31 May 02

NTI 2002

I shot the 2002 NTI on Wednesday here in Harrisburg, PA and have been attending classes and panel discussions yesterday and today. Skip and his staff outdid themselves once more! This year's exercises were the most challenging I can recall. There were more moving targets and more difficult force-on-force scenarios than in the past. There were four live-fire shoot houses, two live-fire, "standard exercise" drills and three hostile encounters in ASTA Village (where everyone is equipped with Simmunitions guns). Live-fire hostiles and bystanders were all three-dimensional mannequins, all dressed, and all set to collapse when hit or to keep moving in the case of some of the moving targets. As was the case last year, one of the shoot houses was run with the shooter completely on his own, his progress being monitored externally via video cameras. It takes six hours to complete everything. At the end of the day, I ran all the shoot houses a second time. It is exhausting!

This year, I again used my G32 with Cor-Bon 115gr 357Sig ammunition. My concealment garment was my usual CCC vest. My holster is a kydex IWB. Everything worked perfectly.

The live-fire shoot houses all involved active emergencies (as it is explained to each shooter), so, as is my habit, I ran them exceedingly aggressively. Aggressive moment gets you to the source of the problem quickly, but you always run the risk of failing to see important elements along the way. As usual, I missed some significant things I should have seen. In one case, I aggressively entered a bathroom, saw nothing, turned and proceeded posthaste down the hall. Behind the shower curtain, there was a bad guy with a knife. I never saw him. I never even perceived that the shower curtain was not a wall.

As was the case last year, I found myself shooting the G32 VERY fast. It is a fifteen-shooter, but I was surprised by slide lock more than once. As is my habit, I "zippered" bad guys, but I often found myself stalling at mid body. I had to discipline myself to continue to move up the body midline with my string of shots, so that I reliably got into the neck each time.

While moving, I was tempted to stall in place on a number of occasions when I was reloading or trying to figure out which way to go next. I had to force myself to continue moving constantly. Any time I stalled, it didn't take long for the bad guys to catch up with me!

Much of my shooting was one-handed, and most of it was at extremely close range. I had to fire from a rock-and-lock position many times in order to avoid extending the pistol to within disarm range.

In ASTA Village, I had a number of chances to practice verbal disengagement. I was propositioned by a prostitute, confronted by her angry boyfriend, and assaulted by an indignant shopper in a mall. Each time, aggressive, lateral movement, combined with our standard disengagement tape loops unbalanced and confused aggressors and afforded me time and space to separate from them. By the time they figured out what had happened, I was either out of sight or far enough away that they didn't pursue.

However, in one confrontation, I wasn't so lucky! Confined in an elevator, I was confronted by two belligerent thugs who assertively entered (preventing me from exiting around them) and pushed me to the rear. They menacingly produced bludgeons and demanded my wallet. I made a decision quickly. Jumping to the side, I drew and shot both from a rock-and-lock position. Both were startled and hit multiple times before they could do anything else.

Saturday (tomorrow), Rich Wright and I will do the Simmunitions Partners Drill together. More on that tomorrow!

/John