Replica Training Weapons for Law Enforcement

In preperation for the Acme Spring Invitational, B.R.A.S.S. held a CQB training day. This was held at the Fire Training Ground. Present were Itsahak, SA, Berkelsk, JrHiJakor, Hammerhead, The General, and Bishop. Yes, it was the return of Bishop!! We were glad to see an old comrade in arms return! Also, Mr. Pelligrino “Pelli” Rengi and Mr. Travis Willoughby were there to assist. Mr. Rengi is a freelance photographer and took random pictures throughout the day. Mr. Willoughby, who played our OpFor for the day, is a former US Army soldier having served in the 101st Airborne and a combat veteran of the Iraq war. He still currently serves in the National Guard
The day started with some classroom work, going over diagrams of the basics of room entry. The we did some walk through’s of actually entering the room sans gear or replicas. After we had practiced that for several revolutions, we added the (unloaded and no mags in) replicas. After several more revolutions, we geared up and moved out to the 2 story Burn Building. Mr. Willoughby moved inside and took up his position. We spent the next two hours invading the building and engaging him. We were also lucky to have Mr. Jason Boteler show up later. MR. Boteler is a former National Guard member who spent a year in the Maryland area protecting power plants and what not after 9-11. He also played OpFor for us for the remainder of the training day. We finally wrapped up around 5 or 6 PM. All in all, it was a great day of training and the addition of the OpFor made even better!

Today I invited a co-worker to come play, Robert. He’d shot my G36C, and I’d told him all the action and fun, but no description can do justice to the experience. We were divided into two teams, we were 1 short of even sides (not uncommon), so Seth, Robert and myself set out to defend ourselves from the coming on slot of Itsahak, SGT T, 1South, and Bart.

Of course the teams were fairly balanced, considering the opposing team was made up of two former US Military soldiers, a competition shooter and a law enforcement officer, and our team being made up of two guy who played FPS games and a visitor with paintball experience.

We were determined to make the best of it and surprisingly, we didn’t do too bad. Our first engagement went fairly quickly, and end up with all three of us waiting to respawn. While trying to determine our next move, the opposing team found us again, and made the decision for us.

We engaged in another firefight, Seth and I were taken our fairly quick, however, Robert held his own against the 4 opposing assailants and gave Seth and I time to respawn and come to his aid. We managed to reduce their numbers enough between the three of us that this time the firefight went a little longer than the first, but in the end, we were all sitting at the bottom of the hill plotting our next move.

We made a break for the path and took up position at the top of the hill, trying to gain the high ground and put the sun in their eyes. Again the three of us manage to hold them off for awhile, but in the end we succumbed to the trained professionals, and came to the conclusion that ‘hak shouldn’t be allowed to pick the teams .