Clayton Cummins
Members of an elite new response team at Tinker Air Force Base have added another tool to help Defenders prepare for high-risk emergencies.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Sept. 23 to officially open a training shoot house belonging to the 72nd Security Forces Squadron. The goal of the facility is to help prepare Defenders to safely respond to high risk, close quarter battle situations such as active shooter, hostage or incidents involving individuals with suicidal ideations.
“I am unimaginably proud of the team and what they have been able to accomplish,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Stillman, 72nd Security Forces Squadron commander. “To see it go from nothing to something that federal agencies are now coming to us and asking if they can use our shoot house, it makes me incredibly proud of our team.”
Some of the Defenders utilizing the training shoot house are part of an elite new team called the Emergency Services Team, known as EST.
With the ability to reconfigure rooms or execute training in the dark, the shoot house has the capability and guarantee to keep Defenders guessing.
“We have created a building of infinite possibilities,” said Stillman. “Often what we end up seeing is ‘training scars,’ where people conduct training at the same place repeatedly and it doesn’t transfer as well to other locations throughout the base. If we learn to overcome those scars with tactics, techniques and procedures that are applicable everywhere, regardless of the layout of our building we are entering, we greatly increase our ability to be effective when we enter those scenarios.”
Staff Sgt. Donovan Williams, the Tinker Emergency Services Team instructor, played a major role in designing the layout of the shoot house and worked with the 72nd Civil Engineering Directorate to bring it to completion.
“This is one of the best Security Forces shoot houses that I have ever been inside of,” said Williams. “If you don’t practice and you don’t train, the skills will go way. You can’t just jump in and be ready to go. That is going to be your life or somebody else’s that you end up giving up because you didn’t prepare yourself mentally or physically.”
The shoot house was made possible with $10,000 of 2024 Spark Tank innovation funds being awarded to the 72nd Security Forces Squadron. The project took nearly a year to go from plans to reality.
“When I created the shoot house, my vision was to make it as versatile and mobile as possible,” said Williams. “That way when they go through the first time, they're not pregaming it when they enter the second time. You can clear the maze a first time with a ‘t’ or an ‘x’ intersection, and then come through a second time and there is no hallway where there used to be.”
Defenders have already spent a few days training in the new facility prior to its grand opening. In that time, Williams says, he has already noticed skillset improvements to his 12-member team.
“We are all entrusted to have this job, nobody is coming to save us,” said Williams. “It is very important that we take this seriously. There is no greater love than an individual that is there to lay down their life for their friend and I believe that wholeheartedly.”
Plans to improve the shoot house are already in the works once funding is available, including the addition of multiple cameras and a green room for defenders to review their performance.
Members of the 72nd Security Forces Squadron’s Emergency Services Team prepare to breach a door in the squadron’s new shoot house facility at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, Sept. 19, 2024. Funded with 72nd ABW Spark Tank funds, the shoot house gives 72nd SFS Defenders a constantly changing challenge with movable walls, doors and other barriers so that a Defender can’t pregame the tactics they will use. (U.S. Air Force photo by Clayton Cummins) 
Lt. Col. Matthew Stillman, 72nd Security Forces Squadron commander, left, and Col. Abby Ruscetta, Tinker Installation and 72nd Air Base Wing commander, right, cut the ribbon on the 72nd SFS’s new shoot house at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, Sept. 23, 2024. Funded with 72nd ABW Spark Tank funds, the shoot house gives 72nd SFS Defenders a constantly changing challenge with movable walls, doors and other barriers so that a Defender cannot pregame the tactics they will use. (U.S. Air Force photo by Breonna Summers) 
Members of the 72nd Security Forces Squadron’s Emergency Services Team practice tactics in the squadron’s new shoot house facility at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, Sept. 19, 2024. The goal of the facility is to help prepare Defenders to safely respond to high risk, close quarter battle situations such as active shooter, hostage or incidents involving individuals with suicidal ideations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Clayton Cummins) 
Leaders from Tinker Air Force Base check out the 72nd Security Forces Squadron’s new shoot house during a ribbon cutting ceremony held Sept. 23, 2024. The goal of the facility is to help better prepare Defenders to safely respond to high risk, close quarter battle situations such as active shooter, hostage or incidents involving individuals with suicidal ideations. (U.S. Air Force photo by Breonna Summers)