Sheepdog Tip of the Day

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Linda gave Rory about 10 dry fires before his first live one. For every
shot, she asked Rory to open his eyes wide and focus on the sight picture,
keep his forehead smooth and clear, relax his face, and think about the
perfect shot. She repeated "smooth" over and over and put her finger on his
forehead over the crinkle to help him relax the muscles. Anytime it looked
like a flinch was setting up, Linda would stop his shot and ask him to
reset (start over). Whenever it looked like he might be able to shoot a
perfect dry fire, Linda would let Rory click the trigger. Finally, after
about 10 dry fires, she thought Rory had had enough success to risk giving
him a live round. She quietly slipped the round into the chamber and
noisily rattled a spare round in the tray as she had for all the dry shots.
Then she closed the bolt. Rory squeezed the trigger with Linda
repeating "smooth, smooth, smoo-oo-ooth" all the while. The rifle cracked
and the recoil rippled through the length of Rory's body. He looked up from
the rifle with an expression of total amazement on his face. He had fired a
dry shot with a live round; that is, he was totally relaxed, totally
focused on good shot execution, and totally surprised when the shot went
off. Linda K. Miller and Keith Cunningham, Secrets of Mental Marksmanship
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In addition to creating a sense of accountability, groups also enable
killing through developing in their members a sense of anonymity that
contributes further to violence. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing
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A warrior is not proven only in combat, but also in life. He lives by a
code, not because codes are "honorable" or a fad, but because that is how a
warrior thinks and so it is how he lives. Combat is an extension of that
code, not the source. The rigidity of military discipline reflects his
mindset and the two feed off each other, the man strengthened by the
military and the military strengthened by the man. His code in peacetime
is the same as that in the military: do your duty, protect the weak,
protect the community, face the bully, stand tall, stay aware, think ahead,
be ready, be loyal, avoid aggression if possible and, if not, win and win
fully. Respect and honor are earned by actions, not granted by birth. There
are a thousand military codes spread throughout history, but I believe they
all say the same thing at heart: Live with honor, and let not your death be
born by the pallbearers of disgrace, cruelty, weakness, and fear. Lt. Col.
Dave Grossman, On Combat
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The four factors of (1) physiological arousal caused by the stress of
existing in what is commonly understood as a continual fight or flight
arousal condition, (2) cumulative loss of sleep, (3) the reduction in
caloric intake, and (4) the toll of the elements such as rain, cold, heat,
and dark of night assaulting the soldier all combine to form the "state of
prolonged and great fatigue" that is the Weight of Exhaustion. Lt. Col.
Dave Grossman, On Killing
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Does your town have a medical evacuation helicopter? If so, can you
co-ordinate ahead of time in case you'll have to use it to go into an
active killer scenario and land on the roof? When there is a school
shooting and half the parents in town form a traffic jam that doesn't let
you through, you'll be glad you did. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, The Bullet
Proof Mind seminar (paraphrased)
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Consider a police-involved shooting that happened in Portland, Oregon, as I
was writing this very section. A uniformed officer responded on a radio
call to a check-cashing store regarding a 16-year-old male passing a bad
check. As the officer was applying the handcuffs, the kid spun around,
pulled a pistol from his waistband, and fired into the officer's face.
The bullet struck the officer in his left eyebrow, traveled under his skin,
and exited behind his left ear. Two subsequent rounds whizzed by his
face. Shots were exchanged in the lobby, and then a running gun battle
ensued in which several more rounds were fired. The suspect eventually
collapsed in an adjacent driveway with bullets in his pelvis, chest and
abdomen. The shot officer kept him covered as he called for backup, and not
until other officers arrived on the scene did he collapse. Later when
asked by the press how the officer was doing, the chief said that his head
was sore but he was really angry with the kid for shooting at him. Lt.
Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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It is a well-known fact that combat requires fitness. What is less well
known is the fact that physical fitness is directly connected to the
soldier's ability to withstand the mental stresses of battle. Further, the
level of physical fitness is directly connected to the ability of the
soldier to avoid post-traumatic stress. Linda K. Miller and Keith

Cunningham, Secrets of Mental Marksmanship

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A fire service warrior must approach life-threatening situations that
would cause fear in any normal person with a focused calm. In religious
ceremonies, a key concept is to induce an alerted state of consciousness,
that is, a mind-set in which the ordinary, day-to-day thoughts are set
aside and people allow their spiritual and existential self to emerge.
Anyone who has been moved by a religious ceremony, the performance of a
symphony, or the sight of dawn breaking over the mountains has experienced
that kind of altered state of consciousness. Firefighting should be an
altered state of consciousness. Preparing for your shift should be done
with the same attention to detail a minister gives in preparing to preach.
The alert of the station alarm or the pager on your belt should mentally
trigger your understanding that something outside of your normal existence
is about to occur, like the swelling of an orchestra during Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. If you ever find yourself having to call a Mayday, it
should be with the same sense of calm heard in the voice of Sully as he
guided his aircraft into the Hudson. Christopher Brennan, The Combat
Position: Achieving Firefighter Readiness
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Think you know this? Why not take a random quiz at
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Someone who has not studied the matter would underestimate the influence of
leadership in enabling killing on the battlefield, but those who have been
there know better. A 1973 study by Kranss, Kaplan, and Kranss investigated
the factors that make a soldier fire. They found that the individuals who
had no combat experience assumed that "being fired upon" would be the
critical factor in making them fire. However, veterans listed "being told
to fire" as the most critical factor. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On
Killing
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There are two training areas that lead up to a gunfight. First we're taught
the desired skills and given the opportunity to practice under a coached
environment. Once the skills are learned and embedded in our subconscious
mind as a reactive impulse, we must learn to conduct the skills under
stress, again in a coached environment. Linda K. Miller and Keith

Cunningham, Secrets of Mental Marksmanship

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