Survival Arts

Review of EXTAC course last weekend in Tucson, Arizona

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Jeff Prather's EXTAC course in Tucson. What an eye-opener! We started off with a session on the firing range on the first morning. For me, it was pretty uneventful, but for some of the people, it was a brand new experience. We did a fair amount of shooting and then took a short lunch break.

The afternoon was spent on the driving course. We learned how to detect and deal with bombs and booby traps. The simplest was a hand grenade with the pin removed and the spoon wedged between the grooves on the tire. We then learned how to deal with people who are trying to pull you out of a vehicle and how to escape without getting shot (no guarantees, but it sure reduced your chances of injury). The high-speed evasion driving was a real experience. We were blasting through the slalom portions of the course and slamming the car into four wheel drifts through the high speed turns. I had two experiences that really puckered my sphincter. The first one occurred when we had to drop into a prone position and accelerated away from a simulated checkpoint without getting shot. You have to hold the wheel absolutely still and stay low. It's a strange feeling to be accelerating without being able to see where you are going. All you can see is the tops of the telephone poles flicking by at ever increasing speeds! The second one occurred when the driver was "shot" and I (the passenger) had to take over driving. I was OK until we hit a high speed hairpin turn. Centrifugal force pushed me to the outside and I couldn't reach the brake pedal! Somehow, I managed to steer with just the accelerator. When it was over, it took a couple of minutes for my heart rate and breathing to return to normal.

Saturday evening, we learned about trauma medicine on the battlefield. We even learned to palpate veins and set up an I.V. drip. We learned how to do this at 9:00 at night in the middle of the Arizona desert, with only a Cyalume stick for illumination.

Sunday morning began with leaning to fire fully automatic weapons and suppressed weapons. Some fire from an open bolt and some fire from a closed bolt. It's important to know the difference in a crisis situation. We dealt with sub-guns from Walther, H-K, and Uzi. We also trained with the M-16, the AK-47, and the SKS. We had the opportunity to shoot suppressed M-16s as well.

We broke for lunch and as we were getting our briefing for the afternoon, we had an opportunity to practice our trauma medicine. I glanced down the street and saw a white Camaro suddenly accelerate, jump the curb and still accelerating, hit a small rise and get airborne. The car was about 4 feet off the ground and crashed through the glass wall of an office building. A couple of seconds later there was a huge cloud of smoke pouring out of the building. Our group was the first on the scene. Jeff and I started into the building but the heat and smoke forced us back out. Our group then formed a human chain and we duck-walked into the building. We couldn't see a thing but Jeff got the car door open and cut the seatbelt off the victim. We then dragged him out where the group immediately went to work on him. We went back in to check for other victims but fortunately, the car was empty. The victim was and elderly man who had either a stroke or a seizure. The fire department said he would have died in the car if we hadn't been there to get him out. Who says that training doesn't pay off in big dividends?

After some oxygen provided by the paramedics and a good hit of Albuterol (courtesy of Dr. Sam) we headed for the mall for some counter-surveillance drills. We had to go through the mall and try to spot anyone tailing us. I spotted three, but two were false alarms. On the final trip back through the mall, the people tailing us were supposed to slap us on the back, signifying that we had just been assassinated. We all were killed in the final phase. It was a crazy experience. We then went mobile and were supposed to follow a pre-determined route and spot anyone tailing us or setting up an ambush. After two trips around, we still hadn't spotted anyone when it finally occurred to me that they were trading off cars. At that point, I finally spotted one. Our driver drove into a gas station and pretended to pull out. He then stopped and we had the tail trapped between the gas pumps and the street. I stepped out and "shot" him. It turned out to be the person who had assassinated me in the mall. Payback is really sweet!

All in all, I learned a tremendous amount. Mostly, however, I learned that there is an awful lot that I have yet to learn. It was an opportunity to visit a world most of us only dream about. It is a world that is great to visit and learn about, but I wouldn't want to live it for real.

Jeff Prather is a warm and knowledgeable teacher and an excellent practioner of the art. He exemplifies the essence of the warrior. If you have an opportunity to attend one of his classes, do it! Remember: If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Posted by Ron Blackwood at November 21, 2002 12:10 AM | TrackBack