Several years ago I was taking part in a bass tournament in southern Florida and we were surprised to see two well-equipped bass boats approaching us at high speed. Pulling a quick maneuver they shot by our boat and threw a sheet of water over us. I sat there dumbfounded at what had just sped by us. The bass fishing machines were not colored in the usual gaudy colors and no fishing rods were to be seen in the boats. They were painted in a dull camouflage pattern and mounted on the bow of each boat was a 30-caliber machine gun manned by a gunner who was also dressed in camo.

“What in the H—- was that,” I asked my companion who hailed from a local bass club. “That’s just some of our local friends showing off their toys, he replied. Their mounted machine gun is a legal, semi-automatic version of the old familiar Browning gun and these guys are part of a para-military group that fancies themselves as being a Red Neck Navy. Their group of ground troops is probably hidden back there in the swamp laughing at us right now.”

I’d never thought of it before but a bass boat could really be transformed very easily into a formidable fighting machine somewhat smaller but reminiscent of the swift boats that were used in the war in Vietnam. If a bass boat could be outfitted with modern weaponry that could drop a deadly barrage of .30 caliber ammo from one of those “mini-guns” along with a few well placed grenades fired from a compact launcher, these boats would indeed be a force to be reckoned with. It would only need a pilot to drive the boat and one gunner to man the weaponry. If fired upon, the foam filled fiberglass hull of the boat would absorb a lot of enemy fire and still keep going as long as nothing crippled the outboard motor and the sailors manning the controls and guns were not disabled.

No wonder our U.S. Coast Guard favors requiring that all U.S. Registered watercraft be equipped with transponders (like the airplanes have) to keep them aware of the whereabouts of all our boats at all times. I can’t imagine how many bass boats are here in America these days and there are other boats that are even more suited to being converted to defensive weapons if our country needed them. If you think that a bass boat is fast and maneuverable think what one of those heavy aluminum jet drive boats such as guides use up in Alaska could do. Those boats can operate in inches of boulder-strewn water and are capable of carrying some pretty heavy loads.

If fishermen could become a civilian navy, how effective do you think an “army” of American hunters would be?

During the earlier days of WWII, Japan’s highest-ranked naval officer, Isoruku Yamamoto, when questioned about the possibility of Japan’s invading the United States was quoted as saying,” You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” Admiral Yamomoto was educated at Harvard University and was well aware of our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. He was also aware of how many experienced outdoorsmen and hunters there were in this country and what kind of a guerrilla force these Americans could become if called upon to defend our nation against a potential invader.

Think about this for a minute. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission reports that during the 2009-2010 hunting year North Carolina has 245,650 licensed hunters in the state. Figures aren’t available as to how many unlicensed recreational shooters there are in our state, That in itself constitutes a huge number of citizens who obviously are armed, well trained in the safe and efficient use of guns and very adept at stealth in the woods.

Read more of Fred Bonner’s Outdoor Column online at www.fuquay-varinaindependent.com. The number of hunters in North Carolina is small when compared to some other states. Our numbers pale in comparison to the 750,000 who are in the woods of Pennsylvania. Michigan is reported to have 700,000 hunters in the fields every year and a 250,000 hunters (close to the number here in North Carolina) are in West Virginia. A somewhat conservative estimate of the total number of hunters in America today is 23 million.

If you should even cut that estimated total number of licensed hunters in the United States by half, and that number of hunters should become a volunteer guerilla army of volunteers to fight off some invader, we would still be looking a the largest army in the world. This isn’t even considering the numbers of our standing military and National Guard (The Army and Air National Guard combined is approximately 12,000 personnel in N.C. ).

Americans fought the British by similar means during the Revolutionary War. The Redcoats were bewildered by these “uncivilized” colonist who fought from behind trees refusing to even form-up in the battle lines with which the British troops were familiar. The Colonial Army of General Washington was composed of farmers, woodsmen, fishermen and workers who fought for a common cause under the leadership of the future President of the United States. Seldom wearing even a common uniform, these early Americans were familiar with the land and waters and fought a guerrilla war against the oppressor. We won! They lost.

This imaginary so-called local volunteer military composed of hunters and fishermen is not some outlaw para-military group. It would be composed of expert woodsmen who’d be fighting a common enemy after all other military forces have failed.

With the Second Amendment to our Constitution guaranteeing our citizen’s right to individually keep and bear arms, America is one of the few countries in the world with the capability to defend our borders if the occasion should ever arise. Let’s hope that this never happens.