04Sept04

More training with the USMC:

Vicki, Pete Taussig, Keith Brown, Steve Camp, Fred Blish, Tom Burris and I just completed another two-day Pistol Class with Marines at Camp Pendleton. We also did a two-day Urban Rifle Class. Both were run "hot", of course. Marines loved it! My rifle students were mostly e-2s through e-5s. All were enthusiastic and eager to learn everything they could. What a joy to work with such splendid people! Hope we have, as is the case with our pistol students, made them forever dissatisfied with conventional training on cold ranges.

We used Betterbilt's superlative steel rifle targets, as well as steel targets developed by a new company, called Salute. On the pistol range, we used Betterbilt's ever-popular Rotator Targets. None of our students had ever shot on steel before, and none had ever been on a hot range.

We did advancement exercises, where students started in a truck, exited and advanced forward, using several articles of cover. They were expected to communicate effectively and use cover effectively as well as engage targets with deadly accuracy. All rifles and pistols stayed hot, before, during, and after. We also did close-range drills. Most had never fired their M-16s a nd M-4s on three-round-burst before.

I think we have succeeded in persuading high-level people (who came out to observe) that the "hot range" needs to become standard, system wide. They were told passionately, by all my students, of the superiority of this kind of training. If this is the way we're going to be in County, then this is the way we should be training here.

I told them, "You don't need me to do this! You guys can start running your own ranges this way every time you train your crew." One question comes up constantly, from both enlisted, NCOs, and officers. They asked, "How do we make the change? How do we start doing this?"

Here is what I told them, and I may never get invited back, but it had to be said: "You have to take over your own training. You have to personally take your crew to the range and say to the resident range staff, 'Go find something else to do, and take your pith helmets with you. I'm running this range now. We're taking over, and your services are no longer needed.' So long as entrenched MTU folks occupy their fossilized bureaucracy, nothing will ever change in their "range kingdom." All they will ever worry about is competing in sterile marksmanship matches. We all need to get ourselves in to the training business, and them out!

I realize the foregoing is easy for me to say, but the bold and fearless among us have always had to lead the ignorant (sometimes kicking and screaming) out of their dying universe. With this world deteriorating as fast as it is, these changes can't happen too soon. It is surely exciting to be part of it!

/John

05Sept04

From a friend in the federal system:

"My agency is currently divided into twenty divisions, with one primary firearms instructor per division. A while back these positions were held for those that, for one reason or another, were 'retired in place.' The result was firearms 'training' units that held only the minimum, mandated quarterly 'qualification' session. These sessions consisted of generating an academic score, put into effect for no other reason than to pacify HQ and the legal unit. We firearms instructors in the field saw a dire need for change. It would require managerial support at the highest level.

We made it happen! Now, division firearms training has been taken over by aggressive, intelligent, assertive tactical operators who have reached out to the tactical community to network and share information and techniques. The result is that we still do 'qualification' in order to mollify those who still believe it is the barometer for success in armed confrontations. However, the rest of our training time is spent working on movement, effective use of cover, communication, multiple target engagement, tactical reloading, malfunction clearing, weapons transitioning, and individual and team tactics, and, yes, all ranges are run hot!

All of this has been accomplished by passionate individuals who approached management and explained the liability and consequences of failing to properly train. These hard-charging guys and gals still have to listen to whining and sniveling from some of our troops who are not eager to work at their craft, but we all sleep well at night, knowing that we are working continuously at providing the best training and equipment possible. If you look at recent shooting incidents in which my agency has been involved, it's obvious that this new training policy is paying off. Those who have been personally involved will tell you just that.

Strange to see how training for the real world generates so much instructor and administrative resistance, until it is finally implemented and becomes successful. Then, of course, it suddenly has a thousand fathers! Students, on the other hand, instantly recognize when techniques taught relate to the world in which they operate.

I can't tell you how excited I get when I read your e-mails of progress with military training. It comes as no surprise that your training has been well received by enthusiastic troops. It also comes as no surprise that they have proven themselves to be capable of absorbing the most advanced firearms training. Why else would the United States be the only remaining super power? And why else would the US Marines be known as the World's Finest Fighting Force? Keep fighting the good fight."

Lesson: Winners never quit. Losers miss the burrito.

/John