DefRev Attends Advanced Israeli Anti-Terrorist SWAT School at Camp Bonneville

Well, we’re back. From Sunday, December 18th through Friday, December 23rd (2005), DefenseReview was at the FBI firing range at Camp Bonneville in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area attending a four-day Advanced Israeli Anti-Terrorist SWAT School focused specifically on anti-terrorism/counterterrorism doctrine, techniques, and tactics. The course was conducted by Aaron Cohen of IMS Security Inc. for the Southwest (Washington) Regional SWAT Team, which includes the Vancouver PD SWAT Team and Clark County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team. Mr. Cohen is a former member of an elite Israeli Special Forces unit that specializes in anti-terrorism/counterterrorism operations. Two members of the Seattle PD SWAT Team, 2 members of a New Mexico National Guard CATC (Combat Arms Training Company) instructors that work Counterdrug (CD) operations, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces operator (and LE SWAT operator), and a U.S. Customs Agent also attended the course.

I was the only civilian allowed to participate in the course. The reasons I was allowed in were 1) I already had the necessary experience and proficiency levels with carbine/rifle and handgun/pistol that were required for the purposes of range safety (maintaining proper muzzle discipline at all times, under all conditions, at various levels of stress, including high stress) 2) I was tasked with writing an article on the course by a tactical print publication that wanted an article written from a perspective that required immersion/participation in the course, and 3) IMS felt it was important to demonstrate just how simple the Israeli techniques and tactics were to learn and how easy they are to remember them once you’ve learned them. Mr. Cohen felt it was necessary for me to actually participate in the class in order to gain an inherent, holistic, and even visceral understanding of this aspect. This simplicity aspect is necessary because the Israeli military and security forces have to be able to build a combat/tactical operator from scratch (someone with little to no shooting or tactical experience whatsoever–in other words, someone with significantly less tactical shooting experience than your humble correspondent) and turn them into a top-flight tactical/counterterrorism operator within 15 months. Time is always a major factor in Israel. They don’t have years to do it like we do, over here (U.S.).

According to several of the SWAT operators I interviewed, the IMS Advanced Israeli Anti-Terrorist SWAT School was…

DefRev will be publishing an in-depth article on the Advanced Israeli Anti-Terrorist SWAT School as soon as we can, and, as I’ve already alluded to, I’ll be writing an additional article for a tactical print magazine. In the meantime, we would advise our readers to check out Dan Kilton’s video report on the IMS course that he did for KATU News (Channel 2, Portland, Oregon). Mr. Kilton and his cameraman showed up while we were training and managed to shoot some video footage and interview Mr. Cohen and several of the operators attending the class. DefRev highly recommends that you watch the video, as it will give you at least a small taste of what we learned.

Click here to read Dan Tilkin’s video report, titled Local SWAT Team trains with former Israeli commando.

Click on this link to go directly to KATU’s video page on the Advanced Israeli Anti-Terrorist SWAT School.

Click here to visit IMS Security Inc.’s Anti-Terrorist Training/Security Services page that contains information on the Advanced Anti-Terrorist SWAT School. If you would like to book Aaron Cohen/IMS Security to conduct an anti-terrorism/counterterrorism/active shooter class for your organization, you can contact IMS by phone at 310-204-6800, or by email at info@ims-security.com. "IMS" stands for "Israeli Military Specialists".