AAR: Rifle Manipulation Primer (RMP) 2 May – CG

Corporate Guy (CG) from Carolina

AAR – Rifle Manipulation Course (RMP) – 2 May, 2014

As an aspiring new MVT student, I read many of the AAR’s posted on this site over the months leading up to the Combat Rifle / Contact Drills course (CRCD) I had signed up for.  It occurred to me while reading them that context matters.  Meaning, understanding something about the writer’s background is potentially useful in determining how applicable the comment may be to the reader.

So by way of introduction – I am a 52 year old ex medical service corps officer.  Since leaving the Army I have spent the last twenty plus years representing the interests of large companies and managing their interaction with various regulatory agencies at the state and federal level.  My battles are routinely fought with a pencil, my voice and occasionally thinly veiled sarcasm.

The point is – I run a desk for a living, not an AR.  My experience with a carbine prior to CRCD was limited to basic weapons qualification exercises thirty years ago as an ROTC student, and more recently (Q1 2013), Chris Costa’s Carbine Manipulation course.  Like many, my schedule is charitably “complicated”, and while my rifle does not ever collect dust, if I get to exercise it more than once every 6 -8 weeks or so it’s a good month!  If any of this resonates with you I encourage you to read on.

I recently attended the 3-4 May, 2014 CRCD course and will post something about that experience shortly.  In addition, interest and schedule flexibility led me to sign up for the Combat Lifesaver course (TC3) recently added to the MVT training schedule.   As the TC3 course evolved into a half-day program, I found myself somewhat unintentionally a student in the Rifle Manipulation Primer class (RMP) as well.  To be completely transparent, I would likely have not signed up for the RMP class had I not been planning to be on site that morning anyway for the TC3 class.

In hind site  – this was POOR JUDGEMENT on my part.

I assume you have read the class description for RMP and I will not regurgitate that detail in this AAR.  It plays as described.  However, I would encourage you to not let your schedule or ego convince you to take a pass on RMP.  It is not my intent to preach but there are very good reasons to attend the RMP class that I would encourage you to consider.

First.  The odds are high that you have signed up for (or are thinking about signing up for) the CRCD class.  CRCD ultimately represents a significant investment in terms of dollars, time and emotion.  As a business guy I tend to think in terms of a return on investment.  You obviously want to get as much as possible out of CRCD in terms of training value.  RMP represents a valuable opportunity to protect the investment you are making.

Speaking for myself I was a bit anxious about CRCD.  RMP gave me an opportunity to shake off the cobwebs and build some confidence ahead of CRCD.  The class gave me a chance to confirm that my rifle, ammunition and assorted other gear were going to function as required the next morning when CRCD started. These are very tangible benefits that will help to make the start of your CRCD class as productive as possible.  There is enough to absorb that first morning of CRCD without having additional stress thrown in unnecessarily.  While reluctant to speak for my classmates, by mid morning of the first day of CRCD, this perspective appeared to be shared by both those that attended RMP, and importantly by those that did not attend RMP.

Second.  The instructor – Aaron.  Value added all the way around.  Aaron is quietly confident and well experienced in a manner that can only be developed from exposure to the real world.  As important to the potential student, Aaron has a genuine passion for teaching and sharing his knowledge.  Not just getting through the material but making sure the student absorbs the material.

As noted above, I had recently taken a Carbine class.  To be fair, I enjoyed the class.  The two classes were different in lots of ways (intent, length, content ect ) but overlapped a bit as well.  As an example, both classes provided a block of instruction focused on clearing weapons stoppages. It did not really occur to me until I was sitting in the Kool Wink motel the night after RMP but I got more out of the RMP class on clearing stoppages than I did in the carbine class I took. The thing is – I actually walked away from RMP confident I could clear a weapons stoppage.  Some of that was no doubt due to class size (12 max in RMP versus 20 +/- in the carbine course).    However, I think the fact that I walked away with the knowledge and confidence that I could clear a stoppage reliably; I would largely credit to the quality of the instruction (and if he happens to read this – its Tuesday AM and I can still clear all five).

Do yourself a favor.  Make the time.

CG from Carolina