Monday, March 2, 2009

Welcome to Oath Keepers


Note from Stewart Rhodes: This site is a work in progress. Over the next couple of weeks we will be adding content daily, including both written and video testimonials, and eventually a more traditional, professional website as part of our outreach efforts (though this blog will always remain active). We welcome testimonials from anyone who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, be they current military, veteran, or peace officer. You can email your testimonials to us or post them in the comments on this blog. Please see the details on submitting testimonials at the bottom of this first post. - Stewart Rhodes

An Introduction to Oath Keepers

Oath Keepers is an association of currently serving military, veterans, and peace officers who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic ... and meant it.

The principle mission of Oath Keepers is to prevent the destruction of American liberty by preventing a full-blown totalitarian dictatorship from coming to power. Our Motto is “Not on our watch!”

I have been thinking of starting an organization such as this for several years now, but it never seemed to be the right time. However, I have recently had some very sobering conversations with brother veterans, active duty soldiers, retired and active duty police, and other committed and knowledgeable patriots. Because of those conversations, and in light of some very disturbing recent events, I am now convinced the right time is here – in fact, I am convinced it is now or never.

There are very dark days ahead for our Republic, and the greatest threats to our liberty do not come from without, but from within, “from men of great zeal, but little understanding,” from both political parties, who, to get at the devil of the moment, gleefully tear down the Constitution’s barriers against unbridled government power. The past eight years has been an expose of such short-sighted foolishness as self-described "conservatives" conserved nothing while expanding the de facto power of the Executive branch to obscene and absurd levels. Those powers are now in the hands of President Barrack Obama, who shows no signs of being reluctant to use them to impose his own special "vision" for our nation.


Worse yet, there are those among the political, legal, and even among the banking elite (?!!) who know exactly what they are doing, and yet willfully contrive to destroy our Republic and to disarm and enslave the American people. Our Republic has been under relentless assault from such domestic enemies for decades. We expect them to take full advantage of any upheaval and civil unrest during the coming economic/political “perfect storm” to try and put the final nail in the coffin of our Republic.

We aim to stop them dead in their tracks.

We know that if it comes to a worst case scenario, the American people will fight them. Americans are not Russian or Chinese peasants. Americans have a legacy, a heritage, of fighting back against tyranny and oppression and beating the best any tyrant can throw at them. The American people will not go down without a fight, and our would-be slave masters are greatly underestimating the resolve and military capability of the people. There are literally millions of American veterans, many of them with combat experience, who know very well what they are about, and who will fight with a ferocity that will stun their effeminate self-styled overlords.

But we also know that “It” (a full-blown totalitarian police state) simply cannot happen here if the majority of military service members and police obey their oaths to defend the Constitution and refuse to enforce the unconstitutional edicts of the "Leader."


The Oath Keeper Focus of Effort

And that is where Oath Keepers comes in. As time runs out, and as the window of opportunity closes on any hoped-for purely political restoration of liberty in America, we have determined that our best “focus of effort” – where we can have the greatest impact – is by maximizing the number of active duty military, reserves, and national guard who will fulfill their oaths by not following unconstitutional, immoral orders. And that also goes for the police, many of whom are also veterans.


We cannot imagine a more productive use of our time or anything that we could be doing that has the potential to literally alter history quite like this effort.


We already know for a fact that many of our brothers in arms will not “just follow orders.” And we also know, from personal service and experience, that the closer toward the “tip of the spear” you go, among the hard-core and elite combat units such as Marines, airborne soldiers, Rangers, Special Forces, etc., the greater percentage of men you will find who are true believers in the best sense of the word. They are men who take their oaths most seriously and are very much aware that they are the guardians of the Republic. They are also men who have come to terms with their own mortality and have made peace with the big picture fact that none of us gets out of here alive – what counts is what we do while we are here. We all served among such men of great integrity, character, courage, honor, and devotion to liberty and we have no doubt where they will stand on The Day. And what is more, they have a combat capability that goes far, far beyond their numbers. They are force multipliers extraordinaire.


But God forbid it should ever come to a fight. The very last thing any of us ever wants to see in our lifetime is veteran being pitted against active duty, or soldier against soldier, while the craven cowards at the top sit safely in some soft, cushy bunker.


It is our fondest hope that we will reach so many active duty, reserves and guardsmen, reminding them of their oaths and what they swore to defend, that the usurping cabal of lying politicians have no hope of success and we can have a bloodless turning of the tide and a bloodless restoration.

But while we hope for the best, we are also prepared for the worst.
Whatever the outcome, our oaths will be fulfilled.


What you can do To Help:

Submit a testimonial: Help us put a serious warning shot across the bow of the usurping politicians by a show of numbers

If you swore the oath, whether you are current military, reserves, national guard, a veteran, or a peace officer (or even a lawyer! – so long as you really meant your oath), write your own testimonial statement as an Oath Keeper and either post it in the comments section or email it in to oathkeepersok@gmail.com.

There will likely be one post per day entitled Oath Keeper Honor Roll where you can submit your testimonial in the comments section for that post. If for any reason you don’t see such a post on a given day, please look for the last “Honor Roll” post. If all else fails, just post it as a comment to any post you happen to be on. We will then move your testimonial to the most recent honor roll post. Ideally, we want to present page after page of testimonials. If you want to send in a photo to go with the post, email us.

Submit a Video Testimonial

You can also send in a video testimonial. Oath Keepers will have a youtube.com page up and running shortly, and we will post any submitted videos to that page. Until we get everything set up, if you want to submit a video, email us to work out the logistics.

You can choose to make your written or video testimonial anonymous, or you can put your name on it

It is your choice. We fully understand that more veterans will be willing to put a name or a face to their testimonial, while most currently serving active duty, reserves, and guardsmen will want to remain anonymous. It is a sad statement of where we are as a nation that service members who merely affirm their devotion to liberty and their oaths to defend the Constitution have to be concerned about possible persecution detrimental to their military careers, but that is the reality.

But such anonymity is a plus since it helps to plant the seeds of doubt in the mind of anyone in our government who has immoral and unconstitutional intentions. We at once want “them” to know there are a lot of us, but also to not know exactly where we are within the military or our full numbers. Uncertainty and the fear of the unknown can be great force multipliers of their own.

Suggestions for making a statement

I will be posting my own written statement over the next couple of days, as well as that of several other veterans, and I will also post my own video statement which you can use as models for your own, if you like.

Please refrain from making statements that could be construed as overt, specific threats of violence or exhortations to commit specific acts of violence. Simply stating that you will not obey, you will not comply, you will not submit, and you will resist any and all unconstitutional and immoral orders and actions is enough.

You don’t need to go into details. “They” will certainly get the message. And remember, our political enemies will take every opportunity to paint Oath Keepers as an extremist organization and to marginalize us in the eyes of the public. We have some creative PR guerrilla warfare in mind to counter those smear attempts, but you can help by keeping in mind our mission to reach the broadest cross section of active military, police, and veterans.

Other than that, the only real guidelines are to keep it short (two to three pages, or under five minutes, unless you have an amazingly compelling story), to the point, and heart-felt.

Calling All Combat Veterans

Our long-term goal is to have some very powerful, persuasive video testimonies by combat veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, on up to today which we can use to reach more active duty and veterans. If you know of any such men, who are for real and who are willing to step up and make such powerful video testimonies, please email us.

Such video testimonies by combat vets have an immense moral force and will do more to win the hearts and minds of others who took the oath than all the blog posts and books that have ever been written put together. Such video efforts will be seen by many thousands or even hundreds of thousands and millions on youtube.

Spread the word!

The more people who see the Oath Keeper message, the more active duty and veterans will be reached, and the more committed oath keepers we will have who will be willing to stand firm, and the better the ultimate chance of saving our Republic. Feel free to forward any content from this page and to repost elsewhere so long as you include a link to this site and give proper credit to the author and/or Oath Keepers.

Remember, many hands make light work. it's time to get out and push.

Defenders of the Republic, keep your oath. Join us!

Stewart Rhodes

Co. E 60th Infantry, 9th ID Scouts (Airborne)

"
To the utmost extent of our power"

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great site.
I will be posting my testimonial, as soon as I find a way to edit the curse words out of it
:-)
It gets me so riled up, that this effort is even necessary, that I start throwing in 4 letter words.
I will clean it up and get in here ASAP.
Thanks again for a great idea, and a great site.

Stewart Rhodes said...

Thank you Scott! Look forward to your testimonial.

If you are willing to do a video testimonial, please let me know. Feel free to email me at

stewart.rhodes@aya.yale.edu

All we would need is the raw video of you, sitting in front of the camera, saying what you want. We can add any music you like or do any editing (though I doubt we would need to, unless you just lost total control and really told em how you feel - in which case we will just label it "for adult ears only").

And if you have any ideas of your own for how to make this effort more successful, please do let us know.

Stewart

CorbinKale said...

Thanks for standing up for the U.S. Constitution. I am retired from the U.S. Army Infantry with 23 years of service. Several times during the course of my career, I took an Oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I took it seriously, and I still do. I was, and am, willing to die in the defense of my Constitution, without which there is no nation.

Once enlisted, I asked myself how I could best fulfill my Oath to support and defend the Constitution. I decided that my first step would be to find out what was stated in the document. After that, I still had some questions that needed clarification, so I read the concurrent writings of the Founders. It takes a lot of reading and research, but with a committed effort the meaning of the Constitution becomes very plain. I don't need a lawyer to explain it to me.

Human nature and the nature of government conspire to amass power and control, so freedom never lasts very long. Democracy-based societies have a cycle of about 200 years, and we are approaching the end of one of those cycles. The one thing that is required before the government lapses into tyranny is the disarming of the populace. The Founders knew this very well and insisted on the inclusion of a Bill of Rights to restrict the government from interfering with our Natural Rights. The Second Amendment specifies that the Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 'Experts' will say that no Right is absolute. I say it IS absolute. It is the one Right that has to stand, uninfringed, in order to preserve liberty as a last resort. Once we are disarmed, liberty is gone.

My warning to the enemies of the Constitution is this:

We will not wait to be disarmed before we resist. If you move the line behind where we now stand, we will not comply. If you send armed men to force compliance, we will defend ourselves and the Constitution. Naturally, we will then be at war with those who sent armed men against us.

For those who find that statement shocking, you should try reading what some of our nation's Founders wrote! I have already sent this message to my elected leaders. I pray to God they honor their own Oaths. We stand ready.

Stewart Rhodes said...

Thank you Corbinkale. I'll post your testimonial as its own stand-alone post.

If you have a photo you want to include with it, please email me. Up to you.

Also, if you would be willing to make a video statement, please let me know.

Anonymous said...

USAF - '73 - '94. Testimony sent via email.

Bottom line: I will fulfill the Oath! I will stand with everyone to fulfill their Oaths!

Anonymous said...

My name is David O'Connor, I live in Tulsa, Ok. Iam a 2 tour Viet Nam Vet and a Desert Shield/Storm vet I retired with 23 yrs 3 months as a Sgt First Class.I maybe retired Army but IAM ACTIVE DUTY AMERICAN,
WE WILL NOT OBEY orders contrary to our Constitution or our Republic.

O.K. said...

Mr. O'Connor, thank you! I will post your statement as a testimonial. If you have anything to add, please email me at stewart.rhodes@aya.yale.edu

What units were you in?

In fact, please do contact me regardless. I would like to speak with you.

Stewart Rhodes

Six said...

Thanks for putting my feelings into words and action Stewart.
Count me in.
I served in the National Guard and Army from '77 to '85. I'm an active police officer in California (though I will be retiring later this year). If it helps here is my confirmation of my oath.

I've given my sworn word to protect and defend the Constitution 3 times now. Once when I joined the Guard. Again when I went on active duty and the third time when I was sworn in as a Police Officer.
Each time was one of great pride for me. I took my oath very seriously. Every time I raised my right hand and gave my word I was humbled by the honor I was given to be one of this Nation's Guardians. Even more, I meant it. Each and every time.
They are not just words spoken out of necessity. They are a promise to all Americans that I, and those like me, will do all in our power to protect the freedoms set forth in that perfect document.
My oath is my bond and I will never, ever violate it. I take it very seriously.

Let me state it plainly:
I will never obey any order in violation of the Constitution and will resist the usurpation of power and enslavement of the American People with every ounce of strength I possess. No matter the consequences. I will be ever vigilant and zealous in my obedience to my oath and in protecting the rights of every American Citizen. I will actively work to ensure these rights for my decendants and the decendants of every American.

Though I am currently an actively serving officer, I am unafraid to post my name here. Fear of those consequences will never deter me from my duty to my Country.

So help me God.
Eric Stidham

Marvin Mathiak said...

I also am a strong supporter of the Constitution, protecting us citizens from governmental mischief to be polite about it, and limiting the power of the government.

The Constitution is not a flexible document intended to go with the flow of leftist politics. It is to be interpreted strictly as written, with all powers not strictly enumerated for the federal government being reserved for the States.

I served as a grunt Sgt with A 1/7, 1st Cav in Cambodia and Vietnam in 1970. I took the same oath you all took and still take it very seriously.

There is an organization just taking shape that wants to get the Constitution back into our government, strictly interpreted, limiting the power of the Federal government. It is GetAmericaRight. I strongly encourage everyone to take a look at it and use it to actively promote those political candidates that support the Constitution for the 2010 election. You can make your voice heard! Get active now!

Marvin said...

I forgot to add that the web site to look at and use is GetAmericaRight.org

Anonymous said...

4/11/09
Hello brothers,this just came in here in San Diego,CA It looks like Washington has heard of the Oath Keepers, more lie's coming from the anti American left wing communist.

Subject: SHOCKING New DHS Report!! Concerned Americans and activists are now Dangerous Right Wing Extremists!


FORWARD THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN!

Brand new confidential report from FBI and DHS dated April 7th and leaked by a DHS insider to Roger Hedgecock. YOU are now a dangerous terrorist according to the Obama Administration. Read this shocking report attached or at

http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/resources/HSA%20-%20Rightwing%20Extremism%20-%20Climate%20Fueling%20Radicalization%20and%20Recruitment,dated%207%20April%202009.pdf

Kudos to Roger for exposing this on his radio show yesterday and today. I had my friend at DHS view this document today and he believes it is real. If you thought the Missouri LE document was shocking, read this latest attack on freedom loving Americans out of Washington. Looks like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU are now writing Federal Intelligence reports full of La Raza and Mexican lies and propaganda.

FORWARD THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN!

J.D. Spielman said...

I took my first oath to defend the constitution of the United States in 1979 when I enlisted in the Army. I served as a Military Policeman. I took the oath three more times during my law enforcement career to include the oath I took for my current position as a Texas Peace Officer in Dallas, Texas. Alot has happened in 30 years. Back then I never would have dreamed of having a need for an organization like the "Oath Keepers" I see the need now and I am so happy that I have found fellow Soldiers and Peace Officers who feel as strongly as I do.

I truly wish that I could be on Lexington Green on April 19th and I will be there "in spirit"

WE WILL NOT OBEY ORDERS contrary to the US Constitution or Republic.

On Watch in Dallas, Texas

Anonymous said...

as a former marine 1977-81 i took the oath to protect the constitution and to this day still take my oath seriously. i am a business owner with a very comfortable life and have kept myself in top physical condition over the years as well as hone my shooting skills. i know what is at stake, i know that life can turn on dime and i know that if need be i will leave my comfortable life behind to defend our republic. i will always hope and pray for the best but will always be prepared for the worst

Ahab said...

This is the most awesome affirmation of faith in our people I've ever seen, "The Oathkeepers." I too took the oath, and several times over the course of a Naval career spanning four decades, and am a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, Submarine Service.

I learned of the Oathkeepers while posting on an internet forum for the Militia of Georgia. Often I'd posed the question to others there of the reaction of our armed forces pertaining to their attitudes on the U.S. Constitution. Would they fire on us if a rebellion began, could we fire on them? They are after all, our sons, nephews, neighbors kids, they're Americans in the Armed Forces of our nation. Then I read the "Orders We Will Not Obey," and I cheered.

Why do I comment here? This reason! Recently I came across a piece posted in another blog that gave me great pause. This from somebody on a militia forum calling himself “Slainte 114,” excerpts from his post:

"I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but do you really think that you can stand up to American military power? Seriously. Even if a full 25% of our service members refused to follow orders, all the militia groups in the country could not hope to mount any kind of defense."

"And that 25% number is being extremely generous. I seriously doubt that even 5% would refuse to follow orders if it really came down to it. I know I wouldn't. I'll be re-entering the armed forces soon, and I can tell you without a doubt that if ordered to do so, I would absolutely fire on American citizens involved in an armed uprising against our government. No question about it, I would not hesitate."

"What would I do now as a service member confronted by an armed uprising against the "tyrannical" government? I'd shoot you. Why? That's easy. Even if you're right, you'd lose against the American military power. And when it comes down to it, I'm going to be on the winning side."

"I love America. I love it's people. I love my government. I may not always agree with it, but I love it. I'd kill for it. I'd die for it."

This truly took me aback. I would hope and pray what he says is just some idiot shooting off his mouth. Notice he says he loves his government, would kill for it, die for it. Not loves the U.S. Constitution; but, his government. How many of our troops do you think believe in the concept of the Oathkeepers, would not obey unlawful orders to disarm or fire upon U.S. citizens? God, I hope all of them would not obey; but, here's one that would shoot because he wants to be on the winning side.