By Brian M. Boyce
TERRE HAUTE — As the Wabash Valley’s working world went about its business Wednesday afternoon, two teams of British soldiers stormed the Terre Haute Fire Department’s new northside training facility.
“Do it again,” an instructor told a dozen soldiers decked out in bulletproof vests and tactical assault weapons as they practiced entering a room with hostile shooters.
“This is our mission statement,” explained Kevin Barrett, CEO of the International Tactical Officers Training Association, and 15-year veteran of the Terre Haute City Police Department.
This week, the ITOTA hosts 12 members of the Bristol University Officer Training Corps, third- and fourth-year college students planning careers as officers in the army of Great Britain, and Barrett said training future tactical officers is what his organization is all about.
The candidates, along with their British instructors, local police officers and instructors from the U.S. Navy SEAL teams and Marine Corps, will continue their cross-cultural exchange program until Saturday when they head back across the Atlantic Ocean.
This exchange marks a first for Terre Haute, but those involved expect it won’t be the last.
“We hope we can grow the program,” Barrett said.
Bristol University Infantry Company Sgt. Major John Ledgister concurred, noting this week’s program could potentially work into a 10-year deal where the training facilities located behind Terre Haute North High School are used more frequently for international tactical officer training.
“This is a prototype,” he said.
Ledgister, a 23-year veteran of the British Army, said the students recently worked with French Marines, noting many of the British trainees will enter the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy before being commissioned as platoon officers and sent to Afghanistan and Iraq.
While here, the candidates will train in SWAT tactics, an experience Ledgister and others said is unique to American police forces.
Members of military and police forces found a lot in common within the training facility’s walls.
Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse served as one of the instructors.
Plasse, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, recently completed a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan, and worked with the students on firearms.
“We’re teaching them the basic tactics,” he said. “Firearms, survival skills,” he said, rattling off topics such as reloading on the run and shooting on the move. “We’re trying to get them prepared.”
Barrett noted, “Training is everything in tactical operations because the odds are against us.”
Plasse said today’s instruction would feature some fun, including introduction to the use of a Thompson Machine Gun, colloquially known as the “Tommy Gun” used in America during the Prohibition Era prior to World War II.
Many of the British students, he said, had never seen one, let alone fired one.
For Bristol University’s Sgt. Major Craig Dignam, that is in large part what the visit is all about.
“Knowledge is food,” he said. “Sharing knowledge, that’s the key to this exercise.”
The sharing is meant to go both ways.
Ledgister formerly trained Special Forces troops in Bahrain, as well as serving around the globe. The Chippenham-Wiltshire native said normally British soldiers retire after 22 years, but he was offered a two-year extension if he helped train Bristol University’s officer candidates.
For Ben Everson, 23, a Bristol University senior, the experience is invaluable.
“It’s really good, really interesting,” he said, noting that many of his friends in the police forces of England don’t receive the kind of SWAT training afforded him this week.
The Aldershot native plans on a career in the infantry or intelligence and noted that his father also serves in the British Army.
Aldershot, he said, “is the home of the British Army,” but he finds Terre Haute a great place to visit.
“Everyone is very welcoming and polite,” he said near the stairwell of the training facility, smiling with a machine gun in hand.
The troops are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn on Wabash Avenue, and both sergeants major lauded the accommodations.
“We love your town,” Dignam said.
Ledgister’s only complaint is that “the food is too plentiful,” he joked.
Both noted that with the current exchange rate between the American dollar and the euro, spending money in America is almost a “two for one” deal to the British.
Barrett noted that training programs like these do in fact help the local economy, but said deeper benefits are in store as well.
“It strengthens our bonds with the British,” he said, noting that while the two nations share a common history, now some of their soldiers will share relationships and training.
Brian Boyce can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
