PMCI December 2014 | Page 12

Interview: John D. Hurth pmcimagazine.com 12 “Since that first class our program has developed into a very aggressive tracker program and is not your average bed and breakfast combat tracker course. There are no Power Point presentations and all of our tracking courses are conducted completely in field conditions. PMCI: Who do you see as your target customer for your courses? John: “I will teach a course to almost anyone (within reason) who is interested in learning this skill set. I have taught courses designed for Military, Law Enforcement, Hunters, Survivalists, SAR personnel and other individuals who live an outdoor life style. I offer basic courses that appeal to everyone. Yet, I’ve also designed and taught courses based on our individual client’s needs and will go out of my way to work with our clients to create special courses based on their training objectives and mission requirements. PMCI: What exactly do you specialise in? John: “TYR Group LLC currently specialises in the instruction of Basic and Advanced Visual Tracking Techniques employed by individuals, team and multiple teams for Combat Operations, Tactical LE Operations, Search and Recovery Operations and individual survival/ self-reliance applications. TYR Group LLC is also in the process of expanding our services to include shooting courses (pistol and rifle), Small Unit Tactics, Land Navigation, Survival, Unarmed Self-Defence and Personal Threat Mitigation for overseas travellers. PMCI: We know that you have an excellent training facility in Louisiana; can you tell us more about that and what you do there? John: “We don’t own a facility at this point, which keeps our overhead low and the ability to offer our classes for a lower price than our competitors. We are a company that imports our training anywhere through Mobile Training Teams. We have provided our training to our customers where ever requested so long as the area supports the training to be conducted. PMCI: Do you train just military and police personnel or civilians too? John: “We teach almost anyone who would be interested in learning the skill of visual tracking. We already have classes designed specifically for Military, Law Enforcement, SAR and civilian sectors. PMCI: Do you offer training in specialised equipment? John: “Not really in the sense of technological equipment. Our motto is “The Human Advantage”. Our classes revolve around self-reliance and we honestly believe that the human brain is the best “technology” we have. Batteries die, electronics can short out or break but we believe that the human mind and the ability to think critically surpass any electronics. This is not to say we don’t incorporate or integrate some technology within our courses. We have used GPS, digital cameras, laptop computers for certain projects and some battery operated optics. We just don’t want our students to over-rely on this