Aug 3/4 Training Weekend AAR # 3

Welcome to the 360 Degree Range. Uniforms aren’t an assumption. Fights are chaotic, fast and in your face. In 4th generation warfare a small unit is your best hope of success and survival. To that, a fire-team is the foundation of the fighting unit and of maneuver warfare.

We don’t have to draw up a “Road Warrior” scenario to make the point that, someday, you’ll have to secure a perimeter or track down a band of marauders. You need to learn how.

Because they’re selected and trained as cadre team-builders, SF guys tend to make excellent teachers. Max is true to form, with a focused and well-paced delivery that will connect with beginner and military veteran alike.  You WILL learn. (Note: SF (Special Forces) is a U.S. Military Unit, which I was never in – it’s a terminology thing,  but just to be clear).

The instruction alternates between short classes at the white board and staging for and executing the drills. The drills were scenario-based; a nice touch. I really got the sense that Max had so much more he wanted to teach, and this class could have been a week long and remained engaging.

As with every firearms course the first order of business was the safety brief. However, live-fire team drills are obviously more hazardous. Max instructed we’d be moving muzzles down and safeties-on. Turns out that everyone was proficient and cautious.

The course has no stated pre-requisites. However, I really recommend at least a Fighting Carbine course. That is where you’ll learn to run your rifle, perform magazine-changes and immediate action (for malfunctions), and move and transition. Also, that’s where you’ll shake out most of your basic gear issues. 

Summary: Attend this class. There are few instructors teaching fire-team movement to civilians. You will learn the basics of patrolling and learn to perceive yourself as part of a whole. Max teaches this remarkably well, and takes you through “what to do” right to the doorstep of “how to think”.  Which wins fights. 

Brian

USMC