The Modern officer

  Joining the military can be a difficult process and one of the hardest parts is trying to decide which branch to join. It can be an overwhelming decision since which ever branch you choose can potentially have a major impact on the rest of your life. It’s a big decision for an 18-year-old to make and it can be hard to figure out where to even begin. So today I’d like to just discuss a few different approached you can take in order to help you make this decision. 1.       Full time or part time Deciding whether to go into the Guard, Reserves or Active Duty can be the first decision. The only real question is whether the military is something you want to do full time or is there a civilian career you want to pursue right now. I personally wanted to get into civilian law enforcement so I joined the National Guard so that I could pursue a career in law enforcement while still being in the military, but if the military looks like an interesting job and som...

  For the optional blog topic, I chose book recommendations. I am a fairly avid reader and I also like to listen to audio books when I travel long distances for work which is pretty often. I listen to a few different genres but for this list I am going to stick to books that fit with the theme of this blog. 1.       On Combat by Dave Grossman Dave Grossman is a big name in the military and law enforcement community. He retired a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. Now he is a successful author and public speaker teaching people about the psychological and physiological response to combat and other situations involving lethal force. On Combat is kind of a sequel to On Killing which is another great book of his. On Combat focus on the psychological and physiological of combat before during and after the battle. His book explains some of the physical effects of fighting such as tunnel vision, how to control/ deal with the adrenaline in your body, and even...

  Teaching is a huge part of the military that many people don’t think about when they first join. Everyone will teach a class at some point in their career and many soldiers, such as myself, teach classes on a weekly basis so it’s incredibly important that you know how to prepare a class. I’m just going to cover how to prepare a class and not how to teach that class, because If honestly this would be a seriously long paper if I talked about how to teach. That’s a topic that talks an entire book to cover in order to do it just, so I’m not going to try and cover it in a single paper. If you don’t know how to prepare a class, the easiest way to begin is by just following the Army’s 8 step training model. It doesn’t apply to every type of class and if you’re an experienced teacher you can definitely skip a few steps, but it’s still a good guide to go by. The first step to preparing for a class is to plan it out. Determine what your expectations are for the class and what you want pe...

  Things I wish I had known about the security industry I have been working in the private security industry off and on for about two years. It’s a good way to make some fairly easy money on the side and a welcome change of pace at times. While I never plan on making a career out of it, I will probably continue to do odd jobs here and there until the day I retire. It’s not a bad industry. Jobs like concerts and special contracts through organizations like the National Parks Service can be a lot of fun at times, but there are a few things I wish I had known before getting into the security industry. 1.       no one likes security guards Now on one likes cops either so I expected a fair amount of disrespect, but security guards get a different type of disrespect. As a security guard or a private security contractor people are constantly attacking your work ethic. For example, if it’s pouring rain or your assigned area is just dead quiet , you’re not goi...

 You have probably heard a news report or seen an article at some point talking about how the military, specifically the Army, is have a really hard time keeping their recruitment numbers up. The Army is currently well below their projected goal for this year and next probably won't look any better. so now the real question is when will this begin to affect the Army's operational capabilities? First of all, the number of people that are even able to serve in the United States military is the lowest it has ever been. Only around thirty percent of young people today are even able to join the military. the two biggest disqualifiers are criminal history and health issue. Many young people have a criminal history that disqualifies them for military service. The health issue, specifically obesity, is one of the major disqualifiers for military serve along with allergies, depression, and anxiety. Because of this they Army has talked about created different physical standards for diffe...

 The most controversial part of the academic major criminal Justice is how little the major seems to matter anymore with police departments all across America struggling to fill the ranks many just now just require any sort of college degree, even if it has nothing to do with law enforcement. Some don't even require a college degree anymore. This raises a very serious question of why get a criminal justice degree at all. especially since that degree can't really be use anywhere outside the field of the law enforcement.   At this point in time most police departments in America will hire you if you have any college degree at all. I personally know cops with degrees in Zoology and percussion. Now this isn't to say that there aren't other degrees that would be of value in the field of law enforcement. Law enforcement, specifically policing, is such a huge and complex field with a million different specialties that there are several different degrees that could be of value ...