As always, comments welcome and encouraged...

I've read over most of the CQB and Room Clearing threads, and I thought that some visuals with explanations might help. As we all know (or may not know depending on experience!) each player on a team, regardless of scenario, has an area of responsibility, where the first responsibility is to control that area, keep it clear of tangos, and report to the team changes in the conditions of the area. I've talked about that in the post about Areas of Responsibility.

Think of your personal AoR as a "bubble" inside which nothing can move or exist without you knowing about it, or engaging it. As always, if you know about it, that means that your team should know about it as well. Communication, whether hand signals or short radio transmissions, or just saying "Hey! There's some guy over there!" is all-important. Every member of your team should know at all times that their back and flanks are covered.

In my experience (YMMV) entering a room is something that a lot of people think they know what it is, but they really have a skewed idea of how to do it effectively. These ideas are mostly based on seeing movies and TV where the director thought it would look cool to do it the Hollywood way. Well, that might be true, but it can get you tagged.

The graphics I have drawn (crudely, I know...) presuppose several things. First, you are entering a room with one entrance; second, you are entering from the same side of an open door; and third, there are tangos elsewhere that you may or may not know about. I picked a four-man team, because this is, IMHO the best size for clearing a medium-sized room. Again, YMMV, and these tactics can easily be adjusted to work for three, five or six man clearing teams, or in rooms with more than one entrance, or other variations. Don't forget that you might need to know more than what's going on ahead of you, in which case your Scenario pre-briefing should cover that information. (Like a hostage rescue, for example) Also, this will work well no matter if the room is 10' x 10' or 50' x 50'.

One more thing. These suggested movements and AoRs are useless unless you practice them to the point that every man knows every position (and every other position) and can move and shoot with his or her eyes closed, all the while not hitting a teammate. Don't practice haphazardly. Have a clear objective and practice it. Let me stress this again: Know where your teammates are at all times, and be sure your lanes of fire do not intersect their position. If you aren't sure, then work the exercise to find out why you are tagging your team leader all the time. I'm sure he or she will be very happy to know that you are not going to create another friendly-fire casualty during the next scenario.

Dwg 1
Placement of each team member, and their AoR prior to entry.

 rmclr01.gif ( 5.71K ) Number of downloads: 484


Note that each team member has a discrete AoR and are within an arm's length of one another. Also notice that their lanes of fire do not intersect other team members' positions. This is important.

Dwg 2
On a pre-arranged signal, (preferably a hand signal) Team lead (#1) enters the room, and visually sweeps quadrants C and D while #2 enters the doorway behind #1 and visually sweeps quadrants A and B. If you see a tango, engage it! #3 and #4 cover the exterior of the room, making sure the team is not ambushed while this process goes on.

 rmclr02.gif ( 5.98K ) Number of downloads: 337


Here are hand signals that might work for your team:

http://www.airsoftgent.be/dbase/hands.htm

You can always come up with a specific "Go!" Signal for a room-clearing team, if you prefer.

Dwg 3
#1 continues down the centerline of the room, covering quadrant A. #2 follows behind #1, covering quadrant D, engaging tangos if necessary. #3 moves into the room and covers quadrant B, while #4 moves into the doorway, still covering the rear flank of the team. At this point, the room should be almost clear. The Exercise is not over, because other things could be happening in and around the area.. Another team of tangos could be following the assault team, or there could be tangos hiding behind objects in the room, so the team has not fully safed the room.

 rmclr03.gif ( 6.35K ) Number of downloads: 301


Dwg 4
#1 and #2 move deeper into their respective quadrants, staying close to the center of the room, while #3 swivels to cover quadrant B into the corner. #4 moves into the room to cover quadrant C.

 rmclr04.gif ( 6.13K ) Number of downloads: 231


Dwg 5
This drawing shows the final position of each team member in the room. Note that #1 and #2 are closer to the center of the room, while #3 and #4 are more to the outside of the room. This is to prevent anyone from coming in behind the team after the room is clear. #1 and #2 can swivel to cover the door, while #3 and #4 can provide cover, and have a wider angle of view into the corridor outside the room.

 rmclr05.gif ( 6.31K ) Number of downloads: 253


Please understand that I am NOT saying that this pattern of movement and the AoR's of these team members is the only way to do this. What I am trying to get across is the importance of each member of the team having a discrete and significant area that he or she is responsible for covering. This is only a guide. This specific pattern may not work for you, but you won't know that until you train for it.

It is VERY important to remember that this should go very quickly. If a four man team cannot come into a room, going from their positions in Dwg 1, going through their movements to get to the positions in Dwg 5 in less than 4 seconds, the whole team becomes vulnerable, and most likely tagged. Focus on moving through the positions and areas very slowly at first, with each member taking a step, stopping, and looking at every other member, and then taking the next step. Repeat the process until the exercise is concluded. Each time you do this, go faster until you can blow into a room and clear it in 6 or less seconds. Then you can begin rotating the members through all the positions until you find out which combination works best for you.

Variations on this exercise could include putting dummy tangos in random places within the room, and firing on them as you come through, or having live tangos in random places inside the room, to practice on. <snicker> When you think you are good enough, turn out the lights in the room, or put on blindfolds and then go into an empty room firing bursts as you move. You will discover very quickly where you need to work on the procedure.

I can't stress teamwork enough. I also can't stress enough that everyone MUST understand their individual roles inside the workings of the assault team. These are things that should be talked out in detail, in the pre-exercise briefing, where every member of the team discusses and understands clearly what their role is, and also everyone else's role. Do your walk-through, or step-through and talk it out as you learn it. One idea is to make numbered circles out of construction paper (one color for each team member, and about 6" in diamater), stick them to the floor in each position, and then move to those positions until you get used to where you need to go.

Don't forget to do a post-exercise debrief, so that you all can talk about what went wrong, what needs work, and how you all can improve the exercise to suit your individual team or unit.

This is supposed to be fun, so remember that tempers can flare when we get frustrated over teammates or ourselves not filling their roles well. But remember that this also takes lots of practice to become the automatic and effective method it should be. And when you accomplish being able to do it blindfolded, you will have the confidence necessary that your team can go into any room anywhere, and take out any tango under any conditions.

Remember, practice does not make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect. Training is bloodless combat, and combat is bloody drill.

Thanks for reading. I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

This post has been edited by Lancer: Jun 15 2006, 01:52 PM