1. INTRODUCTION: You have completed only 1/3 of your training up to this point, which is how to surgically shoot your weapon(s). The next portion of your training will require you to react, walk, talk, and apply your surgical shooting skills in enclosed spaces almost all at the same time, in close proximity of other shooters and living individuals. This section is designed to introduce you to room clearing tech-niques.
BODY
1. DANGER AREAS. A danger area is any door or opening into an enclosure, or around a blind corner, such as a L-Shaped hallway. As the lead shooter approaches a danger area, the first thing that he is look-ing for is to see if it is an opened or closed door leadlook-ing into the danger area. If the enclosure is an open-ing to the danger area, the lead shooter will stop short of that openopen-ing and establish a stackopen-ing position.
2. TAKING A POSITION IN A TEAM STACK:
a. The "Stack" is a position in which two or more shooters will occupy prior to making entry into an enclosure.
b. The lead shooter positions himself along a wall with his leading foot being closest to the wall. His head is up to observe the danger area, with his weapon at the low ready, oriented toward the danger area.
He is completely responsible for maintaining security of that opening.
c. The second shooter, (as well as all consecutive shooters), will "Stack" on the lead shooter by pressing into him, (without pushing him forward), and placing the feet in the same manner as the shooter in front of you. Except for the lead shooter, all other shooters will have their weapons at an exaggerated low ready with the muzzle pointed outboard.
d. Remember to stay off of the wall, far enough so that your gear and weapon do not drag along it.
They might know that you are in the crisis site, but they don't need to know that you are right outside the door. Additionally, the FBI conducted a study in the early 90's that found that bullets that were fired at walls from an angle would deflect and travel approximately 6 inches along the wall instead of penetrating, yet another reason to stay off of the walls in hallways.
e. HEAD AND EYES ARE UP, LOOKING AT/FOR THE DANGER AREA/THREAT!
3. DIVERSIONARY DEVICES:
a. Introduction to Diversionary Devices:
(1) Before we make entry into any enclosure, we always want to shock that enclosure. By shocking the enclosure, we gain the advantage, according to some studies, approximately a 5 second advantage, which could be the determining factor on who wins the fight.
(2) Upon ignition, the Flashbang will give a loud explosion, brilliant flash, and smoke. The explo-sion and flash work to stun and disorient any occupant within the enclosure, while the smoke aids in masking your movement within the enclosure. However, smoke will also make target identification more difficult. Flashbangs may also start fires within the Crisis Site, ie, carpets, couches, curtains, etc.
(3) The Flashbang is deployed by gripping the body with the spoon depressed. With the opposite hand, pull and remove the pin. When thrown, the spoon will "fly" which ignites the fuse within the body.
One second and a-half after the spoon has been released, the Flashbang will detonate.
b. Deployment of a Diversionary Device:
(1) The second man, or Number 2 man, will deploy the flashbang while the lead shooter maintains security on the opening. The flashbang man will grip the body of the flashbang with the outboard hand, (the hand furthest from the opening), ensuring that the spoon is depressed. Place the finger of the opposite hand in the ring. He will then step out of the stack position and observe for an opening, (to ensure that the opening is not obstructed). If the opening is good, the shooter pulls pin and throws the flashbang, below knee level, 3 to 5 feet into the enclosure. Once deploying the flashbang, the shooter immediately steps back into the stack, re-gripping his weapon, and all shooters stacked will turn their head inboard with his eyes closed. The shooter may relinquish control of his primary weapon to throw a flashbang if he needs to, ensure that the weapon is on safe.
(2) The reason why you want to throw the flashbang with the outboard hand is that if you throw with the inboard hand/back handing it, there is a chance that you will hit the door frame and bang the hallway, and your teammates. When stepping out of the stack to observe, step out low and aggressively, but do not block the hallway with your body. The reason why you want to deploy the flashbang below the knees and three to five feet within the enclosure is to force any individual away from the entrance point of the room, verses toward to entrance point, thus, impeding your entry.
(3) Prepping the flashbang. If you approach and stack on a lead shooter and THEN grasp a flashbang, by the time that you deploy it could be five seconds. Now, multiply that 5 seconds times 20 rooms. Those seconds add up. For that reason, we want to "prep" our flashbang enroute to the lead shoot-er. As you approach a lead shooter, you are grasping a flashbang with your outboard hand. Then, as you stack on the lead shooter, you immediately step out, look, pull, and throw.
(4) Shooters may elect to carry two flashbangs on each little finger. In this manner, the shooter steps out, holding his weapon with the inboard hand. Identifies opening, reach with the outboard hand, grasping the flashbang on the inboard little finger. Pulls and deploys. This will allow the shooter to not have to re-linquish control of his weapon.
(5) When not to use Flashbangs:
(a) Hazards. Drug labs, tanker vessels, doors with explosive/poison hazard symbols, etc.
(b) Impractical. You have thrown so many flashbangs that the smoke has collected and is so thick that you cannot see.
(c) Small Rooms, (Closets, bathrooms). By deploying a flashbang into a small enclosure could potentially cause serious harm to any hostages that may be present within that enclosure.
(6) Improper use of a flashbang could cause serious injury and/or death.
As you can see, Flashbangs can play a big part in the success of the assault. Now lets discuss how we are going to fight in a room.
4. ROOM ENTRY:
a. The minimum shooters needed to enter a room is two.
b. The idea is to get two guns in the room as close to simultaneously as possible. In order to do so, the first shooter must go slow, in order for both shooters to get in the room fast. The position of the stack will always be opposite of the hinge on the door. The flow left or right will vary depending on hinge position and door swing direction. The following descriptions and images explain the different positions.
Hinged Left, Opens In: One man goes right, two man goes left, three man goes right, four man goes left.
When the 4 man/breacher opens the door he position himself by the hinge, opens or battering rams the door and then while staying out of the way reaches out and pushes/holds the door open without entering the fatal funnel.
Hinged Right, Opens In: One man goes left, two man goes right, three man goes left, four man goes right. 4Man/breacher take same action on opposite side.
Hinged Left Opens Out: One man goes right, two man goes left, three man goes right, four man goes left.
Hinged Right, Opens Out: One man goes right, two man goes left, three man
goes right, four man goes left.
NOTE:
The figures to the right represent the different stack positions relative to the way the door opens and the position of the hinge.c. Once the Flashbang has exploded, both shooters step to make entry into the enclosure. The lead shooter steps off with his outboard foot and then takes a side step into the room with the foot that is closest to the wall. As he is doing this he is clearing the thresh hold, which we will discuss shortly. At this point, the lead shooter has one foot in the enclosure and one foot in the passageway, he can now see his initial sector of fire, which is in the immediate corner. Next the shooter steps fully into the room and travels along the wall that he can see, or, the path of least resistance.
d. The Number 2 Shooter steps off at the same time as the lead shooter. While the lead shooter is going straight, the Number 2 man will move in the opposite direction. In order to do this, as he approaches the opening, he will drive his outboard foot into the far side door jam, this will propel him in the opposite di-rection of his movement, the Button Hook. When he steps into the door jam he will button hook into the room and move in the opposite direction of the Number 1 Man. This begins the sector of fire for the Number 2 Man. Like the lead shooter, the Number 2 Man is also responsible for clearing the Tresh Hold.
e. Thresh Hold. The Thesh Hold is the immediate area three to five feet inside the doorway. The Thresh Hold is where you want to place the Flash Bang, which upon exploding, will aid in clearing this area out. Each shooter is responsible for clearing the tresh hold as they are entering the room. This is normally done from outside the room as the shooter is stepping into the room. If an adversary is encoun-tered here, the shooter may have to engage in the Weapons Retention, and should continue with his clear on the move. Clearing the Thresh Hold is done without looking deep into the room. You must imagine that there is an eight foot wall on the edge of the thresh hold that prevents you from looking deep into the room. Looking deep into the room at this point could cause problems. By looking deep and you see an adversary with a weapon, you will most likely stop, (blocking the door way) and engage, ignoring your ini-tial corner, which could get you and your teammate killed.
3-5'
THRESH HOLD
FATAL FUNNEL
fig. 1 fig. 2
f. Fatal Funnel. The Fatal Funnel is a cone of light inside the enclosure that extends from the door-way. Even in dark rooms, the area around the doorway may be slightly illuminated. It is also where the enemy will focus his fire. For those reasons it is important to move out of the fatal funnel when entering an enclosure.
g. Behind Doors. As you are moving to your dominating position, is the door is not pressed against the wall, shoulder it to the wall. If it still does not close and you feel resistance, you have one of two choices that are open to you.
(1) Stop where you are at and pin the door with your ankle and knee. Once your sector is clear, as-sume the underarm assault, open the door, and clear behind it.
(2) Continue to move past the door to your dominating position. Once your sector is clear, check behind the door.
You now know how we are going to effectively get into the room, now let's discuss how the room will in-fluence how we do business.
5. SQUARE ROOM, CORNER OPEN DOOR:
a. DOMINATING AND ELIMINATING:
(1) Both shooters have made room entry, have cleared the thresh hold and are moving in opposite di-rections
(2) The lead shooter, if confronted with an immediate corner, then he will turn that corner and move along the wall to the second, far corner and dominate. If, upon room entry, the lead shooter is confronted
with a far corner, then he will move to that initial corner and dominate. The dominating position is a po-sition within the room that a shooter can best fight and control from.
(3) The Number 2 shooter is moving in the opposite direction from that of the lead shooter. The number 2 man, if confronted with an immediate corner, then he will turn that corner and move along the wall to the second, far corner and dominate. If, upon room entry, the number 2 man is confronted with a far corner, then he will move to that initial corner and dominate. One shooter should be in a near corner and one shooter should be in a far corner. con-fuse anyone. You should still remain approximately 6 to 8 inches off of the wall. Both shooters travel in
"lanes". Because of the sectors of fire in the enclosure, which we will discuss shortly, it is important that both shooters travel along the walls. If a shooter moves out toward the center of the room, avoiding furni-ture or obstacles, could place himself in jeopardy of being engaged by his partner. Stay in your lane.
(5) As the shooters enter the room and are moving toward there dominating position, they are also collapsing their sectors of fire, in the low ready, ELIMINATING. If a adversary presents itself, the shooter engages while on the move in his respective lane. The method of engagement for both shooters is a pair to the torso, (either full auto or semi-auto depending upon range and weapons system), low ready and continuing to collapse toward the opposing shooter. Each shooters collapse will stop one meter from the opposing shooter, (one meter off of his muzzle, off his shoulder, etc). Once the shooter has reached the one meter mark, he collapses back, re-engaging adversaries with a single brain shot, if they are still in the fight. Adversaries are identified as having any type of weapon in their hands. This is why it is critical that shooters collapse their sector in the low ready, so that you can make target identification. If you col-lapse with the weapon in the "on target" position, you may not be able to see the hands, you are more like-ly to accidentallike-ly engage a non-hostile, and additionallike-ly, you will lose your peripheral vision.