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In the second exercise, your wife was notinjured and was mobile. Here you ledher to safety. The difference between thetwo exercises was in how you addressedyour wife’s situation. In the first exercise,you had to attempt to treat her injuriesand set her up to protect herself whileyou cleared the rest of the house. In thesecond exercise, you had to find andfree your wife and “get out of Dodge.” Inthe after-action debriefing, the instructoremphasized the importance of good,accurate shots.At the skill level of this course, youshould be shooting fist size groups, evenunder the stress of the of the 4 minutetimer. More importantly, if you have totake the head shot, just any head shotwon’t do. The shot has to be in the oculartriangle to have a chance of immediatelystopping the bad guy. A shot to the chinor to the side of the head may leave thebad guy mobile enough to simply turn hisgun on your wife and kill her.At the wall on the upper range, theshooter has to navigate the wall whileshooting through selected openings at 8inch targets at a distance of 25 yards.This involves standing, sitting, kneeling,climbing steps and ramps, etc. Then thestudent advances on the steel targetswhile using cover along the way. Heends up at about 7 yards from the targets,moves sideways to the end of the targetline, and then backwards to the wall startpoint. All the while the student is doingthis, he is firing to cover his movement.Hits are called out by the instructor.The biggest challenge in this exercise isremembering to breathe. I found myselfholding my breath and having to pauseto catch my breath. It’s amazing that indoing this type of exercise the studenthas to remember to do something thathis body does automatically everyday,which is to breathe. The same is true inself-defense encounters.FORCE-ON-FORCE SCENARIOSThe real meat of the two dayswas the ten FOF scenarios. Safety isalways most important in these types ofscenarios. All weapons and ammunition,including knives, were secured outsideof the scenario area. Students werechecked for weapons before their turnin the scenario. Students wore full facemasks during the scenario. Each studentdid not see the scenario before his turnand was told only the basic starting pointfor the scenario. After the scenario, theywere allowed to monitor the followingStudent searching his house for his hostage wife.Student shooting the wall. At each position he has to shoot through thesame opening. Targets are 8” steel plates at 25 yards.Here the author has just been shot by the “bad gal” hidingbehind the chair (note red spot on the vest from the Code-Eaglemarking cartridge.18 Concealed Carry Magazine www.usconcealedcarry.comVolume 4 - May/June 2007