(Cover photo: my good bud Robert Horrigan, KIA in Iraq)

Close Quarters Battle (CQB), or 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.

I felt the virtual presence of many peers with chins dipped low peering at me over the tops of reading glasses when I said “operator.” An operator used to be a person that answered the phone when you dialed zero. Then it became a title of excellence bestowed on men who were leaders of the entire world in their game at combat skills.