2 Reviews: HEAT 1 Combat Tactics, HEAT 2 Combat Patrol: Jason
HEAT 1 (SEP 5-8 2024)
I attended HEAT 1 in September, after having had another tactical course with different instruction in PA cancelled due to extenuating circumstances. I did not know about MVT, but the location and price were right, so I opted to sign up for the class. Initially, I was quite worried about the physical fitness requirement. I am 40 years old, a little overweight, and only trained a few days a week. I setup the MVT physical fitness test in my back yard, got on my full battle rattle, and got to doing windsprints. I was pleased to find I could make the goal of 6 minutes with a good bit of time to spare. I also learned that if you cinch down your plate carrier you can’t breathe when you are sucking wind! It turns out the training was well worth it, and necessary, in-order-to safely handle move-and-shoot exercises in the class. I was also surprised to see there were students of all ages (25-65) all able to succeed at various levels of fitness. Do exercise before you attend class, but don’t psych yourself out of an excellent training experience because you think you need to be fit as an operator.
The first two days of class are on the flat range and begin with firearm handling and safety. Safety starts from the moment you are on the range till you leave for the day and is a major focus of MVT. We were taught how to zero our rifles, standling/kneeling/prone shooting positions, and a series of great practical exercises on firearm malfunctions. I learned how to force common malfunctions and intend to practice these skills more at my home range. On the second Day the focus begins to shift to the fundamentals of “move and shoot”. First you learn to move and shoot “in contact” as an individual, then later as a two man “buddy pair”. This leap-frogging technique is the fundamental technique used throughout the remainder of the course. It requires good, loud, communications between the team members and a strong focus on situational awareness.
Day 3 and 4 leave the flat range for the deep woods and hollows of West Virginia. The terrain is hilly, aggressive and exhausting, but much more realistic than a square range, and a valuable training aid in its own right. On Day 3 we worked primarily in buddy pairs, assaulting to/through the targets, as well as learning “break contact” drills for when disengaging the enemy was called for. We shot at pop-up “Ivan” targets, which were reactive to your shots, and provided a great positive feedback of successful hits. That said, don’t get “lost in the target”, as I have/had done and lose focus of the movement and communication! Day 4 increased the complexity further by increasing the live fire to a team of four; an alpha and a bravo team buddy pair. Moving as a team pair and advancing to, and withdrawing from, enemy (target) contact adds a great degree of complexity and coordination to the exercise. The capstone exercise was a complex “break contact” and “peel” maneuver that was physically demanding, but really fun.
My buddy partner, teammates, and fellow students all had differing levels of experience and expertise with firearms. That said, everyone was professional, safe, and attentive. The MVT instructors instruct and actively enforce safety protocols and procedures throughout the class. I felt very safe during the extent of the class with the active oversight of the MVT instructors, constantly over the students’ shoulder, ensuring trigger discipline, safety angles, patrol ready holds, etc. With safety firmly under control, I was able to spend my time learning and building skills with my teammates.
I feel like I was introduced to a set of tools in the HEAT 1 class that make me a much more well-rounded marksman. Now that I have these tools, however, I want to learn to employ them so I intend on taking the HEAT 2 class at earliest availability.
HEAT 2 (Oct 10-13 2024)
I attended HEAT2 in October, a month after attending the HEAT 1 class. I’m glad that I was able to attend the follow-on class so quickly as I had kept the weapons handling and move-and-shoot exercises fresh in mind. Had I gone a year since attending a class, I’m certain that I would have had a steeper learning curve on day 1.
On Day 1, there were two cancellations, so the typical class size of 12 students was reduced to 10. This resulted in “uneven” buddy pairs, which meant that someone on each of the five-man teams would act as the “team leader”. I opted for this role on my team. My team was comprised of former students who had attended one prior class (HEAT 1) at or more than 1 year in the past. The other team was an entire visiting group that train together and had attended multiple classes (including HEAT 2s). While my team had less experience than the other team, I quickly developed a rapport and trust with my team and we confidently executed all training exercises in a safe and productive manner. Day 1 morning consisted of classroom training on Combat patrol theory. We discussed the principles, posture, and mindset of Combat patrol, as well as combat orders/estimate, types of patrols (recce and combat), and the patrol sequence. Breaking from the classroom content for the afternoon, we performed some “assault through” and “break-contact” drills (same as those of day 4 HEAT 1) as a refresher. As team leader, I shot less than my teammates, but had the responsibility of ensuring communications and momentum. I was able to get my head out of the targets and learn a lot from the increased focus on situational awareness. As with the first course, reactive pop-up “Ivan” targets were employed to add to the realism of the simulations.
Day 2 was reconnaissance day, starting with morning classroom instruction on equipment, theory, and a boatload of tips and hints (including TTPs) to a good recce patrol. In the afternoon we were back to live-fire drills not directly related to recon, including break-contact and a box peel from an L-shaped enemy ambush. At around mid-afternoon we returned to the classroom to get our recon orders for the night segment. Given a map of the objective, our team developed a hidden avenue of approach, up the steep terrain, hidden behind the ridges and into position behind the objective in an OP till nightfall. At nightfall we would send out close recce teams to gather applicable intel. Our plan nearly survived first contact, but we quickly had to reconsider avenue approach when the terrain presented too steep to climb! We had a great night and were done by around 10:00PM, gathering up for the AAR before leaving for the hotels.
Day 3 was Ambush day, where we spent the morning learning theory behind “linear ambush” and did tabletop instruction on how to properly occupy, set and spring and ambush. Having learned the skills, we did live fire Ambushes during the late morning and throughout the afternoon. I was “on-line” and firing more this day and learned a lot about shooting prone from/over a berm. Ambushes are ammunition intensive and it was a good opportunity to put my new rifle through the paces.
Day 4 was Assault day, where we executed both a hasty attack and a raid as a complete 10-person squad. Each of these assaults comprised a “support by fire” team and an “assault” team, which were often leapfrogging and/or taking flanking positions. In particular, the final raid was a complex scenario resulting in the support and assault teams trading roles mid-assault in an intensive, and physically demanding exercise. For those of you familiar, the assault team takes a flanking position to the enemy and assaults through the support team cone of fire. This is where the MVT instructors shine, providing a safe and effective system of fire/fire redirection/cease fire to allow for a highly realistic, yet safe, simulation of a true assault. At no point during this or any other exercise did I feel unsafe in the scenario or amongst the members of my team.
I had expected that HEAT 2 would be my capstone class and that that I would be “good” on tactical training for the foreseeable future. I was wrong. I learned this time through that understanding and mastering small unit tactics are very different objectives, and that to master the skill it will require continued training and refinement. I now understand why the other team has returned to 6-7 classes with MVT and plan to attend minimally on a yearly basis the HEAT 1 and/or HEAT 2 in order to retain the skill. Being 40 years old, I was originally concerned these skills were out of reach at my age, but as exemplified by my 50, 60+ year old team mates, there is clearly much to be learned if you are in modest shape and committed to learn.