Combat Patrol 18-20 Jan 2014 AAR #1 – F
Just got done with Max’s Patrol Class, what a way to spend a 3 day weekend!!!
His attempt to make a concentrated Infantry curriculum that builds on the CRCD class was highly successful IMO.
First off, It….. was….. COLD.
Yes 19F doesn’t sound as cold as some other weathers we’ve all been in but remember here we are not just crossing a parking lot to get into the office we were outside all day for 2 days and at the end the it was a full day AND a night and then the rest of the next day until 1630.
When you add that most of us tried to dress light enough so we could still move fast and low and that it we sat still on our chairs during the (outdoors) classroom session, then you realize it was COLD.
We had 9 students so we were enough for a full squad and this enabled us to fully exercise flanking and fire support elements, more on this later down in this review.
One of the first things we did after Max taught/reviewed Small Unit Tactics on the Squad/Platoon level was a flanking live-fire Squad attack against a fixed position (“Bunker”). In other words we basically picked up where CRCD left off which is perfect IMO.
This served to reinforce the lessons learned at earlier classes and also to switch us on.
As a group it took us a couple of hours to hit our stride and get “into the game” so to speak, because the cold served as a training distractor IMO.
Early on we performed Squad level patrols in difficult terrain and honed our ability to act as part of a squad/fire team on the move, going into the Herring bone formation or diamond formation at the halt, hand signals etc etc.
We learned and then practiced, setting up a lay-up patrol base including the security elements inherent and so on.
Those without military experience were introduced to some new concepts/applications and those with ground forces experience got some much needed refresher training.
One of our highlights was when we sent out 4 man Nighttime Recon patrols made up of students. This were based on the scenario in a logical way and included night time land navigation with maps that Max provided. This was a real good student led exercise which honed our skills showed us what we can do and what we cant do (yet).
We exercised our terrain association, capabilities and limitations of night vision equipment , we (re)learned how the night turns a easy mission into a challenging one and how to integrate the strengths of individual team members.
On the Recce I was blessed with a mature, attentive and well equipped Fireteam …. this allowed us to successfully complete our mission, get the needed Intel while avoiding detection and injury…. all while traversing challenging terrain at night.
Our overnight stay in the patrol lay up was very chilly since we were trying to keep our signature low (it was a patrol lay up site NOT a bivouac ! ) so we were not in tents but just under tarps, And the 19 F wind how all thru our tarps.
When I went to my Sentry Duty shift I was wrapped in my Poncho liner,.. (brrrr)
This Infantry weather added a lot of realism.
The ambush training event was also a high payoff exercise.
Learning how to lay a professional ambush was also included and this is an event that deserves all of our attention.
Our capstone event was on Day 3, after a chilly night of very little sleep, we marched up some hills and down some hills on a part of the facility we had never seen before and conducted a raid
We had been briefed on our objective: a location were elements of the (exercise notional) NT14 death squad, were laid up to rest from (also exercise notional) reprisal and terror operations against the areas patriot towns in the service of notional rogue agencies..
We split up into an assault and fire support element.. The fire support element laid down suppressive live- fire, and lifted/shifted fire when we, the assault team moved in.
As soon as the suppressive fire started , we the assault element raced up a dry creekbed (dead ground) , while the rounds were zipping into our objective.
A flare signalled the fire support team to lift and shift fire and the assault team sprung up from the creekbed and overran the objective all while pumping live rounds into the generously supplied “enemy” targets.
I have not been this this exhausted for a long time as when I was hitting the limit of the objective and bounding back.
I would say to Max who designed this course, this training is the real deal, Mission accomplished!
F…
F, great AAR. On the night RECCE, what kind of load out did you have? Assault pack with extra ammo and water? NODs too? Was squad leader navigating? Did you use crampons this time?
D – The prescribed load out for the night recce was your basic fighing load only so just the LBE and no ruck not even a patrol pack.
(one member did wear his patrol pack I think becauyse he wanted the extra workout)
We had one pair of NODS and a FLIR between us.
The Fire team leader (me) was navigating, which is doctrinally correct IMO.
I did also do the pace count which is not doctrinally correct for my position but I still remembered my old pace count. ..
but as expected I was a little off due to the difficult terrain .
None of us had crampons and they were not neccessary.
so the guy with the personal PVS 14 walked point.
Both team members with night vision liberally passed them around to give everyone on the team the training experience.
Ask away as much as you like i will gladly answer : )
Thanks for the reply. How’d you handle comms? If the recce element made contact, or sentries at the PB? I’m guessing you weren’t using wire.
When training on an exercise I believe it is always important to follow the scenario and its implications on your decision making.
So in this scenario we were reconning the objective to prepare for a strike to wipe out the deathsquad the next day.. so not alerting the prey was paramount.
In a conventional force-on-force fight the OPFOR knows enemy is around but the OPFOR did not know of our presence as far as our best information indicated.
So Radios could not be used as gov’t technical support (DF etc) for the deathsquad could not be precluded, and alerting them to our presence would have been toxic to the mission.
(Information was carried back old school on foot and via a brief back.)
if the recce team HAD been contacted the loss of information due to them not using a radio would have been inopportune but not mission critical since our original reason (the attack the next morning) why we wanted the information would have gone away anyway.
If the recce team had been contacted the Op would have to be called off IMHO as the Recce team presented half our strike strength and the enemy would now have been warned and the critical tactical advantage of surprise would have been lost.
Not meaning to belabor the point but you see here are cumulative tactical reasons not to use any radios given the scenario that was briefed.
just my 2 cents.
F, roger that. Now just thinking here beyond the scenario given: I was imagining how one could run a recce/sniper team with that kind of threat and still get info back to the PL in a secure manner. Max talked about dead drops in “Patriot Dawn.” I like that but I want to be able to send data, lots of it if possible, back to the PL right? How about a hardened notebook that uses encrypted USB sticks to a dead drop every day or two? If you are doing 2 on, 2 off in an OP maybe the off duty pair runs down to the drop point every day or two?
Commo wire seems like a good option for OPs that aren’t too far off. If the enemy is any good they are running some patrols too so that might be risky.
Also, radios would be key if you are in contact to summon the QRF or reserve fire team if needed. At that point the cat’s out of the bag and I’d rather be in comms.
I like the idea of the notebook to the dead drop, but I was thinking more in terms of an actual ‘notebook’! They do use radios in PD, but only once the action goes hot.
Radios: Where is Sparks when you need him. Sparks! Radio check, over…
I don’t use radios on Patrol 1 for two simple reasons:
1. I want you to learn the basics. Thus I create a scenario where the enemy has sophisticated DF capability and thus radio use would cause compromise.
2. I haven’t bought any yet.
Radio use is not out. My classes don’t have the scope to go into depth on it. Radio use does not automatically imply compromises, particularly with short range radios, using terrain masking. There is also the use of radios to coordinate an assault or another action once it goes live. We used whistles, voice and pen flares to coordinate on the ambush and raid. Radios could be used as a way to coordinate fire and switch fires.
I would invite a guest post on SHTF communication for tactical teams, when facing both technologically unsophisticated and sophisticated enemy.
Hey Max, there are some great articles by a MSG Morgan I will link to later. He recommended Motorola DTR 550s with bone conduction mics. Mosby ran some posts on it too. I sometimes use TOR off a USB and it is easy to encrypt additional sticks for storage. I thought it would be harder to encrypt paper notes so there was a security risk if your courier went down. Totally understand avoiding radios at this stage of training. For prepping purposes however…
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