Orion Training Group - Small Unit Force on Force (CQB)

The class was 3 days long, held at the Ben Franklin Range in Templeton, PA. The Instructors for the course were Jared, Blake, and Alex. We also had a few OTG Alumni pop in to roleplay for us as well.

We started Day 1 with intros. A few popo, lots of normal citizens. We whiteboarded some principles and the daily training agenda. I did like having a written agenda and may start implementing that.

We moved to the house and swapped gear to do dry runs. Lots of safety checks. We did small slivers at a time. There were a number of ways to do things and OTG has methods they prefer, but the other options were explored and weighed against the situation. Terrain and manpower often dictate which methods have advantages and the cadre was eager to dig into that.

I found the instructors to be very personable. The ability to relate to the students and not be aloof in some effort to aid some mystery status for the instructor is something lacking in the training community in the last decade. The depth of knowledge should go without saying, but they were certainly not afraid to dig deep into a rabbit hole on any topic from class.

Around the halfway point, we moved from dry runs to force-on-force. We used Sims and I have to say, they ran better than I remember. I've used UTM exclusively since 2016. Sims before that, and my recollection of Sims/ fx was not favorable.

There was no downtime. Blake and Jared split and would run a team on different floors simultaneously. After each run, we'd do a short debrief, then we'd swap. They'd change the floor plan, and we'd go again. A lot of repetitions made for ample opportunities for coaching.

We had a class dinner after day 2. This is something I've come to expect since 2004 or so. The training culture isn't built in class, it's built at class dinners. I was glad to see they did that. As I got to know them better, I wasn't surprised they run a dinner, but I still think it's a great feature for any class. Trainers who don't do this have different motives than building up the training community.

There was a great AAR portion at the end of Day 3. Standard overview/ recap followed by a thorough critical review of the class, methodical, logistical, didn't matter. They derived into what we liked and/ or what could be better or different. What really got me is Jared was very adamant that a "rising tide raises all ships" (yeah, I bought the shirt) and stressed at the end that he is not only available to the students to help them out, but to the instructors as well. The LE that run training in their dept as well as dudes like me who teach for a living. The offer of "call me, and I'll help you with any curriculum development that I can" was a breath of fresh air to the guarded pettiness in the 2023 training world.

I went with two other dudes, but I'll be going back and bringing more. Not only is the information and instruction great, but these are the guys I want to expose my student base to. Their philosophy on furthering the art deserves my continued patronage, and yours.




Apologies for the brief and untimely AAR, This class started a 22-day excursion for me that included being a student for 4 days of classes as well as an instructor for 6 days and 2400 miles driven. When not behind the wheel, or on the range, I tried to pen a few thoughts down.