Unit History

Our unit initially began in 1994 as the Kentucky Riflemen Militia. The original public meeting had so many people show up we could not fit the cars in the parking lot and had to have a second meeting later that evening. This was followed up by a FTX, [field training exercise] 2 weeks thereafter. A second public meeting was held in a month later, having a big turnout also. From then on we had monthly FTX's and regular classroom meetings. Membership was in the hundreds. Being Militia was popular and trendy, but that all changed on April, 19, 1995 at a place called ! Up until that time, the national militia was rolling along at a steamroller pace, but did not anticipate something like what happened. This was used by the Powers That BE to demonize the movement, and perhaps half of the membership here and elsewhere left. We tactically assembled at a rally Pointe in , because it looked and sounded like we might come under attack. I think it shook a lot of people up when we were able to send out the call, including on local radio stations and muster so quickly. The attack on us did not come about, but we discussed all the options and decided, [wrongly] to announce disbandment. Of course this didn’t happen and we began meeting and training shortly thereafter. Political and religious differences fractured the group about a year later and training/ meeting/ recruiting slowly declined. Still, our core group continually made preparations, albeit at a slower pace.

We were involved in many operations in the 1990's, mainly PSYOPS, the most noteworthy was when we infiltrated the radical gun banning group, and the Ky. chapter of Handgun Control, Inc [Sarah Bradley’s people] .Two of our members was assigned to run their booth at the Ky. State fair, where we promptly turned it into a militia recruiting booth. A later newspaper article credited that operation as what convinced all their membership to quit. We also attended a meeting of the socialist America 2000 group in uniform, armed with cameras. Can you believe that over half the attendees did NOT come back from the break? By far the most significant was our leadership role in the Knob Creek Declaration of 1996. The Montana Freemen were under siege and it was feared, since armored vehicles [BRADLEYS] had been deployed to the area, that a similar fate would befall the Freeman as happened at . A document was drawn up by reps from states all across , a conditional declaration of war so that the FBI knew there was a clear line in the sand. This document, while not endorsing the Freemans ideas, was presented simultaneously to FBI offices in 20 states, 4 different time zones. This unified resolve is probably what kept these people alive. They later gave up peacefully, but were screwed by the .Gov in court later. Still, nobody burned to death.

During this time we also attended several functions held for networking between groups in , , and . Several were held by the great Charlie Puckett, founder of the larger Kentucky State Militia, who originally attended some of our meetings/FTX's. Charles Puckett was set up on some bogus charges with postdefacto penalties, raided and an armed standoff occurred near his home in Nicholasville. Nobody gave the order to or took the initiative to shoot, because all thought it would be straightened out fairly easy. Puckett went to jail, this was in 2001 and that militia subsided, at least partly because of it. This unconstitutional attack also took the wind out of the sails nationally, as Charlie Puckett was admired and really the closest thing to a national leader out there. During this time, we the KRM were lying low, and not recruiting any new members. Still the core group persisted. The ATF had tried to get us to become involved in some illegal acts, {i.e. buying grenades, law rockets and taking out a bridge] but we were smart enough not to bite his bait! [This was earlier, 1995, 96] Later our acting Commander a veteran Louisville Police officer was investigated for his involvement with our group and we were vindicated of any hints of racism, being a hate group and even the Louisville Courier Journal reported this. Lots of equipping and some training continued, but inactivity, jobs, careers, children and other interests kept the core group from doing much for several years.

With concern over Bush's police state, the unPatroit Act and Obama's socialist agenda, it has become clear that Americans, at least a portion are becoming fed up and have had enough of "government gone wild", so we, the core group decide it was time to again rise up to confront the threats to Freedom and the American way of life and become active again. Many of the older members just sort of came across each other, seemingly verifying that now is the time. We became public again at the first Louisville Tea party, had a reorganization meeting in June and adopted the name of The Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters, since we had membership on both sides of the river. We attended and recruited at the next Tea party, the Open carry church gun service in and most importantly, face to face, one at a time. We have made up both pamphlets, and a DVD for info/recruiting purposes, and are working on our website. Some of our public appearances have netted us some neutral press, even being mentioned in the New York Times, as well as several local papers. During this year, we have networked with several other Militias in neighboring states, who are growing just as we are. We have had several qualities FTX's this year and will continue to do so, as well as indoor table top meetings. We plan on becoming better organized, better trained more professional and much larger in the near future!