Human Trafficking Awareness Rangeday at Ben Franklin Range
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This was my first 4 hour class of the weekend where we jumped into the fundamentals of breaching. Dylon from Ruhl covered the basics of outward prying, inward ramming, and cutting with bolt cutters. He also gave us a solid review of the advantages and disadvantages of compact gear like the company specializes in. Namely, weight and size are more manageable for mobile, patrolling, or specialized units with the disadvantage being, smaller tools require more precise technique.
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In my training with the fire department, I utilized a full sized Halligan and an axe for all of our breaching. So, this approach opened my eyes a lot and challenged me in different ways. Another consideration coming from the tactical side, is that "the fire doesn't shoot back." So tactical teams have the added consideration of spending as little time in front of the door as possible. While the FD is also trying to breach quickly, we also can afford to orient ourselves more directly in front of the door. Some small differences also stand out in regard to door control once breached (dictating certain methods) but we can get into that another time.
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You can tell Dylon has spent a lot of time focusing on benefiting high quality teams. But, his communication is "civilian friendly" and he is relatable and fun to be around. This was really just an intro to the basics course with enough time to get exposure to some of the principles and ideas of breaching (only 4 hours), but I wouldn't hesitate to take another long form class from these guys, and I'm pretty confident they would exceed expectations.
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Some changes I might make: for a civilian-oriented class, understanding the theory of ramming is good (and fun), but (unless we are going wild with gear) most of us won't have a ram, maybe a sledge at best. So, I would prefer focusing on inward prying.
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The classmates were fun to be around and there was a good competition at the end to keep us all honest. Unfortunately, my team mate and I only scored 3rd for the day, but a good effort was made.
