AAR: THE FIGHT! Tactical Response September 13 & 14, 2021, Carlisle PA
THE FIGHT!
Tactical Response
September 13 & 14, 2021
CLASS REVIEW, AAR
Lead Instructors: Louis Mango & Brian Sayers
Weather: High 80’s hot and humid
Location: Carlisle, PA
This class is extremely hard to review publicly without spoiling it for anyone who has not taken the class and wants to. I will not be talking about the scenarios or lessons learned. I don’t want to rob you of the experience. If you know the lessons learned the impact will not be as great and perhaps the lessons will not be imprinted on you. This review will be extremely vague on purpose.
I will say this…
1. This may be the most important class you can ever take!
2. Take it! Make it happen. Don’t make excuses.
3. Your life may depend on it.
4. Again, make it happen! no excuses!
No matter how many shooting and gun-fighting classes you have taken (I have taken a ton… Well over 1,500 hours of training just in the past three years. I took my first class in 2014) until you pressure test yourself in a scenario-based force on force class where bullets are going both ways you have NO IDEA what you will do in certain situations. There were many times in the two days I knew what to do, and did not do the right thing under the stress and the adrenalin dumps.
You will learn more in this class than you could ever think. You will make mistakes that hopefully you’ll never make again. If you think you are going to perform well doing it for real (life and death on the streets) the first time you’ll probably be surprised when the outcome is less than ideal on your end. There is a good chance you will be shot, maybe killed, and most likely be locked up. Even if you think you know what to do. Make these mistakes in this class, learn the lessons on what not to do in this training class and you hopefully will not make them if it happens for realzees.
This class was exceptionally well done. You are put into a series of scenarios that you could encounter in your life. Things you do in everyday life. Each scenario is well thought out, the role players are professional and in character following a script of what they are to do based on the scenario and your actions to the scenario.
In some of the scenarios you should get your gun out and shoot, some you should not use your gun and some could go either way based on your actions in the scenario. After the scenario you debrief it, what happened? what could you have done better? What did you do wrong? What did you do correctly? What details did you recall?
Don’t be afraid of the sim rounds hitting you. I have seen pictures on the internet and have talked to people hit by them. I was concerned, don’t be, it was not bad. Your ego will be bruised. Go into the class with an open mind, you are there to learn and experience what NOT TO DO in real life.
Excerpt from my nonpublic AAR detailing all the scenarios and lessons learned:
This is a force-on-force class with several scenarios for you to work through.
We each had a paintball face mask that protected our face and head. Most of us wore jeans (or heavy pants), sweatshirts & gloves The people who wore short-sleeved shirts were beaten up with the simuntions hits. The impacts are supposed to hurt. It simulates you getting shot! Pain is a good teacher.
Before the class started, we were instructed to take all weapons off our bodies and leave them in our cars. NOTHING sharp or deadly on our bodies.
We were instructed to make two lines facing each other. We each did a self pat-down. Then we each searched the student in front of us. They searched us back. Looking for any live ammo, knives, guns anything that could hurt ourselves or the role-players.
After each of us had been checked twice, once by ourselves, once by a fellow student, we lined up for an instructor pat-down. This was very detailed. Head to toe.
We were put into a large party tent and any bags or coolers were searched by the instructors. Once we were clean, we were told NOT to go to our cars. If we left the tent for any reason, we needed to be searched again. This was very serious. People could get very hurt.
Students were given a Glock 17T (FX/FOF) gun, a plastic cell phone, 2 mags with 5 rounds in each mag. You were to carry whatever you normally carried as an EDC for the scenario. I had an IWB holster, a Recon training TQ, a flashlight, my spare mag went into my front pocket as it normally does.
A safety briefing was given, these blue GlockTs were to be treated as real guns. All the safety rules apply. Marshal gun handling only! No headshots were allowed.
We had chairs inside the party tent and waited to be called for our turn. One by one a student would get their gear on and leave for the scenario. Once they came back there was no talking about what just happened until everyone had gone through.
There were two of the same scenarios going on at the same time to move the students through. After each of the students has gone through, we would debrief as a group with the instructors.
The first person came back and said. “you guys are f***ed!!” I saw no paint on him, but he was covered in sweat and breathing heavy… The stress was building…. I can hear screaming coming from the building…..
Your scenario begins now…..
TAKE THIS CLASS!
