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The Importance of Dynamic Firearms Training

Featured Articles, Mark Six James

By Mark James

Rule #1 in gun fighting: It is more important not to get shot than it is to shoot; shooting is extra credit.  A gun fight is nothing more than a fight that involves a gun.  In a hand-to-hand encounter (fist fight), whether you have combative skills are not, moving to not get hit is typically instinctive.  Then you look until you hit your adversary as hard as you can as often as you can until you neutralize the threat.  The strategy in a gun fight is the same, whether moving to 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 11 o’clock to avoid getting hit.  These encounters are dynamic and rarely predictable. Effective fighters learn to go with the flow and let the situation dictate their response.  Very rarely, if at all, do you stand in place, you move to get off the line of attack as you simultaneously or nearly simultaneously launch your counterattack.  Remember many of these encounters happen inside of 10 feet and most at bad breath distance.

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Lohan Bails On Bodyguard

In The News

Lindsay Lohan and girlfriend Samantha Ronson’s were recently in the news for their very public Las Vegas fight. But did you know that Lohan left her Bodyguard high and dry in Vegas?

Lindsay wanted to surprise her girlfriend so she enlisted one of her bodyguards to drive with her to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. The two had a huge fight and Samantha ran away from Lindsay, prompting Lohan to scream “Did she [bleep]ing leave me?!”

She then took off after her girl and presumably, back to Los Angeles, leaving her bodyguard behind. He was last seen by a witness in front of a Vegas club, trying to figure out how to get back to LA and furiously texting on his BlackBerry.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Babysitter? Chauffeur? Bodyguard? When we sign on to do this work, often times the scope of the job is beyond the initial job description. Lohan’s bodyguard has his hands full, though. It’s one thing to be asked at the drop of a hat to do something for a client-that happens all the time. To have the client take off without protection and to be so inconsiderate as to leave an employee stranded approximately 282 miles from home is just plain rude. Sometimes clients really work you for those paychecks, and sometimes the pay isn’t worth the aggravation.

Second Aid: Preparing for Medical Emergencies

Featured Articles

By R. E. Rick Colliver

As a former Emergency Medical Technician and Rescue Diver, I have seen first aid and trauma kits of varying sizes, shapes and colors that included enough equipment to operate a MASH unit at the site of a catastrophe for a month.  On the other hand, the most experienced flight nurse/combat medic I’ve ever known once said that if he had a 2X2 bandage and a pair of rubber gloves, he was “good to go” for almost any occasion.  This illustrates that it’s the “carpenter and not the tools” that usually gets the job done, and thus competent, recurrent training becomes an essential component in the protection specialist’s toolbox.

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Gear Down!

Featured Articles

Gear Down! Staying Below the RADAR in Protective Operations

By: R. E. Rick Colliver

Let’s face it; we all like gear! More importantly, we like the kind of gear that the high-speed operators endorse. Whether we intend to use it every day in a demanding environment, or throw it in the trunk of our car “for that day”, we want to know that we are using what the experts recommend.  We are proud of our gear, and we want our peers to know that we wear, carry or shoot, only the finest. Many of us have seen (or owned) the T-shirt that says “If you die first, we’re splitting up…”; enough said.

However, when working in the often-misunderstood field of protective operations, calling attention to our gear is usually a mistake. It lets others know who we are, and it often alienates or worries the very people we are assigned to protect.  If we think back to the principal focus of a protective mission, it is not only to prevent the intentional or unintentional injury to the protectee, but also to prevent embarrassment. And, protection can only be successful if the protectee and their organization are cooperative and engaged.

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Obama and The Presidential Security Challenge

Executive Protection Articles

 

By Fred Burton and Ben West

The U.S. presidential campaign trail presents a host of challenges for the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) protective detail assigned to cover the presidential candidates, something we’ve discussed previously. Major presidential candidates have been afforded USSS protection since the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy at a campaign event. Due to the nature of modern presidential campaigns, the candidates’ schedules are packed with events that often start at breakfast and continue long after dinner. Candidates also hopscotch across the country, often visiting several cities in a day and sometimes visiting multiple venues in the same city.

The Security Challenge of Campaign Season

In the last weeks before the Nov. 4 election, the campaign of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama hit several different cities in one day, meaning that several teams of advance agents were deployed around the country at any given time. For example, on Nov. 3, Obama visited Jacksonville, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Manassas Park, Va. Campaign managers often adjust itineraries on the fly to meet the needs of the campaign.

This tempo constantly forces protection agents into new environments with very little time to plan and implement security measures. Wherever Obama traveled during the campaign, USSS agents would send advance teams to scout airports and motorcade routes, plan security for campaign sites, conduct liaison with local police and keep tabs on any persons of interest during the visit. The advance agents are supplemented by teams of extra agents to help secure sites; dog handlers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians to check for explosive devices; and uniformed officers to help control access to sites, man metal detectors and provide countersniper support.

Due to the nature of political campaigns, once a candidate like Obama lands and safely arrives at an event location, there is frequently tremendous exposure to the public. This is true not just on stage behind a podium but also as the candidate works the crowd, shaking hands, kissing babies and talking to voters. As seen during the May 1972 attempted assassination of George Wallace and the later attempts against presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, it is during these times of close interaction with the public that a VIP is at the highest risk. Would-be assassins can use the crowd for camouflage and quickly get a close shot at the VIP, leaving little time for agents to respond to the threat. Because of this, working the crowd is a difficult task and one protection agents hate. Fortunately for the Obama protective detail, with the election period over they will find themselves in these kinds of situations less frequently. [Read more…] about Obama and The Presidential Security Challenge

Marketing = Working

Career Advice

Next week visitors to BODYGUARDCAREERS will be treated to an interview with Bruce Alexander. One of the crucial statements he makes is about the importance of “marketing” yourself.

What exactly does marketing mean, you may be asking.

Marketing means how you package and present yourself. Have you ever noticed how when you go to the store you find yourself drawn more to a certain item simply because of the way it LOOKS-well, that principle needs to be applied to your employment tools: The Resume and The Cover Letter.

Most people think their tools are great. They’ve used a template from a book for their cover letter, copied someone else’s resume format, and think they’re good to go. Not true. Template cover letters are painfully apparent and mark you as a rookie. The resume format you’ve copied may be dated, or badly done to begin with!

The resume is more than just a list of your past jobs and duties while on the job. You can use your resume as part of your strategy to obtain the interview. The resume must be formatted correctly, free from grammatical or spelling errors. Margins, fonts, bullets, type size, as well as the layout of the resume are all very important things to consider.

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