I pride myself on being a “Jack of All Trades, Master of a Few.” I can’t shoot a sub-4-second F.A.S.T. Drill, plumb a house, or rebuild an engine. But I can do a whole bunch of things really, really well. Here’s a quick rundown of my life up to this point:
- Currently practicing Paramedic and Search & Rescue (SAR) Team member,
- Former full-time special operations instructor for the U.S. Military,
- Former “OGA” contractor with many deployments to Central Asia,
- Former Marine Raider with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines,
- Published author of six books, dozens of online and print magazines, and this blog,
- Producer and co-host of the Across the Peak Podcast with Rich Brown
- World traveler with 28 countries and 44/50 U.S. states under my belt (so far),
- In addition to travel I have lived all over the U.S. – New England, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the Southeast, the Midwest – in big cities and very small towns,
- I spent a year traveling the U.S. as an early adopter of #vanlife
Below is a list of select training I have attended. This is not all-inclusive, but a sampling of training relevant to the materials I frequently discuss on this site. If you read between the lines a bit you might also be able to figure out a thing or two about my work history.
SELECT TRAINING
Firearms & Tactics Training
MARSOF Direct Action & Special Reconnaissance Courses (16 weeks) – MARSOC
MARSOF Technical Surveillance Course (12 weeks) – MARSOC
Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure – MARSOC
Custom CQB Course – Blackwater, USA
Pistol/Carbine Course – TigerSwan, Inc.
Competition Handgun – Mike Seeklander (my AAR)
Practical Revolvers – Chuck Haggard (my AAR)
Snubnose Revolvers – Greg Ellifritz (my AAR)
Shotgun Skills – Tim Chandler & Ashton Ray (my AAR)
Cognitive Conclave – Erick Gelhaus, John Hearne, & Lee Weems (my AAR)
Protective Pistolcraft Instructor Development Course – Tom Givens, Tiffany Johnson & Aqil Qadir, John Hearne (my AAR)
Tactical Vision & Surgical Marksmanship – Dustin Salomon (SLG’s AAR)
Medical Training
Paramedic (NREMT, plus BLS, ACLS/PALS, GEMS, AMLS, PHTLS, TECC, PTEP)
Tactical Combat Casualty Care (approx 6x) – U.S. Navy, U.S. DoS, Other Government Agency
Operator’s Emergency Medical Skills w/ Live Tissue Lab (5 days) – Deployment Medicine, Inc.
Tactical First Aid & Collapse Medicine – Greg Ellifritz
Survival/SAR Training
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) – U.S. Navy
Field Survival Course – Randall’s Adventure Training (my AAR)
Basic Survival Course – Pathfinder School/Dave Canterbury (my AAR)
Land Search Field Team Member
Mountain Search & Rescue (Awareness, Operations, Technician)
Swiftwater Rescue Technician (TR Series)
High Performance Driving Training
Evasive Driving Course (5 days) – Bill Scott Racing
WPPS Personal Security Specialist Course (included 5 days of driving) – Blackwater, USA
Digital Security Training:
Social Engineering for Penetration Testers (5 days) – Chris Hadnagy
Cyber Advanced Support Operations (CASO) (10 days) – White Canvas Group
Commercial Signature Reduction (CSR)(5 days) – Blackhorse Solutions
Electronic Security & Signature Reduction (ESSR) – Blackbird Technologies
Covert Entry/Lock Defeat Training
Surreptitious Entry I, II, & III, Vehicle Access I & II (25 training days total) – Undisclosed Provider
Covert Entry Course (5 days) – U.S. Army Counter-Surreptitious Entry School
Basic Alarms Overview Course (5 days) – U.S. Army Counter-Surreptitious Entry School
Unconventional Breaching Methods (5 days) – The Ben-Jim School
Basic Locksmithing Course (6 days) – Associated Locksmiths of America
Instructor Training/Certifications
Rangemaster Certified Instructor
NAEMT Instructor Preparation Course, NAEMT
Formal Schools Instructor Course, USMC
Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor (Brown Belt), USMC
Annual Gut-Checks/Physical & Mental Challenges
GoRuck “Tough” Event Finisher, 10/23 (my AAR)
Field Survival Course – Randall’s Adventure Training, 03/23
