The Modern officer

  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...