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New Equipment, New Training

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 15:17

My friends, 2010 has been a hectic Charlie Foxtrot so far, but things have started to settle down. I sold my house (unbelievable in this current real estate market!) which necessitated A Move. It's been 14 years since my last Move, so I had forgotten what a purgatorial experience it is. The house deal closed Feb. 12, which basically meant I spent most of January sorting, packing, and throwing away stuff, and most of February moving, unpacking, sorting, and throwing away stuff.

The good news is that all of my major rooms are unpacked and, and thanks to my loving and ever-protective daughters, arranged and set up in a manner that could pass for "decorated". My son, who moved back from the West Coast just before Christmas and has been living with me temporarily, was also instrumental in The Move, i.e., he did all the heavy lifting that the movers wouldn't do. I am blessed to be in my new home, out from under a cripplingly expensive mortgage and second mortgage, and able to start putting money toward my dream of a log house in the woods. (With pre-established fields of observation and fire and fixed emplacements for crew-served weapons, of course...)

So despite the fact that my reloading room is still unpacked, I am able to once again resume my Tactical Anatomy duties. Those of  you who have ordered items in the past couple of weeks, please accept my apologies for being tardy, but your orders will be shipped this week... and new memberships on this site will be vetted and processed.

I am pleased to announce that Tactical Anatomy Systems has taken another step forward in the training world. We have purchased a MILO computer simulator system, and are now offering training using this incredible modality. I have had opportunities to train on most of the computer simulator systems out there including the industry originator FATS system, but in my considered opinion no system is competitive with MILO. Which is why I bought it and am offering it for training.

My lead firearms instructor, David K. Maglio, and I held our first pilot project MILO class on Feb. 20, 2010. We have dubbed it Deadly Force Decisions, and modelled it on the excellent training with this system we have both received from various agencies in Wisconsin, including our close training compadres at Milwaukee PD. Suffice to say that the pilot project was an overwhelming success.

As a result, we are making plans to incorporate Deadly Force Decisions with our already popular Shooting with Xray Vision class, and our recently introduced SIMUNITION-based Tactical Anatomy Force-on-Force program. We are offering all three classes in a single weekend, with options to all attendees to take any or all of the 3 classes. David, who is a Certified SIMUNITION instructor as well as a Wisconsin DOJ-certified law enforcement firearms instructor, has run several Force-on-Force classes for non-sworn personnel under the Tactical Anatomy umbrella now, and we are confident that this is as cutting-edge hands-on deadly force training as you can get anywhere, taught by guys who are experienced and fully qualified instructors first and foremost. 

Our first offering of the Deadly Force Workshop will be in the Twin Cities March 6-7. We are looking forward  to holding more of these Workshops throughout the upper midwest this spring and summer, for both LE and non-sworn personnel. Contact us through this website if you are interested in attending or hosting a Workshop, or any one component of our deadly force training triad.

New Training Offerings

Saturday, 09 January 2010 19:02

Now that we've moved into 2010, I am pleased to announce that Tactical Anatomy Systems is opening several new Courses of training. These include the following:

Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds

I realize there are hundreds of tac-medic classes out there. Most of them are taught by ex-military medics who have a ton of practical experience gained in the Sandbox, but little or no formal teaching training and--I'm told--highly variable levels of teaching skill. The level of training is really variable as well... one friend came back from a class and told me that the instructor talked over their heads, and most of the subject matter was about the heroic things he had done in Iraq.

TAS's TTGSW class is different for several reasons. First, it is an operator-level class. It's meant for the average cop who may or may not have taken high school biology, has his BLS/first-responder credential, and that's it. Because I have over two decades of teaching experience at the high school and collegiate level, you can be confident that I will not be talking over your head.

TTGSW's objectives are simple and straightforward: to place in the hands of every patrolman/operator the half-dozen basic techniques he needs to save his life or that of his brother officer in the event of a catastrophic wound in the tactical hot zone. We piloted the new curriculum in Nashville in November of 2009, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. Metro Nashville PD instructor staff will begin training their entire police force in these methods this year, and other agencies are looking hard at getting their people trained as well.

Please let me know if you're interested in hosting this class, as the 2010 training calendar is filling up fast.

Tactical Anatomy for Civilians

We have had several highly successful TAS classes for non-LE personnel and are expanding this program in 2010. This is a somewhat simpler form of the 8-hour Shooting With Xray Vision class I've been doing for LE groups since 2004. It contains all the same information on where ethics, terminal ballistics and terminal effects, GSWs and incapacitation, and human anatomy and physiology as it relates to effective stopping power. It also includes a module on the judicious use of deadly force, which LEOs all learn in the academy training, but most civilians have no knowledge of.  Watch this website's  calendar for upcoming classes.

Force-on-Force Classes for LE and Civilians

Partnering with my long-time friend and training partner, David Maglio, Tactical Anatomy Systems will be offering innovative force-on-force training for both LE and civilians in 2010. Dep. Maglio is certified by the Wisconsin Dept. of Justice as a LE firearms instructor and is certified as a SIMUNITION instructor as well. We have both done extensive force-on-force training. We have purchased a full set of SIMUNITION equipment and have a secure training facility in the Milwaukee area, and we have piloted the classes we intend to offer with unexpectedly good outcomes.

In addition, we have also purchased an IES Corporation MILO computer simulator. This incredible technology allows the student to interact with a full-size simulated human adversary in highly realistic scenarios. I have been using a set of MILO scenarios that I co-developed with IES for the past 3 years in our 8-hour and 16-hour LE classes, and the results have been spectacular. People love shooting these scenarios. 

Now that TAS has both of these force-on-force training systems, we can offer a blended FoF curriculum that will blow your doors off, whether LEO or civilian. Classes will begin no later than March, 2010, and class size is necessarily VERY limited. Watch this website for class announcements.

Speedgoat Hunting In Wyoming 

Nah, I'm not really taking on pronghorn guiding as a sideline. I just wanted to put up a pic of the dandy speedgoat I shot out near Lusk, WY, in September 2009.

Season's Greetings

Tuesday, 22 December 2009 18:15

Christmas is almost here, and soon we will be bidding goodbye to 2009. Good riddance, I might say, given the events that have transpired in the past year. I am reminded of the ancient Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times".

For we are, indeed, living in interesting times. In 2009 we've seen the United States federal deficit increase exponentially as a runaway tax-and-spend Congress has plunged us into unprecedented debt. We have seen our economy teeter on the brink of collapse (and some say we're still teetering...). We have watched as Korea and Iran race to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems while our do-nothing President apologizes to the World for the "bad behavior" of the United States. And that same President somehow managed to nearly-simultanously escalate the war in Afghanistan and collect a Nobel Peace Prize.

Pandemic H1N1 Influenza ran amok in 2009, causing more panic than anything else, although the death toll was not insignificant. The federal government is about to take over the health care system in the United States; given the government's record of creating runaway bureaucracies such as the Veterans Administration and the Social Security Administration (either of which could be the poster child for poor service and rampant inefficiency) I am gravely pessimistic about the future of health care in America.

But amid all this gloom and doom, I have to admit there have been some great moments for me in 2009. Despite tight training budgets, we were able to conduct almost as many Tactical Anatomy classes in 2009 as we did in 2008. More cops attended TAS courses in 2009 on their own dime than in any previous year, which tells me two things: first, that this training is needed in the law enforcement community, and second, that there are a lot of dedicated trainers out there who will stop at nothing to make sure their people get the best training they can find. To all those dedicated instructors, I want to say thank you, and don't give up doing what you do. Officers' lives depend on you.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and a happy and safe New Year. Here's hoping 2010 turns out to be a great year.

Nashville Class Registration Problems

Monday, 19 October 2009 19:47

Several people have contacted me to let me know that they are having problems registering for the November "Shooting With Xray Vision" class and/or the "Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds" class to be held in the first week of November at Nashville.

I am at a loss to explain these problems, as some folks have registered with no difficulty at all. It may be a server-to-server communication problem, and my webmaster is looking into it.

If anyone is having difficulty using the website registration, you can mail your information (name, email address, snailmail address, telephone number, and agency, along with a check or money order for your tuition to: Tactical Anatomy Systems LLC, P.O. Box 183, Ripon, WI, 54971. I will email confirmation of receipt of your registration when I get it.

Doc