Fortune Favors the Foolish

By Cori Tyler

I have a confession to make.  I’m sure it’s not going to be a huge surprise.  In fact, I’m betting many of you are in the same boat as me.  I’m not even ashamed a little bit by this either.  In fact, I think this is a sign of strength of character.  OK.  Here goes.

I love the “Die Hard” movies!  Even in their most ridiculous moments, John McClain is just about the most awesome hero to hit the screen.  I think the only way to make him cooler would be to find a way for John Wayne and Clint Eastwood to play roles in his movies.  Imagine the full spectrum from old-school to irreverent they’d all cover.  It would be gloriously majestic.

Now, I’m actually headed in a moderately constructive direction with my ramblings this time around.  At least I sure hope you’ll find it constructive.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big fan of being prepared.  I believe in training for a lot of “what-if” scenarios.  Now, I consider myself to be a pretty normal, average kind of guy.  I don’t think I’m anything extraordinary in either direction (crazy or possessing of immense foresight).  Still, I’m reasonably prepared.  And, I’ve never found myself in one of the extraordinary situations that Detective McClain encounters every few years or so.

Soooo, here’s what’s stuck in my socks tonight:  John McClain said it himself in the second movie; the one where he was shooting the poo out of Dulles International Airport.  He asked the question we’ve all asked so many times before in these movies.  How can one guy have the same stuff happening to him time and again?  I think I’d like to add to that.  Hold this thought, while I go off on another tangent.

I just read an article the other day, interviewing a cop who survived a gunfight by the skin of his teeth.  It involved multiple adversaries, with more firepower, as I recall.  I don’t remember if he ran out of ammo, or was just about out of ammo.  What I DO remember is that he now carries roughly a gazillion rounds of spare ammo, in magazines, on every shift.  About half of them are on him, the other half in his squad bag.  He said he’ll never be faced with the problem of insufficient ammo again.

The shootings at Columbine taught law enforcement a costly lesson.  That day, the whole profession learned that responders cannot just set a perimeter and wait out the bad guys.  The doctrine since:  run to the sounds of guns and stop the chaos.  Now, it isn’t even about waiting for SWAT, waiting for EMS, or waiting for command.  The first on-scene runs to where the bad guys are shooting in hope of using their own shots to stop the chaos; minimize loss of life.

The thing is we humans tend to learn from our weaknesses, shortcomings, and mistakes.  So, much as I love John freakin’ McClain, I have to acknowledge how Hollywood apparently wants us to all believe he’s just a complete moron.  I was watching the one where he’s trying to stop a hacker, played by Timothy Oliphant, from destroying the country.  I mean, after all he’s been through, I watched him tonight still carrying his Beretta 92, with two spare magazines.

He’s on duty, picking up a witness for transport, and gets shot at.  No portable radio on him.  He doesn’t use his phone, or find any other way to call for backup until he’s killed most of those bad guys and escaped.  AND HE STILL DOESN’T WEAR A BALLISTIC VEST!!!  I mean, by this time, he’s been shot . . . let’s see . . . one . . . two . . . three . . . maybe even four or five times BEFORE this movie and doesn’t think a vest is prudent?  He doesn’t have a trauma kit, either?

Let’s think about this a minute.  Our motto at LLDT is “Preparation is Survival.”  We didn’t just barf those words out when we started the company.  We put a lot of thought and discussion into what we wanted to represent our mindset as individual instructors, and as a company.  There’s a saying that it’s better to be lucky than good.  Still, luck runs out.  If you’re well-prepared AND lucky, you’ve got a much better chance at sticking around past that point.  With absolutely no preparation, it’s pretty farfetched that even John McClain can prevail.

Of course, how much fun would the movie be if the first action scene involved John calling for backup and responding officers taking all bad guys into custody, to interview them and investigate the leads that would take them to the main bad guy before he can perform his dastardly deed?  Not much at all.  Instead, McClain HAS to be an idiot who, despite his repeated adventures, is always caught unprepared.

I, for one, think I’m going to have to live a much duller life than John McClain.  I choose preparation instead.