Ever been scared of your own shadow? A Lesson and reminder (For me at least)

[Guest TankerHC]

I dont scare easy, pretty much not at all. Plus Im prepared. Wife is in bed, Im sitting here, not going to bed because we have severe weather, Tornado warnings and last year I got caught short when we got hit with a Tornado. Our alarm system is super loud, hate when it goes off, would wake up the whole neighborhood if I step outside and forget to disarm it. So when I am up I keep it on standby. If a door or window opens I get three loud beeps. Went to Kroger about midnight. Came back, locked the front door but didnt put the chain on. Two of the doors are in plain view from where I am sitting, front door is around the corner down a hall not in plain view. Sitting here, I hear three loud beeps. Alarm NEVER goes off or beeps unless a door or window is opened. Then I realized I left the chain off and am thinking WTF, did someone just walk in? So I pick up a 1911 and walk towards the front door. I had also left the hall bathroom light on and the door cracked, with the living room light off.

 

So I get up and walk to the hall towards the front door and the light cast my own shadow and it looked exactly like someone walking right towards me from about 4 feet away. The wall is white, but it was dark except for the little light coming through the cracked open door. Full size shadow. Made my heart jump a bit, a lot actually, but I practice control and maintained but it made me realize a few things.

 

As an AOB instructor I taught MOUT. I also taught MOUT in Kuwait in 2004, including entry, exit, clearing, weapons orientations, the whole thing. I didnt heed my own lessons, maybe because it has been so long. Since 2004.

 

Some of the things I realized. My house is full of dead space. And I walked right into "dead space" even after hearing 3 beeps which indicates a door was opened, at 3 AM.

 

If I am in my bedroom, and I hear that and walk out, I immediately walk into an area where a perp would be covered in 3 areas and anyone in the house would be exposed.

 

Sitting in the living room, Im down to two areas of dead space, but thats two too many.

 

If I come into the front door I am down to one area of dead space, but again, thats one too many.

 

There are other areas being exposed. Wont go into it. But needless to say, I think its time to watch some of those Home Defense vidoes I bought from the NRA and maybe practice just moving around.

 

It is clear, if those three beeps would have been that someone walked through the front door, hasty action could have put me in trouble.

 

Instructor or not, those are perishable skills. It's time to brush up and maybe even take a formal class or two.

[173rdABN]

Funny you say this. I cleared my house last night thinking I heard something and felt I needed practice because of all my "dead space" so I did it again this afternoon. And i currently still clear buildings and do MOUT work in Afghanistan. You can never have enough practice. It's extremely perishable and you really do need to just keep going at it.