looked forward to learning how to work with the sled dogs.

“I love dogs, have dogs of my own, but these dogs are completely different,” he said.

“They sleep outside in the snow ... the language that you give the commands is different. I’ll have to get into their world and work the way they are used to.”

Morgan is also the host of the Outdoor Channel’s “Field & Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge”. He has released six studio albums over his 13-year career, most recently “This Ole Boy” in 2012. — Reuters

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Is a survivalist development taking root in Idaho?

ST. MARIES, Idaho ? A group of survivalists wants to build a giant walled fortress in the woods of the Idaho Panhandle, a medieval-style city where residents would be required to own weapons and stand ready to defend the compound if society collapses.

The proposal is called the Citadel and has created a buzz among folks in this remote logging town 70 miles southeast of Spokane, Wash. The project would more than double the population of Benewah County, home to 9,000 souls.

Locals have many questions, but organizers so far are pointing only to a website billing the Citadel as "A Community of Liberty."

"There is no leader," Christian Kerodin, a convicted felon who is a promoter of the project, wrote in a brief email to the Associated Press. "There is a significant group of equals involved ... each bringing their own professional skills and life experiences to the group.

"It is very much a 'grass-roots' endeavor,'" Kerodin wrote, declining to provide any additional details.

Such communities are hardly new, especially in northern Idaho, which has long been a magnet for those looking to shun mainstream society because of its isolation, wide-open spaces and lack of racial diversity. For three decades, the Aryan Nations operated a compound about an hour north of here before the group went bankrupt and the land was sold.

Then came another community known as "Almost Heaven," founded in 1994 by Green Beret-turned-"patriot" movement leader Bo Gritz for those wanting a refuge from urban ills and Y2K concerns. That project crumbled when large numbers of buyers failed to move to the development, located 100 miles to the south.

The number of patriot groups has grown since President Barack Obama was first elected, and the renewed debate over gun control is further deepening resentment of the federal government among such factions, said Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC tracks such groups.

Nevertheless, Potok noted, plans for these sorts of communities rarely come to fruition.

"The people behind the Citadel are like 12-year-old boys talking about the tree house, or the secret underground city, they're going to build some day," he said.

The website shows drawings of a stone fortress with room inside for up to 7,000 families. The compound would include houses, schools, a hotel and a firearms factory and museum. The gun factory, the website said, would manufacture semiautomatic pistols and AR15 rifles ? which would be illegal if Congress reinstated the 1994 ban on assault weapons.

Applicants must pay a $208 fee, and the website claims several hundred people already have applied to live in the Citadel.

The site also warns that not all would be comfortable at the development:

"Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles."

No construction has begun. Kerodin filed papers with the Idaho Secretary of State in November for a company called Citadel Land Development. III Arms LLC, which is the name of the proposed firearms company, also has purchased 20 acres of land in Benewah County, the county auditor said.

The Citadel website said those 20 acres would serve as an administrative site from which to build the entire 2,000- to 3,000-acre compound.

Kerodin, who declined requests for a telephone interview, was convicted in 2004 of federal extortion charges and illegal possession of a firearm in a case in which he posed as a counterterrorism expert and attempted to coerce shopping mall owners in the Washington, D.C., area to hire him to improve security, according to court documents. He served 30 months in federal prison.

While the conviction makes it illegal for Kerodin to possess a firearm, residents of the Citadel would be required to own guns and to pledge to train together and use them if the compound were attacked. Residents would also be required to stock enough food and water to last a year.

In St. Maries, a logging community of 2,600 people that is the Benewah County seat, townspeople had plenty of questions about the proposed development.

"This is Podunk, Idaho," said resident Wanda Wemhoff. "What are they defending themselves against?"

Gary Davis, owner of a quilt shop, worried about the type of people who would be drawn to such a community. "Nobody benefits from having a closed society move into their midst," he said.

But County Commissioner Bud McCall was less concerned, calling the Citadel little more than a "pie in the sky thing." ''As far as I know," he said, "it hasn't gone anywhere."

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Kids welcome for Florida survivalist training

Brian Blanco / Reuters

Jim Foster, leader of the North Florida Survival Group, radios group members to check their status as they perform a land navigation drill.

Brian Blanco / Reuters

A member of the North Florida Survival Group puts a mask on his son as they gear up to perform enemy contact drills in a wooded area during a field training exercise in Old Town, Florida.

Reuters -- The North Florida Survival Group group trains children and adults to handle weapons and survive in the wild. The group passionately supports the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms and its website states that it aims to teach "patriots to survive in order to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemy threats." Photographer Brian Blanco writes about his experience:

Jim Foster is a 57-year-old former police officer and the leader of the North Florida Survival Group. Jim was the man who, after feeling out my intentions in a two-hour meeting at a chain restaurant a few weeks earlier, had granted me permission to photograph his group’s field training exercise. It was an opportunity I snatched up without hesitation. It’s not every day that a photojournalist gets an invitation to shoot a militia gathering. Understandably, they tend to be fairly secretive groups who don’t exactly keep the media on their Christmas card lists.

Foremost on their minds was gun confiscations. Meeting the group just a few weeks after the re-election of Barack Obama, the prevailing concern among the group was when the next gun ban would be coming and how they should stockpile ammunition and weapons to prepare for it.

Read more on the Reuters Photographers Blog.

Editor's note: Pictures taken on Dec. 8, 2012 and made available to NBC News today.

Brian Blanco / Reuters

Brianna, 9, of the North Florida Survival Group hands an AK-47 rifle to Jim Foster, 57, the group's leader, before heading out to conduct enemy contact drills.

Brian Blanco / Reuters

A young boy sits on a toy, upset because his sister got to carry the rifle that he wanted.

Brian Blanco / Reuters

Jim Foster (center) critiques the performance of group members during an enemy contact drill.

Related on PhotoBlog:

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Survivalist/conspiracy theorist says his views have made him a target

Survivalist/conspiracy theorist says his views have made him a target - Philly.com Subscriber Services ||
Home News Sports Entertainment Business Food Lifestyle Health Marketplace Collections•Camden CountySurvivalist/conspiracy theorist says his views have made him a targetFebruary 21, 2013|BY JASON NARK, Daily News Staff Writer| narkj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5916ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Fernando Antonio Salguero says police blew…

SOMEDAY, the sun will die, the Earth will ice over and civilization will disintegrate in the darkness.

Fernando Antonio Salguero will be long gone by then - we all will be - but the Montgomery County resident says there's nothing wrong with preparing today for the possibility of future catastrophes.

Salguero, 39, is the founder of Survive and Thrive, an 800-member group that meets regularly to discuss such topics as "stealth and subterfuge," "repelling home invasions" and "flexing the U.S. Constitution."

"All that I am is a kid who grew up in a very, very rough way who wants to leave the world in a better condition than I found it for my children," he said Monday, a Colt .45 on his hip, during an interview at his home in Bridgeport.

Story continues below.

Being prepared to survive in an emergency is just common sense, akin to carrying a spare tire in the trunk of your car, Salguero said.

But he has a lot of other survival "tools," beliefs and theories deep in the trunk that he thinks have made him a target.

Last week, police in Camden County blew open the trunk of Salguero's 2005 Ford Crown Victoria because, he says, he wouldn't let them open it without a warrant.

"I offered them a key, but they just blew it open with their robot to justify them having their toys," he said.

Police said they blew the trunk open after a Camden County Sheriff's Department K-9 detected explosive materials in the car.

Salguero is also involved with groups that aim to inform juries that they can "nullify" laws, that pledge to defend the U.S. Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic," and that refuse to fly because of airport security screenings.

"It's a big deal, and we trade it [our personal liberties] away so we can go to Disneyland or go see our grandmother," he said.

Salguero also supports Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and believes that it took more than two airplanes piloted by suicidal terrorists to bring down the Twin Towers in 2001.

"It is a taboo subject and it is very sensitive to a lot of people," he said of 9/11. "It deserves a new and unbiased investigation. There's a tremendous amount of detail and cover-up, and that's an uncomfortable pill."

One former Survive and Thrive member told the Daily News that he left the group a few years ago when it began mixing political beliefs with practical survival methods.

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Pennsylvania survivalist arrested in Camden County on weapons charge

Pennsylvania survivalist arrested in Camden County on weapons charge - Philly.com Subscriber Services ||
Home News Sports Entertainment Business Food Lifestyle Health Marketplace Collections•Police CarPennsylvania survivalist arrested in Camden County on weapons chargeFebruary 15, 2013|By Darran Simon, Inquirer Staff Writer

A Pennsylvania man who set up a survivalist meet-up group was arrested Tuesday on weapons charges after he showed up at a Camden County municipal court to challenge a traffic violation, police said Wednesday.

Fernando Antonio Salguero, 39, had illegally parked his 2005 Ford Crown Victoria - equipped like a police car, with an antenna and lights - in front of the Somerdale municipal court, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Police checked the license plate and requested the assistance of the Camden County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad after discovering a weapons charge against Salguero out of Hopewell and recent Somerdale offenses, including driving with a revoked license, officials said.

Story continues below.

A police dog indicated explosive materials in the car, but police found none. The Bridgeport, Pa., resident was arrested after police found teargas canisters and rocket-propelled flares.

He was held in the Camden County Jail on $32,500 bail. A phone number for Salguero could not be immediately located.

A 2009 Philadelphia Weekly article described Salguero as a survivalist who earned his living selling water and air purification systems.

In 2008, he started a meet-up group called Survive and Thrive - for those who, like himself, "don't fit the Confederate flag-hat-wearing, baccy-chewing, racism-spewing stereotype," he told the paper.

 

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A rare glimpse into a survivalist ‘militia’

American photographer Brian Blanco gained rare access to a group of survivalists in Florida. The North Florida Survival Group trains children and adults alike to handle weapons and survive in the wild. The group passionately supports the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms and its website states that it aims to teach “patriots to survive in order to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemy threats.” In December, Mr. Blanco spent a day photographing the group. It was six days before the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn. He wrote about the photo shoot in his blog.

You feel a moment – I’m not certain if it’s a second lost or a second gained – but in that moment the Earth stops. It’s the moment you watch a child, a young girl in purple shoes, pull a loaded AK-47 assault rifle from the cab of a pick-up truck.

The child, nine-year-old Brianna, had no ill intentions with the weapon of course. She was simply retrieving the gun for a man she affectionately calls “Uncle Jim.”

He is Jim Foster, a 57-year-old former police officer and the leader of the North Florida Survival Group. The organization teaches children and adults to handle weapons, and Jim refers to it as a ‘militia.”

Jim was the man who, after feeling out my intentions in a two-hour meeting at a chain restaurant a few weeks earlier, had granted me permission to photograph his group’s field training exercise. It was an opportunity I snatched up without hesitation. It’s not every day that a photojournalist gets an invitation to shoot a militia gathering. Understandably, they tend to be fairly secretive groups.

If you’re looking for a well-oiled machine of a militia, the North Florida Survival Group will likely disappoint. Members are not all chiselled young males with high-and-tight haircuts straight out of central casting.

An elderly man in blue coveralls and a borrowed .22-calibre varmint-hunting rifle protects the flank of a younger man in a full ensemble of tactical gear and a tricked-out AR-15 assault rifle. But while their gear may separate them, they are united by their political beliefs.

Meeting the group just a few weeks after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, the prevailing concern among the group was when the next gun ban would be coming and how they should stockpile ammunition and weapons to prepare for it.

For me, their position was summed up by an oversized T-shirt worn by a young boy in the group, who carried a Ruger rifle while covering the flank of a line of militia members searching for an imagined enemy. The shirt showed the logo of the North Florida Survival Group and was decorated with the slogan: “I’m willing to die to defend my 2nd Amendment rights. Are you willing to die trying to take them from me?”

I took [these pictures] six days before Sandy Hook. Six days before the country would launch into one of the largest and most heated gun-control debates in its history. Six days before so-called “assault weapons” and ammunition disappeared, in a frenzied buying spree, from gun-store shelves across the nation.

Before the shooting at Sandy Hook, Foster said he received on average about one or two people inquiring about signing up for the North Florida Survival Group per month. Now, after the attack, he says he gets about one person signing up every day.

“When I first got into this, I thought I’d never have to use these skills in my lifetime, but we as citizens have a duty to defend the Constitution,” Foster said. “Now it looks like groups like ours are going to be called up to defend the Constitution even if it means using force.

“The government is trying to disarm us,” Jim said.

“There weren’t enough dead bodies to do it before, but now they’ve got the bodies of 26 dead kids and I’m afraid that’s enough for them to get what they want,” he said, referring to the 20 children and six adults who were shot at Sandy Hook.

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