The following is my AAR from a recent High Threat Vehicle Engagements – Open Enrollment class with 88 Tactical

1) Provider: 88 Tactical
2) Owner: 88 Tactical
3) Phone / Web: 402-933-7171 / http://www.88tactical.com/
4) E-mail: info@88tactical.com
5) When: April 22 & 23, 2017
6) Where: Tekamah Training Facility, Tekamah, NE
7) Accommodations: Onsite cabin
8) Gear used: Glock 19, KT-Mech Defender & BladeTech IWB Nano holsters, Uncle Mike’s and Ready Tactical magazine pouches, Wilderness instructor belt, factory and Magpul Glock 19 and Glock 17 magazines, shooter produced reloads, and Arc’teryx leaf kneepads.. On Saturday I ran the G19 with an InForce APL and the KT-Mech Defender holster. On Sunday I ran the IWB Nano holster and no light.
9) Cost: $425 class fee, $48.88 taxes and registration fees, $135 lodging, $150 travel gas (divided 3 ways).
10) Did weather adversely affect training: No.
11) Instructors’ Competence: Instructors’ skills and abilities to apply them exceeded my own, of course.
12) Instructors’ Ethics: Excellent-Outstanding
13) Safely Conducted: Yes
14) Condition of Equipment: Excellent
15) Food: Breakfast using the lodge kitchen, make-ahead lunches onsite, and dinners in Tekamah.
16) Number of overall firearms’ related training classes for myself: Student – 13 (2 as host), Range Assistant/FoF Role Player – 3.
17) Certificate issued: Yes
18) Training time: 16 hours
19) Written training plan: Yes Followed: As far as I could tell
20) Instructor to student ratio: 3/17
21) Round count: 340
22) Recommended: Yes, highly.
23) General comments:

I wanted to focus on one to two training subjects in 2017; force-on-force and vehicle selfdefense. We spend a lot of time in and around our cars. I was specifically looking for a course for civilian selfdefense in and around vehicles. I was not looking for what I call a “street fighter” course; one in which I would run around a car at a quick pace engaging targets with a carbine. With digging I found a couple available that met my requirements, but after several phone calls settled on this 2-day class with 88 Tactical. Two of my southeast Wisconsin shooting partners, one LE, one civilian, also attended the class. I do want to note that one other class I investigated did include carbine use in the beginning, but as it was explained to me it was done that way to train longmuzzle-of-the-carbine control before moving to the pistol which was harder to control muzzle. It was explained that the skills/procedures in and around the cars was transferrable between the two weapons.

The class started promptly at 0800 on Saturday morning in the lodge. Class time management of breaks and lunch throughout was well-done and I noted senior instructor Kurt Sorys’ influence on this. Alex Judkins was lead instructor, Kurt Sorys was senior instructor, and Jake “Navy” was apprentice instructor. There were seventeen students of various backgrounds including approximately 25-30% LE. It is my understanding that Alex is one of the developers of the course and that this was the inaugural open enrollment course. Alex is quick-witted which makes the class fun and prevents him from being stumped by student inquisitions. He explains things well without false bravado. Kurt, also acting as the facility caretaker and our host to the facility, is in perpetual motion. He is incessantly making the operation work well and representing 88 Tactical in a positive manner. I became and am a huge fan of Kurt as an instructor. His in-scenario coaching (or making things harder to challenge us on the spot), his explanations, and his instructor demeanor all meshed well with me. Jake demo’d drills and scenarios well and gave good explanations and promptings in-scenario to make us work harder.

First off, Alex made it clear that vehicles are just terrain and explained that concept. In my short summary, they are of limited cover value and getting out of them to better cover while under engagement is important. We watched videos produced by the Omaha, NE police department on vehicle ballistic penetration tests. We then headed outside and established positions that we’d be using on a situational basis; low ready, high ready, high carry, Sul, etc. High carry, as Alex termed it, which is similar to what is called Temple Index, was introduced here. As a huge fan of someone I’d known to disparage Temple Index I was skeptical. By the end of my first car evac I was sold on use of it. We also did something they called the “Gaggle Drill” to teach safe muzzle orientation around people while engaging threats. I really liked that and will use it in some things I do with a practice group.

After lunch we were on the range working live fire positions including standing, kneeling, sitting, urban prone, and supine. We moved on to a live-fire demo of 9mm, .40, .45 and .223 into the B-pillar of a car to demonstrate what the cars are and are not capable of withstanding. Deflection of bullets off a hood and windshield were demonstrated. The effect on bullets leaving a windshield was demonstrated. We moved on to a simple single-person-egress from cars, then simple two-person-egress. In some cases multiple targets were used, but context was established to note that we weren’t fighting off a sub-element of ISIS, we were engaging them in order of simulated movement by a person shooting at us and moving. We were told when to engage a target and if we engaged it other than when told to do so it was a non-threat. For instance, in response to a road-rage incident of someone engaging us from outside the vehicle we might engage T1 through the windshield or side window (open or closed), exit the car, engage the T2 (which had “moved” from its original location) and then engage the T3 (which had “fallen”, but was still engaging us) all while retreating from the car and moving to the best available cover.

During the course of the two days we did various other scenarios including removing ourselves and various family members or friends to safety from the vehicle. On Sunday morning we did a SIRT pistol FoF scenario based upon Saturday’s live-fire scenario. I did poorly, hesitating too long to engage the role-player and not exiting the vehicle to work towards best available cover. This FoF scenario was a great inclusion to the class, but I do wish they’d had some parallel training ongoing so that there was less down-time associated with it. Simulated calls to 911 and the use of TQs at any point were worked into the scenarios. There was a culminating scenario conducted individually. Kurt conducted parallel training off to the side during the culminating scenario which was of value.

One of my takeaways is that there is a LOT to cover on this subject. Sixteen hours is a lot and not a lot all at the same time. A one-day course on this subject would make me raise my eyebrows, now. I, myself, would be happy to dry-fire a single-person exit from a vehicle with small nuances ten times in a row to get it right and ingrained in my brain (draw execution, minimize target size of myself, obtain correct aim point, seat belt removal, safe muzzle, etc.). There really is no time for that in two days. The instructors established a very wide foundation in order to build the entire class upon and did well doing so in my opinion. I felt the FoF, dry and live fire scenarios were realistically oriented to civilian self-defense. We did not assault or take down cars.

In my opinion 88 Tactical has a problem with their forward face to the customer in terms of information. When I began investigating the course I tried using their virtual help-prompt, Savannah, to make sure the class listed was, indeed, open enrollment to non-LE/MIL. Without the long back-story, I’ll say I’ve had a problem with 88 Tactical on this before. The virtual assistant kept referring me to the LE/MIL page. To add to the confusion the write-up on the open-enrollment listed class was the same as the LE/MIL write up and still is at the time I write this (I notice this morning that the class is no longer listed on the website). I had to call Kurt to nail down the issue and get a good class description. Sim guns and ammo were listed as equipment. I asked Savannah if the sim conversions and sim ammo were available for rent/purchase. She responded that ammo was available in the Range and Readiness store. I called and spoke to Kurt Sorys about the sim issue and he said to bring our airsoft equipment. Then, sometime before class they contacted us via e-mail to remove the sim equipment and light sticks from the equipment list which led us to believe FoF and low-light were no longer included in a class in which we believed it would be. I was more interested in the basics of defense from vehicles so removal of these particular training subjects were not issues to me, but my class partners were disappointed.

Additionally, upon registration we were asked how many nights of lodging we needed at the facility. There was no mention of cost. I’ve hunted a lot and seen many iterations of lodging costs. We wondered all the way to the point of Kurt telling us sometime after our arrival that lodging was $55/night/person. Sometime during the week up to class he called to let me know a scheduling snafu had moved us to the cabins from the bunkhouse. I had no idea what that meant. After experiencing it I’ll say that despite the small shower and squeeze into the bunk beds we preferred the semi-privacy of the cabins over the open bay bunkhouse. I’ll also note the information in 88 Tactical’s e-mails is hard to decipher. For instance, in a class reminder e-mail it is noted that breakfast, our main concern, and meals are available in the Ammo Box Café, but we were in Tekamah, an hour away from the café. Separately, while taxes are inevitable I wasn’t particularly pleased to pay the registration processing fee.

Training with 88 Tactical was a positive experience. I am quite pleased with the outcome and I’d train with them again. I highly recommend this course and I recommend using 88 Tactical for your training needs.

**Follow up: We, the southeast Wisconsin LE class mate and I, have been in two-way communication with Kurt Sorys at 88 Tactical since the class and he/88 Tactical are taking our feedback seriously and for action.