Jon’s Narrative

Too often, students forget that the instructors were students once also, so I was asked to document my story viewed from the student side.
I was in US Special Forces training when I broke my back on a parachute jump and was medically discharged. Desiring the same field of employment, after a lot of research, I chose the Center and attended it way back in 2002.

It was both more challenging than I anticipated, and more fun. Among my  classmates were a quiet, low level of experience American and a mad Scotsman. Another attendee was from the Republic of Georgia but he failed the final exam because he didn’t take it seriously enough.
I remember qualifying on the range in a pouring downpour. I missed the expert category by one shot, and Shawn has never let me live it down since. It didn’t matter that it was raining, we continued to train regardless.

Our graduation exercise wasn’t an exercise but rather the real thing. An extremely affluent woman was visiting Miami and we were tasked with her safety. So on day 25 of the course I found myself on South Beach, along with the others, in a mission that really was out of Hollywood. The black and white photo here is us walking the client on South Beach. It’s actually a very sad picture for me because all the others in it, save for the client, are now dead.

Shortly after graduation I was actually sent to the real Hollywood as a finalist in a show concerning bodyguards. So that was a far cry from what I had expected as a first job.A few months later I found myself in Iraq. The world is a small place and the first thing I did was to call up my Scottish classmate and get him over here with us. The other graduate was already placed by the Center with the security operations at BIAP which is Baghdad Airport.

We were all over the country, running missions from the Jordanian border to Baghdad. We worked with the Kurds in the North, who were excellent soldiers. The skills I learned at the Center, especially in terms of shooting and mission preparation, paid off in real world dividends on more than one occasion. It wasn’t long before I was working with maybe 2 dozen graduates from CASS. We had all been trained the same way so integration was seamless. The truth is that I really did have a great time.
As the insurgency gained steam, it got pretty bad. I came back to the US, paid a visit to the new location in Florida and got certified as a Scuba diver by the Center on my 40th birthday, which is now a kind of legend at the dining room table. I returned to a deteriorating Iraq.

It was not long afterwards that my classmate from Scotland was killed in action. About a month later the Center took another fatality during a shoot out in Baghdad. So for those reading, it was the real deal. Of my class, there are only two alive and only one is not wounded. Such is life.
My number came up after that in the form of a car bomb that killed both American soldiers and a lot of civilians. During rehab I was asked if I wanted to teach at the Center, imparting  my real world experience onto others stepping forward. I said yes, and due to injuries, am the only full time instructor at the course. Others are rotated in and out between operations.

Looking back, I think I would have paid a bit more attention to the course content if I had known where I was headed and what was in store. Sometimes it’s easy to treat everything as a kind of game, half fun and half serious. Bad mistake. Especially when you see the plaques on the stairwell dedicated to people who have been killed in the line of duty.  I ‘m not saying the course isn’t fun, because it is. But there is a very real underlying motive in terms of trying to jam the most information we possibly can into your brain now during your time with us. None of us want to see more plaques on the wall.

I had a great time and travelled extensively and made some well, obscene paychecks. Not everybody just flies to Dubai for an afternoon off! I’m a better person for it and the things I learned over there have made me a better instructor. But don’t BS us, because we’ve all been in your shoes and I still remember day 3 just like you will.
No regrets. Life is short, so live it to the fullest.

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