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One year ago today, we lost Trevor Graves to suicide. "I never saw it coming" is the understatement of the century. Anyone who knew him has struggled with this over the last year, and some days are definitely harder than others.
I can think of no better way we could have honored him than by this match last weekend. TENET GROUP LLC was his brainchild, and he'd be happy to see how far it has come. Run N Gun was also his passion, as he enjoyed bringing 5th Group guys into competitive shooting - and exposing competitive shooters and civilians to all the things 5th Group does. And spending time with friends in this atmosphere was right up his alley.
The only way it could have been better was if he were there himself.
I'm honored to share that we raised $10,000 with this one match alone for the Trevor Graves Fund, which is held in trust by the Special Forces Charitable Trust. Hopefully it will do the family and their mission some good.
Thank you so much for helping to make this happen.
https://i.imgur.com/RwarUUT.jpeg
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2024 TENET Midnight Madness Run and Gun
Last weekend I attended what I expect to be the first annual TENET Midnight Madness Night Run and Gun. The TENET Group (Jason Roberts, John Kettemen, Paul Klopfer, Ben Thompson, Josh Farmer and Matt Stennett) set this up to on behalf of the family of the late CPT. Trevor Graves (5th SFG, Ret.), who was a plank holder of the now “infamous “Legion Memorial match. All proceeds went to Trevor’s family, held by the Special forces Charitable Trust, and ultimately this match raised $10,000 for his family.
At 1830 hours we opened with an introduction to Patrick Tucker, owner of the range complex which hosted the event, Cedar Creek Precision. After the introduction we moved into a safety briefing, course and range rules, some intel tips followed by a prayer. About 40 minutes later the moon was up, sun was down, and the first runner was off. The runners were sent off every seven minutes.
The course consisted of a roughly 4.5 mile run route marked by small LEDs, and had seven shooting stages, with some KIMs (Keep in Memory) games as well as a couple “Scavenger Hunt” type opportunities along the route. There were two divisions, night vision and white light. With NV competitors setting out first. Weather was excellent, with the ambient temperature in the low 40s when the first runner set off and it dropped to the mid-30’s around the time the last runner came across the line at roughly 3:30AM. Illumination was 97+ percent and it was a cloudless sky with low humidity, considering it rained much of the night before when the RO’s ran.
Stage one was a combination of two ranges. It had shooters starting at a “shoot house” type stage. Shooters entered a door and moved to open slots on interior walls to engage rifle targets. Once all rifle targets were neutralized the rifle was dumped and the shooter ran around a berm for pistol targets. Upon arrival shooters were instructed to load the pistol and then engage targets based on the ROs commands, starting with a dueling tree, and moving left to shoot through tires and other obstacles.
Stage two was just one hundred yards to the left and combined two ranges as well. It was a medium length course of fire with pistol targets staged out in a field at about 25-30 yards and once neutralized the shooter had a choice to take a shorter, steep route up to the rifle range or they could take an easier route that was much longer. Once on the rifle portion there were five torso sized targets running up a ridge line between 100-175 yards away. These had to be engaged from a VTAC barricade, shooters choice of position.
Stage three had three firing points designated by chemlights on rock outcrops. The targets were located about 100-120 yards away on the far side of a tree line, left of a chemlight that designated the right-side safety fan. This was a steep angle stage and shooters had to move on the firing points to see/engage all three targets. Each firing point required four hits; last hit could not be on the target that was engaged 3rd.
Stage four was a fairly close course of fire and incorporated movement. At the beep the shooter engaged eight to ten pistol gongs in a field while moving right to left toward a parked side by side, which held a staged shotgun. After hitting each of the gongs the pistol was holstered and the shotgun recovered, charged (pre-staged with four shells) and shooter had to find and engage four steel targets in the field.
Stage five was a fast stage, with four pistol targets followed by five rifle targets staged in the woods between 20-40 yards. A bit of left and right movement was required to see all the targets, which was a common theme to this match. Shooter started with both weapons loaded and at the beep the shooter drew their pistol, neutralized the pistol gongs, holstered, and transitioned to the rifle targets.
On the way to stage six there was a sign, “By Land or Sea” For competitors who were paying attention, there was a cabin in a field with a lantern in the window. Getting the Paul Revere history correct cut .25 miles off the run route.
Stage six was a forward movement “burn down” lane about seventy-five yards long. Shooters could not see the targets until they got past each barricade. There were two IPSC targets staged behind each barricade and at the end of the lane, two steel torsos.
Stage seven had twenty bowling pins set up at about 25-30 yards. If shooters found any of the scavenger hunt poke chips, they could choose to augment their pistol with either a semi auto shotgun with two rounds of birdshot (1 chip), a CZ scorpion with twenty rounds (2 chips) or a HK SP5 w/Unknown round count (3 chips). If the shooter found no chips, the course of fire was all with their sidearm. Shooter had 20 seconds to knock down all twenty pins.
For me, it was a very humbling match, but also extremely rewarding. Shooting was challenging, especially initial stages. Run route had a significant amount of elevation changes but was well groomed, well-marked and easy to follow. Every stage moved along well with little, if any, wait time. The facility and its people were awesome, as were the RO’s, Match Directors and sponsors. It flowed beautifully and is a match I will be looking forward to each year.
Very special thank you to the sponsors, who went out of their way to support this match and the participants. I apologize if I missed any.
TENET Group
Cedar Creek Precision
Alan’s Arsenal
Glory Guns
Spikes Tactical
VKSYS
Noveske
Cloud Defense
Premier Body Armor
DTV Tactical
THRiL
Zerotech Optics
Sonic Boom
Hannanman Creative Studios
Gini’s Coffee
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Thanks for the detailed write-up, and for coming out to shoot with us!
