The Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course (RBTEC)

 

Due to work schedules and family priorities, it’s been a while since we conducted a Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course, but time to prepare and train for what’s ahead, is now very short. Due to many requests for this class, especially in the last couple months, I have decided to put one on at Echo Valley Training Center on October 3rd and 4th, 2020. Information is on the MDT website, and any other questions can be asked via email at masondixontactical@gmail.com

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Here are a few AAR’s from previous RBTEC classes.

Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course-Winter

An AAR from Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course (Bushbastard 1)

August RBTEC After Action Review

 

JCD

“Parata Vivere”- Live Prepared.

 

A Paramilitary Threat We Could Face

Should you take something, like what this video shows, seriously?

If so, why or why not? This was a list of questions and comments I came up with when a friend asked what I thought of how to defend against that kind of threat.

• Do you know how to effectively disable the vehicles in this video so you put those goons on foot?
• Do you know how to set up effective vehicle barricades?
• Do you know how to set up a “Defense” for your neighborhood or block?
• Like most Gang bangers, I’d say most of these guys would perform poorly if you separated them from their support vehicles. Then you demoralize them even more by destroying those vehicles so they know they don’t have a ride home.

Things to note about the personnel and their gear:

• Many of them are overweight.
• Many don’t appear to know how to wear or use their gear.
• Their weapons’ logistics suck, probably half and half AR’s and AK’s for their “Dismounts”. They should all have one or the other, and if they have the money to upgrade their vehicles like that, they have the funds to have the same rifles. Looked like one M2 .50cal., three Barrett M82 .50 cal. rifles,  ten mounted 30 cal. belt feds and those consisted of some M60’s, I think I saw a PKM and two 1919A4’s (one was just the barrel sticking out) as well as at least one RPD.

Things to note on the 19 trucks I observed:

• Only two of the trucks, that appeared armored, had brush guards for pushing through barriers with only minimal damage. In addition, only two other “Technicals” had brush guards. An oversight?
• Only six trucks appeared to be armored. This can be a disadvantage because of the extra weight and you can use that against them.
• Many appear to have some improvised armor, but who knows how effective it is.
• Very few have much in the way of ground clearance, which means they need to break through barriers, or dismount outside the protective perimeter of the target and walk through.

Note the difference in clearance between the “Up-Armored” Humvee in this pic, and the ASV pic below. 

As a dismount, I’ve used both the “Up-Armored” Humvee and the M1117 ASV in combat operations, and I can tell you that having ground clearance can be a game changer. One of the biggest disadvantages of the ASV over the Humvee was weight.

The 4 1/4 tons of the Up-Armored Humvee beat the 15 ton ASV in certain soft ground or small bridge areas, but the ASV would do 70 MPH and go over most things that would easily stop a Humvee and it had an M2 .50 cal. and a MK19 40mm belt-fed grenade launcher in the turret, and an M240 .30 cal. up on top. The Humvee had an M240 in the turret.

 

The point of the vehicle info I’ve given you from my experience, is there are plenty of ways to deny or destroy heavy vehicles. Their vehicles might appear “Bad Ass” but if that armor is real, there are a lot of disadvantages to it as well. As to the mounted belt-fed weapons, ask an OIF or OEF Infantry vet how you deal with them with your deer rifle.

Last but not least, is the personnel. They look like a number of social media profile pics I’ve seen of the “Budweiser Militia” around our Country and are probably just as inept. Smart, squared away militia don’t advertise themselves on social media.

Here’s the bottom line.

If you learn how to properly set up a defense against vehicles and their dismounts, and if you have a solid core of people who are serious, loyal and available when the time comes. You can beat the threat posed by the people in this video or the one with the NFACers in Stone Mountain GA.

Training and organization is key. Go forth and GET YOU SOME!

 

JCD

"Parata Vivere"-Live Prepared.

RIP Chuck Taylor – Iconic Tactical Trainer

I first read Chuck Taylor’s writings in “Soldier of Fortune” and “SWAT” magazines as a teenager. I Purchased his book, The “Fighting Rifle” while still in High School. His opinion of what a real “Fighting Rifle” consisted of formed many of the opinions I still have to this day, simply because they have proven to be true in my own experiences.

I first considered the FAL as a “Go To” rifle because of his opinion of that very gun. That opinion has also proven to be, “Spot On”. Although I moved away from it for a time, I am back to using that rifle in it’s present 11″ and 16″ configurations, and they sit on my “Ready Rack” as my “Go to War” rifles. Here’s two of my favorite quotes from him,

“If you are the greatest or the fastest guy in the world, what difference does it make if you shoot the wrong guy?”

“You can’t miss fast enough to matter.”

I watched him go from adamantly opposed to optics on a combat rifle, due to their fragility, to endorsing them in the many, durable configurations available today. In a world of the many “Fly by Night” firearms/tactical trainers out there, Chuck was one who had, “Been there, done that.”, and I heeded his words. To this day, I still use some of his rifle drills in my own practice. Below is an except from the Foreward of his book “The Fighting Rifle”. It tells you many things you need to know about the Man who was Chuck Taylor.

“Whether on the range or at the typewriter, Chuck is no armchair commando, glorifying war to satisfy the Walter Mitty instincts of those who have always gone to sleep at night in a warm bed and with a full stomach. Chuck knows there is nothing glorious about war for he has been there. He has smelled the mixed smells of death and gunsmoke, and felt the slam of enemy bullets into his body as he himself went down firing. He knows what it’s like to sit down to a hurried lunch in a jungle clearing and wonder if he will still be alive to eat supper that night. He knows what the professional soldier’s two main objectives are – to defeat the enemy and stay alive to go home himself. For without life, how hollow is the name of victory.

Chuck Taylor’s training is based on actual firsthand knowledge of what happens in combat (18 months in Vietnam won him the Bronze Star with ‘V’ device, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, among other decorations) not on the theories advanced by ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ whose advice is well intended, but based on ‘book learning’ gained while relaxing at the Officer’s Club rather than upon service in the field.”

David McFarland, February 1983

Here is a link with a eulogy from a personal friend of Chuck’s, giving his impressions of a man who will be sorely missed.

JCD

"Parata Vivere"-Live Prepared.