This is great news if they can get this going. That would be awesome to see these guys expand their training facilities so they can offer more classes. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing them put up a facility out west. I realize thought that it pays to be near the action.
Also, I don’t work for these guys or instruct for them, and this article is totally being posted for information’s sake. I promote all sorts of training companies. I like it all. –Matt
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Tigerswan Inc. plans shooting ranges
By Francis X. Gilpin
Fri Dec 04, 2009
An Apex-based military training contractor plans five shooting ranges on 50 acres of rural Cumberland County farmland. Some neighborhood landowners have expressed concern about the proximity to their property.
The bullets could start flying as soon as next month, TigerSwan Inc. President Brian J. Searcy told Cedar Creek area landowners this week.
The proposed site is part of an 1,800-acre agricultural spread that Southern Produce Distributors Inc. nearly sold two years ago for more than $5 million to the military contractor formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
The sale was derailed after Moyock-based Blackwater, now called Xe Services LLC, came under criticism for defense-related work in Iraq and Afghanistan, TigerSwan Chief Executive James P. Reese told the property owners.
TigerSwan operates a 40-acre firing range in Linden for Fort Bragg soldiers, local law officers and hunters. That range will close if the new ranges on Barra Farms near Cedar Creek are approved for military training by the Defense Department, Reese said.
On Tuesday, the company hosted more than 50 Cedar Creek area landowners and residents for a catered supper at the E.H. Simmons Community Center. The free meal didn’t head off questions after the guests put down their dinner forks.
Neighborhood critics expressed concern that the firing ranges are just the beginning for TigerSwan at Barra Farms, which is between N.C. 210 and N.C. 53 east of Interstate 95. The company would lease the 50 acres for a minimum of 10 years from Southern Produce Distributors.
“I get the feeling they’re setting this up for some entry-level operation, only to develop it into a much larger operation later on,” neighbor Roby Mulier said after the community meeting.
Reese and Searcy said they are retired Army commanders with extensive special operations experience, including in Delta Force, the Fort Bragg-based counterterrorist unit. Their company, founded in 2005, contracts with the military to train active-duty personnel in the use of heavy weapons and the conduct of urban warfare, among other specialties.
Reese, 46, who identified himself as a Fayetteville resident, said there are no plans to expand the training at Barra Farms beyond the five ranges.
“It’s not an Army base,” Searcy told residents. “You probably won’t know it’s there.”
Sam and Doris Fort, who own farm property close to the proposed site, were not convinced.
Sam Fort said they don’t want to sound unpatriotic.
“I’m not against the military getting proper training,” he said. “They have a bad job to do, along with the police force.”
But the couple said people who live and work on the small farms in the vicinity should not have to worry about personal safety or diminished property values.
“I hope there’s some scrutiny given to how this is reviewed and processed,” said Fort.
Stewart Precythe, owner of Faison-based Southern Produce Distributors, told the supper crowd that his land’s zoning would allow the TigerSwan training. The companies won’t need further county approval to open the ranges, Precythe said.
But Tom Lloyd, county planning and inspections director, said the TigerSwan proposal must be reviewed by his department. County commissioners were briefed privately about the TigerSwan plan last month.
The TigerSwan executives acknowledged there could be evening exercises on a weekly basis. Occasional use of explosives and helicopters is possible, too.
Need for training
Reese and Searcy, who were stationed at Fort Bragg, said soldiers on the post desperately need more firing ranges in the Fayetteville area to improve their marksmanship before overseas deployment.
The businessmen were confident the forests surrounding Barra Farms will help muffle the crackle of semi-automatic weapons.
TigerSwan will pay about $100,000 for a land survey of the site. The company will then construct clay berms where the executives hope most of the discharged ammunition will come to rest.
Tom Wright, TigerSwan’s business manager, said the company will test-fire certain weapons to make sure no stray round has a chance of hitting a residence near Barra Farms.
“Where could a bullet go? That’s the mindset,” Wright said of the test-firing.
The TigerSwan executives portrayed their Barra Farms project as an economic boost for the Cedar Creek area. They were accompanied at the supper meeting by Doug Peters, president of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce.
Reese and Searcy said they will hire a full-time range master, possibly from the immediate area, as well as local residents to clean up spent rounds to prevent lead contamination of groundwater.
They said military and other range users could stay at motels and eat in restaurants at a nearby Interstate 95 interchange. Unlike Blackwater’s Moyock headquarters, Reese said, TigerSwan won’t build lodging at Barra Farms.
At Blackwater’s request, Reese said, he took a leave from TigerSwan in 2008. Reese said he revised Blackwater’s procedures in Iraq after a company security force killed 11 civilians in a 2007 Baghdad firefight.
Reese said he learned much from his Blackwater stint that he can apply to TigerSwan’s missions.
Blackwater had about $1 billion in government contracts in the Middle East at the time, Reese estimated. He described TigerSwan as more of a bootstrap outfit in which the owners still think twice before paying $100,000 for a land survey.
Story here.