Greenline Tactical Nightfighter AAR
By Alex Osha

I attended the Greenline Tactical Nightfighter Class in Keene, NH on April 1-3, 2022.

The instructors for the course were Don Edwards, the owner of Greenline Tactical, and Sam Houston, a longtime friend of mine and a well-known expert in the night vision field.

Don is an incredibly friendly and down to earth guy, and is a treasure in a largely ego-driven community. Sam may be considered by some to be… “insensitive” on the surface, but cares about the material and wants the students to get the most out of it. The combination of these two personalities means that lessons can be taught multiple ways with different didactic techniques, so the knowledge will solidify in just about anyone’s brain.



The overall structure of the class was as follows:

Day 1
- Lecture and Q&A in classroom setting (details below)

Day 2
- Daytime red dot pistol and rifle drills
- Nighttime evolutions of many of the same drills, adding more components while under night vision
- Demonstration and comparison of available equipment such as white lights, illuminators, and pointers
- Competition exercise
- Clip-on night vision scoped rifle shared with class
- Q&A and feedback

Given that gear is more relevant in a class like this compared to others, here is what I was using. I will add gear learnings at the end of the write up.









RNVG with GP Gen3 tubes
Team Wendy LTP helmet
Peltor tactical 6S earmuffs
Surefire ep3 earplugs

SR15 11.5 mod 2
Aimpoint T2
KAC skyscraper mount
Surefire m600v
Saker 556 on Q plan b mount
HRF magwell
Grave Solutions sling
MAWL DA (rented)

(This will also serve as a mini review of the MAWL in the short time I used it.)

Glock 19 gen 4
Unity slide
Aimpoint P1
Surefire X300U
Raven magwell

Twin or owb holster (modified to work with unity slide)
Raven Lictor pouches 1x rifle and 1x double pistol

(It is worth noting that due to the cold weather, I was wearing multiple layers - so all my rifle reloads were conducted from trouser pockets, while pistol reloads were conducted from the lictor pouch)

Day one consisted of approximately 8 hours of classroom instruction outlining:

- The objectives of the class
- The capabilities and limitations of types of night vision
- Different configurations and ancillary gear to optimize usage of nods
- A deep dive into the technical details of night vision
- Practices to overcome challenges encountered under nods - examples include interacting with stairs and doors, defeating photonics barriers, and scanning while moving to keep aware of your surroundings

I will not go into detail on these topics as I consider this to be their proprietary information, however I highly recommend this portion of the class and it could likely serve as a standalone consumer education class in the future. Some of this research can be conducted online independently, but the value of sorting the myths from reality and contextualizing technical details with the actual corresponding experiences in which they result is hard to overstate.

I will add that this was a highly conversational format, with many digressions to address student questions. My fellow students were probably annoyed with how many times I raised my hand, but fortunately we got out on time that night.

Day two began in the afternoon with a few hours of daylight remaining so that we could conduct modules on red dot pistol employment and shooting on the move with carbines (in the form of the Xbox drill - look this up and try it yourself). This is important because pistol and shooting on the move are more challenging skillsets, therefore warming up and familiarizing ourselves with certain drills and skills will allow us to be more successful at night when adding more to the mix. Additionally, the contrast between daytime shooting and nighttime shooting becomes more pronounced when they can be compared directly following one another. We also verified a proper laser zero - which happens to be a converging zero, for reasons I will let you learn in the class.

I personally found the red dot pistol employment portion helpful as I have never received specific red dot instruction - and there are tips such as chin position that I never would have learned otherwise.

During this time, there were occasional demonstrations and recommendations of gear and rifle setup options based on the instructors’ experience, as well as “life hacks” to make things easier once the sun goes down. This ranged from reholstering techniques, to sling setup, and beyond.

Once the sun went down, we conducted the Xbox drill again - a couple rounds with IR lasers/illuminators, one with white lights and day optics, and where applicable for those with the gear, one with passive red dot aiming under NODs.



The big takeaway for me here was that at a relatively short engagement range in the Xbox drill, it is actually easier to keep the laser on target while moving since you don’t have to lock the rifle in your torso as much, so there is more of a shock absorber effect. Doing the same with a red dot, for me at least, translates to more reticle movement while conducting the drill.



From here, we worked on more traditional line drills, adding elements of complexity each time - pistol transitions, reloads, specific target locations to shoot, switching to a “plan b” aiming solution (e.g. red dot turned up to daylight brightness and a white light instead of using the pointer/illuminator while still under NODs).





This class does have a prerequisite of formal pistol and rifle training - and this section is the clearest demonstration of this. If you cannot reload and transition during the day without thinking about it, you will struggle to do so when you cannot see your pistol or rifle at all.



I had never used the MAWL before this class, and Sam gave me a 3 second intro to it when he passed it to me. Despite this, I was able to switch modes and use the buttons without any concerns whatsoever. I felt like I had been using it for months - a testament to the design principles BE Meyers implemented in this device. Regardless of which button you hit, you will get something useful - even if it is a little higher or lower than you wanted - there is no “wrong button”. Add to that the very simple low-med-high switch, and the completely separate off-vis-IR selector and you really can’t do anything bad on accident with this device. All of this combined with a form factor that matches modern shooting techniques (IE grip), and you have a product that is pure enabler.



Once many evolutions of this drill were completed, we took the chance to compare many different white lights and IR pointer/illuminators that were present in the class.

The clear takeaway for me in this section was that there is no reason to compromise on a white light, and that VCSEL technology (the key ingredient in the MAWL) is really the best option today.

Next came the class shooting competition. The setup is simple - 3 steel targets and 3 barricades. Shooters progress one at a time and try to get 3 hits (one in each of three positions around the barricade) on a single steel target, then move to the next barricade. If they can make it through to the end without the shooter behind them catching up with them, they cycle back into the line. If you can’t get your hits fast enough, you get eliminated by the shooter behind you.

My first round, I shot using passive aiming with my aimpoint as I didn’t feel the illuminator in the MAWL was giving me enough visibility of the target. The next round I decided to switch the MAWL to medium power and that gave me the perfect outcome of a clear aiming point while allowing me to deal with the inherent awkwardness of shooting with NODs around a barricade.

I was fortunate enough to be successful in my use of the MAWL, as I ended up winning the competition after about 4.5 full rounds through the stage. I don’t consider myself a particularly good shooter - and I know there were more talented shooters out there - so maybe I just got lucky - but the MAWL definitely helped.

The final shooting portion of the class was Don providing everyone in the class an opportunity to use his clip-on NVD (PVS-24) equipped 14.5” AR with Nightforce optic (I believe it was an ATACR 1-8x but cannot remember for sure). This was a great experience as the cost of entry into these devices is quite high - and it clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of this configuration on engaging those same steel targets from the distance we shot the competition.

The wrap-up for the course was Don giving his thanks to all of us for showing up and allowing him and Sam to share their passion with like-minded people. All students expressed their gratitude and satisfaction with the course.

I consider this class an extreme bargain. The amount of investment required from Don and Sam to conduct this course, compared with a typical carbine or pistol course, is substantial and frankly this class could cost twice as much and still be fair.

There were no issues with safety during the class nor did it feel like anything was glossed over or skipped due to time.

The open format where questions are encouraged at any point really helps this become a learning experience as opposed to a class where you just sign up to blow through mags without filling gaps in your capabilities - in other words - this class is actually training, and not “entertrainment” which is prevalent in the industry.

Regarding what I learned about my gear and what I might change in the future:

- I need to buy a MAWL.
- My earmuffs were not helmet optimized and became extremely uncomfortable after about 6 hours into the approx 11 hours of day 2. I will look into a pair of helmet-borne earmuffs.
- Although I was apprehensive about my “realistic” loadout approach to the class (IE, drawing from concealment, pocket reloads, no battle belt or chest rig), I was not lagging behind the more overtly-equipped students and never fumbled a reload or transition.
- The HRF magwell for the rifle (which I received the day before the course) almost certainly helped me in preventing any ugly reloads.
- The Raven magwell that I have had for several years probably did the same.
- I should have brought a puffy jacket. I ended up layering a fleece hoody, soft shell jacket, and goretex just to maximize insulation.
- Shooting with a can is dirty and the blowback is annoying, but there was minimal flash and obviously a reduced sound signature. I’ve had this can for nearly 10 years now but this is the first time using it in a classroom setting, and it seems to work for keeping situational awareness across the firing line for those students who were using them.
- I had no malfunctions of any kind with either rifle or pistol.
- I managed to partially melt the knee material on one of my pant legs (pic below) due to transitioning to pistol. I will consider front sling mount placement to mitigate.





All pics are either Sam Houston’s or mine. The cool ones are Sam’s.

Special thanks to Brian for letting us use his range for this class!

must have been an awesome class!