Lieutenant Colonel Freddie Blish, USMC (Ret.), is a military veteran, firearms instructor, combat-optics specialist, and product developer whose career connects operational service, military optics education, firearms-industry leadership, and civilian defensive-firearms training. He is an Adjunct Rangemaster at Gunsite Academy and the owner and CEO of Patriot Products AZ, manufacturer of the Combat Sight Tool and Combat Optic Tool.
United States Marine Corps Career
Blish served 24 years in the United States Marine Corps, including 21 years on active duty. A graduate of Norwich University, he received his commission as a second lieutenant and ultimately retired as a lieutenant colonel. His service included multiple combat tours and deployments to Iraq, Africa, Korea, Thailand, and Latin America in operational, instructional, and advisory assignments.
That military background provided the operational foundation for his later work with firearms and optics. Blish entered the industry with experience evaluating weapons and sighting equipment as parts of larger systems that also include mounting, zeroing, ammunition, maintenance, environmental conditions, and the person employing them.
Aimpoint and the M68 Close Combat Optic
After retiring from the Marine Corps, Blish served approximately from 2007 through 2011 as Director of Military Business Development for Aimpoint, Inc. This period coincided with the continuing adoption of red-dot sights as standard military fighting equipment. His work addressed a problem that accompanies any rapid equipment fielding: widespread issue does not guarantee widespread understanding.
Blish developed an intensive instructional program for the Aimpoint M68 Close Combat Optic. The course was delivered through First Army Regional Training Centers East, Central, and West and to personnel associated with the U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School, U.S. Air Force Pararescue, I Marine Expeditionary Force advisory training teams, active-duty units, and National Guard organizations preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The instruction went beyond turning on a sight and placing the dot on a target. It addressed mounting, zeroing, mechanical offset, brightness management, battery procedures, maintenance, and the relationship among the optic, mount, firearm, ammunition, shooter, and operating environment. Blish has described experienced noncommissioned officers discovering during the course that some information they had passed to soldiers about the M68 was incorrect. Correcting those misconceptions helped prevent informal practices from becoming permanent institutional doctrine.
Practical Red-Dot Employment
Blish’s work helped translate electronic optics from emerging technology into a mature fighting system. Many subjects now considered routine in competent red-dot instruction—proper mounting, repeatable zero, offset awareness, brightness selection, target-focused aiming, battery management, and verification after maintenance—were less consistently understood while military adoption was accelerating.
His teaching emphasizes choosing the optic according to the task and understanding the limitations of each system. In a detailed AR Build Junkie interview, he discussed durability, battery life, rapid target acquisition, positive identification, parallax, magnifiers, low-power variable optics, and the different requirements of recreational and defensive rifles. His central point is that the sight, mount, firearm, intended use, and expected distance must be evaluated together.
Blish also participated in relatively early exploration of compact red-dot sights outside their conventional rifle role. Instructor Darryl Bolke has credited him as an early advocate for mounting Aimpoint Micro sights on defensive shotguns. The idea is commonplace today, but it reflects the way experienced practitioners often identify useful applications before they become broadly accepted.
Firearms-Industry and Contracting Experience
Following Aimpoint, Blish worked for LaRue Tactical in government-business sales. The position expanded his experience from optics into mounting systems, precision rifles, AR-platform components, quick-detach hardware, and military equipment procurement. He also completed domestic and overseas contract work involving high-risk clients, including State Department-related assignments.
Blish later spent approximately six years with ROBAR Companies and eventually served in senior leadership. ROBAR was known for custom firearm work, refinishing, grip treatments, and performance modifications. Across Aimpoint, LaRue Tactical, contracting, ROBAR, and his independent work, Blish accumulated experience with the firearm, optic, mount, maintenance requirements, manufacturing, institutional procurement, and end-user training rather than approaching any one component in isolation.
Gunsite Academy and Instruction
Blish has provided firearms instruction to military, law-enforcement, and private-sector students for more than two decades and currently serves as an Adjunct Rangemaster at Gunsite Academy. His teaching spans defensive pistol, carbine, shotgun, and combat-optics applications. Gunsite’s roots predate widespread electronic-sight adoption, making his role useful in connecting durable principles of weapons handling and marksmanship with later developments in sighting technology.
Effective knowledge transfer requires more than importing military practices into civilian training. Missions, rules, equipment, organizational support, likely distances, and legal frameworks differ. Blish’s experience across military, law-enforcement, and private audiences allows him to distinguish transferable principles from practices that belong to a specific operational context.
Patriot Products AZ and the Combat Sight Tool
Blish founded Patriot Products AZ after identifying a recurring problem: modern optics and mounts often require several different tools for adjustment, installation, and maintenance. Working with a mechanical engineer, he developed a purpose-built device based on the functions professional users needed rather than simply adapting a general-purpose tool.
The resulting family progressed through the Combat Optic Tool, Combat Sight Tool, and specialized variants. The Combat Sight Tool supports windage and elevation adjustments for commonly encountered Aimpoint, EOTech, Elcan, Trijicon, and other sighting systems; tightening tasks for several optic mounts; traditional front-sight adjustment; and related maintenance functions. The tool carries National Stock Number 1005-01-650-8121, and the official product site identifies U.S. Patent 11,125,535.
The product illustrates practitioner-driven development: operational experience exposed an equipment-management problem, technical understanding defined the necessary functions, a purpose-built solution was developed, and user feedback supported later iterations. That same progression—identify a gap, understand it, build or teach a solution, and refine it—runs through Blish’s military, instructional, industry, and product-development work.
Primary & Secondary Involvement
Blish has contributed to the professional knowledge network surrounding Primary & Secondary. He appeared on P&S ModCast 437 — Remembering Super Dave Harrington with Ben DeWalt, Matt Haught, Rob Haught, Kurt Weber, and Matt Landfair. The discussion preserved the lessons and influence of instructor Dave Harrington and demonstrated the role experienced professionals play in maintaining institutional memory.
His optics background also connects directly with Primary & Secondary’s coverage of the M68 Close Combat Optic and its broader Optics and Red Dots resources. Within the Extended P&S Network, Blish represents the link among operational use, technical optics knowledge, instructor development, and purpose-built equipment.
Current Work
Blish continues to teach as an Adjunct Rangemaster at Gunsite Academy and operates Patriot Products AZ. He also teaches through Liberty Steel Targets and Training in Arizona and holds current USCCA instructor certifications in Concealed Carry and Home Defense, AR-15 Fundamentals, and the Defensive Pistol Program, as well as Training Counselor status in the Defensive Pistol Program.
His current course listings include AR-15 Fundamentals, Active Shooter Readiness, and Marksmanship Matters Instructor Development. Through these programs and the Combat Sight Tool product family, his work remains focused on helping military, law-enforcement, and responsible private users develop sound firearms skills and correctly install, adjust, maintain, and employ modern sighting systems.
Professional Assessment
Blish’s principal contribution is the development and transfer of practical combat-optics knowledge across military, industry, training, and product-development settings. His Marine Corps service established the operational foundation; Aimpoint placed him at an important stage in institutional red-dot adoption; LaRue Tactical, contracting, and ROBAR broadened his view of mounting, manufacturing, and user requirements; and Gunsite provided a continuing instructional environment.
Patriot Products AZ converted that accumulated experience into tools for recurring maintenance and adjustment problems. His career therefore represents a complete professional cycle: practitioner, instructor, industry specialist, mentor, and inventor. The strongest lasting association is not with any single employer, but with helping turn electronic sights from issued equipment into systems that professional users could understand, maintain, and employ effectively.
Sources
- Gunsite Academy — Freddie Blish instructor biography
- Combat Sight Tool / Patriot Products AZ — official website
- AR Build Junkie — Red Dot Sights for the AR-15: Q&A with Freddie Blish
- On Target Magazine — Aimpoint Combat Sights
- Lucky Gunner Lounge — Sighting Systems for the Defensive Shotgun
- Primary & Secondary ModCast 437 — Remembering Super Dave Harrington
- Primary & Secondary — The M68 Close Combat Optic
- USCCA — Freddie Blish / Liberty Steel Targets and Training
Profile last reviewed: September 10, 2026. Biographical details and professional affiliations were checked against the sources listed above.