Reality of Combat

This is a good article I found over at the "SHTF School" blog, and wanted to share it with you guys. It is relevant, and has good information from someone who has lived through much of what we will have to soon enough.

The reality of combat March 26, 2013

SHTF School

When SHTF nobody told me how hard is gonna be and what things I will have to do to survive, there was no training or simulations, through most of the stuff I was going for the first time in my life, and I was hoping it is only temporary situation, it is not going to last for whole year. Few events opened my eyes, and somehow make me survivor right at the beginning, and I can say I have luck to understand in very early stage how hard it is, and what it takes. During one of the first bigger events of killing in the streets, I was out together with my friend who also was medical professional. Fire from machine guns was on people who were standing in front of the main city bread factory, and people started to scream and run over each other.

My first impulse was to run to nearest cover but my friend got down to help some lady, so I stayed one meter next to him. I was confused about my decision and not sure to stay with him or run. Bullets from machine gun hit him over his legs, and I saw how his knee cap exploded, it looked like some bad movie special effect. He just looked at his legs, then at me, in silence. Even that was just seconds moments like this feel very long. I took him by the hands and drag him some 20 or 30 meters to safety.

Only there I saw that he was missing his leg under the knee. It stayed with dead lady on the street. And only then he started to scream. I used belt to stop bleeding, ambulance still worked in that period. He went to hospital and then evacuated from the city. He survived but never came back. Lessons learned? In moments of chaos always listen to your instincts and do not hesitate. Especially if you are involved in situation when someone is shooting at you with high caliber machine gun. Just accept that people will die, and you have to survive.

To help others is great thing, to survive is even better, also I realized that human being is so fragile and easy to destroy. Later I learned some things about weapons and how to use them, so I realize that more firepower does not necessary mean more dangerous and better chance to kill. Owning a weapon is just absolutely necessary in preparing for a survival scenario, even more in urban survival. You just need to go and get as close as you can to the real stuff while you are doing the preparing and training for the SHTF, so it makes sense to go out and check your preps, to check your gear and yourself. For example pair of boots that you bought and store for bad days will not be used for walking only, it will be use for running, squatting, jumping, in mud, junk, blood, guts maybe or just running trough a shallow river.

Everything that you have prepared and stored for SHTF will be pushed to the limits. One thing is to go out into woods nearby and do recording of your weapon testing on some beer bottles with your friends, and after that concluding that particular gun or rifle is best for SHTF, and that you are dangerous dude because your accuracy rules. Some people gonna put that clip on you tube and go home convinced that they are ready and prepared.

In reality you do not know if you are prepared. A lot of survival stores that sell things sell idea of buy this and you are safe. No you are not. Also you learn more about real urban survival scenario in my survival course and this helps you to mentally be better prepared but real deal when SHTF always comes as surprise. When time comes again it gonna hit everyone like a hammer. Good news is that when you know you will get hit like that you can recover fast and use your skills, knowledge and preps to make best out of situation.

Using weapon in real life, in real survival situation is something absolutely different from shooting bear bottles, and if you could do some real training that is realistic that would be maybe going to camping with trash bag as a tent, being on camping for 10 days with 10 small cans of food, and 10 liters of water, walking every day for 10 km. And then on 11th day run few kilometers and then shoot and see how accurate you are when your body is wasting away. And still the most important thing is missing. While you are shooting at the beer bottles they do not shoot back at you in order to kill you. During some of the first battles in city I was moving trough the building behind a guy, we both had rifles. He was sweeping the rooms and shooting, it was the closest urban combat as it can be. In the moment when he run out of ammo he used his rifle as something between spear and bat.

Now someone could say why he did not just switch to pistol? He did not have one, also he did not have time to look for ammo. But there I learned how it is useful to have folded stock of rifle when shooting and moving in very confined spaces. Also I learned that rifle with pretty sharp parts at the barrel can be very handy. He stabbed guy to the cheek, ripping his face down and finishing him on ground. One of the biggest misconception at the people who do not have fighting experience is what they need to practice. It is all about pressure.

You need to learn:

1. What your weapon can take In terms of kicking, throwing, how often and when will it malfunction, and what the most common malfunctions are, and how to fix it, of course how to fix it in middle of fight. If you find yourself in the middle of fighting, and your weapon „jams“ do not be as we called “zblesavljen” or in English is probably looking like idiot. I have seen that: guy is shooting and in the middle of fighting his weapon jammed, and he surprisingly look at the weapon in a „what the heck?“ state. And of course in two seconds he ends up dead. You absolutely need to know how to manage small weapon jams without looking at the weapon, you need to look at the target while you are „repairing“ weapon (clearing the bullet, switching to other magazine etc.) Other option would be to MOVE immediately when your weapon jams, move to cover in same second, or to dropping it on ground, or on your back, and switching to your other weapon. But you need to learn to do all of above without thinking. You need to train that this becomes automatic. Small things like how quickly you can put your rifle on your back and a switch to pistol can be difference between life and death, if you somehow „trip“ yourself while you are trying to put rifle on your back in order to take pistol you can end up dead.

2. What you can take Remember this: while you are shooting at the bad guys, those bad guys will be SHOOTING AT YOU TOO. So shooting at the beer bottles in the woods with your buddies will not really do all the training you need. I am doing it often, but it just not covering everything. Fighting and surviving combat means constant moving and outsmarting the guys on the other side, you gonna need to run, squat, throw yourself in the ditch, lay down in all kinds of crap and shoot at the same time, and probably fix your rifle from jams, or switch to another weapon. Do some basic weapon training and learn about line of sight and how to get out off it. Very great percentage of shooting is done without aiming, just spraying bullets. It makes sense to do some airsoft or paintball in the woods to check how constant moving change whole game, and what kind of moving makes sense in order to survive gunfight. For example how often you shoot from your weapon with both hands, dominant and not dominant? In urban fighting you will need switch weapon around very often (moving through the apartments, rooms, around the corners etc.). When you are shooting behind corner, and you are having rifle in your right hand and corner is on your left side it make sense to transfer weapon to left hand. otherwise it is dangerous to stick your left part of body out in order to shoot form right hand. For all you who have some military experience this all is basic stuff, but I have seen many guys who were killed in stupid ways. Real gunfight is dynamic thing. Adrenaline is weird thing too, so people can do tremendous things while adrenaline is pumping, but also with lack of training and common sense guy can do tremendously stupid things. I have seen man who was pointing to something and he stood up from the cover, and got shot.

3. How to train yourself Training is the key. You can not do anything else today except to train very hard. You can not experience real stuff today of course, but you can take it as close to real stuff as you can. Go out with your friends and think about all possible scenarios. But think about worst case scenarios. SHTF is not gonna wait for nice and sunny weather, you gonna be maybe hungry, dirty. Maybe have to give up your shelter and food storage on second day of SHTF. Or you gonna be forced to use other weapon that you are not used to. Maybe you gonna be forced to hide for hours hidden under a pile of rubble and then you are gonna be forced to jump out and „kill“ ten beer bottles. Sounds like fun? This is why resilience and mental strength is so important. Maybe you are gonna be cold and thirsty and in the middle of the battle. One thing is sure – very rarely it goes the way that you planned. So just be ready for many options and do not panic when things go other way. Want to get some funny sounding advice? Get good at suffering while still being able to work towards a goal.

4. What weapon, caliber, stopping power etc? It is very hard question (that I get asked a lot). But think about fact that everything today is about mainstream and commercial. And somehow it is more about what other people say is good and not necessarily about what you need and what is good for YOU. You and your hand kill, weapon is only tool. I have seen fight when man with knife is killing the guy with rifle. He had mastered fighting with knife and had will to kill. Other guy had a rifle only, and he ends up dead. I also seen more than once people shot with rifle bullets still fighting, running for good amount of time. Some of them were not even aware that they are wounded before someone else pointed that out to them. What I am trying to say, do not expect miracles if you own weapon that is at the moment most popular, having great stopping power, cool reviews. It is about practicing , weapon mastering and correct bullets placement. I said bullets for a reason, I have seen many things, but I did not see someone survive multiple shots in correct place at the body. Have weapon that is best for your case, and achieve perfection in using it. Do not expect that people will fly back if you shoot them with one bullet from some widely popular weapon and caliber (not talking about shotguns).

So I am not gonna tell you what is the best weapon because what works for me maybe does not work for you or others. Having a weapon that is too rare, too good or too bad does not make too much sense for me. Do not find yourself in situation when you lose your weapon and pick someone else and then find out that you do not have clue about it, because your weapon was special and rare. Just have what everyone else around you has, because of gun parts, ammo and you look like everyone else. Your weapon is only tool to survive, be ready to lose it if you need to lose it, and pick some other from ground in the middle of fight. I knew a guy who did some scary stuff with rusty shortened M48. He was old and poor looking dude, he played that part good, until he would take out this old gun from under his coat and rob and kill people. Simple strategy but it worked for him. So look around and think what works for you.


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Common hand signals

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Patrol Packs & Sustainment Loads

Great topic by the always outstanding Max Velocity. Please read this, print it, hand it out to your team/friends. This is really good information. Do not only read this though, take this into account when setting up your pack/ruck.

http://www.maxvelocitytactical.com/2016/03/gear-patrol-packs-sustainment-loads/

This post is derived from the gear talk that I give as part of Combat Patrol Classes (CP). If you have not attended this class, you really should – the prerequisite is Combat Team Tactics (CTT), which is really the MVT ‘basic training class.’ CP really moves you on to a higher level of training, with patrolling, patrol base, recce, ambush, and raid which are staples of any irregular warfare situation – not to mention the utility of knowing how operations may be conducted against you, and the training on Ground Domination Activity (GDA) security patrolling in order to protect your area.

There is much nuance in this post, which may or may not translate well across the medium of the internet. As usual, I see much nonsense out there. Many people get hung up, for example, when watching a class training video, with the exact terrain the class took place in. Well, not only do you not always get to choose your ideal terrain, but either way these TTP’s are the same, just adapted to the specific environment. It is about training the basics, and adapting, rather than becoming focused on, or limited by, whatever terrain the class took place in. Terrain at classes is just a different flavor. Small Unit Tactics (SUT) is simply SUT, adapted specifically to the operating environment.

In this same vein, people like to criticize training that takes place in the woods, not understanding that what is being taught is SUT, in a certain training environment (and I don’t have a range in the city). If these basics are applied for real, one would hope that they would be adapted to the environment and common sense applied. But related to this is the notion from some that the woods are not important, and that all conflict will take place in the city. Well, if you want to be there to take part in it, that is your choice! I would argue that you need to make best use of rural areas – you are either there patrolling and defending a retreat or community, or you are moving back out there after an operation in an urban or suburban area. Obviously you can’t conduct operations entirely in the woods, if your enemy is not there, unless of course your whole goal is avoidance. If you wish to conduct operations against an enemy that is in an urban or suburban environment, then it stands to reason that you must go there to conduct them. But you don’t have to live there. Mission, or METT-TC, dependent.

Many preppers can take full advantage of rural areas by simply being there to avoid any conflict in urban areas. If you decide you must partake in any conflict, for whatever reason or cause, then you may either have to operate, evade and defend in rural areas, or you may have to move out of them to conduct short term operations. Which brings me back to the point about these classes teaching you SUT that can be applied in any environment. Fire and movement and squad tactics learned at MVT in the woods of West Virginia equally apply in a suburban environment. If you wish to enter and clear structures, then this adds another dimension which is covered by the Citizen Close Combat (C3) Classes, which applies equally to a lone farmhouse in the woods. But be aware that the urban combat environment is extremely dangerous and casualty intensive, so my advice is go there if you think it necessary, conduct the raid or ambush, and then get out into the rural areas again.

If you do specifically want to be trained on your home terrain, then look into a remote class which can be held at your location: CLICK HERE FOR INFO.

This whole topic is related to gear. There is a whole lot of nonsense on the prepper internet community about ‘Bug out bags’ (BOB) and such sayings as ‘two is one and one is none’ etc. It’s all nonsense. Many expect, when they come to class, for me to get them to pack some huge ruck with a whole lot of gear in. Items for all occasions! They are often disappointed. Consider this (Fun spoiler alert – PT is involved!):

•You must pack as light as possible in order to retain practical mobility.
•Although you may have a common ‘standard’ basic load, you must pack METT-TC dependent: mission, weather, environment, duration of patrol, season etc.
•If it is too heavy, you will become tired, lazy and ineffective.
•Sadly the above is related to PT and mindset.
•If it is too heavy, in a contact you will dump it and never see it again.

Realities:

•If you are to operate as light infantry, which is really what people mean with this talk of going all ‘G’ and unconventional warfare-ish, then you need to carry a basic load.
•Operating as ‘light as possible’ is never actually ‘light’ when we consider what we need to carry to operate in such a situation i.e: ◦Rifle
◦Basic ammo load on person – 8 mags.
◦Immediate resupply ammo load – 4-6 mags (patrol pack)
◦Handgun + ammo?
◦Small IFAK.
◦Water
◦Food / snacks
◦Night vision gear?
◦Weather dependent clothing
◦Ballistic plates (yes, please)
◦Radio + batteries
◦Misc items

•This means that we will already be somewhat weighed down by gear. We will also most likely be carrying some type of, even if small, patrol pack for this load in addition to whatever belt or chest rig setup you are wearing. . This may be a small daypack/hydration carrier affair, which you will need if you are ever more than a couple of yards away from either your base, or vehicle.
•If what you carry is too heavy, you will become exhausted and lose alertness, thus take the easy option every time = complacency = death.
•If you carry a heavy ruck load, you will end up having to drop it in an emergency or contact situation, thus losing all your gear.
•Some weather conditions, such as extreme heat or cold, have unavoidable realities for gear carriage if going out for any extended period of time, or perhaps for overnight. This means that you will be unable to ‘go light’ in these situations if you plan to be out overnight or for more than 24 hours. ‘Travel light, freeze at night’ becomes foolish in these circumstances, and the other adage that ‘any fool can be uncomfortable (or die of exposure)’ becomes more relevant.

The realities are now starting to crowd in on us, and we realize that our BOB /ruck is too heavy to be practical, and would likely result in our exhaustion, or dropping it at the first sign of trouble, and that our PT is probably not up to scratch anyway. ‘Two is one, and one is none’ results in a BOB that we can’t, or won’t, carry. As far as bugging out anyway, you may have your BOB squared away, but what about the kids? Grandma? We start to get into nonsense territory, where BOB(s) are really just car bags if you have to drive out in a hurry from a natural disaster, and thus not tactically practical loads.

We are now realizing that:

•‘Light’ isn’t really light, and thus we should try and minimize our loads as much as practical for the mission.

•Why are we even out there? Are we planning on living for weeks out of a patrol base? Or perhaps just going out for a short (as possible) mission? However big your ruck, if you are out for long enough, you will need resupply.

•Thus operations need logistical support, and a plan that does not involve you trying to patrol and conduct operations while struggling around like mules.

•Thus mission analysis and planning.

•If we need to carry sustainment gear for something of longer duration, perhaps an Observation Post (OP) patrol, then the following applies: ◦If you have to carry a heavy ruck, pack your patrol pack ‘grab bag’ with essential items and have it attached to the top of the ruck (under the top flap works) ready to be grabbed and run if a contact forces you to drop the heavy ruck.

◦If you can think of any other way to bring in heavy/sustainment gear, use your intellect. Can you move rations to a cache / patrol base using vehicles or ATV/UTV? Can you incorporate vehicles into the operation anyway? It’s not all about humping gear – use your brain and plan. Perhaps you are manning a long term OP, so you have supplies moved into a cache, to which you can send short patrols periodically to resupply you in the OP?


I have the following recommendations:

•Use a smaller ‘day pack,’ something like a hydration pack with pouches or small patrol pack, for when out on patrol close to your base or vehicles. This would carry the immediate items mentioned above, with space for snacks/lunch etc. This would be added on the back of the chest rig / battle belt concept outlined in the video below, whether or not you are wearing ballistic plates:

•You are therefore not going to be unrealistic about the weight you carry on normal security patrols. Remember that as the weather gets hotter, you need more water, and the thought of humping this gear (plates?) will deter you and make you lazy. It’s a balance between going light on the one hand, and having enough gear to do the job and operate in a contact situation on the other. How far out are you going from the retreat? Are you out over dawn/dusk on patrol and thus need to take NV gear on / off and stow it, etc?

•For operations that are going to be overnight or for a longer duration, try to plan to be mobile with nothing more than a ‘three day pack’ larger-type patrol pack. This will hopefully allow you to remain alert, while remaining mobile in a contact situation, and thus avoiding the need to drop it to bug out.

•Although you will see modern infantry equipped with large heavy patrol packs, and operating under fire with them, and this is the reality, you still do not need to carry the same weight as they do. You do not have to carry much of the gear that a soldier on deployment may have to carry – heavy radios and similar equipment, mortar rounds etc. So apply the balance to this. Your gear is still going to be a hump, but it doesn’t want to be too much. In fact, much ‘overnight gear’ is in fact bulky, but not that heavy – think sleeping bags and tarps etc.

•Purchase decent gear that is where possible small and light but gets the job done. I talk about specific gear brands for classes on the Combat Patrol Class page. Balance minimalism against practical living in the field. Weather has much to do with this.

•If you can move loads for resupply using vehicles, then do so, as long as it is tactically sound for the operation.

What kind of gear goes in a 3 day patrol pack? This is not an exhaustive list, but some suggestions. This is assuming at least one overnight where you have to sleep out on the ground. Much of this gear is for ‘personal administration’ purposes and for keeping you going in the field. It stands to reason that the shorter, rougher and dirtier your patrol, the less you need of this. Again, you can get away with a lot in the summer, if you have water, that you cannot get away with in the winter months:

◦Spare ammo in mags – perhaps 4-6 magazines.
◾This is to immediately resupply if you have a break contact and use some of your mags.
◾For specific operations i.e. ambush / raid you will need more because you will use more as part of the planned ‘action on the objective.’.

◦Water bladders / hydration carriers / Camelbak – the number defined by season, patrol duration and water availability.
◦Means to purify water resupply into the bladder(s).
◦Rations: if MRE, strip down. Two MREs per person per day are sufficient, stripped down.

◾Morning and evening meal entrees, rest of the time eat snacks.

◦Cooker: see above for type of rations. SOLO stove with pot burns twigs as well as solid fuel tablets if you want, and can be used to heat water for rations, purification and also for hot drinks (morale).

◾Dehydrated rations are lighter but require more water to prepare.
◾For shorter term operations, you can consider leaving cookers and heavy rations behind and eating convenience rations such as meal bars and MREs etc.

◦Suitable trash bag, to bag and carry out ration trash (Ziplock).
◦Waterproof/canoe type bags for inside (and perhaps securely outside i.e. sleeping system) the patrol pack, to keep everything together / separate and dry.
◦Seasonal sleeping bag.
◦Bivvy Bag
◦Tarp / MVT SHIELD – use bungees / paracord /lightweight tent pegs to erect. If shortage of trees, consider shelter half poles.
◦‘Thermarest’ style ‘self inflating’ sleeping mat – 3/4 length is fine. ◾Without which all your body heat will disappear into the earth.

◾Will fold down and stow away nicely.

◦Foot care:

◾Spare socks
◾Foot powder
◾Blister kit

◦Seasonal spare clothing / rain gear (‘snivel gear’).
◦Beanie hat / gloves.
◦In the heat, consider at least a spare t-shirt/combat shirt to change into.
◦Folding saw.
◦Small Medical kit with limited medications – anti- inflammatory etc, for less than trauma situations.
◦Bug / tick spray.
◦Garden trowel to dig cat holes for poop.
◦Baby wipes / hand sanitizer.

◾Wipes better than TP.

◦Lip balm.
◦Vaseline / petroleum jelly or specific anti-monkey-butt glide cream. ◾consider wearing spandex type or well fitting boxer briefs to cut down on chafing. Wear well fitting pants that do not chafe the seam between the thighs.

◾This still won’t stop the chafe between your butt crack in certain environments, this is where the Vaseline comes in (yeah, yeah, chortle chortle)
◾Don’t use the Vaseline on your butt and then your lips……
◾Chaffing will mess up your patrol….’nuff said.

◦Lightweight litter or equivalent – one per patrol.
◦I’m not going to get off into patrol medic /specialization stuff and all that.
◦Hard candy – coughs and morale.
◦Mission specific gear: radios, batteries, wire cutters, bolt croppers, lights, flares, booby traps (don’t ask), binos, spotting scope, thermal device, chicken wire, burlap and camo for OPs…..etc….

During a recent Texas Patrol Class, we conducted a full overnight operation, including a patrol base and the works, before moving off in the early hours and laying the ambush. That is because it was a training class, designed to compress and teach aspects of a full operation. Clearly, if it was just the ambush we could have headed out and simply patrolled to the ORP overnight, and shivered in the ambush until it was sprung/or collapsed. Alternatively, it could have been a long way to the ambush site, requiring a long patrol and perhaps some rest stops along the way, whether just lay ups or full patrol bases. The exercise took place on a ranch in Texas. A real operation ‘off the ranch’ might have involved vehicles moving either covertly on roads or cross country. The ambush could have been in a suburban or urban area, perhaps using buildings,. The patrol base or lay up could have been in a building, in certain circumstances. It’s all about applying the principles, as taught, to the situation. What if we had taken casualties or had exploited the ambush site and had gear to haul out? Maybe we could have had vehicles on call…….get the idea…..?

Okay, as we can see, it starts to get detailed when you are thinking about spending time out in the boonies. So let’s engage the brain again and try to figure out why we are out there and for how long. If you are going out for a short term mission then you will want to spend as little time on the ground as possible which is balanced against the requirement to stay out there by the specifics of the mission that you have planned. If you are heading out to raid the cannibal bikers in the next village, you may head out, for example overnight, and attack at dawn, but you may not really be factoring in much of a planned rest/sleep i.e. patrol base or Lay Up. So you may go relativity light (there’s that misleading ‘light’ word again), loaded with ammo, water and any necessary food, and plan to just rest for an hour or two, having placed security, as necessary. That way, you are doing the whole ‘travel light, freeze at night’ deal. I have memories of having an hour or two to kill in places like the ORP while waiting for an op to kick off, and curling up shivering on top of my gear to get up off the ground, and nodding off for an hour or so. Think of the old jungle technique of sitting back to back with rucks on, taking a rest, etc. Perhaps sitting backs against trees….

You may also be able to incorporate vehicles into the plan, particularly when thinking about ammo resupply and also casualty evacuation. If you can move closer to the objective tactically using vehicles in some manner, then do so, because it will help with your extraction / evacuation.

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Counter Ambush Tactics

Counter Ambush Tactics thanks to The Bunker

Are you an accident just waiting to happen by blindly walking into an ambush, or do you take the tactical “high ground” to avoid such an event?

Rarely do the “bad guys” announce their intended attack upon you. Rather, they lie in wait to seize the element of surprise. They pounce when you are least aware. A burglar creeping through your house won’'t turn on the lights or make unnecessary noise to give you a chance to arm yourself. A mugger won'’t stand in the middle of the sidewalk and risk you taking a detour away from the “fatal funnel.” And, you won'’t find a person about to carjack you leaning up against your car as you approach. Although many violent attacks occur as a result of an ambush, does your training include counter-ambush tactics?

It should. Most martial arts training start with two opponents facing each other and giving the proper salutations. Western boxers come up to each other before a bout and knock gloves together as a sign of good sportsmanship before the first round. Asian based fighters sharply bow or bring their hands together in a Yin Yang fashion then slip into a combative stance. European Fencers salute one another with their naked blades, as do Filipino Kali practitioners. Although this practice is very colorful and rich in tradition it can negatively condition fighters who are in it for purely survival reasons. Subconsciously this practice sends a message to the fighter that there is a preparatory period just prior to combat. To many my statement may sound ludicrous, but ANYTHING we do in training can carry over into actual combat. Let me give you a startling example.

In law enforcement training many Defensive Tactics (hand-to-hand combat) programs use a hard plastic red colored handgun when practicing gun retention techniques, car stops or subject stops (police contact with a person or arrests). The “red guns” are used in place of real firearms to avoid a possible Negligent Discharge (ND). They are red so that at first glance everyone involved in the training knows that they are a training tool and not the real thing. Using real firearms is also a common practice, but it requires weapon safety checks, and marking the barrel with colored tape. The colored guns makes for an overall safer training environment. However, after repeated use of these colored replicas many officers became so conditioned to the red color that on occasion, actors who played the role of the contactee (the person being stopped by the police) pulled out a red wallet or other red object and suddenly found themselves being “shot.” Why? because, the officers associated the color red with a threat. It'’s for this very reason that many agencies paint their training guns black or silver, or buy products that are already colored similar to that of actual firearms.

Rituals in training, salutations before combative encounters, are very much like the conditioning of the red guns. Although innocent at first, they can lock a person into a potentially dangerous behavioral pattern. In this article we will examine training methods that will prepare you for sudden violent ambushes. Before the ambush Throughout my law enforcement career, and even today in my current duties, one of my biggest concerns is walking into an ambush. Just last year an officer in my department was killed in an ambush. A man armed with an AK47 assault rifle waited at a mini market frequented by police officers. When the officer drove up to get a cup of coffee the suspect came out of the store and sprayed the patrol car with bullets. The officer never had a chance to exit his vehicle. He was cut down before he knew what hit him. However, you don'’t have to be wearing a uniform to walk into the center of an ambush. If you'’re not paying attention you can end up walking into a store or a bank and find yourself right in the middle of a robbery as you are doing your errands; many people have.

Whenever you are going up to an ATM machine, inside a bank, airport, or other potential “targets” you should always observe the surroundings as you make your approach. For example, as you walk up to a liquor store you should scan the immediate area for suspicious vehicles. If somebody is in a vehicle nearby the exit with the engine running it could possible be a “getaway car”. Another telltale sign of a crime in progress, or about to occur, is someone “posted” on the inside who is nervously watching the door and parking lot. This person could be a “lookout” for the accomplices inside.

A few years ago, while off duty, my wife and I were about to enter a drug store for some eye infection medication. As we were about to enter through the double doors I noticed a young woman holding the electronic doors open by standing still in the sensor area. At first I thought she was just being polite and holding the doors open for us, but it soon was apparent that she was looking past us and nervously scanning the parking lot. I sensed that something was wrong and grabbed my wife'’s arm to pull her back. Just then two men jumped the store guardrails and were about to run right over the top of us. They had just committed a commercial burglary and were making their escape. Without thinking I pushed my wife aside, sidestepped, and purposely tripped the first suspect with a sweep. The case of beers that the suspect was clutching onto tumbled in front end over end of him on the sidewalk as he skidded to a stop on his palms. The second suspect in hot pursuit leaped over his fallen partner in crime like a clumsy hurdle runner, then turned around to “take care” of me. I pulled my concealed pistol from my pancake holster and ordered him to stop. The surprised attacker, dressed in gang attire, decided that dying for a few beers was not worth it, turned and fled, leaving his accomplices. In the commotion the other two scurried off. I wasn’'t about to stop them without a radio, vest, or back up. Plus, a violent encounter was not worth it for some stolen bottles, and my wife standing next to me. I decided to be a good witness instead. When approaching, or walking through a potential ambush area, always follow the first tactical rule – Stop, Look, Listen. In my example of the drug store incident, the moment I sensed something “unusual” or “out of place” I stopped, I looked, and I only had a split second to decide what I was going to do when the two men came running at me. Had I not been paying attention as I was walking to the entrance of the store the thieves would have plowed me and my wife over.

Whether you’'re in a military unit walking through hostile territory or you are walking through a dark city alley, you should stop, look and listen every few minutes, even if there is no apparent danger. If is quiet, move on. If you hear or see something, prepare yourself. Stop, Look, Listen exercises In the Australian military manual, Patrolling and Tracking, Section 5 No. 74 it reads, “Patrol leaders must try to anticipate where contact with the enemy (ambush) is probable. Action to be taken must be planned and rehearsed before the patrol moves out.” In a martial arts training environment you can do a simple exercise that will help you learn to “anticipate” contact with the “enemy.”

I call this exercise Walking the Gauntlet. It will develop alertness, mobility, and attack. Have several participants line up, spread out evenly, on each side of the room facing inward. Place a student (the trainee) in the middle of the two lines and have him or her walk down the center through the two lines. Prior to conducting the exercise the trainee faces the wall as the instructor selects a couple of attackers on each side of the line. Each trainee that will walk through the Gauntlet will receive a different configuration of attackers. The trainee is then told to turn around and walk through the midst of the participants. The trainee, unaware of who was selected for the attack, cautiously moves through the “crowd” until a noise or aggressive movement from one of the selected attackers catches his or her attention. The trainee quickly defends against the sudden attack. After the appropriate action has been taken against the attacker (be it knife defense training, hand-to-hand, etc.), the trainee returns to the place where the attacked had just occurred, and picks up where they left off to walk the rest of the Gauntlet.

I do this exercise often to prepare police officers for walking through agitated crowds, such as parties, labor strikes, bars, etc. Not everyone in a crowd is going to jump you, but you have to be prepared for those few who might. It makes for a very nervous trainee, but it helps them get use to possible ambushes. Attack the attacker In an ambush the ambusher has the tactical advantage. Whether it’s a military operation or a crook waiting to jump you, the ambusher will have done their homework prior to the attack; they will have studied the terrain in which you will pass, note the fields of fire and observation, cover, concealment, obstacles, and avenues of approach and withdrawal. Then, when you come walking into the “killing zone” the attack is launched. In the case of an attempted rape, robbery, or other criminal assault the ambush will be what we call a “near ambush.” In other words, the attack is right on top of you, as opposed to a “far ambush” such as a sniper attack. In a near assault the US military teaches its personnel to attack the enemy if caught in an ambush. By doing an immediate action drill, suddenly counterattacking the enemy even under concentrated close-range fire, moves you out of the killing zone, and prevents other ambushers from closing in on you.

Although each incident must be weighed separately, most criminals expect their victims to comply when faced with the threat of violence or with violence itself. Whenever you submit to a criminal you can never know the outcome. You are at the mercy of the criminal. Although fighting back can get you hurt, a sudden violent counterattack may catch the attacker off guard affording you the opportunity to move out of the “killing zone.” In any ambush the natural instinct is to take cover and save your skin. However, that’'s exactly what the enemy is hoping for and picks you off as you cower in a defensive position. For survival, sometimes you must go opposite your instincts and meet the danger head on.

As the famous Chinese guerilla fighter, Mao Tse-tung, once said, “In every apparent disadvantage, some advantage is to be found.” When I am training correctional personnel how to survive a jail or prison riot, I purposely put them at a disadvantage in order for them to find some advantage. I have an exercise where I simulate a worst-case scenario – a group of hostile inmates have blocked the escape route for the correction staff. The natural tendency is for officers to separate from one another and push directly to the exit or to huddle in a corner and fight defensively. However, these methods are almost always doomed to failure. The proper tactic is to stick together and follow a wall so the inmates cannot come up from behind. In order to have a chance of getting out they have to move together as a group and violently push through. To do the exercise I usually put five officers on one side of a room (fitted with protective gear) and seven “inmates” (also geared up) on the other side of the room blocking the exit. The goal of the exercise is to move as a team and get all five officers past the inmates and out the door. Students learn very quickly that if they do not push for the door and attack the inmates with what the Marines call “violence of action,” they never make it to safety. Of course this exercise can carry over into civilian applications, such as training your family to stick together and push through as a unit. Think like the crook Of course, to outsmart an ambusher you have to think like one. When you walk anywhere, especially high-risk areas, you should always ask yourself these questions:

1. Where would someone most likely be hiding?
2. Should an attack occur where are my avenues of escape?
3. What would the best tactics be – counterattack, submit, run?

A good exercise to run, in order to sharpen your reaction skills in sudden ambush situations, is an exercise I named Door number 1, 2 or 3. Stack cardboard boxes up vertically to create a few “walls” the attacker can hide behind, or hang a few sheets of black painters plastic from the ceiling to the floor. As the trainee makes their way from one end of the room to the other, the attacker lies in wait behind one of the walls. When the trainee comes within range, the attacker, or attackers (it’'s good to sometimes have multiple attackers) launch an attack; be it a hold-up, knife attack, a fist fight, or whatever other realistic simulation you can come up with.

The trainee will soon learn some valuable lessons in avoiding, or reducing the consequences of an ambush:

1. When turning corners, make wide turns to give more reaction time.
2. Use “noise discipline” (don'’t make noise) as you approach a hostile area, so the bad guy can’'t hear you coming.
3. Anticipate likely hiding areas that an attacker may take.

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More on why we need to be trained

I wanted to write more on this topic because I feel that it is the single most important thing we can do as patriots to be there in our nation's time of need. This is the entire point of this blog; to better prepare it's readers for what is coming. Tough times are coming, that is a fact; things are getting worse by the day. Economically we are hurting, our debt is at unsustainable levels, our morals are degrading as a nation, and it will all come to a head at some point. I feel that it will be sooner rather than later.

With that said, I want to provide at least some good information for my readers so that you might be just that much more ready for what is coming, and have a better ability to stand up for what is right, and be there to restore our once great nation to the Constitutional Republic that it was intended to be.

I encourage everyone to get some form of tactical training, if you have or know of a combat veteran, then if they are willing, get them to train you. If you do not know anyone, and you are not trained yourself and you wish to become trained, then here is a list (not comprehensive) of some of the tactical training schools/academies, that you might be able to attend. I know that the cost of some of them seems high, but how much is your life worth? How much are your family members lives worth? Bite the bullet and get the training, it will save your life some day soon.

Here are some of the tactical training places in the United States:

Max Velocity Tactical

Active Response Training

Mountain Guerrilla (John Mosby)

Firearms Academy of Seattle

Insights Training

Spartan Tactical

Texas Tactical

Tactical Response

On Point Tactical

Tactical U

Northern Virginia Tactical

Fulcrum Tactical

Rattlesnake Ridge

Marauders Tactical

Gunsite

Defensive Concepts

Ohio Valley Tactical

Warrior School

I know there are tons more out there, but hopefully these will help you out.

Please take this seriously, and get out there and train with your group, yourself, your family, whatever, just train!


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4th Generation Warfare (4GW)

First off I wanted to say HOOYA! We have reached a benchmark today!!! 100 Posts and still kicking, actually picking up steam! Thanks to all of you that swing by hear, and especially to those who join the blog to follow it.

This is a very important topic for you patriots that someday will be called upon to defend your nation.

The link below is to a draft of FMFM 1 A on Fourth Generation War, it is a good read, so please open it up, read it, print it, give it to your buddies.

LINK TO DOCUMENT

The role that we will play, when called on to do so will be as Light Infantry in an "Asymmetrical War". We will not be "Heavy Infantry" like the Marine Corps and Army are today. Our military today has gone away from the traditional role of light infantry. Now our troops are heavily laden with all kinds of stuff that really takes them out of the light infantry mode. They also have developed a dependence on fire support, such as artillery, and air power, that we will not have in our fight.

A good example of true light infantry are the insurgents in the big sand box. They travel light, carrying an AK, a couple of mags, a little food and water, and that is about it. We may not want to go to that extreme, but we need to take a look at our kit and ensure that it is a load that we can carry through the worst terrain, under the worst conditions for extended periods of time and still maintain the ability to engage our enemies effectively.

Here is another great source of information for your training. It is a PDF about mountain warfare, from which we can learn a lot, and train ourselves to be much more effective since the fight will inevitably end up in the mountains. I really like the idea of modeling groups after the German Alpine Troops (Jaeger's), the idea of lighter equipped, self contained units that are capable to operate without support for extended periods of time, far from support. This is the model we will have to adopt if we want to be successful.

Mountain Warfare

Hopefully you guys will be taking this to heart and incorporating tactics of light infantry, and guerilla warfare into your training. (Hopefully you are training in the first place!)

Please take this stuff to heart, and think about how it will help you and your guys, train on it, learn it, study it. We need to be able to operate in a variety of modes during the up coming difficult times. We need to be as prepared as we can be, and be ready to do our best.

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Contact from Multiple Firing Points

I noticed this article by Max and thought it would be really good information to pass on to the people that read this blog. I hope you do not mind, but this is an article and video from Max Velocity.

Contact from Multiple Firing Points

Posted by Max Velocity in Tactical Comment, Uncategorized on December 16 2015

I sometimes get questions about Break Contact Drills, and what to do if the contact is from multiple directions. We do practice some scenarios like this on the Combat Patrol (CP) class, which take the drills beyond what we do on the Combat Team Tactics (CTT) Class. There are really two types of break contact drills:

1) Patrol immediate action drills, that happen automatically to the call of contact (direction). These drills are briefed /rehearsed as SOP prior to departing on the patrol.

2) Squad/platoon leader decision to break contact depending on the situation.

In the case of (1), the implementation of the immediate break contact drill does not preclude the leader stepping in and changing the plan once the drill has begun to flow, and in the light of a developing situation. In the case of (2) the drill does not occur until decided upon by the leader, in line with a plan developed as a result of a combat estimate (on the fly). An example would be an attempted hasty attack that becomes bogged due to an incorrect assessment of enemy strength, when a break contact may be called.

Given ‘a video paints a thousand words’ I am posting the video below, which illustrates a number of these points, and shows how a section commander (squad leader) will react to the developing situation. This is not a ‘break contact drill’ per se, it is in fact an attempt to reduce the enemy within the framework of a developing contact. However, you can see illustrated some of the techniques of maneuver and break contact, such as the peel, being put to use to maneuver on the battlefield.

You can see the contact develop from multiple directions and how the section commander (great job by the young leader) maneuvers his section (squad) as the situation develops. This relies on the training of his men so they all know what he means when he wants them to maneuver. In this way, basic fire and movement drills, such as bounding and peeling, are used to maneuver the squad to various parts of the battlefield both into and out of contact.

The video also gives a general impression of the range, pace and feeling of these types of situations. It is not all 100mph with massive amounts of enemy fire coming at you. There is time to think. The importance is in maintaining momentum by continuing suppressive fire as you maneuver. I often stress one of the hardest things to do is locate the enemy. You see this in the video, in particular where new firing points open up. You cannot suppress until you can locate, and then put accurate fire down onto the enemy to change his behavior (suppress him).






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