After recently participating in both HEAT 1 & 2, I feel like I am qualified enough to give Max Velocity Tactical a semi-thorough look-through to inform you on the training opportunities they offer. They currently have 6 regularly scheduled class subjects, to include an Alumni get together in Texas each year, which I will attend, if able.
Self-defense is a broad subject that many of my fellow gun geeks have distilled down to the act of shooting an attacker. Based on my training and experience, there is a whole lot more to defense than pulling a trigger. In fact, defense goes well beyond learning ‘Gun-Fu’. There are stages leading up to the attack that you can see, countermeasures that can be taken, contingencies you can/should train for, and even methods in which you should conduct yourself before/after the critical incident, in the eyes of the law. The greatest flaw in mainstream firearms training is they are only preparing you for pulling the trigger, even in “self-defense” classes. This merely reinforces the myopic ideology that defense revolves around the trigger. I get that instructors will pander to the mainstream to keep their business alive, but I feel that classes can at least be enhanced or modified to include the reality of defense. But in the meantime, let me fill you in on a few things to munch on in your mind.
Have you ever looked at the training you are conducting and tried to wargame (imagine) how it would help or hurt you? Have you looked at all the possible scenarios you could find yourself in during an economic collapse? How about a simple natural disaster that delays or prevents Law Enforcement and emergency services from responding? I am willing to bet that a lot of my readers have thought very little about the realistic, or even the extreme situations they could find themselves in when things truly get bad. But, the definition of bad can be quite subjective, and everyone will define it differently. Someone living in downtown LA may define bad differently than a resident of a Midwestern suburban neighborhood. Keep that in mind throughout this article.
While growing up in the Dallas suburbs, it was likely for my parents to get out of work only to be in standstill traffic, sometimes for hours. My mother and brother have a medical condition that required frequent attention at the time, so being stuck in traffic without supplies just for a few hours could have literally been a death sentence for them. Being responsible parents/adults, my parents stored supplies in the vehicle(s) just in case. I use my parents for this subject because this is how a responsible parent/adult should prepare at a minimum. At no point did they store guns or bug out bags or active shooter response kits. They simply prepared for the likely scenarios, plus some extras here and there to keep my brother and I from complaining during long drives. They stored enough food and water for all four of us (not MREs), a basic first aid kit (Not IFAK-style), bad weather attire, and some basic hygiene items. And best of all is that they weren't afraid to use any of it. We never felt like any of it was off limits. Only storing "just in case" supplies that you can't touch until an emergency is about as sensible as a scuba suit in the desert, because "just in case".
In my opinion, the average Joe should think about increasing their level of preparedness. Up here in Alaska, preparedness is just a way of life. For the gold miner that goes into the wild to seek their small fortune, they must stockpile months of food, fuel and other supplies for the time they will be on their own. The rural folks such as myself must use summer as a time to prepare land, home, and animals for the next 6 months of winter. This means stocking up on supplies like candles, batteries, water, and food that is shelf-stable and easy to make in the event of not having power. In Alaska, prepping is not a four-letter word but rather a healthy way of life that promotes independence and peace of mind. I believe the average Joe and Jane everywhere else would benefit from such lessons.
With the whole world being unstable, it is easy for people to feel a need to prepare for things to get bad. We are facing rising gas prices, soaring interest rates, a new made up variant of Covid, and an ongoing war in Ukraine. This is all evidence of an upcoming recession that could really hurt our country. It is easy to understand why people are getting concerned about the future. However, there is much more to being prepared than just storing gas, ammo, and MREs. I would say it is time to make realistic priorities based on history. Since most people live in or near a city, I figured I would talk about security in the suburbs.
Ammunition seems to be slowly getting back onto the shelves, but people still are not able to fully indulge as they once did. In turn, people have made the judgement that without enough ammunition, they can’t train. This comes from the assumption that “Range Time” is the only way in which skills are developed or maintained. In fact, I would go as far as to start this article off by saying that 99.99% of you reading this would perform better if you started training off the range and stopped thinking of the range as a primary training ground. This lack of ammo on the shelves can be a blessing in disguise if you are serious about advancing your skills.
Physical fitness is not a big subject in many prepping books I have read and the videos I have seen. You will likely read/hear about food and water storage and making a fire and a lean-to, but next to nothing will be dedicated to discussing training to walk for miles (On a bugout or evacuation route) while towing your families’ bugout gear off-road. Have you ever read or heard about the importance of conditioning your body to work effectively with little or no food and water so that your family can stay fed without you being a liability to them? How about having to carry or tow a loved one for miles because they are having trouble keeping up? Just because you have the guns and gadgets does not mean that you are above having to do physical tasks when things go wrong. Batteries run out, resources get consumed, but there is almost always going to be a task that will require you to use muscular force and/or endurance to lift, hold, bend, twist, pry, push, pull, snatch, throw, sweep, swing, etc. Why not Prepare?
A patrol base is a fundamental patrolling component, except for security patrols and other patrols that are relatively short in duration. Things like recon, ambush, and raid patrols that last longer than 6 hours will likely require a patrol base to be established. Patrol base locations are established as part of the patrol planning process. This article is going to be somewhat generalized about establishing and using a patrol base since it can vary greatly based on the unit, terrain, enemy, and the mission. The general thing to remember is that a patrol base, much like everything you do in combat, revolves around the concept of security and accountability.
When prepping, food is an important subject to cover. We always want to get a food that is easy to store, easy to prepare, inexpensive, and something that has good variety. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find a good quality, shelf stable, cheap food product. That combination is not going to be found in a store since those qualities are a bit contradictory. To get all these qualities, you would typically have to spend the time to make and prep your own food. I am not here to recommend any particular food to you for prepping, but rather inform you about what to look for in your food. What you eat and drink will definitely determine your health and well-being, so I highly advise paying attention to your health as a general guideline.
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Do It RiteAlaska-Based Youtube Vlogger, Retired Marine, Firearm and Gear Tester. Archives
December 2023
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