tactics

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August 15, 2012

never confuse movement with action

Posted by tgace under law enforcement, leadership, military, quotes, tactics | Tags: law enforcement, leadership, military, mindset, tactics |
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Action (supermarkets) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.” -Karl Von Clausewitz

I’ve seen/heard/read variations on this sentiment over the years and I agree with it on a conceptual level. If you hesitate when you need to act it can mean the difference between mission success or failure…or life and death.

What I’m less clear on is what happens with this saying on a practical level. WHEN is it better to act quickly? Always? Is it always better if you don’t hesitate? Will your boss support you if your actions result in an unsuccessful outcome? Will the military, the media, the government back you if your act on the battlefield results in civilian casualties?

I’m not asking if they SHOULD back you. That’s an entirely different matter.

I think this concept is situation dependent…if bullets are flying and you have to move, that’s different from considering your next step in a barricade call-out.

I also think that this idea can be expressed in a metaphor of a street fight. There are always two considerations in a self defense situation…the immediate issue of survival and the need to act within the scope of the law. While the first should always take precedence, failure to consider the second can turn survival into a Pyrrhic victory.

In my opinion the only way to approach crisis decision making is to have a solid grasp on the “higher order” concepts; tactics, law, ROE, etc and ingrained physical skills that don’t overburden your thought process. Hopefully you get to road test these skills enough so that experience will allow you to adapt your training to the chaos.

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August 8, 2012

everyone loves a hero…

Posted by tgace under law enforcement, tactics | Tags: law enforcement, mindset, tactics |
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Fred Leland Jr. of Law Enforcement and Security Consulting just made me aware of this quote of William F Owen’s:

“Popular military history (and especially regimental or unit histories) constantly fail to recognise that outstanding courage and sacrifice are not the same as good tactics. It could even be said that, if you have to resort to courage and sacrifice, tactical skill is lacking. More often than not, heroism gets advanced to cover up poor tactical conduct. Thus the understanding of what creates successful tactics is largely absent from a lot of modern doctrine. With confusion as to tactics, something called the ‘operational level of war’ seems alluring. It might even be suggested that commanders are drawn to describing themselves as working at the operational level, because it allows them to avoid responsibility for bad tactics.” ~William F. Owen

I agree. While we all admire the hero, I’d rather carry out 100 uneventful but successful operations than be remembered for bravery in a @#%$$’er where everything went sideways.

You?

July 28, 2012

know your enemy

Posted by tgace under tactics, work | Tags: mindset, tactics, work |
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English: Essa-queta, Kiowa Apache chief. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let it be distinctly impressed upon my readers, that the Apache never attacks unless fully convinced of an easy victory. They will watch for days, scanning your every movement, observing your every act; taking exact note of your party and all its belongings.

Let no one suppose that these assaults are made upon the spur of the moment by bands accidentally encountered. Far from it; they are almost invariably the results of long watching – patient waiting – careful and rigorous observation, and anxious council…

-John C. Cremony ”LIFE AMONG THE APACHES, 1850-1868,”

When I read this quote it made me think about work. When you coppers out there are putting together a case, planning a warrant service or a tactical operation, are you putting in as much intelligence work as you possibly can?

Do you know the players? Do you know the addresses they frequent? The cars they drive? Their girlfriends/boyfriends and their “down low spots”? Do you put in the hours of observation and surveillance that you should?

“Never attack unless fully convinced of an easy victory”.

Good advice.

April 27, 2012

tactical preschool 25

Posted by tgace under tactical preschool, tactics | Tags: law enforcement, martial arts, military, tactics, weapon skills, weapon training |
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Im re-posting this older tac-preschool lesson because this part of the blog has become more popular lately. This topic in particular was one that I was hoping to get more discussion on.

The tactical world is full of various debates.

.45 vs 9mm, 1911 vs Glock, point shooting vs aimed fire, you suck vs I am high speed.

Another issue that crops up is how to engage multiple opponents. There are various schools of thought on the best way to deal with this situation.

One method is known as “boarding house rules”. Which is stated as “everybody gets firsts before anybody gets seconds.” What that basically means is that, starting with the most immediate threat (which usually is the closest bad guy) you “serve” one shot to all opponents then go back and deal with the first target if it’s still there. A common training method is to hit the last target with two shots then go back and give the other targets one more. So in the illustration below the sequence would be: 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2 repeat as necessary.

A different version of this engagement sequence calls for you to “double tap” each target from near to far then back again. 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3….

The biggest problem I see with this idea is the presumption that you have actually hit the first targets before moving onto the next. Range/competition shooting at plates, poppers, silhouettes etc. isn’t the same as dealing with moving and shooting human beings. I am a decent shot, but I’m not fooling myself into thinking that I can guarantee hits like that when the SHTF.

multi1

Another school of thought is that due to stress, tunnel vision and the natural human reaction to combat; that a better solution is to shoot each threat, in order of severity, until it no longer is a threat. In the illustration below this is shown as: 1, 1, 1, 1 then onto 2, 2, 2…and so on till all threats are dealt with.

multi2jpg

I tend to side with the second approach, but what dogmatic people fail to acknowledge is that there is nothing saying that you cant mix these approaches up. Perhaps I may go: 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 3, 3 depending on what the hell theses guys are doing.

What I find troubling in most training of this sort, regardless of the method you like, is the “training in” of standing still in the midst of multiple armed opponents and shooting it out. What I think should happen is that you should be MOVING. Move to cover and deal with the closest threat. If he gets behind cover deal with the next available threat. And be thinking about your next move. If they are maneuvering on you or decide to keep shooting it out you are in a loosing proposition. Think about bugging out.

February 11, 2012

tactical preschool 62 (video reference library)

Posted by tgace under tactical preschool, tactics | Tags: law enforcement, military, SWAT, tactics, training |
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A YouTube member named “SwatMARKS” has put together a nice animated reference library for many of the room entry techniques I have mentioned here.

January 5, 2012

how much is good enough?

Posted by tgace under martial arts, military, self defense, skills, tactics, warriorship | Tags: warriorship |
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In light of my recent post “what exactly do you think you are doing”, I thought that moving up this post from last year would add yet another professionals opinion on the issue of training priorities.

Former SEAL and “Tactical Impact” star Kyle Defoor has a blog going. Go check it out.

I especially like the post Training Balance and How Good is Good Enough?

The first thing you need to do clearly identify your needs of training FOR THE REAL WORLD, such as; carbine, pistol, blade, combatives, physical fitness, tactics. Once you’ve made a list of the what, honestly ask yourself what you really NEED the most and which one you just LIKE to do. Here lies the problem. We (humans) like to practice what we’re good at, and what makes us feel good. Over time this is a recipe for disaster.

Kyle has a lot of good stuff; rifle painting, controlling fear, repairing EoTechs…take a look.

December 5, 2011

two man drills, good stuff or misunderstood?

Posted by tgace under law enforcement, military, self defense, skills, tactics, weapons | Tags: firearms, law enforcement, military, opinion, police, self defense, skills, tactics, weapon skills |
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I have seen, practiced and even operationally utilized some two man movement techniques similar to these but they sometimes left me thinking about the wisdom of them.

I can see the utility in “nuts to butts drills” when used doing building clearing and other situations where you need to maneuver in tight quarters and keep a 360 deg security. Similarly I can see their advantages as immediate reaction drills where you make contact while in a stack or while approaching a scene/suspect with a partner close by.

However, once the bullets start flying I can’t see an advantage in standing close together and slugging it out. One, you present a big target and two, you fail to present the opponent with the attention dividing distraction two people can present. I would think that it would be better to split up and find cover that would allow you to mutually support each other with fire.

October 30, 2011

an explanation of the differences between strategy and tactics….

Posted by tgace under self defense, tactics | Tags: strategy, tactics |
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Image by tompagenet via Flickr

…can be found in this article over at Low Tech Combat .

Too many people use the terms ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ incorrectly or even talk about a particular ‘thing’ or topic as being both a good strategy and tactic. Usually, this is actually referring to a tactic but the person likes to throw in the word strategy because it sounds cool, they don’t know better or believe it somehow implies a deeper thought process and means more…

He’s right and his post goes on to give a solid explanation of what the two of them are and what they should mean to you. Go read it.

October 28, 2011

fancy footwork (not really) #2

Posted by tgace under law enforcement, martial arts, skills, tactics, weapons | Tags: firearms, law enforcement, martial arts, military, self defense, skills, tactics, training, weapon training, weapons |
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I have posted about footwork here before. In that last post I had mentioned how martial arts footwork “tips” and patterns could be incorporated into a LE/Mil/RBSD scenario. In this post I would like to address how footwork again can be applied, this time when deploying a firearm. Watch the following video:

The static draw and lateral step are fairly simple concepts; the “cover and turn step” to face the rear is what I would like to talk about.

Note that when turning to face a threat behind me that I always step FORWARD with the weapon side leg before pivoting. This gives me the the advantage of adding distance from the threat while I am moving the weapon away from an attempted grab instead of into one.

This pivot and turn is taken directly from some Kenpo and Filipino Martial Arts instruction that I have taken. I think it’s a good example of how simple concepts from martial arts can be incorporated into “regular” training. You don’t have to be on a quest for a black belt or looking to deploy exotic oriential weapons to take useful techniques and incorporate them into your firearms training.

August 16, 2011

we do dangerous things…

Posted by tgace under skills, tactics, weapons | Tags: firearms, training, weapon training |
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But that doesn’t mean that you should do stupid things. This video clip has been passing through the gun blog-discussion board world like wildfire lately.

The safety violations are too numerous to list, but the one that stuck out most in my mind was the “room clearing” segment where one person was firing directly in front of a team member as he was moving to enter the next room.

This training group calls themslves American Defense Enterprises, and the following is their promotional video.

Now my momma taught me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say I shouldn’t say anything at all, so I will not make this a “jump on the bandwagon” post. But please…if you are considering taking some weapons training, do your homework.