THE URBAN WARFARE CENTER (2002-2012)

After the 9/11 attacks David founded the Urban Warfare Center and the Combat Stress Program. Thousands of soldiers, federal agents and police were trained to win the fight in through his branded stress inoculation training. According to senior military and law enforcement leadership these programs saved lives and reduced casualty rates.

Lives were saved in this facility through force-on-force or human vs human training with an emphasis on stress inoculation and management. As stress responses are forced, identified and tools are given to understand and overcome them, warriors get into the fight quicker, with a systemic response. This principle based approach increases combat survivability, stimulates cohesion and inspires confidence. These improved responses result in greater dominance in a fight.

The Story

When I separated from the Air Force I was recruited into business and rose very rapidly into senior management, first in a fortune 500 company and then into other projects, companies until I became a founder of my own brain child. Our business rapidly moved from my garage into a small warehouse. I noticed a soon to be vacant warehouse next to the one we had just leased. I acquired the lease on that one and built the first section of what would become Urban Warfare Center.

I could see the layout of the building before we brought in the first contractor. In the vision of the facility I thought back to the old buildings in England when I attended a hostage rescue program in 1988. I could see the long lanes and funnels that were critical to teach urban principles. We framed the inside out quickly to replicate an urban setting.

The first flash bang

One day a local SWAT team came in to buy some gear at our adjacent store. We offered the use of the newly finished “courtyard” for their training. With no dirt on the floor, they came in and threw flash bangs, shot paintballs at each other, and smiled the whole time. Force-on-force had begun in the newly created but unfinished facility.

Since that first flash bang the facility grew in its sophistication, modularity and approach to training. We had many military units from multiple branches of service; federal agencies, government leaders, and local law enforcement come into the facility on a regular basis. Salt Lake City presented my company with an award for the “best stress inoculation” in the world. They should know, as they have come to the facility to train once a month for many years and ended the Trolly Square active shooters rampage in 6 minutes.

Facility Features

The facility features multiple stair wells, doors, windows and many long narrow lanes to get trapped in our build strong points from. It is modular in that rooms can be built within the facility, choke points can be created and areas can be isolated. These modular capabilities feature a “shoot though” material that allows less than lethal rounds to pass through the modular walls.

Facility Purpose

The purpose of the Urban Warfare Center has a couple of dimensions to it. First it is designed to provide great vulnerability at virtually any angle. This creates insecurity and therefore stress. Secondly, it attacks the five physical senses of touch, smell, sight, sound and taste.

All of these purposes are designed to draw show participants that:

1. Alone you will not survive a major fight.

2. Flexibility is required to adapt to the ever changing battlefield

3. You must fight through the fog and pain of a fight to win

Methodology

There are many training companies on the planet, but we considered what we had very unique in its approach and methods of “teaching” correct principles and behaviors in a tactical environment. We believed that tactics alone are not enough on the battlefield or in the urban setting. Therefore we focus more on principles of success under stress than specific tactics. This can forge “emotional resilience” just like repeating physical activities can produce “muscle memory”.

One of the key programs taught in the facility is the Combat Stress Program (CSP). In the spirit of the quote, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy," the Combat Stress Program taught participants the principles that will ensure their ability to survive and thrive in the fiercest combat engagement. This day long course exposed participants to an environment as near to real as possible, reinforcing principles through force-on-force scenarios using marking gun technology that both rewarded success, and punished failure. This cutting edge course received acclaim from both deploying and returning troops who have described the experience of the program as being as close as it gets to actual combat.

As the facility became more known in the local market through word of mouth, more units and agencies would come in. Soon a deplying ARMY unit came in and asked if we could not only provide the facility and the gear, but some hard skills. We said “sure” and the beginnings of the Combat Stress Program and the additional "particle skills" was born.

We began by giving the ARMY unit its first scenario under great duress. This mission would require them to accomplish objectives as a cohesive unit in an environment that was as close to a real fight as we could get without really killing people. We did this by using the five physical senses and attacking the middle or "emotional" brain and attacking them through sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

• Sight: The absence of or light in its extremes are used to overwhelm the sense of vision. The safety gear they wear will fog up or take rounds and produce the desired results of confusion and visula empairment (the fog of war). Some become totally incapacitated while others grab on to a partner and ask “what can I do to help”.

• Sound: Multiple channels of pure high definition sound were used to make it hard if not impossible to hear somone right next to you. As you move from one location to another the sounds shifted from perhaps middle eastern music to babies crying and sirens. Mingle that with the sounds of battle and helicopters and you get a sense for this environment. Physical touch and hand basic signals would become essential to drive effective communication.

• Taste: This sense is combined with smell in that when they get shot or rocked by the simulators, they can taste the smell, the paint from the rounds, the burning smell of explosions and the dirt. All these combine to make life very uncomfortable for an unspecified period of time.

• Touch: Out of all the technologies around for shooting people in less than lethal ways, off the shelve paintball guns with modifications made by my company became the premier solution. .68 caliber rounds are large and filled with thick water based paint. When you get hit you know it, and when you shoot another person the big SPLAT, and often the flinch of the person being shot gives you positive feedback that you engaged and hit the target successfully. It is also a clear friendly fire indicator as we use unique colors for good guys and bad guys. The psychological effect of paintball technology is intense. We have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds, and there is nothing that matches its impact on the shooter or the victim. At a cost of a few cents per ball you can’t beat the economics of it either.

• Smell: As specifically produced shotgun shells and simulators explode, the smell of powder, dirt, sweet and debris fill the air. Smell is one of the most powerful reminders of stressful experiences we have and we exploited it very well and all day long.

At times units have come into the facility thinking they were going to play “paintball”, but within the first few minutes of the first scenario, and after receiving several hundred rounds on or in proximity to them, those notions are gone. They are now in survival mode trying to figure out if the best response to the over stimulation of FIGHT, FLIGHT or FREEZE while the middle or emotional brain is searching for a similar experience.

After the stress had been induced in the first scenario, it was time to establish benchmarks for the individuals and teams as a whole. We talk about “how did you feel during the fight". "What physical symptoms did you experience?" Humility is the normal conclusion to the first event. The remainder of the day is spent talking about principles of dominance in urban fighting through teachin basic partical skills such as stacking, dynamic entry and team tactics. We then ran more scenarios focused on driving home important conclusions related to those very principles they were struggling with.

An example of a correct principle would be to stay out of “funnels” defined as windows and doorways (vertical coffins). We reinforce this principle through firepower. Well placed shots by well trained and ego absent opposing forces (OPFOR) taught these lessons with impunity.

As the day progressed so did the missions, until at the end of the day the unit is ready to repeat a mission similar to the first one.

Because of this unique process of INDUCING, IDENTIFING, and INDOCTRINATING stress, the symptoms and tools to overcome this life threatening condition in battle are retained. Principles learned are retained quicker, and the training cycle is reduced. This is because the emotional brain records the events that are stressful and the solutions that help overcome these negative effects.

Another important consideration regarding this method of teaching is the fact that Special Operations units will get large doses of stress during selection and subsequent training. This enables them to dominate more quickly on the battlefield and respond with educated motor skills more rapidly to threats. Line soldiers, sailors and airmen do not get the type of training that normally brings stress levels to the brink of Fight, Flight or Freeze like special operations units do. Therefore they have to learn about these responses in the field and are subject to the “other” forces imposing their will upon them during this learning curve. For units to hit the ground running, they must be stress induced, have an understanding of how they respond, and know how to apply the tools to overcome the these negative effects.

In a very real way we could accomplish in one day what most elite units pride themselves on doing over a sustained period of time. We are never trying to induce stress to “wash” someone out of our program as elite units may be doing out of selection necessity. However, we are heaping large amounts of pressure on them, which will require them to work together, apply the lessons on how to operate under duress, or fail. Success is determined by teamwork, communicating, understanding your mission, performing under pressure, and accomplishing the mission.

Comments from Attendees

As one Colonel said after watching his unit perform under stress in the Urban Warfare Center. “I am sure glad I got to see the strong and the weak in my unit before we deploy”. What a tool for commanders to “benchmark” the troops before they hit the field. Where more training is needed to increase confidence and correct motor skill responses to stress, the individual or unit can then get train up those skills before they deploy and need them in a real fight.

We are hopeful that this simple methodology of Inducing, Identifying and Indoctrinating folks on stress prior to deployments will become commonplace and standardized with all friendly armed forces. We have trained thousands of soldiers and airmen using this process. Success was in the safe return of those very units and individuals to their families.

One combat veteran of our program found me at a trade show and made a simple but powerful statement to us about the effectiveness of the facility and methods. He and his unit were able to get into the fight quicker and be more productive during combat as a result of attending the Combat Stress Program.

In the words of a recent commanding officer that attended the program as an active participant:

“What an experience! Pain/fear was very effective in molding us into a better team in a short amount of time. We all gained a new respect for each other. For one day it didn't matter who out ranked who or how much money anyone made. We were all on the same level and no one could do it alone. You had to trust others and you knew others were depending on you. What a great experience to walk away from with out actually being in Iraq or Afghanistan. What a superb team of trainers…Great guys! They knew what they were doing and how to get it across to us. Great feedback sessions!”

The “Arena”

Not unlike gladiators of old, every warrior needs a place to refine combat skills. The formation of this first shoot house was that place for me personally. I was asked often, even by family members… why do you go in there and shoot each other? The answer is a simple and honest one. I needed a place to roll in the dirt again that was bigger than a refrigerator box (used these as a kid playing army) and more modular that a condemned WWII building in Europe (used during hostage rescue school). Also this facility was needed to harness the warrior and experience the stress that I had been so accustom to all of my life.

The net effect of building the facility for this purpose would allow other warriors with these same needs because of the war on terror to congregate and refine their skills using our methods, facilities and tools.

The end of the story of the Urban Warfare Center was that is was born out of my own personal adversity, and a never ending hunger for the best, most stimulating and flexible force-on-force training facilites, methodologies and technologies that will shorten the learning curve and increase retention.

I would like to acknowledge the many people that have influenced my life and this facility. Some of them but not all include: My Father and hero (Robert Burnell - LAPD retired), John West and Sergeant Graby (Hostage Rescue Instructor - England).

David Burnell - Urban Warfare Center Founder and Senior Instructor