Unfortunately, it appears, too many have. We are also entering a new period where people have no independent recollection of the event (say younger than mid 20’s) and a larger group does not recall the broader foreign and domestic social, political and economic issues of the surrounding years (early to mid 30’s).
Our enemies are still there, watching the decay of our country, planning the next strike. IMHO, we are the most vulnerable we have ever been, torn by internal strive and toxic political movements.
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Thought for the day:
This was written with far more eloquence than I ever could. I would like to think Americans still felt this way, but, the events over the past months has left me with the felling that if a similar attack occurred, certain segments our society would actually cheer for the deaths our first responders.
September 11th, 2001. The day is burned into the heart of every American. With it comes a darkness that looms over us just like the column of fire and smoke that rose from the heart of the City on that fateful day. It’s a painful reminder of our loss, our vulnerability and the ire of our enemies. It is a specter which haunts our dear Republic.
Many were lost that day. Those souls consumed by the fiery attack were joined by those who entered into its wake, desperate courageous citizens grasping for life among the ash and twisted steel. Many more too would bear the invisible wounds of loss of family, friends, colleagues and countrymen. Still more, steeled by the promise to never let such an attack befall us again, donned the uniform and walked into the cauldron of war. The rings of loss compiling and repeating in concentric emanations from that day. We who remain are comforted only by the delicate ideal that those who were lost will forever be remembered as heroes.
But on this day the dead are not dead. They are held aloft in our remembrance, shining like a beacon for all to see. In their memoriam, we are reminded not of those who wish to divide or conquer us, but of that which binds us together. This day is a hallowed moment of unity which we embrace, honor and revere. Those who have been taken from us are not lost, for they live on in our covenant to continue onward with an unbroken spirit in search of that which is righteous, shining and true.
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Thought for the day:
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not acting but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable. -Sun Tzu
Mothers, are you prepared to defend yourself and your family? Fathers, are you preparing your family to protect themselves when you cannot be there? Are you ready?
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Your quotation can not be overstated.
There was a video of a pizza shop confrontation on here years ago, where a guy pretends to bury his nose in his phone and ignore someone hostile getting in his face. Hostile man proceeds to beating the hell out of phone man.
Society is moving towards this model. Somewhat like herd creatures “praying” they are not the prey of the day, but not exhibiting any tangible defensive skills. Predators like it that way.
''And the American people…"They faint is someone uses insensitive language in their presence and half of them couldn’t run up a set of stairs if you put a gun to their heads. What’ll happen if the real shit hits the fan? What are they going to do if they’re faced with something that can’t be fixed by a FaceBook petition? "
IMO, most will just curl up and die.
Tying into both catastrophe preparedness and looking out for your fellow man, does anyone have experience with Community Emergency Response Team training? (CERT, sometimes goes by NERT - Neighborhood Emergency Response Team).
"CERT training is a basic, 7-week course that includes the following units:
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Intro to ICS & the CERT Organization – Introduces the concept of the CERT program and provides a basic overview of the Incident Command System (ICS) a standardized, on-scene, all-hazards incident management approach that is used for all CERT activities.
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Fire Suppression & Radio - Briefly covers fire chemistry, hazardous materials, fire hazards and fire suppression strategies. Focuses on the safe use of fire extinguishers, sizing up the situation, controlling utilities and extinguishing a small fire. Basic handheld radio instruction for communications purposes.
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Disaster Medical Operations I & II – Covers basic trauma medical care, including triage, bleeding and shock control. Also, will learn to evaluate patients using a head to toe assessment, establishing a medical treatment area, performing basic first aid and practicing in a safe and sanitary manner.
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Light Search & Rescue - Participants learn about search and rescue planning, scene size-up, conducting an organized and thorough search of structure, leveraging, cribbing and victim removal, all while focusing on member safety.
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Sheltering Introduction – An overview of Shelter set up and Management and a hands on Table Top exercise to practice your new skills.
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Terrorism & Disaster Psychology – Covers the definition of terrorism, targets and weapons, CBRNE indicators, preparing at home, work, and in your neighborhood, and CERT’s role in terrorist incidents. Also, covers signs and symptoms of psychological stress during an incident and the steps that can be taken to improve the mental and emotional wellbeing of team members and victims"
I am a volunteer member of my county’s search and rescue team, which I joined in January. Most of the training was provided by the county’s Emergency Service Unit, Sheriff’s office, and the Department of Natural Resources (game wardens). Since the county is rural, surrounded by state and National forest land, the primary training focus has been on emergency medical issues and learning how to do grid searches for lost hikers. I have only been called out three times since January, once for a lost hiker, a 6 year child who wandered off the campgrounds, and because I am LEO, once to help provide manpower to the local sheriff’s office to help find an escaped felon.
Since the defund the police movement, I have been asked to teach basic firearms skills, which I do twice a month. The amount of people from all professions wanting to join the volunteer team have tripled since COVID and the civil unrest. Of course the main problem, as always, is money. My county is rural and poor, with most of the income coming from tourism. I am not in the chain of command, so, I am not privy to day to day decisions, but, talking to the emergency services director, she is trying to work out mutual aid agreements with several larger counties, to have access to their instructors and equipment.
Quality rescue equipment is not cheap. Medical supplies, climbing gear, even boots have to be the best. My county supplies most of the members with a basic loadout, but, most of us have bought our own equipment. One word of advice, if you decide to do this and have to buy your own equipment, wait until after your training and first call out. You will be able to observe what others have bought and what works and doesn’t. Don’t be like this well-meaning individual who showed up with enough climbing gear to scale Everest and no bottled water when the day was in the high 90’s. He didn’t last long. I know he had been through emergency medical training, so, he knew the procedures for hydration. If you decide to join, you will encounter many well-meaning people, no matter the level of training, who have no common sense. Unless it’s all hands on deck looking for a missing child, these people are better off in a support role.
The courses you listed, seem excellent to me, covering every area you will need to know. I don’t know the cost of the course, but, we have several large churches that pay the tuition for their members who join. As always, when you are dealing with people, you will meet a few know-it-all dickheads, who are only there to boost their own egos. Ignore them, if you can, and focus on the call out.
I hope this helps a little with the background.
One good source would be @boatguy who is a member of a local search and rescue team.
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My wife and I are members of our local volunteer fire department (I am rope rescue technician and EMT working on AEMT; she is also a rope rescue technician, as well as an EMR -used to be called first responder- and a state certified Firefighter I), and are also members of our local CERT - ours is actually called CAER, and is all volunteer (both for various reasons). We both went through the CERT course offered by a neighboring county, but it was only a day or two (I forget). It touched on most of those topics, but obviously way less in depth than a 7 week course - I’d be curious to see how many ‘normal’ (non-gov) citizens can take a 7 week course, unless it’s a night class type of thing.
Due to my work schedule, I am not as involved with either organization as my wife is. But we responded (as individuals, since there was no request for our department) to the tornadoes near Nashville several months ago, and responded locally to the tornadoes that went through our city a couple months after that, one day with our department and another with CAER.
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Ha, from what I’ve read, I think members are issued a reflective vest. And maybe a hardhat with a CERT sticker on it.
Interesting you mention about training for your area. Makes sense that they should focus training on the most likely scenarios since it’s inherently a local group. I’m smack dab in the suburbs, about 5 miles from the coastline (particularly parts to the South are prone to flooding from the worst storms). I’m also about 30 miles outside of NYC, so anything truly terrible that happens there, I’m pretty much in the proverbial (if not literal) blast zone.
It’s 21 hours total, with classes one night a week for the seven weeks. It’s run by the county, offered for free, and they keep saying they encourage every resident over 18 to take the course. Of course, with COVID, there aren’t any upcoming sessions scheduled, but they’re “working on putting something together” because it’s not really something we can just sit in a Zoom meeting for.
Hurricanes are the main thing around here. We learned from Sandy in 2012 and Isiais last month that things can get really gnarly really fast. That’s kinda what got me thinking in this direction.
I appreciate your guys’ input.
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As far as gear, you can never go wrong with a good durable 3 day size pack. Only as fancy as you want to go, but from experience with various types of gear, you usually get what you pay for. Only caveat, try to find a pack that is pretty distinctive. Every firefighter and rescue guy in my region has either black or camo of one pattern or another. Turns into a dig everytime, since they all look the same. Either pick an odd color or find some other unique way to make it easily recognizable.
| Chris_Colucci Forum Director
September 15 |
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idaho:
One word of advice, if you decide to do this and have to buy your own equipment, wait until after your training and first call out.
Ha, from what I’ve read, I think members are issued a reflective vest. And maybe a hardhat with a CERT sticker on it.
Interesting you mention about training for your area. Makes sense that they should focus training on the most likely scenarios since it’s inherently a local group. I’m smack dab in the suburbs, about 5 miles from the coastline (particularly parts to the South are prone to flooding from the worst storms). I’m also about 30 miles outside of NYC, so anything truly terrible that happens there, I’m pretty much in the proverbial (if not literal) blast zone.
boatguy:
I’d be curious to see how many ‘normal’ (non-gov) citizens can take a 7 week course, unless it’s a night class type of thing.
It’s 21 hours total, with classes one night a week for the seven weeks. It’s run by the county, offered for free, and they keep saying they encourage every resident over 18 to take the course. Of course, with COVID, there aren’t any upcoming sessions scheduled, but they’re “working on putting something together” because it’s not really something we can just sit in a Zoom meeting for.
the tornadoes near Nashville several months ago, and responded locally to the tornadoes that went through our city a couple months after that
Hurricanes are the main thing around here. We learned from Sandy in 2012 and Isiais last month that things can get really gnarly really fast. That’s kinda what got me thinking in this direction.
I appreciate your guys’ input.
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Thought for the day: AD VITAM DEFENDENDAM
Thought for the day:
An 85-year-old man was stabbed to death inside a southern Michigan supermarket, but his attacker was unable to flee because a witness held him at gunpoint until the police arrived.
The victim was stabbed multiple times in the head and neck Wednesday afternoon at a Meijer store in Adrian, The Daily Telegram of Adrian reported. He died at the scene.
Adrian Police Chief Vincent Emrick said a woman with a handgun ordered the 29-year-old suspect to the floor and held him there until officers took him into custody. Emrick said the woman has a concealed pistol license.
A knife believed used in the stabbing was found on a store shelf. The victim and the attacker entered the store separately and apparently didn’t know each other.
“We were getting in line and we heard people start screaming in the back of the store,” said Becky Perez, who was with her husband, Rudy. “Then, I see some employees start running and then I see people running from the back. They were screaming and running out the front door.”
I have said a hundred times, there is no safe utopia and always be ready. This woman was and stepped up and stopped a violent predator. Ask yourself if you could do the same.
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Thought for the day:
How well you prepare, determines how well you will perform. .
At least he had a bat and was willing to protect his family from a violent predator. After he and his wife recover from the trauma, time to start upgrading your weapons and training. The same for all of us here, this could happen anywhere.
Police say a man who broke into a Brookhaven home and stabbed the homeowner multiple times Thursday had just been released from jail for the same crime.
Jimmy David Mills of XXXX broke into a home off XXXXX near XXXX Boulevard around 4:15 p.m. Thursday, according to the Brookhaven Police Department.
Investigators say Mills walked into the bathroom where the female homeowner was showering.
It’s really scary. Fells like a movie, not real life,” Kristy Ottofy said. "He asked me if I was alone and I started screaming for my husband.”
Her husband, Paul Prae, who was working in his office, grabbed a bat and ran in to confront Mills, who was about 100 pounds heavier and taller than Prae. Otttofy grabbed her 4-monthold and ran upstairs to hide. Police say Mills had a pocket knife and stabbed Prae in the face and stomach.
After I hit him with the bat, that’s when he came in straight for my eye," Prae said. “It was obvious he was trying to attack my eye and missed by this much. I thought, ‘I might die right now. My life might end right now.’"
After blood landed on Mills, Prae says Mills took off.
Mills then ran through yards and was seen jumping a wall from XXXXXX onto XXXXXX, where police say he tried to break into another home.
Mills is charged with aggravated assault, home invasion and several other charges. The attack comes just weeks after he was released on parole for the same crime.
Sounds like your PCP story.
Of course, no telling where he hit invader with bat.
Agreed he needs to upgrade weapon/skill, but l applaud his getting into the fight
Thought for the day:
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who annoyed the gods with his trickery. As a consequence, he was condemned for eternity to roll a huge rock up a long, steep hill in the underworld, only to watch it roll back down. The story of Sisyphus is often told in conjunction with that of Tantalus, who was condemned to stand beneath fruit-laden boughs, up to his chin in water. Whenever he bent his head to drink, the water receded, and whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches moved beyond his grasp. Thus to tantalize is to tease or torment by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach—and something Sisyphean demands unending, thankless, and ultimately unsuccessful efforts.
Read the last sentence again. Apply that logic to your training. Is everything you are doing preparing you to survive an encounter? or are you doing just endless work with no goal in mind?
I’ll here point out the obvious - a Louisville slugger can make one hella defense weapon. Been meaning to get 1 for by the front door + car…
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Saw a good video that recommended keeping the bat or whatever closer to where you can reach it quickest if an entrance door is breached at speed. For me that would either be the kitchen where we usually sit and another by the bed.
Guy also recommended shorter bat that can be swung hard and with high speed in confined spaces without bouncing off the walls. Claw hammer with a good grip suits me best, mostly because I use one every now and then, including for light demolition, and so my muscle memory is ready to go.
Or go to a Truck stop and check out a tire thumper, if you look you might find one that is also a metal flashlight, which would be nice in a car
On a related note, sheetrock hammer and box of sheetrock nails for cover, in the floor board would be a serious presentation on order of gun or knife, yet totally explainable.
Wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice, obviously.