The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Has Situational Awareness Ever Saved You?

ltc444 · December 29, 2011, 04:30 PM

With 40 years of working in hazardous environments, EOD, Explosive Manufacturing, and Acid Plants, I believe in the hair on the back of my neck. When it stands up I listen.

While a Part time Deputy in South Ar I had an incident which illustrates this.

My Partner came to work in a Bad Mood. He wanted to get into a fight.

A guy in a 440 road runner showed out in front of us and the chase was on.

We finally caught him at a bar. My neck hair was standing up and I was on full alert. I new my partner would instigate a fight. My goal was to prevent an encounter with a subject that would end badly.

I jumped out of the cruiser walked up to the guy, maintaing a safe seperation, threw my hat on the ground an loudly said "you dummy you know we can't allow you to get away with that"

I then asked him about the car. I switched back and forth from talking about the car and interviewing him to find out about his situation.

I determined that he had just been released from Cummings Prison after serving a 5 yr sentece for battery of a Police Officer. He was an expert at hand to hand combat and a very real threat to us.

When My partner finally came up he was laughing so hard that he put his hands out to be cuffed.

We let him go.

When we got the printout on the guy we learned that he had killed a least 2 men in fights and had over 20 charges and / or convictions for assualt.

I honestly believe that my situational awareness saved one or more of us from severe injury or death.

December 29, 2011, 04:30 PM	#64
ltc444 Senior Member Join Date: March 3, 2011 Location: Vernon AZ Posts: 1,195	With 40 years of working in hazardous environments, EOD, Explosive Manufacturing, and Acid Plants, I believe in the hair on the back of my neck. When it stands up I listen. While a Part time Deputy in South Ar I had an incident which illustrates this. My Partner came to work in a Bad Mood. He wanted to get into a fight. A guy in a 440 road runner showed out in front of us and the chase was on. We finally caught him at a bar. My neck hair was standing up and I was on full alert. I new my partner would instigate a fight. My goal was to prevent an encounter with a subject that would end badly. I jumped out of the cruiser walked up to the guy, maintaing a safe seperation, threw my hat on the ground an loudly said "you dummy you know we can't allow you to get away with that" I then asked him about the car. I switched back and forth from talking about the car and interviewing him to find out about his situation. I determined that he had just been released from Cummings Prison after serving a 5 yr sentece for battery of a Police Officer. He was an expert at hand to hand combat and a very real threat to us. When My partner finally came up he was laughing so hard that he put his hands out to be cuffed. We let him go. When we got the printout on the guy we learned that he had killed a least 2 men in fights and had over 20 charges and / or convictions for assualt. I honestly believe that my situational awareness saved one or more of us from severe injury or death.