Strike Tactical Solutions

Newsletter 1/2007

  
  

STRIKE Tactical Solutions has opened an indoor training center at our Lake Zurich offices. The training center features a classroom that can seat 25 students at any time, a FATS training facility, a training area where empty hands combatives, interactive Force-on-Force etc can be presented.

A full compliment of training aids are available to instructors such as replica "Blue Guns", Airsoft firearms and Simunition FX trainers. As winter approaches, the training focus of STRIKE Tactical has shifted to Force-on-Force training and this facility will be fully utilized in the following months to prepare and equip Law Enforcement Officers with the knowledge and neccessary skills needed for the streets of America.
 
A grand opening of the facility is in the planning stages. 


 


DEFENSE AGAINST THE VEHICLE AMBUSH!
By Henk Iverson (Previously published in the Magnum Magazine in South Africa)

Karl Benz invented the motor vehicle and Henry Ford made it available to many, making it a whole lot easier to get around on this planet.  We can now travel in relative comfort and safety while protected against the elements.  We are also able to get from point  A to point B a much faster than our ancestors of 150 years ago.

But, not unexpectedly, there is a downside to owning or driving a car in South Africa at present - people try to steal it, and they are quite prepared to use violence to do so.  Of course, personal defense in and around the automobile is not a new idea, but within the past few years it has become a vitally important concept.  This article is about counter-ambush techniques – but let me stress at the outset that this should not be regarded as training.  There are many techniques out there that could be useful in addition to those that you will read about shortly.  Use what works for you – discard what does not.

Your Vehicle – a Deathtrap?

Why should you be so vulnerable to predators when you are inside your car or truck?  Let us consider the situation.  When you drive you should (by law) be wearing your seatbelt, and your doors will be locked against forced entry.  Your view to the rear and sides of the vehicle is limited to that provided by three – possibly two – small mirrors;  space inside the vehicle is restricted and there are many items that may impede your escape – the steering wheel, gear shift, passengers, etc.  Add to this the two (or more) people armed with firearms who are intent on killing you and you will see that you are trapped in your car.  A motor-vehicle is not as ‘safe’ or as bulletproof as movies would lead you to believe.

Ambush!

Picture the following scenario.  You are driving home to the farmhouse after a hard day’s slog in the field.  You are desperately tired and your mind is intent on the work that must be completed by the end of the week.  It’s time for a hot meal and a cold beer.

As you make the turn onto your familiar dirt road your approach is blocked by another vehicle.  There are deep ditches alongside this rather narrow track so there is no possibility of turning the car around to escape.  Suddenly somebody starts shooting at you.  You are now trapped in a vehicle ambush.  The solution?

Drive Through!

My best advice is to attempt to drive through the ambush.  But there is a danger that should you ram the vehicle blocking your way you may damage the engine of your car and cause it to stall.  Keep in mind that an increasing number of modern cars are fitted with air bags which deploy automatically in the case of a front-end collision, trapping you even further and blocking your view.  If you are able to push your way through, KEEP GOING - DON'T STOP!

Although, as pointed out above, vehicle bodywork is not bulletproof, but your car can take enormous punishment from small arms fire and still remain functional.  On a recent trip to the United States I witnessed a police department demonstrate this to its officers.  A vehicle was started up and officers fired at the engine with every pistol, SMG and 223-patrol rifle that they could lay their hands on.  Pieces of the car went flying in all directions, but the engine kept running.  Only when a round went through an electrical cord in the engine and the ground around the car was littered with empty magazines, did the engine stall.  The officers then shot at the tires, which deflated very slowly.  Next, it was the turn of the petrol tank.  All that happened was that the fuel leaked out – no explosions.  So much for the hero who stops a car with one shot – and the car then explodes.  So you may be able to keep driving, even if your car is hit by incoming rounds.  But remember YOU are definitely not bulletproof.

Using Your Car as Cover

Let us assume that you were neither able to drive through the ambush nor turn the car around.  You must now bail out of that death trap.  Remember, you can’t get away;  there are people shooting at you and your car has become a lead magnet. 

What is cover?  We define cover as an object between you and your attackers that will STOP a bullet.  As you are aware, only certain parts of your car are capable of doing this.  If the car bodywork merely slows down incoming rounds it should be regarded as CONCEALMENT, not cover.  Is your car cover, or simply concealment against an assailant armed with an AK47? 

If you are trapped, try to stop the vehicle with the passenger-side fender at an angle towards the attackers.  This will place the engine in direct line of the incoming fire while you make your escape.  The engine is one of the few parts of your car that can be regarded as cover in an emergency situation.  Get your head down as low as possible as you get out of your seat belt.  The technique that I teach involves bringing both hands into play simultaneously.  Go for the seat belt release with the right, while the left hand slips under the belt itself, scooping it clear and away from  you.  Now both hands go for the door – the right to the door-opening lever, the left to the door lock.  Push the door open as you roll your body out of the vehicle.  KEEP LOW!

Use your hands to break your fall and crawl clear, moving rapidly to the rear of the vehicle.  We go to the rear because the open door will obstruct forward movement. Follow the contours of the car.  Once behind relative safety, stay low and draw your pistol from its holster.  Breathe deeply.  Calm down as much as possible.  Time to fight back!

Pop up unexpectedly, identify your target – and shoot.  When you come up remember the rule “muzzle first to danger”.  If you bring up your head without your gun you will lose precious time.  After firing your first shots get back behind cover.  Next, MOVE TO A NEW POSITION.  If you keep popping up at the same position it won’t take your ambushers long to figure out where to aim as you emerge.  Move forward and use the engine as cover.  Stay low as you  move.  All that your attacker must see of you is an eyeball and the muzzle of your gun.  If they want to advance on you let them do it through a hail of lead.  But don’t fire blindly;  make your shots count.

If the attack comes from the drive’s side, the procedure remains the same, but you will be forced to crawl over the passenger seat, open the far door to slide out of the vehicle.  Remember to keep your head and upper body low as possible as you move.

When using your car as "cover" keep at least an arm’s length away from it.  DO NOT GET "SUCKED" INTO COVER!  If you are too close, you won’t be able to swing the weapon rapidly from left to right or vice versa as required.  Your movement will be restricted and you stand the risk of hitting the car – or whatever cover you choose – with  arms, hands or gun.  Note that, if you are too close to cover, incoming rounds could ricochet from the car into your body or head.

Keep low as you return fire.  Avoid shooting through the closed windows of  your car if possible, as you may end up with glass splinters in your face or, more importantly, your eyes.  To reload or clear a stoppage, GET DOWN BEHIND COVER.  Don’t stand in the open where you could easily get shot.  Always look for better cover.  Your car makes a big target that is easy to hit, and yet you are using it as "cover".  Move to better cover as soon as possible.  And keep your finger off the trigger until you have acquired a target and have made the decision to shoot.  This is a high stress situation.  If you leave your finger on the trigger you may have a negligent discharge, possibly injuring yourself.

Guns Inside the Vehicle

This is a contentious subject.  Where do I place my firearm inside my car?  Picture our scenario again.  Suppose your gun was not in its holster but under your thigh on the seat.  Would you have been able to release the seat belt, open the locked car door and retrieve your gun as you bailed out with people shooting at you?

I teach my students to keep their guns in their holsters.  When the weapon is in the holster we know that it is secure, can be brought into action relatively fast, and is one less thing to worry about as we make our escape.   Cross-draw and shoulder holsters work quite well inside a vehicle, as you can reach your gun with either hand.  I use the hip holsters for my handguns, even in cars.  Remember to pull your concealment garment clear of the safety belt at the beginning of the journey so that your gun is concealed but in easy reach.  As you may have gathered, I am a proponent of the ‘ESCAPE FIRST, FIGHT LATER’ school of thought.

Do not place your gun on your lap or the passenger seat while driving.  If you have to ram your way through an ambush – or if you in turn are rammed – your gun is sure to go flying under the pedals or the seat.  As you try to escape you will not be able to retrieve it quickly enough – or you might not find it at all.  And  choose a good, sturdy holster.  If you carry your gun in a flimsy, cheap piece of garbage you can expect to lose the gun during your exit.  Not a good thing to happen when somebody is trying to kill you.

The Choice of Handgun

Always a contentious point.  As our lives are worth nothing to an AK47-wielding thug, and as there are no good concealment holsters for a 12ga Remington pump-action shotgun, we have to rely on handguns for protection.  My personal choice for this duty is a high capacity semi-automatic pistol.  I have several reasons for this choice, the most important being sustained firepower.  I can stay in the fight longer before having to reload.  RELOAD WHEN YOU WANT TO, NOT WHEN YOU HAVE TO!

The semi-auto pistol is faster to reload and easier to shoot than a revolver.  It is also easier to reload should the operator be wounded.  No, we do not teach “spray and pray”, or “hose them down” tactics with the pistol.  However, it is comforting to have 18-rounds in my Glock and a spare magazine in its pouch with 18 more.  If you carry a semi-auto pistol, always carry a spare magazine.  The magazine in your pistol could be damaged or dirty or may fall out as you draw the gun.  Remember, Murphy is your constant companion.

Revolver shooters, be honest – do you really carry spare ammunition with you when you go armed – every day without fail?  And if you do, how many rounds?  Of course the revolver is an excellent weapon, of course it can be used for self-defense, but in the times in which we live, a semi-auto pistol makes better sense.  However, I must agree with top American trainer John Farnam’s answer to the ‘best gun’ question:  “The one that you have in your hand when the crap hits the fan!”

Handy Items to Have in Your Car

What I recommend are commonsense items.  Although I hated the cell phone when it first reached this country, it has since become a must in our defensive toolbox.  Help is only a phone call away if you are attacked, if your vehicle breaks down or you are involved in an accident, etc.  I also recommend a strong flashlight, a first aid kit, and a large folding knife.  I suggest a one-hand opening model, such as the Emerson Commander model, as you may have only one hand available.  The knife can be used for cutting through a seat belt in an emergency and could even serve as a defensive weapon.  One item that you should NOT be without is an Israeli Battle Dressing(IBD). These compression bandages are life-savers. 

Points to Remember

1. It CAN happen to you.
2. When using your car as "cover", neither you nor the car is bulletproof. Use the tires, rims and engine as emergency "cover" if no other is available.
3. Beware of muzzle masking when shooting from cover.  ‘Masking’ means that as you look through the sights you appear to have a clear shot but, as the muzzle is lower than the sights this may not be so and you could hit part of your cover (in this case your car).
4. Whenever possible, place the engine of your vehicle between you and your attackers; this should stop incoming fire.
5. Move from your covered position only if forced to, or to find a superior position during a lull in the action.
6. Let your adversaries come to you – don’t go ‘hunting’.
7. Remember the “three eye” principle.  As you reach cover, draw your gun and prepare to fight back, first bringing up the gun – THEN your head.  If you look first without the gun you will waste valuable time getting the weapon on target.  You have two eyes in your head – the muzzle of the gun should be your third ‘eye’.
8. Remember; muzzle first to danger at all times.
9. Stay as calm as you possible can.  BREATHE, BREATHE, BREATHE!  If you panic you will be unable to think clearly.  Your brain is your most important weapon.
10. You are either a survivor or a victim.  Make your choice NOW! 
    
    REMEMBER:  YOU CAN SHOOT FROM AND BE SHOT FROM UNDERNEATH YOUR VEHICLE!  JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE BEHIND A PIECE OF "PLATE AND PLASTIC" DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE BEHIND COVER!

Recently I conducted a Patrol Rifle Program in the Midwest (Chicago) with the able assistance of several close colleagues. My personal rifle for the Course was my Beretta CX4, as I wanted to see how it compared with the various 223 and 308 rifles brought by most of the other students. 

We were on an outdoor range, and temperature hovered in the high thirties. All of us were dressed appropriately. I was wearing a heavy parka.

My CX4 (like my RA/XCR) is equipped with an EOTech, and it is sighted in, dead-on, at forty meters with Cor-Bon DPX 140gr 40S&W. However, I noticed at closer ranges, particularly when we did brain-stem shots at three meters, my impacts were biased to the right. When I aimed for the center or the forehead, expecting the bullet to strike the center of the nose (allowing for the close-range offset), the holes kept appearing to the right of the nose.

Going back to forty meters, I confirmed that the EOTech was indeed still delivering bullets dead-nuts. It took one of my colleagues to solve this mystery by pointing out the obvious. My heavy parka caused me to mount the rifle canted counter-clockwise.  It was not perfectly vertical, but from the shooter's (my) perspective, the tilting was not obvious.
 
I thought I was holding the rifle straight ventricle. When shooting wearing just a shirt, this dilemma rarely manifests itself, but the parka invariably causes me to cant the rifle, even though I didn't realize I was doing it.

The lesson here is that we need to insure our rifle is straight vertical when sighting it in, and we must also insure it is straight vertical when holding high in order to compensate for the bore-line/sight-line offset when shooting at extremely close range. The other lesson is that we need to run our gear in all kinds of environments, so that we become aware of issues associated with extremes in temperature, wind, at al. I, for one, do too much shooting in comfortable places!

At our Urban Rifle Courses we always have several local patrol officers who bring department rifles, mostly stock AR-15s, from DPMS, RRA, DSA, and others. They usually work just fine. Other students bring out-of-the-box, stock XCRs, CX4s, Krebs/Kalashnikovs, et al. Again, they usually all work just fine.

Patrol Rifles and Gadgets 

It is only when we have a student who is seriously involved in one of several organized competitions that we run into trouble. Most current rifle competition conventions invariably put a premium on meaningless degrees of accuracy, to the exclusion individual tactics, reliability, and any conceivable, practical purpose. Who are seriously involved in these competitions will unfailingly bring a rifle that is tight, bulky, heavy, and loaded up with all manner of glittering gadgets, and also bring a smug determination that he will "show us all a thing or two." His demise is assured, and it usually doesn't take long!

Legitimate, defensive firearms must be highly reliable under a broad spectrum of circumstances and, simultaneously, functionally accurate. Be that as it may, if you are determined to have a weapon that is exceptionally accurate, you may get it, but reliability will be critically compromised. Your rifle will still be reasonably functional, as long as you maintain it at a high level. However, severe environments and lack of maintenance will predictably conspire to bring it to its knees.

Ultimately, if you are determined to have a weapon that is extravagantly accurate,
reliability will be fatally compromised, and you will be thus saddled with a tight, reliable, temperamental, ammunition-sensitive prima-donna. It will never be reliable, no matter how well you maintain it.

With few exceptions, everything you add to your rifle for the sake of increased accuracy is just something else that will eventually peel, chip, delaminate, come unglued, come loose, disconnect, stop working, break into pieces, fall off, etc. Pray you're not fighting for your life when any of that happens!

No single rifle will adequately fulfill both missions. If you want a serious, defensive rifle, it will be reliable, but its accuracy will never be better than mediocre. If you want a single-purpose, competition rifle, its accuracy may be unsurpassed, but its reliability will always be untrustworthy. You can't have it both ways.

Which way do you go, Mister? Far be it from me to tell others what to do, but, as for myself, every rifle, indeed every weapon, I own is a legitimate, fighting implement. As a matter of personal policy, I will neither own nor keep a "play gun."

Israeli Battle Dressings 

My colleague and ER surgeon, Doc Gunn, answers a nagging question about treating trauma in the field:

"In the case of a gaping wound, many advocate first stuffing something into it that will act as a matrix for blood to fill and then clot. The method is known as 'DPDP' (Deep Packing w/Deep Pressure). By stuffing the wound full of gauze, you will necessarily apply pressure directly to wounded tissues, thus controlling bleeding better, at least in theory, than via pressure on the surface alone.

The problem is, when the packing is subsequently disturbed and/or dislodged, an eventuality difficult to prevent in the field, bleeding will resume. As with all 'probing' of wounds, particularly in the field, you may well make matters worse. You're throwing the dice!

A better plan is to quickly apply IBD's (Isreali Battle Dressing)  over the wound and use it/them to pull injured tissues together. Blood will fill open spaces, and clot. Then, you need to get him to a surgeon and an ER, as there is little more you can do.

Two days ago, I packed and wrapped an egregious laceration of a man's palm, prior to sending him off to the Big City and the services of a hand surgeon. The flap of skin involved 80% of the palm, and what was exposed was down to tendons. I numbed it, irrigated it under high pressure, packed it with a few loops of Kerlix, closed the flap over the Kerlix, and used the rest to form a secondary dressing around the entire hand and wrist. Actually, I did little more than any of our students would have done, except they would have used an IBD or two. The man needed to see a hand surgeon (out of my league!), and all I did was stabilize the injury so that it didn't get any worse, and he didn't bleed to death, during transit.

Bottom line: It's best, in general, to simply apply IBDs, skillfully and quickly, just as we do in our TTGSW (Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds) classes. Then, get him to an ER. Applying the IBD in the field is to insure that he gets there alive, and none the worse for wear!" 

Israeli Battle Dressings are available at STRIKE Tactical Solutions:  http://www.striketactical.com/store/index.asp?iCat=20

THE D-FENDER D-RING - LIFESAVER!
By Jeff Chudwin

The continuing law enforcement movement to patrol rifles and carbines has seen a large number of the AR-15/ M-16 type firearms enter service. In twenty five plus years of competition and training, I have observed well over a million rounds fired from these weapons and have seen an unacceptable number of extraction / ejection malfunctions.

A basic fault in the design of the AR-15/M-16 type weapon is the lack of adequate extractor spring tension. Regardless of manufacturer, I have observed numerous extraction failures where the fired cartridge case prematurely releases off the bolt face prior to ejection. The premature release of the fired case is caused by the extractor lip slipping or pulling out of the cartridge case extractor grove and off the fired case head due to lack of adequate extractor spring tension.

The fired case remains in the feedway and is jammed on top of a live round feeding from the magazine. To reduce this serious malfunction requires magazine removal, bolt lock to rear, and feedway clearing before the weapon can be reloaded and returned to service.

To correct the extractor spring tension problem, Mack Gwinn of MGI Inc.  designed an ingenious add-on part call the Extactor D-Fender (D-Ring). I first spoke with Mack some years back when I learned of the D-Ring. Mack told me of his experience with the M-16 as a SOG operator and team leader in Viet Nam and as a long time user and student of the M-16 system. His simple solution to extraction / ejection problems is a polymer piece shaped like a horseshoe with a bar across the open end.

The D-Ring is slipped over the extractor spring (as shown in the photo) and the parts reassembled. The D-Ring is then captured under the extractor. The entire installation takes about three minutes. The key point of the D-Ring is that it multiplies the extractor tension by four times.

 Field Use

 For those agencies acquiring M-16A1’s through the Federal 1033 LESO ( https://pubweb.drms.dla.mil/cmis/) program; be aware that the extractor spring in these older issue rifles often lack the inner spring buffer (sits inside the extractor spring and looks like a tiny flat end nail)  and if one exists it is the older red, olive, or white version. DO NOT send the rifle out for street use without a new extractor spring (BLACK in color) bushing and a D-Ring. I also suggest changing out to a new extractor spring.

 This is very inexpensive insurance to keep your AR-15 / M-16 type rifle/carbine in the fight.

 We often hear student officers say that they have had no problems. Our answer is not yet. I was instructed early on that Murphy’s Law is not Murphy’s Suggestion. If it can go wrong it will go wrong and at the worst time.

 Many rifles are fired less than 100 rounds before being put into street duty. In our classes, the officer will fire close to one thousand rounds. Such use tells the real story of reliability.

 *The new series of D-Ring is black in color. The original blue version is still in a number  of our AR type rifles / carbines and going strong.

 ** The D-Ring is available through STRIKE Tactical web site. (http://www.striketactical.com/store/index.asp?iCat=30)


TRAIN OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE 
By Louis Hayes

Statistics fascinate me. I’m a numbers guy.  And when I became a policeman, I was intrigued by the figure that 98% of officers retire pondering the same uncertainty as they went into their careers with: Could I pull the trigger?  It’s a question that rarely (if ever) plagues officers into sleepless nights or bewilderment, but rather chooses to hibernate in a sliver of the mind.  Most officers want to believe their answer is YES, but many just don’t absolutely know for sure. I myself used to re-examine the issue whenever I read or heard about an officer-involved shooting in the newspaper or on TV.  And as a rookie officer, I was forced to meet the question head-on.  After three presses of my trigger, my answer revealed itself: YES.  Early in my life, I joined the desolate two-percent.

It’s a lonely club to join. It’s not a real organization. We just so happen to casually find each other.  The bond between its “members” is mystical.  Stories are shared, but not the cinematic details that would be captured by a Hollywood camera. It’s the images and thoughts that went through the minds of the shooters that are related: the decision-making process, the intrusive thoughts, the aftermath with internal affairs, our supervisor’s responses, and the uncertainty of the pending investigation. But then again, maybe it’s because each of us knows what it’s like to have come face-to-face with our once-concealed answer: YES.

Most civilians get their perception of law enforcement from television and movies.  All cops write speeding tickets. All cops love guns. All cops kill bad guys.  In a major metropolitan area like Chicago, the numbers on the news become misleading. Despite the seemingly frequent coverage of officer-involved shootings, there are thousands of local law enforcement officers who will never have one. It becomes a public fallacy that these gun battles are commonplace, and the cops just return to duty, get some lunch, and finish their shift out.  None of the movie cops seem to get caught off-guard, unprepared, or get their uniform dirty. 

The suspect’s gun is plainly seen, and his intentions are unmistakable.  Most unfortunately, this flawed portrayal even begins to prey on the minds of real-life police officers. Reality. It’s fast, and it’s slow. It’s crystal-clear, and it’s fuzzy. It’s loud, and it’s muffled.  It’s dark, and it’s bright. It’s a panorama, and it’s tunnel vision.  It’s Heaven, and it’s hell.  Nothing is cut and dry. Chances are your mind will plead with your gut to search out an alternative solution to the problem. There’s a defining crease in your existence as a human being in the moment you pull the slack out the trigger, feel the recoil, and gaze upon the answer to your career-long question: Could I pull the trigger? And it will change your life.

The biggest career change that I (and many others) have experienced is my attitude toward use of force training.  On the range, I used to revel on the fact I could punch out the 10-ring on my targets.  I would meticulously line up my sights and complete the academy-perfect trigger press.  Why shouldn’t I? After all, the qualification course had time constraints (if you could call them that) during which textbook presentations and sight pictures could be acquired. And I always looked in the qualification records to make sure my score measured up to top department shooters.  I didn’t give much thought to what I should have been doing: preparing myself to live, by pretending to shoot another living person. 

The other person has a name, a family, a home, hobbies, a favorite food, and right now: a passionate desire to kill you!  This person has been thinking about this situation for sometime now…maybe planning the ambush for days, or since s/he saw the blue lights in the rearview mirror.  What have we caught ourselves thinking about?  How we don’t have time for another report this shift?  About how stiff our new boots are? About how many times we’ve been to this house before for the same exact thing? How this one traffic ticket will bring me a bit closer to reaching my quota? This person is fantasizing about how to murder us. We’re thinking about where to put the cup of coffee down.

Now when I go on the range, I don’t set myself up for perfection.  In the winter, I leave my jacket and gloves on.  I don’t adjust my holster and magazine pouches so I can get the quickest draw possible.  I secure all my snaps and straps. I move. I don’t stand still in front of the targets. In a nutshell, I train outside my comfort zone.  Why? Because there’s nothing comforting about getting into a shoot out. The comfort comes from walking out of one!

During a deadly confrontation, we are racing the clock.  Our response must be fast, accurate, and most of all: right.  It doesn’t have to chew out the X-ring.  Our actions must be faster than we’ve ever done them.

Our human adversary is already acting out his plan, and we’re still figuring out what is going on.  Any shred of spare time must be spent making the decision to fire or not.  Is it legal? Is it necessary? Is it right? Time cannot be spent on our skills. Our response must be spontaneous, reflexive, and impulsive. They must be violent, and continue until the threat stops.  Buy yourself the extra time by perfecting your firearm and survival skills. Train, then train, then train.

We watch lots of dash-mounted accounts of officers getting murdered. When officers get ambushed, some never have the chance to fight back. Conversely, Many other officers are afforded an opportunity to fight back and shoot, but do not. While we may want to believe those officers were still struggling to make their decisions; maybe their answers had already been recently revealed to them before their deaths: NO.  Maybe they just didn’t have it in them.

To all you two-percenters: There’s a new statistic that baffles me. The numbers say 80% of us will be in a second shooting before our careers are over. Does knowing the answer ahead of time change things? Maybe it makes the decision a little easier?  Or our newfound respect for training has prepared us better than before? Or have we replayed the mental and emotional decision-making over and over so many times, we act instinctively? Maybe we just go with our gut, and ignore those antagonizing appeals in our brain to try something else? Maybe the hesitation to see our answer is now gone.

For the rest:  Firearm skills need to become a part of you.  You need to be fast.  It’s necessary you be accurate. You need to move, and use cover, and communicate. You must rehearse the plan in your head over and over.  It must become instinctive, to be called upon regardless if your boots hurt, or you’re dreading writing another report. Your response should be immediate.  Train outside of your comfort zone. Your adversary does not care how well you scored on your last qualification. Have faith in your answer to the question: Could I pull the trigger?  There’s only one absolute way to find out for sure, but the stats say the likelihood of that happening is slim. Live with the belief your answer is YES. I maintained a conviction of how I thought I would answer, and God gave me the tranquility to know I had been right.  If you’re whole-heartedly convinced your answer is YES, you have already invested much thought about this. Continue to practice. Believe in yourself and your skills. I pray you never receive the peace that comes with knowing for sure.

TRAINER OF THE MONTH : Jeff Felts - Center Mass, Inc.

Jeff Felts is a fifteen- year veteran of the Plymount Township, Michigan Police Department.  He holds an associate degree in criminal justice, a bachelor degree in business administration, and is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command. 

His training and tactical foundations are established through a 12 year Army career.  His Police SWAT career with the Western Wayne County Special Operations Team in suburban Detroit spanned 12 years.  He served as an Operator, Sniper, and Sniper Team Leader during that time. 

Jeff is a certified special weapons and tactics instructor, tactical rifle instuctor, sniper instructor and President of Center Mass, Incorporated.  He is the co-author of the NTOA's Patrol Rifle training, policy & equipment manual and an Advisory Board Member of the Amrican SNiper Association.

The Mind-Body-Spirit approach to life is terribly promoted. Those who believe in it can rarely illustrate it with solid, meaningful words. Their message becomes intolerable to us because we can’t digest its significance through the images it invokes: free-spirited, ultra-liberal, granola-eating, atheistic, tree-hugging yoga masters.  I look in the mirror and can’t see myself farther from that description, and I’m not asking you to see yourself as that either. 

I’m here to modernize the Mind-Body-Spirit marketing strategy.  It is the template by which most human beings live their lives…without exactly calling it such.  There are three aspects to living: doing, feeling, and thinking.  In a nutshell, that’s it.  All things can be broken down to these three: the physical, the emotional, and the mental.  And by addressing concerns in each of the three pigeonholes, you are bound to see positive results in your life.

This topic will be a reoccurring column that addresses different approaches to the Mind-Body-Spirit way of life.  Future columns will cover the application to the military, American policing, firearms and tactical training, use of force incidents, and a myriad of other topics. 

The first few contributions you’ll see:

1. Rugby and SWAT. Unlikely bedfellows. This is the story of how I first became “privy” to the Mind-Body-Spirit application in real life.
2. Mind-Body-Spirit Tripod.  An overview of applying M-B-S “tripod” to every feature of existence.
3. Firearms Training. How will a M-B-S perspective better prepare me for battle.
4. Physical Fitness and Wellness.  Yes, the physical realm is one of the main pillars, but even it can be separated into the three pillars, again.
5. Tactical Units. Even minus the gear and weapons, the ties between individuals is what makes a Team work at levels in excess of the sum of its parts.
6. Competition and Games. Golf? Pistol Shoots? Why looking through the M-B-S system will affect how you perform under the pressures of scoring and evaluation.
7. Adventure Racing.  The purest of the Mind-Body-Spirit outdoor racing sports.
8. Use of Force Training. Why is most police Use of Force training a terrible preparation for real life?

You will enjoy the journey. Spying with a M-B-S spectacles can propel average performance to greatness.  I also hope that I am challenged to apply the Mind-Body-Spirit template to a topic sent in by readers of this column.  I would, however funny, find difficulty convincing Henk to allow me to dissect sex, religion, or cooking.  I think he’d rather keep this to more of a tactical (or at least LE/military) application.  All I ask is for you begin this read with an open outlook: Old idea, new approach.

WHY DO THEY DO IT?

The Twin Towers were still a smoldering pile of rubble and body parts when the sensitive second camp began rushing about trying to understand our enemies.  After all, we must have done something to provoke the attack.  We must have deserved it somehow by the wrong we had done others.  That's how nonwarriors think.  They never seem to understand that  lighting a candle and chanting, "Give peace a chance" is not going to convert bullies and tyrants to the wonders of modern civilization.  A warrior knocking their dicks in the dirt - now that grabs their attention.