Mike, the owner, was great. We were scheduled for Thursday, but as we woke up on Wednesday - it was overcast and raining in Phoenix (not the best hiking weather). I took a chance and called ATA before normal opening hours. Fortunately, Mike was there already (being ex-military I wasn't TOO surprised he'd be up and about. He was great allowing us to come a day early. He had another couple going that day and suggested we all go together as we'd get more repetitions in the kill house and we did.
We did the black ops experience and everyone was all in. For example we had the option of putting the ballistic plates in our combat vest or not - everyone wanted as realistic an experience as possible so everyone put then in.
Reading online I though it would be like laser tag, but no we used real M-16's. But the "ammo" were essentially M-16 ammo loaded with maybe only a primer and a tiny paint ball pellet. So we were actually shooting and hitting targets and Mike would de-brief us after each scenario on our shooting.
Using the night vision gear was really cool. So with a little training, Mike would brief us on whether we are rescuing a hostage, looking for a IED etc and we'd set of to clear the kill house of bad guys and accomplish the mission - then a debrief afterwards. NO spoilers here - but there will be surprises!
Mike told us his goal was for all of us to be safe, have fun, and have a good experience. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. I have read many books/watched movies about the US military - this was my chance to get a tiny taste of what some of them do for a living.
Mike had an afternoon group coming in and we stuck around and chatted. He showed up some more modern night vision gear and how it worked with infrared laser designators. And chatted about things about the military and his business. He's a great guy.