The Tactical Life

Off Topic
2610

Thought for the day:

The Tactical Games are conducting another competition this weekend in NC. If you are interested in the event, you can follow on Facebook.

Yesterday’s work and skills:

Helped teach a “submissive / joint lock class” for inservice training. I don’t like teaching this type of training, because, it rarely works on anyone but the most submission individuals. Its just a way for the USG to check off a box.

Question of the day

As for what to do, it’s a tough call only because you’re tremendously outnumbered. I just keep thinking of “rule number one” they drilled in first aid class, ‘you can’t help the patient if you become a patient.’ So I feel like getting the attackers to scatter/flee with whatever “motivating tool” is at hand/belt/appendix would be the priority before treating the wound itself.

Chris,
Good point and I should have thought of this myself. I was really pissed about this yesterday and should have thought it through. Anyone else see something I missed?

2611

A bit, yes. My boy is very quiet and shy, and really doesn’t like to stray too far.

It’s a tricky thing. He takes my word as gospel, and even yells at me for not crossing the street properly. He’s had the stranger danger stuff drilled into him from daycare and school (just started first grade). I just don’t know how to tell him about these things without freaking him out.

I do know that he doesn’t like to have his space violated because he has gotten into a few scuffles with other kids that have gotten grabby,so I consider that a plus.

But honestly, at the risk of looking like a bad parent, I don’t even know where to begin. Other than keeping him in sight, and usually arms reach and not getting lost in a cell phone, what does one do?

2612

Honestly, never really thought of that aspect of it when my kids were younger. I guess I just assumed they would do what they were told by the wife or myself. If I were going to approach it with a young one, I think the focus would be on doing what mom and dad say, especially in public/large gatherings for safety reasons. Depending on age, I would probably steer clear of specifics like active shooter or whatever, I would just harp on safety and maybe keep it vague - ‘large groups of people can be dangerous if you aren’t paying attention, that’s why you have to listen to us - we just want to keep you from getting hurt’. As the kid gets older, they are going to start hearing and seeing what is out there (unfortunately), so I would gradually add in more specific stuff as you see fit as age-appropriate. Don’t really know where else to go with that one, but it’s a good thinker. Hope some more people will weigh in on this one.

2613

That’s kind of the approach I’ve taken. Some of the stuff I’ve seen is just flat out impractical, like Always be double strapped, tactically trained and ready to vaporize any threat!

And I’m like, really? At the playground? Sorry, I can’t bring overwatch to the grocery store.

Realistically, I’m always scanning. I put myself between anything I see as a threat and him, and he is accustomed to responding to a finger snap when out in public by getting behind or beside me. I just don’t tell him directly that the lurky guy up ahead looks like a crackhead/is too fidgety/just turned his hat around, etc.

2614

Putting aside “tactical” situations and broadening to the general topic of child safety as kids grow up…

From when my kid could talk up until puberty started hitting hard, it was pretty easy to keep him corralled. He took what his mom and I said as gospel for the most part. He knew what to do for situations like stranger at the door, stranger in the house, fire in the house and strangers out in public. I think most people will be well-served by being safety-minded, using common sense and just following your instinct.

A lot of the common sense stuff seems to fly out the window after puberty. Kids will naturally explore and test limits, along with question what they’re being told. Ability to sense danger and bad situations seems to regress, and a lot of his more reckless behavior is tied to thinking like “if it hasn’t happened to me, it never will.” Some examples…

Several years ago my son befriended a kid from a bad domestic situation who raised my eyebrows right away. I like to give every kid a chance, but I knew this one was trouble. “You don’t know him, he’s a good guy, blah blah blah.” The lesson was learned the hard way when said kid broke into my kid’s mom’s house and took some electronics. She wisely has surveillance though, so he was caught later that day. He’s been much pickier about his friends since then.

We had one drunk driving incident where he rode home with a kid who was tanked. Luckily that has not repeated and he’s taken us up a couple of times on our standing offer of no-questions asked, no hard-time given ride home at any time.

The issue of online safety has come up several times, which mostly boils down to avoiding the urge to post pictures or video of yourself doing things that you don’t want documentation of floating around the internet.

The dangers of herd behavior. He’s learned a few hard lessons resulting from a mindset of “If everyone else on my hockey team is doing it, it must be okay.”

He’s almost 19 and luckily managed to navigate his spat of truly reckless teenage behavior without ending up in jail, dead or with any children he can’t support, but he’s got a long way to go. The maturing process is proceeding at a good pace, so I have high hopes for his survival. Most of the lessons we’ve imparted to him over the years seem to be registering as good information, albeit at a slower pace than I’d like.

2615

This came up very quickly. My kiddo loved this one game, so we got him a tablet and got him on this game.

Well it turns out that the game has a social media like profile structure and interactive capabilities. About a month into it I discovered that, and that he had about 20 some friends–all of whom except 2 were 20 something men, and no verification process.

Upon disabling the online interactive profile feature, it disabled the game.

So fuck all of that noise. It looked too much like a damn playground for pedophiles to me.

2616

A wise man once said, if you can keep your daughter off the pole and your son off the pipe, you’re ahead of the game.

Seriously though, I’m seeing a lot of the same type stuff in my son, just on a smaller scale. We live in a small mountain town in the south, so his opportunities for fuckery are fairly limited. He and his friends like to ride their mountain bikes in the woods, and hang out at the local grocery store. That second one sounds odd, but they have an outdoor patio seating/eating area, so they typically will grab some snacks and drinks and hang out there. My wife has verified different times that he is there when he says he is, and he hasn’t (yet) given us any reason to question his whereabouts. Aside from the time he and his friends broke into one of the local theater group’s storage buildings (break in is a strong word, the theater people left the keys laying on the ground under the step - definitely trespassing, but not exactly b&e). One of his buddies video’d it on his phone, then posted it on social media - it was seen by one oftheir classmates, and she showed her mother, because the mother is heavily involved with the theater. Nothing was broken or stolen, just dumb to be somewhere you shouldn’t and document it for everyone to see. Heavy sigh. Honestly, I’m torn between ripping him a new one for some of the dumb stuff he does, or saying ‘hey dumbass, hide your tracks better’.

2617

As the saying goes: Be good. If you can’t be good, be careful. If you can’t be careful, don’t get caught.

2618

Some really good advice. I cannot offer anything on this subject that others haven’t covered with their experience. One thing I have noticed (those with children may already know), any airport I travel through, whether international or domestic, I observe almost everyone over the age of 10 , glued to their electronic devices. Waiting for a flight, I rarely see anyone, look up from the screen and check their area. I don’t know how you ingrain into someone that young to just glance around every now and then.

I also don’t envy anyone with a teenage male, where the phase " Hey! watch this" is always around the corner.

2619

Thought for the day:

1

Yesterday’s work and skills:

Ax work:

About two years ago, a tornado came through and uprooted several large oak trees on county park property. The director of the parks department gave me permission to work out on the trees. I use both a single blade and double ax to chop on the trunks. One of the hardest workouts I have ever done. If you have never used an ax before, seek some instruction, they will bite you on the ass, if you don’t know at least basic technique. Also, never lose you focus, those knees and shins are always near the blade.

Two questions for the day:

Do you know how to use an ax?

Batman730,
Where are you?, brother. I am beginning to think a black bear has you trapped in your patrol unit.

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2620

It was two Grizzlies who were really going at it…

Haha, I just felt like a derail.

2621

That was @twojarslave trying to politely ask a bear to leave after he knocked a tray of drinks out of the waitress’s hands. Showed restraint until patron put hands on him…

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2622

Ha ha that bear fight is entirely similar to a lot of bar fights.

I also show restraint after someone puts hands on me. I’ve never felt like I was in enough danger to go all out.

Imagine the same encounter as a bear, but instead of another bear you’ve got to chase off an aggressive, snarling raccoon. That’s most bouncing fights. The raccoon can still snarl and even bite at you, but it’s drunk and you’re a goddamn grizzly bear.

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2623

My daughter went to Germany for a month as part of a school exchange type thing last year. Before she left, I gave her a solid talk on situational awareness. Don’t walk down the street with headphones in and your face buried in your screen. Phone is put away, you keep your head up and looking around so you know what is going on around you. If you need to use the phone, you stop and step aside in a ‘safe’ area, ie, not in the middle of the sidewalk. You use the phone for whatever, then you put it away and carry on.

After the trip she commented on how much time her peers spent in a new city in a foreign country with their faces buried in phone screens instead of soaking up the experience.

2624

Nice, brother, good way to start the day. Thanks.

2625

Funny you should mention a coon. They are not to be fucked with. True story: We were serving a narcotics warrant and 4 guys were in the rear of the house, waiting for the entry bang. One guy leaned up against a garbage can and a coon stuck its head up and barred its teeth. This was a city boy and he screamed out loud, I guess wandering what kind of monster was this. The no knock warrant didn’t go as planned:))

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2626

Solid advise for anyone. Thanks for sharing and (damn!) you have my respect. Having a daughter has got to be one of the 7 hells, especially with your background, knowing what can and does happen. I would be “jacked” anytime she left the house.

2627

Thought for the day:

By failing to prepare , you are preparing to fail.” …

This came up yesterday during a classroom discussion. Some really good thoughts in these comments:

‘EVERYBODY IS A FIRST RESPONDER’

Last year, FEMA released its 2018-22 Strategic Plan for disaster response, which emphasized “shared responsibility across all layers of government down to the individual.” In other words, residents of the affected communities are their own first responders.

“If you’re talking about a sudden large-scale disaster, there will never, ever, ever be enough professional first responders right when they’re needed, right when a disaster strikes,” Simpson said. “Everybody is a first responder.”

Even FEMA defines first responders as those closest to the impacted areas during an emergency or disaster. In FEMA’s after-action report on the 2017 hurricane season, residents and nonprofit organizations were among those who lessened the burden on fire, police and emergency medical services.

“We’ve kind of built up this mythology that somebody is going to be there and save you,” former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said. "And the person that saves you is maybe yourself or your neighbor."

In parts of the country, ordinary Americans are learning about what disasters they can expect and how they should be prepared for the aftermath.

Community Emergency Response Teams were created so that local and state emergency departments could have trained volunteers to respond in emergency situations. CERT became a national program in 1993 and now has over 2,700 local programs nationwide, with more than 600,000 individuals trained since the program’s inception.

The number of police officers is also declining. The number of sworn officers was at 725,000 in 2013 and has declined to just more than 701,000 in 2016, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey.

Numbers of certified emergency medical services personnel, including emergency medical technicians, totaled 374,063 in 2016 and 406,939 in 2018; but, like volunteer firefighters, those EMS services in rural areas that are made up of volunteers are declining.

During a disaster, it may be up to family, neighbors and even strangers to save themselves and others.

“They’re saved by bystanders,” Simpson said. “That’s actually the frontline of first response in a large-scale disaster.”

The responsibilities that emergency responders have — such as search and rescue, evacuations and securing damaged areas — along with a limited number of available responders, makes it more difficult to respond to everyone at once.

“People, just individual, regular people like us,” Donahue said, "don’t tend to put too much, if any, energy into being ready in the most simple and basic ways for a disaster. If a whole lot of people were just a little bit more prepared, it would make a very big difference."

Yesterday’s work and skills:

Limited to the range and class room. some agility runs around the barricades, band work, and pushups.

Questions of the day:

After reading the above, are you fit enough to save your own life?

If you live in a high risk area: West coast, East Coast, Gulf coast, and in the tornado Midwest, what are you doing to prepare yourself for a natural disaster?

2628

Great post, thanks! I try to keep 30 days of water, food, and the means to cook it in my house. But when you discuss this with people they look at you like you’re some kind of doomsday prepper weirdo. Not really, I just don’t want to be a burden on resources that will already be stretched thin.

I’m a first responder, but I also have a wife and daughter. Knowing they’ll be ok frees me to go out and help others.

2629

Tough story when it comes to first aid, and a timely reminder:

A friend’s child died yesterday morning. The child, 7 years old, was running with a knife in the yard. He tripped, fell, and landed with the knife in his chest. It pierced his heart. The mother, thinking she was doing the right thing, pulled the knife out of his chest immediately. The paramedics made it there in minutes, but it is suspected that because she had removed the knife, the child was too far gone to be saved and died on the scene. Had she left the knife in, according to the experts, his chances of surviving to hospital and receiving proper emergency care would have been significantly greater. The mother has to live with the knowledge that she may have played a crucial part in the death of her child.

In light of this, my question for the day is: do you know how to properly dress a wound with an object still in it/with a bone projecting - both to stem blood flow and to reduce the risk of further penetration/injury? This is a scenario we could all easily encounter, and correct treatment protects those precious millimetres that separate life from death.