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RID Training - Day 4
Waking up was a lot more painful then it should have been.
I rolled out of bed around 1030AM and immediately felt three days of constant PT catch up with me.
I thought to myself, “Today’s gonna be rough…” while taking my aspirin.
Showing up to the facility I was 30 minutes early at 1PM and just sat in the class room, still in awe that I hadn’t been one of the people to get a broken arm, leg or worse. Hell, I hadn’t even been shot with a paintball/simunition round hard enough to leave a mark.
The class and instructors showed up on time and we started an instruction block on Active shooters. For example, the kid that killed a bunch of people at the Virginia Tech school was an Active shooter situation. The first Officers on scene SHOULD have armed themselves with some sort of rifles and went into that school to neutralize the threat.
After that hour long lecture the class broke up into our teams and we headed to different locations.
The 400 squad, my team, started off at the Active shooter scene. We went to a hallway and formed up into a Diamond. We were given blue plastic guns and told what was ‘going on’. The instructor said, we were in a building and that someone was killing people inside. He left it at that and said the scenario was on.
The diamond formation covers 360 degrees visually, assigning each member a 90 degree angle that they are solely responsible for. If a threat engages one of the members, they are to engage the threat and every other member is supposed to maintain their area of cover at all times.
No problem, I’ve done this before. I took the hardest spot, the rear guard.
The team started down the hallway we came up to a junction that went left. We moved as a unit left.
Then we heard a lot of automatic gunfire. I heard the primary lead member scream BANG BANG! (simulating firing his weapon), Subject Ahead!
Apparently the subject ran into an open doorway which was about 40 feet ahead of us. We double timed it in formation to the door and stopped. The team leader counted to three and we did an explosive entry into the doorway.
I saw nothing until after we cleared the door area. Immediately I noticed an armed subject standing to my right. I yelled BANG BANG! Contact left flank! After engaging that target, which the left guy missed, I saw another subject with a shotgun hiding behind some bleachers. I looked at him, pointed my firearm and yelled BANG! Contact rear neutralized.
The guy holding the shotgun looked me dead in the eyes and fired the shotgun at the team anyways. The blank round scared the shit out of the other three members and that RID member got a seriously dirty look from me.
If you make a situation to train people, do not make it unwinable. I killed both guys but he decided to fire anyhow.
The instructor said, “Scenario over!” and started the critique.
He said no one engaged the shotgun threat, even though I clearly did. I didn’t argue or even offer protest.
A few minutes later we went on to the next station.
We were told to go to Survival City and dawn some face gear for a Simunitions event.
Several two man teams had left the room we were all sitting in and done the event, they stayed outside as to not give away the Scenario.
My Two man team was sent out to sit in a squad car, which was parked behind an SUV with three people inside. The instructor gave us (Me and my partner) each a Simunition gun and only told us, “You guys did a traffic stop on a car possibly used in an armed robbery”.
Great. I leaned over to my partner, look, lets approach this car like we do on the street. He knew what I meant.
He was the driver and I was passenger.
We both exited the car at the same time with our guns drawn and pointed at the windows, arching out into a V formation around the back of the car. My partner yelled for the driver to roll down all of the windows. The driver did not comply. We advanced on the SUV and my partner pulled out the rear passenger at Gun point as I walked up to the passenger side front seat screaming, “GET YOUR HANDS UP, YOU MOVE, YOU DIE!”
The driver and passenger both threw their hands up. The passenger had a bag in his hand with what appeared to be a gun. I had a point on these two guys while my partner started a pat down on his subject. The passenger decided he didn’t want to stay in the car and tried to open the door. He got it halfway open when I kicked it back into his face, then fired two rounds at his face mask. Then pointed at the driver and yelled “You’re next pal, don’t move”.
My partner then opened fire on his subject, who apparently tried to pull a gun.
The instructor yelled, “Scenario Over!”
The guys got out and we were told we did an excellent job. We walked over to the group of guys who’d finished the exercise and they started asking questions. Apparently, these guys from the county north of us let people get out of the cars and walk up to them. If they run, they’d rather setup a perimeter then engage a threat immediately…
I got to witness this first hand as the next group came out. They told the guys to step out of the car and the guys all took off running. The Officers didn’t chase them, instead they started searching the car… which lead to the bad guys doubling back and killing both of them and stealing their car.
So much for that system.
The SWAT guy from the county north of us walked up to me, “Hey man, I saw you guys walk up the car, what if they had an AK? You could have been killed.”
I told him, “Yea, and if I allowed that same armed subject with an AK to run 100 yards, stop and fire at me from a place where my handgun is basically useless, I’d be dead with no fighting chance as opposed to engaging the threat head on.”
He didn’t understand my point but I suppose that the training we received was vastly different.
We broke for lunch and returned a half hour later.
My team met up with a SGT in the same hallway we had initial Active shooter course. The instructor gave us plastic blue guns. He then PT’d us for 20 minutes until we were tired and then said, “A rookie cop just got into a foot chase with an armed subject. Go”.
And we saw the ‘rookie’ run ahead of us and around the corner. We took pursuit as we turned the corner we heard several loud gun shots and a door slam.
The ‘rookie’ was screaming he’d been shot. My team of four made a stack outside of the door and did a dynamic entry. We saw no shooters so we then started an extraction under possible fire. The ‘rookie’ was dragged out of the room by myself and another Officer as the other two team members covered.
Once outside we assessed his injuries, I saw he’d been shot in the stomach and I put my hands over the ‘wound’ (which was a blood bag under his shirt) applying pressure. Another member elevated his legs as another one checked his pulse. The last guy was getting on the air asking for the ‘world’ to show up and covering the door.
Several seconds went by and I said, “Fuck this, Rescue takes to long, load him up in a cruiser and lets drive him there!”
The instructor yelled, “Scenario Over!”
He told us we did an excellent job and the medical care we provided was excellent and the decision to drive him instead of waiting those 5-15 minutes for rescue to arrive was a good call. It’ll take us 1-2 minutes to drive him to the nearest hospital in the county so waiting that time could mean his life.
Onto the next station.
The sun had finally set and now it was really dark out. We arrived at Survival City and were told that this would be a simunitions / paintball event. The instructor gave four of us simunitions guns and radios. He said that a bank robbery was in progress and that’s all we knew.
Great, in real life I’d be carrying an AR15 or M1A and posting up across the street, but I could make due.
My team came from behind the building and we made that our base point. One Officer was in front of me along the back wall of the bank as another team mate was watching our rear. The female decided to run across the street out of Line of Sight and feed us information. Good idea.
I saw a shadow approaching and trained my firearm at the corner of the building we were facing. The gunman turned the corner holding a Paintball Marker (rifle) and we started to shoot at him. My partner fired a few rounds, missing and getting hit. I pulled the trigger of my handgun but didn’t hear a bang. I realized the guys at the start station never gave me any bullets…. I was then shot at least 3 times in the hand. The guy covering my rear turned around and used my BODY as a shield. I wasn’t too happy, since I was now being shot repeatedly at close range (within 10 feet) with a paintball gun head to waist as my partner killed the threat. I got hit about 15 times total and have the welts to prove it.
A little pissed off but not showing it, we went back to the critique. The instructor told us what we did wrong and whatnot. I made a comment about my firearm having no bullets in it but that was over looked and my team went to the next station.
We ran over to the firearms range.
The instructor there lead us about 100 yards south of the range to an area where there were 4 walls setup. He said that we’d have to chase a subject, then get onto the range and do a course of fire. I told my partner, who I’d been in the academy with, “Hey, I know you can’t shoot worth a damn and you know I can’t run half as fast as you can. You keep up with the subject and I’ll shoot the targets.”
It turned out to be an excellent plan.
The event started and the Subject took off running, hopping all four walls.
My partner and I took pursuit and hopped all the same walls with little trouble. On that straight away I was dying though. Four days of this RID school, I’d be lucky if I had enough left in me for a fight.
We got to the range and another instructor explained the course of fire.
We’d have to start in a patrol car which was at the 100 yard line. When he tapped the trunk we were to open our doors and from the door jam, fire at three metal plates about 15-25 yards in front of our car. Once those plates were down, we were to exit the car, run 25 yards south and east to a wall with a doorway opening. Then we were to do a dynamic entry into the doorway and engage any threats. Once we completed that, we had to run 10 yards west to some cones and low crawl another 50 yards to get behind a barricade. At that point, we had to shoot a bowling pin off of a ledge at 50 yards then get up and run 20 yards east over to a station that had 6 metal plates setup, sort of like you see at a carnival. The first shooter was supposed to hit all 6 plates, which would immediately reset for shooter 2. After all of that we then had to carry a 185 lbs dummy all the way back to the 100 yard line to finish the event.
Damn.
We got in the car and the instructor tapped the back.
Instantly I was upholstered and shot all three plate targets down in less then 5 seconds using one round a piece. We ran to the next area and did a dynamic entry. Getting into the room I saw three targets. I shot 2 rounds into each, reloading as we left that area and started the low crawl. Totally out of breath still from the walls/run I was trying my hardest to stay focused and calm. We got to the next station and I laid prone on the floor taking careful aim at the Bowling Pin. My partner was cranking round after round.
I took a deep breath, let it out half way and squeezed the trigger focusing on keeping a good sight picture.
The pin dropped and we stood up, running to the next station.
I got into position and went from right to left, hitting every steel target like I was firing a .22 caliber handgun. The instructor reset the targets immediately with a lever and my partner then spent at least 10 seconds hitting the plates. BANG BANG BANG DING! BANG DING! BANG BANG DING!… Not a good shot by any measure.
Then we got to the dummy. I tried to lift it but damn.. my partner picked it up like it was a balloon and RAN it down to the end of the field with me trying to keep up.
The instructor yelled, “TIME! Wow.. Congrats, you guys beat the course record. It took you 1:14 seconds to complete the course, good team work.” That record was later crushed by the SWAT guys from the county north of us, with a total time of 94 seconds. Those guys are seriously impressive I have to admit.
Then we went back to the classroom to finish off the day. The instructors talked a bit and then we did the inevitable PT for 45 minutes. One of the instructors decided to single me out since I was already totally drained and he got in a pushup position in front of me and started trash talking.
Instructor : “Dash, you can’t keep up?! Get your chest on the ground and give me some pushups”.
Now, I’d already done the first 75 they’d asked and was totally spent but instead of arguing or saying I can’t, I replied with a little phrase I learned from one of the SWAT guys.
I replied, “Hokie Pokie you can’t smoke me, TOO EASY!”
The instructor laughed at me, knowing I was totally smoked but that his job was to play a mind game and he got the point that I understood the mind game.
He said, “Alright! Since Dash says I can’t smoke him, we’re going to do Flutter Kicks! Everyone on your backs!”
And we went through the rest of PT doing very well. The line worked so I was surprised.
Tomorrow is the last day of Hell week. I’ll keep you posted.
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