Feral Jundi

I have never attended this course, but if I was authorized, I would.  I am not sure if these guys give this kind of training to contractors, and I believe they mostly focus on military and police. I do think they should reconsider, in light of the realities of this war.  These kinds of skills would be vital for the defense of a remote site.  Especially if you are on a remote site that is pretty big.  Or if you are tasked with border patrol stuff, like in Afghanistan.

The ability to pick up on a man track in your AO, read that track and have some kind of idea of what is going on with that individual, would certainly help in the defense. I remember one tactic I used to use on one of my sites I worked on, was to smooth out the sand in several potential traffic areas, and continue to monitor those areas in my patrols.  If animals or humans were walking on that sand, I would be able to pick up on it, and go after the tracks.

This is just a basic idea of what I am talking about.  Tracking humans, much like tracking animals, takes training and experience.  Most of all, it takes a hunter’s mindset.  So are you a hunter?  If not, maybe it is time to do a little ‘live tissue’ training out in your woods, or to attend a school like this one to apply some Kaizen to your hunting skill set. Also, for some more study on man tracking, you can check out the Selous Scouts, the Greys Scouts, or the Koevoet. Don’t forget any Native American/Scouting books that talk about tracking humans. I am sure the readership has their special collection of man tracking books, training, and units, and please feel free to share in the comments section. -Matt

*****

Check out Breach Bang Clear’s story here about the school, with a post from David Scott-Donelan himself!

Edit:  Also check out this gem–Combat Tracking the Selous Scout way.

Edit: At this time, TTOS and David Scott-Donelan are no longer associated.  So if you want training by David, you will want to go to The Scott-Donelan Tracking School. Here is the link to his website.

—————————————————————–

Tactical Tracking Operations School

The Tactical Tracking Operations School (TTOS), founded by David Scott-Donelan in 1994, is the premiere visual tracking school in the world, specializing in Military (Combat) and Law Enforcement (Tactical) tracking.  TTOS specializes in the combat-proven Rhodesian tracking method, teaching both individual and team tracking skills.TTOS has researched and developed innovative visual tracking techniques which have application in over twenty military and law enforcement operational situations.  Using these aggressive and effective techniques, TTOS-trained trackers have excelled in operational theatres around the globe.TTOS offers classes anywhere in the world, in any type of terrain, from mountains to jungle, from desert to tundra, cities to wilderness, both by day or by night.  TTOS instructional ability is based upon many years of cumulative experience gained operationally in all environments on every continent.  Coming from a wide variety of military and law enforcement backgrounds, our instructors have conducted classes for military personnel from every branch of service—including Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors from specialized military SOF units, light infantry, military law enforcement (MP, SP, etc.), canine handlers, reconnaissance and LRS—as well as Federal, state, local and corrections agencies throughout the United States, Canada and US Possessions.Led by David Scott-Donelan, highly-skilled TTOS instructors have trained trackers who have subsequently conducted many successful follow-ups, hunting down armed and dangerous criminals, smugglers, narcotics traffickers, fugitives and illegal border-crossers in addition to collecting evidence crucial to the prosecution of numerous dangerous felons—including cop-killers.  Soldiers taught by this cadre have hunted down and destroyed insurgents, located IED-making materials, successfully countered ambushes, located arms caches, closed down routes of infiltration and gathered timely, tactical intelligence vital to the local ground situation in several operational areas.

Law Enforcement and military trackers have also been instrumental in the recovery of a growing number of lost children, tourists and hikers.Current SITREP: TTOS has now established an excellent relationship with the British Jungle Warfare School at Brunei.  We are also posting the 2009 calendar for Law Enforcement Level I and Level II classes.  Please check back frequently or contact us with any questions.

*****

David Scott-Donelan

Biography of David Scott-Donelan

(Founder, CEO and Training Director of the Tactical Tracking Operations School, LLC.)

David Scott-Donelan’s entire adult life has been dedicated to conducting counter-insurgency warfare or training other men to do so.

Enlisting in the Army of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in1961, he spent his first six years with  ‘C’ Squadron, (Rhodesia) Special Air Service  Regiment, ending his service there as a Troop Commander. Subsequently he served as a Field Intelligence officer followed by a stint as a Platoon Commander with the Rhodesia Regiment. He was later invited to join a new and innovative special operations unit, the Tracker Combat Unit (TCU) in 1969. The TCU was the first army unit in modern military history with the sole and specific mission of using visual tracking skills to hunt down and destroy the Communist trained terrorists infiltrating his country.  During this period he was responsible, in part, for the selection and training of the unit’s members. In 1974 he was posted to 1 Commando, Rhodesian Light Infantry.  Over the next 4 years he filled the posts of Troop Commander, unit Second-in-Command and acting Commando Commander (”Commando” equates to a US Army “ company”) involved in non-stop airborne and helicopter assault operations against both inside and outside Rhodesia’s borders.Captain Scott-Donelan then served as an intelligence officer at a Brigade HQ followed by short spell as an Intelligence staff officer at Rhodesia’s Combined Operations HQ. Caring very little for staff duties, he agitated for a transfer to one of the Army Special Operations units, either back to the SAS or a secretive, new unit known as the Selous Scouts.  A billet with the Selous Scouts opened first and he was posted there as Officer Commanding  Training Group, which included the Bush Warfare & Tracking School on the remote shores of Lake Kariba. He remained there some two years until late 1979, when he was asked to take over a new Selous Scouts operational Group.  This he did until early 1980 when Rhodesia was politically lost to its former Communist adversaries.

“Wafa wafa wasara wasara was how the Shona had well-named it. ..Wafa Wafa as the training school became generally well known, means in Shona, I am dead…I am dead…which on it’s own, is enough to make any trained soldier anywhere view the place with a jaundiced eye and feelings of suspicion and dread…but…when this term is combined with the Shona wasara wasara…which might best be described as the panic-stricken shouts one would expect from the inhabitants of a tribal village, when a pride of hungry lions appears unexpectedly in the centre of it…then he would know indeed that he was letting himself in for something pretty rugged and tough, once he set his foot on the road to becoming a Selous Scout…”      Ron Reid-Daly

Rhodesia, after having never lost a battle, lost the war and  became a Marxist state known as the Republic of Zimbabwe.  Many Rhodesian soldiers—particularly those that had been involved in special operations, chose to emigrate to South Africa or elsewhere rather than remain to be ‘governed’ by the very people they’d been fighting so successfully for the previous two decades.  Accepting an offer to join the South African Special Forces, Scott-Donelan was posted to 5 Reconnaissance Regiment, initially as a Group (Company) Commander and later as Officer Commanding the Regiment’s Developmental Wing.  There he was responsible for, among other things, conducting in-country and external training for guerilla forces fighting Communist governments in other parts of Africa.

Six years later, in 1986, Scott-Donelan was seconded to the South-West Africa Territorial Force (now Namibia) as a Company Commander operating in Eastern Caprivi and  Ovamboland against the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, (PLAN), the military arm of the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO).  This communist , terrorist organization, was supported, funded, trained and armed by Cuba, Russia, Angola and other Communist countries.  It fought an unsuccessful war against South West Africa for over 35 years until a UN-brokered deal handed the country to them.Sponsored by several senior US military officers, Scott-Donelan immigrated to the United States in 1989.  In 1994 he was asked to teach tracking skills to a group of Washington State law enforcement officers and this became the first step to the establishment of the Tactical Tracking Operations School.  TTOS is now accepted world-wide as the most operationally experienced and widely consulted visual tracking organization in existence today.

Scott-Donelan has personally conducted tracking classes in Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan, Canada, and Guam, as well as training instructors from the British Army Jungle Warfare and Tracking Wing in Brunei. Law enforcement personnel trained by Scott-Donelan include the Secret Service, US Marshal’s Service, FBI, DEA, BATF, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forestry Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, US Coast Guard, US Customs Service, Border Patrol, Texas Rangers as well as hundreds of state and local agencies country-wide. In the 13 years of its existence, his company has trained over 5,000 military personnel, law enforcement officers and search and rescue volunteers in the arts and skills of successful tracking as well as mentoring close to 100 tracking instructors who have conducted classes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Peru, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, India, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Tanzania, Kenya and other countries all over the world.

He is a Federal Expert witness on tracking  and author of the best selling book, Tactical Tracking Operations- the Essential Guide to Police and Military Tracking. (soon to be up-graded and revised)

Scott-Donelan has headed the instructional cadre at the US Army Combat Tracking School at Fort Huachuca, southern Arizona, since its inception in 2005 and is currently the designated subject matter expert on Combat Tracking for the US Marine Corps.

Scott-Donelan’s dedication to the instruction of tracking over the last many years has contributed greatly to reviving the “dying art” of tracking.  The tactical implementation of TTOS tracking techniques continues to evolve and has been proven as an effective military and law enforcement tool, and has been responsible for many operational successes in jurisdictions and on current battlefields across the globe.

If you are interested in learning more about Mr. Scott-Donelan and/or some of the events of his career, research the following terms with Google another search engine, or at the library:

Selous Scouts

Rhodesian Light Infantry

Tactical Tracking Operations

Combat Tracking COIN

RLI fireforce tactics

Lake Kariba, Wafa Wafa

Operation Nickel, Rhodesian Bush War

Operation Cauldron, Rhodesian Bush War

5 Recce Commando

5 Reconnaissance Regiment

Koevoet, South African Police

Zambezi Valley Manhunt

Rhodesian Insurgency JRT Wood

Link to school here.