AAR - Dave Harrington's Carbine/Pistol Council Bluffs, IA 4/26-27/2014

[R.E.Schoening]

Who: Dave Harrington
What: Combat Speed Carbine / Pistol Course
When: April 26th and 27th, 2014.
Where: Council Bluffs, IA
Why: Carbine / Pistol usage.

Instructor: Dave Harrington
• 20+ year military veteran; Army Special Forces and Ranger qualified.
• Instructor, U. S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.
• USPSA and Two Gun competitive shooter with BCM, Corbon and Trijicon sponsorships.

Students: 12 - Civilians, PSD Contractor, City/State/Federal LE.

Weather: TD1 - sunny, high winds, temps in the 70's. TD2 - thunderstorms, temps in the 60's.

TD0.5 - We started the weekend off with a "Meet and Greet" on Friday evening at a local pizza joint, followed by several hours covering the "ins and outs" of running the Beretta 92. Dave covered the positives and negatives of the platform, sights, trigger manipulation, reloads, malfunctions, storage, and altering the pistol for manipulations.

TD1 - TD1 started off with a range / safety / medical brief and an overview of Dave's goals for the course. It was then onto the 50 and 100 yard lines to confirm / tweak zeros. From there we covered the FULL GAMUT of firearms related topics to include: teaching new shooters, precision vs speed shooting, use of sights and point shooting, equipment expectations, ballistics, shooting math, grouping exercises from 25 - 100 yards, "V-Grip" shooting method used to isolate trigger manipulation, "Golf Grip" for long distance pistol shooting, Transitions, Malfunctions, Reloads, Individual and Buddy Team Movement, Muzzle / Situational Awareness, and knowing your equipment, it's status, and keeping it in the fight.

TD1.5 - This course included a night fire portion which began after our dinner break, while we still had plenty of light. In addition to covering some of the topics from the day portion (Movement, Transitions, Reloads, Malfunctions, Safety), we also covered the psychological / physiological effects of darkness, flashlight types, operating systems, NODS, why lights can be bad, ammunition selection and muzzle flash, light usage inside and outside of buildings, team considerations in reference to their ability to operate at night, PID during low / no light, "DLID" decision making technique.

TD2 - Rain, thunderstorms, hail and wind hit us hard on Sunday...we worked through the weather focusing on the application of the skills learned on TD1 / 1.5 in a variety of drills that PUSHED the students to maintain a HIGH LEVEL of situational awareness and muzzle discipline while working in and around other individuals / team members.

Final thoughts - "Super Dave" brings a hard work ethic, an incredible amount of knowledge, and the ability to demonstrate the tasks at hand to the table...he is also more than willing to spend as much time on the range as the students desire to meet their own personal firearms goals. Regardless of the drills that Dave threw at us, there was a consistent theme that he reinforced throughout the course...Firearms Safety and Situation / Equipment awareness! Dave expected all of us to stay tuned in, locked on, and ready to go...all the time, every time!

V/r - Rob