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KevinB
10-09-2013, 12:18 PM
AAR: REDBACK ONE 5 DAY ADVANCED HOSTAGE RESCUE COURSE (MIL/LE Only)
Instructors: Jason Falla, and B (recent NSWDG retiree).
Duration and Location: ITI Range 1, 30 Sept-4 Oct 2013, aprox 70hrs of instruction and training.
Now as much as I want amplify to everyone how great the course was, I am going to be short on detail of what we did for OPSEC/TTP protection, I appreciate this make a rather bland AAR, but I think we can all agree that no one wants to be the guy or gal that gave a bad guy a leg up. My advice to anyone on a SWAT or Federal Team that may find themselves in a CQB environment either extracting or securing personnel, is to take the class, you will not be disappointed.
Having taken the RB1 3 day Offensive Stronghold Clearance course, I was very much looking forward to an opportunity to take the 5 Day AHR course. I know several folks who had taken it before and their entities where very impressed, and at the end so was I.

Day1 0730: Course met up at the range (well course met at 0700 at the Hotel in Gloucester VA, but as I had woken up at 0300 and left my house by 0315, to make the start time, driving 20min further south was not in the cards for me). Course started out by having roll call, then having us layout our gear on the training area – then heading into the class for a short POI on the Principles of Room Combat, overview on CQB methods, Areas of Responsibilities, Communications and Calls, intro to 2 man entries – point of penetration, scans, verbiage etc.
After that it was time for the Qualification Shoot. Now for those unfamiliar with RB1 and the shooting standards, make no mistake it’s clear and to the point, and its demanding in both time and accuracy. These are done cold – as in get your gear, and shoot the qual. The idea is that everyone operating in a CQB environment needs to be able to shoot surgically on demand.
After that we were cleared out (mags and weapons verified clear) and went in to the shoot house for some instruction on 2 man entries.
Now interestingly enough one comment that struck me like a lightning bolt was Brian’s comment “CQB Shooting is all about time” the quicker you end the threat the more chance you, your teammates and the hostages, etc have at arriving at a successful outcome. One needs to be both accurate, and fast, not surprising in Hostage Rescue, as from the moment of compromise of the EA/DA team until target secure time is the essence.
Day1 culminated around 23:15 and some low light/no light live fire entries.

I’m going to drop the day by day break down of the course at this point, but suffice to explain that by the end we conducted EA (Emergency Actions) and DA (Deliberate Actions) on a target site, both during day and night, with and without gas in the structure, and used different MOE to breach the structure.
Additionally when we as a course got sloppy with our shooting, we would go for a little jog, or push-ups or other physical reminders for concentration while wearing gas masks. Now things like the push-ups where done with a ‘nice’ break in the down or up position as we answered questions on the Fundamentals of Marksmanship, and Enhances Accuracy was usually the reason… As well since this was a Team course – we started and stopped collective activities as a course in-line, no-one finished last, no-one finishes first. After that things like offset for Height over Bore, and sloppy trigger control got tightened up, as running in gear and gas mask is no fun in 80F+ weather, and it drove home the fact that this is not a game, but this is truly life and death.
We did some breaching relays – both Manual (Sledge only, and Sledge/Halligan tool) as well as Shotgun ballistic breaching – once covered in class and practices on the square range – it was added to the House Runs. One of the Department’s in attendance had brought NFDD’s, for me the single banger is NOT my recommended NFDD, for a variety of reasons, I’m curious as to why none of the big LE providers do not have Multi discharge bangers, to me it would seem to be a win-win as it would reduce liability on many fronts and provides the teams with additional tactical advantages.
Jason and B. conducted a no light clear in the house using goggles and lasers with suppressed weapons. At that point it was clear to all in attendance if they had not seen this sort of thing, the importance of suppressed weapons, Night Vision Goggles and IR lasers in LE work.
The time frame on the course was compressed; it is very hard to get everything in that one wants to teach in a 70hr block of instruction. Jason and B. both mentioned they’d love to offer a 2-4 week course but unfortunately very few entities can fund 1 person let alone an entire team off from duty for that period of time. However I will say that I think it was a great balance of materials and masterfully taught. I am hoping to attend a subsequent course into more of the planning/leadership and communication aspects that RB1 is planning on offering. By the end I was physically and mentally burned out – this course is challenging and very demanding, and worth it beyond words, for you or entity. I know that everyone learned a great deal – not just in TTP’s and Skills from the Tier1 Level, but also the gear used and rationale to why.
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