June 3-5 Tellgru Night Vision operator
Myself and several folks recently attended the NV operator class held at Telluric Groups Brunswick GA Facility. We had a mix of LEO's PriorMilitary, Lawfully armed and responsible Civilians, industry folks and Civilian contractors. Though a small class it was from the get go, very tight knit as most everybody knew or at least had heard of everyone in the Class. It was professionally run but never to serious and lots of info laced with humor and stories that pertained to the information being taught and imparted to us.
Also in Attendance were John Lovell of Telluric group and Brittany Devane, formerly of Blue Force gear. John has used Night Vision in combat environments while a member of 2/75th RR. Britany has in the past shot under night vision but this class shed new light to her as well as everyone else including myself, pun intended. I attended this very class 3 years ago when it was in its infancy and it was a great refresher as Night vision fundamentals are important to retrain on from time to time.
John and Brit during a quick break.
This class is first and foremost a Night vision class, not a shooting class, though you will put rounds downrange.
Individual skills taught and trained on included movement under NODs, Use of perifferal devices such as lasers, IR and white lights, IR beacons and signaling devices ect.
Especially important to myself was seeing how detrimental to your safety using visible light in a CQB environment can be, in short improper use of white and in certain cases IR light can get you killed.
Also even if you are a hot shot on the square range during the day means little under NODs and your perception of the world drastically changes when the lights go out and your FOV shrinks down to about 40 degrees.
The instruction really delves into the science behind Night vision with human physiology and anatomy which was both interesting and benificial in understanding that Night vision is a great tool when properly utilized but not some magic cloaking device that is the end all be all of low light warfare.
TNVC via Martin Highsmith provided many devices to both train on and look at for the class and I was impressed by how quickly Martin regained his skill in usng NODs, as the last time he really employed them was in Fallujah years ago.
Martin Highsmith
Both Monocles and Bonocluar devices were used and traits of each device were taught and both have pros and cons
Telluric Group's facility is truly the Nuremburg Track of Night Vision Training Facilities, with both live fire and UTM shoot houses under the same roof, all with a multimedia conference and training classroom that is climate controled and able to become completely blacked out for use of NODs during daylight hours.
I cannot go into great detail about all of the topics covered as some of them are both proprietary and ITAR controlled/restricted, I however will say that if you are wanting to truly understand and maximize your use of a NOD this the class you NEED to attend. Whether you are a Hog Hunter or a Human Hunter mastering this skill set isn't something you do by winging it.
I recommend visiting Telluric groups website at www.telluricgroup.com and attending a class when you can.
class pic