Approximately 200 people — many of which are former military and law enforcement officials — have already enlisted in the volunteer groups, with the largest contingent in Arizona. The group even has a licensed pilot who intends to use his private aircraft to help monitor the drills.
The effort was organized by former Marine Pete Lanteri, 44, who currently resides in Arizona.
"We're going to be watching what they do in the public," Lanteri told the Houston Chronicle. "Obviously on a military base they can do whatever they want. But if they're going to train on public land we have a right as American citizens to watch what they're doing."
The seven state surveillance operation will be coordinated from Lanteri’s home in Arizona, where an intelligence staff, including former Army intelligence workers, will work to review and verify information before releasing it to the public through the group’s website and Facebook page.
Lanteri will oversee the operation as a whole, while others have been appointed to lead state efforts, and others will lead the efforts for individual towns.
While Jade Helm has become a battle cry for concerned Southwesterners who believe the United States is gearing up to impose martial law and throw everyone in FEMA concentration camps, Lanteri insists himself and his group are not conspiracy theorists.
"Once I saw the freaking nut-jobs coming out of the woodwork I was spending half my day discrediting what they were posting," he said. "No nut-jobs will be put in the field."
"This training exercise will go mostly unnoticed; not interfere with private citizens and not violate their privacy and rights. It will not disrupt their economies or livelihoods. State and local officials will receive updates as the exercise progresses and they are equally committed to ensuring the training occurs smoothly," Army Special Operations wrote in a statement about the operation.
There will be approximately 1,200 troops involved in the Jade Helm training drills and they will last for two months across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.
Most of the exercises will take place on private property, and soldiers will be in uniform or wearing orange arm bands and will reportedly not be moving through the population attempting to go undetected.
Eric Johnston, a 51-year-old retired firefighter and sheriff's deputy, will be leading the surveillance team for Texas and monitoring the operation when it kicks off in Bastrop, Big Spring and Junction on the 15th.
"If a team member sees two Humvees full of soldiers driving through town, they're going to follow them," Johnston said. "And they're going to radio back their ultimate location."
According to polls, approximately half of the residents of Texas are concerned about the drills. The concern is so high in fact, that the governor was forced to announce that he ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the troops.
