Midnight Rendezvous 1.0 October 9th, 2022 Night Vision/Carbine training AAR
Thirteen men gathered together October 9th, 2021 for Midnight Rendezvous 1.0 at the SETG range near Alma Georgia.
MR1.0 Course description shows-
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We will start at noon so we can devote a little time to tuning up rifle handling skills. This way everything we do at night firing under NODS will already have been practiced during daylight hours as well- further reinforcing these skills in both daylight and under NODS.
These topics will include but are not limited to:
*Carry positions and presentations
*Optimal body positioning
*Scanning and AA movement
*Magazine changes
*Transfers and "off hand" shooting
*Positional changes, vertical displacement
*Movement drills and more.
After it gets dark we will break out the Night vision and continue the training. The training will continue on the square range and longer distances. Culminating in a two man team "spot and shoot" exercise simulating the defense of a position involving detecting and engaging hidden targets with Night Vision at distance.
We highly encourage you to take all of our NV classes in progression- 1, 2, 3 and 4- this will greatly help with the progression of skills.
While we normally try to cap class size at 12 for more personal attention per student, we had 15 students on the books. 2 friends traveling together cancelled the week before after one guy got Covid. They transferred to a February 2022 class.
One student that was flying in from Arizona (class is held in Georgia) had some serious flight delays but stayed in constant contact regarding these delays. He got a raw deal from his airline and upon arriving in Jax, also arrived without most of his baggage!!! His gear ended up in a different city and his flight was delayed almost a whole day. He called from Jacksonville 15 minutes before the meetup time telling me his dilemma of the airlines screwing him on this flight. I asked him "what do you actually have?" He replied that he was missing half his clothes, some of his gear, etc. I told him "come on, we will supply whatever the hell you need, you made it this far, let's push on!" My son went to meet him and bring him to the range later bringing him clothes he needed, etc. Thankfully, he had shipped his ammo to the range ahead of time and the airlines hadn't lost his rifle or NODS. I told him "come on man, we will supply what you need, you can pick some sandals on the way and go full Viet Cong if you need to!!!" Which reminds me- I need some clothing back ML!!!
I applaud his effort. Despite all the delays from the airlines, etc. This student made it happen where others might have given up easily. Hell to the yeah!!!
Outside of this one delayed student, everyone arrived at the rally point on time and the class actually started a bit earlier than normal. .
Everything we do in the Midnight Rendezvous classes is first done in the day, and then mirrored at night. So you could arrive with very little or no previous training already in place- or lacking some of the skill sets we teach- and learn them during the day when it's easier to "get" them before it turns dark and things get harder to learn.
We have heard from numerous students that this type of format really helps with the training versus just being thrown into the "deep end of the pool" at night as we used to do years ago.
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We have a high percentage of students that return multiple times to take the same class again, often times 2 and 3 times over. Most of these students are current or previous Law Enforcement or military. These folks take these skills seriously and understand that developing skill at arms is an ONGOING PROCESS and not a "one and done" or "check this box" concept. True students of violence continue their training, reinforce skills and are constantly pushing their skill levels. We encourage that and often slightly "push" returning students more in drills, etc. because we respect their want to go further and want to help with that process. We respect their dedication to development of skill at arms.
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In the Midnight Rendezvous series of classes, we look at these skills in a holistic approach. This means you will often utilize ALL your senses not just your super cool "wizard eye" or "eyes." This also helps in the extreme case of technology failing. They often hear me talk of working tactile as much as possible and we reinforce that in many ways.
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The class ended as all the Midnight Rendezvous classes end- with a practical exercise.
In MR1.0 the final exercise is a 2 man "spot and shoot" exercise involving the shooter team taking a position at the top of a hill and having to both find hidden targets and engage them through NV. Most of the targets used are the small "Ivan" plastic targets that are roughly 1/5 the size of a normal man. Some are fairly easy to spot, and some are hidden more- all are camoflaged. In this MR 1.0 we also added in a couple of PT61A reactive "pop up" targets as well with larger "F" type targets on them.
Lighting conditions sucked, no moon and only visible starlight. The range is in the middle of nowhere with no residual lighting from houses, streetlights, etc. around for roughly a 1/2 mile. Needless to say it's usually a tough exercise even if there is some moonlight to work with. The guys with powerful illuminators like the Luna ELIR3 as well as the guys with D2s and Mawls had no problems illuminating the targets at distances and using them to "find" the hidden targets. One interesting thing I noted was one pair where the shooter had a Mawl was actually casting a shadow on the F target and making it appear as there were two targets there and it seemed like the shadow was the target when it was not.
Equipment used ranged from Photonis Echo spec White Phosphor PVS14s up to high spec BNVD dual tube sets with Elbit White phosphor tubes. No problems with NODS were reported.
A couple folks had intermittent problems with weapons, but none that took them down for the class. We continue to see tape switch issues with IR lasers from time to time- and had to loan out 2 extra tape switches we keep as extras in our gear.
It was an excellent group of folks there and I thank them all again for coming.
Our 2022 Winter NV classes are up on the website and are already starting to fill up.
