Working as a Team
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
It’s been a while since I reported about Gunsite training, which is where I try to go at least once a year to keep my skills sharp, and to learn new stuff. Normally, it is more skill maintenance and sharpening the edge of the sword, but in the case of the class I took most recently, it was more of a mental course than a skill-building course. That was exactly what I was hoping for.
My wife and I took Advanced Team Tactics for Two last month, and we were both well pleased with this first-time offering by Gunsite. The class was led by three of the most experienced instructors in the world, with a combined resume of over 100 years in the trenches of law enforcement, military and special ops contracting. Here are links to their biographies: https://www.gunsite.com/gunsite-instructors/freddie-blish/ , https://www.gunsite.com/gunsite-instructors/monte-gould/ , https://www.gunsite.com/gunsite-instructors/eric-ingersoll-2/ .
The lectures, blocks of range instruction and tactical exercises were divided up amongst the three instructors, and when one was done lecturing, the other two typically added their own perspectives, which sometimes differed from the others, but it was all good. I like choices.
One aspect of my personal training that was lacking was any formal training in working with a partner, except for a smattering which I got in law enforcement. Communications were stressed among the two partners, and we got pretty good at both verbally and non-verbally communicating what we were going to do and what we wanted our partner to do. Gila and I will take our lessons and adapt them to our own lifestyles, which is what I was hoping for when we signed up for the course. Students enrolled in this class included five couples and one father/son pair.
The curriculum was designed for advanced students, people who were skilled as shooters with impeccable gun handling, who had also taken training in advanced tactics as a solo defender. I never once felt the least bit unsafe, with moving and shooting exercises while extracting someone from a vehicle under fire which was the culmination of the training.
Let me share a short video of Gila and me extracting Diane Walls from a vehicle and getting her into a safe area. As you can see, the actual exercise is walked at half speed, for safety reasons. We ran these several times, to get the reps in and ingrain the protocol. I suspect in real life, the action would be much quicker.
We worked as a team doing vehicle extractions, encounters on the street, and home defense scenarios. You tell yourself, “I am never searching my house.” Oh, yeah? Every time you go to answer the door, that is a mini-search. You gonna call the cops whenever your teenager leaves the door open? How about when you have been caught up in a robbery or shooting in a public building. You just want to get out, but how about doing it safely?
In the photo, left, instructor Monte Gould runs Tom and Diane through a building search exercise.
A Gunsite course would not be complete without a class shoot-off. The last thing we did in the class was attempt to outshoot all the other teams on steel targets, and Gila and I tried our damnest to prevail. Did I mention all the other teams were highly skilled? Network members Tom and Diane Walls, beat Gila and me and the other teams, to claim the silver ravens awards class shoot off winners receive. Well done, comrades.