AAR: Centrifuge Training VCQB Basic June 29-30, 2019 Alliance, OH

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My first AAR, so be gentle.
This past weekend I attended the basic VCQB course hosted by Alliance PD and run by Centrifuge Training and taught by Will Petty and Chase Jenkins.
Background:
13 years LE, 8yrs Nat. Guard. 6 years on a decentralized SWAT team shooting almost every week. Outside of Friends Of Pat this past August, this was my first foray into shooting/tactics training outside of work based stuff. I picked this class as it is incredibly applicable to both on duty and off duty stuff.
The class consisted of 14 students: 4 LE (1 state, 2 local and one park ranger) and 10 highly motivated and capable armed civilians from all walks of life (engineers, retail, mechanics, a paramedic, a teacher, etc.) There was no "that guy" in the class. Everyone had quality weapons, ammo and equipment. Most guns were either Glock 19's or duty guns (glock 35, gen 5 glock 17, a glock 21 and a glock 34), one M&P and a couple FN's. No major issues were noted during the class (I had one pin start to walk that was fixed most ricky tick and did not reoccur.)
Equipment/Clothing:
- First Spear Strandhogg with AT armor STOP plates (work rig) and basic pouches (admin, OC, TQ)
- Atlas consulting gun belt with a Safariland 6360, blade tech double mag pouch, manodnock baton/holder, glove pouch, Safariland open top cuff pouch w/ cuffs, 1110 CAT holder w/ Gen 7 Cat, Surefire V70 with a Surefire Peace Keeper.
- Tru Spec TRU pants and combat shirts (one Crye, one TRU) and Solomon Forces
Weapons:
- personal Glock 35 w Tru-Glo orange front/blacked out rear and TLR-1 HL
- assorted factory magazines with either Vickers floor plates or Aradondo +2 extensions
- 165gr Federal HST 40 cal ammo
Day 1:
Will made a point to walk around and introduce himself to us while we were bullshitting in the parking lot. This was pretty damn cool and spoke volumes about how humble a guy he is.
Day 1 started in the classroom with introductions and lots of data packed into a short timeframe. The data supported everything he would teach later in the day. There were some videos, including body cams, dash cams and regular security cams. A big point of this was that everything we were going to talk about was valid whether you were on duty, off duty, a civilian or a bad guy. Data and facts were data and facts.
We moved pretty quickly out to the range. We did some warm up drills and positional shooting to make sure everyone was on the same page.
We next did the ballistics portion, with Will and the students shooting various parts of the cars we had access to in order to see the amount of cover a vehicle actually provides as well as to see how our chosen guns/ammo performed.
The day continued with lots of shooting drills around the vehicles. I'm going off memory but Will was big on demoing fairly quickly and getting us moving and shooting. There was little down time and the drills were 100% realistic and applicable. He was big on making sure we understood we were shooting a drill and not a scenario (more on that later.)
Day 1.5:
Because there was a TNVC nightfighter class going on we had access to the range Saturday night, and everyone was invited back for a 2.5 hour low/no light course around the vehicles. This was eye opening. We repeated a lot of the drills from that day but now while running a hand held light. I learned more in this block of instruction then I ever had before in terms of shadows, light performance, 3D environment vs the static range, etc.
Day 2:
Day 2 started back in the classroom. Again, brief videos that were 100% applicable to the days courses of fire. Day two focused on shooting from inside the vehicle and then moving up to shooting from inside/unassing/shooting outside. We worked up to partner drills from inside/outside. The day culminated with the alphabet soup drill with over a dozen targets and two vehicles we had to move between.
Going back to something I mentioned earlier, drill vs scenario, Will was very clear on these multiple target drills that we weren't simulating an onslaught of a dozen adversaries, but one adversary who was moving. This forced us to take in external stimuli ( an instructor yelling out an assortment of targets to be engaged with the last one called being the one you were supposed to shoot), scan, identify and engage.
At the end of day 2 I was exhausted. It was hot all weekend and we moved a lot during this class. The final drill definitely pushed me and it was nice to see my accuracy starting to suck as I got tired and winded (something to work on.) I tweaked some gear after this class but the biggest thing was how cut up I was after shooting through the windshields of the vehicle. It's like getting hit in the nose.....you never know what it's like until the first time it happens. Now I know what to expect should I have to shoot out of the vehicle and not be surprised.
Overall, I can't recommend this class or Alliance PD enough. Everyone is not only extremely good at their jobs but are just nice guys. Will and Chase's backgrounds speak for themselves and the info/skills we covered I could deffiantely see as not being questionable should I find myself sitting across from CID post shooting again explaining why I did what I did. Anyone where drives a vehicle, or rides in one and carries a gun needs this class.
 
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