Not a lot of people know that SSD finds its roots in a website launched in 1997 called ‘Gear Guru – Equipment Resources for the Armed Professional’. Since then I’ve written a few times for print publications, but beginning in 2008 my main focus has been SSD. I’ve never written for any of the other blogs. Additionally, despite rumors to the contrary, SSD has not been purchased by another website. Those rumors were caused by an unfortunate incident with a badge at SHOT show.
Gear Guru’s landing page contained a few simple tidbits of wisdom I had assembled as well as links to the various content pages. Everything was categorized on individual pages and all of it was created in html and very time consuming. Undoubtedly, everyone’s favorite was the Links page. Thank goodness for WordPress which I use now and makes this easy.
Here’s the full words of wisdom list. I think it’s just as poignant today as when I originally published it almost 15 years ago. Maybe you can use some of it.
-LIFE IS HARD…ITS HARDER WHEN YOU’RE STUPID
-IF ITS STUPID BUT IT WORKS…IT ISN’T STUPID
-NEVER BRING A KNIFE TO A GUN FIGHT (LAW OF GROSS WEIGHT AND HEAVY CALIBER)
-NEVER FIGHT FAIR
-THINK WAR
-DENY EVERYTHING…ADMIT NOTHING…MAKE COUNTER ACCUSATIONS
-EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
-THERE IS NO SECOND PLACE IN A GUN FIGHT-WINNERS KILL, LOSERS GET KILLED, FIGHT TO WIN- TRAIN TO LIVE
-NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A THREAT
-YOU FIGHT AS YOU TRAIN
-LEARN IT RIGHT AND YOU’LL DO IT RIGHT THE REST OF YOUR LIFE LEARN IT WRONG AND SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT
-A WARRIOR IS HARD FROM THE INSIDE OUT
-FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WIN THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIME TO TRAIN
-AGGRESSIVELY SEEK ANY KNOWLEDGE WHICH WILL ASSURE MISSION ACCOMPLISHMENT AND MAKE YOU A SURVIVOR AND A WINNER
-IT TAKES A SHOOTER TO LEAD A SHOOTER
-USE A SIMPLE TEMPLATE WHEN DECIDING THE VALUE OF SOMETHING EVERYTHING EITHER HAS TACTICAL VALUE OR IT DOES NOT
-ACTIVELY SEEK NEW TTPs AND EQUIPMENT THAT COULD MAKE YOUR UNIT MORE CAPABLE IN COMBAT
-EVERY DAY, ASK YOURSELF, “WHAT HAVE I DONE FOR MY UNIT?”
-BE SNEAKY, STEALTHY, AND DO THE UNEXPECTED WITHOUT BEING DETECTED
-FRONT SIGHT….FRONT SIGHT….BY GOD, FRONT SIGHT
-DON’T CONFUSE ENTHUSIASM WITH CAPABILITY
These Words of Wisdom Have Been Gleaned From a Variety of Sources.
Thanks to all of you who have taught me so much over the years.
Looking for a copy of Lobo’s Laws to add to the list. Can anyone help?
Tags: Gear Guru
Copied and posted with credit given. Thanks
I loved that website. What happened to it?
It had to “go away” due to an assignment. I never revived it. Eventually, I moved on to create SSD.
Very cool! Congratulations on making SSD a great site with a wealth of information. I hope The Gear Locker can be this good some day.
Gear Guru was stared in 1997. I still own the URL but it isn’t going to come back. I had to evolve. Just keep at it and you’ll gain a bigger and bigger following.
I used to frequent Gear Guru all the time and was sad to see it go. But when you announced the beginning of SSD I was glad to see a new site for info.
Sorry there was such a long break between the two. I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Do you mind if I borrow the words of wisdom to use at work? I teach down here at OCS at Benning and they would be great to help mold these young LT candidates.
If you think any of it is useful, use it. I used to use them individually on monthly counselings as an NCO and officer.
Thanks.
No wonder this is such a good site, there is actually some smarts under the brain bucket!
“This site was shut down due to the efforts of the Axis of Evil.”
Yeah, nice one huh?
It used to say, “The world was my drop zone until I was assigned to Special Tactics”
SSD has a value that may not be realized until a person finds them self deployed forward with little time to spend on Facebook, Google or even company websites. This is a little slice of escape if you have five minutes, you can see new KIT, new happenings, actual news that is Warrior focused. You feel that your current and up to date even serving in dark corners. Many times the only news that was encouraging is some new piece of gear that is pictured and written about by an actual end user.
Military morale ” esprit de corps”, may come from a hot meal, mail call a Platoon run or yes ,the ability to quickly scroll through the new and hot gear to talk about it with your buds. If there was an audit trail that could tether the amount of quality KIT ordered by Military Servicemen deployed all over the world, directly after seeing it posted on SSD it would cause a back log of companies to wait in line to advertise here. This site is known for, no slant, no favorites, just honest posting by a man that knows gear as good as any I know.
Great rules: one of the best is, without a doubt, “If it stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.” Though truthfully there are so many good quotes on there it’s hard to pick the best one out.
“If you did it and lived, you probably did it right.”
Based on my life in industry I’ve learned at least one additional truth.
“You can’t buy legitimacy”
That’s funny. I hear you were wearing a military.com badge at SHOT Show and that they bought you out. I’m also hearing that is why they fired everybody at kit up, so you could take it over. Guess somebody did buy some legitimacy.
That’s the trouble with listening to rumors. There’s often a modicum of truth behind them but overall they are wrong.
Someone did wear a press badge at SHOT Show that was labeled “SoldierSystems/Military.com” he is a guy who writes for KitUp as well as Tactical Fanboy.
We haven’t been bought by anybody. It seems that KitUp is going through some personnel changes but that’s something for them to comment on.
i remember that site well 🙂