by Max Velocity
Another thing related to the direction of your assault and the lay of the land is what options are you giving the enemy? Will you trap them and force them to fight or do you give them a route to withdraw on? What do you intend - kill, capture, just seize the ground, or destroy them all? This also applies to a raid or deliberate attack where you may leave the enemy 'open door' opportunities to escape or you may deliberately place cut-off groups along egress routes to kill/capture any escaping enemy. If you do put such groups out, just like cut-off groups in an ambush you must use terrain to screen them from your direct fire as you conduct the assault, as they will likely be positioned 'downrange ' from your assault.
"To close with and destroy the enemy with bullet, bomb and bayonet."
CHAPTER FOUR
TRAINING
Training Processes
The importance of training cannot be underestimated, both for the preparation of specific TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures), and also for the development of skills, confidence and the right mindset. This includes conditioning for combat. It would not be enough to simply read this book and store away the information contained; the content should be drilled and practiced. There could be some utility in having simply read it and then look to train individuals in a secure location post-event, but you still have to be able to master the contents yourself.
It is a useful point that it is unlikely that you will be able to maintain indefinitely a trained team ready to go. Some of those that you plan to survive with will be of the wrong age or physical ability to do much training (although there will be tasks that can be allocated to them to help, even such as reloading magazines, which has the benefit of giving them something to do to keep their minds off the emergency); also your team will evolve and post-event after some have not made it and others have joined you, it is likely that you will have a fairly new group of people.
You can’t just tell people what to do, because they are civilians and they have no concept or experience of what you really mean; conceptually in their minds they will not be able to relate to what it is that you want. So it is more than likely that once you are in a secure location you will have the task to train up whatever team you have in the basics of weapons, shooting, security and basic tactics. Even if you have a group of veterans, who you perhaps want to use as a tactical team, you will want to draw up a series of TTPs (based on your knowledge plus input from their various experiences) and then train and run through the drills prior to going on mission.
There are a couple of mnemonics that will help with this: KISS & EDIP:
KISS:
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid*
(*Note: you can’t fix stupid, just work with it!)
(*Note 2: one of the problems with stupid, is that when people are, they are often too stupid to realize it.)
EDIP:
Explain
Demonstrate
Imitate
Practice
KISS works for all tactics and military operations. EDIP helps to remember the best method of instruction. Explain the concept; demonstrate it to them, either yourself or have a demo team; have them imitate the technique or skill; then once it is understood have them practice it.
As a general outline, if you have a group of people that you need to train up you will adapt the training to the overall standard and experience of the group and you will ‘crawl, walk, run’ through the training. For example, if you want to train up a unit in some basic security and perhaps patrolling duties, then you should start with the basics and work up.
Start with the basics of shooting and then move on to the various positions. If the situation allows, throw in some strength and conditioning training. Once they have the basics of shooting them move them on to movement and communication. Start at the individual level and work up to buddy pairs, fire teams and squads. You will practice drills dry, first as explanations, then demonstrations then walk and run through, and then you will move on to doing it as a live firing exercise. You could have the trainees on the range and have them fire and move towards the targets (enemy), then they can learn to withdraw by fire and maneuvering away, and then peel to the left and right.
Once they have these basics down, you can then move on to teaching them field-craft, formations, patrolling and battle drills. You start at the basics and work up. If you have the ability, you should conduct live firing exercises. If you have the land and you are far away from prying eyes or ears, you can construct enemy positions and add realistic targets. You can conduct maneuver against these positions, utilizing safety personnel moving behind the firers to ensure that they do not engage when friendlies are too close within their arcs of fire ahead of them.
At a basic level, you can construct individual ‘jungle lanes’ by using a draw or stream bed and either placing targets out that will be seen as they progress down the lane, or even better have cabling so that the targets can be pulled up by safety personnel walking behind the firer. So, in essence, start at the basics and then work up to create realistic imaginative and interesting training that is tactically relevant. Once you have covered the basics the more and better ‘battle exercises’ that you create whether dry, blank or live, the better.
Battle exercises should have a scenario and use ‘role players’ to set the scene i.e. you have the squad in a preparation holding area and the role player comes out, gives the squad leader a brief, and leads them to an area to observe a target. The scenario is perhaps squad attack, recovery of items, or hostage rescue. The role player leaves them and the squad leader makes a quick plan and conducts the mission. This is all then de-briefed (AAR – more later) and the lessons learned and assimilated.
Prior to conducting any sort of operation, it is necessary to conduct rehearsals. These are a form of training where whatever drills you have are practiced specifically for the upcoming mission. The various actions that you expect to conduct during the mission will be run through, as well as a run through of standard ‘actions on’. Rehearsals will be done in the specific teams and vehicles that you will be utilizing for the upcoming mission, with equipment configured accordingly. Rehearsals normally follow an ‘O Group’ (orders group), where the operations order, or plan, is briefed to the team, using a standard format and usually either a map, a sand table or a model of the ground.
Rehearsals are usually termed ‘day & night’ or ‘noisy & silent’; the first is more of a walk-through talk-through and the second is done in silence, dressed and equipped for the mission, preferably on ground similar to the mission ground. Usually the second rehearsal happens just prior to going out, and will also include pre-mission inspections and if it is a covert type mission such as a recon patrol where there is a need for silence, the team members will be made to get up and down from the ground to check for equipment noises (note: the old school way was to have them jump up and down to check for noise, but it makes more sense to have them do things that they will be doing on mission, such as get up and down and walk around). There will be more about orders in the tactical portion of this manual. If possible and the tactical situation allows it, test fire your weapons prior to going out.
Training is important because it generates inside you the knowledge and skills. Having the skills is more important than having the equipment. Having the right equipment is ideal and will make life a lot easier, hence our preparations. However, with the right equipment and without the skill is a bad situation. Without the right equipment and with the trained skills is better – you will be able to acquire the equipment and improve your situation.
Being a gear nerd is great; getting a new piece of ‘Gucci’ web gear is just as good retail therapy as a woman going out and getting new shoes and handbags. It’s important to be prepared and you can make your life a lot easier if you do have the right equipment. And then the event happens just when you flew to the opposite end of the country on a business trip – now you have to get ba
ck to your family with no gear: Standby, Go! Don’t be a faker – ‘all the gear, no idea’. If you are getting the gear, then get the training. Be honest with yourself about your abilities, fitness and level of training. Take a long hard look at yourself and ask yourself if you are ready.
Blog Post
Good Solid Training:
Many of you will have heard of the phrase ‘crawl, walk, run’ where it concerns training. It is very true, and it is important to get the solid building blocks of your training in place, whether as an individual and then as a team, before you try and move on to more complex drills.
I write this because I have been thinking about a lot of what I see out there, the ‘tacticool’ stuff. I also use as an example those movies where the heroes always seem to have perfect information and perfect technology, movies such as ‘Mission Impossible’. Very seductive images, but imagine if they were trying to do that stuff for real: how do they have such perfect knowledge?! In the real world, ‘Murphy’s Law’ says that if it can go wrong, it will. As such, using technology can be very helpful and very useful, but when you begin your training you should do so without the gadgets. This will also mean that when the gadgets fail, you will still be able to continue, overcome the inconvenience, and succeed.
So, what are some basic examples of this?
1) Map reading: make sure you are proficient at navigation with map and compass. You will utilize GPS when it is available, but if for whatever reason it is not, you have a reliable back-up. Have the paper maps and compass. You may run out of batteries, your GPS device may fail, or the GPS grid may be shut down.
2) Basic Tactics: when you train your drills, whether it be squad level break contact drills, foot or vehicle mounted or whatever, make sure you start off just using voice commands and hand signals. You should be able to do all these things with technology, without radios. Add the radios later to enhance communications, but expect and anticipate communications failure.
Don’t be seduced by all the cool technology. Use it as a tool to enhance your operations when you can, but don’t be reliant on it. You won’t have perfect information and your gear is likely to fail at some point, particularly in a post-collapse situation.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Also consider that the more low-tech you go, the less detectable you are by modern technology.
A last word on ‘the basics’: It is my experience that what is considered ‘the basics’ in terms of tactics is really all there is. These ‘basics’ don’t really get any more complicated than they are. As an example, fire and movement: from individual up to Company or Battalion level, fire and movement is what it is. There are variations on how to do it, and some ways work better than others, but there is no super-secret ‘secret squirrel’ technique to it. As an example some of the break contact drills that I lay out as options in ‘Contact!’ and ‘Rapid Fire!’: These are ‘simple drills’ in the tradition of using in combat drills that are simple enough to work under stress: KISS – Keep it Simple Stupid. These are the same drills that are used by the British SAS and SOF.
The key point here is that it is not making a drill complicated on paper that makes it ‘high speed’. It is making the drill simple and logical enough that can be successfully carried out by trained operators when under enemy contact. The real skill to all this is to train good solid drills but be able to bear up under the stress, pressure and fatigue of being out there for long periods of time; being hot and dehydrated or wet and cold, without adequate sleep and food. That is when it counts. Intestinal fortitude and backbone. That is what separates the more ‘high speed’ operators from the ‘tacticool’ mall ninjas.
Weapons Safety
Tied in closely with training is weapons safety training. It is very important to concentrate on safety issues when training those in the group, both new and more experienced shooters. It always important to be ‘mindful’ when around weapons – to not be mindful is to invite an ‘unthinking moment’. An unthinking moment can result in a negligent discharge simply because you were distracted or were not fully concentrating on what you were doing. A common mistake, when unloading the weapon at the end of a mission or perhaps for cleaning, is to check the chamber without removing the magazine. The bolt will ride forward, chambering a round, and when the trigger is squeezed a round will fire. You should consider building an unloading barrel or bay (a round catcher) at your defended location for this reason.
If unloading is taking place unsupervised, then the weapons should at the very least be pointed in a safe direction before loading or unloading them. Don’t load and unload weapons in vehicles. A negligent discharge may well kill someone around you, and if you are at your base or home, it may even go through a wall or walls and hit, maybe, a child.
The basic safety rules for weapons are as follows:
1. Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
2. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
3. Never point your weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
4. Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire.
Don’t let kids play with weapons, but familiarize them with them and teach weapons safety and respect. Teach them the right thing to do around weapons, this will be particularly important in a post-event situation, when weapons are very much in evidence, and should be taught now.
Weapons should generally be pointed in a safe direction, unless at the enemy when you want to engage them. Don’t play, mess around, or goof off with or around weapons. Always utilize the safety catch – even when training in fire and movement, make sure it is applied when moving between positions.
Avoid ‘flagging’ friendlies with your muzzle i.e. pointing the weapon at them. This is an important point but can be taken to ridiculous degrees, with people getting all feisty and threatening others over unintentional and brief ‘flagging’. What is more important is being professional and making sure your safety catch is applied. In some, very professional, armies and teams there is not such a focus on the whole flagging issue, which means you don’t have to go to extreme lengths, when perhaps turning around, to avoid flagging anyone in your patrol. Just be professional and in control of your weapon.
To be clear, this is not to say that “Max Velocity condones flagging.” Not at all. For example, the British army carries its weapons differently, not in the extreme low ready that the US Army has adopted which can be uncomfortable and ‘wrist-twisting’ on long patrols. For example, the British Paras use a more horizontal carry, which means that a muzzle may pass over another soldier when turning around. Deliberate pointing of weapons is to be avoided, but operationally you will notice that weapons carriage is often amended to a more horizontal method for practicality on long missions.
When conducting ‘cross-decking’ drills (more later) there will be a number of professional operators cramming into vehicles with weapons: everyone will be doing their best to make sure their weapon points in a safe direction and they will ensure that their safety catch is applied. That’s just reality among professional operators.
So to state it again: Make sure that unless you are imminently about to engage the enemy your trigger finger is outside of the trigger housing, along the side of the weapon. Don’t play around or mess with your trigger or safety catch in any way.
Blog Post
Tactical Tip – Sling Use and Muzzle Flagging:
Here are some things to consider about the use of slings.
I have no experience of using a sling as an actual aid to marksmanship, other than with .22 target shooting in the cadets at school. This post is not about that. I would suggest that it is not an option unless you are set up in a static position, in the role of a sharpshooter.
There are a lot of slings out there on the market, from three point, two point to single point slings. Consider what it is that you want from your sling before making a purchase i.e. base it on practical considerations and not the 'tacticool fa
ctor'.
I still have an issue British SA80 (L85) sling. It goes very well on my M4/AR15. It is officially a two point sling but a buckle un-clips to make it work like a single point sling. I like it, so much so that I just found a civilian vendor and ordered another three from the UK.
I have used a lot of sling configurations, and primarily I preferred the SA80 sling. I mostly do not have the sling over my body, and just carry/manipulate the weapon without one. In the Para's there was a time when slings were frowned upon and were not used at all. That changed when it was mandated that slings were to be used, and often the sling would be put on the weapon but tightened up so it was out of the way.
Part of that 'old-school' logic for not using slings was that a soldier should always be carrying and in control of his rifle. It is of course useful to have a sling on your rifle for when you are doing other things and have to use your hands. It’s even useful in the chow line, to be able to sling your rifle on your back.
One of my pet hates is the slinging of weapons on the front in the ready position, but not holding it. Like when you are in the chow line! It kind of sits there, like an accessory. To me, you are either in control of your weapon, or you are in the chow line and put it on your back. It’s not an accessory. I try not to be a fundamentalist about anything, I have always found that to be an unhelpful mindset, and I am always open to new tactical ideas, but unless anyone can point out a decent excuse for that, I'll stick to my opinion.
One of the very good reasons to have a rifle slung to your body is to prevent it being taken. This has happened before and is a primary risk in any kind of fight/mob/civil disorder/riot situation that you may find yourself in. So it is a good idea to be able to sling the rifle to your body, just not in a way where the sling is tight and you are not yourself manipulating and controlling the weapon. That's why I like the SA80 sling, because when you unbuckle it the weapon is free but if dropped will go to your side like a single point sling. If buckled, it is like a traditional sling and can easily be placed on your back to free up your hands.