Going the Distance

“Wade through the Wounded and Vault over the Dead”

-Master Chief Petty Officer Hershel Davis (USN)

In my good friend and mentor Paul Howe’s Outstanding Book Leadership and Training for the Fight Paul gives this quote to open up a short paragraph on Aggressiveness and how it can keep you alive when you are fighting for your life.  Being AGGRESSIVE is not just a MINDSET, It is a Training NECESSITY. Most of the time, you will not see it integrated into civilian combat training at all, instead you will see the instructors and students laughing and joking and approaching it like they would a round of “Tactical Golf”. Training to survive in a violent world cannot and should never be approached like a casual sport or past-time…civilian self-defense and combat training is NOT a hobby, it is a Mindset and Lifestyle. The CO, like the Citizen Spartan before him, must make-up his mind NOW to be Aggressive, NOW to become a Fighter & NOW to SURVIVE, no matter what! But in order to do that and to obtain that “Complete Warrior” Ethos, Aggressiveness is not enough, it is just the foundation to having an effective Combative Mindset.

“It’s not the Violence that sets a man apart, it is the Distance he is prepared to Go.”

-Forrest Bondurant, Virginia Bootlegger, 1931

You know I don’t talk a lot about the mental or psychological side of killing or combat on this blog only because it is a subject that is hard to describe to somebody who has no reference point to understand it. In other words, if you have never BTDT, it is hard to describe. Add to this that the majority of published stuff out there that most people rely on to understand the subject is 75% Horsheshit, written by pencil necked Military Officers or Liberal 60′ Generation Phd’s who have never been in a fight in their lives and if it was it was when they were having their lunch money taken.

Let’s be real…you don’t train, hit the gym and read this blog every day (I Hope!) because you HAVE too… you do it because something inside you DRIVES you too, right? Something in your life is worth the pain, worth the time and effort, worth the expense for training classes and ammo and gear, right? That SOMETHING or SOMEBODY is different for everybody…for most CO’s it is to ensure the safety and protection for themselves and their loved ones. But we all know, or at least we should, that fighting violence with more violence is NEVER enough. We need another ingredient, and very few people have it at the right time: WILLINGNESS TO KILL AND THE BALLS TO GO THE DISTANCE TO GET THE JOB DONE.

The best trained, best equipped, biggest, baddest MF on the block is only as good as the willingness and distance he is willing to go to kill. To WIN the fight. No matter how big, bad or intimidating your opponent, no matter what the consequences, no matter the odds of you yourself getting killed or wounded. Think only of ELIMINATING THE THREAT. Think of your opponent as an OBJECT to be destroyed, not as a human being.  The CO has to come to grips with that. He has to come to realize that one day he may have to stab a man in the neck, shoot him in the face, bite off his nose, gouge his eyeballs until they squish like jelly or choke him until he is blue and his tongue rolls out of his head…all to win the fight, all to SURVIVE. Bear in mind, it will never be pretty & neat like the movies…just ask George Zimmerman.

So there it is guys and gals, not a subject you can really elaborate a lot on, but definitely something the CO needs to think about everyday!

Stay Focused, Stay Violent and Stay Dangerous!