In case you were too distracted by Rumplestiltskin videos or watching the latest episode of the “Diversity is Our Strength” reality show from France, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, announced the “FORTRESS” (Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability) readiness program during a speech last week.
The upshot is that SecWar has ordered US Military bases to follow guidance that will enable each base to remain self-sufficient and secure, minus any aid or assistance from outside, i.e., the surrounding community, for 90 days. This preparation plan would include the ability to have enough food, water, essential supplies and power to sustain operations without the need for external support.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on X. “I created FORTRESS America because we can no longer rely on two oceans to protect us. That outdated assumption no longer reflects the threats we face.”
Most of us can probably get on board with the idea that our military bases, areas critical to our national security, should indeed be self-sufficient enough that they won’t collapse or become paralyzed by either cyber or kinetic attacks on the power grid, etc. In fact, we might ask, why is this even a question? Why aren’t all military bases already up to this standard?
Why Now?
You can answer those two previous questions for yourself. However, the primary question we should all be asking is this; if the government/military is taking active steps to protect its people and places from cyber attacks, terrorism, etc. should we be concerned?
The supreme socialist nanny-state that is Great Britain started pushing its own “Be Ready” campaign just last week. 
Don’t get too excited. This is more of the same 72-hour preparedness advice the United States government trots out after every major hurricane or natural disaster. What we might be asking is, “Why now?” And, is it a coincidence that Sec. Hegseth is pushing FORTRESS at the same time the UK is warning its subjects to be prepared in case of “food shortages and widespread disruption from cyber attacks and emergencies.”
Preparation vs. Panic
As someone who spent ten years living in a prime hurricane zone, I can tell you that trying to purchase a portable power generator after the hurricane has hit isn’t going to go well for you. While that should seem patently obvious, in the aftermath of every hurricane, you would find people scrambling to buy generators and then cursing their cost, and accusing the stores of “price gouging.”
Preparation, or the act of simply being prepared to deal with emergencies is all about mindset. Your mindset should be, “We’re going to be prepared now, so we don’t have to panic later.”
Leave the panic-buying for other people. While your short-sighted neighbors are running around, packing the stores in a buying frenzy, you can stay comfortably at home, far away from the lunacy. You can choose not to become a victim of circumstance.
72 Hours?
If you ask people who have lived through the aftermath of a major disaster, it’s a safe bet that they would tell you that a 72-hour plan is better than nothing. For those who have been paying attention to the world and preparing for years — decades even — 72 hours is baby-town frolics. It’s sophomoric at best. This type of thinking is similar to the idea that I’d rather have a .22LR pistol than a sharp stick in an emergency. Sure, but there’s really no reason not to have something more.
I must admit that, as a person who grew up with a mother and grandmothers who grew gardens and canned food every fall, the idea of not having three days worth of food in the house at any given time seems ridiculous. My mother habitually kept gallon milk jugs filled with water in the chest freezer to both act as an ice/cooling system if the power went out or as emergency water if needed.
Step one; if your habit is to have less than three days of food in your house at any given time, you need to re-think your priorities. No, food isn’t cheap, but it doesn’t get any cheaper when it’s stored on grocery store shelves. You can refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs if you are confused about need vs want priorities.
Keep in mind, the idea is to prepare, not panic. Therefore when time is on your side, take advantage of what’s available when it is available.
My wife is the epitome of the frugal shopper. She’s always on the hunt for a sale, a closeout, or some other special. When the price of chicken drops, she grabs it and it goes in the freezer. Ditto with pork.
We didn’t need coffee, but the other day she found large bags of name brand coffee priced at nearly 60 percent off the norm. We’ll drink it eventually, so she grabbed three bags. Now we won’t need to buy coffee for a month or longer.
Redundancy
In the dead of winter, you don’t need an iPhone or wifi to stay alive, but you need heat. I was just a kid when my parents purchased their first portable kerosene heater. Our house had baseboard heating, but it required electricity. No power, no heat.
When we lived on the farm we had two wood burning stoves and kerosene heaters as back-ups to warm up the garage/workshop. No electricity needed.
With the rush to install “smart” thermostats which can be operated remotely, via an app, has no one ever considered that a cyberattack could include targeting those?
Think I’m paranoid? Think that could never happen? Two weeks ago a cyberattack in France targeted about 700 grocery stores. The hackers remotely turned up the thermostats on freezers to 50º Celsius (122º F) causing rapid food spoilage and some fires. Tens of millions of Euros worth of food was lost.
Tell me that a cyberattack against your power company couldn’t potentially disable tens of thousands of “smart” thermostats. And it’s not just France. The Pentagon is investigating a potential cyberattack against military bases where the thermostats in the freezers of six commissaries (military grocery stores) were hacked into.
Even if we just stick with a good old winter ice storms where power poles and lines snap like twigs, if you’re 100 percent reliant on electricity to warm your house, what do you do when the power is out? Are you going to rush to the local home store and fight a hundred other guys, all trying to buy the last two portable generators or kerosene heaters?
Normal Living
When we cut through the social media hype or mainstream news garbage, what we’re truly considering is just getting back to what our parents and grandparents (depending on your age) used to call “daily living.” Grandma knew that everyone in the house was going to want to eat every day, so she took that into consideration.
Houses used to be built with dedicated small rooms off of the kitchens called “pantries.” Why? Because it was assumed that you would be storing more than a few days worth of food in your house. Grandpa knew the wood he was splitting today would be put up for the next winter. He was always one season ahead.
What happened to that mindset? The spread of supermarkets and big box stores had something to do with it. Some say it was also the advent of the drive-thru pick-up window. The microwave oven and frozen TV dinners, too. Modern folks point to services like Door Dash and the desire for instant gratification.
Regardless, the first step in recovery is to admit that you have a problem. If your refrigerator contains only half a jar of pickles, some spoiled Chinese takeout, and a baggie full of Taco Bell sauce packets, you have a problem.
Naturally, one article can’t answer all these questions. If you are looking for specific help in how to address a short or long-term crisis, we suggest a book from our friend, Nicholas Orr, A Pipe Hitters Guide to Crushing the Coming Societal Breakdown.
Action and being prepared are choices we make. So is inaction. If you choose not to decide, you’ve still made a choice.
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.