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Tactical Response High Risk
Civilian Contractor Course

Part 1 of 2

By:  Andy Fitzgerald

 

 

Overview

A friend and I attended Tactical Response’s (www.tacticalresponse.com) High Risk Civilian Contractor’s course the week of 5-10 September 2005 in Camden, Tennessee.  The goal of the course was to prepare individuals for Executive Protection in Iraq.  Mr. James Yeager was the course instructor.  Mr. Yeager spent a year in Iraq protecting Iraqi public figures and was involved in an insurgent attack which claimed the lives of three of his co-workers.

This five-day, $1,000 course, was attended by eight men, four of whom were activity pursuing work in Iraq; the remaining four, including me, were there for the training and experience.

This course is not for the untrained gunman.  We all pushed our training to the limit and did drills some may characterize as unsafe or extreme such as the extensive car exit drills, the shooting through windshield while sitting in the front seat and the sweeping of body parts while in the car.  The rate of rifle fire was very high (full automatic fire was used at times by those of so equipped) and weapons got excessively hot to the point we did have a round cook-off.  Safe gun handling was critical.  For the most part, individual safety was very good.

Mr. Yeager vetted the students to ensure all were professional gunmen and I’m glad he did so.  An untrained or inexperience gunman would have caused serious problems in some of the drills.

Over the five days, we each fired over 2,300 rounds of rifle ammo and 150 rounds of pistol ammo.

I took extensive notes on each day’s activities in order to compile this report.  I can highly recommend the use of ‘Rite-in-the-Rain’ note pads and pens.  Although we were fortunate that it did not rain, we all sweated profusely and any normal paper products carried in my back pocket would have deteriorated after the first day.  My Rite-in-the-Rain notebook is still going strong.

Gear

Rifles:

All used the AR or M16/M4 weapons systems in 5.56mm.  The use of a .30 caliber system, although fully applicable, would have left the operator with one sore shoulder as the rate of fire at most times was very high and sustained.  Break down of models included:

• One Bushmaster

• Three Colts

• Two Armalites

• Two of mixed ancestry

All functioned very well.  My M4 went down due to an ammunition malfunction.  I was using surplus Lake City 5.56 purchased from the Ammoman.com.  The powder in the round failed to ignite and left a bullet just in the rifling.  I believe this ammunition has been re-imported after being rejected for use by the foreign government as numerous rounds felt to be under powered.  Another student, using the same ammunition, experienced the same problems.

Other problems included a bent bolt hold-open catch which was easily replaced (nothing like gunsmithing in the motel room).

Handguns:

A standard mix of handguns was used:

• Three 1911’s

• Three Glocks

• One SIG

• One Springfield XD

All worked well, except for a Kimber 1911 which went down for unknown reasons and a Glock which broke an internal component.  I recommend not bringing any ‘nice’ weapons as they will get beaten up in the many drills.  Also, Mr. Yeager, in his style, has a habit of throwing any sidearms lost during the drills.  We considered it a ‘teaching moment’.

Optics:

We had the usual mix of optics:

• Two with iron sights

• Three with EOTechs

• Three with Aimpoints

No issues or problems arose with any of the optics.

Personal Tactical Wear:

We all wore tactical vests with either leg-drop holsters or used vests with built-in holsters.  All seemed to work well.  I did have problems with my leg holster, a no-name purchased at a gun show.  It doesn’t pay to use cheap gear, regardless of its function.

Lights:

All used Surefire lights; most had rifle mounts for the lights.  I did not have a rifle mount for my 6P Surefire (just ran out of money and something had to give), but I used MIL-SPEC 100mph tape to tape my light to my M4 for the night shoot.  This worked very well and I can recommend it in pinch.

A 6P and the other weapon mounted lights were able to illuminate the targets in complete darkness out to 50 yards; in low light, the 6P was good out to 100 yards.

Slings:

All used single-point slings.  I used a Giles Single Point using the GG & G attachment point which replaces the standard retaining plate between the receiver and the butt stock.  This system worked well except in the car drills.  I did not employ the sling for in-the-car drills and when I reached for the rifle, I got a handful of sling with the pistol grip.  This slowed me down as I had to take time to re-grip.

Hydration:

The temperature during the week averaged well into the 80’s and low 90’s and we all sweated like dogs.  Mr. Yeager insisted on us all being properly hydrated and I drank several gallons a day.  Even so, there was one student who did get heat sickness and had to bow out for a spell.  Several wore Camelbacks.

Physical Condition:

One overlooked aspect of nearly all civilian weapons courses is the student’s physical condition.  In general, we forget that physical conditioning should be part of any gunman’s regular training.  In this course, most of the students’ physical condition, although not overweight, was mediocre.  I highly recommend a regular, strenuous cardiovascular and weight training program for those who want to get the most out of this course or who plan to work as civilian contractors.

Instructors

Mr. Yeager was the chief instructor.  He’s a colorful guy who pushed the class.  He’s not one for those who cannot take direct, pointed criticism (including having a weapon tossed about).  Not all will be able to warm to his style, but I like his methods and would not hesitate to take another of his courses.  Mr. Yeager has been a local law enforcement officer.

Mr. Yeager was assisted by several competent instructors, including Mr. Tracy Hightower, who worked with us the last day and Mr. Shawn Hughes, an explosive consultant, who handled the IED portion of the course.

Drills:

Day #1:

Day #1 got off to a quick start on the short 25 yard range after a brief safety briefing.  We immediately started shooting the six DEA dots and practicing the handgun/rifle transition drill known as the ‘Mississippi Meltdown’.  You just can’t practice this drill enough.  All drills commenced with the command ‘Fight!’

The next drill was two-man drills with one student walking to and backing away from the 25 yard targets while firing with the second student hanging on to the first’s tactical vest.  If the weapon went down, the students reversed roles and continued the drill.  Stepping up when a weapon went down or a team member was ‘injured’ was a constant theme throughout the course.  My team began to use ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ to communicate our status – ‘Red’ being, ‘I’m down, step in’ and ‘Green’ ‘I’m ready to get back in if needed’.  I quickly learned the 20-round magazines were insufficient and switched to 30-round magazines.

The two-man drills then became four-man drills, again walk to and from the target while firing.  Not easy.  With the four-man drills, targets were placed both front and right/left and were engaged as the team traversed the course.  Mr. Yeager insisted on good hits at a high rate of fire regardless of the shooting conditions.

The last drill before lunch was the classic ‘Rolling Thunder’.  Rolling Thunder starts with the students lined up on the firing line.  The first students on the left starts by firing one round followed by all firing one round going left to right.  The sequence starts over with the first student firing two rounds and the line following.  If the student to your left fails to fire, you must immediately step in and fire.  The sequence continues until the round count reaches 10.  This drill trains you to be aware of your teammate’s condition and ammo management.

After lunch, we resumed the two-man drills, this time moving from left to right along the firing line, bounding to/from four cover positions.  We learned to communicate with our partner, indicating when to move.  We were instructed not to crowd cover and allow at least two rounds to be fired before instructing our partner to move to a new position.  We had to watch our magazine changes and use the ‘’Red’ and ‘Green’ commands.  Only one team member would be firing at a time and the non-firing teammate would be watching our ‘6’.  It was very difficult to communicate with the noise and hearing protection.  This is drill we could have practiced all day and still not be proficient.  Mr. Yeager was constantly riding us on accuracy and rate of fire.

After about four iterations of this drill, we moved to the rifle range.

At the rifle range, we continued the two-man drill, only this time instead of left to right bounding, we bounded forward and backwards 100 yards, jumping from cover position to cover position located at 50, 75 and 100 yards with a 18” x 24”steel plate target at approximately 150 yards.  There were two identical lanes of fire separated by 25 yards.  One team member would bound forward on one lane and once in position and firing would signal to our partner to move forward on his lane of fire. Only one team member would be firing at a time.  Again, communication was very important and it was even more difficult due to the increase range.  It was very important for the non-firing teammate to be watching the ‘6’.  The drill became interesting on the backward bound as one team member would be firing from behind you, separated by only 25 yards.  Mr. Yeager insisted on a rate of fire of 3 rounds per second.  He wants to overwhelm the enemy with suppressive fire (or at least scare the pants of them!).

The two-man drills quickly morphed into four-man drills.  Two team members were on each firing lane.  One team would bound forward and once in position, would signal for the second to move forward.  This drill did not stop until all had bounded down range and back.  It was a hot day and we were all soaked with sweat by the third repetition.  One student did go down with heat stress.  At this point, we broke for dinner and prepared for the night shoot.

The night shoot involved the same two and four man drills, this time in complete darkness.  If communicating in the daylight was difficult, it’s 10 times harder in darkness.  We all managed fairly good hits on the steel plate in complete darkness.  One interesting phenomenon was experienced on this calm night:  The smoke from the weapon reflected the light back into our eyes and it got so bad I was unable to acquire the target through my Aimpoint.  One solution is to frequently move behind cover to a ‘smoke-free’ area.  Another is to add a suppressor to the weapon.

Comments on Day #1:

1)     These were advanced drills for the first day.

2)     We each averaged about 800 rounds of rifle and 150 rounds of pistol.

3)     It was very physical.  We each drank about two gallons of fluids.

4)     I and others were burned in several places by hot empties going down our vests – ouch!

 

Day #2:

Day #2 started in the class room with basic Battlefield Medicine.  Mr. Yeager instructed us in the use of the ‘Cinchtight’ compressive Battlefield dressing.  The Cinchtight is the US Army equivalent of the famous Israeli Battlefield Dressing.  The major difference is the Cinchtight uses Velcro instead of the Israeli plastic hook.  We also discussed the use of Quickcot and tourniquets to stop bleeding and water jell for burns.  Mr. Yeager supplied us with two Cinchtights – one for training and one for emergency use.

We then returned to the rifle range for more team drills.  This time, in four man teams, we divided into roles: one shooter, one watcher, one first-aider and one injured.  The team had to engage the steel plate while dragging the injured member to cover and applying the Cinchtight.  Dragging a 200# teammate 15 yards and applying the Cinchtight proved to be physical challenging.  The drills continued until we had partaken of each role.  Communication again proved to be challenging.  One gun did go down during this drill and the team mate correctly employed the injured man’s weapon instead of wasting time working on his own.  A very good lesson.

We then receive a briefing on the use and application of smoke grenades.  Mr. Yeager issued each team one grenade for use during the next drill. 

The next drill was the same, but this time with three team members engaging the target before two members broke away for assist the injured student.  Mr. Yeager wanted us to focus on and neutralize the threat before treating the injured.  I employed the smoke grenade during this drill.  I, unfortunately, failed to inform my team that I was using smoke; a small error, but it re-enforced the need to communicate.

The third drill of the morning was to engage the steel target with four, 30 round magazines at a high rate of fire.  Mr. Yeager wanted us to practice accuracy and speed (3 rounds per second) as he was unhappy with our marksmanship.  Rifle really got hot!  Glad I had Colt’s double heat shield!

The last drill before lunch was to engage a steel target at 300 yards (actually 289 yards as measured with a laser range finder).  Everyone did fairly well.  It was after this drill I discover that the screws on my ARMS mount holding the rings were loose.  This was easily corrected with Loctite (the instructions with the ARMS mount clearly state NOT to use Loctite.  Clearly this is not correct.)

After lunch we returned to the classroom to discuss planning site security.

Site Security:

Mr. Yeager spent an hour reviewing how to plan site security and assigned each of two, four man teams a job of planning the escort of the Tennessee Governor to locations within Camden, Tennessee.  This drill took the rest of the day to physically research the route and areas and prepare a team briefing.  A long list of items such as coordination with local law enforcement, site description, exit routes, choke points, reaction plan, press handling, stash car, hospital location, etc. were all researched and briefed to the team.  I used one of the computers in the class room to collect all the information in a Power Point briefing and this worked well.

Comments on Day #2:

1)     We fired only about 250 rifle rounds the second day; no pistol rounds

2)     Continued to experience problems with team communications.  We all need to practice this.

3)     Need to standardize on our communication words – need to use action-type words – and to use clock references (6, 9, 12, etc.).

4)     The site security was a little dry, but necessary for the course.