Kit Up! recently ran an article about a new tracking book by former Marine Corps Scout-Sniper (and TTOS- and SDTS-trained Combat Tracking instructor) Freddy Osuna. This book, Index Tracking, the Essential Guide to Trailing Man and Beast, draws on the author’ s experience in the Marines and his subsequent efforts (one might say obsessive, though that doesn’t sound charitable) to learn and improve upon his tracking skills and ability to read the ground – including from a distance. Enter John Morgando, a former big game guide and optics ‘guru’ with security experience at an extremely high priority facility. Morgando is the progenitor of what he calls Target Science. He is quite possibly this country’s leading au courant expert on the use of surveillance optics and “glassing”, has caught and assisted in the prosecution of criminals with evidence garnered via use of binoculars from a hide farther away than most in LE or even Tier 1 military circles would ever believe possible. Osuna and Morgando are now working together to meld their skills in a “perfect storm of collaboration” via Greenside Training.(One might also say that Morgando also ventures beyond passionate about the topic into obsessive and one would be right.)
This may seem counter-intuitive, but he's doing it wrong. Not his fault, he's never been trained. New glassing techniques and methods of visually controlling ground could become a huge force multiplier.
Morgando’s material is based upon thousands of hours of field time on every type of binocular imaginable, as well as information leveraged from the history of such specialized units as the Selous Scouts, Lovat Scouts, snipers from WWI and other conflicts and individuals like Burnham and Baden-Powell. Though surprisingly easy to master in a field/classroom setting, a conversation about it does little more than reveal just how much we don’t know what we don’t know.
As Morgando put it, “Greenside is the first group of military professionals who publicly recognizes SOS military capabilities and offers cutting edge training programs…something I could never declare with my own… Researching a new program is very different without the valuable feedback from ‘real world military operators’ or writing a book based on after the fact recognition within military special operations community… I have since learned my time is best spent within USMC Reconnaissance, USMC/Army Sniper, Special Forces, Rangers and LRS’s communities. Aun aprendo, I’m old, but still willing to learn. [Fred has] done a great job addressing these difficult subjects, (blending optics and tracking together) what historically should have never been separated (tracking, reconnaissance and surveillance) since Rodger’s Rangers (reconnaissance and surveillance were used together with Native American tracking, camouflage and combat fieldcraft), the 1860’s (mass production of optics for military applications) and 1890’s during Indian Wars where both Native Scout Trackers/optics were used together and during Boer War and WWI when Lovat Scouts used both tracking, advanced stalking and optical surveillance technologies were used together against the Boers and silenced the German Snipers in WWI trenches with 2 man Sniper Observer teams and concept which is considered the global standard for nearly a hundred years later…”
One hears phrases like Make your own luck, Rangers Lead the Way, Death on Call, and Advise, Assist, Control..here’s hoping in some small way Osuna and Morgando to contribute to the ruthlessly successful truth of those other mottoes.
Greenside Training on Facebook.
Scott-Donelan Tracking School on Facebook.
Osuna wrote an overview of this combined training program in a short article called Tracking With Optics.
Freddie has the best wolf shirts.