Ex-US air force specialist with Christian nationalist ties leads combat trainings

Michael Caughran's history raises questions about extent to which his far-right and survivalist activities overlapped with his enlistment

A former US air force survival expert with militia and Christian nationalist connections is running survival and live-fire combat trainings in remote locations throughout the Pacific north-west, boasting on his website that the training incorporates trained law enforcement officers, church security" operatives, and current and former US military members.

Michael Patrick Caughran's new training business, American Reconstruction Concepts (ARC) shows organizational and personnel continuities with an earlier organization that explicitly offered biblical training on war" to young people. That organization, Team Rugged, was directly connected with both a neo-Confederate pastor and a former Washington state legislator who has advocated for Christian nationalism, who a state house investigation found to have participated in domestic terrorism".