December , 2011

SFC HEADQUARTERS DOCTRINE

"Read by Thousands Round the World!"

18 December 2011: The Wreath of Khan

Its time for us here at the Texas Command Headquarters to shut down the blogs for the Christmas Holidays. I will still be ensconced in the prestigious Captain James T. Kirk Chair of the SFC, working silently away for a better and prosperous new year for 2012 (smaller government, less tax - a very simple formula).

My chairman position appointment is a precarious one year to year, as Kirk himself objected to our Christmas decoration wreath. Worry not, we come not to praise Khan, but to conquer him. I will be around for next year, by a few votes...

Merry Christmas and a

great New year for all

good people (not bad guys).

16 December 2011: Knife Takedowns and Knife Grappling

I heard an interesting remark awhile back from someone in the training business about knife training courses. The remark was that if you were teaching or attending a so-called knife fighting seminar, you were essentially in a “murder course.” Not the first time I've heard this. Won't be the last either. Now, I am on the record for decades as one hates the term knife fighting and I am not too keen on the word fighting for "hand to hand fighting, "either. I really don't teach...fighting. I teach something bigger than fighting, but what better (and more internet searchable) term can I find? Not much choice, and I still try to dodge the word as much as possible.

These same critics will not call a gun fighting course a murder course, yet the results are easier and the same. Perhaps they are splitting hairs and saying the knife fighting courses are too gruesome? Too...murder-gruesome, or something?

Granted, I too have very little patience for these characters who wear knife vests with thirty-some-odd knives and whoop about in little amok-like, blood fests, killing armed and unarmed people in wild abandon. I saw one on the web yesterday claiming - " I've got a lot of knives to kill one unarmed man," as he does so for the world-wide-web to see. Gruesome does comes to mind, but also shallow and stupid. I don't think these people grasp what they are simulating. My best guess is that almost all of these dull-blade, heroes need a walk through the morgue, witness an autopsy, or spend a week with EMTs in Camden, New Jersey, all to get their heads on straight about what knife work really is. Then, maybe a little time in a courtroom and a prison tour to scare them straight. While these types are actually quite rare in the bigger world of martial training, the study of knife applications are still tainted by these folks. Thanks to them, the label of murder course get tossed around.

Some folks are quick to dismiss or belittle knife training in general because they are ignorant about the subject. Ignorant about how it fits in the big picture and in the unpredictable, chaotic situations of life. We fight (there's that word again)...we fight criminals and enemy soldiers. Sometimes we escape, sometimes we take them prisoner and sometimes we kill them. Sometimes we are empty-handed and sometimes with fight with stuff in our hands. The stuff in our hands are fundamentally shields, impact weapons, edged weapons and guns.

As I like to remind everyone, we are either in or we're out. It's a hand, stick, knife, gun world. Not a hand world. Not just a gun world. Not even a knife and stick world. And it's not about what you "like" or "don't like," or don't want to touch. It's a hand, stick, knife, gun world. All in or all out. To spell it like I mean it, it's a "handstickknifegun" world. Just because you are learning a part of that big reality, doesn't automatically mean you are suddenly in a "murder course." Remember knives are everywhere, in every restaurant, in every home, in every shop, and also on the belts and pockets of many. You might not like them, but one might save your life. Or, save your kid's life. Wake up...

Another big knife misconception is on the subject of knife takedowns. For the unenlightened, inexperienced unsophisticated and untrained it is hard to grasp the idea of grappling and takedowns while holding a knife. The sarcastic joke is just to “stab the person until he falls!" Life..and death...are just not that simple sometimes. I myself have worked police cases where victims remained in the fight for 30 or more stabs. One case was about 140 stabs and slashes before someone fell and died.

In the real and troubling world of fighting criminals and enemy soldiers there is a host of reasons why a defender must take an opponent to the ground for lethal and less-than-lethal ends. What are these? Some are:

- The tenacity of life. It is often hard to stab or slash some people quickly off their feet.
- The diminished fighter theory. Wounded, dazed and dull opponents are slower, weaker and dizzy.
- Some opponents must be arrested or taken prisoner as healthy as possible. This is professional's work.

...to name a few. What about the visual, tactical advantage of taking an enemy down quickly so that his nearby comrades won't see the struggle? What about to prevent escape? Or, to prevent an armed assailant free reign over other people present in the area? You have many situational, use-of-force and moral, ethical, legal and political reasons to take someone down.

Who? What? Where? When? How? And why? These are the rules that dictate violence. It is just as important to learn less-than-lethal methods with a knife as lethal methods. And both categories must include a working knowledge of takedowns. It is not over until its over, over, OVER! And takedowns may be required.

I have finally filmed my Knife Takedown training session, based on a crash course outline I've used for years. PLUS! An added feature in this double DVD set is a free, second, 50-minute, disc of vintage footage of me teaching two knife combat scenario modules that are full of takedowns, the Spartan Drill Module and the Chain of the Knife Drill Module - all footage shot at the University of Las Vegas in Nevada at a very special knife training camp. FREE!

For more on this training film set, Click here

Discuss this here

Adios Amigos

14 December 2011: Yes, We Were Hacked

As many of you have suspected by your calling us and emailing us, our Combat Centric Talk Forum has been severely hacked, right at the server. It is not an easy fix and the brain trust is working on trying to fix it. If it looks like a triple-bypass surgery job with complications? I am not sure we will have it fixed. And I do not want to start another forum from scratch, so, it may die a web-land death. I know this will thrill many skunks that have been ratted out on it for all to see, and the tons of great information collected there, but such is life. In many ways, Facebook has replaced talk forums. We'll see...

Adios Amigos

12 December 2011: Almost dumped out of a Chopper!

One sunny morning in South Korean, about 1976 or so, I was summoned to our headquarters for an assignment. I was given a briefcase which was handcuffed to my wrist and told that a helicopter was going to fly me and the shackled attached baggage to Camp Red Cloud. Now, I did not know what was in the briefcase. It could have been plans to attack North Korea or the football pot gambling money from last Sunday's games! I don't know. Mine is not to ask the reasons why, mine is but to do or die. Little did I know, how close I came.

Mid-way up a nearby mountain, was our landing pad and some admin guy drove me up there in a jump to the site. If you give me a few minutes I'll recall the nomenclature of the chopper, but it escapes me now - standard Vietnam era looking, but not the usual double, open-bay doors style. Hit me with a cattle prod and I'll remember, or I'll think of it tomorrow when I'm making the coffee.

The pilot of said aircraft, was a cool-breeze looking, sky-jockey vet who gave me a two finger salute of hello (he's a warrant officer and I am a mere mortal, Spec-4, military policeman) and I climbed in the one, open-bay door on the right side .

You couldn't see through this model to the other side. Inside was a long metal corrugated wall and long bench seat and I sat on this flat metal seat. It faced the doorway and was about three to four feet from the open door. This is not my first helicopter ride, but they all have been in the double door, open-bay style and, I have spent time in whirlybirds. But, I have never sat on a bench like this, inside this model chopper. I was considerably far from the door, and I was unfamiliar with the protocol to ride in this baby with such a bench seat.

The pilot got in up front and in between the bulkhead walls, I could see a space into the cockpit. His head filled the opening. He smiled and said, "better buckle up," real calmly. Then he dropped from the opening and my sight. I looked around and sure enough there was a canvas shoulder strap, seat belts available, but these were rolled up and pushed to the corners of the bench seat. As the engine moaned, as the blades started turning I figured out how to strap myself into the harness. maybe he looked back at me when I was busy to see if I'd snapped to, or maybe not?

Next, the chopper lifted off. Straight up at first. Then it peeled to the right. HARD! Did I say hard? HARD. This thing got some height, then blasted off damn-near sideways!

My ass and back completely left the metal bench and I hung in the air in that shoulder strap looking out the door and straight down to Mother Earth. The handcuffed briefcase hung straight downward. Without the cuffs, I would have lost it for sure. There I hung for his full manuever, looking down at the side of our mountain and then our headquarters. Nothing between me and ground but the harness, that I almost did not put on. I hung there about six weeks...to me, but was probably only 6 seconds? The chopper did this banking turn, straightened up and off we went to Red Cloud. I was placed right back onto the hard bench thanks to gravity.

If not for that casual remark from the pilot, that after-thought on his part to peek in on me and tell me to buckle up, I would have slipped off that bench and fall 200-plus feet down a rocky mountain-side. I was that close. Close.

I think about those few seconds over 35 years ago, every now and again. Did he do that on purpose? Did he laugh at the officer's club over a beer later, talking about almost dumping out a stupid kid? And when I think about all that, I still get a burn in my upper chest or lower throat. I feel like I am...like I am drowning in a way. When I think back about the guy who tried to hit me in the head with the axe once? Or my other crazy cop escapades, I don't have that same bad feeling at all. But that near sideways, chopper ride gives me the heibby-jebbie, willie nelsons. It has something to do with being out of control I think. And, dieing for a stupid mistake. All these issues fester up.

I have been in choppers since and always buckle up. I attended the short Jungle and Adventure school in South Korea and on the repelling course section, the last scheduled training event was repelling from a chopper. But it was too windy that day, and that "roping" section was canceled. I would have done it, as required. No phobia problem. If a mission called for a skydive? I'd go. But I have no desire to skydive just for the fun of it. Just something I don't care to do, like driving a race car a 1,000 miles an hour or half a dozen other knumb-nuts things like that.

An old friend and Green Beret, SF vet who liked to look asunder upon my Army time would say,"if you ain't Airborne? You ain't shit!" (He is also the first guy who ever shot at me! But that was just for fun and is another story.) Falling out of a chopper? Well, I don't want to Go Airborne THAT way.

I really was almost airborne...without a chute! I did successfully deliver the gambling money...or whatever it was in that briefcase?

Adios amigos

OOPS! Wrong kinda chopper photo! Sorry.

5 December 2011: What Part of No and Stop Don't You Understand?

So it looks like the fight is on. The talking is over. The "interview" is over. It is not a sudden ambush and your day has come down to the weird chain of events that have brought you standing before somebody who a) has flipped his cork, b) is drugged or drunk and agitated, c) is really mad, d) wants to commit violent crime upon you for gratification or reward.

In the heat of crime, or a rage attack you won't often get an open clear commo channel to the common sense closet in Godzilla's brain. It is not easy to reason and engage in a diplomatic dialogue with many of these excitable characters. Despite what your street survival course handbook may say, (Tip 11: Try reasoning with Gestalt Therapy) you may not get to the root motivations of his curled lip and evil eye. It might just be 10 pm, Friday night and his regularly scheduled fight time.

Both the arts of speaking and of understanding, on both your parts may crawl down a few degrees into the lizard brain. It's perfectly natural and how many of these verbal incidents downgrade into a fight. Regretful, but natural. Long, perfectly structured sentences of reason may fall upon deaf ears, yet simple, one syllable messages may reach into those inner recesses. Plus, there are instances where people under stress and related adrenaline influences report reduced hearing. It makes sense on many levels to limit the vocabulary to mono-syllabic banter when push comes to shove.

So, it seems like the talking part is over? Let's bring the so-called verbal skills on down to one word. Many self defense advisers (not all are experts) suggest that when the physical action begins, no matter if you've initiated it in a pre-emptive strike, or you are defending yourself, you yell “no!” Or maybe better “NOOOO!” Maybe several times. Maybe as you expel air as you strike or maybe take a body blow. Uttering this single word message to Godzilla is a big no to any and all of his plans. Many courses for women suggest the no word versus sexual assault and kidnapping versus criminals of all shapes, sizes and intents.

The legendary police, SWAT and military veteran, and all around gun god, Clint Smith, also of Thunder Ranch fame, likes another single word. “STOP!” - to be used in all phases of a fight, repeatedly, especially in a gunfight.

I know of instructors who use those two words together. Both shouted words may collect some witnesses for your side later. Who wouldn't want a dozen or so witnesses recalling your pleas for an attacker to stop and or declaring NO! to aggressive advances. Or, your shouts may bring help.

In my early military police, riot control training back in the 1970s, when the time came to invade into the rioters, we stomped our black boots in unison, advancing in an organized shock wave, yelling, “KILL, MAGGOT!” “KILL MAGGOT!” Can you imagine that! But, just two words. Simple. Powerful message. Hard to forget for us. Hard to ignore for them.

At a police street survival class I attended last year, the instructor played an audio tape of an officer in a gunfight with another man. After a verbal encounter, then a physical fight, then a running gun battle, the officer continued to call the suspect “sir,” and continued to plead, almost beg him to stop fighting and stop shooting. At some point you have to stop calling the man trying to kill you, a “sir.” It has also been proven in police studies that officers who fail to shut their polite talk down while struggling with a suspect, often encourage the suspect to continue to fight. All this “Chatty-Kathy” banter is either falling on deaf ears or not forceful and penetrating the fog of war enough to win the mind game.

Police and military personnel have their own situations and may choose other words or terms. Or may well say nothing at all inside the scrap. Citizens may use words like no and/or stop, based on their common situations. NO! STOP! They may not be your words of choice. If not, I suggest you find a few (note – “kill, maggot” is no longer politically correct). Get them on the tip of your tongue, before you might accidentally bite it off in a fight and be rendered speechless.

Adios amigos

1 December 2011: The Bear Trap of Ambush

How does ironing a dress shirt prepare you for violence?

Recently my friend and combatives/survival instructor Mo Teague explained to seminar attendees that it was important to have a ritual to help prepare for any dangerous work you might have ahead. In one example he talked about how he would prepare for working “the door” at various clubs. He would be at home, living the normal life with his wife and kids, then he would break away and iron his dress shirt for the night. And that started his mental preparation. He said things like this thing and other steps in getting ready helped separate his home life from the gritty night ahead, all In a progression that took him straight to work and good to go.

Getting ready. One of our biggest survival problems, whether be in the military, police work, security or that of a normal walk-around “Joe or Jane” is that of the ambush. We know that ambushes have defeated the greatest armies of the world and a surprise attack will ambush our brains and gives the enemy precious seconds to overcome us. An ambush may be a giant invasion, a guerilla or terror tactic, or someone who simply jumps out of nowhere and goes “boo!”

We also know by now that two things counter the proverbial ambush - mental preparation and repetition training. To me all the usual rambling talk about adrenaline and stress response and the long medical dissertations on the subject by novices wishing to sound insightful and brilliant are really just confusing a lot of medical information with the big, simple “BOO” of an ambush. BOO! Boo causes the sudden shut-down/interruption/distraction. Note three key words - shutdown, interruption, distraction. Even if you scramble the letters you won't find the words adrenaline or fear inside them.

You don't need to confuse a medical report on the 14 Kinds of Human Fear to understand a surprise, attack ambush. Fear has little to do with a big BOO and more to do with shock and brain-message-interruption. If you step into a bear trap, do you have to be afraid first to feel it? Must you be afraid to be snared and confused? Do you have tunnel vision from the evil ogre of adrenaline flushing through your blood vessels when the teeth snap shut on your ankle? Or, are you just real busy and distracted looking at the NEW BEAR TRAP connected to your leg?

Fast recovery from this surprise attack is what makes or breaks the day…and your neck. Being prepared and trusting in good, repetition training are two excellent ways to fight back the bear trap, but his essay is just about the ritual preparation. Think about what a boxer or UFC fighter does before the fight. He or she has their own set of mental and physical rituals. Football. Tennis. Getting into the game. We've all heard about the folks rubbing the rabbit's foot. Or the Apache medicine bag on the warrior's belt. Power believed is power believed. Mojo is in the eyes of beholder. And psychological tricks certainly work.

The same is true for the military and police, if they are smart. But whether they design their own rituals or not, in many ways routine creates the ritual for them. A patrol officer dons his gear, straps on his gun, gets in the pretty, painted car with the funny, extra lights and goes to work. Officers attend patrol squad meetings every shift, gathering with fellow troops, talking cop-shop talk. All the steps that led up to driving off the police back parking lot are ritualistically, preparatory in nature. A SWAT team takes many, many steps before it lines up at a hot scene. Some officers will dry fire their gun before each shift, and frankly, there are a few blasted bathroom mirror stories to go with that routine.

For about a year and a half I worked on a ‘relief” patrol shift, a designated group of officers that filled in the gaps between the regular work shifts. It is tactically unsound for your police force to have 2 or 3 shift changes a day where all your end-tour-of-duty officers return to the police station and all the new officers hit the streets. This abandons the city, or leaves the further reaches of the city both unprotected and without fast, local response. And, there are numerous, actual cases on file around the world of criminals learning the shift change times and committing crimes right when the work force rotates. Relief shifts leave coverage on the street.

We would start an hour or so earlier than shift changes, or leave later in various rotations. This assignment cut many of my mental preparation opportunities in half. One big thing missing was the squad room meeting, because we were out patrolling while the meetings were conducted. We missed the news. We tried to get into the station house after the city was properly manned and get our hands on the briefing clipboard (usually locked away in the dispatcher's radio room). This briefing clipboard would hold all the new wants and warrants, new intell, even internal admin business. But, there were many times I could not get free to check the clipboard, as calls for service and various misadventures would interfere. These days a lot of this info is sent to squad car computer screens, but nothing replaces the physical interaction of a good squad briefing. It really does prepare you for work.

These same elements work in favor of the military. Mission-big or mission-small, the troops often get a briefing and experience many preparatory steps before they begin their work.

The problem for citizens is that they enter their day-to-day world oblivious to the fact that on a certain afternoon or evening, their “victim number” was rolling up. Someone has warned them with a wagging finger once or twice to “stay alert” but that shallow advice drifts away. Sometimes I wonder about the sheer, insurmountable task of trying to get citizens to be properly alert in their daily lives. Between apathy and ignorance, it is a constant challenge. But by the grace of God, go they - as they say.

So, if you do have an action-guy job, take advantage of the ritualized preparation. The good news is you are probably doing several, helpful rituals already and may not even know it, like ironing your shirt! I think it's much better if you do know. Knowledge is power and power believed is power believed.

Discuss this here

Adios amigos

Email Hock at Hock@HocksCQC.com