RPG attacks are bad.
Professional quality armored vehicles are a good investment.Only minor injuries to all involved.
RPG .2
RPG.3
On a lighter note: An old Russian AK, if my Google translation is accurate (hard to know with half the serial numbers and Russian serial numbers are a bitch) it appears to be made in the 50’s. Take a good look at the grip, some enterprising individual carved it from a small block of wood.
The RPG shots are amazing.
Hard to imagine there are SUVs holding up to the anti tank weapons of decades past.
The AK is interesting. There was a thread on a different board a while back where someone took an AK parts kit and a shovel and built a complete rifle.
Regards,
Robert A
Think I could get those wheels and tires shipped over her for my truck, since that thing doesn’t need em anymore 
No matter what training path you have decided to take in the Combative arts, there may come a time when you will need to use it. If so, this is a good quote to live by:
" The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim"
--------Sun Tzu
[quote]idaho wrote:
No matter what training path you have decided to take in the Combative arts, there may come a time when you will need to use it. If so, this is a good quote to live by:
" The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim"
--------Sun Tzu[/quote]
I am hoping that is more of a general statement, and not spurred by a recent event. If it was prompted, I am glad you are here to type the message.
Second thought:
If it was a general statement/quote; I was always partial to the following by Takuan Soho
Course if we want more accessible I can always go all Clausewitz up in this bitch.
Third:
I like how you tied awareness of opportunity with idea of having to actually DO something with the opportunity. I think a lot of folks don’t take the “situational awareness” deep enough to be able to appropriately respond/act on all the wonderful shit they become aware of.
Finaly:
When thinking about any of that I also go the concept of triggers/lines in the sand where there is no more time to wait for opportunity. The more aware, strategic, and perfect the less that comes up. However sometimes it is go time, and all you have is shitty. Still, I think a good many folks have gone to their death waiting for “the right moment” until they had no more moments left. I like Kathy Jackson’s list of “boundaries” a good bit.
From Personal Boundaries | Cornered Cat
[quote]Kathy Jackson wrote:
-I will not go anywhere at gunpoint. If the bad guy wants me to go somewhere else, it’s because he will be able to do something to me there that he is unwilling or unable to do to me right here, right now. Therefore no matter how bad the tactical situation seems right here and now, right here and now is the absolute best chance to fight back I will ever have and I intend to use it.
-I will not be tied up. If the bad guy wants to tie me up, it is because he wants to do things to me that I would be able to prevent if I were not tied up. Therefore, I will resist while I am still able to do so.
-I will not kneel. No one is going to execute me. If I die, I’ll die fighting.
-If someone tries to take one of my children, I will fight even at the risk of my child being killed in the resultant firefight. I plan this not because I have positive assurance that I would be successful, but because I would not be able to live with myself if I simply “allowed” my child to be taken, brutalized, and his body perhaps never found. I’d rather watch him die in front of me. (Yes, that’s harsh…but given those two options and only those two, which would you choose?)
[/quote]
Regards,
Robert A
[quote]Robert A wrote:
[quote]idaho wrote:
No matter what training path you have decided to take in the Combative arts, there may come a time when you will need to use it. If so, this is a good quote to live by:
" The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim"
--------Sun Tzu[/quote]
I am hoping that is more of a general statement, and not spurred by a recent event. If it was prompted, I am glad you are here to type the message.
Second thought:
If it was a general statement/quote; I was always partial to the following by Takuan Soho
Course if we want more accessible I can always go all Clausewitz up in this bitch.
Third:
I like how you tied awareness of opportunity with idea of having to actually DO something with the opportunity. I think a lot of folks don’t take the “situational awareness” deep enough to be able to appropriately respond/act on all the wonderful shit they become aware of.
Finaly:
When thinking about any of that I also go the concept of triggers/lines in the sand where there is no more time to wait for opportunity. The more aware, strategic, and perfect the less that comes up. However sometimes it is go time, and all you have is shitty. Still, I think a good many folks have gone to their death waiting for “the right moment” until they had no more moments left. I like Kathy Jackson’s list of “boundaries” a good bit.
From Personal Boundaries | Cornered Cat
[quote]Kathy Jackson wrote:
-I will not go anywhere at gunpoint. If the bad guy wants me to go somewhere else, it’s because he will be able to do something to me there that he is unwilling or unable to do to me right here, right now. Therefore no matter how bad the tactical situation seems right here and now, right here and now is the absolute best chance to fight back I will ever have and I intend to use it.
-I will not be tied up. If the bad guy wants to tie me up, it is because he wants to do things to me that I would be able to prevent if I were not tied up. Therefore, I will resist while I am still able to do so.
-I will not kneel. No one is going to execute me. If I die, I’ll die fighting.
-If someone tries to take one of my children, I will fight even at the risk of my child being killed in the resultant firefight. I plan this not because I have positive assurance that I would be successful, but because I would not be able to live with myself if I simply “allowed” my child to be taken, brutalized, and his body perhaps never found. I’d rather watch him die in front of me. (Yes, that’s harsh…but given those two options and only those two, which would you choose?)
[/quote]
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
I am unable to get into specifics, but, a very well trained individual should have assessed the situation and made a “quality of decision”, based on what his senses and training were screaming, failure to do so resulted in his death.
What a treasure from Soho, on a lighter note, treading on water seems to be permanent state lately:)
Thank you for the introduction to Kathy Jackson, I am in total agreement with her views.Went on the website, she does a good job, passed it on to a couple of people.
I am with you on the lines in the sand and those lines should be drawn way before you hit the beach. I think most people (speaking out of my butt) lie to themselves about their abilities and when that shitty situation rises, they know , deep down, they are not a capable as they think they are.
Sorry far the ramble, been a hot windy day, got to super hydrate tonight.
[quote]idaho wrote:
I am unable to get into specifics, but, a very well trained individual should have assessed the situation and made a “quality of decision”, based on what his senses and training were screaming, failure to do so resulted in his death.
What a treasure from Soho, on a lighter note, treading on water seems to be permanent state lately:)
Thank you for the introduction to Kathy Jackson, I am in total agreement with her views.Went on the website, she does a good job, passed it on to a couple of people.
I am with you on the lines in the sand and those lines should be drawn way before you hit the beach. I think most people (speaking out of my butt) lie to themselves about their abilities and when that shitty situation rises, they know , deep down, they are not a capable as they think they are.
Sorry far the ramble, been a hot windy day, got to super hydrate tonight.
[/quote]
RE: Kathy Jackson
I am pretty fond of using her material (she has a book/collection of articles from her site) and Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense as a primer for individuals starting to think about “problem solving”.
RE: Soho
He has been a favorite of mine since I was 15.
RE: Quality of Decision
One of the reasons I framed my write up of the OIS earlier in this thread the way I did, appart from simple experience, is that I wanted it to work from the “this is not like those other times” stand point of decision making.
Most of the time, Do Nothing, is a very viable strategy. “Looks like trouble” is almost never “trouble”. Going to condition orange is a very, very common occurrence, or at least it should be. How many of those oranges turn red? Feedback/outcomes like that can create feedback that “doing nothing” or “not worrying” is the proper response. After all it is hard to argue with tons of “worked before” experience. Systems that tend to only punish bad behavior/unfavorable actions actually feed this kind of fault.
The “consistent with”/“is not consistent with” framing was to force breaking out of that pattern, finding the signs that “it” isn’t “nothing”. Basically a matter of trying to disprove your previously established profiles. That way a threat trips the different/scary switch instead of the standard groove, and garners a different “treatment”.
My pedantic “fundamental assumptions post” was to get buy in for the violence/use of force as assessment and problem solving. And it is all an “active” process. It isn’t “wait and see” it is about observation and assessment and there is a hell of a lot being done before any decision to go loud. Changing course, verbal engagement, etc. are all opportunities to confirm or disprove assessment based on new info.
None of that makes any of it easy, but it lets decisions get made with a full heart at least. As a bonus it makes the process leading to decisions articulable (and since the articulation is what was actually done in real time it is the truth, and hence easier to remember).
Keeping in mind that my reference point is more from the “clinical” stand point where I have the absolute luxery of answering the question of “Is this a matter of life or death?” with “Not for me!”.
Regards,
Robert A
Robert wrote:
"My pedantic “fundamental assumptions post” was to get buy in for the violence/use of force as assessment and problem solving. And it is all an “active” process. It isn’t “wait and see” it is about observation and assessment and there is a hell of a lot being done before any decision to go loud. Changing course, verbal engagement, etc. are all opportunities to confirm or disprove assessment based on new info.
None of that makes any of it easy, but it lets decisions get made with a full heart at least. As a bonus it makes the process leading to decisions articulable (and since the articulation is what was actually done in real time it is the truth, and hence easier to remember).
Keeping in mind that my reference point is more from the “clinical” stand point where I have the absolute luxery of answering the question of “Is this a matter of life or death?” with “Not for me!”. "
I agree and you brought up an excellent point about observation and assessment. You are receiving information all the time, whether you are able to recongize it or not. That in essence, is your path to survival. I have learned the hard way, that some things, no matter how well trained you are, are just plain fucked up: snipers, IEDS, wayward rockets, drunk drivers on the wrong side of the road, etc… but to ignore what you can observe is the height of folly.
I disagree. Your assessement in a "clinical " standpoint is just as important. Its your ability to make a “quality of decision” will mean the difference between life and death, and if it is me lying there with a sucking chest wound, I certainly want your caliber of decision.
My personal favorite on situational awareness:
" To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself"
---Sun Tzu
THE ART of WAR, IV:2
From news reports over the last week or so, officers have been killed in New Brunswick, Georgia, and Las Vegas. BAD. A silent salute to their service and dedication.
The officer on the left expresses everything…The motherfuckers stripped the dead officers of their weapons before they left the restaurant. May they roast in fucking hell for eternity.
[quote]idaho wrote:
From news reports over the last week or so, officers have been killed in New Brunswick, Georgia, and Las Vegas. BAD. A silent salute to their service and dedication.
[/quote]
I was working during the New Brunswick(Moncton) RCMP shooting and the following manhunt. The support from the public was astounding. I’m not RCMP or even in New Brunswick, but we received condolences and words of encouragement. I don’t think I saw one flag that wasn’t at half-mast. The silent majority appreciate the police who serve their communities. The funeral for the fallen is tomorrow. I would be attending If I wasn’t working.
RIP to all the officers who made the ultimate sacrifice over the last week.
For robert, w/r/t his earlier criticism of the “gross motor skills” hokey:
"?If you truly and fully believe Bruce Siddle?s theory that fine motor skills are impossible under high-stress conditions, we couldn?t produce effective fighter pilots. But, since we can train top performers to multi-task both fine and gross motor skills in a three-dimensional battle space at Mach Two with their hair on fire, the human machine can be conditioned to the stress, making any task possible,? - Dick Fairburn
Robert,
Thank you for the link to Kathy Jackson. I was not familiar with her work prior to now. I like her summaries, and I think it’s the kind of thing everyone who is serious about defense needs to read and ingrain. I have sent the link to Mrs. Mapwhap as well, as she has recently started carrying a pistol herself.
Idaho,
Yes…it has been a VERY bad week for LEO’s. Going toe to toe with a bad guy is one thing…getting ambushed while you’re eating lunch is another entirely. Not much more I can say there without making comments that many would deem too drastic.
[quote]idaho wrote:
The officer on the left expresses everything…The motherfuckers stripped the dead officers of their weapons before they left the restaurant. May they roast in fucking hell for eternity. [/quote]
I can’t speak to bolded above, but they lived their last moments as failures, and I am fairly certain they knew it. Their statement of “Tell the police the revolution has started.” would be chilling, except there is no revolution, and they didn’t start shit.
Jerad and Amanda Miller were simply poor examples of humanity, not revolutionaries. They are not harbingers of sweeping forces, or indicative of anything but broken, useless individuals. They didn’t strike a blow for a cause. They lashed out and unfortunately took the lives of people far, far better than themselves. Killing those two officers and a Walmart greeter was a destructive act much more akin to a child who, unable or unwilling to create on his own, spends his time at the beach smashing other children’s sand castles than the first blow struck for a cause. They weren’t revolutionaries, and they didn’t start shit.
In the days and weeks to come I am sure we are going to read/find out about whatever passed for motivation to the couple. I don’t know if they will have self-identified as communist socialists, national socialists, anarchists, racial separatists, sovereign citizens or some disjointed combination of the above. I am confident that regardless of any claimed ethos they will just be sad, examples of what happens when people continuously draw the wrong conclusions from every fucking experience in their lives. They were and are nobody’s champions, they never were revolutionary, and they didn’t start shit.
The officers they killed amounted to something in their lives. They left behind children, families, and friends. They have legacies. They will be remembered by those that knew them, and even some who did not. All Jared and Amanda Miller could manage was to be the ones who took a little bit of goodness out of this world. Their crowning act was to affect a surprise attack on two police officers, perhaps not technically an ambush but close enough to one, and then nearly immediately get routed by a police response, cornered in a Walmart and kill themselves. They may have left behind a manifesto, or writings, or video of just how worthless they were, and it will be mocked (like Dorner’s pathetic diatribe, or Kazinski’s ramblings, or Elliot Rodger’s pathetic testaments). Jared and Amanda Miller will be remembered with the low grade disgust and hate that is appropriate for failed parasites. Their names will fade into the past. The grief caused by their actions will fade with time, the families of the fallen will rebuild, because they can, because they are strong enough. The memories of the fallen will remain and be treasured, but not the memories of the Millers. Because they weren’t revolutionaries and they didn’t start shit.
I am confident the Millers knew the above at the end. They didn’t seek the soap box a capture and trial would have given them. They didn’t speak to a grand plan, or big ideas. They didn’t face their own mortality like it was a means to an end. When reality, and a police response, was staring them in the face they removed themselves from the world, one last act of destruction. They were not acting like people trying to start a movement, or affect change. They were acting like the failures they were. They were not revolutionaries, and they didn’t start shit.
I sincerely hope that the families and loved ones of Officer Alyn Beck, Officer Igor Soldo, and the Walmart employee find the peace and healing they most certainly need. I hope that the time it takes for their memories to be of good times rather than this grief is short.
Train hard. Stay Safe.
Regards,
Robert A