Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection

Opening a new Swiss “bank account” for Reality-Based

Jim Wagner 

April is probably one of the greatest months ever the expansion of the Reality-Based Personal Protection system, for adventure, and for nurturing old friendships and forging new ones. 

It all started on Wednesday, April 9, when I landed in Geneva, Switzerland. There to pick me up was Gaby Tornaire. She is the Reality-Based Personal Protection Coordinator for French speaking Switzerland under the leadership of Christophe Besse who is the RBPP Director of France and my protégé. Gaby was trained by Christophe in Women’s Survival, became a certified instructor under him, and then I certified her when she completed Knife Camp last year in Paris. 

To ease into my new environment a few hours after I landed Gaby introduced me and my wife to a quaint restaurant on Lake Geneva, in the seaside city of Nyon (25 kilometers northeast of Geneva), where we feasted on traditional Swiss fondu (meats and bread dipped into melted Gruyere cheese of a communal pot). During the dinner I presented Gaby with the RBPP challenge coin, and gave her a history lesson about it. I warned her, “The next time we go out to dinner I will challenge you, and that will determine who buys the drinks.” 

To acclimate to the new time zone, and get over the jet lag, I had a full day off before teaching my first course. Julie Duranton, another one of my certified RBPP Knife instructors who trained with me in Paris, was nice enough to show my wife and me around Lausanne. Her mother and sister were a part of the entourage, and we had a wonderful time. We visited the Lausanne Cathedral that sits atop a hill overlooking Lake Léman, strolled along the ancient streets in the most perfect weather imaginable, and had lunch at a café in one of the squares. My wife and I tried one of the dishes that the Swiss are famous for – horse meat. After the meal and coffee we walked along the boardwalk enjoying the lake and the snowcapped Alps on the other side. To finish the evening off we were invited to the Duranton home for a great roasted chicken and potatoes dinner, and I had the pleasure of meeting Julie’s father who is a volunteer fireman; I got a few new first aid tips that I didn’t know before when looking through a few of his books in his den. 

The next morning Gaby, Julie, and I drove to the Club Silhouette Charmilles where I taught my very first course ever in the country of Switzerland. I have taught a lot of police officers, security personnel, and martial arts instructors who came from all parts of Switzerland to attended my RBPP courses in Solingen, Germany over the years, and I’ve been to Switzerland on vacation, but Wednesday, April 11, this was my first official teaching gig thanks to Gaby’s persistence in getting me there. 

The two-hour course that I taught was titled INTRODUCTORY COURSE, and that was exactly what it was. It was a cross section of the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system. The fifteen students that attended this course became part of the martial arts history by doing so, and I let them know it. I started with a bit of Knife Survival, then onto defense against an impact weapon, and finishing off with how to survive a terrorist hand grenade attack. Everybody was very enthusiastic about the course; so much so that after I dismissed the class everyone stuck around for an extra 15 minutes asking me questions and getting me to demonstrate a few more techniques. One Krav Maga instructor came up to me and told me that he had been following me (reading my articles and watching my videos) for the past few years, and told me that he wants to attend my Level 1 seminar in Paris in July. 

That evening my RBPP Director of Italy, Fabrizio Capucci, drove in with his wife and all of us instructors went out to a Vietnamese restaurant across the border in France. 

The next day I again taught in Geneva, but at a different location. The course was my 8-hour Knife Survival. Those in the group that attended were highly motivated, and like sponges ready to learn the most complete self-defense system for civilians. A few of the woman had already trained with Christophe in the past, and so for them it was just a matter of perfecting their self-defense skills. Of course, not only did I have Gaby by my side teaching, but I had Julie do some solo teaching as well. A big benefit for my students was having Fabrizio there to help with the class. He went around making sure that students were doing the techniques correctly, motivating them to fight, and answering any questions that they had. 

Our reward for our hard work teaching that day was to go to the center of Geneva to have a traditional Swiss dinner, but before finding a good place to eat we all positioned ourselves in front of the Jet d’Eau, the famous water fountain in Lac Léman that shoots a jet of water 140 meters (459 feet) into the air, with the Geneva skyline in the background. We took the traditional tourist photo, I worked on a video for my YouTube channel, and then we walked around for thirty minutes to look at some of the tourist sights. By this time we all had quite a good appetite.    

While everyone was getting seated at the table I had excused myself for a few minutes to go into a nearby shop to buy a Swiss coo-coo clock. I had been pricing them in Germany for a couple of years, and so I found exactly what I was looking for at the price I was willing to spend. It was a nice wooden one with hand painted highlights. 

Just before the waiter came to our table Fabrizio slapped his challenge coin down on the table. The challenge was met. Gaby put hers down. I tossed mine onto the table, and Julie smugly slid hers in front of her. Nobody was obligated to buy the rounds of drinks. 

The next day, Sunday, April 13, was my Crime Survival course. Like Day-One, the second day went just as well. We went through multiple attacker scenarios, protecting others, gun disarms, movement under fire (such as in an office massacre or school shooting), impact weapons defense, and finishing up the day with a K.I.M.S. game (Keep In Memory System) using a crime scene that I had set up. 

During lunch time of Crime Survival I had a big treat. Anne Moeglin, one of the Swiss women I had certified in Paris two years ago in both Level 1 and Knife Camp, dropped by with her six month old baby. I was thrilled to see her. Anne (the blond) appears in my YouTube video titled Walking the Gauntlet. 

Immediately after class Gaby, Julie, and I worked on a couple more training videos, and then had to say a quick good bye to one another. Fabrizio, our wives, and I had to drive to our Bed and Breakfast rooms we had reserved in the Italian Alps. While the sun was still high in the sky we drove from Geneva and into France. We took the tunnel through Mont Blanc, Europe’s largest mountain standing at 4,810 meters (15,781 feet), and emerged on the other side into Italy. In less than an hour we were in Courmayeur, Italy and checking out our new lodging. The view of the Alps from the B&B was exactly what I had hoped for, and imagined. The wives loved it. 

As the sun was setting behind the snow-capped mountain peaks we drove into a village and had authentic Italian pizza and ice-cold beer of the region. The next morning I woke up to one of the most spectacular sunrises I had ever seen in my life. I took several photos to try to capture the moment, but the images were just not dimensional enough to capture the true essence.  

It took us all day to drive to Ravenna, Italy. On the morning of April 15, Tax Day in the United States, Fabrizio and I started Knife Camp at the Pull Out Parachuting School, which was a former Italian military base back in World War II, and still has a concrete bunker. 

For years Fabrizio and I had been teaching out of the Move It Fitness Club in Ravenna owned and operated by Carla. However, Carla, at the age of 56, died last month and Fabrizio was scrambling to find a suitable location to teach our courses. He then ran into Malgorzara “Gosia” Bodziona who used to work at the San Rocco Café, for eight years as a barista, which is a block away from the fitness club. We used to see her all of the time for lunch when we were teaching our Reality-Based courses, and she was always a delight to be around. It turns out that she married Emanuele “Lele” Pini who owns the Pull Out Parachuting School. They make a great team, for when she joined the business they built a café on the premises and Gosia runs it while Lele runs the school; yet, it is not uncommon for him to be behind the bar serving a student or two. 

The Pull Out Parachute School is a large parcel of property that sits on the north west corner of the airport. It has several buildings, several bungalows for overnight guests who wish to stay there for 15 euro a night, a swimming pool, a field, large pond, and a huge aircraft hangar where I taught all of my courses for three days. Just a few weeks prior to my courses Fabrizio had taught a tactical course there, and he loved the location. Because of our previous relationship with Gosia, and a business relationship that works well together, Lele and Gosia were open to us teaching our Reality-Based Personal Protection courses there. The students also loved the new location. It is quite convenient to walk the 100 meters from the hangar to the café and have a good espresso, macchiato, or a wide variety of cold drinks and snacks. When lunch time rolls around almost everyone hangs out at the café. 

The students attending Knife Camp ranged from Krav Maga instructors from Naples to Italian police officers from Northern Italy. I even had a NATO instructor attending. My one beginner in the seminar, Vincenzo Sampolo, who had absolutely no self-defense training in the past, became just as good as the professionals in the course. The reason is simple – the Reality-Based Personal Protection Knife Conflict system is simple and effective. In just two days I can teach any student all there is to know about knife defense and how to use a knife in order to save one’s own life. Add some more training and becoming an instructor is duplicateable. 

Paolo Benecchi, one of my Level 1 and Knife instructors that I certified, drove in from Milan to see me and assist me and Fabrizio with the Knife Expert course. To make his drive worth it I let him go up against a couple of my students in the Freestyle Drill. It is essentially a knife-to-knife fight with no rules, other than maintain safety. 

At the end of the course one of the police officers of the Guardia di Finanza presented me with his unit’s official plaque. I was honored to receive it, and I told him that I would proudly display it on my office wall with the others I have received from units around the world for my teaching. It will hang alongside plaques from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, German Federal Police School, Amsterdam Police Training Academy, London Metropolitan Police, and others. 

On Thursday, April 17, 2014 I taught my Terrorism Survival course. Dr. Patrizia Vitri, a tactical surgeon who trains with the Italian military, came down to refresh. She is certified as a Level 2 instructor, has taken my Wilderness Survival course, and always shares her vast knowledge with the class.

During the class I simulated terrorist attacks using Airsoft MP5s that fire 6mm plastic projectiles. I first have trained instructors play the role of “terrorists,” and then I have students trained to do it so they can understand the terrorist mentality. I was able to convince Lele and Gosia to do one terrorist attack, and they did. They were not students in the course, but since I was teaching on their property I wanted them to have some idea what my courses were like. Gosia was so impressed by what she had learned in the short time she got to participate that she wants to take the entire course with me next year. 

The first day that I arrived at Pull Out Ravenna to check out the facility before teaching Gosia said to me, “Jim, you are going to skydive while you are here.” 

Although I had never skydived before I responded to her, “Yes, I’ll do it.” 

I knew that she was not joking, being the owner of a parachute school. I didn’t bring the subject up the three days I was teaching, but before leaving the facility after Terrorism Survival Gosia informed my wife and me that we needed to show up at Pull Out at 9:30 in the morning. 

Fabrizio and his wife picked up my wife and me at our Bed and Breakfast, but before going to Pull Out we stopped at the Ravenna Italian State Police Station. The deputy chief of police wanted to meet with.

When I stood before Fabrizio’s boss in his upstairs office, he presented me with the unit plaque, and thanked me for my contribution in the training of Italian police officers over the years. I was honored by the kind gesture and assured him that the plaque would be proudly displayed on my office wall, and that I will brag to my friends back home that it came from the Italian State Police. Again, I am always pleased to receive a unit plaque.  

After the ceremony the deputy chief gave me a tour of the police station, and showed me some of the newest equipment acquired by the department; such as the latest patrol car and motor bikes. Of course, before parting we had to have the customary coffee break, to enjoy espresso or cappuccino, in the station’s own café; it’s quite a big police station.  

After the tour I was already feeling on top of the world, and the excitement was just beginning. Next we drove to Pull Out. We slipped into our jumpsuits and diving harnesses. I was to jump tandem with Luca Saragoni, a former Italian Army paratrooper and a man with 2,000 tandem jumps under his belt, and my wife was going down with Lele, also a former army paratrooper with over 12,000 jumps to his credit. 

When I was going for my pilot’s license my instructors used to say, “Never jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” when poking fun at parachutists. I always held to that philosophy, but I was willing to try something new, and I was proud of my wife for wanting to try it with me. 

After some ground training we climbed into the Cessna Grand Caravan airplane, a plane that holds 20 skydivers, with two photographers, our two instructors, and a Swiss jump team that was going to go out first to practice their mid-air freefall formations. We took off and flew out over the Adriatic Sea, up the coast and over Ravenna, and then towards the airport at the altitude of 2,500 meters (over 8,000 feet). 

Our instructors behind us hooked our harnesses to theirs, gave us some last moment instructions, and then the two-minute warning light went on. Over the jump zone the Swiss team bailed out of the aircraft from the big roll up side door that was wide open. My wife and Lele scooted on the bench, onto the floor, and then out the door they went. Finally Luca and I scooted down our bench, onto the floor, and I stuck my legs out of the aircraft looking out at the earth below. A few seconds later Luca pushed me out of the aircraft and we were tumbling in the air. It was the same feeling I had when I first bungee cord jumped, only this was dropping continuously instead of just 60 feet. A few seconds later we stabilized and I did the “banana position,” back arched and chin up. The wind was loud, my flight suit was flapping in the hurricane like wind, and I could see patches of farms like a quilt blanket underneath me along with roads, buildings, Ravenna, and the blue sea off in the distance. It was unbelievable freefalling. It felt like falling, and at the same time it didn’t. It took me a at least a good minute before I had my breathing down by angling my head just right; too flat against the wind and it feels like no air is going into the nose. 

Luca and I were free falling for one minute, and I was really enjoying the rush, then all of a sudden I felt a strong pull upward and the parachute opened. Suddenly the violent sounding wind went silent and we were gliding down. It was so peaceful as I saw my feet skimming over fields, farms, and freeways. I even spotted the ancient Cathedral of Saint Apollinare in Classe east of the airfield. Luca said to me, “Do you want to stir the parachute?” 

I responded, “Yes, show me how.” He then gave me an on-the-spot lesson, and before I knew it I was turning left, and then turning right. Of course, I did gentle turns not knowing the limits of the parachute, but when Luca took over he put us into a steep corkscrew spin that was like going down on a modern high speed rollercoaster. 

I saw my wife not far from us, and even tried to get her attention, but she could not hear me. Soon the airport was underneath us and we were too high for a proper glide. I knew enough from being a pilot that we’d have to do some maneuvers to get to the proper glide slope, and moments later Luca did a few more corkscrew spirals to drop our altitude. He was a true professional, and as we were getting closer he said, lift up your legs like we practiced. 

I lifted my legs as high as I could, like a gymnast doing an “L” shape, and moments later Luca was skidding on the soles of his shoes on the grass, then on his butt, and then I was on my butt sliding until we came to a complete stop. Gosia was the first person there to congratulate me, and then I saw Fabrizio off to the side videotaping me. I was on Terra Firma. About a minute later my wife and Lele came sliding in.

The experience of skydiving was one of the most memorable of my life. I’ve done a lot of extreme sports in my time: rock climbing, rappelling, bungee cord jumping, snow skiing, water skiing, surfing, SCUBA diving, and even S.P.I.E. with the U.S. Marines (hanging from a rope from the bottom of a helicopter while it is in flight – although it is not a sport), standing tethered on the lowered ramp of a C130 flying nap-of-the-earth with Army Rangers, but this has to be one of the most EXTREME things I have ever done. Yes, I was a bit afraid just before jumping, and I even said my last prayer to God just in case, for I was fully aware of the dangers involved and I have heard the stories of those who lost their lives doing it like everybody else has, but I trusted my instructor, the equipment, and my own ability to think straight under stress. Although no words can truly describe the sensation of falling to earth from thousands of feet above it, the words, “What a thrill!” sums it up best for me.

For those of you who want to “truly live,” then I highly recommend doing a tandem freefall jump with an experienced skydiver. It’s an experience you will never, never, never forget. If you are in Europe I recommend doing your skydiving at Pull Out Ravenna. There are approximately 20 jump schools in all of Italy, servicing approximately 5,000 to 7,000 Italian skydivers, and Pull Out has the biggest facility of them all.    

The April adventure continued the next morning when Fabrizo and I, along with our wives, drove from Ravenna, past Venice, and crossed the border into Slovenia. A couple hours before sunset we went to visit Manuel Maceta at the strelsko društvo zdenko žnidarčič gun range near Bukovica. The range, a former Soviet Bloc Yugoslavian military base, was once where Manuel served while in the army. He and his friend and partner bought the abandoned base, and it became Manuel’s when his friend died last year. 

Manuel is in his late 40s, over six feet tall, and tough as nails. He was a commando during the 1991 war against Serbia when Slovenia was breaking away from Yugoslavia. When I shook Manuel’s hand he was wearing a camouflage jacket with his unit’s markings from the Slovenian Independence War. The first thing that he did was to welcome me to Slovenia, my first time there, and offer me the local beer Lasko in the briefing room. Manuel speaks fluent Italian and very good English. The briefing room had a huge Slovenian flag in the center up near the ceiling, along with national flags from foreigners who have taught there. The Italian flag was proudly displayed because Fabrizio Capucci has taught firearms courses there; the last one being in winter cold February.     

While there was still an hour left before sunset Manuel asked me, “Jim, do you want to go shooting now? Come, and let us fire many weapons.” He had a variety of former Soviet pistols and rifles. 

I was quite impressed with the shooting range. He had several outdoor shooting bays, which included a wide variety of barricades and moveable walls, a couple Shoot Houses, and lots of land and forest surrounding the center. In the middle of the camp was a flag pole flying a weathered Slovenian flag. 

I didn’t know it until later that night, but Manuel let me shoot the last of the reloads that his deceased friend had last made. It was quite an honor for me that he respected me to such a degree that gave me as much ammunition as I wanted to shoot. Fabrizio shot along side of me, and we had a mini competition on who was the most accurate. 

After a solid hour of throwing rounds downrange we stopped so that we could police the range while there was still enough light. We washed off all of the gunshot residue, hopped into our vehicles, and then headed over to a restaurant a few kilometers away. The food was fantastic. At the table Manuel pulled off his Velcro military name tag and handed it to me as a souvenir of the range practice, and our new friendship. I, in turn, gave him a Wagner Urban knife; my personal one.

The next day, a day off for me and Fabrizio, we drove a couple of hours to the capital of Slovenia – Ljubljana, which is a beautiful city a lot like Prague, but only smaller. The Slovenian people are really friendly, and just about everyone speaks Italian or English for commerce. We walked around the city, had a delicious lunch eating traditional foods, and then hiked up to the medieval castle that overlooks the entire city. That night we got together with two of my students, a husband and wife team, Paolo Gasparini and Carmen Di Mauro. Carmen is only one of two Italian women who have completed my Reality-Based Personal Protection Level 2 courses; the other woman being Dr. Patrizia Vitri. 

While Fabrizio and I were touring around Ljubljana on April 19^th Carmen was at the Slovenia Championship competing in Mosnje for the .22 caliber rifle Bench Rest division. She placed 2^nd in the competition, using the Anchutz 64 MPR, and brought her winning medal to show us. I was so proud of her that I just had to take a photo with her. Carmen has been shooting for three years, training once a week in Treviso an hour and a half away from her home, and she plans to compete in the 2017 World Championship in the same division. 

While feasting on Slovenian sea food Paolo had some interesting stories to tell at the table. When he was a child he remembers when his border city Gorizia was one one side of the wall and the Soviet city of Nova Goriza was on the other side. Traveling back and forth between cities was difficult, but it was done by both sides. 

In 1991 Paolo could see the battles happening across the border when Slovenian troops were fighting the Serbians who were trying to keep Yugoslavia intact. He recalls how Italian troops were massed at the border in case the war spilled onto their side. 

Once Slovenia gained their independence the border was opened between the two countries, but there was still a lot of animosity between the two peoples. Paolo said, “Up until ten years ago Slovenian school children were taught, ‘the Italians are the enemy,’ but since they became part of the European Union ten years ago that has all gone away. There are still some tensions, mostly between the older generation, but the new generation has forgotten all about the past problems. Now it is good.” Paolo is living proof of the good relationships between Italy and Slovenia, because he shops all of the time in this neighboring country and goes out to dinner there often. The prices are much lower in Slovenia than they are in Italy, and buying things is easy since the currency for both countries is the euro. 

The next day the Wagners and the Capuccis celebrated Easter by going to the Italian coastal city of Trieste; once a city belonging to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. We visited the Miramare Castel that rises out of the water, and after World War II served as a U.S. Army Military Police Headquarters during the Cold War. There is a monument about 50 meters from the entrance of the castle that honors the soldiers that served at this opulent location. 

Since it was Easter Sunday I went inside a cathedral to attend a mass. I wasn’t in there long, because I don’t speak much Italian, but I offered up my prayers and gave my thanks for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are a believer or not, Jesus the Christ is the central figure for Western civilization, and even our dating system is based upon his first coming: April 20, 2014 A.D. (anno domini – year of the Lord), and B.C. is Before Christ. The Judeo-Christian beliefs teach that men and women are equal, that God is no respecter of persons (no social class system), and our justice system is based upon the laws found within the pages of the Bible. Failure to understand the Bible is failure to understand the Western civilization for the past 2,000 years, and its profound impact on our culture today. 

After a coffee break we headed to the Military Museum at Sabotin mountain 609 meters above sea level. Manuel Maceta introduced us to museum curator, and fellow friend and war veteran comrade, B. Pitokar. However, before going through the war museum that explains Slovenia’s part in World War I, known as the Front of Isonzo, and the War of Independence in 1991, we had traditional boar soup and goulash in the museum’s café-bar. As we all sat around the long rectangular table enjoying new foods World War I rifles and old photographs decorated the four walls around us. The view from the café looked down the mountain and out to the Adriatic Sea. It’s quite a spectacular view of Italy down below. 

After lunch we looked through the museum and then had a private tour of the trenches and the caves carved into the side of the mountain. 70 percent of the caves were carved out by hand by the Austrian-Hungarian Army in 1914 for barracks and gun placements in order to keep the Italian army from passing the mountain and heading up to Ljubljana. 

On the east side of the mountain, in the valley below, is the bluest river I have ever seen anywhere in the world. The bright blue color is due to the type of rock bed the river flows over. It is so blue that it looks more like a fairy tale painting than a real river, and yet the breeze on my face and the boulders below me confirmed that it was indeed real. Even when I was on the banks of the river it was as blue as blue can be. It is so unique that parts of the last Narnia film was filmed there.    

Whenever I am in a new location I always make it a point to visit museums, castles, fortifications, and battlefields to continue my ongoing research of human conflict. Sabotin was a wealth of information, and I got a lot of research done there; not to mention a treasure trove of photographs and video. I even did some videotaping for future YouTube training videos. Being in Sabotin was like stepping back in history, and even our wives enjoyed the tour as much as Fabrizio and I did. 

The next morning we drove back to Ravenna, which was an all-day even, and we had a good old fashion homemade Italian dinner.  My final day in Italy was designed to fulfill the artistic side of me, and that was a private lesson with Dr. Stefanna Fanti, PhD of Medieval History, in the ancient techniques of fresco painting. 

Fresco painting is the painting of a mural on fresh plaster while it is still drying. This was the same technique used by Michelangelo when painting the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in 1477 - 1480. 

When I arrived Dr. Fanti had all of the materials I needed. She handed me a fired tile for the base that represented the wall itself. I then had to mix lime, riverbed sand, and some glue together. Once it was the consistency of cookie dough I applied the ancient-like plaster to the tile and hand to scrape it flat and smooth. I had already prepared my sinopia paper that had holes in it, and I grated up some wood charcoal on a cheese grater. The subject I chose to paint was from Michelangelo’s masterpiece where God is reaching for man and the two index fingers are about to touch. I hand just enough room and time for each hand. When doing a fresco you have to paint everything in one hour, which is subsequently called “the Golden Hour.” If the it is not painted within the hour the paint will not mix with the drying plaster and any paint after that will fade in time. A fresco can last thousands of years, whereas a tempera painting over dry plaster will last approximately 100 years, and deteriorate after that. 

At first I found painting a fresco difficult and a bit frustrating, but once I got the hang of the old technology the creativity started to flow. By the time my hour was up I had painted the two hands, and it looked fairly close to the original. Unlike regular painting you only get one or two passes with the brush on wet plaster, and so I had to live with what I had. My instructor was quite pleased, and the point of the lesson was to learn the ancient techniques, which I did. To my surprise Dr. Fanti gave me a signed certificate declaring my instructions in fresco painting. She knew that I handed out a lot of Reality-Based Personal Protection certificates to my Italian students, and so she thought I should have one in Italian art. 

I really enjoy learning new things in other countries by hooking up with experts. I learned how to shoot the English long bow in Southern England, how to play the bag pipes in Scotland, how to sharpen knives in Solingen (the Blade City), Germany, how to ride Viking horses in Sweden, how to hunt wild boar in Hawaii, and now how to paint frescos in Northern Italy.

On Wednesday, April 23, 2014 my wife and I headed home to Southern California, however, our perfect work vacation had its first snag. Our plane at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris had mechanical problems and it was four hours late in taking off. The late arrive meant missing our connecting flight and having to spend a night in Atlanta, Georgia. I didn’t mind, because the way the hours all worked out it helped me to fight the jet lag better.

No such thing as a “routine car stop”

Jim Wagner                  

Before heading off to Europe to teach in Switzerland and Italy I had the opportunity to teach American soldiers on Saturday, April 5, how to conduct police-style car stops; a daily task for Security Forces and Military Police personnel on American bases all across the land. In fact, just a few days before teaching this course there was an Active Shooter incident, soldier-on-soldier, at U.S. Army base Fort Hood located in Texas. Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, 35, murdered three fellow soldiers and wounded sixteen people. According to reports the motive was over an argument when SPC Lopez was denied leave (days off). Two of the victims were shot when SPC Lopez was shooting from his car going from one location to another. 

There is no such thing as a “routine car stop” for police or military personnel, because almost one-fourth of all police officer shooting are during car stops. After all, criminals and terrorists need to go from point A to point B like the rest of us, and stopping a bad guy who is in transit can be a deadly undertaking. 

I set up a few scenarios for my student soldiers using Airsoft pistols (pistols that fire a 6mm plastic projectile) and wrap-around eye protection. Soldiers had the chance to make car stops in the training area, and also took turns playing the role of bad guy with the freedom to fire upon approaching soldiers. 

I covered a lot of techniques and tactics with the professionals that were there, but they are not for public discussion. Just know that the soldiers in this course will be much safer when making car stops, and I continue to do my part to keep my corner of the world a little bit more secure.