Review: HEAT Reconnaissance June 2025 – Tony

Student Review: HEAT Recon June 2025 – Tony

TL;DR: It’s a MVT class so that means it is solid gold training. Do not miss out, take the class.

My background: I have attended several MVT classes, repeating many of them. However, this was my first time attending the recon class as a student, I had participated in the class as OPFOR before. There has also been a significant break between the last time that I trained consistently and attended classes this year, in that interim time I have not only aged, but have lost some
fitness along the way. Therefore, you should take my review of the class with that in mind regarding my experiences.

My goal: Primarily to gain an understanding of the intricacies that go into reconnaissance operations.

Classmates: We fortunately had a full class (8 students for this course) including a couple who had attended the course before. The bulk of the class had attended at least one other MVT course in the past which was helpful since we had similar frame of references and training.

Safety: This has never been a concern for me at a MVT class. Even though this is “only” a force-on-force (airsoft) as opposed to live class, the cadre is always laser focused on everyone’s safety. Only your mother is more concerned about your safety (and everyone else’s) than the instructors here.

Overview: The first two days of the class consists primarily of classroom activities and practical exercises applying some of the lessons that are learned in the classroom. There is so much information coming at you, that it is highly unlikely that you will be able to process it all and put it to use immediately. It is said during the class, but I wish to reiterate that this is a brief overview
of the topic, there is simply no way in 32 hours of instruction that you will gain more than an introduction to the topic. The biggest takeaway that I gained was realizing just how much I do not know, and how much work goes into preparations, especially, for doing the activity. Similar to CQB I also realized how much I do not want to ever have to do this in a real-world environment.

It should also be noted that the activity of recon consists of many sub activities, several of which are not taught in this class, but would be necessary to be truly successful at it. The reason for this, again, is time; a land navigation course by itself would probably be several days. Similarly, a class on field craft would probably be several days or weeks if done correctly. Finally, there
could be a whole class on how to move through the woods or other terrain in a manner that is not likely to give you away with noise, light, or movement. Keeping all of this in mind, the class gives you the ability to conduct training exercises on the third and fourth day of class against a live OPFOR that responds to how you, as a class, conduct your recon operations. However, it is also a controlled opposition in the sense that the class is given time to conduct activities on a target site, even if the opposition force had noticed them coming in. This is to ensure that everyone gets a chance to go through all the activities rather than simply bringing the class to a screeching halt because of a failure in field craft.

The terrain where the MVT classes take place in West Virginia is exceedingly challenging under the best of circumstances, unless of course you are in the best shape and the prime of life. I am neither of those things currently. For me, dealing with the hills and the footing of the terrain, lots of loose shale rock and fallen trees, combined with the very high heat and humidity that occurred
during this class made for a very difficult experience for me physically. That doesn’t detract from the class or how it is run in anyway, it is simply a warning that one should be realistic about what they can expect from themselves and dial their expectations for the class to be in line with that.

Although there is not any training prerequisite for the class, I believe that you’ll get more out of the class if you have at least taken HEAT 1 Combat Tactics at MVT. From discussions with others who have taken the class when the bulk of the class did not have that common background, they had more difficulties with the various ‘action on’ drills that occurred during the live patrols. I imagine that that also means that those students were more overwhelmed trying to learn those elements in conjunction with the recon instructions. So, if you can prior to attending the Recon attend HEAT 1. If you cannot though for whatever reason, you will still get great instruction at the Recon class and have an amazing experience.

I plan to attend this class again when it is offered because, like all the MVT classes, I always learn something new even when repeating a class and there is simply no better tactical training out there for civilians. I also look forward to being able to do better with another shot at the apple.

Tony

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