More Reality-Based Women Than Men
Jim Wagner
For the first time ever in a Level 1 seminar I had more women attending than men; “ever” meaning within the entire 10 years of the Reality-Based Personal Protection system being founded on January 21, 2013. The Level 1 seminar was held at the Progress Form Fitness Centre in Paris, France from July 29 to August 2. One of the reasons for the highest feminine turnout was Christophe Besse’s success at running a few Women’s Survival courses this year in France and Switzerland. Christophe is the RBPP Director of France and my protégé, and his enthusiasm was enough to motivate many women to continue their martial education by going onto Level 1 which encompasses the courses of Defensive Tactics, Ground Survival, Knife Survival, Crime Survival, and Terrorism Survival.
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The men in the courses who trained with their female counterparts were all martial artists, and one is in the French Army who used some of his vacation time to become Level 1 certified by me (he is not shown in any of the photographs due to his current assignment). I was glad to have had this outstanding infantry soldier in my courses because he continually confirmed, before his fellow classmates, that many of the techniques I taught were according to military standards. He was also thankful for all of the new techniques and training methods that I showed him not taught in the French Army.
Assisting me in teaching the courses were Christophe Besse, Patrick Wengler, and Olivier Rawlings. Patrick Wengler is the Reality-Based Personal Protection Director for the country of Luxemburg, and who I visited in the City of Luxemburg on July 27 and 28 to discuss a few courses that we are setting up in the near and far future (see below article explaining this trip). Olivier ‘Oli’ Rawlings, 24, was once my youngest student to attend a Reality-Based Level 1 seminar in Paris going back 7 years ago; back then he had received permission to attend the seminar. Since his first courses he has continued his education with me in England, Canada, and Germany. This summer I had Oli assist me in teaching because he was ready for it, and I’m pleased that I did. He did very well, and he was very comfortable standing before the students. Oli told me that when he returns to London where he lives he is going to start teaching private lessons, and in my opinion he is ready for it. The more people that get exposed to Reality-Based Personal Protection the better.
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My Terrorism Survival course, held at the Progress Fitness Centre on Friday, August 2, was taught a few days before the United States State Department ordered American citizens and “nonemergency” U.S. Embassy staff to leave the country of Yemen. On Sunday, two days after my course, the State Department closed most U.S. embassies in the Middle East for the week until August 10th because the Obama administration had intercepted Al Qaeda communications that indicated that they were planning a major attack on American interests.
I have been teaching my Terrorism Survival course for over a decade now, and I stressed that Friday in Paris how important it was for my students and certified instructors to have this type of training very much a part of their regular martial arts training. Still, over a decade later, there are virtually no martial arts schools teaching their students how to survive most likely terrorist attacks, save those who’ve studied my system and a few other like-minded instructors who got a hold of my books and DVDs. I want people to copy my material, and that’s one reason why I put lessons like surviving a hand grenade attack, office massacres, et cetera, up on my YouTube channel jimwagnerrbpp.
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Earlier that week Christophe and I went to the center of Paris after finishing up my Knife Survival course. First we went to a store that sells Airsoft weapons and other training equipment. For the Terrorism Survival course Christophe bought a simulated hand grenade that operates by rapidly releasing CO2 gas through a spring-loaded firing pin. To convince us that the device would have the effect that we wanted in the classroom the store manager pulled the pin on one, let the spoon fly, and threw the device in the corner. The exploding noise was much louder than I had anticipated, and I instantly said to Christophe, “Yes! Let’s get it.” The grenade is reusable and cost us 55 euro.
Four of the female instructors who teach Women’s Survival had come along with Christophe and me to Saint Michel where the equipment store was located, and then afterwards we all took the Metro to go out to dinner at the Montmatre area near Sacre Coeur cathedral. We mostly discussed setting up a future Reality-Based seminar in Switzerland. On Thursday evening one of my certified instructors, Philippe Medelice, treated me to a Moroccan restaurant at Place de la Bastille where we both enjoyed a couscous dish.
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After we taught the students step-by-step how to survive a hand grenade attack that Friday, as well as how to save others in the kill zone, I had the opportunity to toss the first CO2 hand grenade, and it worked beautifully. Obviously the noise didn’t even come close to a real fragmentation grenade like the ones I threw when I was in Boot Camp with the U.S. Army back at Fort Jackson, or those with the U.S. Marines during Range Safety Officer training at Camp Pendleton when I was on the Costa Mesa Police S.W.A.T. Team, but the sound that it produced was about the same as a shotgun blast, which was enough to simulate the danger.
Although I had to get up early Saturday morning to catch a train, Christophe and I tried to hook up with my former Director of Paris, Julien Nodier the night before. He was driving in from vacation and he thought that he’d make it to the city in time to have dinner with us. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it, and we had to eat without him and leave Paris without seeing him. His apology over the phone was enough, and I look forward to seeing him next year.
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Frank Mainzinger: A True Warrior and Friend
Jim Wagner
For years I had wanted to go to the country of Monaco to get together with an old friend of mine who works there, Frank Mainzinger, but our busy schedules never seemed to line up properly. This time while I was in France things worked out for me to take off for a few days and head on down there on the TGV; France’s bullet train.
I met Frank back in 1999 when he was a Master Sergeant on the 4th Combat Team of Grenzschutzgruppe Neun, commonly known as GSG9; Germany’s national counterterrorist team. I had been hired by this elite team to teach my combat knife methods and S.W.A.T. tactics to them. Frank was my liaison for my stay, and was chosen for the duty by his superiors because of his perfect English he had learned while growing up in Germany next to an American military base.
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By the end of my stay with GSG9 Frank and I had become friends. Unfortunately, the second time I was invited to teach GSG9 the following year, Frank had left the GSG9 and the German Border Police to work in the private sector. That didn’t much matter because I was running a police and military training organization at the time, HSS International, and I recruited him to come work for the corporation teaching tactics and firearms courses to American and Canadian police and military units. He gladly accepted and HSS gave him a lot of work in North America. He had become a true asset to the company; just like Israeli instructor Major Avi Nardia I had brought aboard around the same time and who later became world renown for introducing the KAPAP system to the martial arts world. Like Frank, Avi and I are still good friends to this day.
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Although I had not seen Frank in ten years the moment we saw each other it was as if all the years in between had vanished. We picked up right where we had left off. We discussed the past, he showed me his work place, and he showed me the side of Monaco that few tourists know about.
I took advantage of the fabulous location of the rich and famous and worked on a few video projects, that Frank helped me with them. Yet, despite the little bit of work I put in, most of the stay was soaking up the sun and fun. As a guest in Frank’s home he’d go out jogging each morning and I’d take a swim in his pool that overlooked the Mediterranean Sea, and then we’d hook up to enjoy a traditional German breakfast: cold cuts, cheeses, bread, juice, and coffee.
On one of the evenings Frank had to do an errand for his work and he dropped me off in Monte Carlo where I soon found myself in the Monte Carlo Casino at the roulette table. I’m not a gambler, but I look at placing a bet or two as just entertainment. I have no expectations of winning, and I know my spending limit. Although I had a great time picking the numbers by placing my chips on the felt table, I eventually lost it all; minus one casino chip that I saved as a souvenir and placed it in my shirt pocket. It felt just like Las Vegas, only a bit more elegant with everyone speaking French.
By the final evening I was well educated on Monaco’s history, political structure, and economic status. Frank, in his business suit, dropped me off at the Nice train station on Monday morning, and then he headed off to work; a job that any former cop or warrior would love to have. Yet, despite being surrounded by the ultra-rich for nine years Frank remains one of the most humble men that I know, and I’m honored to still call him “friend.” We promised each other that another decade will not go by without visiting each other. After all, it’s hard to find good friends. I headed back up to Paris on the TGV.
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Both Frank and I have been counterterrorists, and when I got to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Wednesday, August 7 to return to the United States, I could recognize beefed up security when I see it. When I boarded my aircraft everyone, and I mean everyone, from first class passengers to the last person sitting in economy, was searched just before going onto the jetway. When I finally got to my assigned seat, always within five seats of the exit, and I had been sitting for quite a while, the captain made the following announcement three minutes after we were supposed to have taken off, “Due to the increased security we are running late.”
I knew that it had something to do with the Al Qaeda communications between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. State Department had advised all Americans not to travel until the end of August, and the Europeans were nervous that American interests could be targeted on their own soil. Of course, with Ibrahim al-Asiri running around somewhere, the chief bomb maker of the Yemen Al Qaeda branch, French airports weren’t taking any chances. The Global War on Terrorism continues…
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Garth Hoffman: One of Canada’s Best
Jim Wagner
The old saying, “Iron sharpens iron” has proven once again true concerning the exchange between me and Canadian police defensive tactics instructor Garth Hoffman; considered to be one of the best in the country of Canada. I’ve had the privilege of having him as one of my students, going all the way back to 1995 when I was running the training organization HSS International, then as a colleague for many years within the same company teaching defensive tactics to police agencies and military units, and then once again as one of my students when I started to teach Reality-Based Personal Protection back on January 21, 2003. He’s been a good friend all along the journey. I had the pleasure of visiting Garth Hoffman in British Columbia at the end of my busy August to work on some video projects together, exchange techniques and ideas, and just hang out together and talk shop.
I’ve encourage Garth to start writing a police tactics and defensive tactics book, because I know professionals (corrections, law enforcement, military and private security), and even civilian martial artists, will like the simple to-the-point way he explains conflict and survival. Garth has gone to more tactical training courses than anyone I know, and he can match this training with real world custody and street experience.
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