Von Steuben Training & Consulting
Leadership, Tactics, Innovation
In this video I demonstrate how I paint my rifles. I do not claim to have invented this method, it was taught to me some time ago, and I am now sharing it with you.
This is my first time making video content, and I may make more in the future. Please bear with me, the quality will improve as I get used to my editing software.
Everyone who is new to the “tactical world” is immediately bombarded with a list of items that you “need to have” in order to survive combat. You “need” to have a light on your gun. You “need” to have the latest camo pattern. And, of course, you need to have armor. Body armor is a curious paradigm, because it is simultaneously useful and overrated. In this article I will lay out the pros and cons of wearing armor, how to use it effectively, and what to look for when purchasing your own.
Types of Armor
As with weapons, there are so many different kinds of armor on the market that it can be overwhelming at first. So I’ll start with a rough guide to define some terms. If you’re already familiar with the NIJ rating system, you can skip this section to the “Pros and Cons”.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has a rating system for measuring the effectiveness of body armor. These ratings are broken down into “levels” rated to stop hits from certain types of bullets anywhere on the panel. The following is a brief summary of what each level can stop.
Lvl IIA through IIIA are “soft armor”, flexible panels. Lvl III and Lvl IV are “hard armor”, formed into plates that must be worn in a carrier. Ballistic helmets are normally Lvl IIIA. For more information, check out the National Institute of Justice website where they list all of their testing standards and processes in detail.
Pros and Cons of Armor
The immediate advantage of wearing armor is obvious; it stops bullets from entering the most critical parts of your body. The price you pay, however, is weight and comfort.
If you intend to fight men armed with rifles, you will need Lvl III or Lvl IV plates to stop incoming rounds. Front/back plates can weigh anywhere from 4-8 pounds each, meaning that you’re carrying an additional 8-16 pounds (even more if you wear side armor). Extra weight makes you slower and fatigues you faster.
It is important to note that armor doesn’t always keep you from becoming a casualty, it just keeps bullets from entering the most critical parts of your body. For example, a bullet may go through your arm as you’re holding up your weapon before the plate stops it from entering your chest. Wearing armor should not make you lazy with your use of cover, you should be just as cautious as you are without it.
Another disadvantage of body armor is that it makes you sweat a LOT. Armored plates or panels trap in heat and don’t allow moisture to escape easily. You can expect to drink about double the amount of water on a patrol when you are wearing a plate carrier compared to wearing a chest rig or LBV.
When and When Not to Wear Armor
Many people, including some veterans, argue that “the military always wears armor, so you should too.” I will address this claim in two parts.
Armor is beneficial, but the cons are substantial enough that it is not something we want to be wearing all the time. Here are some considerations to help you decide if body armor is right for you and your mission.
Summary
This has been a brief overview of body armor and the context in which it is useful. At this point you should have a good idea of what protection armor provides and enough information to determine if it is a good fit for your intended use. In Part II, I will cover how to properly wear armor, considerations for setting up a plate carrier, and what to look for when purchasing your own.
Updated: April 8, 2024
This page is a resource for “good enough” gear for someone looking to build a rifleman’s kit on a tight budget. I seek to list equipment that is reasonably affordable but also reliable and rugged enough to withstand real-world use. My goal is for you to use this list to fill in gaps in your kit so that you can be fully mission-ready for at least 3 days worth of operations as a rifleman, independent of any resupply.
I am fully aware that there is better equipment out there, and if you can afford it, by all means get higher quality gear. This list is so that someone with a $2,000 budget can fully equip themselves with a fighting load instead of buying, for example, a $1,700 rifle and a $300 optic with no ammo, water, or medical gear.
Full disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate, and some of the equipment that I list here has affiliate hyperlinks embedded. If you click on these links and buy the gear, I may make a small commission on the sale. You pay exactly the same price for the item as you otherwise would, but by using my links you are supporting VSTAC at Amazon’s expense.
I recommend you use this list in conjunction with my article on what gear you should get in what order. This is a living document, and I will continue to update it as I find better recommendations. Total costs are at the bottom of the page.
Rifleman’s Essentials ($1,262-$1,629)
Sustainment Gear ($343)
Force Multipliers ($3,794)
TOTALS
Rifleman’s Essentials
Capability: Neighborhood security, short-duration missions (less than 24 hours)
Price: $1,262-$1,629
Sustainment Gear
Capability: Rural patrolling, reconnaissance, or combat missions up to 3 days without resupply.
Price: $343
Total Price: $1,605-$1,972
Force Multipliers
Capability: See and fight at night, communicate with nearby teammates
Price: $3,794
Total Price: $5,399-$5,766
This past week was the first Jäger Course. I’ve been looking forward to this class for a long time, and it was my great pleasure to finally teach it. Over the course of 5 days and 4 nights, 8 students and I lived out of our packs and slept under our tarp shelters. An aggressive and open-ended OPFOR kept the realism and immersion up in the latter half of the week.
Today I am writing an After-Action Review (AAR) of the equipment that I used on the course. 5 days in the field is a great way to figure out what does and doesn’t work with your gear, as my students found out.
Water
I carried 1.5 gallons (5.7 liters) of water. Most of it was in 1-qt canteens, 2 in my main pack and 2 on my belt. This worked very well because I was able to swap out empty canteens on my belt with full ones from the pack as needed between water resupply.
Water resupply worked very well, and my water treatment kit has undergone a couple of improvements since I last wrote about it. One of those improvements was investing in some CNOC Outdoors 2-liter squeeze bags to go with my Sawyer filter. These bags are tough enough to withstand up to 220 lbs of pressure, although I primarily used them to gravity-feed the filter. I carried 2 of them to resupply 2/3 of my water supply at once. In the future, I will carry 3 so I can fully top off my water even when bone dry.
Food
I used field stripped MREs. They’re light, calorie-dense, and at the moment I happen to have a surplus of them. My main complaint was that there weren’t enough snacks that I could eat on the move, and the larger items required I had to eat all at once because they weren’t resealable. As the instructor, I had very little time to sit and enjoy a meal, so I mainly lived off of the snacks.
In time, I want to move away from relying on MREs and experiment with more commonly available items that I can pick up at a local store with maybe a little preparation at home. It doesn’t need to last 2 years, just 2 weeks will do if I can plan ahead and prepare for the patrol.
Shelter
I slept under my Jäger Rig the whole time. I’ve been using this setup for a few years now, and it continues to perform just fine protecting me from the elements in summer here while also hiding me from thermal optics.
Joe Dolio, however, showed me up by bringing a Jäger Rig made from a thermal tarp with British DPM Camouflage, which worked much better than my solid green tarp. With some cheap walmart hunter’s mesh draped over it, his tarp seemed to vanish into the ground. I will be purchasing one in the near future.
My shelter (Left) and Joe’s Shelter (Right). Affiliate link to Joe’s tarp: https://amzn.to/3Ol1y7r
My sleeping bag, a snugpak jungle bag, worked very well. It got down to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the nights, and I was equally warm inside the bag and when using it unzipped as a blanket. Again, no surprise here. I’ve been using this bag for about 2 years now and it works very well in my area where it rarely gets below 40 degrees. The zippers broke about a year ago, however, so I’d recommend the Jungle Blanket instead of the Jungle Bag.
Radios
Although I normally use a Baofeng UV-9R on my kit, this time I used an AR-152 for exercise control. I have to say that I’m very impressed with it, and I originally only got one for my longer-range communications. However, given the impressive battery life, I may consider getting another one to replace the UV-9R as my primary tactical radio. My AR-152 was switched on for almost the entire 5 days, and the battery wasn’t even close to run down.
Also of note is the exoskeleton I used from Bolt Boy Ballistic Co. It stayed on the radio the whole time, bouncing around in my cargo pocket. I never had an accidental adjustment of the volume knob or hot mic from the PTT.
Packs
My main pack was a Teton Scout 3400 55-liter and my assault pack was an SOG Ninja. I used these packs not because they’re the best products available (I have much nicer packs), but because I wanted to test them as “budget options” that are still rugged enough for serious use. Together, these two packs cost about $115 on Amazon, and after several ruck runs, short trips, and now the Jäger Course, I can say that they do indeed hold up to field conditions.
The SOG Ninja is a 20-liter day pack which can fit under the lid of the Teton Scout, or inside of the main compartment for a less conspicuous look. See my 2023 Jäger Kit article for what I put in each pack.
My only complaint about these packs is that they are not NIR compliant (meaning that they glow white under night vision). This can be easily fixed, however, with camouflage spray paint or an NIR-compliant pack cover.
Bottom line: These packs worked well for me and I personally recommend them for someone who is starting out and needs to assemble a complete kit on a tight budget. Are they “just as good” as brands like Crossfire, Mystery Ranch, or Eberlestock? No, but they’re rugged enough, and for $115 you’re still getting a lot of capability for less than half the price.
Summary
This has been a brief summary of my findings regarding my gear during the Jäger Course last week. There were other things I noted as well, but these are the biggest take-aways that I had at the end of the week. 5 days in the field is a great way to test yourself and your equipment, as my students found out. This first Jäger Course was a blast, and I’ll definitely be running more of them in the future as I am able.
Last year, I wrote a series of articles on my “Jäger Kit”, the equipment that I carry for light infantry operations and extended patrolling. However, one’s equipment is a constant evolution as you find things that work better for you, and I am no exception. And with the Jäger Course coming up in a month, I thought it would be appropriate for me to make an updated article about my gear.
Full disclosure: I am now an Amazon affiliate, and some of the equipment that I list here will have affiliate hyperlinks embedded. If you click on these links and buy the gear, I may make a small commission on the sale. You pay exactly the same price for the item as you otherwise would, but by using my links you are supporting VSTAC at Amazon’s expense.
Legal speak out of the way, let’s look at some gear.
In it’s current state, my kit is divided into my belt, chest rig, assault pack, and main pack. We’ll look at each section and I’ll break down what I carry, what has changed, and why I changed it.
War Belt
1. 2x AK magazines
2. AKM Bayonet. I replaced my Ka-Bar with the AK bayonet because I want the option of fixing the bayonet on my rifle, and this bayonet can attach to the sheath and function as wire cutters.
3. 2x canteens. A common trend in all of my personal AARs from last year was that I never had enough water. In the heat of summer when I dropped my pack for a mission, I could drink my full 2-liter camelback after about an hour of patrolling, I was sweating so much. Thus, I felt the need to carry more water on my combat gear, and added the canteens.
4. Canteen cup and stove. I had this in my pack anyway, and only moved it to the belt when I put the canteen pouches there. It fits over the canteen and takes up virtually no space, and is very useful when I want hot coffee or gatorade. Never use gatorade powder in a canteen or camelback. It’s almost impossible to clean, and attracts bacteria and mold. In a camelback, it will destroy the anti-microbial lining that keeps mold at bay.
5. Camouflage face paint
6. Inforce WML-X weapon light. I carry this on the off chance that I may need to clear a structure, and its QD attachment allows me to put it on and take it off my rifle at will. I leave it off so that I don’t accidentally trigger it on a patrol, which could be fatal.
7. Bleach bottle with dropper. This is a part of my water purification kit. I keep it on my belt in case I am away from my main pack and must purify water without my filter. Iodine tablets or tincture would work as well, but the bleach is much more commonly available. 2 drops per quart with a 30-minute wait.
8. Headlamp. I really like this model, it defaults to the red light and takes deliberate action (holding down the button after red light is on) to activate the white light. My only complaint is that it takes AAAs, and nothing else in my kit does. This adds one more type of battery that I must carry spares of.
9. Field stripped MRE, or 1/2 day’s rations.
10. CAT Tourniquet. I always recommend carrying at least 2, with at least one accessible with either hand. My second one is on my chest rig.
11. 511 Tactical gloves. I like these because they’re breathable and have leather to protect my hands from a hot gun barrel/suppressor, as well as protecting my hands from thorns.
12. Blackhawk double M4 mag pouches. I like these because they can hold any rifle ammo I own. as configured, I can carry 4x AR mags OR 2x AK mags OR 2x AR-10 mags OR 12x rounds of .50 BMG for my AMR.
13. AK Bayonet sheath and homemade frog
14. 2x ALICE canteen pouches. Not that they’re better than MOLLE pouches, they’re just what I have and they work.
15. FILBE Assault Pouch. This replaced my MOLLE II buttpack because, with the addition of the canteens, the belt was too heavy and bulky. I moved some of the contents to my assault pack, and needed a smaller pouch. The FILBE Assault Pouch is very low profile and still holds items 5-9 comfortably.
16. IFAK. I chose a smaller pouch because I wanted to reduce bulk on the belt. It still holds all the same stuff, but only takes up 2 MOLLE Columns instead of 3.
17. Tourniquet pouch. Mine is inverted so that my chest rig or plate carrier don’t get in the way when I pull out the tourniquet.
18. The belt itself, a USMC MOLLE War Belt with suspenders.
Chest Rig
1. Leatherman multitool. Note that it’s dummy corded to the chest rig. I’ve lost too many of these things in the past.
2. EG-18X Smoke Grenade, ruggedized with duct tape and marked with the color. See my article on tactical smoke employment.
3. CAT Tourniquet. I always recommend carrying at least 2, with at least one accessible with either hand. My second one is on my belt.
4. 4x AK magazines
5. Baofeng UV-9R radio. This is my personal favorite so far for a tactical radio that I wear on my kit because it is waterproof, but more importantly has a much better connection to the headset that screws in and doesn’t come loose like the 2-pin Kenwood connectors. I just recently purchased an AR-152, but I haven’t played with it too much yet.
6. PTT
7. Bowman-style headset. I love this option because it is comfortable, doesn’t make my ears sweat, doesn’t block my natural hearing, and doesn’t take extra batteries. And since it’s a headset and not a handset, I never miss a transmission that my radio receives due to loud noise around me (i.e. gunfire).
8. Lensatic Compass
9. Signal Whistle
10. Map pens and eraser
11. Rite-in-the-Rain notebook
12. Zebra ball-point pens. The Rite-in-the-Rain pens are crap, but these pens I have confirmed will write while under a running faucet. I have 2 because in case I lose or break one.
13. Protractor
14. Leatherman pouch
15. Smoke grenade pouch
16. The chest rig itself, a custom Minuteman-4 made by UW Gear. This is a massive step up from the modified chicom Type 56 that I had been using.
17. Condor map pouch (as I call it, the “Team Leader Pouch”). Read my review of this pouch here.
Assault Pack
1. SOG Ninja Assault Pack. I am still in the process of testing this pack for durability, so I cannot fully recommend it yet. I will post a review of it after the May Jäger Course.
2. USGI surplus poncho
3. 3-liter camelback bladder and hose
4. USGI 2-qt canteen. I do not normally fill the camelback bladder until I am wearing the assault pack by itself, as the bladder is prone to popping. When the pack is stowed or carried in my main pack, I leave my water in this collapsible canteen which will never pop. When I leave my main pack in the patrol base and put on my assault pack, then I fill the bladder from the canteen, which collapses and rolls up.
5. 2x extra EG-18X Smoke Grenades, ruggedized with duct tape and marked with the color.
6. Chemlights. As per my team’s SOP, we each carry 3x green and 3x red at a minimum. I also have 1x IR chemlight for an additional signalling option. My red chemlights are in my IFAK.
7. 100% Deet Bug Spray. This is the only stuff that works in the coastal Carolina swamps, besides permethrin.
8. MRE Spoon. I carry one of these in the pack so that I don’t have to carry one in every MRE. It’s not much, but every little bit of weight savings counts.
9. 2x field stripped MREs, or 1 day’s rations.
10. USMC RCO pouch containing my night vision and thermal (Gen3 Photonis WP PVS-14 and a FLIR Breach)
11. Rite-in-the-Rain notepad with cover and 2x Zebra pens.
12. Beanie hat, neck gaiter, and warm gloves in a ziploc bag. This is a seasonal item, and will be removed from the pack in a week or so as the weather warms up.
As some may remember, I previously used only one pack, a FILBE Assault Pack. I decided to switch to a 2-pack system consisting of an assault pack and a main pack for the following reasons:
Main Pack
1. Assault pack. As seen in the top photo, this straps to the top of the pack under the lid nicely. It also fits inside the main compartment if I wanted to look like an inconspicuous backpacker.
2. Silky Saw. This saw is very lightweight and is excellent for cutting small branches to clear a field of fire, or roots when digging a fighting position.
3. USGI E-tool (folding shovel). Essential for many tasks in or around a patrol base.
4. 4x field stripped MREs, or 2 days rations. Combined with the contents of the assault pack and my belt, I carry 3.5 days rations all together. There is extra space in the pack for more if the mission requires it, but this is what I have packed on a normal basis.
5. 2-step water treatment kit. This contains a Sawyer Mini filter, 2x 2-liter squeeze bags, a Steripen Ultra UV purifier, and a small funnel to pour water into canteens. I switched to a pouch instead of the 1-liter Nalgene that I had been using because it is easier to use and more compact.
6. Jäger Rig, shelter and thermal camouflage.
7. Sleeping pad
8. Pack cover. This one is in Flektarn made by Mil-Tec. I recently bought it but was disappointed to discover that, through night vision, it looks like a great white blob. For this reason, I can’t recommend this model. I will use it to waterproof my pack until I can find a suitable replacement.
9. Camouflage mesh. When draped over the camouflage pack cover, it makes my pack damn near vanish into the forest floor.
10. Sleeping bag in a waterproof bag. The bag is a Snugpak Jungle Bag. It is in a MACS sack waterproofing bag because I learned the hard way that the Snugpak stuff sack is NOT waterproof.
11. Skivvy Roll in a waterproof bag
12. The pack itself, a Teton Sports Scout 55L. Boltboy and I have been using these packs for a couple of months, and we’re pretty happy with them so far. Enough space for what we want to carry with room left over, rugged enough, very comfortable, and very affordable at $89. It has the added advantage of not looking overtly tactical if we decide that we want to look like harmless backpackers.
13. Non-reflective duct tape
14. Weapon cleaning kit (cleaning rods, CLP, AP brush, bore snake, and a rag). This had previously been in my buttpack. I moved it to my main pack because the only time I would do weapon maintenance is in a patrol base anyway, so it made sense to save weight and space on my fighting load.
15. My “fix-it kit”, 50ft of paracord wrapped around a pack of 12″ zip ties. Combined with the duct tape, I can use this to fix almost any gear failures in the field.
16. Medical Kit. This has some extra trauma supplies and a “boo-boo kit” containing band-aids, antiseptic, and moleskin for non-emergency aid.
17. 2x canteens
18. Hygiene kit containing toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, a silver-infused microfiber cloth, razor, and hand sanitizer.
The intent for the 2-pack system is for me to carry the main pack into the field with me, stash it at a patrol base or ORP, and take my assault pack with me when I go on a mission. Any supplies I use from my fighting load or assault pack, I resupply from my main pack when I return to it. That is why I carry my spare water in canteens, so I can swap them out with the ones on my belt. If I use my smoke grenade, I replace it with one from my assault pack. If I ate the MREs in my assault pack, I replace them with the ones from my main pack. I may also carry extra rifle magazines in the main pack. This ensures that my gear remains at the highest possible level of readiness.
Helmet
One last thing I want to mention is my helmet. I wear a light bump helmet so that I can wear my NVG. It is painted camouflage with camouflage netting draped over it to break up the shape. On the back I have a battery holder counterweight in a PVS-31 battery pack pouch. This allows me to balance the weight of the helmet while carrying all of my spare batteries (AAs, AAAs, CR-123s, CR2030s for my scope, and a spare UV-9R or 5R radio battery).
Summary
There you have it, my combat equipment set up for light infantry operations in rural wooded areas. A good amount has changed with my kit, and will no doubt continue to change as I go forward. Despite the experience and thought that went into this setup, I am fully confident that in a few months or so I will have changed something significant about my gear. I am always learning and adapting my doctrine and my equipment.
You should be doing the same. Don’t just copy my kit, or anybody else’s. Identify your requirements for your equipment, ask yourself “What do I need this to do for me?”, and only put stuff in your pack that fills those requirements. Above all, don’t ever be satisfied with where you are, be constantly testing yourself and your equipment. It is far better to find out what doesn’t work now than when your life depends on it.
My friend Badlands Rifleman has another excellent way of setting up his equipment that you should check out. His is a different perspective than mine, and he has some insights that are quite valuable. So go check him out.
Over the last few months I’ve been reposting my old Tactical Decision Games (TDGs) from American Partisan. For those who are not familiar, a TDG is a mental wargaming exercise designed to get you practice making tactically sound decisions in a hypothetical scenario. The ability to make sound and timely decisions based off incomplete and imperfect information is a critical skill to have, especially as a team leader.
I started this series because it is a very cost-effective way to practice force-on-force decision making. Anyone can memorize a field manual’s worth of tactics, techniques, and procedures. The mark of a tactician is knowing when and how to use the tactics from those manuals (and sometimes, when NOT to). Ideally, you practice this at in-person training classes with real, live teammates and a real, live opponent. TDGs are excellent supplements to such training, even though they cannot replicate or replace the experience and value of practicing force-on-force in person.
My TDG format, particularly from season 2 when I started doing the Recap and Analysis for each scenario, was inspired by the book “Mastering Tactics” by Maj. John F. Schmitt, USMCR. I studied and played through the TDGs in that book as a young Sergeant of Marines, and they helped develop my own decision making skills. If you haven’t already found this book, here’s a link to the PDF version. The scenarios found therein are written for Marine Corps NCOs and officers, and are thus about conventional military forces and operations. Still, the fundamental principles taught in the scenarios translate universally, and I highly recommend it.
This leads me to the present. I enjoy writing these TDGs, but a few facts must be brought forward for consideration:
Bottom line, I am having a hard time justifying how much time I spend writing/working instead of with my family. But I really want to continue the TDGs, as I know how valuable they are to you all as training tools.
So here is where that leaves us. I will continue writing TDGs, just not every week. I will post them in the usual format, but I will not publish the Recap and Analysis on the blog. Instead, I will be compiling the TDGs and their recaps into a book and publishing them together in a similar format to Schmitt’s “Mastering Tactics”.
My time and experience is valuable, and I can no longer afford to provide what is essentially free training without being compensated for the time spent not playing with my little boy. I am leaving the first 16 TDGs up along with their recaps, so feel free to revisit them as much as you want. Again, I recommend Schmitt’s book for 15 more TDGs, even though they are written for Marines and conventional military troops/weapons. The principles of warfare and tactics can be universally applied, and Schmitt does an excellent job of teaching them.
Stay dangerous, gentlemen.
Originally posted on American Partisan on July 16, 2022
In “The Long Road Home,” we have another very hairy situation. Our convoy has taken several security measures and still has fallen victim to an ambush. This is an example of a situation where, despite us doing everything right, we still end up on the short end of a gunfight. Combat is like that. We can increase our odds through training, sound judgement, and good doctrine, but every time we go out we are still rolling the dice, and even a 20-sided die will sometimes roll a 1.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the enemy has successfully initiated an ambush against our convoy and 1st squad is unable to move. Fortunately, we used good tactics by dispersing our vehicles such that only one of them is in the kill zone of the ambush. This grants our squad freedom of maneuver so that we can choose how best to react.
I want to use this session to talk about the concept of battlefield initiative. In any engagement, one side initiates hostilities. The side that starts shooting first normally has the upper hand because they have taken an action which forces the other side to react. This is called having the “initiative” in a fight. Once your enemy is reacting to you, you should seek to take more actions which force more (ideally predictable) reactions in rapid succession so that you dictate how the fight goes. He who keeps the initiative and directs the fight usually wins. He who is constantly reacting will eventually be backed into a corner. This rings true from the chessboard to the battlefield to political posturing.
That said, there will be times when we don’t have the initiative at the start of an engagement, either through bad tactics or bad luck. This does not mean that we have already lost, it just means that we should try to find ways to take the initiative away from our enemy. There are many ways to take the initiative on the battlefield, not all of which involve shooting. Simply maneuvering can be enough of an action to provoke a reaction from our enemy. Once we have taken an action that forces our enemy to react, we have taken back the initiative and should continue taking actions to maintain it.
Back to the tactical problem at hand. We are currently reacting to the enemy’s act of ambushing our convoy. However, because we are not in the kill zone, we are free to react in a manner of our choosing. We should seek to regain the initiative by taking an action that forces a reaction.
Wait for the QRF
Some have argued that since we have the precious cargo, we should not involve ourselves in this fight. We should provide our own security and allow the QRF to handle the situation when they arrive. However, it will take them several minutes to arrive, and a lot can happen in 5 minutes when you’re under fire. This ensures our survival, but likely at the expense of all six men in 1st squad. Further, when the QRF arrives, we will not be in a position to support them, and they could themselves be ambushed.
Dismount and flank
The majority of answers had some variation of dismounting our vehicle and maneuvering into a position to lay down fire on the ambushers. The wooded terrain to the North of the road offers the best cover and concealment, and depending on how firm the ground is on that side of the road, we may even be able to drive our vehicle off-road on the North side of the treeline a ways before we dismount. This would ensure that we get into position as quickly as possible.
We must weigh this course of action against the possibility that there may be enemies in those trees that 1st squad hasn’t seen yet, in which case taking the vehicle any closer could be hazardous. But at the same time, if we can use our vehicle to maneuver quickly without an unacceptable level of risk, we should take advantage of the speed it offers so we give 1st squad a better chance at survival.
Our sudden appearance from an unexpected angle would no doubt force a reaction from the ambushers, possibly even force them to break contact. Even if they merely shift their focus away from the van, it would be enough of a reaction to possibly enable another action on our part towards rescuing 1st Squad.
Drive up to the van to conduct a hasty rescue
This is certainly an action we could take. However, if we consider that the enemy is already oriented on the van, our action of driving into their kill zone is not going to take the initiative for us because it doesn’t force a reaction from the enemy and restricts our options for further decisions. It is also a very bad idea because we are very exposed in soft-skin vehicles, and will find ourselves in the same boat as 1st squad.
Conclusion
The ability to make sound decisions under stress is the mark of an effective combat leader. When we are under stress our mind tends to make shortcuts. If we are accustomed to playing it safe this will often result in inaction, leaving the initiative in the hands of our enemy. But if we develop a bias for action, building the habit of looking for ways to take back the initiative, we can train our minds to look for actions we can take that turn the tide of the battle in our favor.
One final point is that you cannot take a conventional military mindset into unconventional warfare. This scenario was based on a video clip of a Ukrainian vehicle convoy that was ambushed by Russian infantry. Watch the decisions that were made in the video below and observe what happens when you take habits from conventional military training designed for armored vehicles and try to use that training with thin-skinned cars.
During my time in the Marine Corps, I spent a lot of long field ops living out of my backpack. This was the case in every unit I served with, from a division COC to an infantry regiment to ANGLICO teams. As an amphibious expeditionary force, Marines never get too attached to our vehicles, and remain prepared to transition to light infantry operations at any time.
The 5-day Jäger Course is designed to teach you how to conduct light infantry operations while living out of your pack in a patrol base. It’s one thing to grab a backpack and camp out for a night; it’s an entirely different experience doing it for several days while people are hunting you. That is why this whole course is spent living outside, using just what is in your pack. Along the way, I will share the tips and tricks that I learned over the 8 years I spent doing this on field ops and deployments.
This course covers the full spectrum of individual skills required to conduct an extended patrol. By the end of Jäger, you will be able to:
The full 5 days are treated like an extended patrol. We sleep outside under tarp shelters and resupply our water by filtering/purifying what we can collect. When our packs are not on our backs, they are camouflaged and concealed at an objective rally point or a patrol base. And no matter what we are doing, every man has their rifle either slung or within arm’s reach, fostering a mindset of constant vigilance. The vigilance is warranted, because the OPFOR will hunt for our patrol base, and we are not safe even when asleep.
On day 1, you are assigned to a fire team and squad. Everything you do, you do with your fire team. You plan your missions together, take turns standing guard while the others eat, and fight side-by-side. You will spend so much time working together that you will quickly mesh into a smoothly operating machine. And on top of that, you will develop a bond with your fellow Jägers that will last even beyond the course.
We will practice both using and evading drones. Drones are to the 21st century what machine guns were to the 20th; they’re revolutionizing how we wage war and we must adapt to this reality if we are to survive. A half day of this class is dedicated to using commercially available drones for reconnaissance, maneuver support, and psychological effects. In the process, you will also learn how to mitigate the effect that hostile drones have on your patrol.
Finally, the Jäger Course teaches you how to locate and hunt down an enemy force while remaining undetected yourself. Over the course of the week you will hunt down the enemy, observe their patterns of life, harass them with sniper fire and ambushes, and then raid their camp. The tactics taught in this course include:
I want you to see this course as a challenge. I am challenging you to grab that backpack you have in the corner and test whether you are ready to trust your life to its contents. If you accept this challenge, we will go to the field together and we will find the kinks in your setup. Then we will fix them, and you will make it the full 5 days. On Saturday, you will leave with a thorough knowledge of your equipment, confidence in your skills, and the Jäger tab on your sleeve.
Originally posted on American Partisan on July 12, 2022
A TDG is a Tactical Decision Game, a mental wargaming exercise designed to get you practice making tactically sound decisions in a hypothetical scenario. The ability to make sound and timely decisions based off incomplete and imperfect information is a critical skill to have, especially as a team leader.
You will be given a scenario, confronted with a tactical problem, and given a time limit to think about and write out your answer. The time limit is to simulate the pressure of a real-world tactical decision, where you must quickly assess the information you are given and come up with the best answer you can. Then comment below with your answer so you can discuss each others’ solutions.
TDG 16: The Long Road Home
2 months into WROL. State and federal authorities are still struggling to regain control of the nation. County officials, small towns, and individual communities have been forced to take charge of their own well-being and work with each other to the point where you have somewhat re-established order. Your small town is one of these, and has stood up an impromptu militia force to keep the wandering bands of thugs at bay.
Your town has trade agreements with the neighboring communities and towns to get whatever items you need. These trade agreements are done through vehicle convoys between towns, which must be executed very carefully. Anything on the roads at this point draws a lot of attention, so the militia is tasked with protecting the convoys.
YOU are the second squad leader in the latest convoy to the town of Fairfield, about 20 miles East of your home town. Prior to departure, the convoy commander tells everyone the plan.
“The town is low on gasoline, so to save fuel we are only taking two vehicles this time instead of our usual three. We are going to use primarily gravel country roads to avoid the highways, which is where bandits like to set ambushes. 1st squad will take point in Josh’s van, because it has better observation from the higher windows. 2d squad, you guys will follow with the cargo in Jose’s station wagon, about 1km back. You can get closer if you need to, just stay within line of sight. 3d Squad will be on standby here as QRF in the third vehicle in case something happens. I will be with 1st squad.”
Each of your 6-man squads is equipped with the following:
The trip to Fairfield is uneventful, and you make the transaction successfully. As planned, the precious cargo of medicines, bleach, and electrical components is loaded into the back of your vehicle and you begin the trip home.
On the way home you are heading West along 320th St approaching a planned right turn onto Merino Ave. Suddenly you hear a crackle of gunfire ahead, and you see Josh’s van come to a halt about 75m short of the intersection. You tell your driver to halt the vehicle, and order the rest of your squad to dismount and set security. You hear the occasional snap and whine of ricochets whistling past you from very far ahead.
As you are pondering what to do, the CB radio comes to life. “It’s an ambush! They’re in the treeline to our front! My driver is dead and I’m hit! You’ve got to help us! They’re chewing us up!”
You consider your options. Your home is 5 miles NW from you, where 3d squad is standing by as QRF. You call them, but it will take them a while to get here on the back roads, you estimate they’re probably 10 minutes out.
In a time limit of 5 minutes, draft the frag order that you would issue to your squad. Write down any special instructions you would give to the QRF and provide a brief rationale for your actions.
Originally posted on American Partisan on June 29, 2022
No matter how much effort you put into planning for combat operations, the enemy still gets a vote on what actually ends up happening. In TDG 15: The Best Laid Plans, you are suddenly thrust into a situation where your original plan has gone out the window and you must improvise fast.
Before I get into our options, let’s take a quick look at two of the major factors in this situation; darkness and proximity.
Darkness: The fact that this scenario occurs at night complicates matters, especially for an improvised plan. There is a very real risk of friendly fire, so we must be very careful to mitigate that risk. Darkness also places restrictions on our speed, so it will take longer to move into position than it would during daytime. Given how soon the enemy will arrive, it is unlikely that we will be able to displace any squads more than about 100m in time to affect the firefight.
Proximity: The terrain is restrictive here, which could result in much shorter engagement distances than normal. “This has the potential to be an up close and nasty fight,” reader “John” pointed out. “…overwhelming violence of action and fire is going to be essential.” The initial moments of this ambush could prove decisive, so it is vital that we overwhelm the enemy quickly before they realize what is happening.
Bearing these factors in mind, lets take a look at our options.
Hold fire and let them pass
We may decide that there is too much risk involved here to improvise on the fly. And depending on the skill and experience level of our guys, this could be a valid choice. However, just because the enemy has thrown us a curveball does not mean that we have lost the advantage. We still have the element of surprise, or else the enemy wouldn’t be moving the way they are. We are still ahead of their route and have freedom of maneuver for the moment.
Reader “John” also points out; “This is a ‘specialist’ patrol (Reconnaissance). Taking them out is a strategic loss for the enemy commander and will likely degrade his ability to conduct operations in the area going forward. It takes considerably more time to select and train a reconnaissance unit than it does a “typical” infantry unit.-We are in a good position to strike them.” John also goes on to correctly assess that we could glean weapons, NVGs, intelligence, and a significant morale boost if our attack is successful.
In the end, if our group has even the smallest bit of competence, the opportunity is too good to pass up.
Consolidate into one large ambush
We may choose to completely scrap our initial plan and keep our new plan dummy simple by eliminating moving parts and grouping together into one large ambush formation. This practically eliminates the risk of fratricide and makes it incredibly easy for us to control our men.
In order to do this quickly and in the dark we should refrain from making overly complicated plans. Reader “Timbersour” said, “Getting a very simple plan out to the team quickly trumps any big-brain stuff.” We don’t want to risk our new plan being difficult to execute safely, taking too long to brief, or exposing ourselves to the enemy by moving too much in the dark. A simple linear or T-shaped ambush would be the easiest to implement quickly, or even an L-shaped ambush if we’ve trained enough in the past.
The only downside to this plan is that having only one firing element makes the enemy’s job of maneuvering on us or assaulting through us simpler. This can be mitigated, however, if we make sure that our opening volley is devastating enough that there is no one left to maneuver on us.
Slightly change the original plan
We might not need to come up with an entirely new plan. After all, we already have control measures and rehearsed signals and maneuvers established, so why not use them? All we would need to do is find suitable locations to relocate our teams, and maybe tweak the control measures just a bit.
As long as we have rehearsed this ambush thoroughly, we should be able to execute this action with no difficulty. Thoroughly rehearsing an action should not just consist of flawless runs every time, you need to throw curveballs to your guys when it gets too smooth. Between rehearsals, encourage your people to ask all the “what if” questions to predict what could go wrong and how you would handle it. If you have done all that, this slight adjustment should be a breeze. If not, this course of action may not be ideal.
If you take one thing away from this TDG let it be this. Thorough rehearsals are absolutely critical. If you have extra time during the preparation for a mission, you should use as much of it as possible for rehearsals so that everyone knows every detail of the plan and how they can make adjustments to it. Sloppy rehearsals make for sloppy operations.
Story Time
This TDG is actually a scenario I faced during a force-on-force exercise in the Marine Corps. While I gave you 5 minutes to evaluate the situation and come up with a hasty plan, I had 60 seconds. In two minutes the enemy would be upon me, so I had one minute to think and issue the order, and one minute to get my guys in position while remaining undetected. Since I know you’ll all be asking me in the comments, here’s what happened.
I quickly decided that there wasn’t time to create an elaborate new plan, so I chose instead to keep most of the elements of my original plan with a few amendments. I sent my second squad to the tree grove in the middle of the field at 9430 3837 and set my first squad in the trees to the Northeast where they could see the road. My frag order was as follows;
“Second squad, see those trees over there? That’s your new firing position. Same scheme of maneuver and signal plan. First squad, your trigger to open fire is when I start shooting. We will try to bait them into attacking East into the field. Second squad, your new trigger to open fire is when the enemy squad is on line in the open. If they try to break contact North, we will pursue them until they get past the town. I will be with first squad. Move.”
The end result was surprisingly better than anticipated. The enemy, when ambushed, didn’t take the bait and attempted to break contact by peeling North along the road. When I saw that they weren’t taking the bait, I called my second squad to join us and prepare to pursue. However, the sudden appearance of two M240Bs belching fire into the night pinned the enemy squad, and we were able to close with and destroy them in place.
Bayonets may have been involved.
Von Steuben Training & Consulting