Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection

A day with Thorsten Schmick 

Whenever a Reality-Based Personal Protection instructor is loyal to the system I do whatever I can to promote that instructor. Once such loyal instructor of mine, who teaches exclusively the RBPP system, is Thorsten Schmick of Siegen, Germany. When he invited me to teach at his self-defense school, Reality-Based Tactics and Defense, on the evening of Wednesday, April 6, 2016 from 7 to 9 pm in the city of Siegen I happily accepted. Not only did I teach Introduction to Tactical Light, Pen & Stick, but Thorsten treated me to a day of tourism in his city before the course, not to mention having a fabulous traditional German meal, in the hills surrounded by kilometers of forests, in a quaint town called Hilchenbach. We ate at the Ginsburgstube owned by Claudia Bülow, and it is a favorite stopping point to take in needed calories for hikers along the trail. After lunch I continued my ongoing human conflict research, which Thorsten is very much aware of, and we visited the Ruine Ginsburg (the Ginsburg castle) that was less than 100 meters from the restaurant. The simple medieval military structure was built between 1220 and 1240 by Count Heinrich II of Nassau. 

The group that I taught at the Reality-Based Tactics and Defense that evening were very grateful for the instructions, and I felt really welcomed there. Dirk Witte was there, and over the past year he has been teaching Women’s Survival in India, plus he has been attending live-fire shooting courses. As a result of this supplemental gun training he will be receiving an Advanced Handgun Survival certificate from me. Anyone who has attended my Handgun Survival course, and sends me a certificate that they have attended a live-fire course, will receive an Advance Handgun Survival certificate.

Preparing Rome for a terrorist attack 

As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, Rome is a desired target by Islamic terrorists. Most Muslims see Rome as the defacto “Capital of Christendom.” It does not matter to radical Muslims that not all Westerners believe in Jesus Christ as God Almighty, they see the West as a whole as “the Crusaders.” 

In case you don’t remember your history, the Muslims started to conquer territory held by Christians, the Byzantine Empire, beginning in the year 632 AD (1,384 years ago), and the conflict between jihadists and the “infidels” (non-believers) has not stopped since. The Crusades was the West’s attempt to stop the invading Muslim armies after hundreds of years of incursions, and to pilgrimage to the Holy Land without harassment. What we are seeing today is a continuation of this age-old conflict, and the Koran, the most holy book of Islam, clearly states that the Muslims are to conquer the world. It is in black and white. In Islam there are only two groups of people on this planet: Dar al-Islam (Arabic for House of Islam) and Dar al-Harab (House of the West – the “unbelievers”).  Therefore, a significant terrorist strike on Rome, more specifically the Vatican or the Pope, would be quite a symbolic “victory” for jihadists. 

Well, certainly not everyone is willing to just sit back and do nothing about terrorism. Police, military, and intelligence agencies are doing their part to weed out the killers, and those plotting to kill, along with Reality-Based Personal Protection civilians learning situational awareness and how to survive various terrorist attacks, and yes, even a dirty bomb or a nuclear detonation. At the beginning of this month, April 1, 2016, the Nuclear Security Summit 2016 was held in Washington, D.C. where 50 world leaders met to discuss a possible dirty bomb or nuclear detonation by a terrorist group on a Western target. Islamic State claims to have enough radioactive material for a dirty bomb (a conventional bomb that has radioactive material packed around it to contaminate an area), and the Belgian authorities believe that the original target of the terrorists who attacked the Brussels airport and a metro station was to be a Belgian nuclear facility. When one of their leaders was arrested they abandoned their plan to hit the nuclear facility, and they acted fast to hit the other targets instead – “soft targets.” 

As a former police officer and soldier the American FBI has been warning us for years, “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’” 

Not only does the United States have terrorists with nuclear material to contend with, but North Korea is constantly warning America that they will do a preemptive nuclear strike if there is any provocation on our part. Just doing military exercises with South Korea seems to get their feathers ruffled. On March 28^th the North Koreans released a propaganda film showing a mushroom cloud over Washington, D.C. and a burning American flag. Plus, the world is sitting idly by as Iran is working feverously to produce nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Well, actually the world is doing more than that. Western country after Western country is racing over to Tehran to cement economic ties with them. On one hand the world condemns Iran for state sponsored terrorism around the globe, and on the other hand everyone one wants to do business with them. What message does that send?  

Thanks to Alfredo Tucci I, along with Fabrizio Capucci, had a chance to give an audience of about 250 martial artists a demonstration introducing them to my Terrorism Survival course. There were approximately 22 other world renown martial arts teachers at the two-day even to give their demonstrations as well, but I was the only “master,” and I am no longer embarrassed to be called a “master” since my promotion in February by the military to the rank of Master Sergeant (pun intended), to deal with international terrorism.    

Although I deeply admire and respect all the martial arts masters that were there to promote their systems, all of the demonstrations were Pattern Training and Cooperative Partner Training; methods that we are in Reality-Based Personal Protection are opposed to. When it came my turn I just got up there and said to the audience, “Most of you are not prepared for a terrorist attack. I know, because I took a photograph of you when this event first started. You were all gathered together in front of center stage in what we call ‘center mass.’ Terrorists attack center mass. I took this photo with my phone from that corner of the room over there, away from the crowd,” and I pointed to the Hard Corner Right (the corner that the Number 1 man of a tactical team checks during a non-read Wall Flood or Penetration Flood Room Entry). Needless to say, I had everyone’s attention after that disturbing opening statement. 

I warned everyone in the huge gymnasium that I was going to throw a simulated hand grenade on the floor in front of me. When I did I said, “I’m going to teach you how to survive a hand grenade attack,” and I showed everyone step-by-step what I had learned in Basic Combat Training with the United States Army when I was in Boot Camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in 1980. The technique has not changed in 36 years. The audience needed to know how to survive a hand grenade attack, since hand grenades were used against innocent civilians in the Paris terrorist attacks. 

What was satisfying to me was seeing a lot of young martial artists under 21-years-old who were wide-eyed and very attentive. Over the past 17 years, since I first started my monthly column called High Risk in Black Belt magazine (USA), I’ve had quite an uphill battle convincing older traditional-based and sport-based martial artists to include in their training realistic techniques and training methods to deal with real criminals and terrorists, and not just the typical “Come at me this way” knife attacks and a robber with a rubber gun within disarm distance while he leaves an extension (not moving his arm, and allowing the defender to take it), which is not what real criminals and terrorists do. It is the next generation who is going to see the true value of Reality-Based Personal Protection, and the recent spike in crime and terrorism all around the world is driving them in this direction. 

After five minutes into the demonstration I then showed them, with Fabrizio Capucci translating everything I said into Italian, the Jim Wagner Go Bag manufactured by my good friends at S-Gear in the Czech Republic. The three life-saving items that I showed them from my own civilian tactical bag was the C.A.T. Tourniquet, a bag of QuikClot, and an Israeli bandage. I told them, “If you are ever caught in the middle of a terrorist bombing, like the one that just happened in Brussels, just these three items alone can save your life, or another person’s life you wish to help.” 

I concluded my demonstration by stating, “Terrorism is going to increase in Europe, and you had better include Terrorism Survival as part of your training.” Yes, it was a direct endorsement of my course, but what other martial arts system is teaching anything like it? My course has been the only one of its kind for 13 years now, and that’s mainly due to my specialized background. Very few people in this world, let alone martial arts instructors, have a counterterrorism background. I have. However, the good thing is that martial arts instructors don’t need to have a counterterrorism background to teach students how to survive the most likely terrorist attacks. They don’t have to “recreate the wheel.” All they need is to teach my Terrorism Survival curriculum. The course was painstakingly developed over my lifetime, that included training with and training the best in the world, in order to deal with the real bad guys, and not using Hollywood as a teacher. “Hollywood is not a good teacher,” I often tell my students. 

When I had a chance to talk to Moni Aizik briefly, the man who created Combat Krav Maga (CKM), and who I introduced to the martial arts community a decade ago when I wrote an article about him in Black Belt magazine, he said to me concerning my teaching, “Jim, you are a visionary.” He said that because he remembers watching one of my demonstrations that I gave in Los Angeles ten years earlier, and few people were taking my Terrorism Survival course seriously back then. Yes, people took me dead serious when it came to me teaching people how to survive most likely criminal attacks, for my students respected the fact that I had been a street cop and on a SWAT team, but terrorism was not on any instructors’ radar, save but me at the time, despite America having experience 9/11 (the attacks using four passenger aircraft that were skyjacked by Al Qaeda terrorists). 

The good thing about big martial arts events like the one sponsored by Budo is that I get to meet the Who’s Who of the martial arts world, and I get to see the latest systems on the market. I had the chance to meet Justo Diéguez, the founder and creator of the KEYSI Fight Method (also the action choreographer for the movies Mission Impossible III, Batman Begins, Munich, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, and others), along with Cristiano Greco also with the KEYSI system. I had a good chat with David Delannoy who teaches Jeet Kune Do and Kali (the systems I studied as a youth) in France, and I met his son.    

After the event was over for the day Fabrizio and I spent a few hours strolling around in the center of Rome. My two goals, which I completed, was to take photographs of Arch of Titus located on the Via Sacra, and the Trevi Fountain. I’ve been to Rome many times, but I never had the time to really study the Arch of Titus, and the water was never in Trevi Fountain for one reason or another. This trip I had a chance to study and photograph the arch, and the water was flowing beautifuly in the fountain. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 

The Gala

That evening, Saturday, April 16, 2016, was the 1^st World Meeting Budo Masters Gala. It was a black tie event, at least that is what Alfredo Tucci told me personally, but some masters didn’t seem to get the memo, and they were a bit embarrassed when they showed up to the entertainment and dinner event. 

I was very honored that Alfredo Tucci, and the readers of Budo magazine, considered me one of the top martial arts masters in the world. In fact, he had printed my image on the posters advertising the events before he ever invited me. When we finally talked he said, “Jim, I have you down as coming. The new generation needs to know about your Reality-Based.” I relied, “Yes, Alfredo, I will be there.” 

What’s interesting is that Alfredo used a photo of me in my military uniform. It was a photo taken of me in 2008 when I was a buck sergeant (three chevron stripes). Back then General Jack Hagan, my commanding general, had given me permission to appear on the cover of martial arts magazines in order to recruit new members to the California State Military Reserve, and it worked.    

Sitting at my dinner table, Table VIII, was knife fighting expert and knife designer Bram Frank who I had met a decade ago. We had a nice long chat, and it was great catching up on each other’s lives. Bram is a great guy, and he’s the type of man who’d give the shirt off of his back to help someone in need. 

Eight-time Guinness World Recorder holder Maurice Elmalem came to my table, and we had a good time talking to one another. Maurice is the editor for the Budo magazine USA edition, and we have worked together for years. He invited me to stop by and see him if I am ever in Brooklyn again. 

Sitting at my table to my left was Andreas Weitzel who teaches Russian Systema in Germany. He lives in the city of Augsburg. Earlier that day he and his students wanted a photo with me, and we hit it off right from the start. 

Of course, my best friend in Italy was also at my table – Fabrizio Capucci. He was in my very first Reality-Based Personal Protection course in my Los Angeles school in 2003, and he has been loyal to me as a friend, and loyal to the RBPP system, ever since. To Fabrizio, having a similar background as me, the word “loyalty” is not just a convenient word like it so many others, but for him it is a code of life – YOU DON’T EVER BACK STAB YOUR FRIENDS OR BROTHERS AND SISTERS AT ARMS. Disloyalty is the kind of stuff for the sneaky and cowardly. Both of us are familiar with these types in our careers and in the martial arts, sadly.

The City of Gomorrah

Many Italians refer to the city of Naples as “Gomorrah,” which is a reference to the Biblical city that God destroyed with fire and brimstone for their extreme wickedness. This is a term even used by some locals there as well. I had always wanted to visit this city, and for several years Fabrizio and I had talked about it, and we even planned for it a few times, but this was the year that I finally got the chance. On Sunday evening, April 17, 2016 we drove from Rome to Naples. 

When we got within the city limits it was like entering a different country. Many people were driving as if there were no traffic rules, graffiti was on practically every building in the city, and crime was happening everywhere, and that we’d find out about the next morning in the newspapers or on television. The newspaper that I saved as a “souvenir” was the Cronache di Napoli Martedì 19 Aprile 2016 issue. The headline on the front page read Assalto al portavalori, spari e terrore (Weapon assault in downtown, shooting and terror). Apparently someone was firing an AK-47 in an armed robbery, and they got away with 26,000 euro. Another headline read, “A wife and a lover arrested for murdering her husband.” The following headline printed on the page was “Robbery at a public place,” and next to that was another one about a theft. Going down the page it read “Fifteen-year-old teen stabbed and injured with a knife.” To the right of that, “Assault against a driver who is punched,” and at the bottom of the page if finished with “Woman raped, two arrested.” The next day Fabrizio and I were watching the news on the television, when having dinner, and a Napoli news station reported that someone fired a few 7.62mm rounds into a police station. Fortunately, nobody was hit. The same thing happened again a day later. 

When we pulled up to the front of the hotel Fabrizio just said one long drawn out word, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Kaaaaaaaaay!” and it was not in a good way. 

If you don’t want your car stolen or the wheels removed in the middle of the night you have to pay “street attendants” some cash. These people work for the Camorra, one of five mafias in Italy. In fact, the whole region is run by this mafia group, and has been since the 1500s. Fabrizio literally handed over his car keys to this stranger right in the middle of the street. He was not a parking lot attendant, nor a hotel employee, but a complete stranger who literally walks up and down the street, and these types are everywhere in the city. If you’re not in the downtown tourist area you can be assured that your presence is known when you are on the block. Were we uncomfortable? You bet we were, but that is just life there. Fabrizio joked with me as we looked for our practically hidden hotel among the graffiti covered walls that looked like a ghetto, “Take the red pill Jim.” He was referring to the movie “Matrix” where Morpheus said to Neo, “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” 

Fabrizio was preparing me for a different world, and he continued, “Forget everything you learned before. You are in the here and now. You are in Naples.”

We found the entrance to the hotel, which was actually located on the fourth floor. We walked up some old stone steps, then up some metal steps, to an old elevator that was installed in the 1950s. It used to be a coin-operated elevator with the coin machine still inside of it. However, to my joyful surprise, the hidden hotel was as nice as any four star hotel, on inside anyway, although it was not designated as such. When I went to my room, and I opened the large window, the view reminded me of the Middle East, like Cairo, where everyone is living on top of each other in dilapidated buildings, dogs barking, people’s voices carrying on the crisp night air, and the only sight of any nature was the black inky sky straight above. 

Fabrizio wanted to walk around and get a pizza, but I was thinking, “Are you crazy! I feel like barricading myself inside my own room and waiting for fist light to venture out.” However, the curious side of me wanted to see the sights. Once we got onto the main street, Via Toledo, and strolling towards Plaza del Plebiscito, it wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, if you just ignore the endless graffiti, you’ll find that everyone in the world is out and about enjoying the evening. I mean a lot of people, like New York City. However, Naples reminded me of Madrid, but only dirtier. I also got the sense that Neapolitans love their city despite the chaos, high crime, and mafia control. Fabrizio and I tried some pocket pizzas, and I had probably the best gelato I ever had in my life at the Offficina Gelati at Via Toledo 311. It turned out to be a great evening, but we didn’t let down our guard. 

Visiting a natural disaster area

In the morning we had a great breakfast on the hotel roof top, for that is where the breakfast was served, then a good cup of Italian coffee, and we headed south on the autostrada to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii that was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 feet) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius back in 79 AD. The site was eventually discovered in 1599 and excavation began in 1748, and it has been a tourist attraction ever since bringing 2.5 million visitors a year. Pompeii has always been on my TO DO list in life, and I was able to once and for all cross it off my list. 

Pompeii is a fantastic archeological site, and less than an hour from Naples. Of course, one of the highlights of the trip was studying the coliseum where gladiatorial combat once took place.

After our six-hour visit to Pompeii we drove six hours back to Ravenna, which is on the complete opposite of the Italian Peninsula. The next day I met with my art teacher, Professor Stefania Fanti, and she taught me how to gold leaf medieval style. She had a tall wood candle stand for me to work on. Two years ago Professor Fanti taught me how to do a fresco. A fresco is a technique of mural painting on fresh lime plaster where the paint applied to it becomes an integral part of the wall. When I am in different countries I like to find different things to do and to experience, and often times I will seek out well-known experts in their field. I dabble in art, music, and adventure.

On Friday, April 22, 2016 Fabrizio and I took a nice hike in the Casentinesi Forest, a mountainous region that borders the Toscana and Emila Romagna in Northern Italy. I brought along my Jim Wagner Go Bag just to give it a test in a wilderness environment. Fabrizio loaned me a backpack to carry other provisions in. Of course, during the couple of days off before the seminar we had to teach our days and evenings were filled with a wide variety of tasty Italian dishes. Italy has much more to offer than just pizza and pasta.

As is our tradition, Fabrizio and I celebrated with a sip of rum, chocolate, and a good cigar out on his patio as the sun was just going down over the horizon. Afterwards we had wonderful Eggplant Parmesan cooked by his wife, and then I wished everyone a good night and I packed my bags for the early morning rise and one-hour drive to the airport. I had to be there by 4 am.

On Wednesday, April 27, 2016 I caught my 7 am flight to Paris, and then another flight back to Home Sweet Home – sunny Southern California. At home I had one day of rest, and then on Friday I was back to work teaching my Tactical Pistol Course. It did not seem like work, because I had good motivated students, and that always makes teaching fun.

BE A HARD TARGET