(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
This past Saturday I attended Paul Pawela’s Assault Counter Tactics, Vehicle Counter Ambush Course in Titusville, Florida at the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum. The course was set up to provide training and to honor United States Army Colonel (R) Danny McKnight, Battalion Commander 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment during the Battle of Mogadishu. The event was sponsored by Nate Love with Frontier Tactical in Brooksville, Florida and Spartan Training Gear.
I arrived at about forty-five minutes early using less than a half tank of gas on the 2.5 hour drive from the Tampa Bay area. When Paul and Linda arrived, I introduced myself and jumped right in to help them unload their equipment.
Before the course started I had the opportunity to walk around the Museum (I had been there once before, but it was after hours) and check out all of the displays including the gun range and their extensive display of patches and badges from law enforcement agencies all across the country. I was impressed by the display of artifacts dedicated to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the murder of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit. The American Police Hall of Fame & Museum is a beautiful facility and one you must see if traveling anywhere near Florida’s Space Coast.
(Photo Credit: Trigger Control Dot Org)
A little after 0900hrs the course started with Paul giving us a safety briefing on the four universal safety rules and to let us know that we must all disarm and make sure that we do not have any firearms and other weapons on our person during our participation at the five stations he had set up for us. After the safety briefing and making sure everyone had filled out a waiver Paul introduced Colonel (R) Danny McKnight.
Colonel McKnight spoke a little about what his role would be in the training and he graciously offered to personalize a copy of his book, Streets of Mogadishu: Leadership at it’s best, political correctness at it’s worst!” Make sure you pick up a copy on his website at: http://dannymcknight.com/bookdvd.htm
The other presenters who spoke before training commenced were Manuel (Manny) Cabrera of Sidekicks Family Martial Arts Center, and E.J. Owens founder of Legally Concealed and author of “Counter Violence; your guide to surviving a deadly encounter.”
The training day consisted of the twenty-two participants being broken down into five small groups to participate in reality-based scenario training on the grounds of the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum.
My first station was a scenario where a responsibly armed citizen drove up on a machete wielding man bludgeoning someone to death. The citizen had to dismount his vehicle (4-Door Jeep) and access an AR platform rifle in the back of the vehicle, load it and engage the machete wielding killer. Students were graded on proper use of cover/concealment and while under stress if they could manipulate a rifle in order to stop the threat from killing more innocent civilians. Overall this was a great station and if you are not carrying a firearm in your person, you may have to access a long gun that is somewhere else in your vehicle to stop a spree killer. The use of Ultimate Training Munitions (UTM) made this station a true force on force scenario. By the way I played an unprepared victim having my hands in my pockets. 🙂
(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
The next station was with E.J. Owens, E.J. led our group through another scenario where we were loaded in the cab of a four-door Ford Super Duty and participants in certain seats were given Glock 17T‘s loaded with Simunition cartridges. E.J. explained that when in a vehicle you must be aware of the angles that you can shoot at considering the A-pillar and B-pillar may be in the way. We also talked about shooting through automotive glass and through door panels and how that may effect the trajectory of the projectile you are firing. We also talked about where you might want to be carrying your firearm so you can access it in case something like this happens to you. Remember, a handgun is commonly referred to as a side-arm because it should be at your side or more appropriately on your person and not in a glove compartment, center console box or for heaven’s sake not under the seat.
In the two scenarios in which I participated in, I was sitting in the driver’s seat. In scenario number one two armed men approached the vehicle on my side demanding the vehicle and money. I extinguished both of them with one shot each to their chest protectors and the scenario ended. In scenario number two I did not have a firearm, the person in the passenger seat did. While stopped an unarmed man came up to my window demanding money, but not posing a threat and as I was pushing the guy away from the vehicle the passenger made an attempt to shoot him. This was clearly a no-shoot situation; however, the decision the passenger made had deadly consequences for me, because he actually shot me with the Simunition cartridge. (In reality he shot my shirt; however, I felt no impact from the cartridge even though there was Simunition paint marking on my shirt) The lesson learned here is quite simple, don’t shoot your friend who is driving the vehicle. This was an excellent scenario, very realistic with the use of the Glock 17T’s and the Simunition cartridges.
(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
The next station was set up with the participant walking in a parking lot to their vehicle and an actor approaches them asking for money. There were armed and unarmed confrontations, students were graded on if they could use “verbal judo” and keep the actor away from them and recognize the threat in time to draw their concealed firearm and deal with the situation. As with every encounter, you must watch the hands, they don’t lie and when someone you perceive to be a threat makes a furtive movement around their waist after you have given them commands “Get back, stay back” then you better be ready to use or threaten to use deadly force. (In Florida there are provisions in the statutes for the threatened use of deadly force) Again, overall a good scenario, the only thing I would have done a little different is added in some blank firing guns to make this a lot more realistic.
(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
The next station was geared toward armed confrontations and handgun disarming techniques with Manny Cabrera. At this station we were introduced to Krav Maga handgun disarming techniques. Since I was there to learn I had an open mind and tried the Krav Maga technique; however, being that I was trained in the Lindell system of weapon retention and disarming I knew it would be very difficult for me to change those techniques since I have habituated them into a highly refined skill. The other part of this station had us in the driver’s seat of a sedan with the windows down. We were approached by an armed assailant and had to disarm him through the window and then given another technique to pin the gun against the dashboard near the A-pillar and then drive off. We also had a scenario where the armed assailant entered the vehicle in through a rear door and we had to disarm him in the car. Overall this was a good set of scenarios, as with the others they are problem solving and decision making then acting on our decisions.
(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
Lastly we worked on team tactics and some situational awareness skills with Andy Tolbert of Strong Defenses. These scenarios focused on how we must pay attention when riding in a car to the things happening around us at a traffic light. (The guy who comes up to wash your windshield at the intersection. The aggressive panhandler, etc…) The scenarios we ran here were great, as usual, Andy did an awesome job. (I might be a little biased since I trained with her a couple times and certified her in two NRA disciplines as well)
(Photo Credit: Paul Pawela and Assault Counter Tactics)
To summarize, this course was well thought out by Chief Instructor Paul Pawela and well executed by his team of Instructors. The scenarios were realistic to the things we see on a daily basis while watching the evening news.
Quoting the one and only Massad Ayoob, “Whether the fight is verbal or physical, the first law of human conflict is to be able to predict where the attack will come, and already have a counter in place for it.”
This course was well worth the $200.00 tuition and the proceeds benefited a real American hero, Colonel Danny McKnight. If you missed it, don’t feel bad, there will be others and I will host Paul in the Tampa Bay area for this course in the future. You can also find out Paul’s schedule by following his business Facebook page at: Assault Counter Tactics or find him on the world wide web at: http://www.assaultcountertactics.com/
Until next time …
Stay Safe & Train Hard!
Trigger Control Dot Org 