Scout & Recce Course Review, by Garand69

 February dates are on the calendar – NCS

Cry Malort and let slip the dogs of war!!!

October Scout & RECCE Course Review

What a great time out in North Carolina this past week, A huge thank you to NC Scout, and his excellent OPFOR Team, for hosting such excellent courses. I have been trying to get out to the Scout and RECCE Courses for quite some time, and along with a couple friends, was finally able to do so. I have attended several of NC Scouts Courses, including RTO, SigInt, and Fighting Carbine, and his teaching style is one of the reasons why I come back. The other is the caliber of attendees that attend.

This course was no exception, great Americans with ages running from late teens to mid 60’s and everything in between. Experience also covered a broad spectrum, from total newbies to experienced former Servicemen. All were helpful and respectful to one another and by the end of the Scout course, a sense of Camaraderie was felt across the board. The choice of gear among attendees was also diverse, and every budget was covered, so don’t make the mistake of thinking you can’t go because you don’t have all the tacticool stuff.

My goal was to simply use what I had assembled over the years and not buy anything just because I was taking a course. That of course is the opposite that I normally do, but I am glad I did. I was able to see first hand what seems to work better than others. Camouflage, was one of those big take-a way’s, more on that later.

Day one – Guerrilla Sniper School

Being a Rifle Instructor for two decades, I enjoy adding tools to my tool box via taking additional marksmanship training when I get a chance. Sometimes you get some great ideas, sometimes you don’t, but this was worth the price of admission. After zeroing at the 25M line using the standard USGI M16/M4 Zeroing Target, he walked us back to 50, then to 100yd, still using that small zeroing silhouette in order to emphasize “Aim Small, Miss Small”. When you use a target that is much smaller than you would at 100 yards, you notice how much smaller your group is compared to using a standard 100yd target. It’s a natural confidence builder. After that, we hit his KD range, that has IPSC style steel targets staggered out at 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards. We shot individually and then as a team. Everybody walked away with far more confidence in their shooting abilities and more knowledge of their chosen rifle/ammo combination.

The next two days and nights were all about instilling the knowledge and skills needed to plan and execute a patrol and conduct ambushes. The camouflage and concealment techniques portion was an eye opener for me, and seeing the vast variety of camo patterns in the woods (day and night) really changed my view point on the matter. I went the no camo route wearing medium brown pants and shirt with a Desert MARPAT boonie hat along with a inexpensive sniper veil. For me, my favorite camo pattern, Woodland MARPAT, was the easiest for me to spot in the NC woods, because it was dark. Others running lighter camo patterns, like Multicam, were harder to spot. We also all had the opportunity to use Thermals to spot a team hiding in the woods. Scope glass was the easiest to spot for me using the thermals, but I was scanning too fast. Others scanned slower, and more methodically, and were able to spot more of the “enemy”.

Patrolling and conducting a raid at night was an interesting challenge, having “City Eyes” and no moon to help with illuminating the property that I knew nothing about. But the vast majority of the 20 + attendees did not have night vision or thermals, so I was not alone. We learned a lot during our first night operation, especially because we had to do it twice! NC Scout puts it simple, “You paid to learn a skill, your not finished until you learn it”, and learn it we did. The second attempt, while not perfect, was much improved, and was made more interesting because of NC Scout shaking up the leadership roles and scrambling up the teams. We were then forced to work with folks we really didn’t know yet, but from there on out we all felt like old friends.

Day 4, RECCE Begins… The Scout course built a foundation, that the RECCE course continued to build on. The amount of information was made manageable by the teaching style. Your not trying to sip water out of a firehose with NC Scout, he gives you the info you need, in the order you need it, so it all makes sense and you can retain it. The remainder of the course bounced between classroom and field exercises where you put your new knowledge to the test.

From battle drills, to setting up communications, conducting raids and ambushes, exploiting the material gained during the raids, and getting of the X in under 7 minutes, etc etc…. The amount of knowledge and skills gained was immense for a regular Civilian such as myself.

If you have been going back and forth about attending, make it happen, it is more than worth it. I’m mid 50’s with an anti social hip and crappy knees, and despite every inch of the North Carolina Camp being up hill in every direction, I made it with a bit of ibuprofen and a desire to learn more the next day. Folks 10 years my senior also had no issue getting through the whole week, and we all slept very well every night. Keep it simple your first go around and simply bring what is on the recommended items list, don’t worry about high tech, low tech works fine and in some ways maybe better. If you are lucky to be in a group of like minded friends, try to bring them with. If cost is an issue, work together and send the best note taker among you, so they can bring back the wealth of information, so that you can recreate it in your home AO and learn. NC Scout is all about Train the Trainer!

Quit making excuses and get out and train, so that you can help train others!

Garand69