Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection

The Pope, Politie, and Personal Protection

Jim Wagner 

Twenty-one days in three countries of Europe, all to spread the Reality-Based Personal Protection system. That was most my November. Well, not all of it was work. Going to Rome to see Pope Francis was more pleasure than business, I must confess. However, seeing the popular Pope was somewhat connected to Reality-Based. 

I already had a couple seminars scheduled in Cologne, Germany for November, Level 1 and Knife Camp to be exact, and I wasn’t planning on doing anything else for the month other than enjoying a turkey meal with all the trimmings on Thanksgiving Day when I got back home to California. Just before I purchased my airline tickets to Europe my Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of Italy contacted me. “Jim, do you want to meet the Pope in November?” I knew he was not joking, because Fabrizio Capucci has protected three Italian Prime Ministers before, and has been around two other Popes as a bodyguard. 

“Jim, you are invited by the Italian State Police,” he continued, and proceeded to tell me that once a year the Pope blesses the Italian police and military at the Vatican. I was honored that he, they, included me in the special invitation by the Vatican. The date selected, November 12, just so happened to be three days before my scheduled Knife Survival course in Cologne. “I can do it,” I told Fabrizio and purchased my plane tickets right after it was “a go.” 

Before heading overseas I had to teach a Tactical Pistol course on Monday, November 3^rd, which was just another day at “the office,” and I was pleasantly surprised that my Command Sergeant Major of my Division showed up to that one, for he is one squared away Iraq War veteran NCO that I respect greatly. The next day I did my civic duty and went into a voting booth and voted in the Mid-Term elections.  Once all the loose ends were all tied up at home I headed off to Europe two days after that. I eventually arrived in Bologna, Italy (via Cologne, and then Amsterdam) on Saturday, the 8^th of November. It worked out where I had a couple of free days on the front end of my trip, and so I spent a couple of days visiting with Fabrizio and my other friends in Ravenna. It was the first time I ever went to Italy where I did not teach a Reality-Based Personal Protection course. I knew I’d need the rest before my German seminars, because just before I took off to Europe Inspector Gerard Williamson of the Dutch National Police asked me if I could teach a one-day course in Amsterdam in the month of November. I was pressed on time, but I couldn’t turn him down, especially since I am an “honorary Dutch police officer,” with a police badge and all, and so I decided to sacrifice my two days off in order to do it. 

The first day I was in Ravenna Fabrizio and I went to the parachute facility Pull Out. This is where I did my first sky dive in April. I had the chance to have a cup of coffee with owners Lele and Gosha, along with my parachute instructor Lucas Saragoni. Of course the moment I walked through the door, and after the handshakes and kisses on the cheek Gosha said to me, “Jim, you’re going to jump today.” However, fog had rolled in, and we didn’t have time to wait. Fabrizio wanted to take me to a couple of museums in Ravenna and out to lunch. 

Before leaving Pull Out I ran into Mattia Fanati. He was one of the skydiver photographers I hired when I did my first jump. I was pleased to learn that he took First Place in the Intermediate Category of the Italian Wingsuit Competition held from March to September 2014. Not only did he receive two different trophies, but he also won a cash prize of 1,000 euro. I was happy for his success, and I asked him to pose for a photo with his trophies. We went outside overlooking the airfield and I snapped his photo. 

In the evening some of my Italian Reality-Based Personal Protection students, who had become my friends, got together for a great meal at Luca and Elita’s house. Their 10-year-old daughter Lucy, who adores me, and I her, had a quick impromptu lesson where she demonstrated to me that she remembered the 10 Angles of Attack that I had taught her. She used the Boker rubber knife I had given her in April as a parting gift. Before I left their home I gave her a Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection challenge coin. 

On Tuesday, November 11^th, Fabrizio and his wife Stefania, along with my wife, met at the police station in Ravenna and boarded the comfortable tour bus that took us to Rome. The person in charge of the tour was Friar Paolo Carlin, who was sent by the Vatican to be the chaplain of the police and military in the city of Ravenna. The drive was five hours from the east coast of Italy, and we arrived just in time for dinner at a hotel owned by the Vatican about 30 minutes away on the outskirts of Rome. 

The rain was coming down hard, and Fabrizio in concern said to me, “This is bad. If it rains the Pope will not walk among the people. Then we may not be able to get close to him. The Pope likes to shake hands and meet people.” Our group, approximately 37 people (police officers and their families), had a reserved section closest to where Pope Francis would be sitting and from where the ceremony would take place. I said to Fabrizio, “Don’t worry. I will pray that it does not rain on us. The bad weather will go around the Vatican,” I said confidently, and I separated my hands like water going around a rock in a river, “and then come back together on the other side.” My wife added, “Whenever Jim prays for good weather it happens.” It’s true that the weather turns good the many times I have prayed for it, but God does not always grant me my wishes. 

Everyone had their umbrellas popped open to stay dry as we walked towards Vatican City from the bus station.  The weather was miserable, and Fabrizio said, “This is not good.” However, just as we were waved through the police check point, for we did not have to go through security scrutiny that other guests had to go through due to our connection to the police, the moment we stepped into Saint Peter Square the rain stopped. Not only did it stop completely, but the sky turned from a dark cold moist gray to blue skies. Fabrizio turned to me saying, “That’s incredible!” and then he joked, “Who is that man with Jim?” meaning the Pope.  I laughed, and then said, “See, God answered my prayer.” 

Since there was no rain the Pope got into the “Pope mobile,” a small car that has open sides so that he can stand and wave to the invited guests, and his bodyguards drove him around for several minutes. Beyond the reserved section was the outer court where the public could watch from a distance. Fabrizio and I knew that Pope Francis would pass right by us, and so we made a videotape just as the Pope was behind me 2 meters (six feet) away. We didn’t expect the Pope to stop for us, and so we just decided to document the event for one of my future YouTube videos.  

The Pope then headed to the stage area and took his seat. The ceremony was about an hour long, and during the entire time the weather was perfect. Blessings were given in Italian, French, English, Portuguese and Arabic. More important, I was also there for a very important “mission,” besides being a guest of Fabrizio and the Italian State Police. One of the women I work with at my military base, she makes sure military families get the things they need while their soldiers are deployed overseas, asked me to purchase 30 Saint Michael medallions, get them blessed by the Pope if possible, and bring them back to the United States so that she could give them to Catholic soldiers who will be deploying to Afghanistan. I’m not a Catholic, but I told everyone in my group, “I’m not leaving Italy until I get those medallions and get them blessed.” Fortunately for me the Pope blessed “all religious relics that are here today.” 

As soon as Pope Francis gave the final benediction people started clearing out fast. The moment we started walking away from our seats it started to rain. Not just a little, but we had to pull out our umbrellas once again. Fabrizio and Stefania couldn’t believe it, and Stefania made the same hand single I had made earlier indicating that the bad weather had gone around the Vatican. Since the event had ended there was no need for the sunshine, and the bad weather closed in.

We only had an hour and a half of free time, and so we walked around just outside of Vatican City. We bought souvenirs, had a tasty lunch, and I made sure that Friar Paolo Carlin personally blessed the Saint Michael medallions since he is the police and military chaplain of Ravenna, and a representative of the Pope. Mission Accomplished. 

On the bus ride back to Ravenna Friar Carlin gave everyone a small card, about the size of a playing card, that had a written benediction from Pope Francis on one side with the location and date of the event on it, and on the other side of the card was a photo of the Pope with the words PAPA FRANCESCO. 

An hour into the drive the traffic came to a complete stop with thousands of cars in front of us, and thousands behind us. We had no idea what was going on until Fabrizio got out his iPad and Googled the traffic conditions. It turned out that Italian workers, not even road workers, had been blocking the freeway for three hours, and we ended up sitting on the freeway with the engine turned off for another three hours. It turns out that workers were angry that the German company that they were working for wanted to pull out of Italy, which is going through a terrible economic crisis. The riot police were there, but not to arrest the workers and get them off the freeway, but to make sure none of the angry drivers ripped them apart. I couldn’t believe that workers could do such a thing, but Fabrizio said to me, “This is Italy,” and the Prime Minister tolerates it. Had it been the United States, and workers from some union decided to block a freeway, essentially stopping all commerce and prevent citizens to move about freely, they would be arrested and removed immediately. When the Italian union workers decided to call it quits and go home to have dinner, we were finally on our way. By the time I got to my B&B it was close to midnight. 

A Special Visit to Neuss

Jim Wagner 

Jörg Kuschel, of Kenju-ryu, is a traditional-based martial arts instructor that made the switch to Reality-Based Personal Protection. So much so that he is a Level 3 certified instructor and Knife Survival instructor running courses out of Neuss, Germany thirty minutes from Cologne. 

Jörg just didn’t take my courses and move on, but because of his close proximity to my training facility he, and a few of his black belts, come to my courses whenever I am in Cologne and help assist me. They help teach, and they are often the “bad guys” when I need them for realistic scenarios. A couple of times Jörg threw out the suggestion to me, “Jim, I hope you can come visit my city one day. I will show you all around.” Well, I decided to take him up on his offer, and we set up the date before I had left the United States for Friday, November 14, 2014.  

Jörg and his girlfriend picked my wife and me up at the Cologne-Bonn airport and drove us to Neuss where we had a fantastic traditional German lunch. Joining us for dessert was Ajeeth Sivanayagam and Manfred Hollmann. 

The city of Neuss started out as a Roman village called Novaesium, and it sits along the Rhine River. Jörg, Ajeeth, and Manfred gave us a tour of the Saint Quirinus cathedral, the ancient Roman ruins, and the military parade route. We also walked along the canal that Napoleon Bonaparte had dug so he could get supplies through the city faster. Today it is just a waterway for quiet romantic walks. 

Since Jörg and his black belts had contributed so much time and dedication to my training facility over the past two years I offered to teach a private one and a half hour course to his selected students. He was overjoyed, and I was in his training hall from 8 pm to 9:30 pm. He wanted me to go over some highlights of my Knife Survival course, and that is exactly what I did. After the course was over everyone clapped and gave me a handshake. Jörg sent me an email the next day telling me what an honor it was for him having me teach his students. 

Jörg runs the Kenju-Ryu school in Neuss, and I highly recommend anyone in that area wanting Reality-Based Personal Protection training to seek him out and get instructions. 

Level 1 Courses in Cologne

Jim Wagner 

My Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of Germany, Tobias, and I both agreed that our November group was an exceptional group. Right from day one, Defensive Tactics on Saturday, November 15, 2014 everyone got along so well together, and had a strong esprit du corps. Assisting me on the first and second day was not only Tobias, but Sevil Dilbas as well. At 21-years-old she is one of my youngest assistances, and she has a passion for self-defense training. Also assisting was a German Army Ranger friend of mine (he wishes for his name to be withheld), and when he asked me if there was anything I needed I said, “Yea, I’d like to have a German Army MRE (Meal Ready to Eat).” The next day he brought me a brand new NATO approved German Army combat ration box. I really didn’t expect him to bring me one, but I’m glad he did. I wanted it to show my soldiers back home what one looks like. American soldiers always like to see what foreign soldiers are using. 

One of the biggest surprises, and a pleasant surprise at that, was that at the Level 1 courses where Peter Wolfsdorf was get recertified in my system. I first met Peter back in 2005 when I first started teaching civilian courses in Germany. He was running a bodyguard school in Waldmüchen called AASW (Ausbildungsakademie Für Sicherheit Waldmüchen). Now Peter has his own company called BLACKFROG where he provides tactical training and sells tactical clothing and equipment. BLACKFROG is an authorized distributor for PENTAGON Tactical Sportwear. Peter Wolfsdorf not came to be recertified by me, but he also brought along one of his bodyguard colleagues to go through the Level 1 program. Since Peter was attending all five days I tapped into this expertise and had him teach some techniques in Ground Survival and some professional bodyguard techniques in Crime Survival when I came to the part about protecting others. When I have high-speed instructors in my courses I don’t hesitate to let my students get a little bonus training. For me it is all about providing my students with the most up-to-date effective techniques in the world. 

My Reality-Based Personal Protection Director of Luxembourg, Patrick Wengler, drove to Cologne to help me with the Crime Survival course. He supervised students, and I also gave him some material to teach. Patrick has an incredible military and police background, and we’ve done a lot of good training together over the years in a few countries. 

Thorsten Schmick, one of my students who took my Knife Camp last year, came back to be certified in Level 1. He had just opened up his own self-defense school called rb-defense, for reality-based defense, in Siegen. He said to me over a Peruvian dinner in the center of Cologne, “Your system is the only one I want to teach. I have studied many things over the years, and yours has everything in it.” Thorsten has joined a long list of instructors who have found the Jim Wagner Reality-Based Personal Protection system a “complete system,” having pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict with the most up-to-date effective techniques.  

Training the Dutch National Police

Jim Wagner 

On Thursday, November 20, 2014 I went to the Cologne Main Train Station to board a train for Amsterdam. When I was waiting for my train a display caught my attention. It was the Kölner Krippenweg, translated The Cologne Peace Crib. It was a modern depiction of the birth of Jesus Christ; modern meaning 1946 just after World War II. I read the poster, and it said: 

When it was first erected in 2005, the ruins awoke for many people memories and emotions associated with their own experiences of the war and the time of deprivation after the war. The nativity scene is supposed to revive memories and also tell young people about the experiences that their parents and grandparents had. The theme of “war and destruction” meaningfully invokes the importance of the Christmas message of peace. Just 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ was not born into a world of homely peace, but into a world full of need, poverty and suffering. He is the Prince of Peace who came to save people from their sins. In the gospel according to Luke, angels announced the glad tidings to the shepherds: “Glory be to God in the highest, and on Earth peace and good will to all men.” The nativity scene is to be understood as a current appeal for peace in Bethlehem, Cologne and everywhere in the world where people want to live in freedom and dignity with one another. 

I couldn’t help but think about the Christians in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, and Sudan that are being slaughtered in their cities and villages, and the title of the display could very well be The Assyrian Peace Crib. 1946 was 68 years ago, and yet this same scene is played out even today. Because this display was so powerful I could not help but take a few photos of it and share it with you. 

When my wife and I arrived at the Amsterdam Central Train Station a police officer friend of mine, Theo, picked us up. He was there to take our luggage from us and get it to my host, who had to work for a few hours. Theo asked me, “Jim, where would you like me to drop you off?” I responded to him, “We’d like to go to the Rijks Museum.” For him this was a very simple request, for it was only a few blocks away, and a few minutes later we said our good-byes and me and my wife were standing before the large museum. I wanted to go there because the museum had been renovated, and I wanted to continue my research on human conflict. Whenever I am near a museum, battlefield, or historical site I do research for future articles, videos, and books. 

Once inside the museum I found a nice collection of weapons from various periods of Dutch history, great paintings and artifacts, and of course many Rembrandt van Rijn paintings. Even though I had seen it before, I just had to have another look at Rembrandt’s most famous oil painting The Night Watch painted in 1642. It had been painted at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. 

After the museum closed we had an hour just to stroll around Amsterdam. However, because it was rush hour one had to be on guard for the thousands of bicyclists on every street and bike path in the city. There is no other city in the world with so many people riding bicycles. It’s quaint, but at rush hour it is hazardous for pedestrians trying to cross a street. 

Inspector Gerard Willemsen picked us up in front of the Rijks Museum and took us to our hotel. The hotel, about 15 kilometers outside of the city, had a canal right in front of it. It was a very modern and comfortable hotel. Later that evening we went to his house for a homemade “Dutch farmer’s dinner.” We all had a great time. 

Just after breakfast Gerard picked me up and we headed to the Dutch Police Tactical Training Center in Amsterdam. Although I had taught out of there for years, it was the first time I taught the newly organized Dutch National Police. When I used to teach there the Dutch police were formerly 25 regional police forces and the Dutch Police Services Agency (KLPD). Then on January 1, 2013 they formed a single national police force. During the reorganization I did not do any work for the Dutch government, for there were a lot of things for the police to iron out, but now that everything had been worked out I was back. The police instructors that I was to teach would be eventually teaching all police within The Netherlands. 

A few of my police friends were there from before, but there were a lot of new faces. Without going into too much detail, I stated the training with high-risk vehicle stop situations. Every topic I taught that day was specifically requested, and the Dutch police knew I had some original techniques and training methods, which I did. 

During lunch I ate in the station’s cafeteria with all of the instructors. It was a nice social hour. One of the police instructors told me that he attended an open seminar several months back in Amsterdam that had a lot of famous civilian martial arts teaching. One of the instructors was a man who has been criticizing me for years. This man has publicly pronounced, “Wagner never training GSG9,” “Wagner was never on a S.W.A.T. team,” “Wagner never went to a real police academy,” “Wagner never was a sergeant,” “Wagner was never a Sky Marshal,” and the list goes on and on. In fact, this same instructor has page after page on his website dedicated to attacking my character. Well, this Dutch police officer was practicing a technique and this well-known martial arts instructor came up to them, and it was not even his course, and said to the two police officers, “You guys are doing it all wrong.” The police instructor was expecting some constructive criticism after the comment, but he just walk away without saying anything further. The police instructor looked at him and commented to his partner, “What an asshole.” Well, needless to say, I am teaching the Dutch National Police and he is not. 

After lunch the rest of the day was Defensive Tactics. I finished the training with some Knife Survival material, and afterward there was a debriefing. All the instructors agreed that the information I shared with them was pertinent to the new program they wanted to develop. Gerard drove my wife and I to the train station, and three and a half hours later we were back in Cologne.

Knife Camp in Cologne

Jim Wagner 

I really didn’t have any days off between Level 1 and Knife Camp in Cologne, Germany, but I was energetic. I had 22 students signed up for Knife Survival, and what a group it was: personnel from the military, several police officers, Krav Maga instructors, traditional-based martial arts instructors, and a lot of people who had heard about my revolutionary knife fighting system. 

The second day of Knife Camp is six hours of Knife Expert, and two hours of Tactical Knife that is restricted to police officers, military personnel, and government contractors. In Knife Expert my students had a bonus with Joachim Roux teaching sword techniques. Not that any student will ever fight with a sword, but they may have to one day defend against one because once in a while a mad man will go on a rampage with one. And, since the title of the course is “Knife Expert,” I want all of my students to be an expert with any blade they pick up. As I was taught by the United States Marines Combatives instructors I trained, “One Mind. Any Weapon.” 

The final two hours was the Tactical Knife course, and I covered material that civilians do not need to know. I’ve been training police, military, corrections, and security personnel since 1989 (25 years now). 

The last day of Knife Camp was Monday, November 27, 2014, and it was the one-day Knife Instructor course. Dropping in to assist me in Knife Camp courses was Andreas Luttropp and Dominik Klose of the MUSADO Military Police Combat System. They have been certified Reality-Based Personal Protection instructors for years now, but they wanted their student Ralf Tschannerl to compete his knife training with me and become a certified instructor. When his training was complete Dominik and I presented him with his Black Belt certificate from the MPCS system. I have worked closely with this group over the years, and I was honored to be a part of the ceremony. 

In Knife Instructor I taught would be instructors how to be good instructors. After some training in the morning, going over the material for a couple of hours, after lunch each group was given two to three volunteers to teach. None of the volunteers had ever taken any of my courses, and so I was able to see how each of my students taught the Knife Survival material. I also had four other instructors grading the students. 

The next day, Tuesday, I was on three different flights eventually landing in Southern California. On this European trip I had traveled on 10 different airplanes, and I had slept in five different hotels. Was all of it worth it? You bet it was. I had a blast, and enjoyed teaching and spending time with friends. 

A tribute to an old friend

Jim Wagner 

On Sunday, October 26, 2014 I was on a military mission in Southern California and I ran into one of my old friends, Lieutenant Ken Alexander, who was the S.W.A.T. Commander of the Placentia Police Department S.W.A.T. Team. I had not seen him in over twelve years. As I approached him, despite being in my uniform, decked out in tactical gear, sun glasses on with a patrol cap on bearing the rank of Sergeant First Class, Ken said to me from a distance, “Jim!” I strolled up to him, we shook hands, and we caught each other up on our police and military careers. He looked exactly like the old Ken Alexander I used to train with and hang out with, only he had some gray hair on the sides of his head and he was slightly heavier, but still in excellent physical condition. 

After talking to one another for about 15 minutes we knew that we both had to get back to work, for he was also on duty with the North County S.W.A.T. Team (a team I had trained a few times before in the past), and so we exchanged business cards and wished each other well. I was planning to email mail him after I returned from my European seminars. 

While I was in my hotel room in Cologne, Germany checking my email account a mutual friend had sent me an email stating that Ken Alexander had died. I couldn’t believe it. I just saw him 14 days earlier. I Googled Ken’s name, and sure enough the report was true. On Sunday, November 9, 2014 Lieutenant Ken Alexander, 48-years-old, went into cardiac arrest in his sleep, his wife called the paramedics, and he was transported to the St. Jude Hospital Critical Care Unit and was placed on life support. 

I looked at a few Southern California news websites, and each confirmed Ken’s passing. I guess I was hoping it was all a mistake, that the story wasn’t true, but it was all too real. I was shocked. It is always a shock when someone you know passes on from this life and into the next. It also made me think of my own mortality knowing that one day the news will be about me. 

When it came to training tactical teams it was Ken Alexander who gave me my first “big break.” Ken was a police officer for the Los Angeles Housing Authority, and he had me teach his S.W.A.T. team my own original Defensive Tactics program. On March 23, 1994 I received a Letter of Appreciation from Ken’s S.W.A.T. Commander Lieutenant Robert M. Piernas. I was invited back, and I set up some realistic scenarios for the team, all which I still have on videotape.

The best memory I have of Ken Alexander is when he invited me to go train with him and his unit, the U.S. Army Reserve 19^th Special Forces, Military Intelligence Detachment, at Camp W.G. Williams, Utah in May of 1994. We both had an awesome time firing LAW rockets and M-16 and M-60 range time, and Ken had me learn how to fire the 60mm and 81mm mortars. We were also part of a heliborne exercise. We had flown up there together, and we flew back together having conversation there and back. Years later I posted the video containing that training on my YouTube channel jimwagnerrbpp, but Ken does not appear in it for Operational Security reasons, for he stayed on with the Special Forces up until 2008. Before I had met him in 1992 he had served in Turkey and in Italy with an Airborne unit. 

Ken Alexander and I had the opportunity to do some Helicopter Rope Suspension Techniques (HRST) together at MCB Camp Pendleton, California when we were both police officers on our S.W.A.T. Teams back in 1996. I handed my video camera to Ken, and he videotaped me as I am hooking up and getting lifted into the air by a U.S. Marine Bell UH-1 “Huey” helicopter during Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) training. I posted the training video on YouTube years later, and when I am checking my harness in the video I look up and you hear me say, “Hey there Ken.” He replies, Hey Jim,” and then I describe what I am about to do. 

When the United States of America was attacked by Al Qaeda on our own soil on September 11, 2001 I eventually went into the U.S. Air Marshal Service to do my part for the Global War on Terrorism, and Ken knew that he’d be activated by the Army. Ken ended up doing two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan where he was awarded the Bronze Star. On one of his SF missions he provided intelligence that led to the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch. She was serving with the 507^th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces during the Battle of Nasiriyah, and she was captured and became a Prisoner of War. PFC Lynch was rescued by U.S. Special Forces Operation on April 1, 2003. 

The Ken I knew was a professional warrior, and he loved police work. Over the years I had learned many techniques and tactics from him, and I guess I can consider him one of my teachers as well as a friend. 

I think the email I received from his best friend summed it up best when it was written while Ken was on life support, “Ken knows and loves Jesus Christ, and he will be in His protective and loving arms soon. That is our comfort.”