Whiskey 5 is a recurring Soldier Systems Daily feature that asks “Who, What, Where, When, and Why” of industry leaders, manufacturers and instructors — to let you hear how they describe themselves. It’s intended to give you a close and thorough look at some of the people that make our industry unique. We’ve found these basic 5 questions to be the basic keys to understanding. Past Whiskey-5s have included business from Provengo to Kryptek, and all sorts of other companies in between.
Today we’ll be sharing an overview of North Carolina’s Raidon Tactics Inc.
Who
Raidon Tactics is a training company located in North Carolina. It is run by Frankie McRae, a former Ranger and Special Forces NCO who instructed at the U.S. Army Special Warfare Center and School. McRae’s experience alone would make Raidon worth looking into, but Raidon’s entire instructor staff is comprised of seasoned professionals, with an aggregate total of over 100 years of Special Operations experience. Raidon offers one-on-one instruction for classes ranging from firearms fundamentals for new shooters to advanced skills for highly-trained special operations troops. Because McRae and so many of his instructors were Special Operations senior leaders who held positions in SF schools, and they’re close to Army SF’s heartland, Raidon maintains working relationships with military units to facilitate needed training.
What
Raidon Tactics is a go-to company for those requiring realistic, relevant training from skilled, experienced instructors. Raidon offers individual and team training in rifles, pistols and shotguns, Tactical Casualty Combat Care/EMT/paramedic training, counter-ambush and PSD driving, surveillance, sniper/observer skills, aerial marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, K9 handling, edged weapons, corporate and travel threat mitigation, and many other courses. Raidon trains military, law enforcement and private citizens of all ages.
When
Raidon bought their facility in 2009, made improvements and opened the facility for training a year later.
Where
Raidon Tactics is based in Bunnlevel, North Carolina, minutes from Fort Bragg. Raidon operates a low-restriction training facility almost 365 days a year, minus Christmas and Easter. The facility has numerous live fire training bays, a 360-degree ballistic shoot house, and 100- and 25-yard shooting ranges for the public. “Low restriction” means exactly that; Raidon students shoot from elevated positions, vehicles and other barricades. Firearms classes offer a full complement of steel targets to challenge shooting skills. Raidon also leases a 1000-acre farm for realistic scenario-based training; for example, students learning Sensitive Site Exploitation will get many false positives from explosives and other chemicals used for farming. Raidon has a hardball road for Vehicle Interdiction training, which is used often by Special Forces units on near Ft Bragg. Language skills can be tested in realistic scenario-based training exercises that employ multilingual role players to enhance realism.
Why
Because the military makes it hard to get good training.
McRae dealt for years with the Army’s policy of ruining good training opportunities with bureaucratic obstacles and overbearing safety rules. After retiring he decided to open his own facility where he could provide the best training possible with the least red tape. There are very few military facilities where a unit can incorporate evasive driving, CQB, hand-to-hand combat, TCCC, and small unit tactics into one exercise, without having to deal with an old-school sergeant major waving a reflective belt. Instead of drowning troops in unnecessary hurdles, Raidon Tactics has perfected the turn-key method of providing training to Special Operations units. Raidon Tactics even provides all weapons, ammo and gear to all of students in order to make training as painless and smooth as possible.
Find Raidon Tactics online at raidontactics.com.
Also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RaidonTactics
You can read more about Raidon Tactics chief instructor Frankie McRae in this interview here:
www.recoilweb.com/preview-zeroed-in-frankie-mcrae-81521
