Executive Protection seems to be a buzzword lately. There is a lot of talk, and a lot of people claiming to be experts in the field. In addition I have seen a lot of negative press lately from supposed professionals. It seems that everyone is coming up with their own EP class, so one should take care vetting a school before shelling out the hundreds to thousands of dollars these companies are charging. Luckily I was fortunate enough to attend Force Options Advanced Executive Protection course.

The course consisted of seven days of intense, fast-paced training. We covered everything from hand to hand combat to counter-sniper work. The days were packed, and the nights short, but at the end of everything I wish I had another week.

Force Options is the brainchild of Fred Mastison. It would literally take me three pages to list his qualifications (that I just linked to) so I’ll say this; Fred is an incredibly knowledgeable instructor who has done everything he’s teaching you, the course was well planned, and safety was foremost in everything we undertook. I’ve been to some classes where safety precautions were lax, and that is not something you want to see.

It was definitely a shift for me to be running a pistol from concealment instead of trucking around with a rifle and plates, but that by no means made it easy. I really wish I had taken some time to clean up my pistol skills, because I was sorely lacking. Thankfully I had great instructors on hand and by the end of our full day of live pistol fire I was up to speed.

Another awesome treat was working with dogs brought by Michael Magill (a Force Options instructor and owner of Worlds Finest K9) Michaels dogs are expertly trained and the experience of working with professional K-9’s is something that many schools cannot offer.