Robert Keith English's Combat Tactics May Get Everyone Killed

Robert Keith English, The 19th. Three men pointing their weapons in the same general direction, a fourth person points to the rear. Meanwhile, the remaining sectors of fire are not covered, and provide the enemy an opportunity to attack their flanks.

On to the next room.

The number one man takes his time walking in, continuously pointing his weapon in one direction. He should've either hooked left or right, not faced forward for a long time. One of the folks behind him would've taken care of that.

You can see that his two battle buddies were pointing their weapons in the same direction, then all three pointed their weapons right. Who is covering their left? Another question is, who is covering from the 6 o'clock position to the 3 o'clock position when all three turned the point there weapons towards the 3 o'clock position?

They bunched up and did not cover a 360° sector around them 

One common theme, that's present in all Soldier and Marine battle drills, involving room clearing, has soldiers covering all directions. At no time do you permit any firing sector to remain unwatched.

Once again, in this scenario, the bad guys could've came up on them from behind and shot all three of them.

Speaking of which, remaining bunched up like that while moving into, and through, the room, allows the enemy to maximize the use of stray rounds. For example, a round intended for the middleman, but misses, could hit one of the men on either side of the intended target.

The bad guy, armed with a machine gun, would not have spent as much time gunning them all down. Even rapid reflexive fire from a rifle or carbine on semi-automatic would take them all out.

As the preview progresses, the fourth man does his own thing. He switches from pointing his weapon in same direction as the other three to now pointing to the 12 o'clock position relative to their original movement into the room. Nobody is watching the fourth man's 6 o'clock through 11 o'clock positions. The fourth man's right side was vulnerable from his 1 o'clock through 2 o'clock positions.

The issues that I point out above, for the first three men, now apply for the fourth man.

The three men headed towards the left have nobody covering their 6 o'clock positions. Nobody's covering from their 10 o'clock through their 11 o'clock positions.

So far, from the beginning of the preview of "The 19th", until this point, the four men have left large gaps in their sectors of fire. We have three weapons pointing in the same direction, with two of the men not having a safe sector of fire because of the men in front of him.

Their movement, from most of this preview, is an example of what not to do 

With three of them moving in a straight line like that, one has to wonder if Robert Keith English learned his "tactics" from a videogame. One of the Black Hawk down video games shows this kind of movement. In the area they were in, there's a different way of moving.

Had Robert Keith English served, in an MOS that had to know room clearing, he would've known that. Back to the film.

If they would've been attacked at this point, these four men would've become casualties in less than a minute, depending on what weapons the enemy would've used.

Robert Keith English's advised tactics would easily be defeated

Their tactics at this point could've easily been defeated. For instance, one person could attack them from an uncovered sector of fire. The surviving "good guys" would've hopefully taken cover and fired back. But, given the trend observed so far, they would've taken a Hollywood "shoot back" approach.

While this is happening, another guy could come in and hit the surviving team members from the side.

This is just a movie preview. If Robert Keith English is providing tactical training to security companies, he's doing them a serious disservice. Again, his "tactics" are examples of what not to do.

If filmmakers are looking for someone with military knowledge, to provide guidance for actions in the movie, they should steer clear away from Robert Keith English.

On through the film.

The first three men walked towards the middle of the room, it takes too long for the fourth man to finally cover the rear, but then he turned around and covers a side. At this point, the 6 o'clock position of both groups of men are still vulnerable. The left flank of the three people in row, as well as the right flank of the fourth man, are vulnerable.

You can see that the three men turned away from the fourth man. This leaves his right flank vulnerable in addition to his back and left flank being vulnerable.

How can they be defeated in this section? Two people can enter from behind them, one of them shoots the fourth guy, while the other one simultaneously squeezes the trigger multiple times firing at the center of mass of the three progressing further into the room.

The examples that I bring up here, of defeating these guys, is just one of many examples that could be used to defeat the "tactics" that this preview demonstrated so far.

Robert Keith English, The 19th. The three guys bunched up reduces waste, on the bad guy's part, if he were to miss his intended target. The stray round has a good chance of hitting one of the other two. Meanwhile, both groups in the above photo have vulnerable 6 o'clock positions, and vulnerable flanks.

Now, when the fourth man pointed his weapon to their new 6 o'clock position, the second and third man should have had their weapons pointed at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions respectively. There were enough objects, in the area, that would've allowed hostile's, hiding behind them, to fire at the good guys.