I have always seen my first patrol just South-East of the Corvega plant. The old store that always has a random fight whenever you get near. I clear out Corvega, get Tenpines to join, then start heading south again. So, I only have Sanctuary and Tenpines. These people are not from either one. And the patrol acts like this is all business as usual - very casual about meeting me. Now, according to Preston there were several Minutemen groups that did not respond to Quincy. Preston is the lone survivor of the one group that did respond. So, yes, like MoralMinority said, there are people that are/were Minutemen. But how are they getting organized so early and why do they agree that I am the new General? They have their own colonels in charge of these groups. Preston was a lower rank then colonel. I think a lieutenant. So why do these guys listen to Preston or me? Too big of a plot hole for me. I forgot about meeting the Minutemen at the castle. They could have put something in the game to explain the castle. Preston is able to contact some of them and they agree to help. Just a short sound clip from Preston could explain it. Contact them how? I do not know. Just like I do not know how he is getting all the info for the radiant quests. The whole Minutemen quest line is just too fluxed up for me. With just a little more careful planning they could have made it make sense. EDIT: I just realized something and have edited my original post. The location that I see the Minutemen near Corvega that I mentioned above is a random encounter spot. So, when I see my first Minutemen, they are not really a patrol. They have been added to the random encounter spawn list. Whatever the correct words are. I see these Minutemen fighting some other random enemies because they have been added to the list of possible spawns. I will keep track this time of when I see my first actual patrol.