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The Value of Ongoing Training

I changed my college major from engineering to criminology and fought my way into the police academy only to find that Central Ohio was not the Mecca for protection details. Neither was there much in the way of professional training in protection work because EPI and ESI hadn’t taken off just yet. So, if one wasn’t in the Secret Service or Army CID, one’s education came from magazines, television, movies, and a variety of other sources which had little reliability and even less practicality.

My first protection detail was 30 August 1974. I was a second-year Marine Option Midshipman at Ohio State who “volunteered” to protect then-President Gerald R. Ford as he gave the commencement address at graduation. While it was an eye-opening and life-changing experience for me, the two-hour orientation provided by the US Secret Service hardly prepared me for a career that I knew I desperately wanted to pursue.

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Testimonial

After knowing about EPI for a very long time I finally reached the point to attend and come out of class 84. After the knowledge and instruction my biggest regret was that I didn’t do it sooner. I started my networking locally and while traveling making most contacts to local ASIS chapters. I got my first “gig” through a good friend who is a local police officer. It was for an up-and-coming regional Latina singer who was having some stalker issues from an obsessed fan, getting her to and from her events and identifying this individual. Doing this detail brought me into contact with other performers and their event managers which led to another performer for whom I still currently provide protection. My various law enforcement contacts have also opened the door to some political activities which I give credit to my attending EPI, the senator’s protection detail was very impressed with the skillset I had obtained.

Mindset is Everything

Starting with a personal experience that changed how I look at networking and building your resume. I took a volunteer assignment back in 2010 with Black Ice Security in the Virginia area. They have been supporting the GI Film Festival for years providing volunteer pro bono EP support. I was working in the Indiana area for a Healthcare company and had wrapped up and headed to Washington DC to support the Film Festival. People were like you drove from where! Shortly after that detail I was asked to provide support for worst environmental disaster our country has ever seen. When they asked for additional staffing support for that detail and if I knew anyone who would be good guess where I went? I asked 2 agents from the pro bono detail I had just worked. Both agents were assigned to that team for almost 2 years. Working that pro bono assignment changed how I look at everything in my field today when it comes to developing your network.

Dr. HHA Cooper

~ A Life Remembered

When I was asked to write a memoir for Dr. Cooper, I was both honored and baffled. Honored to be considered worthy of this project. Baffled by the task of distilling such a “larger than life” personality down to a short article. What follows is my collection of thoughts about the good doctor.

To illustrate the veracity of the “larger than life” comment here is a brief bio from a Dr. Cooper article entitled Terrorism and Espionage in the Middle East published by Mellen Press:

Dr. H.H.A. Cooper is president of Nuevevidas International, Inc., a Texas Consulting company specializing in safety and survival issues. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at The University of Texas at Dallas. He directed the National Advisory Committee Task Force on Disorders and Terrorism, 1974-1977, and was the Director of Criminal Law Education and Research Center (CLEAR) and Deputy Director of the Center of Forensic Psychiatry of New York University. Dr. Cooper is the author of many works dealing with terrorism and other manifestations of extraordinary violence.