Sorry for the delay...

I know its been awhile, but the last week and a half have been pretty busy and it doesn't appear to be slowing down. So picking up where I left off, the PSD training. I think we had one more day of classroom training, and then Monday night we received our mission. My job was a part of the advanced team. I had to gather intelligence on the locations our VIP was going to visit the next day, set up his meetings, and prior to his actual arrival at each location ensure it was safe for him and the actual PSD team to arrive. I was a little bummed out that I wasn't picked for the team, but the advanced team has quite a bit more responsibility in my opinion. For example, when I go out to gather intel, I have to basically think like a terrorist, plan an attack, and then think of how to counter that attack and pass it along to the team so they're prepared. I also have find out the customs of the people the VIP is meeting so he doesn't shake when he's supposed to hug and things like that. These are just a few things, but you get the picture.

So the final day of that training, Tuesday, was to be a culmination of all the training we received the last 7 days. It was. It was also a mess. It was like you take every bad thing that can happen, every uncooperative person and cram them all into one day. Like radios go down, stubborn high ranking military who try to boss you around, IED's, snipers, disgruntled soldiers, ambush's, you name it, it happened. So it was very stressful and the critiques from the instructors were long and hard to chew. All week they had been telling us we have been one of the best classes they've ever had, and by the end they were asking what happened. I found it rather unfair. I felt we were set up to fail so to speak. I felt that there was no way to "win" these scenarios. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to be. Maybe to try and get us to think outside the box. Regardless, we left with our heads hanging just a little.