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LESSONS LEARNED
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SCHOOL SPIRIT
STORM MOUNTAIN
TEAM TACTICS COURSE
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Team Tactics course
culminated in
various training evolutions
at a nearby abandoned
school—ideal for realistic
situations such as an
active shooter in a school
or work environment.
Long hallways with numerous rooms,
doorways, stairwells, and other
features provided excellent proving ground
in tactics and mindset as students navigated
through them.
right: Fatal funnel witnessed first-hand
by students doing safety clears at one of
Storm Mountain’s ranges. AirSoft weapons
were used for this training. Numerous
rooms and hallways had to be negotiated,
with cardboard targets placed randomly as
instructors observed.
» BY TODD BURGREEN
SCHOOL
SPIRIT
Storm Mountain Team Tactics Course
Copyrighted Material: Reprinted by Permission of SWAT Magazine

One of the advantages of
participating in numerous
classes at a specific training
facility is the ability to take
the more advanced courses
offered.
The upper-tier classes are not open
to new students for a variety of
reasons stretching from skill level
and mindset to instructor confidence
that you are not going to harm yourself,
the staff, or other students.
I have attended numerous courses
and events at Storm Mountain Training
Center (SMTC) over the years. I jumped
at the chance to attend a recent Team
Tactics course when I learned it would
be offered.
STORM MOUNTAIN
TRAINING CENTER
SMTC is located in Elk Garden, West
Virginia. Storm Mountain features 11
ranges, two shoot houses, a rappel tower,
field training area, busses, helicopter
hull and automobiles for use during
training.
Rod Ryan has been SMTC VP of Operations
since it opened in 1996. He also
serves as the lead instructor for many
courses.
Ryan has credentials that lend legitimacy
to his training methods. Part of
Rod’s biography reads, “Rod has spent
more than 20 years combined, active
and reserve, in the U.S. military, where
he served as an operator and then
NCOIC of all sniper elements at the Brigade
Level in a Light Infantry Division.
While employed as a police officer with
the Metropolitan Police Department,
Washington D.C., he served in patrol,
training, and SWAT assignments. As an
instructor with the U.S. State Department
ATAP (Anti-Terrorism Assistance
Program) and as a civilian consultant,
he has trained thousands of law enforcement,
military, and private special operations
personnel, both in the United
States and overseas.”
SMTC is not a vacation shooting
school and, no matter the course level,
an offensive mindset is cultivated. Rod
and his instructors are very serious
about what they do. Rod constantly
emphasizes that an aggressive mindset,
Copyrighted Material: Reprinted by Permission of SWAT Magazine

First day of Team Tactics included
training and live-fire door entries
at Storm Mountain’s Breaching Façade
range. Students were introduced to the
intricacies of footwork and muzzle control.
Dynamic live-fire entries
into the shoot house were
a highlight for many students.
It was also humbling at times
to incorporate safe, efficient
movement with working as a team
to best clear the structure.
supported by solid training, is the key
to surviving hostile encounters. Maxims
such as, “Shoot until the target is down,”
and “Move forward to engage” illustrate
this. One must remember that, in a defensive
engagement, you will more than
likely be reacting to an opponent.
Another key component
in SMTC training is
induced stress. Induced
stress, whether it is putting
a student on a timer or
loud encouragement from
staff, enables a student to
learn and retain skill sets
very quickly.
TRAINING DAY ONE
The Team Tactics course
started with a wellprepared
lecture in the
SMTC office/bunk house
complex. This course
had SMTC prerequisites
of Carbine II or Handgun III, and was
more like an alumni meeting than the
typical atmosphere that happens with
new students.
The lecture covered the mindset and
technique differences between safety
clears and dynamic entries while searching
a structure, your home, etc. Rod was
quick to point out that the course was
structured toward private citizens.
My training partner was CR Newlin,
with whom I have trained before.
I asked him to attend with me after I
read the course outline and confirmed
with Rod that live-fire exercises would
be common at the breaching façade and
shoot house. This was not something
that I wanted to do with someone I had
no experience or trust with.
The morning class session succinctly
covered what was to be expected over
the three-day course. Team Tactics illustrates
techniques that SMTC utilizes in
training various LE and military teams
and translates these practices into what
is best for civilian home clearing, active
shooter scenarios and other CQB urban
environments.
While no three-day course produces
a high-speed, low-drag operator, all
students became acutely aware of their
78 S.W.A.T. » MARCH 2010 Copyrighted Material: Reprinted by Permission of SWAT Magazine
SWATMAG.COM

Students were pushed to their limits in terms of physical
ability, tactical knowledge, and mental endurance during
the last one and a half days of Team Tactics. AirSoft weapons,
combined with complicated training structure, offered a
“finishing school” for weapons handling and tactics.
limitations and the stress involved in
CQB, and gained a better appreciation
of what it takes to stack up and enter a
structure facing an unknown suspect or
suspects. The secret to success is in dynamic,
well-orchestrated violence of action.
I can only imagine the dedication,
determination and training it takes to
become truly proficient at either safety
clears or dynamic entries.
After the lecture portion, students
were taken to one of the square ranges to
verify proficiency with a handgun while
being put on the timer and under instructor
scrutiny. Considering the CQB
atmosphere and the interaction of moving
while engaging targets in close proximity
to instructors and partners, it was
made known that, if a student showed a
regression of skills since last participating
in an SMTC course, they would be
confined to AirSoft or “finger” guns during
the live-fire portions of the training.
This quiet reminder of the stakes involved
got everyone’s attention and focus
during the square range qualifiers.
This session lasted only an hour or so
and consisted of engaging steel targets
at close range using prior SMTC skill
sets such as two-from-the-ready, shoottwo-reload-shoot-two,
six-from-theready,
and two-from-the-holster.
Team Tactics participants were exposed
to five different training areas and
a unique combination of live-fire room
entries and AirSoft training evolutions.
With a total of 15 students enrolled, five
other instructors assisted Rod during
Team Tactics. This student/instructor
ratio was very important to ensure safety
and verify that students were learning
the course details.
Day One of Team Tactics concluded
at SMTC’s breaching façade. Instructors
went over the hows and whys along
with the dos and don’ts of dynamic entry.
There were many demonstrations
of what it is supposed to look like from
both within and outside the room. After
several dry runs, students paired up and
did the dynamic entries live, with each
student engaging multiple steel targets
while utilizing the proper footwork and
language skill sets.
Not to make light, but much of it
resembles dance choreography with
firearms. Partners must be able to communicate
non-verbally and stay close
together without tripping or colliding
while passing through a three-foot-wide
door threshold, staying a couple of feet
off the wall, and analyzing how far to
enter the room for best effect without
impacting the six-foot rule of overlapping
muzzle coverage for mutual support.
All of this is balanced with speed
versus safety: never covering your partner
with your muzzle while trying to get
on target in the least amount of time.
TRAINING DAY TWO
Day 2 began at another SMTC training
structure, where safety clears were practiced
with AirSoft weapons. Students
STORM MTN. TEAM TACTICS
got first-hand experience of how difficult
and time consuming it is to properly
search a small 500 square foot one-level
structure.
Targets were placed in random locations,
and students had to safely “pie”
corners and manipulate doors, all in
poor light conditions. Instructors were
on hand to observe and give feedback.
For many of the students, this was their
first time doing such an exercise, and it
was extremely useful for everyone.
After a quick lunch, the intensity
went up with a visit to the live-fire shoot
house. Rod and his staff (no pun intended)
always do a good job of reinforcing
proper gun handling with AirSoft so
that students do not get complacent or
“gamey,” but for many this was their
first exposure to live-fire dynamic entry
with a partner in front or behind.
Entries were limited to two-man teams
with Rod in the room, along with Dan
Ryan, one of SMTC’s Primary Firearms
Instructors, up in the rafters observing
with a bird’s eye view. Other instructors
entered behind the team.
The live-fire evolution consisted of dynamic
entry from outside the structure
via the front door and then engaging
targets in a living room setting, quickly
assessing situations, restacking and then
proceeding to clear the rest of the structure,
which consisted of a kitchen and
three bedrooms.
Even for a training environment,
the noise and stress level were surprising.
When a cease fire was called, some
pulse rates were measured at over 130.
Dan Ryan made the good point that it is
all about being comfortable with your
weapons and movement. He stressed
that he did not mean nonchalant or careless.
It was not difficult to gauge the various
skill/experience/comfort factors
among the various teams.
Day 2 did not end with the live-fire
shoot house. Students were told to grab
an early dinner and reconvene at an
abandoned school in a town near SMTC,
where role players would be stationed
for force-on-force (FoF) scenarios. The
school was a two-story structure with
all the makings of a complex tactical
environment, especially for two-man
teams trying to move and clear through
it in low-light scenarios. The face masks
SWATMAG.COM Copyrighted Material: Reprinted by Permission of SWAT Magazine
S.W.A.T. » MARCH 2010 79

worn made visibility even worse because
they constantly fogged up due to
our physical exertion.
Students were told not to pad up for
the AirSoft FoF. We wore the face masks
for safety’s sake. The sting of AirSoft
would reinforce the lessons learned. We
were informed that it would be possible
to emerge unscathed if we did everything
correctly. But in actuality, we all
took hits and emerged with welts on our
arms and torsos.
We later discovered we were facing
adversaries who were very experienced
with the structure’s nuances
and outgunned us with AirSoft rifles
and SMGs. All in all it was good, realistic
training that cannot be achieved
on the range for obvious reasons.
This exercise demonstrated the importance
of being able to move smoothly
and in coordination with your partner, as
well as the advantage of being familiar
with flashlight techniques. The Insight
Technology M3X and BlackHawk Gladius
I brought with me were invaluable.
While I know weapon-mounted lights
are frowned upon due to the weapon’s
covering what the light is illuminating,
for me this was the only way to go while
moving, searching and engaging targets
in such a chaotic environment.
TRAINING DAY THREE
Day 3 started at the school with twoman
teams joined together into five- or
six-man stacks charged with clearing the
two-story, 10,000-square-foot structure
against determined opposition. Role
players were told to go down if hit well,
while students were charged with driving
on no matter what occurred. This
was to instill the mindset of never giving
up or quitting.
The clearing operations, while done
with gusto and the best effort of students,
quickly deteriorated into chaotic
firefights with teams getting separated.
It only reinforced what Rod and his
instructors had been communicating
about the difficulties encountered with
clearing a structure against a determined,
organized foe.
However, the silver lining was that all
SOURCES:
Storm Mountain Training
Center
Dept. S.W.A.T.
Rt. 1 Box 60
Elk Garden, WV 26717
(304) 446-5526
www.stormmountain.com
BlackHawk! Products Group
Dept. S.W.A.T.
6160 Commander Pkwy
Norfolk, VA 23502
(757) 436-3101
www.blackhawk.com
Black Hills Ammunition
Dept. S.W.A.T.
P.O. Box 3090
Rapid City, SD 57709
(605) 348-5150
www.black-hills.com
Insight Tech Gear
Dept. S.W.A.T.
9 Akira Way
Londonderry, NH 03053
(877) 744-4802
www.insightlights.com
80 S.W.A.T. » MARCH 2010 Copyrighted Material: Reprinted by Permission of SWAT Magazine
SWATMAG.COM

STORM MTN. TEAM TACTICS
Dark hallways offered
realistic low-light training,
with opponents lying in wait
and ready to inflict damage
on students who operated in a
tactically unsound manner.
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the participants emerged with a much
clearer understanding of the tactics and
techniques needed to engage in roomclearing
operations, whether in one’s
own home or some other property. All
came away much better prepared to handle
the mental stress of having to move
through their home when they hear the
mysterious bump in the night. As Rod
pointed out, in that scenario they will be
on home turf with all of the advantages
that conveys, against adversaries not as
well versed in CQB tactics.
Overall, Team Tactics is a culmination
of the weapon-based courses I had previously
taken at SMTC. Team Tactics is
about applying learned weapon skills
into a tactical situation and succeeding.
Training never ends, and Storm
Mountain’s Team Tactics course clearly
showed me that more hard work is necessary
to gain even a basic proficiency
with CQB tactics.
However, everyone who participated
left Storm Mountain with a leg up on the
huge percentage of the population with
no training in such matters. This is what
all of us are after—an advantage. £
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