Review: HEAT 1 Combat Tactics: Heart Attack
The thing that most impressed me with the class was how it was well structured toward making the students reasonably proficient with the tactical employment of a fighting rifle in the field, not just on the flat range. The class begins on the flat range where the students are given the necessary skills block by block in which each skill builds upon ones that came before even if it may not be apparent at first. For example in one of the drills, the students have to walk in line together (we often failed to have a straight line and got chewed out for it) going to and from the targets. This was preparing us to maintain a fighting line, especially in the ‘assault through’ even though that was not its apparent purpose when we had to do it.
A most impressive part of the class is how it trains the students to be able to maneuver around each other without being unsafe. The two most important things that the instructors hammered into us when it came to safety was always pointing the rifle towards the ground when ever we moved and to always engage the safety when not actively shooting at the targets. If anyone failed in either, the Max or Scott made sure you knew you had screwed up. Aside from this, there was an emphasis on moving in the safest way. Two examples come to mind. The first is that when we were disengaging from the enemy you were never to walk backwards, but to turn around and move to your next position while being covered by the other fire team. This felt weird as the natural desire is not to turn your back on the enemy. The second was avoiding doing the ballerina turn during a peel (which is how a peel is portrayed in a well known action film). The non flashy way the students are taught to do these two things keeps them from tripping in the field though it does not look cool.
One of the other things that the class did for me was to help shake out my gear. The most noticeable thing that needed to be changed by the end of the class was the grip on my rifle. The grip’s angle resulted in my wrist becoming fatigued and sore by day two. I had previously been to a couple day rifle marksmanship classes and had no issues with the rifle as configured. The difference was that HEAT 1 had the students walking on the ranges with rifles at the patrol ready much of the time. If you have never moved much with rifle at the patrol ready, this problem will not be apparent.
This is the sort of class that is like drinking from a fire hose because of how much information is packed into it. Taking it once will not lead the student to mastery. It is the sort of class that needs to be taken more than once but it is well worth it.
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