Controlled F.O.R.C.E. Modernizes USMC MP Schoolhouse Instructors

Fort Leonard Wood (February 2009)

U.S. Marine Corps instructors at the USMC Military Police (MP) Schoolhouse at Fort Leonard Wood (FLW), Missouri are responsible for preparing Marine MP Forces for deployment throughout the world. The curriculum for its eleven week course constitutes the standard of training for all sustainment training that MPs complete at their respective assignments. One skills-set that the course develops in its students is non-lethal close range subject control (CRSC). The current CRSC training standard that the USMC MP Schoolhouse curriculum is based on is the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. system.

On February 3-6, 2009, the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. Alpha Team (CF Team) visited the USMC MP Schoolhouse for a quality control spot check to help the school’s instructor cadre optimize its teaching methods for the CRSC material. The CF Team (including Executive Directors Tony Grano and Don Roberts, National Training Coordinator Toby Flaget, and Technical Director Lorenzo Catanag) identified the challenges of teaching maximum amounts of CRSC content to large classes (in excess of 100 Marines) and achieving high rates of proficiency and retention.

“What we’re seeing here,” points out Don Roberts, “are second and third generation trainers teaching the material. We are here to show these trainers how to deliver the material in a more dynamic way with greater results for the students.” The school’s instructor cadre has learned the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. system second-hand, either by graduating from INIWIC or by simply teaching off the manual with no formal hands-on training in the system. According to Lorenzo Catanag, the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. CD Manuals were developed to help trainers maintain their perishable skills, and were never intended to be used as primary instructor development. There is no replacement for hands-on training in the development of combatives skills.

Since the USMC currently lacks the organic resources to fully develop its MP Schoolhouse cadre’s CRSC instructor skills, the CF Team provided its consulting services pro bono to ensure that all Marines graduating from the course are armed with the skills needed to effectively respond to threats and maintain control of their operating environments. “These MP instructors are good trainers, but they are teaching the course like an instructor level course,” explains Tony Grano. “When training the operator, we don’t need to concern ourselves with whether or not they understand the principles behind the techniques, we need to slam them fast and hard and get them through a maximum amount of repetitions.” By re-gearing to a high speed delivery, the school’s instructor cadre will see greater results in the preparation of Marine MPs.

For over a decade, Controlled F.O.R.C.E. has been building a standard of training across the law enforcement, corrections, security, and military spectrum. The CF Team can apply this framework to the USMC MP Schoolhouse to help it overcome the challenges of maintaining excellence when faced with instructor legacy issues, and achieve greater success in turning out qualified Marine MPs. By establishing a local master level instructor at FLW in support of the revolving instructor cadre, the USMC MP Schoolhouse will have the capability to develop and maintain its instructor cadre as dynamic sustainment reinforcement trainers. In addition, by establishing mobile master level instructors, the USMC MP Schoolhouse will have the capability to develop and maintain instructors at global USMC MP facilities as dynamic sustainment reinforcement trainers and achieve consistency in training across the board. Through this framework, the USMC MP Schoolhouse will have the capability to operate a true standard of training to ensure that all USMC MPs are best prepared to appropriately respond to threats within the contemporary operating environment.

CONTROLLED F.O.R.C.E.

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Copyright 2009 Controlled F.O.R.C.E. Inc