Paul Howe

Jan 30, 20239 min read

February 2023 Training Updates

TRAINING UPDATES:

GENERAL:

NEW FOR 2023

When attending CSAT classes in the future, please have:

· Electronic Ears

· Tourniquet

· Thumb drive

The reasoning behind the Electronic Ears is simple. We want you to hear range commands on the line and during scenarios. Input can be made without shouting.

As for Tourniquets, I watch many a person who have one on their gear, not use it as they don’t want to remove it from the pouch or the plastic. If your tourniquet, is so fragile that it cannot be used for training, you need to buy a different one. You should have training tourniquets as well. If you need one, the Pro Shop will be happy to sell you one.

Finally, bring a thumb drive as it has never been easier and cheaper to collect class information and handouts than at this time in history.

THE CSAT WAY ON FACEBOOK AND PATREON

We continue to work on new video content for both the Patreon Operator and Patreon Instructor. As of 1 Jan 2022, we had 170 videos on the site.

We wanted to stock the pond so to speak for the first year. We will slow a bit in adding content as some of the videos will take more time and resources to develop. One will be a well-rounded gym workout series targeting strength and endurance without injury.

I want to add more instructor content and that will require extra live bodies to work with in shooting those videos. I look forward to the challenges.

You can visit “The CSAT Way” on FaceBook for video updates.

https://www.facebook.com/The-CSAT-Way-105892344294390/?notif_id=1580063431421528&notif_t=page_fan

LAST YEAR-2022

2022 is gone.

It should have been a wakeup call for all Americans about the path we are on.

Reckless Spending
No coherent Foreign Policy
Immigration
Rise of Crime
Child Grooming/Drag Shows in schools.
Education indoctrination
Hunter’s Laptop
Epstein
COVID

With the revelation of the “Twitter Files” and the overreach of government spying and political bias, Americans need to focus on what is important and recenter our lives.

Our government should be limited and a referee of sorts. They should be there to keep a level playing field and protect all Americans who work their asses off to make ends meet and who are trying to raise a family in these morally corrupt times.

Instead, our political system has become an ego driven, totalitarian leaning, get rich path instead of service to the people.

As an AMERICAN, you should focus on being independent, strong and a family leader and example your children should want to follow. You should be able to say what is right and wrong and articulate what you believe in.

You should have the skills and tools to stand up to evil. This is why the 2nd Amendment was written into the constitution (Bill of Rights), which were limitations to the government's power.

It is easier to conquer a people who comply. What history tends to forget is that we drained the worlds countries of many individuals who were strong, independent and wanted a better life for themselves, their families and future generations. These patriot migrants were sick of totalitarian governments.

This DNA or spirit is still there in our country. I see it in the working classes of people who believe in a life ethic, work ethic and family ethic.

It will be interesting to see if people choose comfort over liberty.

LE CORNER

This was pulled from our FB Page

FB Response: What do you have for the other 90%

My Response: Reflect on Uvalde

The CSAT Way with the ZINGER! on Friday!

The CSAT Way Sir, I wish someone could do an exhaustive investigation of Uvalde. Just so hard to believe it all went down as it supposedly did. Strange to me and I’m WAY far from even being a tactical anything. Gotta be a piece missing

Again, the above response was pulled from our FB page and in my mind, it is pretty simple.

It is not about a fancy new technique with a pistol high next to your head or a rifle off your shoulder like a new SF trend that is actually old.

It is not about your beard or your ink.

It is not about male, female, LGBT, White, Black, Brown or Red.

It is not about the RDS on your pistol.

It is about mindset/meat and potato training and a little bit of “I value your life as much or more than mine and I am willing to train to prove it.”

Further, it is simply taking your pistol or rifle in your hand, turning a door knob as a single officer, two-person or team element and killing a bad person who is killing kids. Too many officers these days cannot do this simple task. But they can run around with RDS sights on everything with a false sense of confidence in their abilities. Chain of Commands are lazy/ignorant and all too happy to throw equipment at a training problem.

I don’t care about the 90%.

We have a generation that wants to put on a uniform or carry a gun to validate their personal inadequacies. They have been sold that excellence is easy. Chain of Commands reinforce this belief. Flashy trainers sell this as well.

I care about the 10% who will push forward and lead others to do the same.

It is about officers and people who prioritize and go the distance.

As for Uvalde and Texas, it happened on your watch. What are you going to do about it?

The Profession

This article will be like AA-Alcoholics Anonymous. If you cannot admit you have a problem, you will never fix the problem. Don’t focus on the failure, but the solution.

Fad Tactics and dress up day in Uvalde has given the Law Enforcement profession an “F” on their report card.

Who is at fault? LE, LE Instructors, former Spec Ops Instructors? All share blame.

History in the profession-25 years

Officially, I started in the Civilian/LE training business over 23+ years ago. Much longer unofficially. When I started working with LE, tactical teams were running MP-5’s with their safety off once they got out of the assault van or vehicle. Where did this come from? Probably some military interaction. I know of one service whose special ops guys would roll their safety and move from their LCC-Last Covered and Concealed position on full auto. This group may have been the culprit.

Spec Ops Envy vs. Respect

I get it. When I started training LE, Tac Guys were enamored with the stories and my past. While some current former Spec Ops guys feed off of that and build their business, I wanted to pass lifesaving lessons learned. I did not care about my negative time in the “Black Hawk Down” incident, but rather wanted to pass fixes that the military leadership failed to recognize at the time.

My first major tac team training request required me to do an oral interview of sorts with the chain of command. Their Deputy Chief was a squared away female officer. She asked the right questions and I assured her I was not into the military “Spray and Slay” mentality. I relayed that we were surgical and discrimination was key to this mindset.

So, I passed the interview and started to train the teams. I saw lots wrong. Yes, unsafe and wrong. I did not slam, but rather took the time to educate and explain and articulate weapon safety, discrimination and tactics. It was a test in patience with some of the SWAT type “A” personalities who had done many, many raids. They had just not run up against the one person who did not care and wanted to truly hurt them in a fight.

I took my time and videoed tactics, both theirs and mine and made them watch over and over. The camera did not lie. Some sub-unit teams were used to covering up their screw ups on training hits and not fess up their problems during the debriefs. I called them on it. I was a professional trainer and I wanted to make them better and not just collect a pay check.

One Dimensional Military Trainers

I have respect for all who served, but I don’t bow down to bullshit artists who want to make a quick buck over someone who trying to keep Americans safe.

I see bios where an individual had multiple deployments. I am happy for them. Cooks, Medics, Commo Guys and Support Soldiers have multiple deployments and this does not make them an LE expert nor does it qualify them to teach LE.

Some mil guys did lots of raids. Also, the same guys never really got their tactics or techniques challenged by hard assed fighters. I equate it to a Law Enforcement Officer “fighting” a severe drunk who cannot stand up during an arrest and now consider themselves a UFC champion.

Military raids overseas are easy as soldiers are dealing with a military force projection. In America, Police Officers are dealing with our Constitution and Rule of Law to include civil litigation. America is much tougher in a sense.

Further, some Spec Ops guys worked at the school house which is a canned environment and they consider this a qualification. In my day, we fired guys and they became instructors at the Special Forces school house. Some had little, if any, operational experience. I also watched Special Forces soldiers in the day graduate the “Q” course and go directly to the school house without having been on a team.

Next, we get the former Spec Ops types that develop a questionable technique and then build unrealistic scenarios to validate it. This is unsatisfactory crap in its purest form. How many hours do they waste teaching and having students practice a bullshit tactic/technique that tactically mature guys in the arena would call them on and not let them teach if they were active duty and operational? Secrecy in the military keeps the current action guys from speaking out.

Some of these trainers are simply feeding their egos and some are looking to make a quick buck.

Who gets them in the training door to LE?

TTPOA or the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association was one such organization. A parallel training organization made up of volunteer police officers whose original mission was to facilitate training in the state. They became profit driven, even though most police officers do not know anything about running a business.

They brought in flashy former mil instructors whose training they did not validate as applicable to the LE missions. They then pushed this questionable training across the state.

ALERRT or the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Group out of San Marcos Texas did much of the same, except they took their “free” training nationwide.

I did many classes for ALERRT and they took my information and bastardized it to fit their model. Then they had some dry spells in funding and took Federal money and FBI tactics/credibility in return and really screwed up their program. These again, were full time law enforcement officers.

This and expanding their “instructor factory” to hundreds of instructors, ALERRT lost quality control and accountability. Many instructors were ego driven and wanted a part-time job while working in the profession. Many did not care if the tactics sucked as long as they got a good paycheck.

The Current Generation of LE

Many LEO’s are simply lazy. Some are just meat sacks wearing a uniform that want a stable job and a retirement and do not look at Law Enforcement as a profession. They want to wear the tac gear like a tattoo. Tattoos tell a story. Unless you want to tell me your story, or to everyone you meet, don’t ink your skin. It reeks of “ask me about my Tattoo.” It also states, “I want you to automatically validate me because I have ink or that I can grow a beard.” I don’t care either way. I will judge you on your life and work ethic.

As for many Law Enforcement Tactical Teams, they are SWAT in name only. An old saying is that it takes five-minutes to dress like a commando, but years to become one. I can eval a Tac Team within a couple of minutes of flat range shooting and weapon handling as to if they are professional and competent.

One final points is that many Tac Commanders want the job for ego driven purposes and bragging rights and not to better serve their team and the public. This type of attitude will poison and infect the team. Police officers are used to this attitude from civilians they encounter on the street and it will kill morale and effectiveness on the team. When a Chief would rather give training time for a Tic Tok video versus tactical or firearm training, they are a social tool.

I am hopeful we are at the bottom end of a cycle and can only go up. After seeing all the tactical peacocks in the Uvalde response, I am not sure. Officers have all equipment and vests, but their training has been poisoned by officers in their own ranks and flashy Spec Ops trainers who do not understand the complexity of Law Enforcement missions. As one police officer pointed out on training conducted by a former mil guy in a shoot house, he did not talk about discrimination until day three of the class. In Uvalde, responding officers could not simply open a door and shoot a bad guy. Flashy vs. simple stuff. Flashy failed, again.

Simple, solid and proven stair-stepped training works. It just takes energy, dedication and leadership to see it through. If your department training sucks, be an individual leader and seek out your own training that will save your life and lives in the community. I see unlimited potential in Law Enforcement to excel and be skilled at their profession. It is up to individuals and leadership to make it happen.

Paul Howe

CSAT

You are welcome to use, cut and paste the above article

Medical

We conduct lots of medical training at CSAT. One common issue I see is that officers and civilians who carry their own tourniquets and don’t want to use them for training.

When you buy a tourniquet, you should always buy two. One to train with and one to carry.

I hear complaints that it is too hard to get back into the carrier. Tough. Buy a better carrier. Make one. Figure it out.

While we loan/have rental tourniquets, I see in the near future having a training tourniquet as a requirement or I will buy some cheap ratchet straps to loan out.

Quality tourniquets have been out long enough for individuals and officers to have purchased one. If your carry tourniquet is too fragile to train with, it is junk. Upgrade. A life may depend on it.

STEEL