I have been teaching tactical live-fire weapons courses since 1991 and rarely do I have high-ranking officials attending my courses such as chiefs of police or military officers over the rank of captain. However, in Tuesday’s course I had two high ranking officials: the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Secret Service Los Angeles Office (pronounced “sack”) and the Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ATSAIC). At that level most agents lose their field skills and are resigned to administrative skills, but not these two guys. They were the best shooters in the course with both the pistol and assault rifle, and both in great physical shape. The SAIC told me, “There are quite a few things you taught us that we must consider.” There were also several agents who came with them. The last time I dealt with the Secret Service was when they did a background check on me two years ago before I met with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office of the White House. Several years ago I taught a sniper/countersniper course up in San Francisco attended by the Secret Service, and I have nothing but the highest respect for the men and women in this federal agency. When I was a Team Leader for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Dignitary Protection Unit (DPU) from 2000-2002 our team was modeled on the U.S. Secret Service model.
The soldiers that attended my course are all instructors responsible for training troops of the California National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve, and Regular Army units in California. One of the sergeants who is in charge of a weapons unit told me, “Jim, I have attended every kind of weapons course you can think of, and I am not easily impressed. Today I am impressed.”
Not only did I share techniques and training methods that I learned from elite units all over the world, but I also taught them some of my own original techniques, such as the Jim Wagner Threshold Peek and various techniques on how to engage a terrorist armed with a hand grenade or bomb belt.
This one-day course was restricted to law enforcement, corrections, and U.S. military personnel. The range, Burro Canyon Shooting Park, is closed to civilians on Tuesdays.
I taught this course through the Delta Bravo Group run by Dennis Barberic. Dennis is a Vietnam combat veteran with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and a former police officer with the Hawthorne Police Department for 29 years. Fifteen of those years were serving as the SWAT Commander. He retired with the rank of lieutenant and today also runs a private investigations business. The success of this SpecOps Assault Rifle & Pistol course is not just because of me, but a direct result of Dennis’ efforts as well. Not only did he help with the organization of this course, but he also served as the event’s Range Safety Officer (RSO).
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The program I am teaching under is called STARTT, which is an acronym for SURVIVAL TRAINING AND RESPONSE TO TERRORISM. The goal of this program is to provide professionals with high quality training for a low price; especially in the recession we are still in.
This shooting course was very logistically intensive requiring many different targets that needed to be set up like clock work. Thanks to Range Assistants Bruce Whitaker and Steve Phillips things ran smoothly. Not only did I run the students through dozens of live-fire drills, but we also did a few scenarios with Airsoft guns that required the movement of equipment here and there.
Our certified medic on hand was Anthony Nanakornpanom, and fortunately he had nothing to do. However, he did help assist in a few scenarios playing the role of a terrorist a few times. Even though we had Anthony on hand in case of an emergency we also had Alan Halcon there, a certified American Red Cross instructor, and a couple of the U.S. Secret Service agents were tactical medics with their fully stocked medic bags. I too am a certified Combat Life Saver soldier and I had my IFAK (Improved First Aid Kit) and a large medic kit in my truck. With so many trained personnel on hand I told my students, “Just as street cops are learning SWAT tactics nowadays because of active shooters, so combat first aid is becoming standard skills for everyone as well.”
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The next course that I will be teaching through Delta Bravo Group will be the Sniper/Countersniper Intro Course on February 15th. This course is also a restricted course for law enforcement, corrections, and the U.S. military only. If you fit in one of these categories then you can sign up today; just click here.
If you are a civilian, not to worry. Soon I will be posting some more Delta Bravo Group courses on this website that civilians will be allowed to take.
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World Wide Dojo Taking the World Market
Jim Wagner
The website I have been working on for the past six months with publisher Dana Stamos, World Wide Dojo, is growing quite well with a couple hundred martial artists coming to the site every week from all over the world. One of the biggest features attracting them is the The Martial Directory This is a site where self-defense schools can get themselves listed as well as related companies and organizations. I would encourage all of you Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection schools around the world to get your school up on The Martial Directory. At this moment Apple Inc. is reviewing our newly created program for their iPhone App Store. We spent thousands of dollars to develop this program, and if approved martial artists can list their store over their iPhone. The program is very user-friendly, and will be the largest martial arts directory in the world.
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I am also having videos made to be placed on World Wide Dojo. Another huge feature of our website is FightCon which is structured similar to YouTube, but for self-defense videos. Like The Martial Directory I encourage all of you certified Reality-Based Personal Protection instructors to put up your best videos on this site. For the best results keep video clips down to 2 minutes or less.
Of course, I am writing my weekly article titled Jim Wagner Weekly, and our World Wide Directors from several countries are working hard to translate these articles into various languages. Behind the scenes these directors are working on setting up advertising packages and other projects. There is a lot of work yet to do, but things are progressing. And, speaking of articles, if you have a good article (any word count and in any language) to be placed on World Wide Dojo, including anything about traditional-based or sport-based martial arts, you can send them directly to me at info@jimwagnerrealitybased.com If you do send an article include the following:
1. All of your contact information.
2. A 50 word autobiography and a larger one of any length.
3. A photograph of yourself.
4. Photographs to go with your article and photo captions.
As you can see, 2011 is off to a good start for the Reality-Based Personal Protection system and I’m excited about all of the courses coming up. As you can see in the daily news around the world violence is increasing, and we must always think tactically and share our techniques and training methods with others to make “hard targets.”
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