In fact, just a few days before, I had arrived at the LAPD SWAT School as a member of the Arizona DPS SWAT and had never even rappelled before. Yet now I was a veteran of helicopter rappels, building rappels, rappels where I tied off and shot targets, and now I was in the midst of a training scenario requiring a Spiderman-like trip from the top of a very tall building to a window on the sixth floor.
The week I spent back then in sunny California was a truly eye-opening example for me of how excellent training can produce remarkable results. I was amazed at how well our instructors used positive modeling and aggressive practice. We officers, deputies, and troopers from all over the country left there not only better in our skills and tactics, but also having a great deal more faith in ourselves.
With Sgt. McCarthy constantly walking around cajoling, teasing, and laughing, the week was a whirlwind of exercises and tactics and camaraderie. I had never, nor have ever since, experienced such a remarkable learning experience. LAPD was putting the school on to make money to buy equipment for the upcoming Olympic Games being held there, but the team members acted like we were joining their team and might be their backup someday. It was great...and scary.
The final training scenarios were designed to use all of the skills we had learned over the past week, and making us go almost an entire day straight was part of the stress applied to make sure we had them down even while fatigued. This exercise that required me to rappel from such heights centered around freeing hostages on the sixth floor of a building in downtown L.A. The problem was you had to come from the roof to a window on the sixth floor.
Well, needless to say when the exercise was done and we sat around to debrief my heart was still pounding. Part of my brain was screaming, "Again! Again!" and another part was saying, "Are you outta your mind?"
