Close Quarters Combat (CQC) is to the effect about 75% (maybe higher) testicles, and then 25% technique. I don’t like to over complicate things, especially CQB, one of the most absolutely horrifying things a human may ever do. It is the very nature of the degree of difficulty inherent in ‘the act’ of CQB that bids its techniques to remain very simple, lest the mind become incapable of holding the process at all.
I say ~75% intestinal fortitude, because if you can find a person that will take an AR and run into a small room of completely unknown contents, expected deadly threat, then you already have ~75% of what you need to create a successful CQB operator. All that remains, is to teach and train your operator the very few principles, and the very simple techniques, for room combat.
What about this CQB then. What are the principles? I offer the following, not in order of priority, as there can be no hierarchy of principles. Then: CQB is not a defensive operation; it is purely an offensive event. Therefore CQB is, by all definition of the word, a Raid, and the three principles of a raid are:
Surprise: surprise fords the attacker the upper hand against an opponent that is unaware, and therefore unprepared for the impending attack. Understand that surprise, owes its existence to sound tactics and techniques. Surprise is a product of stealth, stealth is a product of noise and light discipline…etc.
Speed: speed compliments surprise nicely, in that if you have achieved effective surprise, speed will ensure that the enemy never recovers from the element of surprise. Seize the initiative, keep the pressure on. As Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forest described it: “Keep ’em on the sceeer (southern drawn ‘scare’)!” Conduct a flanking maneuver. Forest: “Hit ’em on the iiind (end/flank)!”
Violence of Action: complimenting still the other two, violence of action further continues to destabilize the enemy’s posture, robbing them of the chance to ever effectively overcome the juggernaut of surprise and speed. CBQ is a raid, and encompasses those principles of the textbook raid.
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By George E. Hand
Master Sergeant US Army (ret) 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, SofRep Contributing Editor, Master Photographer
(Cover photo: my good bud Robert Horrigan, KIA in Iraq)
