Last Days in Flagstaff: Part 1

First I would just like to say hello to Mrs. Hoverman, my classmate Jake’s mom, whom I met Thursday night but knew who I was before I even introduced myself.  Initially I thought it was because Jake talked about me but that wasn’t the case. It turns out Mrs. H is a faithful From Freehold to Flagstaff follower! Some of my other classmates have told me in the past about how they direct their friends & family to the Triple F since it gives them a pretty descriptive account of what the 26 of us have gone through the past 13 (15 for the WFRs) weeks. For all the friends & family of the Unstoppables, It’s been nothing short of an honor to have spent the past 4 months with such a remarkable group of people.  You should all be very proud of the sacrifices they’ve made to participate in this program and even though not all of us are coming out of it with jobs, we are coming out of it as much better people.  There isn’t anybody in this class that I wouldn’t go to hell & back for and for their sake, Thank You!

With many things in life I’ve learned through personal experience, as well as through the experience of others, that you have to watch what you wish for.  That doesn’t really explain what I’m trying to say but I’m not sure how else to word it. It was probably 2-3 weeks ago that I was beginning for the first chance I had to get out of this town.  There was a lot of school work still left to do. I was running out of money. I missed my dogs, turtles, family, friends, and girlfriend.  I was frustrated about not having a job, had no idea where my next paycheck was coming from, and a lot of those people that are important to me have been going through all types of experiences that I wanted to go through with them. The only thing on that list that’s changed is the amount of school work, because as I start this post it is Thursday night and the only thing we have left to do is look pretty and get our certificates, but I’ve noticed a change in my mindset the past week or so and I almost feel like I don’t want to leave this place.  I’ll get into my last week in Flagstaff in just a second but just know that as each day went on, I caught myself thinking about how I’ll never see my new found brothers, sisters, & surrogate mother again after going through some once in a lifetime opportunities with them.  I’m pissed that I don’t have a job lined up, I came out here with the mindset that I don’t care if I make one single friend in 4 months but I was going to get a job and get the things I’ve wanted the most in life, I’m actually glad the opposite happened.  I’ll miss you all.

Monday: Peace Out PT

We were told last week that today would be an easy day, considering it’d be our last PT day, but we weren’t sure exactly how easy it would be.  We warmed up as usual and then Mike brought us in for some lectures…he must’ve read my evaluation about the lack of lectures that were supposed to be covered in class because he gave us another one at the end of class.  As far as exercise or whatever went in class, he basically let us do our own thing as long as we were active.  Some of us went into the cardio room, others stretched, some lifted, some worked on their abs, and others of us played basketball…I’ll give you one guess what I did.  My classmates got to the see my competitive & trash talking side on the very last day of PT and I think some of them were a little intimidated.  We had two half court games going on at the same time and then the 2 winners would play each other.  Forrest, Nick, Stan, & I lost in our little “championship” game but I definitely took it easy on them considering I didn’t want to get injured before the PEB & I was wearing low top running sneakers.  Mike lectured for the final 30 minutes and it was almost comical.  He said that he’d given us the knowledge & facts on nutrition & different exercises yet in my evaluation I stated that he did the complete opposite.  Ah well, one more annoying transition drive from PT to class and then that nightmare is over. 

Mama Jane made some banging cupcakes that looked like owls for the class last night…just what we needed 2 days before the PEB.  That didn’t stop most of the class or the instructors for that matter once we got them inside…which proved to be a challenge.  Apparently springtime in Flagstaff equals unforgiving swirling winds.  I struggled holding the tinfoil top down on top of the cupcakes while I was getting blown down the sidewalk and on my way into the building. 

Owl cupcakes...or Gonzo?

If today’s instructor’s feelings are easily hurt if he feels like his students aren’t paying attention to him then I feel bad for because today was our LAST DAY OF CLASS as well.  He understood that and was actually very cool.  There was no need to take notes anymore but he gave a very heartfelt & descriptive account of a park ranger that was killed in the line of duty no less than a month on the job…he had only been on his shift for an hour when it occurred.  There were a lot of “it’s a small world after all” facts about how the instructor knew the ranger which made it even more compelling and you could see that in the faces of my classmates.  We turned in our radios & chargers before class and on our first break, we turned in our duty belts…that’s when the goosebumps started coming…along with the realization of “wow! this is almost over!”  I semi joked about not wanting to give up the belt and I even lunged for it after I turned it in, Doug laughed then yelled at me for holding up the line hahahaha. 

I asked to have a “going away” dinner tonight for Nick, Jane, & I…my surrogate family. We decided we were going to try the New Jersey Pizza Company place and Jane’s daughter, Mandi, & her boyfriend Josh came over to join us.  After class Nick & I stopped at Walmart & picked up some of Jane’s favorite wine.  When we got home we decided to get a meat lover’s pie & a vegetable pie dubbed Vegetable 2010.  Reviews of this place say that the food is great but the service sucks.  Flagstaff locals call it “Pothead Pizza” because of the employees there…but we were gamey and I got to get a taste of home…NOT.  Okay I agree with the locals’ view of the employees…we ordered at 5:30 and the guy said that the food should be ready by 6:10.  “Will it really be ready by then?” Mama Jane asked. He replied, “uh…it should be ready then.  Yeah close then..around then. Yeah it’ll be ready.”  Hahahaha.  These dudes need to change their name because this pizza was a disgrace to real New Jersey pizza. I finally tried that Ranger I.P.A. beer with dinner…that also sucks but then again I don’t really drink & I don’t really like beer so my opinion is a little slanted.  We took some pictures then Jane noted that this was practically leaving day…at which point I belted out a power ballad entitled “Leaving Day.”  I basically yelled the words (which were very clever but I of course now forget) while Jane kept the beat by pounding on the table and moving her head along as I sang.  The 5 of us watched a couple of Youtube videos, then I said my goodbyes to Mandi & Josh, and hit the sack.

Ranger Drinking a Ranger...yes I know I have gray hair...been like that since I was 11

Some of the dinner guests.  Mandi (Jane's daughter), me (w. Fiona Coyote), Nick, & Josh (Mandi's bf)

Nick & I tried recreating this pose for some pics

We didn't look at the pic so we had no reference point...

...and we were way off

Mama Jane & I tried too...fail

Tuesday: Field Trip – Unstoppable Style

We had Tuesday morning off and I planned on using the time to follow up on some job stuff so you can imagine how weird I felt when I got a call from an unknown number immediately after I woke up.  It ended up being a representative for the company that would be shipping my car back to NJ.  The dispatcher informed me that the drivers were in San Diego but they would be around to pick up my car around 8-9 o’clock tonight. YIKES! Short notice much?

I finished packing the two boxes of clothes that I was shipping home and brought them to the crooks at the UPS store.  If I thought they were thieves for what they charged me to ship my stuff out there then they should probably be on death row for what they did to me for shipping the boxes back.  I downsized the amount of stuff I’m sending back by nearly a garbage bag so you can imagine how pissed I was when I found out that I was being charged the same amount to ship 2 boxes home that I was charged to ship 3 boxes out here 4 months ago.  I didn’t contest this crime because I had to get my car ready…but JESUS!

When I got home I cleaned out everything that was visible in my car.  I took all of my CDs out, cleaned up my change dish thing and any loose garbage & clothing was dealt with.  The nice dispatcher informed me that if I handed the driver $20 he wouldn’t give me any crap about packing some stuff in my car.  It’s technically illegal but really only enforced if you’re shipping your car on a boat; as long as they can see out the back window then life is good.  I packed up my TV, PS3, 2 winter coats, printer, lawn chair, 2 pillows, 2 sleeping bags (nobody came out to visit me so they got no use), my camping bag that I filled with some fun things, my bookbag that has just about every paper & book that I didn’t have to turn in inside it, a little cooler, and some shoes.  I got done packing just in time to microwave a Lean Pocket and change into my uniform...for the last time!

hahaha...just throw a blanket over it, it'll be ok.

We would be visiting two park type areas for our class field trip, Elden Pueblo & Walnut Canyon.  Elden Pueblo did nothing for me.  We were our tour guide’s first group of the season but I have no idea what he was talking about.  Pueblos are tiny rooms that are supposed to have at least 8ft high roofs that the families that lived in them would have to enter from the top.  The pueblos were now just the rock walls that outlined them and those rooms were SMALL!  I’m sure the stuff the guy was talking about was cool to some people but most of us could not wait to get out of there.

Learning in the Community Room

poor picture but this is actually like 4 different pueblos...more pics on my Facebook page

We had roughly a half hour to get to our next destination and Nick was craving a Frosty so we stopped at Wendy’s.  Apparently some of our classmates had the same idea good thing that PEB doesn’t affect if we graduate or not.  Somebody said Walnut Canyon was a couple miles away; we made it there in like 5 minutes.  Liar!  This place was cool.  Both places we visited today used to house Indians (I forget the tribes) but Elden Pueblo housed pueblo/room dwellers and Walnut Canyon housed cave dwellers.  As I walked toward the visitor center you start to see the canyon open up & drop straight down where you could see cave openings.  It was a very awesome site. 

Our group gathered up and we were greeted by our tour guides, two archaeologists; Ted, who was apparently in the wildland fire class with us, and Kelly, who looked extremely pissed off at us but also looked too cute to be doing this line of work (somebody referred to her as a babeologist…it’s been a long 4 months for some of us I guess lol).  We headed down the narrow paths & cliff edges in a single file and we often found ourselves having to get out of other walkers’ ways…but whatever this place was very cool.  We were allowed to go in the rooms inside the cliffs but couldn’t touch or sit on their walls and all that jazz. 

Some of the caves

pretty

imagine living in that with your entire family

Exploring

EAST COAST CONNECTION: NC, PA, NJ, NY, NY, VA

One of the toughest things for rangers to regulate is the amount of vandalism done to various sites and resources…especially in this canyon where they can’t physically patrol. We saw some carvings in the rocks, learned about spray paint incidents, and saw some examples of people trying to “rebuild” some of the rooms with loose rocks.  It was a great little trip…until we had to climb back up the steps to get back to the visitor center.  Getting back to the top was extremely difficult, even for a bunch of relatively young people that spent the past 12 weeks doing PT 3 days a week.  I have no idea how the old folks were doing it.  We were all gassed and starting to sweat and we were just walking up the steep steps.  A mother and her two young daughters had similar issues, as they made evident when they reached the top  and were wheezing and the mom couldn’t even talk to her other child that was waiting with his father at the top.  Nobody told me we were doing PT today! Don’t they know what tomorrow is?

Probably not good that we didn't see this until we made our way back up to the top.

We hung out in the museum for a little bit, saw some Indian boobies painted on the wall, and then we took a brief tour to even more pueblos.  They just restored the area where the pueblos were but you could already see footprints all around them…you were supposed to stay on the trail.  We were dismissed & I saw my dad called, we caught up real quick and he sounded very happy to hear from me.  I also had a voicemail from my driver.  He said he wouldn’t be able to get my car until tomorrow morning so I set up an appointment for 8am…here we go again!

Part of Mike’s final PT lecture included eating lots of steak, fish, chicken, almonds, & avocados to get ready for the PEB so Travis had the idea to go out & grab some steaks for dinner.  I invited the whole class but only John, Tex, Kopplin, Travis & I went.  I’m not a big steak eater but my ribeye was amazing!  Mike would be proud.  Speaking of instructors, I saw our lead driving instructor there.  He sat down with his family and seemed to recognize me when he did, but I didn’t want to bother him.  I ate an avocado, applied Icy Hot to my sore legs, and made sure my iPod was charged for the big PEB Day tomorrow.

Today has been one of my favorite days of the year for the past 4 or 5 years…NFL Schedule Release Day! I naturally reached out to my main fantasy football league managers to wish them a happy holiday and even alerted the Facebook nation about the big day. Why did I alert the managers you ask? Well I did it to give them a chance to start preparing like I do…analyzing schedule difficulty , fantasy playoff schedules, and seeing where bye weeks fall. If they were like me then they’d have a head start right now as I’ve been too busy to be that big of a nerd at this point…but I’ll step my game up soon.  Sure I’m a little crazy about fantasy football…but doing this has one me at LEAST two Superbowls every year for the past 4 years.  Cash Money Baby!

The Giants have one of the toughest schedules next season but they start the season off with a very winnable first 7 games before taking on the Pats…but we all know how things turned out the last time they played a meaningful game.  What? You forget…here’s a reminder:

During that 7 game stretch they host the Dolphins, easy win.  My roommate from my freshmen year at Stockton, no not the one that killed his dad, is a big Dolphins fan and he’s already got me intrigued about attending this game. That’d be awesome because I’ve only seen him once in the 6 years (holy crap) since we graduated.  None of this will matter if they don’t resolve this obnoxious lockout situation…which kind of reminds me of the crap all of us wannabe Federal job seekers are going through…yet not at all.  HA!  I’m going to bed where I will dream about the day that I get a job, the NFL fixes itself, and my previous sentence makes sense. 

Wednesday: PEB

At some point in my dreams I remembered that my 8am car pickup, which would be at my house instead of going to a truck stop this time, might not be complete before 8:30…which is when we had to leave for our PEB, so I woke up and called the driver at 7:20 to make sure he was in the area and to see if he could come earlier – left a voicemail. I called again at 7:45 and  once again at 8, left a voicemail at 8.  I didn’t need this shit this morning. For you new readers, it was an absolute catastrophe getting my car out here and I couldn’t go through this again with such a big test waiting for me in less than an hour. At 8:10 I called dispatch and was immediately put on hold.  While on hold the driver called me and said he’d be here in 3-4 minutes…he was here in 15.  To make that worse, I was outside taking pictures of my car and the guy drove right by me as I waved to him.  He stopped at the end of the road and called me.  He said he had to go the next road so he wouldn’t block a driveway and then he’d walk back to my car…its 8:28.  I told him I’d drive up to him and drop my car off because I had to leave for a test.  The drivers pulled into the nifty center lanes that they have out here which enable you to make left turns.  I pulled up behind him, he got out and shook my hand, I rushed him into inspecting my car while I photographed the truck and the drivers the best I could and then caught up with him again.  I gave him a 20 and told him to get something to eat…he snatched it right out of my hand and stuffed it into his pocket like he was a fat kid fighting for the last cookie on a plate.  So at least that’s taken care of, now it’s time to get serious.

We stopped & picked up Carter and then arrived in parking lot around the same time as a few of our classmates.  We walked across the lot, street, other lot, and around the gym building together but I took that time to get in my zone.  I put on my iPod and lifted my hood over head with my sunglasses already in place; I looked like and felt like a prize fighter making his way to the ring to win a championship belt.  I was blasting my Hatebreed so loud that I couldn’t even hear Carter & or Nick shouting to get my attention.  It was kind of dumb that they seemingly wanted to get my attention just to see if they could but whatever.  I immediately went into the bathroom and then by the time I got into the gym, an overview of the day was being given.  I stored away all of my stuff and joined the class.

The PEB, physical efficiency battery, is a test to gauge your physical abilities…obviously.  Most law enforcement agencies have something similar to this and most federal law enforcement officers follow FLETC’s (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) standards.  Contrary to popular belief most of the semester, we don’t have to pass the PEB in order to get our certifications.  We will however have to pass one, if we get hired, before we actually start at our parks.  The PEB gauges your flexibility (sit & reach), bench press (certain % of body weight), agility run, 1.5 mile run, and total body fat %; to pass you need to be in the top 75% (I think that’s how you articulate it)  for your age & gender group.  If you get a permanent or full time position you need to successfully pass all 5 areas, for seasonal (I’m in a seasonal academy but am eligible for permanent work) you only need to pass the bench, agility run, & 1.5 mile run. Ya dig?

We did things a little differently than we did for the PEB pre-test back in January.  The first thing we did was warm-up with some laps, stretches, push-ups, & jumping jacks; we’d then weigh-in, do our body fat test, & test our flexibility.  We only had one of each instrument to complete these elements so there was a lot of waiting around on lines to start the day.  We weighed in first…260lbs; 10lbs over my goal weight for where I wanted to be when I got out of here but I’m still down 26lbs from when I left NJ on January 2^nd…1 pound for every Unstoppable in my class.  The next line was for the body fat test but when everybody finished weighing in, Kathy brought over the little box for the sit & reach and began testing that.  Once people did their body fat test they were supposed do the flexibility test but people wanted to get a chance to stretch…so I jumped in figuring that I’ve been unflexible my entire life so it wouldn’t be too detrimental to my ego and I’d get it out of the way.  I think in the pre-test I got 12 inches, I improved to 13.5 painful inches.  I was shocked to see that I wasn’t the least flexible person in the class.  While waiting for the body fat test I weighed myself again without my shirt on and gained a pound…how does that work?  I then did the body fat test but have no idea how to calculate the measurements into a percentage so we’ll find out what they were at graduation.  Now it’s time for the serious stuff.

Jumping on the flexibility test when I did enabled me to grab my iPod and get back in my zone.  The class was split into odds & evens by our student numbers and half of us got the bench and the other half got the agility run….I was in the bench first group.  Benching is a lengthy process.  You start with the barbell resting practically on your chest, held there by arms that extend from underneath where you rack it (its a lot harder than normal benching where you can use momentum to get the weight up).  You have to push the barbell until your elbows lock out in order for it to count and you have a spotter on both sides of you and you get 5 attempts. While everybody else went I was pacing around the bench and the crowd of people watching, I looked like I was about to charge at somebody and knock them out.  I was feeling good, restless, but good.  That may have come from the 4 Powerade Energy Caps I ate before we left but I wouldn’t stop moving; pacing, jumping, loosening up my arms, neck, & back.  

This was from PT class not the PEB...just showing you what I'm saying...know what I'm saying?

In order to pass I needed to bench 228…you of course can’t do that due to the weights available so it had to be 230.  The most I’ve done to date was 225 and that’s where I wanted to start but Kathy suggested to start with a weight you can do consistently so you get a recordable score because if you start heavy first you get fatigued easier. This was going to be interesting because I haven’t benched in 10 days as directed by Mike.  We get 5 attempts and I don’t remember what I did on the first 3 but I blew right through them without hesitation before the lift and was moving onto 225.  I knew I only had 2 attempts left and that I’ve never done more than this weight so I took some more time to focus and calm myself down before this one.  I don’t know if that’s what jacked me up or what but I began to push the bar and came to a standstill midway up.  At the first sign of struggle, Kathy & the spotters grabbed the bar and racked it…I was pissed!  I could’ve pushed it or at least died fighting…I’ve always called for my spotters to rack the bar if I felt I couldn’t do it…she didn’t even give me a chance.  Pissed at myself and my spotters, I told them to leave the 225 on…then I thought about it for a second.  Even if I got 225 I still wouldn’t pass and I failed to get 220 in the PEB pre-test so I had my spotters set the weight up 220…I’d be in a higher percentile if I got the 220 then I’d be if I missed the 225.  I exploded the 220 off the resting arms and locked out almost instantly…winning!  I can’t help but get pissed about getting sick and injured and missing nearly a month of lifting because of it so when I got off the bench I spiked my lifting gloves onto the ground and walked away.  It’s insane how big a difference 5lbs makes.  So with 1 of the 3 things that would count toward me getting a job down, I had 2 more to go and already failed one.

The agility run is my baby and always has been.  I’ve always been a fast runner but this one requires some annoying stopping and turning that slows me down a bit.  It’s a 10yd course that you sprint a down & back, weave through some cones down & back, and finish with a sprint down & back. You start laying on your stomach and get up when the instructor says go. You get 2 attempts at getting a passing score. I’ve never been in danger of failing this exercise but I wanted to at least break into the 16 second zone.  My first attempt was the fastest I’ve ever run this exercise, 17.2…nearly in the top 50%. Not bad for a big goofy weight guy. I felt like I was flying but could feel some slight stumbles along the way.  I was super gassed right after the run…still have no idea why I can’t breathe up here.  I ran a little bit slower on the second attempt.  I stumbled getting up at the start, planted my foot wrong on some of the cones, and my shoe came untied…still ran it 17.4. 

That’s done now it’s time for me to put my iPod back on and cheer my PT partner Man Wheels on for his bench press.  When it was turn I playfully banged on his head like we were football teammates & he was wearing a helmet.  “Get this shit bro. You got this!” I barked in his face as he set up on the bench.  He started at the weight he needed to do in order to pass and struggled.  He dropped some significant weight on the barbell and I advised him to widen his grip ever so slightly. He plowed through some lighter weights and eventually got back up to his passing weight for his 5^th attempt. He breezed through his 2^nd attempt at his passing weight and we were both pumped.  One of my buds just found out this morning that his PEB results would be recorded for the park he’ll be working at this summer…way to drop the bomb on him.  He missed his bench by 3lbs…THREE!  That’s bullcrap.  Luckily he’ll get a re-test this weekend before he has to head to his park.  Good Luck Neighbor!

Two down, one more to go…the 1.5 mile run.  The agility run was the only thing I passed on the pre-test and I already missed the bench so I was determined to get this 1.5 mile.  I’ve struggled breathing out here ever since I got here and I haven’t ran a qualifying 1.5 mile outside all semester.  It’s been super windy the past few days, my legs our sore, I’m tired, and I’m pissed about the bench press…you bet your ass I’m coming out with the heart of a lion for this one.  We were able to run on the track instead of the campus course that is much longer than 1.5 mile even though the higher ups say differently.  I was definitely in the zone and got some more stretching in but they rushed us to the starting line.  We were lacking something that helped pace us in the pre-test…a big scoreboard looking digital clock.  They brought one out but I don’t think it worked.  In the pre-test I started out very fast but got gassed after 3 laps…half of the 1.5 mile…and had to walk a bit.  I ended up missing my qualifying time by 40 seconds that time.  The last time I ran a timed 1.5 mile was on a treadmill at The Plex and I started slow…beat my time by 50 seconds and didn’t walk at all.  Treadmills are different than tracks but I decided I was going to start slow and gradually build up.

Well today I started slow and still passed some people in the early going. I was getting winded and the wind blowing against us on the straight away toward the starting line wasn’t helping any.  I did a half mile, was by the back of the pack, and walked for about 10 steps.  I jogged another quarter mile…halfway home…but I still needed to walk a little bit.  Jake & I started bringing each other up and began pacing each other…just like we’ve done all semester…but there were some times when I had to start running earlier than he wanted to.  When I was starting my 6^th lap, the instructor that was keeping and announcing times as you passed him started only announcing the seconds…at which point I started yelling back at him to find out what minute I was on.  Man Wheels was already done…yeah he lapped me…he ran it in 9 minutes.  He started jogging the final lap with the back of the pack and cheered us on.  For the last ¾ of the final lap I opened my stride up real wide and just get driving at that pace until I crossed the finish line.  This was a different approach to my usual saving up some steam to sprint the final half of the final lap...but I couldn’t move my legs any faster at this point.  I crossed the finish line and heard 13:42…I PASSED!!!!!  It’s not a great time but it’s a passing time…the best time I’ve run outside up here in Flagstaff and I still walked probably ¾ of a lap, total.  I was so happy I could’ve cried but that would’ve hurt considering I needed a map or a metal detector to find some air to breathe.  I didn’t talk to anybody for a few minutes but soon I was frigg’n pumped! 

Kathy brought us in as a group and addressed that we just crossed one more thing off our list and made some announcements about our tests tomorrow and graduation news and stuff.  When she dismissed us I brought the class together for a huddle with our arms up in the air.   “Unstoppable on 3. 1,2,3.” (whole group) UNSTOPPABLE!  It was loud and awesome…the first time the entire class huddled together.  The instructors laughed at us…it was great.  Then we had a far walk back to Nick’s car where we would then drive over to Turiya’s car to get a photo album we’re putting together as a gift for our assistant director…I got to get the pictures together for it.  We stopped at Crystal Creek Sandwich Company where I got an amazing tuna, avocado, & cucumber sub that was well worth the 15 minute wait then ran some errands with Nick and headed home. 

When we got home a detective stopped us in the road and began asking us questions about somebody in our neighborhood but we weren’t much of a help I don’t think.  I showered and waited for Kopplin to pick me up so we could meet up with Nick $ to work on our class slideshow for graduation.  I was visibly exhausted but I wanted to push through this little project that I have over 1,100 pictures for.  The slideshow doesn’t look anything like the way I pictured it but whatever, it’ll do the trick.  Today was Wednesday so that meant $.40 wings at Granny’s and the 3 of us went straight from our slideshow meeting to meet up with 4 or 5 other classmates to get our wing on.  NAU’s football coach was retiring so they were having some banquet for him and took up nearly half the bar room…where we wanted to eat so we could watch the NBA & NHL playoffs.  Fun fact…the coach was drafted by the Steelers but I never heard of him.  We couldn’t get too rowdy at Granny’s because we still had to study for the 2 tests we have tomorrow and none of us started…I have no idea what the tests are on and whenever I asked I got a vague response that confused me even more than I already was. 

I'm really going to miss this place.

I got home from Granny’s & recapped the day with Mama Jane on what would be our final recap session ever because it was the last night that we’d be under the same roof  L.   EKV asked if I wanted to get a study group together so I invited him over because I don’t have a car.  He was as clueless as I was.  I put together 2 study guides but I never went over them…that’s apparently my new style and it hasn’t failed me since the first test…the only one I actually studied for and the one scored the lowest on.  I was soon asleep after a very long and draining day but not before catching up on Glee & Family Guy. (what?)

The absolute final stretch is yet to come…I just didn’t want to bombard you all with all of the goodness of the final week all at once.

Good Night

MOUNT UP!!!

So What's Da Scenario?

Mama Jane Knows Best

Disclaimer:  This post just covers Saturday & Sunday, aka Final Scenario Weekend (and it was still 7 pages before adding pictures).  We completed 18 scenarios in something like 22 hours between the two days.  There aren't a lot of visual aids to go with this post and it can be very descriptive because I at least mentioned each of the 18 different scenarios, but some I got as descriptive as I could without giving away too much info.  I'll still be doing at least one more post that wraps up my journey out here but just be informed, this one is kind of dry, lengthy, & wordy.  If you want to read about how awesome of a law enforcement officer I'll be after fearing I had no business in the industry then please read on, if not, keep your eyes out for my future posts.  I promise there will be more visual aids then.

Scenario Weekend: Stop Or I’ll Use Force

 this has to do with scenarios & I heard it on the radio today

So the last hurdle left to clear is finally here…Final Scenario Weekend.  I was so apprehensive about this weekend because of how our “midterm” scenarios panned out; I walked away from them feeling like I was in way over my head and all of the stuff we were learning would never stick.  These scenarios had one major element added to them that the last ones were lacking…firearms.

I woke up just after 6, threw on a bunch of layers, including the first cup I’ve worn since I was 10years old playing Pop Warner football, and actually made some sandwiches to bring for lunch.  We were going to the same park that we used for our last scenarios but this time we would be using a giant campground.  This pleased me much because the park was close to our house.  Security was beefed up for the event, we had to be wanded for weapons, specifically, real ammo that could accidentally be loaded into our firearms.  We were told in advance that we’d be shot by “simunation” rounds and I’ve been anxious about this weekend ever since orientation.

We used the same type of guns that we’ve used on the range but would be shooting regular looking bullet casings with paint tips.  We were told that the bullets travel at 300ft per second and if they hit your flesh they’d break skin.  Great! To familiarize ourselves with these rounds we partnered up, 1 suspect & 1 officer.  I partnered with a female so I figured I’d man up and get shot first…you could see the nerves radiating from the suspects’ faces.  Then we found out that we’d get some padding to help cushion the hits. There was a vest that reminded me of a lead vest you’d wear at the dentist’s office, a helmet, a throat guard, & gloves.  When it got time for Lauren to shoot me I could see how nervous she was to shoot me, but only temporarily.  That’s because when she put her gun on target I closed my eyes tight as I could.  Hahaha.  The shots hit me in the chest, hardly felt them.  Phew.  We went through a few exercises that incorporated our defensive tactics with firearms and then broke into our 6 groups for the 6 scenarios.

One of the simrounds caught Owen's window

My group consisted of Tex, Brad, Forrest, Man Wheels, & Myself.  I threw my nerves out the window and jumped at the chance to go first in the first scenario.  It dealt with shots being fired in the park, a dude hunting where he couldn’t; I Regulated (Mount Up) it and got done rather quickly.  The biggest challenge of the scenarios was not watching or listening to what the other groups were doing in their scenarios…for obvious reasons.  We got through our first station pretty methodically, all 5 of us handled it differently and there was no wrong way to do it.  Score. 

We needed the “simguns” for the next scenario so the nerves kicked up a notch because the only protective gear we were wearing were safety goggles.  Yikes!  This scenario was partner based and dealt with serving a warrant…something new for us.  I caught a glimpse of the pair that went before us and witnessed them using their training batons on the suspect…great.  Brad & I teamed up, he was the contact officer & I was the cover officer.  Our spacing and control of the scene was epic.  Brad did most of the talking and I ended up providing the muscle.  I was in the suspect’s way of getting back into his “house” so he continued to ignore Brad’s commands as he headed toward his car.  I ordered him not to go near his car, he ignored me, so I ran up behind him and just as he got to the car door…I wrapped my arms around him, turned him toward the back of the car and face-planted him on the concrete with my landing right on top of him.  I then successfully executed a beautiful “sprawl” and set-up to handcuff the suspect and the scenario ended.  I helped the suspect up, he was laughing, and when he got to his feet and tried running to the car door again…so I threw one of my old school security holds on him and jokingly told him to stop.  My group told me how awesome it was when I put him on the ground and Brad said he wants me having his back every time haha.  I heard one group didn’t do so hot on the scenario & the suspect shot one of the officers in his not padded t-shirt…Welt City!

It was lunch time and the cool thing about spending the past 13 weeks with this crew was that we basically threw together an unplanned potluck lunch.  We had an hour for lunch, got wanded again, and got rolling with the final 4 scenarios of the day.  This next one was hairy and made me nervous.  It was another “gun” one.  Basically you prevent a guy from getting into his mother-in-law’s house by shooting him…he killed his wife, kid, & shot and wounded a police officer already.  Once the guy’s down the instructors look to see how you assess the rest of the scene.  I didn’t do a lot of things that I should’ve done initially…seeking cover, checking the vehicle he arrived in for more threats, immediately calling for medical assistance for him...but I worked through it and took my lumps like a man.  EVERYBODY got all kinds of lumps for stuff they did & didn’t do on this one.  Real confidence shaker but I didn’t screw up too badly so I didn’t stress it. 

The next one was a test in how nice you can be to people in order to get done what you need to do.  Before today there was only one other time somebody has ever said “Fuck You” to me…in a nonplaying around way…and that guy was a Hell’s Angel who supposedly just got out jail and I witnessed break a guy’s nose at a concert that I was working. This suspect did it and just as I did in the past, I kept my cool, but there was no controlling this dude.  He eventually started walking away from me…which I did nothing about at first because I thought it was the end of the scenario…it wasn’t.  I caught up to him, “stop or I’ll use force!”  He gave me the finger so it was on.  I ran up behind him and sacked him like I was James Harrison blindside blitzing Carson Palmer (don’t worry he was wearing one of those firearm safety suits)…right in front of a family of hikers just out enjoying the campground hahaha.  He squirmed to get up so I hit him with my training baton; he fell and got up again, hit him again and sprawled on him and worked to the cuffing portion.  I thought I did crappy on this one but both he and the monitoring instructor said it was very good. I’ll take it.

Each of these scenarios was dynamic and forced you to adapt to the situation.  We went from being worked up about bringing down a murderer to trying to be a nice guy then escalating our level of force…we decided we were going to try the nice guy approach again considering that the next scenario was a partner drill.  Considering the odd # of members in my group, we split into a threesome and a twosome and Tex, Brad, & I got the first crack at what turned out to be a circus.  I figured we’d have a scenario like this weeks ago, responding to a campsite with multiple occupants and having to control the situation.  The instructors said we had the best approach to the scene of the day…and then we lost it.  While keeping my eye on a female who was walking around with a branch & a beer bottle…and ignored my orders to drop both, Tex & Brad dealt with another gentleman.  I observed a big dude (one of our awesome DUI instructors) sleeping in a tent.  I thought to myself “let my partners know that there’s a 3^rd person involved in the scene…but I never said it…big mistake.  He woke up and charged out of the tent like a bear and had his sights set on Tex & Brad. Cue the circus music.  The “bear” got (inert) OC sprayed (which we just found out in the last scenario actually had sugar water in it, after carrying on our duty belts all semester and believing it was empty) by Tex, there was some scuffle with Brad and the other dude and I intercepted the female from assaulting Tex with the stick.  She was in a t-shirt and yoga pants and there was nothing but rocks throughout the campground…so I didn’t want to slam her on the ground for scenario’s sake.  I articulated that I threw her on the ground but she kept resisting. “Don’t make me throw you on the ground for real, just go.”  She didn’t comply…so down she went.  I got the branch and beer bottle away from her, cuffed her, searched her, and kneeled on her.  Brad’s dude got away so that left all 110lbs of Tex left to scuffle with a guy who was bigger than me.  Since Brad’s dude got away, he took himself out of the scenario and just watched Tex wrestle with the bear until Tex said something to him.  I articulated that I was putting the female in our patrol car so I could help the boys with the big guy.  They were doing all sorts of weird stuff to him.  I came over and applied the hold they were looking for us to apply in order to end the scenario, the suspect said ok and I figured we were done.  Unsure of why we weren’t done, the three of us got him to the ground. Tex was apparently trying to search him and was failing horribly.  We dog piled him for the search, he kept trying to grab at us with his cuffed hands…which was a signal for us to apply the same hold that I applied when he was standing…instead Tex slaps his hands and tries to continue his search.  This went on for a while then they mercifully ended the scenario. There was a lot that frustrated me about the scenario but none more than the fact that I ended it earlier and stopped when I heard an instructor say okay.  We got a lot of criticism on that one.  One more scenario left.

The last one dealt with taking artifacts out of the park…big No No.  Tex & I partnered up and dominated the entire scene.  We were the second to last pair to go and they said we were the first pair of the day to approach the scene correctly.  We worked through the whole scenario almost flawlessly.  They had nothing but good things to say about us…then we got to watch the other 3 go at the same time.  The instructor we had yesterday for the D-Tac refresher was one of the suspects in this one and he cracked me up. He was hitting on Stan and seeing his reaction was priceless.  While their scenario was going on I saw a giant eared squirrel.  It looked almost like a rabbit-squirrel. 

We get debriefed after each scenario and some of the instructors would ask us one lesson we learned through doing them…very very awesome idea.  These instructors were phenomenal and I steered away from my normally quiet self and asked all of them a bunch of questions. I made sure to ask my defensive tactic instructor to show me a better way to frisk…that will come back again tomorrow.  We met up as a class and got some more feedback and we were on our way. I was feeling good about the way the day went. When we got home I had a lot of energy and the weather was beautiful out so I decided I was going to get changed and go for a walk…maybe do some PT exercises.  I lost nearly all of my steam by the time I got changed.  I grabbed my iPod & forced myself get out of the house.

I walked to Bushmaster Park, it was looking nice and there were quite a few people there.  I walked around on the path and eventually sat on a park bench and just watched everything going on around me.  I eventually headed home, taking the long way back, and that’s when I started thinking, “I haven’t seen any stray dogs running around here in awhile. Next time I do I’m going to check for a tag and see if I can return them”  I soon would be able to practice what I was thinking about. I went out to the grocery store about an hour later and I looked up my road to see 3 dogs roaming my street in a perfect in-step pack formation.  I identified two of them as German Shepherds but I couldn’t quite make out what the third and biggest one was.  I said screw it and followed them around the neighborhood until I could get to safe spot to try to check them out.  They headed down the next street, I got about 15 feet from them…tried whistling for them but they ignored me, turned around, and headed for the next street.  So I turned around and headed to the next street.  By the time I got there they repeated the same pattern but this time I stopped, whistled, and the smaller Shepherd with an all black face stopped and looked at me, the biggest dog turned out to be a Siberian Husky, she ran around my car but within seconds they were on to the next road.  By the time I turned around and headed for the next road they were out of sight.  So bizarre.  The rest of the night was pretty tame compared to that haha.  I did manage to watch Devil and I rather enjoyed it. (Welcome back M. Night)

Scenario Weekend: I’ve Seen Better

It’s funny the things you can do when you really have to, but I’ll get into more detail about that later.  Today was the last day of the big “scary” scenarios and I couldn’t wait to get into them after the big confidence boost I got from yesterday’s exercises.  The location of today’s scenarios changed to a military base and we were warned that there’d be less sun and a lot more wind…boy they weren’t kidding; I was stripping off my sweatshirt before it was my turn on our very first scenario…at 8am.  We got new groups today, EJP, Lewkis, Arkansas, LDC, & I were set to get into it today and I howled that we were the Dream Team when were assigned to our first station…a vehicle stop. 

This one of the many elements of law enforcement that has always made me nervous to get into and Arkansas & LDC made sure I was the contact officer right off the bat.  We’ve never actually pulled somebody over during our training so this should’ve been very entertaining.  We witness two guys drive past us, swerving all over the road, and holding a map up in front of their faces.  We’re not supposed to stop them on a curve and were supposed to keep them away from other cars.  Well practically the entire road was a curve and when it wasn’t, there were a bunch of military vehicles parked in the road.  Luckily the instructors pulled into a parking lot, unfortunately I didn’t get the information I needed to get out over the radio before they stopped and jumped out of the car then began asking us directions…my partners sprung into action while I resolved that issue.  I had the rules of the driving track embedded in my brain so when I stopped our truck, I turned off the lights & then the truck…first time jitters.  I took control of the scene and separated the driver & passenger.  I talked with the driver, LDC the passenger, & Arkansas had our backs.  The scenario eventually led to me taking the driver through the DUI FSTs…right in front of the instructor who showed them to us…he was clear to go with some fake directions to where they were trying to go and a little lecture. 

As soon as I got through that scenario I realized that I can actually do this job.  My belief in doing so was getting clearer & clearer as the semester went on but it was at this point that I was no longer afraid of going forward with these scenarios and began actually really looking forward to an opportunity to work in the law enforcement field.  The following scenario was definitely the loudest one and one of the role players was the guy with the shovel from the previous day, so my guard was up with him today.  I had the same partners & we responded to a noise disturbance in a camp ground.  The two actors were “drunk”, had music blasting, and were talking really loud by an open driver side door.  LDC opted to be the contact officer but our approach landed me in the role because I saw them playing with a handgun…at which point I drew my “redgun”, dropped to a knee, and ordered them to put down the gun and move to the back of their pickup truck.  Our 360 approach again was flawless, the ladies handled the suspects and I searched the vehicle.  The first thing I saw was a prop shotgun on the dashboard but I didn’t think much of it because they weren’t getting near the cab of that truck again…eventually controlled it but should’ve done it as soon as I saw it.  When I controlled the shotgun, shovel guy hollered, “ain’t that the nicest gun you ever seen?” (or something like that). I responded, “I’ve seen better.” My group cracked up and I was relieved that I finally let one of those out. I was always too nervous to put my Jeff Ward Spin on these scenarios, but those three words changed my entire mindset in going forward with the rest of the day and how I plan to go forward from here. We worked through the scene nicely, shovel guy broke character for a second to reinforce a proper way to frisk in me, and we were done with them.

EJP & I tag teamed a car that was “suspiciously” parked on the side of a park road and was seen sleeping.  I took the cover officer role this time and approached the vehicle on the passenger side.  EJP dealt with the introduction and everything but I once again found myself in more of a contact role..doing what I have to do.  While EJP ran his info back in the patrol car, I controlled the suspect verbally, talked to dispatch, had the suspect step out of the vehicle and onto the side of the road and advising him to watch his footing (which was a huge deal and my instructors loved) and completed a flawless search (right in front of the D-Tac instructor we had the past few days, the same guy who showed me how to do it yesterday) and I explained to the suspect what I was doing as I was doing it and the instructors loved that.  In our feedback session, all 3 of the instructors said I was “OUTSTANDING!!!” We moved onto a hunting scenario right after that and we were informed that 1 of us would be going solo…that person was me. I happened to catch other students doing all kinds of patdowns, searches, and even cuffing…and there were 2 hunters in this case.  Time to shine.

The story was that they were parked in NPS land and hunting in Forest Service land…which is legal and had I not asked before the scenario, I would never have known.  I caught up with the hunters on their way back to their car.  While they were a good distance away, I verbalized how I wanted them to show me that their guns were empty, the same way we were taught at the range (ironically, one of our range instructors was facilitating this scene).  When I saw the weapons were clear, I waved them on to continue on their way to their car, stopping them in the road to ID them.  I made small talk with them and sent them on their way.  The instructors said I was the “best one yet” at that scenario.  No need to frisk a couple of hunters.  The point of the scenario was to not treat all of your contacts like criminals.  The next scenario dealt with a domestic dispute of sorts. LDC & I were great at keeping a visual on each other while we separated the parties but I was told I should’ve taken away the broom the guy was holding much sooner than I did.  One more morning scenario to go. 

We were getting set to take on our next scene and then some sort of badness came over Arkansas.  She ran to the bathroom and barfed.  This started a pattern of going first in the scenarios & then leaving to vomit the rest of the day.  She was such a trooper, I was so proud.  Jacob (Lewkis) & I finally partnered up and once again I started off as cover but soon turned into contact officer.  Our suspect was a guy that seemed suspicious to a visitor.  We arrived & he appeared to be “on” something. I saw him fidgeting with his blanket when he stood up to talk to us but I wasn’t sure how to go about looking under the blanket.  We eventually got to it after I did an excellent job at building rapport with him.  Jacob found the drugs which gave me the green light to cuff and thoroughly search him.  I knew I had to get it right because, for the 4^th time today, I’d be performing a skill on or in front of one of the instructors that taught it to me.  I found more drugs and we arrested him. I was told I did a good job but I talked too fast while searching him and giving him commands.  LUNCH TIME!  We preordered Subway and then jumped back into the fray. 

There were 2 scenarios that involved the less-than-lethal rounds in the afternoon…and we got both of them right off the bat.  The first one was my least favorite scenario of the weekend.  It involved responding to a fight with weapons involved and deciding whether or not to shoot.  I did get to throw somebody on the ground so that was cool but since I was sort of the odd man out and one of my group mates had to double up and be my partner…I got grilled in front of the facilitator, the 3 role players, my group mates, & 2 program spectators. I was right in what I did but it was just a dumb scenario.  Oh yeah, I was prompted to call for medical assistance but ID’d the wrong type of injury because the guy that needed it and another guy were wearing the same looking “paint bulletproof” suits.  Just dumb.  The next scenario required me to face one of my biggest fears…getting whacked by multiple paintballs.

This was a cover course scenario…how to shoot from behind cover using the cover properly.  This was no fun for me.  We had to wear those suffocating helmets, run from cover to cover, shoot at a paintball gun wielding suspect from behind the cover, and try not to get hit. Lots of anxiety going on here for me.  The gun we were using was a piece of crap; every time I shot I had to re-rack the slide so it could fire again.  When I ran to cover I either dove or slid on these jagged rocks so that I’d be covered; and that’s what the title of this section is all about.  I’m facing one of my fears with the whole paintball thing, couldn’t breathe with that helmet on, and here I was sprinting and diving behind crappy wooden cover so that I wouldn’t be shot.  I didn’t use the cover so well because I got hit 4-5 times…once right in my shooting hand, once in the front of each shoulder, and at least once smack dab in the forehead.  I hit the suspect 4 times too but it was so hard to see with that helmet on.  When the scenario was deemed over, I ripped the helmet off my head; gasping for air and extremely pissed about the whole thing.  I felt like I wasn’t even hitting the guy and I essentially died. 

My frustration didn’t hinder my confidence and soon I was fighting to be the contact officer.  Low and behold, the next instructor picked me to be the first contact officer in the next scenario…which was more of a teaching scenario.  He showed us a different approach to high-risk vehicle stops and sent us on our way.  The next scenario tested how well we retain and analyze pre-shift briefing material but of course we didn’t know that going into it.  I was contact officer again and responded to a disabled vehicle call.  I think what threw me off was that this scenario was in the same place as the hunting scenario that I did so well in because I went about it the same way.  At one point the driver gets out of the car and I notice what look like weapon cases, my partner saw them too but neither of us were sure how to articulate going about being able to see them, so we let the car leave once it started again and I basically announced that the scenario was over and I knew that we messed up something.  The cases actually ended up being stolen property that we were told about in our briefing but the fact that the car was really a law enforcement vehicle and the way the shadow hit them, they looked like they could’ve been some fancy law enforcement center console.  That was aggravating.  Only 2 more scenarios left and our lives get a whole lot easier.

LDC opted to be the contact officer and we responded to a call of an open window of a federal building at which nobody is supposed to be because it’s the weekend.  LDC, EJP, & I arrive on scene and see a guy standing outside the window with a crowbar and is having stuff thrown at the window to him which he tries to take to his “car”.  This scene went a little sloppy for us but I got very vocal with the suspects while spotting my partners, used solid communication with them throughout the scene, and was even able to explain some things to one of them that they didn’t quite understand…which in turn proved to myself that even I understood this stuff.  There was one scenario left and even the instructors let it show that they were happy it was the last one.  We responded to a call about dudes fighting over a campground and just when it seemed that one of them was going to be thrown out, he jokingly broke character, pulled out his badge, and said that he was working undercover for an immigration case.  We weren’t sure if it was for real or part of the scene but it was hysterical and the laughter basically ended scenario weekend.

I wish we did more scenarios throughout the year.  At times we were rushed to conclude them and there could’ve been a whole lot more that we could’ve gotten out of them.  I was scared crapless of them back for our midterm but by the middle of the last day I wanted to take on all of the responsibilities and by the end of the last day I felt like I could handle any law enforcement issue that comes my way.  I still have a whole lot more to learn but I know I can do it and it took these final scenarios piecing everything we’ve covered all semester together for me to realize that.  It just goes to show you that you shouldn’t be afraid of anything in this life. Even if you feel like you can’t do something, when you’re literally forced to do it..you find yourself excelling at it and learn that there was never anything to fear in the first place. 

We got to have some fun after cleaning up scenes.  Our DUI instructor brought his K-9, Victor, out to play and this dog is awesome!  I know when to show dogs respect and all of that.  The dog that this instructor had yesterday…I wouldn’t ever dream of going anywhere near…but Victor was at our midterm scenarios and although none of the students really touched him, I wanted to play with him so bad.  Well on Sunday, most of the students gathered around Victor and he loved it.  He reminded me of Casey (my golden retriever).  He would melt onto you and just hope that you pet him.  He’d mash his body into head first and not leave until he targeted somebody else to pet him.  He was so loving, happy, & playful that you’d never think he was police dog.  Then somebody requested bite suit demonstration…and both of our DUI instructors obliged.  I told you these guys were the coolest back when we first had them in class.  Victor looked like he was just a regular dog playing but there was a very noticeable change in his eyes once he saw the instructor in his bite suit.  They gave us a brief demonstration of the training they normally do for their K-9s and it was just incredible how Victor goes from playful, to killer attack beast, to tame and playful with just the application of a few Dutch words (he’s a Belgian Malinois I Think).  After the demonstration we got our final feedbacks, said our final thank you’s, and wished Kathy well because this was her last scenario weekend at NAU EVER!

This is Victor, he's super awesome

Yes he's chewing on an ASP baton.  Have you ever felt one of those? Yeah this dog is a total badass

I was beat when I got home and very upset about some things going on in Jeffville.  I think I just laid around and I finished the first season of Friday Night Lights but at one point Fiona ran away and we took turns searching for her.  She eventually made it back home which was pretty impressive considering she’s an indoor only cat.  Bed time for me.  Last PT class tomorrow.

Goodnight

MOUNT UP!!!

Getting Down To It

Chlorophyll? More Like Bore-a-phyll!!

So this past week is all a blur.  I think I’m blinded by Senioritis mixed in with a bunch of wanting to be home so I’m already almost done packing, a side of wow they wait until the end of the semester to throw in a bunch of last minute work, a dash of disappointment that I can’t help but feeling like this whole trip was a bit of a waste because I have no job when we wrap up, topped off with a whole lot of I’m really going to miss these Unstoppables after this next week comes & goes.

Class wise, this has been the most boring weeks yet.  I still have no idea what we talked about.  We were supposed to expand our coverage on resources that need protecting…but I don’t feel like we really covered that.  Our instructor was basically taking over our class for 4 days; we even had to do a paper and an oral presentation that was graded by him. Monday was just spent with long awkward stares at the front of the classroom. I won’t bore you about that anymore, it was bad enough living through it once.  I put some pieces of my portion of our group project together and worked through a homemade review sheet for our test in the AM and then crashed for the evening.

Overtime

Woke up, ate my coco dynabites while I skimmed through the study guide and then I was out the door.  While we were taking our tests, Kathy checked our flashdrive notebooks for our FINAL notebook grade. That’s pretty exciting.  What’s not exciting is that she told me I was missing one of the PDF presentations that we’re required to download as each instructor presents them.  The thing is, I did download it, it was broken or something so it didn’t show up…so I got a 90%.  I finished the test in 10 minutes; got a 93…maybe I should’ve not studied my entire school life.  After the test I filled out my evaluation of our PT class, you can imagine how that went.  

We snuck in a class picture retake today...as if you hadn't already seen it.

We were supposed to write a paragraph, I wrote about 6.  The general consensus of the class is that the program is subpar and the instructor, Mike, is more into himself than he is the class. Considering just about everybody in the program, including Mike, are leaving…I dulled down my criticisms significantly.  We still had over an hour before so CJ & I headed to the campus bookstore  for some last minute t-shirts, grabbed some grub and then headed to the classroom….where I stayed until 8:30 at night….10.5 hours on campus.  Being unable to concentrate on school work at home, I stayed at my seat until I had my part of the paper done.  Unfortunately I wasn’t done-done. I still had to go home, do my PowerPoint presentation portion and then organize everybody else’s slides.  Who’s exhausted? THIS GUY! 

This was up in one of the classrooms I walked by on my way out at 8:30...the first line is definitely an attention grabber.  I literally walked past it and then walked backwards to see it again.

Humpty Dumpty Hump Day

I don’t know what’s going on with me but my entire lower body is super sore.  We got through warm-ups in PT and then we had a 25 minute run around campus…that sucked.  We were basically told to partner up and stick together when we ran so Jake & I kept together but were both struggling with soreness…so we didn’t get as far as we normally do.  Mike informed us that today would be our last “hard” class as we get ready to de-load and prepare for the PEB.  I can’t believe that all of this stuff is coming to an end.  

One thing that made things super awesome today was the sudden outreach from a bunch of my dudes back home.  There’s a tradition at my old park.  When a ranger leaves, transfers, or whatever…they pin their nametag up on the bulletin board that’s outside of our locker room.  My dude Augun sent me a picture of it with the message, “I hear you wanna  wear this again.” It’s true…I reached out to one of my supervisors earlier this week, as well as my main man from the MCPS, Simpson, and expressed my interest in returning to the park.  I filled Augun in on the woes of trying to land a federal government job at this point in time…something he told me would be an issue even before I came out here…and I’m assuming he told everybody else that was at work at the time because I got text messages from a couple other of my old partners in crime.  They said they needed me there…awwww.  A great friend and fellow oH6 member, Kush, also checked in on me to see when I’d be coming home and told me he’d sign up at my gym so he can become my training partner once I got home.  AWESOME!

Kush getting me in a triangle choke. I wonder if this is the training he had in mind.

New day but class remained boring. My group was hoping to not have to present today, as we were told that half of the groups would present today, the other half tomorrow…we got the reprieve.  I took advantage of the extra time to clean up some of the slides, add some new ones, and finalize my thoughts on how I wanted to present.  Then I discovered a new addiction…the television show Friday Night Lights.  (thank you Netflix).  I’m so hooked on this show that it is currently Friday night (HA) as I write this and I’m already watching episode 16.  This was the perfect distraction for the next 4 hairy-scary days we have ahead of us. 

Is Anybody Else In Here?

Today, Thursday, is the beginning of a fairly hectic 4 day stretch that basically wraps up the semester. We have my presentation, some other class stuff, 1 hour dinner break, and then we meet at the NAU police station for our run at building searches and high risk vehicle stops.  Let’s Get It On!

We weren’t robbed of our morning off today but I still woke up around 830-9 and still felt very sore in my legs and lower back.  I got out of bed, stretched for a little bit, and did my morning thing…then it was time for MORE Friday Night Lights.  I only stopped watching when I got a surprise phone call from Laura. J  She Rules!  I managed to do some laundry and grab a Lean Pocket while on the phone with her but other than that, I was zoned in on the Dillon Panthers.  I get so caught up in the stories that I actually talk to the TV…and yes I watch by myself.  I even laughed with a long “oooohhhhhh” when J. Street told his g/f Minka Kelly that if she wanted to get laid so bad then she should go see “Riggins”, aka his best friend who she cheated on him with hahaha.  When he said that even I could feel the punch in the gut sensation hahahaha.  Good show. Good show.  I watched it right up until it was time to leave for class; again…great way to distract me from the day ahead of us.

I called Laura on the way to class and I told her how nervous I was about our presentation.  I don’t really get nervous anymore but I was for some reason today.  Our topic was “water resource issues in the Southwest” and it was such a broad topic that I wasn’t confident enough that I was covering the right material in my section – climate change’s effect on these water resources.  Doesn’t this sound like real school work?  What’s up with this crap?  When it was my time to present I worked in a lot of “Jeff Ward Style” with my jokes, puns, and awesome pictures that all got some laughs…one of my favorites was when I had the slide entitled “Winter in the Southwest” and I put up a picture of Brad Winter (my fellow jokester in the class) from the WFR Mass Casualty Scenario (he’s the one that barfed in the bowl that I held for him that day) and I continued on with the presentation while keeping that slide up lol…but I stumbled getting the facts out.  We ended up doing a good job so life was good.  Each presentation was supposed to be 20 minutes long but everybody went way longer and we still needed our instructors to speak, so the dude that’s been getting us out close to a half hour early these past few days ended up keeping us 15 minutes late today.  This normally wouldn’t have been a big deal but that meant we only had 45 minutes to find dinner and then meet at NAU PD.

I worked this little beauty into my presentation and got a bunch of "awwww"s for it.  Yes I love Indy A LOT!

Attempting to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I shot over to Walmart for some Subway and to buy a cup for this weekend…we’ve been told several times we’ll need one.  I don’t know what’s up with that Subway but the two times I’ve been there, the two employees on the clock are in the back jerking around. I don’t have time for this crap.  One of them came out, made my sandwich wrong, gave me a giant sized cup when I asked for a small and charged me way more than he should have.  I couldn’t be bothered with that right now.  I inhaled grub and ran to look for a cup…they didn’t have my size, no not youth extra small you jerks, so I ran out of the store and booked it toward the police station.  

We met up outside and then staggered into a classroom.  The instructors were all very cool.  They were mostly NAU PD. One of our first D-Tac instructors came out and student “bad guy” volunteers along with Kathy & Doug (our 2 directors) all crammed into this tiny classroom to observe the tactics portion. We got an hour of classroom time, half for building search techniques & the other half for high risk vehicle stop techniques, and then split the room in half and outside we went.  My half started with the high risk vehicle stops station.  Since a lot of you are probably wondering this just like some of my classmates were, a high risk stop usually deals with well known armed suspects, a stolen vehicle, or there was a lengthy pursuit involved before stopping the suspects.  

The police cars (Ford Expeditions) in our station were set up in what’s called the “left fan” position…contact officer vehicle directly behind the suspect, cover officer vehicle directly to his left.  Here’s a cool little fact…the suspect vehicle was a 4Runner!  We would go through the scenario in teams of 4, a driver & passenger in each patrol vehicle.  I was the first person to volunteer but I went to the cover vehicle, driver side..aka I wouldn’t be doing much.  Turiya was my passenger, Jake was the contact officer, and John was his passenger….pretty solid group.  Jake handled the business with the PA, Turiya did the cuffing, and John & I watched the vehicle at all times.  We couldn’t see any more suspects so guess who’s turn it was to do something…THIS GUY.  I had to “slice the pie” as I approached the vehicle, try to feel for any movement, jump up & peek into the rear windows without breaking the light beams that were lighting this car up, and ultimately open a rear door to make sure that the truck was clear.  Even though it was a scenario, my blood was pumping with all of those police lights going haha. 

After a brief stint at the other high risk station, of which I didn’t get a chance to participate but offered some useful observations, it was our turn to head in and do the building searches.  We got a tour of the building we’d be searching, the NAU Res Life Warehouse, and then it was time to go.  For those of you familiar with Ikea, specifically all of the shelves by checkout with all of the stuff you’re supposed to pick up with a claim ticket or something, that’s what this place looked like. There pieces of beds, fans, refrigerators, couches, lamps, you name it and it was on those shelves….which meant there were tons of places for the bad guy to hide.  

John & Curtis were first and I just gotta say it…I loved watching John do his thing.  Don’t get all crazy eyed people John was a marine so he’s trained in this sort of stuff.  Remember back when I talked about Instructor Money owning the fire class because he was in his element…same thing holds true here.  Watching John work through the search was like watching an action movie unfold before my eyes.  You Call of Duty freaks got nothing on him.  The point of their scenario was to miss suspect, have him sneak up on them, and then see how they react when faced with the threat.  That all happened, the suspect was pinned between two mattresses hahahaha.  

With the odd # in our group and the clock ticking, Josh, Jake, & I tackled the exercise as a threesome.  We entered the warehouse, Jake on point with the AR-15, Josh took the first aisle, and I covered our “6”.  We got kinda hung up after the first aisle but we moved down to the second aisle and I made my way down and searched it.  When I got to the end of that aisle, Jake & Josh spotted the suspect and began shouting commands for him to stop.  Wisely, nobody took off after him.  We regrouped and moved to the next aisle…which was right across from a set of stairs. Josh checked the aisle for further threats and when he returned, I headed up the stairs…knowing nobody else was up there but I did it for experience. It was as if we’d done this before but we managed to stay in step with each other as we progressed down the corridor.  I made my way through the upper landing applying any and every clearing technique I’d seen in movies, when I got to the other set of stairs I could see the suspect’s feet under a shelf at the last aisle.  I shouted for him to freeze and put his hands up and you could see how badly I startled him…it was awesome. I waited at the top of the stairs for Josh to clear another aisle and then I made my way down the stairs, focusing on where I saw the suspect…walking right past another aisle that wasn’t cleared…so that was a minor booboo.  We eventually got to the last aisle and executed a flawless arrest.  The NAU instructor loved our tactics but assistant director Doug suggested that we might not want to separate in the future.  LDC & Turiya got a crack at the warehouse then we headed to the other side for the office clearing scenario.  We didn’t have enough time for everybody to do it so John & Jake went through it and the instructor explained everything and then we were done around 10:15. 

On the way home I stopped at Super Walmart with Nick to check out their cup situation; we each got one.  When we got home we moved an old washer to the curb for pick-up for Mama Jane and I did a little bit more packing while watching even more Friday Night Lights.  I don’t know if it was because I was amped up from the evening’s festivities or nerves about the next few days, but I was up pretty late.  I even went out and cleaned up some of my car around 2 in the morning.  I was up so late, Laura was up for work & we were texting each other.  As soon as she told me to get some sleep…I crashed ha. 

One More Week

Two good things about today, graduation is one week from today AND we don’t have PT this morning.  Unfortunately, we still had to go to class at the same time we normally would’ve if we had PT.  We had a refresher course on some of our law enforcement procedures, then lunch, and then it was time for some more fun.  We worked with the D-Tac instructor from the night before as we did a handcuff refresher out in “The Quad”…in front of a whole bunch of student spectators.  Half of the class started out as officers while the others were suspects…duh.  The officers had to do some calisthenics (burpees, pushups, situps, jumping jacks, etc) then run into the field of suspects and then work through handcuffing them.  They went 3 times, practicing 3 different cuffing positions/techniques/stances, whatever, and then switched roles.  The PT crap before sprinting to the suspects was annoying. Especially in duty gear and while wearing pants that are much bigger now for some reason.  

After the handcuff refresher we worked on regular vehicle stops…I know I thought it was weird that we did high risk stops before regular stops too but what can you do?  Vehicle stops and courtroom testimony are the two elements of law enforcement that have made me apprehensive about pursuing a career in law enforcement for years now and now I’ve been exposed to them both.  Once again, the class was split in half and we took turns practicing the regular vehicle stops.  The cars were already in place then we simulated a call to dispatch, made contact with the driver, decided whether to warn or cite the suspect, and then let them go.  We were taught a couple of different tactics for making the vehicle stop…one of them involved calling the driver back to the front of the “squad car” and conducting the contact right there.  Our instructor asked me why nobody was trying the “call back” technique…I told him it was probably because we did it last night but said I’d do it…so I got to demonstrate in front of my group…yay!  As has been the theme lately, class ran late; this time because we added an introduction to defending against edge weapons (knives) after the vehicle stop portion of the day.  Kathy walked out to her car when Nick, Carter, Kopplin, & I were leaving and she brought up the fact that we'd be done in less than a week now.  Not only did I get her to pound the potato but she told us she'd cry and that she would hang with us afterwards.  YAY!!!  As of right now, I don't know if I'll be around afterwards because there is still nobody secured in shipping my car home so I may be road tripping it...YIKES!!!  If that's the case then I'm leaving right after graduation I wanna make the 35 hour trip in time to be home for Easter Sunday. 

I got home, got changed, and then headed out to find something to wear to graduation.  I checked out Old Navy for a pair of khakis and ended up buying a pair that’s a little smaller than I usually buy…I hope it works out.  Went to Sears and got a sexy shirt & tie and then came home.  Caught up with Mama Jane, talked about graduation with Nick & Carter, and have been typing this…and watching Friday Night Lights…ever since. 

It’s time for bed now.  We got an early/long day tomorrow.  I believe it starts off with shooting each other with less than lethal bullets…hence the need for a cup.  Two more days then I can breathe easy.

Good Night

Flagstaff Observation

This Party’s Almost Over!!!

MOUNT UP!!!