06-06-2011, 05:42 PM
Quote:My read of that situation says more about how prepared the bad guys were than weapons.
Roger that. Whenever I hear the 1986 Miami incident come up, and the conversation turns to a caliber/firearm debate, I feel that the focus has immediately gone off-track. I remember when it happened, and have followed as many stories and detailed analyses of it since I was a kid. I never truly understood what happened there until I became an 11B, and learned what it meant to aggressively pursue the fight with your cohorts. These guys learned lessons that are impossible to learn in a traditional Law Enforcement training or operational environment, in my opinion. Platt was an 11B3 with Airborne and Ranger training, although I don't know if he actually graduated from Ranger School. Matix was an honorably-discharged Marine who joined the Army later, and they met at Fort Campbell in the 101st. There are still a lot of unanswered questions to me about these guys' backgrounds. The story gets stranger the more you look at their history.
Either way, Platt obviously knew how to shoot, move, and communicate, and had spent a lot of time in his life living with the 360 degree, predatory animal mindset you gain after living in the woods conducting combat patrols day-in and day-out. When reviewing Platt's actions, especially how he demonstrated no fear after he and Matix had "burned" the FBI surveillance following them using a cul-de-sac counter-tracking technique, you start to get a glimpse of that mindset. As he and Matix (driver) pulled out of the dead-end and they drove passed the FBI agents, he loaded the 30rd magazine into the Mini-14 while staring directly at them, basically saying to them, "bring it on". That was very unusual for them to encounter, but they figured that since they were "FBI", they were better-prepared/immune/well-trained.
Once they trapped Matix and Platt between the cars (an excellent use of vehicle barricading BTW), Platt came out aggressively shooting with very effective shot placement. Wherever he saw a threat, he would engage that threat, and bound to it immediately after seeing it go down, then once upon the fallen agent, he would pump more rounds into him as he took the agent's positions for his own. This type of shooting and moving is woven into the small unit tactics that light infantry units practice as their bread and butter, and while it may seem brutal to outsiders and even other military professionals from the soft skills, it is effective.
We always trained to shoot wounded combatants as we approached them because they were not behind our limit of advance (LOA), so as long as you were moving forward, down and writhing enemy combatants were fair game to place a controlled pair into their face or head as you swept across the objective area. This was always declared completely fair game according to Hague or Geneva conventions and our JAG officers, since the combatant can still be a threat until he is confirmed neutralized, and security has not yet been established. The moment we passed the combatant, moved to the LOA, consolidated & reorganized, and fell back onto the objective, we would be required to provide first aid and humanitarian assistance to any surviving wounded.
Every patrolling school and Squad or Platoon evals would include this practice, and it is a basic practice for infantry, Rangers, and other fighting units. The FBI agents made a lot of very well-placed shots on both Matix and Platt, but shot placement is not enough to compensate for a well-trained gunfighter who kicks-in his thinking, active killer skillset. Many people mistakenly label these types of actions as "reverting to your training". That phrase is very misleading. I believe he was fully-aware of his actions, and was quickly making decisions from moment to moment, not just mindlessly executing a predetermined maneuver or drill. Since Matix was immediately incapacitated, Platt was left to face the 6 agents himself.
His actions demonstrate how aggression, violence of action, speed, and practical marksmanship skills all come together. While the FBI agents demonstrated excellent shot placement (to include head and center chest shots), and a resolve to pursue the fight from mostly static positions, they had absolutely no concept of the level of aggression that exists within the organizations that Platt and Matix were a part of, and this major disparity is what allowed Platt to dominate them alone, causing the loss of life and significant injuries to the agents. While it is rare to come across assailants with these skill sets, it is increasing in likelihood due to the number of narco-traffickers spilling across our borders, who almost always have a military or paramilitary background behind them, with little or no moral resistance to killing.
It would behoove those who are interested in continuing their natural lives to learn to be more aggressive, more lethal, and more violent than those they may potentially encounter, because the line-up could be very formidable. Many hardened criminals have been breathing violence since infancy, so the order is tall and the training requirements are extensive. No amount of firearms training that focuses only on marksmanship, super-calibers, or badges will ever overcome a well-trained human predator who has switched his kill-switch to "engage". This is more true for the LEO who, by nature of their profession, deals with the more violent population of society on a daily basis.
If you are not incorporating VIOLENCE into your shoot training that is meant for protection, you are several steps behind many of those who will cognitively decide to do you bodily harm, and many of them practice shooting as well, with much larger budgets for ammunition than any of us will ever be able to afford. The narco-traffickers "practice" in real-world killings regularly. There were over 36,000 homicides in Mexico last year alone, and many mass graves still have not been discovered.
If your defensive shoot training is conducted on a flat range, with no stress, movement, or pain and heavy breathing...you're short-changing yourself.
LRRPF52