Wednesday

Another sunny but cold morning. It’s a brisk 21 degrees.

Another full day of classes today. This morning I had Law class and then the entire session was in the auditorium for a class on audio and visual forensics.

This afternoon was my last Behavioral Science class. We finished the day with some lecture on abhorrent behaviors and received our class certificates.

Tonight the owner of a local Irish Pub called Paddy’s threw our session an early St. Patrick’s Day party. A few of us were at the pub last week and the owner approached us about the idea.

The owner put on a great party for us with a police pipe and drum band included.

Tuesday

The sun is out this morning however the puddles of water are frozen. It looks like it’s about 24 degrees outside.

We’re starting this morning with PT.

We started with a fairly moderate workout consisting of crawling bag pulls, rope pulls, step up/jumps, dumbbell presses and some kettle ball exercises. Then we went into the cardio room and did 3 sets of 30/20/10’s on three different machines. Like I said somewhat moderate. But of course Courtney wasn’t done. We finished with a core workout which was pretty rough to say the least.

In my Law class we lectured about ADA laws. I also gave my case overview on an ADA lawsuit that involved a police detective.

This afternoon we had some very interesting case presentations from our foreign classmates in Violent Crimes class. One was a child abduction and murder from Morocco. Another one was an abduction of a UN worker in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

The most interesting one was from Kuwait. Our classmate works in counter terrorism. In 2016 a Saudi suicide bomber killed dozens at a mosque. The Kuwait’s don’t mess around. They found everyone involved and killed them all. They even got the guy who drove the bomber to the mosque by killing him in an airstrike while he was in Syria.

This evening I finished my 34 miles in the pool. Feels good to have knocked that out.

The Concrete Canyon was the 7 or so mile hike through New York City.

Things are already starting to wind down here. As for class I have a final exam in my Law class on Friday. All my assignments and presentations are done.

Monday

It finally stopped raining here. I think it rained for three days straight down here.

Today is a full day of classes.

This morning my group gave our presentation on officer wellness in our Essentials class. The presentation focused mostly on mental health wellness of officers in police departments. The presentation came together very well and was received well by our other classmates.

This afternoon we have more individual presentations in my Behavior Science class. We heard a very interesting case out of Texas involving the attempted kidnapping and sexual assault of a 15 year old girl who was out jogging. The investigators stayed with it even though there was some doubt and the victims statements and with a little bit of luck solved the case and arrested a suspect.

For our second class this afternoon we had a presentation on the Route 91 Harvest mass shooting in Las Vegas. Got to see a lot of behind the scenes footage and crime scene photos and some lecture and how to prepare for such an incident if that would even be possible.

Tonight Bill, Steve and I amongst others are headed out to the Globe and Laurel cigar shop for some drinks. (I don’t smoke cigars.)

Friday

Well we woke up to no snow in the ground yet the Marines chose to open the base two hours late. I’m sure many of my classmates appreciated being able to sleep in after International Night.

This morning the entire session was in the auditorium for a presentation.

We also only have one class this afternoon. I have Behavioral Science class where we will hear more individual case presentations.

Thursday

Texas night did not disappoint last night. Many of my classmates don’t look so well this morning. I’m glad I called it an early night because Courtney wasn’t lying the other day. She destroyed us in PT this morning.

PT started in the classroom with some lecture on breathing and stress management.

We then went to the gym she crushed us. The workout was called the 10×10.

In the picture above we started with #1 for 30 seconds, 10 seconds rest then went to #2. After doing #2 for 30 seconds and then 10 seconds rest we went back to #1 for 30 seconds. Then we went to #3 for 30 seconds 10 seconds rest then back to #2 for 30 seconds working our way back to #1. By the time we got done it was 40 minutes of workout. Needless to say all everyone felt like doing after was lying on the mats when we were finished. Most of the exercises were done with weights.

This afternoon we have 1 hour breakout classes. I have Emotional Intelligence, Managing Organizational Change and Leading At Risk Employees. All of these classes were great and it would have been awesome of I could have gotten 10 weeks of these classes.

Tonight is International Night where we will sample food and drink presented by our foreign classmates.

Here are some pictures from international night.

Iceland (Tjorvi) , Romania (Alex) and Great Britain (Fez) classmates

Classmate from Mexico (Edgar)

Canadian classmate on the left. The Mountie on the right is from the US embassy in DC

Kai from Germany

Classmate from Jamaica (Chris)

The weather forecast for tonight changed from rain to snow. As of right now we are Code Blue meaning the base is closed until 10am tomorrow.

Wednesday

Challenge Day

This morning is physical challenge day. The “Journey to Oz” is our 1 mile timed run out on the track. If you pass you can run the YBR in week 10.

Last night a few us painted and put decals on the various challenge bricks.

The Physical challenge went good for nearly all of us this morning. I took nearly 40 seconds off my week 2 mile time. Glad that’s out of the way. Only one challenge left in Week 10 being the 6.5 mile Yellow Brick Road.

This afternoon Gordon Graham spoke. Graham is a retired CHP officer and owner of Lexipol. Lexipol is a risk management company. He was very knowledgeable and kept us all laughing over the 4 hour presentation.

Tonight was Texas night. We have 28 officers in our class from the state of Texas. Every session has a Texas night. Good BBQ and good beer. Shiner was the choice of the night.

Tuesday

PT first class the morning. We started in the classroom.

Courtney took it easy on us today as tomorrow we have our fitness challenge. We worked out upper bodies this morning. Our challenge tomorrow is a mile timed run. If you don’t pass you don’t run the Yellow Brick Road in a few weeks.

In my Law class this morning we talked about FMLA.

This afternoon I presented a homicide case from 2011 in my Behavioral Science class. The presentation documented the suspects behavior leading up to and after the murder.

Monday

Week 8 has arrived. It’s very clear and sunny this morning. I have my Law class and Essentials for Leaders class this morning.

This afternoon we had more individual presentations in my classes. Most of them today were cold case investigations with classmates looking for advice on trying to solve them.

I got a swim in after classes today. 3 more miles to go.

Sunday

Not much going on today. Took advantage and slept in this morning. After lunch I got a swim in. 4 miles to go and I’ll earn the blue brick. It looks like 28 of us did the swimming brick.

I thought I was done with homework however we got another assignment for PT class. After dinner I will probably get that done.

Also this evening a few of us painted some of the challenge bricks. The swimming and rowing bricks are done and decals will be added later.

Not much else going on today. Tomorrow we start week 8 with a full day of classes.

Saturday

Headed to DC for a tour of the East Wing of the White House. Pretty cool to be inside. It’s not easy to get passes to get in. A guy from our Section got about 50 of us hooked up.

Martin, Steve and I

We also headed to Arlington Cemetery. It was a little rainy but we made it up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and viewed the changing of the guard.

I took a video of the changing of the guard but the file was too big to upload.

Kennedy grave sites

Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial

United States Air Force Memorial