AAR 2 day High Threat Contractor at CCJA (Tom Perroni)

[glock_forty5]

High Threat Contractor Course AAR at CCJA

This class delivered more than I expected. I was prepared for 20 hours of basic High Threat Contractor PSD training. What I got was a very detail, information packed, high paced 20 hours of intense High Threat Contractor PSD training. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Where to begin…

Two of my training partners are working on a detailed AAR so this will a higher level overview.

Start –

Saturday March 27th at the CCJA class room

Students –

22 with a varied background:

• Military
• Law Enforcement
• Contractors
• Protection Services
• Competition shooters
• Enthusiasts (from established beginners to advanced)

Weather –

Sunny and cool Saturday, cloudy and cooler Sunday with a brief rain sprinkle. We were fortunate as it rained cats and dogs on the way home Sunday night.

Instructors –

CCJA really delivered here. I was concerned at how packed the classroom was. 22 students and they were turning people away the day of the course, how was this going to happen? Five instructors that is how. Tom, CCJA’s lead instructor, had ensured success by keeping an instructor to student ratio of 1 to 6 or better. CCJA’s instructors have a diverse background from Navy special warfare, current overseas contractor, law enforcement, and much more (CCJA’s website has accurate instructor creds, I do not want to miss-cite). All instruction, classroom and range, was done on a rotational basis. This rotation kept the information exchange fresh and easier to absorb.

A big thank you goes to the CCJA Instructors Chris, Mark, Pete, Jade and of course Tom Perroni. They did an outstanding job and kept us safe.

Course Material –

The weekends training syllabus was presented and my eyes, popped out of my head. Tons of new things to learn in a very aggressive schedule. The ADD in me did not stand a chance.
Side note: The entire weekend was scheduled down to the minute. We covered all material and training in the confines of the schedule without fail. At the end of each lesson the class was asked if there were any questions to ensure all were on the same page, aside from a small follow up question or two the material had been presented effectively. CCJA did a great job here.

Requirements and expectations for overseas work were presented. This was good information but a career I do not intend to pursue at this time. The information did set the tone of the course as the goal was to introduce the student to what was expected of a High Threat Contractor

Static and mobile security was presented and the difference defined. Then we spun down in to the weeds and covered foot and motorcade security details. Leadership, communication, redundancy, and constant movement were the keys here. A lot of moving parts and everyone better know not only their job but all jobs in the detail. Any attack on the principle can and will change what your job assignment. The situation will dictate your role. A couple of real world videos of motorcade attacks and responses were used as teaching aids. I am a visual learner and this helped me connect theory with application.

Site advances was covered next. Everything from planning the routes (primary, secondary, tertiary, and emergency) to building floor plans was introduced to the student. We were instructed the basics of knowing:

• Route destination
• How to fall back to a back up route
• How far out you are from the destination
• Where are the route choke points
• Where the hard room is at the destination

Team communications were introduced. The goal of all communications is to be short and concise. Topics included who is to be on the radio and at what times. Again rolls here can and will change. Without good communication you are dead in the water before you begin (this become very apparent when we started to run cold movement exercises at the range).

A great overview on emergency medical treatment and the “blow out kit” (BOK) was presented. The instructor explained and passed around essential items of a BOK along with an overview of how they are to be used. This was not med training but it did teach me what each item was and how it would be used.

Range Day One –

The pre-requirements of this class were the successful completion of both Carbine and Handgun One (or equivalent). That being said we all know what happens when you make assumptions.

The instructors gave everyone’s kit a quick look to verify it was suitable then all students did a BZO verification. All students verified their zero/proficiency with both rifle and sidearm. Nothing exciting here but necessary none the less.

At this point all rifles and sidearms were unloaded and we began to apply the lessons about movement, comms, vehicles, and foot formations for the rest of the day (the range was cold but all were in full kit and carried their rifles). This was very intense. Drills were done until all were proficient then roles were changed and drills done again. Foot formations, vehicle exiting/entering, radio procedures, and attack on principle were done. Talk about overload. At the end of the day everyone was speechless. Tom asked the class if there were any questions or any feedback and he got crickets in return.

I was spent. I needed to digest the days activities and get some much needed sleep (after dinner of course, thank you Michelle!).

Range Day 2 –

7:00 am start at the range, cool and the sun was just starting to rise.
We started the day covering weapons maintenance. We covered:

• GLOCK
• AR
• AK

All were disassembled, parts explained, lubrication needs discussed, and reassembled. Nothing sexy here but it was driven home that you need to maintain your gear and when you go overseas you have no idea how the weapon you have been issued was maintained. The Instructor encouraged students who plan to pursue overseas work to get armourer certification as it will help their resume stand out against the rest.

At this point we reviewed the previous days lessons and lo and behold, at some point over night, the lessons sunk in! We all moved and communicated effectively. This was a big confidence booster and was much needed before we ran the drills hot.

After lunch was Foreign Weapons Familiarization and it was cool. All students were taught the manual of arms for both the AK47 and the PKM. We also got to shoot both, ammo supplied! I have shot AKs before but the PKM was new to me. This was the high point of the morning. 7.62X54 has authority!

Side note: It was interesting to shoot 3 different AKs side by side. Each one had its own unique qualities/quirks where as shooting ARs side by side not so much.

DSS Qualification Course of Fire was next. Students did both the pistol and rifle qualification. The pistol qual started at 3 yards and ended at 25. Rifle started at 25 (I think) and ended at a hundred. These were easy and I was able to get passing scores on both. Because of the length of the drill it was the only real slow part of the course. It gave me a chance to organize my thoughts.

Then the real fun started. We did live fire bounding drills, attack on principle drills, and ended the day with movement/transition drills. We applied all that we had learned and demonstrated the skills learned in Carbine/Handgun One. I am going to be brief here on purpose. Pulling the trigger was the only thing different from the previous days lesson and if you have not mastered the basics of your carbine and handgun you had no business at this course. (All that said it was the best part of the course)

Conclusion –

This course delivered! I now know and can demonstrate the basics of what is expected from a High Threat Contractor. Am I qualified to be a High Threat Contractor? No, nor was that the purpose of the course. Every student was swimming in the deep end during the course and all reached new personal bests. The instruction was top notch and the course syllabus was followed with precision. I recommend this course for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of High Threat Contractors and to improve on their movement, communication, and weapons handling skills.

I will quote Mark here and again say to the CCJA instructors “Bloody good job mates”!

[kac]

I attended this course with JT, and here's my take on it:

I attended the High Threat Contractor two-day course at the Commonwealth Criminal Justice Academy in Fredericksburg, VA, on 27 and 28 March, 2010. According to its course description, it focused on High Threat PSD tactics. Shooting fundamentals were assumed, and the equivalent of tactical training in both rifle and handgun was required.

The lead instructor for the course was the head of CCJA, Tom Perroni, and because the group was relatively large for such an advanced class (twenty-two), there were a good number of assistant instructors including Pete Spooner, Chris Pick, Jade Sharrocks, and Mark Quinnell. These guys have a world of military and private contractor experience. It’s just amazing that Tom finds guys who are not only experienced (Army, Marines, Hong Kong Police, Naval Special Warfare, etc.) but are also good teachers. Those two things--experience and ability to communicate that to others--are not necessarily things that go together. All of the people at CCJA have that essential leadership quality that makes you connect with what they’re saying. They also have the skill at pushing you up to and past your limit without allowing you to get out of control or dangerous to yourself or others.

We started pretty much right at 0700 sharp on Saturday. After some brief introductions and reminders that we were using Big Boy Rules (and Big Girl Rules--there was a lady amongst the gentlemen), we were off. And by off, I mean off like Secretariat.

Within minutes, because it was assumed we could shoot, we got right into the heart of High Threat Protection. There was an extremely useful PowerPoint presentation. Frankly, at the time, it seemed less than helpful because of the striking variety of new terms (AIC, TC, SL, Advance, Well/Trunk Monkey, Principal, etc.) along with moving diagrams that reminded me of walking in off the street to an NFL team’s headquarters, saying hi, then listening to the defensive coordinator describe what everybody does in a Cover 2, man coverage, and strong-side blitz, and knowing you’re going to be quizzed on it in the next 48 hours. Both foot and motorcade operations were covered thoroughly.

However, because there was a total immersion in the terminology and tactics, something weird happened. While everything was a blur walking out of the presentation, later on, when we were running the drills, I would sort of flash back to the PowerPoint slide and it would all come together. They were right when we were looking at the presentation cross-eyed, and an instructor would say, “Don’t worry, you’ll get it when we’re running it out there.” They were right.

Chris talked about advances, and one could see over the weekend why he was good at it. He comes across as low-key, easily able to fit in anywhere, good sense of humor, and great attention to detail. He showed us the kind of extensive work required for a good advance, including mapping, pictures, timing multiple lines of travel, multiple rally points, tons of contingency planning, and the like. Chris easily could have spoken on the topic for maybe a week (and he would have had twenty-some willing listeners), and then taken us out for practical runs. However, this was a two-day course, so he just packed everything he could in a relatively small amount of time.

We spent a good amount of time on the ABCs of medical treatment, as in Airway/Breathing/Circulation. Everything from minor flesh wounds to the use of Ashermans and the recognition of tension pneumothorax, and how to treat each of these problems were discussed. Naturally nobody walked out of there as an EMT (at least not other than the ones who were already doctors or EMTs when they walked in--and there were quite a few), but Tom does have full courses on same leading up to taking the test. The section we did on it was a nice sampling for those new to the topic and a good review for those of us who have already had some exposure to it. We did also go over the contents of a satisfactory Blow-Out Kit.

After lunch we went out to the range, confirmed BZOs on carbine and handgun, then started running drills cold. Then ran them. And ran them. And did I mention, we ran them. Hours of time were spent on both foot and motorcade ops, with special focus on arrivals and departures. Nobody was allowed to duck by sticking in the same assignment. Everybody was rotated through everything. Many people, including myself, found the communications procedure between Advance and Shift Leader somewhat difficult, simply because of lack of familiarity. Believe me, we had the chance to learn! After a solid ten hour day, I had about enough energy to eat dinner and fall into bed.

The second day we started right at the range at 0700. Because the point of the course was to allow graduates to be vetted into protection details both CONUS and OCONUS, Tom feels, quite correctly, that everyone must be intimately familiar with the weapons of choice, the Glock and the M4 in their various iterations. We did a little more of a detail strip than a straight field strip, and both operation and maintenance were discussed by the instructors, the majority of whom seem to be Armorers (or Armourers, in Mark’s case). We then did the same with AKs, and the pluses and minuses of each system were discussed. For the benefit of those never exposed to these platforms, we had a weapons familiarization with AKs and PKMs, which, for those of us who don’t get a bunch of chances to shoot belt-fed, was a blast. At which point, the fun was over.

We went back to working on formations of all shapes and sizes. That’s also when instructors like Pete, Jade, and Chris, acting as principals, started leading us up and down hills, through tight enclosures, around cars and storage boxes, stopping, turning suddenly, and making U-Turns. And that’s not counting principals hooking up with strap hangers to discuss Thai hookers. Oh yeah, we protected that, too.

We then began to work hard on Attacks on the Principal including how to react, move the principal, which guys shoot step up to the threat, and who should be going in exactly the opposite direction. I can tell you that after a couple years of being taught how to react to a Contact Right, it was very odd to meet that call by running in the opposite direction.

Of course, when out there it is always possible that you lose a vehicle, so we spent some time working on down vehicles and cross-loading. I can assure you it was fun to be the well guy handling the PKM. Hey Tom, why are the fat guys always assigned the big guns at the ass end of the formation? Not that I’m complaining.............

After a break, we did the DSS Qualification. Timed pistol and carbine shooting, at different ranges. I heard some troubles and tears on other parts of the line so I concentrated on me and nobody else. I passed. That’s all I know. Some of the pros who hadn’t taken previous regular shooting courses with Tom had problems, as did some of the other guys, and immediately, the extremely flexible instructors whipped into handgun training mode, and I heard (but didn’t have the balls to look over and watch lest I embarrass the malefactor) grip, sight picture, and trigger control all discussed. There seemed to be fewer probs on the carbine shooting.

The last quarter of the course put everything together. With live fire, we did peels, bounding, breaking contact drills, Attacks on the Principal, shooting while moving and long gun to sidearm transitions. We were rocking through that work, and we learned things about scanning while moving, communicating on loud battlefields, the use of stripper poles, Tom’s dislike of pirouettes while under fire, the use of cover, and about 500 other things.

Again here, I am forced to talk about the quality of the instruction. First, there were enough eyes out there that every mistake was noticed and corrected. I have specific memories of Jade grabbing a partner and me who had just run the peel drill. He specifically praised some things we had done well, and gave us clear detail about some things we had done poorly. It was a marvelous example of pedagogy, both encouraging us and whacking us on the butt at the same time.

It’s a tough call, but I would say the hardest ass instructors out there are Tom and Pete. They have zero problem using colorful language, at a volume envied by Metallica, to make clear when something is going on that they’re not happy with. But, at every moment it’s clear that they’re unhappy with the ACT, not the PERSON, and they are equally willing to praise when a student does something well. As a person who is required to do instruction on a regular basis, I really admired the techniques used. Another example of same is when we started lateral peel drills. Tom picked JT and Larry to demonstrate the evolution. Both had trained with Tom before, and moreover, both are just kick-ass shooters, so he knew they would do it in an exemplary way. The class learned from seeing it done well, but Tom pointed out a couple minor errors so that the entire class could learn from those comments, and yet the guys he chose were experienced enough to not be mortified by the suggestions publicly given.

Looking back on it, the course should just have been called IMMERSION. It was like being dropped in a country where you sort of speak the language, but have to get from place to place without committing a faux pas. I could probably take it four or five more times and keep learning from it.

It’s hard not to sound like a fan-boy, but I want to tell the truth: if CCJA is giving a course in a topic you’re interested in, why aren’t you signed up for it? For goodness’ sake, take Perroni’s courses while they’re still underpriced compared to the competition and you can still get into them. As a great guy whom I’ve trained with a couple times has said, “I learned more with Perroni than I did during a full tour as a paratrooper.” For everything from how to pull a trigger to how to protect the Secretary of State, CCJA is a facility you have to experience if you are serious about taking the next step.