A thought for you to ponder and maybe remind you to enjoy all that this great nation affords us this weekend.
When you think you’ve seen hard times and life isn’t “fair”look at this picture. Imagine being an 18 year old sailor from some farm town in Iowa manning a 40mm Bofors and knowing you should have a whole life ahead of you but probably won’t live to create it. Imagine picking up the burnt body parts of your shipmates from a gun position, putting them in bags and then manning that same gun. I remember a documentary I saw and an old 40mm gunner on a destroyer was talking about dreading the sunrise “… because that’s when they came.
I was the Alamo in the ocean every day. I never expected to survive.” Men endured nearly unfathomable hardship and terror during that war. They did it under a flag that has symbolized freedom and the ability to strive for greatness every day even if you fall short.
_Don’t kneel for manufactured injustice … stand for true heroism and sacrifice…it’s not only in our history but all around you every day. See the good, don’t search for the bad. Either way, you’ll find what Your looking for.
I thought this thread was about combat tactics and strategies? Isn’t there another thread about the kneeling issue?
I mean you’re the OP, you can do what you want, but the consensus here seems to be that it is a side discussion and we’d all rather get back on topic in this thread.
Any ideas on how to mitigate potential danger in those long TSA lines at the airport?
Anytime you’re in line the three things that make me more comfortable are;
1.) standing perpendicular to the line with my back to the least complex environment (e.g. the counter of there is one or failing that, the ‘closed’
side of the room, meaning the smaller portion of the room and/or whatever side is away from the main flow of traffic in and out of the area.
2.) having my exits points of cover/concealment and choke points mapped out ahead of time and leaving enough of a buffer behind the person in front of me that I can move if need be.
3.) resisting the temptation to alleviate boredom by burying myself in my phone. Head up, visually processing the environment, looking for anomalies, people/things that don’t fit (unattended bags, people dressed inappropriately for the setting, people sweating profusely or looking inexplicably anxious or purposeful). Play if/then scenarios in my head. If that guy starts shooting, then I would ______ and what have you.
Also, wear practical shoes. Flip flops are bad for running and worse for fighting.
Regarding the kneeling issue, the discussion is probably better suited to PWI, but it’s a bit of a shitshow over there and I’d be more inclined to bring it up with the crowd over here, but not in it’s own thread, which would just get moved to PWI anyway.
In Toronto there was a street renamed Todd Baylis Way. A number of years ago Baylis was responding to a drug call at a socialized housing building, with I think other officers. He got in a gunfight with a suspect, took a bullet in the head and died.
Interesting little thing about it. The suspect, someone Grant I think, was born in Jamaica and after conviction it seemed a sure thing to have an after sentence deportation.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica at the time made a trip up to Canada and reasoned that he was in his early 20s at the time, but came to Canada at 8 years of age. Most of his formative years were spent growing up as a product of Canadian society, and it was argued there was no point sending him back to Jamaica.
I wonder how far anyone thinks that reasoning flies. One thing off the top of my head is why he is stuck in socialized housing in his 20s?
Always has me a little paranoid standing in holiday TSA lines. Airports are an obvious target, and completely soft until you’re through security. Low odds of anything happening I realize.
To your knowledge, does anyone at TSA have a gun? Or is it just the roaming police officers that have guns? Cops on segways just does not inspire confidence in me haha
TSA does not carry weapons, however, after the LA attack, it has been discussed. TSA (ironically) management , along with the Air Marshall’s, are usually former Secret Service Supervisors. I know several and they are vehemently opposed to TSA being armed. The entrance to any USA airport is a very soft target and it is only a matter of time before there is a major attack.
if you will recall the attack on Brussels airport about 15 months ago, their security was better than anything in the US. I traveled through there frequently over the years. I came through there two months ago and they had placed armed troops through out every air line counter and loading gates.
About 5 major airports in the US (ones that I know for sure) have “rovers” armed security or cops undercover who float the terminals. The problem with this is most airport management are opposed to this because they don’t want someone claiming they are profiling.a certain race or ethnicity. Remember, it is better to have someone killed in a terrorist attack than face the dreaded PC media machine.
The US is very venerable to any attack at their major airports.
Having worked for TSA, I don’t blame them if the idea were to arm all TSA employees.
I know at one point they were trying to emulate the Israeli approach by having employees who were to profile behavior rather than rely solely on random (although it isn’t random) screening. I assume they actually have people doing that since I worked there. TSA is a very strange agency and I would rather not get into certain details but I will say that trying to walk a line between security concerns and being customer service oriented is, to put it gently, not easy. You end up doing both less than ideally. Then of course you have PC concerns which make things even more difficult. I remember having to do extra screening on an elderly nun from Italy. I felt like a schmuck.
Just a random thought for the “tactical life” crew:
I was wondering if there is any benefit in training simple parkour/free running moves?
Obviously a lot of us here see the benefit of having somewhat decent cardio to be able to run a few miles without passing out, but I was also wondering if it would be a good idea on training such things as jumping over walls and railing, and practicing falls etc etc.
What are your thoughts? If you do train for this, how do you and how often do you train? What are some simple moves that one should look into?
Really good question, since the lines between domestic police and military qualification tests are getting thinner everyday. I have NO experience with parkour, so, cannot comment on the exact type of training needed, but, it seems to me it revolves around a lot of basic moves used in current police physical agility tests.
The current trend for major departments is going to an obstacle type course with barricades, dragging weighted dummies, jumping 4 foot fences, crawling through drain pipes, etc. All to simulate working the street, chasing felons, engaging in lethal force situations.
For the current view, I suggest you go to the Virginia State Police website and look at the physical agility test for applicants. All the major cities are adopting a crossfit/obstacle course type of mentality. I believe Coral Springs, Florida even has a 50 yard swim in their test.
I would assume someone skilled in parkour would have an advantage in obstacle courses.
I personally train on an obstacle course twice during a 7 day period. I do it because of my work. However, I don’t know where a civilian would have access to a course, unless, they made one themselves.
I had a think about what you had said, and I was thinking that what I was looking for was the skillset that would make me more efficient at such things as obstacle courses. For example there may be a few methods of jumping a fence, some more efficient than others, and some ways more appropriate than others for a particular situation, etc etc.
I suppose like most things, the only way of getting better at something, is to actually practice them.
A boy preens and postures in front of an audience. A man knows what he wants to say and says it, whether in public or in private, and his words, his actions and the way he lives his life he works hard to ensure are not contradictions.
that has symbolized freedom and the ability to strive for greatness every day even if you fall short.
