Úlfhédnar No Mercy Only Violence!

Of the classes I have taken at MVT, I think the Close Quarters Battle Course (CQBC) comes closest to that statement. As John our instructor said, you need at least two of the three tenets of CQBC, speed, surprise and violence of action and you might get through unscathed in a real life and death situation in the close confines of your typical American structure — but it is better to have all three.

BUT those three tenets only work if you have the training and no training could be better than to be taught by John and his two AI’s, three men who “have been there and done that” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Others have written about what the three days of CQBC entailed and the progression in our training but in the end the training was ALL geared to focus the those three tenets (speed, surprise and violence of action) in such a way that you would stand a reasonable chance of surviving and completing your mission in a CQB environment.

SPEED — In the close confines of CQB (1-5 meters) the time once you cross over the threshold is not just measured in seconds it is measured in tenths of a second if you don’t have the tenet of surprise things can go hell very quickly. When the time between living and dying in a real CQB event is that fast you need to move and not with just speed but with momentum through the structure until all areas are clear.

HOWEVER, one thing you will find is that with speed comes the possibility that you could commit a very grievous mistake and shoot an innocent maybe a family member or teammate, this very real possibility is discussed in another post on Practicing Positive Target Identification (PID). Rushing to your death or inflicting it on innocents is not the kind of speed you want.

SURPRISE — With surprise you can go slower but still keep momentum on the objective with less of a possibility of a blue on blue incident. Think outside the box but gain the advantage with surprise whether coming in when the bad guys are asleep or a rock through a window to draw their attention elsewhere but if at all possible gain the advantage of surprise.

Yes, when it comes to the element of surprise LE/Military have the advantage with the items at their disposal so you need to look around your house and find those things that might give you that edge.

VIOLENCE OF ACTION — When it comes to this tenet there can be NO hesitation there can be no weak kneed response it must be swift and decisive so shoot till they are down and you know that there is no chance that they will be getting up to hurt you or anyone else again.

In this day of increasing home invasions, this class is MUST for anyone who values their life and the lives of their loved ones because in the end YOU are the first responder because when or if the police arrive it may be too late. And yes I did mean to say IF they arrive because the courts including the Supreme Court have ruled that the police are under no obligation to come to your aid.

The skills that John teaches in this CQBC will give you a better chance of survival but like all skills, they must be practiced and practiced repeatedly to even give yourself a fighting chance. The next class is in August, many that were here in May will be back, and we are looking forward to a possibly advanced CQBC in the future.

So the question for those of you that are reading this are YOU making plans to attend or are you coming up with excuses for not attending; when the time comes will you use the phrase that started this AAR “No Mercy Only Violence” against those that would do you and yours harm or will they use it against you and yours?

Max Adds:

Don’t become confused over ‘speed.’ CQB is a thinking and problem solving game. People start to die when they get out of control speed and start to run ahead into rooms and forget the drills and mutual support of the team. It is a problem solving game of angles, and must be thought through. Sometimes you are moving fast, and for example hesitation between the first and second man can be fatal, but mostly your speed is momentum created by correct application of the drills, and thinking through the problem. Actual speed is a variable because the type of drill and the speed it is conducted can vary. Once you lose surprise inside the structure this becomes even more important, and you have to think how you will breach and clear each room. Too much resistance? Back off and think it through again. Can you regain some tactical surprise? Alternative breach point? Angles? The idea is not to rush to your death!