Airborne Combat Engineer

It can be done

A [troubled] young man in a black trench coat, his hair spiked into thorns, walked into Red Lake Senior High in northern Minnesota [on 21MAR2005] carrying three guns. Jeff Weise shot and killed eight people and wounded seven more in the deadliest school shooting since Columbine.

[After watching several of his classmates gunned down], Sophomore Jeff May (apparently a descendant of the Ojibwa tribe -- called the Chippewa in Red Lake), armed only with the pencil he'd used for algebra, ran at the gunman and jabbed him hard in the side, but a bullet proof vest blocked it. The two struggled; May was shot in the face. The bullet fractured his jaw [requiring months of rehabiliation]. But, his heroic actions bought some precious time. The police showed up, exchanging gunfire with Weise, who then killed himself.

The SEP2005 Reader's Digest article gives the details.

Neither a long 08AUG2005 Salon article about the shooting,  nor a 24MAR2005 article two days after the shooting mention May's name nor his heroic action. Boortz contends it didn't fit their political agenda.

Jeff May was named Reader's Digest Hero of the Year.

From the 07APR2006 RD article: "Today, Jeff is back at school, but his left side is still partially paralyzed. He speaks and walks slowly, and he can no longer shoot hoops, something he loved to do with his friends on the reservation where he lives."

God bless him!

[Reader's Digest] [My Two Beads Worth] [h/t Neal Boortz]

Boortz took a lot of heat for questioning why the VT students didn't charge the gunman [and has since apologized for how he went about it.]  He's found this example [not widely published by the MSM] to show heroic actions can save lives. It doesn't even require the joint effort of everyone in the room. It just takes a hero, who is willing to risk his life for the lives of others.

Great example of defense

Authorities in Costa Rica are crediting a retired member of the U.S. military with the bare-handed death of a mugger who tried to hold up a tour bus of senior citizens.

According to an Associated Press report, the police chief in the city of Limon said the 12 senior citizens on a tour bus were accosted by a suspect identified as Warner Segura, 20, and two others.

The three alleged muggers were armed with a knife and a .38 caliber revolver and tried to hold up the occupants of the tour bus, Limon Police Chief Luis Hernandez said. But one of the members of the tour, an unidentified retired U.S. military member, put Segura in a head lock, and the other two suspects fled.

[WorldNet, 22FEB07]

First responders can't communicate

AJC (free reg. req'd) reports:

Georgia has hundreds of first responder agencies that use a hodgepodge of VHF, UHF and 800 MHz frequencies, he said, and their inability to talk to each other during major incidents is a big problem for law enforcement.

This same problem existed in NYC on 9/11, with the fireman and police unable to communicate. We are slow to learn.

The Atlanta police chief complained of a lack of funding, but nly $3 Million of $23 Million was given to metro Atlanta LE organizations by the Dept. of Homeland Security in 2004 (to provide a "digital overlay" system with special channels shared by all) to improve communcations has been spent.

Why should the Federal Government fund such things, anyway?

Another problem is that LE units use different codes.  A recommendation is to speak ENGLISH.

Well DUH!

The only real purpose I can see for codes is to make it harder for civilians monitoring police channels to follow the action, but serious monitors have code lists, and many channels are encripted now anyway.