THE PODCAST
Elevating the conversation about all things tactical.
Ryan Wyatt, Paramedic Extraordinaire
Ryan Wyatt is a flight paramedic who has worked on air and ground ambulances, in a trauma center, and overseas. After time spent as a Navy Corpsman, Ryan also deployed to Iraq as a private military contractor flying on Littlebirds doing medevac work. Hear about the time his Littlebird went down behind enemy lines and more.
Disinformation: Catch Manipulators Before They Kill You
Countries, terrorist groups, and various shady actors have developed their information warfare capabilities into an effective weapon. They are counting on you to be a sucker – Jim & Mike will help calibrate your BS detector to keep them from wielding active influence measures against you.
“Inspect What You Expect:” Pre-Deployment Checks and Inspections
Admit it, people like us tend to be “tactical” hoarders. But if you want your gear to actually be functional when the time comes that you need to use it, you have to put hands on it from time to time. Make sure your screws are thread locked, check your zero on your optics, pack enough water and socks, etcetera. Like any TacTangents episode it’s not just about your gear. This also has a lot to do with things like leadership, personal responsibility, and risk management.
“Bright Lights and Cold Steel:” An Intro to Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Pre Hospital Trauma Medicine
Learning about emergency medical care is more complicated than knowing how to slap on a tourniquet and a chest seal. Understanding the importance of getting your patient to a trauma center (“Bright lights and cold steel”) is a good first step in establishing priorities of work when minutes and seconds matter to a person who is seriously wounded. This episode is a starting point to help steer your training and treatment philosophy for trauma medicine. Listen now to learn more.
Training “Mindset” and False assumptions, with Mike Pannone
“Noner” shares some real talk about training fallacies and mental preparation for combat. Mike Pannone of CTT Solutions spent years as a Recon Marine, Special Forces Soldier, and SFOD-D Operator. After losing an eye from a blast injury he medically retired and worked as a high-risk contractor overseas and now spends most of his time training people all over the world. “Noner” shares some pearls of wisdom related to mental conditioning, theories and assumptions in tactics, and skills competence.
Terrain, the Unfair Advantage: Using OCOKA for Mission Planning
Jim explains how to analyze, exploit, and change the terrain you are fighting in to gain an unfair advantage over your opponent – whether in a parking lot or a battlefield. Walking you from Thermopylae to the Taiwan Straits to the engine block of your police car and the desks of your classroom, we help you assess and understand your operating environment.
Isaac Returns Home: What to expect from Army Basic Training
One of our favorite and recurring guests, Isaac, just got back from Army Basic Training and shares some insights and stories that might help anyone getting ready to ship out as an enlisted soldier. This is a useful conversation if you want to know what to expect from Basic Training aka Army OSUT (One Station Unit Training). He is one step closer to his dream of becoming a Special Forces Soldier/Green Beret.
The JonBenet Ramsey Murder Mystery
In the mid-90s a little girl was reported to be kidnapped but was later found dead in the basement of her large, Boulder CO home. The case remains unsolved today, and several procedural errors on behalf of the officers and investigators who responded to the scene tainted our best chances to identify and prosecute Jon Benet’s killer. Many believe the parents or her older brother were to blame. A sex offender claimed to be responsible but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove it. Some think that the family’s wealth and political ties had something to do with it. We may not ever know the truth. Mike and Jim give a synopsis of the event and talk about some of the mis-steps that might have helped detectives solve the mystery.
“I would just shoot him,” and other imaginary outcomes.
Most of us have daydreamed, imagined, and rehearsed what certain survival or self-defense encounters will look like in our minds, so we are going to make fun of our younger-selves and shed some light on something we are all guilty of: The Tactical Fantasy. This episode is about making sure that we ground those fantasies in reality. This goes beyond truck guns and the Zombie Apocalypse, it also speaks to the OODA loop, tactics, risk management, and other important concepts. Mike and Jim walk through some practical steps to stage our equipment, preparedness, and mindset accordingly.
The Millennium Bomber: Terrorist Attack Thwarted by CBP
A terror plot at the turn of the century was thwarted by the professionalism of CBP Agent Diana Dean. You might not have heard of the foiled plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport amidst New Year’s celebrations for the year 2000. This Al Qaeda sponsored terrorist attack was prevented by an Agent who noted Ahmed Ressam’s suspicious behavior and sent him to a secondary inspection. We touch on pre-attack indicators, the radicalization process, and a defense strategy called “The Swiss Cheese Model.”
Growing into Solving Problems
Unlike the fixed mindset in which you’re dropped onto the planet as either Someone Who Can or Someone Who Can’t based on some immutable set of skills, a growth mindset is one in which you see yourself as an active participant, learning from each experience to better deal with the next one. Mike explains why one of these is not only better for dealing with the incident, but also dealing with the aftermath.
Spotting Zebras
Humans are excellent at pattern recognition…if they’ve gathered enough data to establish a baseline. Whether it’s noticing an abnormal heart rhythm, an unusual response to a squad car parked at an interdiction checkpoint, or the activity leading up to an ambush in some far-off deployment, being aware of what’s normal and what’s not can be a crucial skill.
The Power of Professionalism
There’s a high expectation of professionalism in the military and law enforcement worlds, but what does that mean? It’s easy to mistake the basics of bearing and rule-following as learned in early training for professionalism, but Mike and Jim point out that the professional is trusted to understand the situation well enough to take ownership of it, and the competence and expertise to make the hard decisions.
Accentuate the Positive
Positivity isn’t magic. You can’t optimism your way through a situation you aren’t ready for any more than you can mindset your way through a fight. Productive positivity, however, is never allowing yourself to say “this sucks” without adding “…and this is how I’m going to fix it.” Listen in as Jim offers his thoughts on a practical positive attitude.
Go Touch Grass
While “self care” is a term with a bit of a woo-woo feel to it, it’s necessary for people in high stress jobs to take time to depressurize, and getting out in nature is a great way to do it. Jim takes the time on deployments to plan his hikes for when he gets home; what’s your outdoor stress release?
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