First Earth Battalion

The First Earth Battalion was the name proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, a U.S. soldier who had served in Vietnam, for his idea of a new military of supersoldiers to be organized along New Age lines.

According to the book The Men Who Stare at Goats by journalist Jon Ronson, Channon spent time in the 1970s with many of the people in California credited with starting the Human Potential Movement, and subsequently wrote an operations manual for a First Earth Battalion.

Channon imagined a new battlefield uniform that would include pouches for ginseng regulators, divining tools, foodstuffs to enhance night vision, and a loudspeaker that would automatically emit "indigenous music and words of peace.

[4] He also proposed as a guiding principle that members of the First Earth Battalion seek nondestructive methods of conflict resolution because their first loyalty is to the planet.

[6] According to the book Mind Wars by Ronald McRae, each member of the First Earth Battalion would be sworn to uphold a credo of "high commandos and guerrilla gurus":

First Earth Battalion Field Manual