 In 2018, I was in Djibouti, Africa and we were conducting convoys daily to get from one location to another to do our job. Back then, I was kind of in over my head and I just went like I was regularly driving. After going through FICAP Hostile now and doing the mounted class, I realized all the things I was doing were wrong. FICAP Hostile is pre-deployment training that gets airmen used to handling weapons systems such as your M4 or your M9. It gets them used to driving convoys and it gets them ready for that deployment when they go down range. Not every AFSE is trained how to react in hostile environments where they may see a little bit more action than they're used to. Put the weapon down! Hold! Hold! What we do here is we have several different lanes to help train airmen, NCOs and officers how to react that their normal AFSE wouldn't train them to do. We have the Mount of Lane where you learn how to do convoys. We have Urban where they teach you how to move through an urban environment. Self-protection, it's like the Bat of Lane. We have T-troll C using the JFAC and IFAC, everything you might see down range. We have a separate tactics day where we learn how to do patrol and how to react to contact. We also have weapons day where you go out on the range and you do combat defensive shooting. You learn how to use compass, dissect the map and find your way home. And then counter-ID where you're doing convoys, what to look for and warning signs of what something may have planted in your path. During those stressful situations any human being is just going to fall back onto their most basic level of training. So we're just trying to simulate that stressful environment as best we can so that if they do find themselves on the worst day of their lives they at least have something to fall back on rather than nothing at all. This has given me a whole new perspective as I set out to deploy now in 2022 with a whole new checklist of things and a toolbox I can use going forward to help myself and my airmen make it home safely.