Josh
Amateur
Class: Darkness 1 - Night Vision Operator Fundamentals
Company: Strategic Dark Solutions
Date: 19 February 2022
Location: Southington Hunt Club, Garretsville, Ohio
Course Description: (From the course welcome letter)
“SDS Darkness 1 is an operator level course designed to train and certify users on night vision functions, capabilities, limitations, and application through movement and maneuver, weapons handling, marksmanship, and other night vision specific exercises. This is a learning and exploration course not simply a "shooter course". It will consist of a 3 hour power point presentation where note taking is encouraged. Upon completion of this course, students will have been presented with all necessary information for night vision acquisition, gear integration, and employment.”
Instructors:
This course was led by a primary instructor, Mike and three other A.I.s - Dusty, Kyle, and Elijah. Mike is a prior service USMC 03 with multiple combat deployments and currently serves in Law Enforcement for a major metropolitan city in the greater NE Ohio area. Dusty, Kyle, and Elijah brought with them an additional amount of technical expertise on night vision end use, additional combat deployments, and instructing.
Class Size/Makeup:
Approximately 12 students attended this class. The class was comprised of average earth people, prior service, and active LE - all with minimal amounts of experience with night vision. Some students brought their own nods and helmets while some students rented equipment through SDS. There was a mixture of both single tubes as well as dual tubes. Additionally, once we hit the range, most students had suppressed ARs while one individual was rocking a pretty sweet AK.
Instruction:
The course started off with approximately 3 hours of power point/classroom discussion. Topics of discussion focused on applications of night vision, training philosophy as it pertains to night vision, technical considerations on how night vision works and considerations when purchasing night vision.
Additional topics covered in the classroom portion were focused on the suite of accessories and mutually supportive equipment, lasers, helmets, zeroing equipment, and switchology. One item of note that I found particularly interesting in the classroom portion was the discussion on software vs hardware. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the adage that Software (training) is more important that Hardware (gear, tools, etc.). Mike challenged this age old adage as it pertains to night vision stating that yeah – hardware – technical specifications and details definitely are important when it comes to looking at night vision as a suite of mutually supported elements. Finally, Mike stressed the importance that the fundamentals of shooting do not change under night vision. Safety is still safety. Proper handling, grip, recoil mitigation, etc – all remain fundamentally important when the lights go out. Darkness just adds another layer of complexity.
Following the classroom PowerPoint session, the students kitted up and hit the range for continued education and instruction. Temperature on the range at that time was 7 degrees with the wind chill.
Daylight Range time kicked off with a discussion on medical procedures and a safety brief. Following the safety brief, the class was walked through a brief drill where each of us demonstrate each of us could shoot, reload, move, and transition to secondary in a safe and reasonable manner. Additionally, each student was given ample time to zero their optic and make adjustments as necessary.
Following the opening drill, the instructors walked us through several drills that got us further acclimated to our gear, special considerations we would need to keep in mind while operating under Nods/darkness, and ultimately allowing us to crawl/walk/run in the day before we could crawl/walk/run after sunset.
Once the sun went down, the class zeroed lasers and continued on the path of learning and exploration. Drills and points of instruction covered reloading, passive aiming, active aiming, movements, and transitions. These points of instruction ultimately led to several drills that the class ran as a group and some drills we ran individually- incorporating many of the skills and lessons learned into a practical application.
Finally, the final exercise in the course focused on target discernment and consisted of a “foot patrol” through part of the range where approximately a dozen paper targets were set up along a route and we were asked to discern whether these were a shoot/threat vs no shoot target. Temperature on the range at conclusion of the course was 8 degrees with the windchill.
My Thoughts/Takeaways
1. I remain thoroughly impressed with Mike and Strategic Dark. Maybe 3-4 weeks out from the course, all students were emailed a welcome letter, waiver, and a description of what the course will cover. Additionally, a comprehensive packing list was provided. Approximately 2 weeks out, Mike personally calls each of the students to go over the course and ask if we have any questions. Comms was great with Mike and Strategic Dark. They set the bar as far as I’m concerned (and I don’t even like talking to most people on the phone but they are great).
2. This was my first night vision course. This was the first course I took since before Covid started. I shot like garbage. My gear needed fine tuning and I showed up with a carbine that was shooting minute of barn. I hated feeling like I was behind the power curve all night. I hadn’t done a reload under darkness in a long time and it showed. I owed it to my instructors and my fellow students to show up with my gear dialed in and as close to working order as I can. I will do better in the future.
3. Throughout the course, emphasis was placed on what Mike routinely referred to as “Night vision as a suite of mutually supportive equipment that includes lasers, helmets, mounts, etc.. Mike mentioned that all future iterations of the Darkness 1 course would be 2 full days, as there is just so much to learn, even for an introductory course. I would love to see future iterations of the course incorporate some kind of one-on-one or detailed instruction on dialing in your suite of mutually supportive equipment. Like I said before, this was my first exposure to an organized NV course of instruction, and so I don’t know what I don’t know…is my eye relief good, is my IPD good, is my helmet too low or too high, etc.
4. Southington is a great facility. However the conditions on the range were treacherous. The ground was absolutely frozen solid and there was ice everywhere. I saw several students slip on ice, trip, etc. Yours truly bit it pretty hard on a walk back to jam mags. I spent the rest of the course battling numbness in my hands and shoulder.
5. It was freezing. It was cold. It was brutal. Temperature (with wind chill) when we hit the range at approximately 4PM – 7 degrees. Temperature (with wind chill when class ended at approximately 1230AM – 8 degrees. And as Mike put it at the end of the course the weather was “not for the weak or faint of heart”. My clothing was pretty dialed in. I dig cold temps, so my stuff was squared away. I kinda wish I had warmer gloves though. Despite these conditions, everyone – and I mean everyone- maintained a positive attitude and outlook. Hardly any complaints. It would have been super easy to have a garbage attitude but the class participants were awesome. We were cold, but we still functioned and learned and it was great.
Remember what the Bouncing Souls said…”snow and ice makes us rock harder”
6. I am woefully out of shape. My tiny underdeveloped asthmatic lungs weren’t digging the temps either. There were times I wanted to just sit in my truck and warm up instead of staying on line during the course of instruction. I’m so glad I didn’t wimp out though. I learned so much.
7. There was so much to learn and I felt like a sponge the entire time. Early on in the course, Mike discussed how this course was NOT meant to be a ‘Rifle 101 with the lights off’ and instead, he geared the instruction to be more about learning to train with night vision so we could take our new found skills back home and continue to refine them outside of the class. By no means do I feel like I got it all figured out, but I took a ton of notes and definitely feel like I met the learning objectives and am better off because of Mike and the course.
8. As an instructor, Mike and his AIs were great. Points of instruction were clearly communicated and demonstrated. Mike and his team worked behind the scenes during breaks to ensure that blacks of instruction flowed smoothly and effortlessly.
9. Shout out to my man Eric for giving my truck a jump after the class. The battery in my truck died after I left the interior lights on for too long and my man, without hesitation, hooked me up and got me jump started. Eric, wherever you are, you are my dude.
I think that’s all I got for now. If you’re in the NE Ohio area and are looking for a class on night vision, I can’t recommend Strategic Dark enough.
A breakdown of the equipment I used is below.
Top
- Under armor heat gear long underwear top
- Cotton t shirt
- Sitka Heavyweight Fleece Hoody
- Arcteryx Atom
- Balaclava by AKPeasants
Bottom
- Nike long underwear bottoms
- Beyond L5 Pants
- Ares Gear Aegis Enhanced. Always Ares Gear.
- Darn tough American Flag/Stars and Stripes Wool Socks cause momma didn’t raise no commie
- Salomon forces GTX Low Cut
- SKD PiG Gloves
- Wild Things Tactical hand warmer
Weapons
- Rifle
—Noveske chainsaw lower
—BCM 11.5
—AAC 7.62 SDN-6
- Secondary
—Glock 17/RMR riding in Safariland/True North Concepts
Stuff
- Velocity Systems UW Gen IV Chest Rig
- Ops Core FAST SF
- DTNVS from the good folks at TNVC
Company: Strategic Dark Solutions
Date: 19 February 2022
Location: Southington Hunt Club, Garretsville, Ohio
Course Description: (From the course welcome letter)
“SDS Darkness 1 is an operator level course designed to train and certify users on night vision functions, capabilities, limitations, and application through movement and maneuver, weapons handling, marksmanship, and other night vision specific exercises. This is a learning and exploration course not simply a "shooter course". It will consist of a 3 hour power point presentation where note taking is encouraged. Upon completion of this course, students will have been presented with all necessary information for night vision acquisition, gear integration, and employment.”
Instructors:
This course was led by a primary instructor, Mike and three other A.I.s - Dusty, Kyle, and Elijah. Mike is a prior service USMC 03 with multiple combat deployments and currently serves in Law Enforcement for a major metropolitan city in the greater NE Ohio area. Dusty, Kyle, and Elijah brought with them an additional amount of technical expertise on night vision end use, additional combat deployments, and instructing.
Class Size/Makeup:
Approximately 12 students attended this class. The class was comprised of average earth people, prior service, and active LE - all with minimal amounts of experience with night vision. Some students brought their own nods and helmets while some students rented equipment through SDS. There was a mixture of both single tubes as well as dual tubes. Additionally, once we hit the range, most students had suppressed ARs while one individual was rocking a pretty sweet AK.
Instruction:
The course started off with approximately 3 hours of power point/classroom discussion. Topics of discussion focused on applications of night vision, training philosophy as it pertains to night vision, technical considerations on how night vision works and considerations when purchasing night vision.
Additional topics covered in the classroom portion were focused on the suite of accessories and mutually supportive equipment, lasers, helmets, zeroing equipment, and switchology. One item of note that I found particularly interesting in the classroom portion was the discussion on software vs hardware. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the adage that Software (training) is more important that Hardware (gear, tools, etc.). Mike challenged this age old adage as it pertains to night vision stating that yeah – hardware – technical specifications and details definitely are important when it comes to looking at night vision as a suite of mutually supported elements. Finally, Mike stressed the importance that the fundamentals of shooting do not change under night vision. Safety is still safety. Proper handling, grip, recoil mitigation, etc – all remain fundamentally important when the lights go out. Darkness just adds another layer of complexity.
Following the classroom PowerPoint session, the students kitted up and hit the range for continued education and instruction. Temperature on the range at that time was 7 degrees with the wind chill.
Daylight Range time kicked off with a discussion on medical procedures and a safety brief. Following the safety brief, the class was walked through a brief drill where each of us demonstrate each of us could shoot, reload, move, and transition to secondary in a safe and reasonable manner. Additionally, each student was given ample time to zero their optic and make adjustments as necessary.
Following the opening drill, the instructors walked us through several drills that got us further acclimated to our gear, special considerations we would need to keep in mind while operating under Nods/darkness, and ultimately allowing us to crawl/walk/run in the day before we could crawl/walk/run after sunset.
Once the sun went down, the class zeroed lasers and continued on the path of learning and exploration. Drills and points of instruction covered reloading, passive aiming, active aiming, movements, and transitions. These points of instruction ultimately led to several drills that the class ran as a group and some drills we ran individually- incorporating many of the skills and lessons learned into a practical application.
Finally, the final exercise in the course focused on target discernment and consisted of a “foot patrol” through part of the range where approximately a dozen paper targets were set up along a route and we were asked to discern whether these were a shoot/threat vs no shoot target. Temperature on the range at conclusion of the course was 8 degrees with the windchill.
My Thoughts/Takeaways
1. I remain thoroughly impressed with Mike and Strategic Dark. Maybe 3-4 weeks out from the course, all students were emailed a welcome letter, waiver, and a description of what the course will cover. Additionally, a comprehensive packing list was provided. Approximately 2 weeks out, Mike personally calls each of the students to go over the course and ask if we have any questions. Comms was great with Mike and Strategic Dark. They set the bar as far as I’m concerned (and I don’t even like talking to most people on the phone but they are great).
2. This was my first night vision course. This was the first course I took since before Covid started. I shot like garbage. My gear needed fine tuning and I showed up with a carbine that was shooting minute of barn. I hated feeling like I was behind the power curve all night. I hadn’t done a reload under darkness in a long time and it showed. I owed it to my instructors and my fellow students to show up with my gear dialed in and as close to working order as I can. I will do better in the future.
3. Throughout the course, emphasis was placed on what Mike routinely referred to as “Night vision as a suite of mutually supportive equipment that includes lasers, helmets, mounts, etc.. Mike mentioned that all future iterations of the Darkness 1 course would be 2 full days, as there is just so much to learn, even for an introductory course. I would love to see future iterations of the course incorporate some kind of one-on-one or detailed instruction on dialing in your suite of mutually supportive equipment. Like I said before, this was my first exposure to an organized NV course of instruction, and so I don’t know what I don’t know…is my eye relief good, is my IPD good, is my helmet too low or too high, etc.
4. Southington is a great facility. However the conditions on the range were treacherous. The ground was absolutely frozen solid and there was ice everywhere. I saw several students slip on ice, trip, etc. Yours truly bit it pretty hard on a walk back to jam mags. I spent the rest of the course battling numbness in my hands and shoulder.
5. It was freezing. It was cold. It was brutal. Temperature (with wind chill) when we hit the range at approximately 4PM – 7 degrees. Temperature (with wind chill when class ended at approximately 1230AM – 8 degrees. And as Mike put it at the end of the course the weather was “not for the weak or faint of heart”. My clothing was pretty dialed in. I dig cold temps, so my stuff was squared away. I kinda wish I had warmer gloves though. Despite these conditions, everyone – and I mean everyone- maintained a positive attitude and outlook. Hardly any complaints. It would have been super easy to have a garbage attitude but the class participants were awesome. We were cold, but we still functioned and learned and it was great.
Remember what the Bouncing Souls said…”snow and ice makes us rock harder”
6. I am woefully out of shape. My tiny underdeveloped asthmatic lungs weren’t digging the temps either. There were times I wanted to just sit in my truck and warm up instead of staying on line during the course of instruction. I’m so glad I didn’t wimp out though. I learned so much.
7. There was so much to learn and I felt like a sponge the entire time. Early on in the course, Mike discussed how this course was NOT meant to be a ‘Rifle 101 with the lights off’ and instead, he geared the instruction to be more about learning to train with night vision so we could take our new found skills back home and continue to refine them outside of the class. By no means do I feel like I got it all figured out, but I took a ton of notes and definitely feel like I met the learning objectives and am better off because of Mike and the course.
8. As an instructor, Mike and his AIs were great. Points of instruction were clearly communicated and demonstrated. Mike and his team worked behind the scenes during breaks to ensure that blacks of instruction flowed smoothly and effortlessly.
9. Shout out to my man Eric for giving my truck a jump after the class. The battery in my truck died after I left the interior lights on for too long and my man, without hesitation, hooked me up and got me jump started. Eric, wherever you are, you are my dude.
I think that’s all I got for now. If you’re in the NE Ohio area and are looking for a class on night vision, I can’t recommend Strategic Dark enough.
A breakdown of the equipment I used is below.
Top
- Under armor heat gear long underwear top
- Cotton t shirt
- Sitka Heavyweight Fleece Hoody
- Arcteryx Atom
- Balaclava by AKPeasants
Bottom
- Nike long underwear bottoms
- Beyond L5 Pants
- Ares Gear Aegis Enhanced. Always Ares Gear.
- Darn tough American Flag/Stars and Stripes Wool Socks cause momma didn’t raise no commie
- Salomon forces GTX Low Cut
- SKD PiG Gloves
- Wild Things Tactical hand warmer
Weapons
- Rifle
—Noveske chainsaw lower
—BCM 11.5
—AAC 7.62 SDN-6
- Secondary
—Glock 17/RMR riding in Safariland/True North Concepts
Stuff
- Velocity Systems UW Gen IV Chest Rig
- Ops Core FAST SF
- DTNVS from the good folks at TNVC