Ninja Class, 2008-04-25T2000Z

Conducted my basics level 'Ninja' Class today in our Raven Shield server. Originally planned for Thursday, 2000 Zulu but moved to Friday 2000 Zulu due to business reasons 8=), then moved from [SAS] Training Grounds #1 to [SAS] Proving Grounds #1 for technical reasons :-(.


I think things went fairly well, first time I've done a training session in a good while now... first time in a long time I've done one without a lesson plan either, you could say I winged it lol. Split things into three phases, because working with Recruit Shadows stealth training was the primary reason behind the session. I tried to keep things basic enough for recruits, less Capt'n Rouge have my head but still keeping the session interesting hehe.


Started off easy trying to get peoples minds into the right mind set. Mindful of ones surroundings, the possible cause and effect of ones actions, and thinking about how we can be more stealthy in what we do so often. And how to adopt from our usual "see tango, shoot tango" functioning, while that works under Green Light conditions it don't the rest of times. And when you doing recon ops, leaving 10 or 20 dead bodies behind doesn't help things. Belive it or not, there is a lot more to stealth then slapping on a suppressor and trying not to blow any thing sky high on the way in.


For the second part of training, I moved us onto the warehouse level so I could give them some practical practice time. Cleared the immediate area of threats and had everyone form an element while I set up a patrol route in between the two main buildings. They had to sneak past me -- I made the patrol route simple, so it was not very hard but still took some effort to complete.


My favorite part was when I turned around on my patrol and saw Ambu standing in the open and shouted 'tango spotted' and fired a warning shot, only to turn left and go 'tango spotted' as I saw Ghost -- good to see that if I had been a real tango, Ghost was ready to put'em down before Ambu could be harmed. Another fun time was when they snuck all ~5 or so of them right under my noise and then I turn around and their all standing behind me hahaha. I also got Ghost to try the patrol route I set up, and I gave it a go myself and snuck past to the designated objective on my first go.


A lot of times when I do training, I'll try to challenge people to do better. Like back with Rct Boone and Rct Mando two years ago, they thought it was impossible to do this one room without blowing the heck out of it with tactical aids. So I doubled dared them into taking the room without any tactical aids, full dynamic assault, and without using suppressed weapons to approach the target room. I tagged along with a light machine gun shooting at them trying to distract them and they pulled off the entry, cleared the room without a hitch, and were like "Wow, we actually did it". While I'm standing here with a smile on my face, thinking "I knew you lads could do it".


I don't like to ask any one to do some thing I'm not prepared to do myself, that's why in my training sessions I'll often try and arrange for me to have a turn at tricky things. I can't do worse then fall flat on my face in front of the recruits, and at best I can show it's actually possible (y).


I remember I once set up a 'room clearing challenge' that was modeled after my personal training sessions but I made it even harder and posted it. No body was able to complete the challenge, not even me for a long time... so i started doing more dynamic training myself and I eventually scored a respectable spot on the score board, only name there but that one really nagged at me. How could I ask the recruits do complete a task I couldn't? So I set out to train until I could, and I did it..



For the last part of training, I wanted to give the guys a chance to relax yet still keep on learning. So I set up a mini live fire scenario where we had to do a double-hostage rescue, rules of engagement red (aka fire on command), and minimise loss of stealth and enemies neutralized to the max possible.

It took maybe 4 or 5 tries but we eventually did the mission, 4 man element, about 3 tangos killed, two hostages rescued, but one causality in the process :-(


What I really liked about the live fire scenario is I got to see my teammates at work. Setting up angles of fire on the risky threats while we snuck past, so if any one got seen, the tango would have a nice double tap to the head before they could fire. And communicating the positions of the enemy patrols among each other and adopting our plan and formation to the situation.


We also found a few bugs in the map that really made sneaking in some spots harder and once we got 'stepped on' so to speak which resulted in the entire element being either gunned down or blown up lol. Eventually though we did it with flying colours (y) but we got plenty of good practice in the middle hehe.



It's nice to do training again, I really love to have a chance to teach people. Of all the tasks that have eventually found there way to me in [SAS], the one I've always carried out the happiest is trying to pass on my experience and what was passed onto me, to a new generation.


In a lot of ways, I think I'm really starting to get to be an 'old man' of sorts among my teammates... Although most of them are older then me by a good margin or just a few years younger. I've been apart of this team for almost 2 and a half years now. I think in a way, I'm kind of like how people such as En4cer or Shield were to my generation of recruits. I'm not the best teacher but I do sincerely try to help us move into the right direction.


You're only at your best, when you accept the limit of your current abilities as such rather then seeking a way to better yourself.


And in the [SAS], we always seek to improve ourselves for the future.