SWAT meets Force in training
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 4, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
One of the two teams takes a turn doing a building search through smoke as they participate in the an exercise set up by Specialized Realistic Training at a training grounds at Seymour Johnson Thursday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Basic SWAT school students perform room clearing exercises Thursday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Students participating in Basic SWAT School at Wayne Community College make entry through a doorway of a training facility at the Seymour Johnson Thursday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
One student covers another as the Goldsboro police officers training to become SWAT team members approach a scenario at the training facility at SJAFB Thursday.
The first bang takes the door off.
The second is the flash bang ---- a concussive device that emits a deafening sound and a blinding light to disorient.
Then comes controlled chaos.
Operators flood into the building and systematically clear each room one at a time while shouting instructions to each other and taking out anything that poses a threat to them.
But this wasn't the real thing -- not yet.
Goldsboro Police Department officers and members of the 4th Security Forces Squadron on Seymour Johnson Air Force Base performed Special Weapons and Tactics team training Thursday afternoon at the urban training facility on base.
The GPD officers only recently passed the test to start training to become an official, street-ready SWAT team.
Instructor A.A. Boone, owner and president of Tactical Specialized Realistic Training, put the officers through their paces, teaching them how to enter facilities and clear rooms.
They used imitation flash bang grenades and M-4 rifles and Glock handguns loaded with 9 mm "simunition" rounds to fire at targets inside the building.
"Simunition" rounds are rubberized paint bullets that are non-lethal.
It was part of a 50-hour training that has been going on this entire week, wrapping up today.
"Everybody don't go through here like it's a breeze," Boone said. "This course is designed to test everybody, regardless of what your level of experience is, regardless of what agency you (are) from or how much experience you have in law enforcement -- everybody somewhere in this week is going to be tested physically and mentally to see where they're at."
Boone said he doesn't let mistakes slide -- if a unit makes an error entering a building or clearing a room, he makes them cycle outside, line up and do it again until they get it right.
He said the goal in this was to ensure the trainees could operate at a high level, consistently.
"We keep doing exercises until they get it right instead of allowing mistakes to go on," Boone said.
In addition to room clearing, the officers received classroom instruction and practiced setting up on a vehicle, firing at a vehicle to simulate a shoot-out, using ballistic shields, handgun tactics, rescuing a downed man, operating as a team and more.
It was all part of a basic SWAT training course, as there are more advanced courses.
"The training is designed to assist the operator in becoming and understanding the full concept of what it's like to be a SWAT operator," Boone said. "It is an intense course. It's a demanding course. It's a course that really will bring them to a different level by the end of the week. They'll be a different individual by the end of this week."
Boone said the course is designed to weed people out of the training who will have no interest in maintaining a high-standard of physical and mental fitness or improving themselves to be a better SWAT team member once the training is finished.
After about two hours of room-clearing exercises, the trainees were set to move on to live-fire exercises on targets and vehicles.
Boone said he hopes the officers he trained take with them the mindset of survival through teamwork, and trust of their fellow SWAT members.
"If we're team members, and we're going in a house to get some bad dude out of there, and you're on my six and I don't trust you, one of us might not come out of there," Boone said. "We might come out in a body bag. So we gotta trust each other to where I know you're there and you know I'm there for you. The mindset (of survival) and learning how to trust your buddy -- that's what they should get out of this."