Review: HEAT Reconnaissance Oct 2025: Tony

Student Review: HEAT Recon October 2025 – Tony

TL;DR: MVT classes are top notch. The instructor is always adapting and changing based on feedback to make the class even better, and you can never do too much quality training.

My background: I have attended several MVT classes, repeating many of them. I had been fortunate enough to have taken this class in June of this year, and I had previously been part of the OPFOR for this class a few times. My military background, which recedes further into the rearview with each passing day, was in a service support MOS for the Army and provided no real applicable training for these types of operations.

My goal: To gain more from the incredible firehouse of training available at this class than I was able to the first time through, and to learn how to “think recon” not necessarily because I anticipate being able to do it in the future but to learn how to spot it as well.

Classmates: We fortunately had a full class (8 students for this course) including a core group that train together regularly and had good group synergy. The rest of us managed to slot in around them pretty easily. Everyone had trained at MVT before, which made communication and drills easier to perform since we “spoke the same language.”

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. As alluded to earlier, 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. It was very good to note that the instructor had made changes to the class even in the short break between June and this class that I feel made the class even better. He was truly able to bring home some of the reality of equipment “layering” (my term not the class’s) that I didn’t fully grasp the first time through.

I said this in class and I think my review should note as well that pretty much all of the sub activities that this discipline requires: land navigation, fieldcraft-movement, fieldcraft-camouflage, fieldcraft-spotting, are personal weaknesses of mine and thus affect my ability to perform things successfully in class. Despite that I gain a great deal out of the class. Unfortunately there’s just no time to get good at those things within the class because of the time constraints. But the class is fantastic about revealing just how weak one is! LOL

The terrain where the MVT classes take place in West Virginia is exceedingly challenging under the best of circumstances, unless you are in the best shape and the prime of life. I am neither of those things. While I was in slightly better shape than I was when I took the class in June, the terrain was still kicking my ass. Fortunately, the weather was significantly better compared to June and hadn’t gotten too cold either, pretty much perfect weather. Don’t let my physical limitations detract you from considering the class. As is true of all types of realistic combat training (and operations) your personal fitness is a key element, and a value of these classes is their ability to reveal that what you think in your head doesn’t matter to reality, so it’s a great wake up to realize where you are weak and need to improve. Plus, when you retake classes, you have a good benchmark to judge yourself against.

MVT doesn’t require any training prerequisite for the class, however I think that you’ll get more out of the class if you have at least taken HEAT-1 from MVT. It made a big difference in being able to get more out of the class because you can focus on elements other than how to do a particular drill, but get more practice doing the drills together as a team. You can never get enough rehearsal time at these things. If you are fortunate enough to have a group that you regularly train with, then this is a fantastic opportunity to test your training against a live OPFOR group in a different and challenging environment. However, even if you have not had the MVT training or a regular team, you will still get great instruction at class and gain some amazing experience.

This will be another one of the MVT classes that I will retake whenever the schedule and my finances allow. I know that I will get something new out of it each time and I always feel like that training benefits of having to work outside of a defined drill and make decisions on the fly, under stress against a live opposing force are some of the best teachers and the lessons really stick with you.