Combat Patrol 18-20 Jan 2014 AAR #3 – Skittles

AAR for Max Velocity’s First Patrol Course

I will start by saying that the other AARs have done a great job discussing the conditions of the class. Cold. Max did a fantastic job of transitioning from CRCD to patrol. Without prior experience in both areas (military or civilian courses), it is impossible to understand the difficulty in that task. Max performed it flawlessly. The tactics and procedures taught were very in depth. Even as a former Marine who has combat experience, I still learned a lot. Not to mention knocked off a lot of rust. The class varied in age from 22 to 60ish. Experience levels also varied. I will say I was thoroughly impressed with the performance of all. I would fight the cannibals with any of them on my team. Especially Mrs H.  She is quite a trooper. Mr F and Mr S did an awesome job as team leaders. There were some errors made by all but Max was quick to sort them out and all learned and did not make them again. Safety was paramount. It was also exceptional. I never once felt unsafe, be it movements or operations. Through all the cold and tired and slips on the hills, no one was ever unsafe that I saw. The biggest take away aside from the tactics can be best summed up by a quote from JC Dodge. ” This is a little bit of a gut check, but it’s more of a reality check.” This is what real operations feel and look like. They are hard and they suck. Always will. Just toughen up and do what you can to better prepare. PT and take the course. As far gear, you can’t carry enough to be comfortable. So just carry what you need to survive. If need be stash stuff and make multiple trips. Overall it was a fantastic course full of lots of knowledge. Even if I did freeze my man parts off. Thanks to Max for a great course. Thanks to JC for his help and knowledge. And thanks to all attended for doing a solid job. And for putting up with me as the squad leader.

Skittles

Aka Gimli

Aka Stumpy

USMC