Apr 23, 9:20 PM

Firm teaches anti-terrorist tactics

Brandon Salazar, senior operations instructor for Gryphon Group Security Solutions, attempts to shoot paintballs at other members of the group during a drill at Space Coast Regional Airport. Image © 2003, Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY

Vacant runway used as training spot for military, police

By Corey Schubert
FLORIDA TODAY

TITUSVILLE -- A shower of glass sprayed the hood of the white sedan as Palm Bay Police Lt. Dante Cristofaro bashed through the two-car roadblock while masked men in the car behind him kept firing.

Video Join Jennifer Ellis, a Florida Today reporter, in a car drill aimed at making a getaway from danger. > Ride alongside security specialists

"It's gonna get a little rough," Cristofaro said, weaving quickly through a jungle of battle-scarred junk cars.

He slowed to brace for impact, then jolted forward as his pursuer rammed into the driver's side, sending the car into a 90-degree spin. About three minutes and three dozen paint-ball blasts later, Cristofaro slid to a stop between several orange traffic cones on an abandoned runway at Space Coast Regional Airport.

"Great job," said one of his simulated attackers, Michael Vaden, who is president and chief executive officer of Melbourne-based security training provider Gryphon Group Security Solutions.

Vaden, Cristofaro and about 25 other instructors have survived this bone-rattling training drill hundreds of times. They've trained U.S. military units, law enforcement officials and corporate drivers from Fortune 500 companies throughout the world since converting the runway on the west side of the airport into an urban war zone about four years ago.

Many U.S. soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Mideast have completed the training, including those in Special Operations and military police and intelligence units, Vaden said.

Trainees learn counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism tactics as instructors chase them, forcing them to react with hair-trigger precision. Concentration is the key, trainees learn, to evading the roadblocks, hundreds of paint-ball pellet gunshots and attackers who ram their bumpers and try to batter them off the road.

"The hardest part of this course is a person having to learn to control their emotions as they go through it," said Vaden, as shards of glass and metal crunched under his black combat boots. "But they'll know they've trained in the worst case scenario and will be able to maintain control of their fear."

Between 12 to 25 U.S. military soldiers take Gryphon Group's six-day Military Mobile Force Protection Course every two weeks. The company uses several locations in Brevard to teach ways to survive a vehicular ambush, detect surveillance and plan the fastest, safest and most dependable routes to lessen the threat of an attack.

Students learn to perform and defend against the controversial Precision Immobilization Technique, a maneuver often used by police to stop a high-speed pursuit, which involves hitting a fleeing suspect's car to cause the target car to snap sideways and come to a halt. The U.S. Supreme Court has called the PIT tactic use of deadly force and Gryphon doesn't advocate its usage, Vaden said.

Trainees also shoot through closed windows in a moving car to experience the noise, flying glass, hot metal shards and get a better feel for how difficult it is to aim while evading another vehicle.

Gryphon instructors primarily are former military officers, federal agents and active-duty law enforcement officers from Palm Bay, Melbourne and other agencies in the county, Vaden said. They also lead the course at Brevard Community College's driving pad in Palm Bay, Bombardier Corp. in Palm Bay and military bases and private lands in the state.

The average student destroys about two cars during the military course, which includes about 15 to 17 hours of training for each of its six days. The banged-up vehicles mainly are purchased at public auctions and often are forced to complete the course, even when several tires have blown out, Vaden said.

But it isn't only the autos that are pushed to their limits.

"At one point during (military) training, the driver will actually go limp and his partner will have to take over the driving from the passenger seat, while trying to avoid being hit," said Cristofaro, while examining several yellow paint ball blasts on the frame of the car he drove.

Gryphon group has trained about 750 private firms and corporate groups from throughout the world and offers basic and intermediate defensive driving lessons for civilians. Costs range from about $1,400 to $2,000 per course and include accommodations.

There have been no serious injuries during any training, although students often leave the toughest training courses with minor scrapes and cuts, Vaden said.

Most of the injuries come from the paint ball guns, which fire dozens of paint balls at a speed of about 550 feet per second, instructor Brandon Salazar said.

"It feels like getting hit by a bullwhip and a ball-peen hammer at the same time," Salazar said, yanking off his face mask and examining the back of it to ensure he wasn't shot during training. "You're going to get hit every once in a while, but pain is a good teacher."