TNVC recently completed another successful Nightfighter 101 class in Alliance, Ohio April 23-25.  This class was conducted in conjunction with a Try Before You Buy Event as well as Nightfighter 201 (formerly known as Armed Professional).  Alliance got quite the population bump of great Americans over the weekend!



This was another sold out Nightfighter 101 class, and it is great having that many students willing to give of their time and energy to come get a “software upgrade” on the use of technology to gain information, make a decision and solve a problem.  We had a healthy mix of local/state/fed LE, Soldiers and average earth people in attendance…a great mix of superb students.  We love teaching switched on students and this class was no exception.



We cannot say enough about the training facility at Alliance.  Joe Weyer is a personal and professional friend to the company, and we will continue to come back to Alliance as we view it as a “home” range for us.



Weather was superb for this weekend, the rain gods that generally brutalize Alliance took the week off it seems.  Temps in the mid-40s (at night) to mid-80s (daytime) were the norm.  Nighttime visibility was perfect for the use of night vision, enough to make the goggle work well but not too bright to make it super easy for students to ID.  Remember, this is a technology class and problem-solving class, not necessarily a shooting class.



We saw a wide spread of night vision devices and student experience in class.  We did not experience any night vision gear related issues in the class.

This class was running carbines as intended…the AR platform with some flavor of dot on top.  We did have one student with an atypical rifle (IWI Tavor), but he ran that thing like a champ. Refreshingly enough, there were no single point of three-point slings in this class (1993 called and wants their sling back fellas) …the adjustable two-point sling rules from a position of primacy for multiple reasons.  Lube continues to eat people’s lunch, so much so that we broke for a five-minute block of instruction on proper weapon’s lube.  The modern carbine is designed to run WET; you will get dirty if you’ve lubed your rifle enough…don’t sweat that, your rifle will run.  Lack of lubrication is the cause of most malfunctions in the AR and other platforms, as you find yourself fighting malfunctions, the learning that SHOULD be occurring falls off.  PSA – lube your rifles.



We had very few gear related issues during the conduct of this class.  It is great to see students making good to great gear related decisions.  There is no requirement to dress up like a commando, and this class demonstrated a wide field of gear set ups that were appropriate to the individual.  Rigid holsters will save your life when working at night and we saw no floppy pockets out there.  A few guys were running belt kydex pancakes on belts with armor on and struggled with reholstering, a slight drop would be a solid solution (and they said they’d be looking into them).  The Night Monster is a real thing…he will snatch items out of pouches and pockets as soon as he has the opportunity.  We saw very few Night Monster events during this class, solid work.



We run an aggressive tempo to our classes for working between the two relays.  A lot of this has to do with working on a semi-reverse schedule, and we have a lot of training objectives we want to cover.  Jamming mags prior to class and having readily available food and drinks helps make your breaks more enjoyable, relaxing, and keeps our students alert and receptive to instruction.  Small things like that can help you make the most of your breaks.  Remember “horse, saddle, man” …take care of your gun (horse), reset kit (saddle), grab chow (man).  Having a priority of work during breaks will pay off in spades.

Finally, there is a process involved in everything we do, whether we know it or not, our brains are little supercomputers in our skulls that process information in an organized manner. Under goggles, in a limited information environment (40-degree field of view vice 170ish degree field of view in daylight), you HAVE to turn your head and move in a deliberate manner.  LOOK where you are going, MOVE to the position, get stable and do what you have to do (shoot/observe/etc.), then restart the process.  

We will return to Alliance later this year for the full range of our classes—it is a staple in our training venues, and we love the location for both what we can do and who we work with.

Additionally, several companies stepped up to offer students swag and such for their attendance.  We really appreciate their generosity and are proud to have them associated with our classes.

Ops-Core
Unity Tactical
Thyrm
Otte Gear
Phokus Research Group
Blue Force Gear
Cloud Defensive
NodsPods
Defense Mechanisms

We were thrilled to have you a the class Josh!  High praise from an experienced student, thank you.  Hopefully we will see you at a 201 class soon.

We have our schedule listed on the TNVC website, and I think that it is also on the APD training site.  We would love to see you at a class!