Thursday

This morning we boarded the busses to Washington DC and headed to the Holocaust Museum.

By the way it’s even cold here in Virginia this morning. The temp shows 4 degrees.

We arrived at the museum around 9. We first met in an auditorium and shown a video depicting the events leading up to the Holocaust and WW2. Something I didn’t know was that when WW1 ended Germany was sanctioned so much for their involvement in the first war the sanctions crippled their country. This helped the rise of the Nazi party over the years leading to Hitler ruling Germany.

We had about 2 1/2 hours to go through the exhibits. Everyone that comes to DC needs to come to this museum.

After going through the exhibits we were brought back into the auditorium and given a presentation by the Anti-Defamation League. We were told by our counselors a few days ago that depending on the presenter that we have the tone and content could become confrontational. We were told we were free to express ourselves and opinions freely during the presentation. We were also told that many in the past have walked out of the presentation due to conflicts and that we were welcome to do so.

I must say that the presentation and presenter was very good. He talked about studies done in public perception of the police. It’s not surprising to me that almost 80 percent of the public support the police in America. In the end the presentation was very positive towards police.

Wednesday

This morning was our Wednesday physical fitness challenge called the “Cyclone.” This one was pretty brutal. It was 5 different types of exercises rotating every minute for 5 minutes straight. We got 1 minute of rest and repeated it two more times for a total of 15 minutes of exercise. The exercises consisted of various squats, different types of pushups, different types of planks etc.

Needless to say it was hard to lift my arms for a while after the challenge. Below is some video that I took of the second group completing the challenge.

Section 2 Photo

This afternoon the entire session went to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. We had about an hour and a half in the museum. I made it through the exhibits on the past wars the Marines were involved in. There was much more to see but not enough time.

We then had a presentation from the Dean of Students from the Marine Corps University. The topic was Moral Fitness.

Marines that served from our session.

I did get my graduation guest list filled out. Everyone coming has to have a background check done on them and if their not on the list they won’t be allowed on academy grounds.

Not much else going on tonight. I’m still feeling it from this mornings fitness challenge.

Tuesday

This morning we started first thing with Physical Training class. We started in the classroom this morning.

We then headed to the gym and had a pretty good workout. More rotating stations working our lower bodies, core and some cardio thrown in there.

After lunch I had Investigating Violent Crimes and Behavioral Science class. We had the same guest speaker for both classes however with different presentations.

The presenter was Frank Marsh. He was previously a Captain in the Marine Corps and now works for the FBI in the intelligence field. His first presentation was on critical thinking. His second was on recognizing and managing stress. Both were very good. He kept us all in the conversation and was very interactive with the groups.

After dinner I swam 2 miles. Not much else going on tonight.

Tomorrow we have our weekly fitness challenge, a new NA member meeting and then we’re headed to the Marine Corps Museum.

Monday

This morning classes started at 0730. This morning I have Employment Law Issues and Essentials for Law Enforcement Leaders.

This afternoon I have Behavioral Science and then the entire session will be in the auditorium for a presentation on PTSD.

The speaker this afternoon was Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb. He is a Sheriff in the state of New York. He actually became sheriff when the sheriff at the time and also his friend committed suicide. Sheriff Whitcomb travels around the nation giving his presentation on PTSD. The presentation was well it together and informative. I had taken quite a few notes as we as a group have to give a summary of the presentation in our Contemporary Issues in Law Enforcement class.

Not much else going on today. Tomorrow is another full day of classes.

Sunday

Not much to write about today. We slept in this morning. Everyone was pretty tired from the 11 mile walk in DC yesterday.

After lunch I lounged around and got some laundry done. I did muster up some energy and did 2 miles in the pool tonight. To date I have 14 of 34 miles complete.

Classes start back up tomorrow. We also have two trips this week being the Marine Corps Museum and the National Holocaust Museum in DC.

Saturday

This morning we got up and headed right to DC for some sightseeing. The 5 of us that went last night are headed out again.

We did a lot of walking today. Saw a lot of the sites the city has to offer.

Supreme Court of the United States

The Capitol

Washington Monument

We ran into some of the NA guys at the White House.

World War II Memorial

Vietnam and Korean War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

All in all we walked over 11 miles today in DC.

Friday

Today we have another full day of classes. On the schedule for me today is my Employment Law Issues class, Essentials for Law Enforcement Leaders, Physical Fitness and Violent Crimes class.

It’s Friday and a lot of people have been making plans for the weekend. Not sure what I will be doing this weekend.

My Essentials class was pretty interesting. Last week we took a DISC personality assessment and we received the results today. I must say as far as my work and leadership personality it was pretty much spot on. The class also helped us identify and understand the other personality traits and how to deal with and communicate with persons of different personalities.

After lunch we had PT class again. I wouldn’t say it was killer but it wasn’t all that fun either. We went outside on the track and did what they call 30-20-10. 30 seconds of light jogging, 20 seconds of moderate running and 10 seconds of full on sprints. We did this 4 times then walked for 2 minutes and then started over. We did three of these in all. In the end our instructor said our total distance was nearly 2 miles.

We then went inside and did some upper body work which included rowing and rope pulls.

After PT today we took a section picture and also a picture of our department patches.

After class 5 of us (Bill, Josh, Steve all from California and Tjorvi from Iceland) drove up to Georgetown and had dinner. We ate at the Berliner which was a German restaurant. The food was great. We had currywurst, pickled vegetables, two different types of brats and of course pretzels.

Thursday

I crashed early last night and was up this morning at 6am for a full day of classes.

This morning I have my Essentials for Law Enforcement Leaders class and then the entire session will be in the auditorium for a presentation in the West Nickel Mines school shooting.

In the afternoon I will have Physical Fitness and Violent Crimes class.

The West Nickel Mines shooting presentation was given by Major Douglas Burig of the Pennsylvania State Police. In 2006 he was a Sergeant in the detective division and was one of the first 10 officers to respond to a man that had entered an Amish one room school and took female children hostages. The incident ultimately ended in all the hostages being shot and the suspect killing himself. It was very emotional for Major Burig and in his own words it is something that will be with him his entire life.

After lunch we had PT class. It was another tough but good workout. We spent half the workout in the pool and half on the pool deck. My arms are still burning as I type this. The deck PT was core, upper and lower body workout stations. In the pool we did fast but short interval jogging and upper body workouts.

After PT I had my Violent Crimes class and then got a swim in.

When heading to dinner we found that they just put up new pictures and a timeline of the history of the National Academy.

Finishing up some laundry after dinner and heading to the Boardroom afterwards.

Tomorrow is another full day of classes.

Wednesday

This morning we slept in and had to be at the gym at 915. Today was our Wednesday fitness challenge. The challenge today was the “Tin Man Trot.” It was a 1.7 mile run around the academy campus. Although I’m not a big fan of running it wasn’t all that bad. We knocked it out pretty quick and then did some walking/running laps around the track. The weather was 30 degrees and light winds so it was so much better then our 1 mile run two weeks ago.

Just finished the run.

The rest of the day is open until 530. We then head to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in DC for a ceremony.

After lunch I headed off base with a couple of guys for a few needed items.

When I got back I wrote a paper for my Violent Crimes class. The paper was written on the most difficult case I have investigated in my career.

We had dinner early and then boarded the busses for DC. We had a police escort all the way to DC.

Upon our arrival we had 30 minutes to tour around the memorial and locate any names of officers that we wanted to see. I found Ernest Dankert from our department who died in the line of duty in 1975 from a heart attack after a physical struggle with a suspect.

Our NA session then had a memorial service. It started with the presentation of the colors by the Prince William County Honor Guard. One of our session members from Romania learned and sang our national anthem at the start of the service in which he did an awesome job.

Also during the ceremony there was a Roll Call where session members could read their department officers names who were killed in the line of duty. The ceremony finished with Taps and Amazing Grace on the bagpipes.

We got back to the base around 9pm. I’m heading to bed early as we have a full day of classes tomorrow.

Tuesday

Back to the grind this morning. I woke up at 6am to texts and Facebook messages asking me if I knew anything about the Saginaw Twp police officer being shot last night. I made some inquiries and found out who the officer was. Reports are saying he is now in stable condition but critical condition.

My first class for the day was my Employment Law Issues. We discussed more labor laws and people in class started presenting their overviews of past court rulings on labor issues. I will present some time in February on an ADA case.

My second class for the morning was Essentials for Law Enforcement. This morning we gave our group presentations on our assigned leadership theories. It was very interesting to hear about all the different leadership styles and how they could be applied at work. Some seemed good and some not so good.

My first afternoon class was Behavioral Science. Our instructor spent the class time going through multiple serial offenders from the early 1900’s on and talking about their mindset potentially causing them to offend. At the start of class he asked what the worst school attack was in the United States to date. Most may not know but it was in Bath, MI when a disgruntled taxpayer blew up the school with dynamite. 46 were killed and 58 wounded. Most would think of more recent times such as Columbine, Sandy Hook or Stoneman Douglas.

For our last class of the day the entire session had a presentation in the auditorium on the FBI CARD team. These teams within the FBI respond to requests from local law enforcement to assist in child abduction cases. I have seen CARD present a few times but it is always great to have a refresher. These teams are top notch when it comes to cell phone tracking and data collection.

After class I got another mile in the pool. It’s getting busy and a little hectic down there after dinner.

I also got a chance to catch up on some of the news from the Saginaw Twp Officer incident. It was nice that my boy Larry Biniecki was keeping me posted throughout the day. Glad to see the suspect was apprehended this afternoon and no one else but the suspect was injured. From what I’ve read a lone Shiawassee County Sheriff’s detective took care of business. That department has some great detectives as I have worked with them on many occasions in the past.

Not much else going on tonight. I’m going to spend the rest of the night on some classwork.