After Action Report – Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course by Mason-Dixon Tactical Institute

Greetings, Partisans! Checking back in and, once again, today’s post is another After Action Report about Mason-Dixon Tactical Institute’s Rural Buddy Team Essentials Course (“RBTEC“) that I just took this past weekend (November 6th and 7th). I’ve been doing a lot of different sorts of training and prepping, so I sincerely apologize for not having posted about fitness at all lately. I have a few fitness/health posts on ice, and after hunting season’s over, I expect to get back to fitness-related posts in a more dedicated fashion. But lately, it’s been busy as hell with the training and prepping, as I’m sure many of you have been getting into as well – out of sheer necessity, with all things considered.

Anyway, let’s get right into things. Unlike all the Brushbeater courses I took by myself (without local friends), I was actually fortunate enough to be able to bring two close local friends of mine down to the RBTEC. It’s the difference between a 5.5-hour ride to train down in rural West Virginia vs. a 10-hour ride down to North Carolina from Western NY/Northwest PA. The three of us actually arrived on Friday November 5th to do a pre-RBTEC module on Land Navigation with Mason-Dixon Tactical’s (and American Partisan’s own) JC Dodge himself. The hosting site, Echo Valley Training Center, is situated pretty remotely, and it took a bit of effort to find the place, but we still arrived on time and linked up shortly afterwards with JC and two gentlemen that had already completed the RBTEC previously, and would serve as OpFor for our class. My crew and I immediately set up our tents for the weekend, and got into the Land Navigation training with JC for the rest of the afternoon.

Just a quick note on the Echo Valley Training Center (“EVTC”): that place is really fucking sweet – 350 acres consisting of separate areas, each with its own distinct training theme – from square ranges to woods to 360-degree ranges that involve vehicle-based tactics, and there was even a proper obstacle course to boot. Bad ass! Plus, as you can see from the photo above, the fall scenery was just unbeatable in its natural beauty. We arrived at peak fall, so there were many colors on display in God’s country there. EVTC + three days of perfectly clear peak fall weather made for good morale and a superb training environment all-around, and that’s not even getting into the excellent quality of Mason-Dixon Tactical’s (“MDT”) RBTEC either (which I’ll detail below).

For the Land Nav, one guy from my group of three is an Army infantry vet, and had done some Land Nav in the Army, but it was a good while back, so we were all pretty new to the training. JC got us squared away with some Land Nav basics: understanding the MGRS coordinate system; basic compass use; shooting azimuths; reading topo maps with MGRS; and finding locations using maps and compass. Considering the vast amount of information composing the Land Nav skillset, we were barely able to scratch the surface in the short time we had that afternoon. We did the best we could with the time available; my crew and I did manage to squeeze in a few field exercises in the awesome EVTC woods around our campsite, and we acquired some very basic Land Nav chops. Unfortunately, the Land Nav lessons basically had to end once nightfall came, and early too, but the three of us learned enough from JC to practice some basics on our own, and we’re definitely hungry to practice and learn more as soon as possible. JC also did a follow-on Land Nav exercise with us the next day at lunch, which was good reinforcement.

By Friday evening, other participants for the RBTEC course had trickled in – one guy from North Carolina and a pair from Ohio, with a 7th participant slated to come the next day. We all sat around the fire that JC and his RBTEC “alumni” had prepared (and that we kept going nonstop until the end of the course – it got good and cold at times LOL), and hung out for a few hours that night. Hanging out after course hours has always been a very enjoyable part of any tactical training I’ve ever experienced; relaxing under the clear night sky last weekend and discussing personal stories, the deteriorating situation in our beloved USA, and training topics/gear definitely made for excellent camaraderie among our group of patriots. JC also briefed us about what all we’d be doing over the coming days, along with the necessary safety brief that accompanies any serious live-fire training. We all turned in by around 2130 or so, in preparation for the official start of the RBTEC at 0800 on Saturday November 6.

Saturday morning was another crisp, clear day – and pretty cold for starters, around 27 degrees. Participants started getting their gear together for the day’s training, which was scheduled to go from 0800 to around 2100, and was just packed with the Rural Buddy Team Essentials training modules, to be capped off that first day with night patrols after supper. The last participant arrived right around 0800 that morning, suited up, and we all got our training started.

The first thing JC started us on was an overview of the critical nature of being able to maneuver in the woods as a “Buddy Team” (“BT”), or in other words, a team of two. I liked this approach from the get-go, since it broke team tactics down to the smallest “group” level possible, and seemed like a very realistic and relevant approach to conducting small unit maneuvers, as many Partisans may also not have a crew of many people at all, or be able to maneuver with many people at any one time. Learning to maneuver at the Fire Team level is certainly important, but it also makes good sense to break maneuvering concepts down to a core Buddy Team as well – there are many potential applications of the BT, even within a larger team setting. JC showed us how to move both as an individual within the BT, using the Low Crawl, the High Crawl, and Bounding (“I’m up, he sees me, I’m down!”), together with moving in a harmonized fashion as a Buddy Team using the said movements. We also learned the different circumstances for which we’d use each movement, together with additional important fine details (for example, “offsetting” our position during bounding and how best to hold our rifles during crawling, among other seasoned, fine details). This first RBTEC segment was then followed by a field exercise in which each of us practiced each movement individually (each using the old “blue gun” AR-15), and then as actual BT’s using commands to one another at a very basic level, before moving on. This first lesson was really the core of the RBTEC, the foundation upon which most of the follow-on evolutions of the course were built.

After a short morning break, JC got into the concepts of Camouflage and Concealment, as well as the difference between the two. He talked about best practices for camouflaging, things to look out for in nature (like straight lines and other irregularities that might give your opponent or YOU away), and the importance of identifying locations for cover while patrolling through the woods. The segment on Camouflage and Concealment was filled with other small but critical details, for example, about the “strobing” effect of sun reflecting off watch faces; the dangers of silhouetting one’s self; choosing the best position to be in when concealing; best colors to use for different seasons; and so on. JC even got into which detergents to use for reducing the brightness of camo clothes and best textured paints for painting