Student Review: Combat Team Tactics: September 2016: Chris (‘The Carpenter’)
Combat Team Tactics Sept 2016:
This was my second time training at MVT. I missed the Rifle Skills Class on Thursday, and I was the ONLY one who didn’t take it, I was “that guy”.
Bottom line, I sincerely feel that the true price I paid for the class, which is including the ammo cost, and most importantly the value of my time, was very fairly compensated by the high level of training provided at a very nice training facility.
The lesson plan is clearly very highly refined and Max delivered it with passion, the way the lessons build is obviously by design and really impacted my ability to keep up with the huge amount of information presented.
I also appreciate the huge amount of investment I observed in the training site. The design of the Tactical ranges and the lesson plan were seamlessly integrated. The work to create and maintain the live fire ranges was obvious to me, and I respect that as a sometimes unseen value.
Regarding PT. I think many people are scared of not being able to cut it. I ran out of wind few times (47 yrs old), but it in no way affected my training experience. The Cadre clearly knew when a student was sucking wind and was taking a knee instead of proper cover. My biggest fear was the fatigue causing me to have a safety violation, but I was able to balance my “gas” vs being smoked and stupid to stay in the game. Yes, it was physically demanding, but ample recovery time was provided by the mixing of drills, classroom, and breaks.
Regarding the cost to train, or the I cannot afford it crowd. I have taken advantage of the FREE camping on-site for both classes I have taken. This saved me enough money to cover my ammo cost and meals for the classes. Where there is will, there is a way.
My advice to a future student is to NOT get sucked into a one on one battle with Ivan. The shooting holes into the Ivan is NOT the point, do not get buck fever about getting hits on Ivan. I was amazed at how much time I spent up out of the rifle looking around and communicating with my buddies, and was still able to easily maintained enough volume of fire to suppress.
The other issue I noticed was rifles that had a lot of stoppages. The First Sgt has written a lot about this on the MVT Forum, and it’s worth reading. You need to pay attention to the drills and pushing a rifle that’s having issues is no fun.
Chris (Carpenter )
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