After working for CDEU for two weeks, I was assigned to another unit.  For the last two and a half weeks of my AIAD I was assigned to the Practical Applications Unit (PAU).  PAU is responsible for teaching the New Agents in training the tactical skills needed to facilitate raids and arrests as well as simply staying alive on the street.  These skills are taught in the form of tactical lectures, videos, drills, and exercises.  The instructors lecture in a large classroom and demonstrate certain techniques which require mastery.  After being told how to perform certain tactical tasks, the New Agents in training go to Hogan’s Alley to practice tactical drills and perform scenarios which test their tactical proficiency in a stressful environment.  Hogan’s Alley is a mock town where tactical exercises take place.  The buildings are real and even furnished.  The FBI hires role players who act as certain characters in different scenarios and add stress to the trainees.  There are three different types of scenarios which take place in Hogan’s Alley or in the nearby public: Practical Scenarios, Paint Gun Scenarios, and Surveillance Scenarios.

In the Practical Exercises, the trainees are given blank firearms and assigned different tasks in Hogan’s Alley.  The trainees have to arrest a subject who may be armed.  The scenarios vary to keep the trainees on their toes.  One scenario may simply require asking someone a few questions regarding the whereabouts of a subject while others require a full tactical raid on a motel, business, or residence.  The Paint Gun exercises have the same premise as the Practicals with the only change being the role players and trainees are given simunition firearms.  Being hit with a sim round is very painful and increases the stress level on the trainees as well as providing immediate feedback.  During Surveillance training, the trainees learn how to follow a suspect’s vehicle and observe the suspect’s actions without being detected.  Role players drive thought the cities surrounding Quantico and make stops at different locations, where they simulate a drug deal or another form of illegal but inconspicuous activity.  The trainees must ensure they are not exposed by the actors and counter-surveillance teams.   If they are, the trainees fail that aspect of the training.

Even though the FBI's tactical doctrine varies from the Army's, I still learned an incredible amount from the instructors, many of whom were former military personnel.  The lessons I gained the most from were not technical skills such as how to use a ballistic shield but rather how to think tactically in order to survive in a hostile environment.  I also learned interview and questioning techniques which foster cooperation as well as keeping oneself out of harm's way.  I truly believe the lessons I learned from the instructors in PAU may truly save my life one day.