Friends of Pat Rogers 2017 AAR
25-27 August, Alliance OH
First, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who contributed in any way to FoP; range sponsors, those who donated raffle and auction items, instructors, range facility and volunteers, as well as every person who came this year. Every single person I had a chance to meet worked to enhance everyone else’s experience. I got to meet up with a few old friends, put faces to names and screen names, and hopefully not make a fool of myself in the process.
Gear: Let’s get this one out of the way first. It’s recommended to bring ALL gear to FoP, and pretty much everything had a use if you could get into the class. This is a brief rundown of the equipment I brought and used:
Rifle: Custom build (by myself…) 14.7” Centurion barreled carbine with mainly Geissele, BCM, Noveske and Daniel Defense parts, with a Eotech Vudu 1-6 scope, Surefire Scout Ultra light and Blue Force Gear 2-point sling.
Handgun: Glock 17 with ALG 6 Second Mount, Aimpoint T1 and Surefire X300U
Chest Rig: BCM ’03 Split Front Chest Rig (virtually unobtainable now, but great kit if you can find it!)
Plate Carrier: Blue Force Gear PlateMINUS V2 graciously long-term-loaned, BFG 10-Speed mag pouches, TYR / Paraclete Lvl IV stand alone plates with Velocity Systems IIIA backers, D27 admin pouch/TQ holder
Belt: Mean Gene Victor Aegis belt with a Blue Force Gear BeltMINUS with H-Harness (removed and replaced with SOC-C suspenders), ITW 5.56 Fastmag, Tactical Tailor double pistol mag pouch, ATS rollup dump pouch, Dark Angel DARK pouch with ATS medical insert, BFG Boo-Boo pouch with Slip2000 and spare batteries (though, not ALL the necessary spares, as mentioned below)
Helmet: Gentex TC2001 helmet with Team Wendy Epic Air pads, Ops Core X-Nape
Eyes/Ears: Smith Optics Aegis Echo glasses and MSA Sordin Supreme Pro earpro.
Day 1: Friday night consisted of hotel check in (stayed at the Comfort Inn because I waiting until the last minute…..DON’T DO WHAT I DID, get a room at the HIX), and headed over to the Holiday Inn Express parking lot where the hotel staff had a section of parking lot roped off, along with rows of tables and chairs setup for us. I didn’t stay at the HIX, but the staff support for us was simply incredible. It was easy to tell they cared very deeply for what was going on, and their support was more than just a good business decision. We walked over to the restaurant, met some great people shared lots of drinks, ate some good food. I headed back to the HIX early as it was getting a little loud for me, but I was hardly the first one back. Drinks and cigars were being liberally passed around. A cake was brought in, and the HIX staff had a great banner made for us all to sign. By 11:30 or so, I returned to my hotel, leaving a still hard charging group behind.
Day 2: Day 2 consisted of training. Parking was graciously provided by a nearby business, and a bus was running diligently to shuttle us back and forth with all our gear. Most of us were in a good hurry to get to the sign in sheets, and even though I arrived at the parking lot before 7, I missed the first bus run. Classes covered a full spectrum of topics, and I chose to sign up for Jared Reston’s High Threat Concealment and Varg Freeborn’s Violence of Mind discussions in the classroom, then Doc Spears/Freddie Blish/Chris Sizelove’s intermediate distance carbine course, closing with Jared Reston’s advanced carbine course. I had intended to work mainly pistol, but the chance to train with the main instructors as well as their AI’s (all of whom could easily be or are teaching on their own), I couldn’t pass up some additional carbine work.
Jared Reston High Threat Concealment: This was a simply outstanding classroom discussion with Jared and Jim Walters, his assistant instructor. Honestly, the class wasn’t quite for me as a private citizen, where the class was focused on covert carry in high threat environments, however there was still a lot of great takeaways. Jared and Jim really hit on a truth: the vast majority of people out there live in their own bubble or a bubble of their group, not really seeing beyond themselves and what they’re doing. You’re decked out in 5.11 and carrying a backpack with PALS webbing all over? No one notices in real life because they’re wrapped up in what they’re doing. It’s the ones that are looking around, scanning crowds, with their focus outward instead of inward that are the ones to watch for, because they’re most likely predators of some sort, be they cops, switched on civilians, or bad guys. (This also easily explains why I get mistaken for a cop…a lot…to the point where I’ve been offered free coffee and donuts…yeah, I’ve got decent grooming standards and short hair, but my eyes are almost always up and out looking for people that might cause trouble). A lot of the discussion revolved around covert police activities, as opposed to undercover. A lot of good conversations and questions occurred, and both Jared and Jim stayed to answer one-on-one questions even after the block was over.
Varg Freeborn Violence of Mind: Varg has what is probably a singularly unique story in our community, and has life experiences that few of us share. For those who don’t know of him, I cannot recommend enough that you go check out the P&S Modcast on Primal Violence. There’s not a ton I can put in this section without giving too much away that Varg can much better articulate than I. However, I can say that I always thought I was well prepared. I’ve been through the police academy. I’m an OEF vet. I was an athlete (kinda fallen off that boat, but trying to get back on), I took classes with guys like Pat Rogers and Steve Fisher. As Pat would say, you don’t know what you don’t know in some environments. Varg, however, knows what I don’t, or didn’t, know. He’s been around the high level predators in our society. Not just the thugs out for some money or to intimidate, but people who truly have their brains wired differently and can commit atrocities as easily as most of us order a cup of coffee. People like Micah Xavier Johnson and Ted Bundy were brought up and discussed. Varg’s knowledge and demeanor effectively delivered the weight of the impact of such people in our society. This is a man many of us haven’t heard of before, but he brings an insight and perspective to our community that few others can.
Doc Spears Intermediate Distance Carbine: This class was an absolute joy. Freddie Blish and Chris Sizelove joined Doc to teach this 4 hour block on engaging targets at intermediate ranges out to 300 yards with an M4 type carbine and red dot sight (many of us cheated and brought low power variables, myself included). This was my first time meeting Doc and Chris, and both they and Freddie just have a way about transmitting information. Doc’s almost flamboyant gestures (captured on video!) and creative vocabulary, counterpointed with Chris’s matter of fact, quiet professional delivery really drove home a lot of points. The class started in the pavilion, going over topics such as the history of point blank aiming (going back to the Napoleonic Wars), ballistics, POA/POI at various ranges, target selection, body position, even simple ranging techniques and more were covered. We then assembled at the 50 yard line for a zero verification and proper instruction on how and why to get into a good prone shooting position. From there we went back to the 150, 200, and 300 yard lines, with Doc on a spotting scope, having us adjust aim where needed to get us solid hits on both full size and quarter size steel. Most of us were able to properly deliver first round hits out to 300 with their help, using just a red dot and a 14.5” 5.56 carbine. Some people had difficulties for various reasons. Since I was cheating with a 1-6 scope, my biggest takeaway was that with a 1-6, it’s very easy to use too much magnification at range. Too much magnification made my shots slower than they needed to be in order to be effective (this isn’t a sniper or DMR course), and dialing back to 3-4x allowed me to balance the benefit of easier target ID and follow up speed. Despite the relatively low round count, this bloc was a great opportunity especially for those of us who rarely have access to ranges greater than 50-100 yards, as well as police who rarely have a requirement to train past 50 yards.
Jared Reston Advanced Carbine: Jared and Jim Walters teamed up again for this class that occurred as the sun was going down. This truly was a class for people who have trained with their carbines before. The speed of instruction, the relative independence of loading, unloading, running a hot range, etc, really was gears towards experienced students. Everyone on the line was up to it, as well, with their brains set to receive, processing everything quick, and executing the drills with speed and purpose. Timing became a bit of an issue for me on this class, and drove home a couple issues with my gear selection. As I was coming off from the Intermediate Carbine bloc (which ran about 30 minutes over the intended times) and heading back to get some of the delicious BBQ cooked up for dinner, Chappie addressed the crowd, and asked Jared if he could bump up his class start time so that the night vision blocks could move up a bit as well. I was a bit on my heels, having about 20 minutes to eat, hydrate, and kit up for Jared’s class. In my rush, I failed to check the battery in my LPVO, and as such, when I got to the line, the illumination failed. That was the bad news. The good news was that the reticle in the Vudu scope was nice and thick, and even in dusk conditions, the reticle remained plenty bold to use until the white light came on and backlit my reticle even better. Lesson learned…keep ALL your spare batteries somewhere on your body or support gear, not back on the benches….other lesson learned is that even without illumination, a proper LPVO reticle should get the job done. On to the class itself: Jared zipped through the initial instruction, the major point was being able to establish a proper cadence of fire that can be utilized regardless of the situation. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. That became the chant of the night. It was fairly quick, but not NSR fast. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Need to put five rounds into that guy right there? One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Do you have multiple targets? One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Four shots to the body and one to the head? One, Two…you get the point. We worked that cadence of fire to center mass, to the brain box, some to the body and some to the head, etc. As light started to fail, the target stands were arranged in groups of five for us. We practiced putting one shot in the center of each target at the same cadence as we put five shots into a single target. We engaged left to right, right to left, and also in other orders, all at the same cadence (or at least we tried to). Weapon lights were coming on, along with lasers for some shooters. The most important part, I found, was to keep forcing myself not to look at the reticle, but to look at the target, especially as multiple target drills come up. It may not seem that big of a deal, but it really does make things that much faster and accurate. The fairly wide FOV of my 1-6 definitely helped as I could easily see the next target through the scope as I began to transition from one target to the next and so on. Jim even asked a time or two if I thought I was hitting all the targets, as my cadence was apparently one of the faster ones of the night (probably as my last course had been with Scott Jedlinski who managed to let out my inner Ricky Bobby by the end). The last part of instruction was shooting on the move. I’ve done this before in courses, but Jared liked to move fast, which is really a good thing. Speed and decisiveness wins, and moving is a big part of that, whether to get into a position to engage, or to get into cover or any other reason. I moved faster while shooting than I previously had, by quite a big margin, just short of what I’d consider a jog, while keeping everything as steady as possible, all while keeping that One, Two, Three, Four, Five cadence going. The only negative about this block, if I could call it that given the circumstance, is that we didn’t get a good chance to examine our hits. However, because of the time not spent looking at and taping targets, we got to shoot a LOT more. I didn’t keep count, but we probably went through at least 200 rounds in the two or so hours we had.
Day 2 Evening: Things closed down after Advanced Carbine wrapped up, though the range was still hot with the various night vision classes being conducted. After getting back to the hotel for a shower and clean clothes, I grabbed a six pack and headed back to the HiX for group debrief. Lots of great discussion, comradery, cigars, a few drinks, good times were had. I know nothing about any ensuing activities that evening, as I called it a relatively early night and went to bed.
Day 3: Day 3 reconvened for some at breakfast, but I ended up sleeping past the alarm that I failed to set. I got myself out to the range around noon for more good times, networking, and of course, raffles. Matt Landfair continued his somewhat unnatural winning streak, even though he had to leave early. Lots of people won a lot of generously donated equipment, training, ammo, and other prizes. There was one gentleman (not named to save his identity) who put a LOT of money into tickets that all generated money for charity, who then went on to win so many prizes that he stopped accepting them and donated them to the auction block so that the charity could gain yet more money. Very classy. Highlights included Surefire Vampire lights, Combat Optic Tools, cases of ammunition, a couple APX handguns, optics, the whole gamut of possibilities. I couldn’t even begin to name all the contributors, but I can say that there were a LOT of, “Thanks Ike!,” and “Thanks, Freddie!” spoken. Towards the end of the raffle, I wisely moved closer to the lovely Mrs. Jedi, hoping her incredible run of good luck would rub off on me….which it did in the form of a case of 9mm ammunition (Thanks Beverly and Midwest!). Of course, the real highlights were the auctions. Among others, Dan Easterly’s beautiful lego recreation of the shoothouse was actioned off, one of the last EAG rifles, Lorin Michki’s stunning drawing of Filthy 14 (of which many prints were made (the proceeds of which Lorin donated to help Hurricane Harvey relief in Texas!), and I was lucky enough to buy one, and of course, the prototype EAG 9mm 1911. Many fine words were spoken, many barbs were thrown at raffle winners, all under cotton ball clouds and impossibly blue skies.
Hearts were truly soaring like eagles all weekend, and I cannot wait until next year to share the experience with those who’ve never known it.
Special thanks to (in no order, please forgive me if I forgotten a few of you, there were many and I’m just a simple caveman):
Alliance Police Department Training Facility and Staff
Chappie (and Mrs Chappie!), Doc, Chris Sizelove, Freddie Blish, Jared Reston, Jim Walters, Varg Freeborn, Matt Landfair, Ephraim Rogers, Ernie Langdon, Matt Stagliano, JW Ramp, Harvey Scobie, Scott Jedlinski, Chuck Pressburg, TNVC, Surefire, ROBAR, Bravo Company Manufacturing, Unity Tactical, Midwest Ammunition, Beretta, Aimpoint, Team Wendy, Tango Down, Ares Gear, Raven Concealment, Blue Force Gear, ATEI, Austere Provisions, Gunsite Academy, EuroOptic, everyone I forgot to mention, all the brothers and sisters there that I never knew I had 5 years ago, truly the greatest people on the planet.
V/R,
Pat (aka SteveThePirate)
25-27 August, Alliance OH
First, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who contributed in any way to FoP; range sponsors, those who donated raffle and auction items, instructors, range facility and volunteers, as well as every person who came this year. Every single person I had a chance to meet worked to enhance everyone else’s experience. I got to meet up with a few old friends, put faces to names and screen names, and hopefully not make a fool of myself in the process.
Gear: Let’s get this one out of the way first. It’s recommended to bring ALL gear to FoP, and pretty much everything had a use if you could get into the class. This is a brief rundown of the equipment I brought and used:
Rifle: Custom build (by myself…) 14.7” Centurion barreled carbine with mainly Geissele, BCM, Noveske and Daniel Defense parts, with a Eotech Vudu 1-6 scope, Surefire Scout Ultra light and Blue Force Gear 2-point sling.
Handgun: Glock 17 with ALG 6 Second Mount, Aimpoint T1 and Surefire X300U
Chest Rig: BCM ’03 Split Front Chest Rig (virtually unobtainable now, but great kit if you can find it!)
Plate Carrier: Blue Force Gear PlateMINUS V2 graciously long-term-loaned, BFG 10-Speed mag pouches, TYR / Paraclete Lvl IV stand alone plates with Velocity Systems IIIA backers, D27 admin pouch/TQ holder
Belt: Mean Gene Victor Aegis belt with a Blue Force Gear BeltMINUS with H-Harness (removed and replaced with SOC-C suspenders), ITW 5.56 Fastmag, Tactical Tailor double pistol mag pouch, ATS rollup dump pouch, Dark Angel DARK pouch with ATS medical insert, BFG Boo-Boo pouch with Slip2000 and spare batteries (though, not ALL the necessary spares, as mentioned below)
Helmet: Gentex TC2001 helmet with Team Wendy Epic Air pads, Ops Core X-Nape
Eyes/Ears: Smith Optics Aegis Echo glasses and MSA Sordin Supreme Pro earpro.
Day 1: Friday night consisted of hotel check in (stayed at the Comfort Inn because I waiting until the last minute…..DON’T DO WHAT I DID, get a room at the HIX), and headed over to the Holiday Inn Express parking lot where the hotel staff had a section of parking lot roped off, along with rows of tables and chairs setup for us. I didn’t stay at the HIX, but the staff support for us was simply incredible. It was easy to tell they cared very deeply for what was going on, and their support was more than just a good business decision. We walked over to the restaurant, met some great people shared lots of drinks, ate some good food. I headed back to the HIX early as it was getting a little loud for me, but I was hardly the first one back. Drinks and cigars were being liberally passed around. A cake was brought in, and the HIX staff had a great banner made for us all to sign. By 11:30 or so, I returned to my hotel, leaving a still hard charging group behind.
Day 2: Day 2 consisted of training. Parking was graciously provided by a nearby business, and a bus was running diligently to shuttle us back and forth with all our gear. Most of us were in a good hurry to get to the sign in sheets, and even though I arrived at the parking lot before 7, I missed the first bus run. Classes covered a full spectrum of topics, and I chose to sign up for Jared Reston’s High Threat Concealment and Varg Freeborn’s Violence of Mind discussions in the classroom, then Doc Spears/Freddie Blish/Chris Sizelove’s intermediate distance carbine course, closing with Jared Reston’s advanced carbine course. I had intended to work mainly pistol, but the chance to train with the main instructors as well as their AI’s (all of whom could easily be or are teaching on their own), I couldn’t pass up some additional carbine work.
Jared Reston High Threat Concealment: This was a simply outstanding classroom discussion with Jared and Jim Walters, his assistant instructor. Honestly, the class wasn’t quite for me as a private citizen, where the class was focused on covert carry in high threat environments, however there was still a lot of great takeaways. Jared and Jim really hit on a truth: the vast majority of people out there live in their own bubble or a bubble of their group, not really seeing beyond themselves and what they’re doing. You’re decked out in 5.11 and carrying a backpack with PALS webbing all over? No one notices in real life because they’re wrapped up in what they’re doing. It’s the ones that are looking around, scanning crowds, with their focus outward instead of inward that are the ones to watch for, because they’re most likely predators of some sort, be they cops, switched on civilians, or bad guys. (This also easily explains why I get mistaken for a cop…a lot…to the point where I’ve been offered free coffee and donuts…yeah, I’ve got decent grooming standards and short hair, but my eyes are almost always up and out looking for people that might cause trouble). A lot of the discussion revolved around covert police activities, as opposed to undercover. A lot of good conversations and questions occurred, and both Jared and Jim stayed to answer one-on-one questions even after the block was over.
Varg Freeborn Violence of Mind: Varg has what is probably a singularly unique story in our community, and has life experiences that few of us share. For those who don’t know of him, I cannot recommend enough that you go check out the P&S Modcast on Primal Violence. There’s not a ton I can put in this section without giving too much away that Varg can much better articulate than I. However, I can say that I always thought I was well prepared. I’ve been through the police academy. I’m an OEF vet. I was an athlete (kinda fallen off that boat, but trying to get back on), I took classes with guys like Pat Rogers and Steve Fisher. As Pat would say, you don’t know what you don’t know in some environments. Varg, however, knows what I don’t, or didn’t, know. He’s been around the high level predators in our society. Not just the thugs out for some money or to intimidate, but people who truly have their brains wired differently and can commit atrocities as easily as most of us order a cup of coffee. People like Micah Xavier Johnson and Ted Bundy were brought up and discussed. Varg’s knowledge and demeanor effectively delivered the weight of the impact of such people in our society. This is a man many of us haven’t heard of before, but he brings an insight and perspective to our community that few others can.
Doc Spears Intermediate Distance Carbine: This class was an absolute joy. Freddie Blish and Chris Sizelove joined Doc to teach this 4 hour block on engaging targets at intermediate ranges out to 300 yards with an M4 type carbine and red dot sight (many of us cheated and brought low power variables, myself included). This was my first time meeting Doc and Chris, and both they and Freddie just have a way about transmitting information. Doc’s almost flamboyant gestures (captured on video!) and creative vocabulary, counterpointed with Chris’s matter of fact, quiet professional delivery really drove home a lot of points. The class started in the pavilion, going over topics such as the history of point blank aiming (going back to the Napoleonic Wars), ballistics, POA/POI at various ranges, target selection, body position, even simple ranging techniques and more were covered. We then assembled at the 50 yard line for a zero verification and proper instruction on how and why to get into a good prone shooting position. From there we went back to the 150, 200, and 300 yard lines, with Doc on a spotting scope, having us adjust aim where needed to get us solid hits on both full size and quarter size steel. Most of us were able to properly deliver first round hits out to 300 with their help, using just a red dot and a 14.5” 5.56 carbine. Some people had difficulties for various reasons. Since I was cheating with a 1-6 scope, my biggest takeaway was that with a 1-6, it’s very easy to use too much magnification at range. Too much magnification made my shots slower than they needed to be in order to be effective (this isn’t a sniper or DMR course), and dialing back to 3-4x allowed me to balance the benefit of easier target ID and follow up speed. Despite the relatively low round count, this bloc was a great opportunity especially for those of us who rarely have access to ranges greater than 50-100 yards, as well as police who rarely have a requirement to train past 50 yards.
Jared Reston Advanced Carbine: Jared and Jim Walters teamed up again for this class that occurred as the sun was going down. This truly was a class for people who have trained with their carbines before. The speed of instruction, the relative independence of loading, unloading, running a hot range, etc, really was gears towards experienced students. Everyone on the line was up to it, as well, with their brains set to receive, processing everything quick, and executing the drills with speed and purpose. Timing became a bit of an issue for me on this class, and drove home a couple issues with my gear selection. As I was coming off from the Intermediate Carbine bloc (which ran about 30 minutes over the intended times) and heading back to get some of the delicious BBQ cooked up for dinner, Chappie addressed the crowd, and asked Jared if he could bump up his class start time so that the night vision blocks could move up a bit as well. I was a bit on my heels, having about 20 minutes to eat, hydrate, and kit up for Jared’s class. In my rush, I failed to check the battery in my LPVO, and as such, when I got to the line, the illumination failed. That was the bad news. The good news was that the reticle in the Vudu scope was nice and thick, and even in dusk conditions, the reticle remained plenty bold to use until the white light came on and backlit my reticle even better. Lesson learned…keep ALL your spare batteries somewhere on your body or support gear, not back on the benches….other lesson learned is that even without illumination, a proper LPVO reticle should get the job done. On to the class itself: Jared zipped through the initial instruction, the major point was being able to establish a proper cadence of fire that can be utilized regardless of the situation. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. That became the chant of the night. It was fairly quick, but not NSR fast. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Need to put five rounds into that guy right there? One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Do you have multiple targets? One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Four shots to the body and one to the head? One, Two…you get the point. We worked that cadence of fire to center mass, to the brain box, some to the body and some to the head, etc. As light started to fail, the target stands were arranged in groups of five for us. We practiced putting one shot in the center of each target at the same cadence as we put five shots into a single target. We engaged left to right, right to left, and also in other orders, all at the same cadence (or at least we tried to). Weapon lights were coming on, along with lasers for some shooters. The most important part, I found, was to keep forcing myself not to look at the reticle, but to look at the target, especially as multiple target drills come up. It may not seem that big of a deal, but it really does make things that much faster and accurate. The fairly wide FOV of my 1-6 definitely helped as I could easily see the next target through the scope as I began to transition from one target to the next and so on. Jim even asked a time or two if I thought I was hitting all the targets, as my cadence was apparently one of the faster ones of the night (probably as my last course had been with Scott Jedlinski who managed to let out my inner Ricky Bobby by the end). The last part of instruction was shooting on the move. I’ve done this before in courses, but Jared liked to move fast, which is really a good thing. Speed and decisiveness wins, and moving is a big part of that, whether to get into a position to engage, or to get into cover or any other reason. I moved faster while shooting than I previously had, by quite a big margin, just short of what I’d consider a jog, while keeping everything as steady as possible, all while keeping that One, Two, Three, Four, Five cadence going. The only negative about this block, if I could call it that given the circumstance, is that we didn’t get a good chance to examine our hits. However, because of the time not spent looking at and taping targets, we got to shoot a LOT more. I didn’t keep count, but we probably went through at least 200 rounds in the two or so hours we had.
Day 2 Evening: Things closed down after Advanced Carbine wrapped up, though the range was still hot with the various night vision classes being conducted. After getting back to the hotel for a shower and clean clothes, I grabbed a six pack and headed back to the HiX for group debrief. Lots of great discussion, comradery, cigars, a few drinks, good times were had. I know nothing about any ensuing activities that evening, as I called it a relatively early night and went to bed.
Day 3: Day 3 reconvened for some at breakfast, but I ended up sleeping past the alarm that I failed to set. I got myself out to the range around noon for more good times, networking, and of course, raffles. Matt Landfair continued his somewhat unnatural winning streak, even though he had to leave early. Lots of people won a lot of generously donated equipment, training, ammo, and other prizes. There was one gentleman (not named to save his identity) who put a LOT of money into tickets that all generated money for charity, who then went on to win so many prizes that he stopped accepting them and donated them to the auction block so that the charity could gain yet more money. Very classy. Highlights included Surefire Vampire lights, Combat Optic Tools, cases of ammunition, a couple APX handguns, optics, the whole gamut of possibilities. I couldn’t even begin to name all the contributors, but I can say that there were a LOT of, “Thanks Ike!,” and “Thanks, Freddie!” spoken. Towards the end of the raffle, I wisely moved closer to the lovely Mrs. Jedi, hoping her incredible run of good luck would rub off on me….which it did in the form of a case of 9mm ammunition (Thanks Beverly and Midwest!). Of course, the real highlights were the auctions. Among others, Dan Easterly’s beautiful lego recreation of the shoothouse was actioned off, one of the last EAG rifles, Lorin Michki’s stunning drawing of Filthy 14 (of which many prints were made (the proceeds of which Lorin donated to help Hurricane Harvey relief in Texas!), and I was lucky enough to buy one, and of course, the prototype EAG 9mm 1911. Many fine words were spoken, many barbs were thrown at raffle winners, all under cotton ball clouds and impossibly blue skies.
Hearts were truly soaring like eagles all weekend, and I cannot wait until next year to share the experience with those who’ve never known it.
Special thanks to (in no order, please forgive me if I forgotten a few of you, there were many and I’m just a simple caveman):
Alliance Police Department Training Facility and Staff
Chappie (and Mrs Chappie!), Doc, Chris Sizelove, Freddie Blish, Jared Reston, Jim Walters, Varg Freeborn, Matt Landfair, Ephraim Rogers, Ernie Langdon, Matt Stagliano, JW Ramp, Harvey Scobie, Scott Jedlinski, Chuck Pressburg, TNVC, Surefire, ROBAR, Bravo Company Manufacturing, Unity Tactical, Midwest Ammunition, Beretta, Aimpoint, Team Wendy, Tango Down, Ares Gear, Raven Concealment, Blue Force Gear, ATEI, Austere Provisions, Gunsite Academy, EuroOptic, everyone I forgot to mention, all the brothers and sisters there that I never knew I had 5 years ago, truly the greatest people on the planet.
V/R,
Pat (aka SteveThePirate)
