SecurityDriver News

Introduction

As a refresher on Frank Gallagher – he is one of the few protection professionals that have the credentials to write this article. Those credentials are impeccable. Frank writes from the perspective of a person that has worked at all levels of risk. He was the AIC of the Bremer detail in Iraq, for more than six years he was the Director of Security for Henry Kissinger Associates, and he was and is a lead instructor for the ATAP program.

You can reach Frank at  – fg0321@gmail.com

FNG’S!!!!!!

Ok, you’ve landed that first EP job or PSD gig. You’re all excited and cannot wait to hit the ground running and show your new team leader how squared away you are, and just how bad to the bone you are to your new team mates. I’ve been on both sides of the fence (EP and PSD), so I feel an obligation to you and your future teammates and team leaders to point out a few facts that may make everyone’s lives easier and give you a solid chance to succeed and perhaps only be a “f—ing new guy” for a short while.

The first thing you have to remember is that someone has given you the opportunity of a lifetime. You have solved the riddle of “Catch-22”. You can’t get a job without experience, but how can you get a job if no one will let you get the experience. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Meaning that someone saw something in you that makes them believe that you can do a job that you have never done before. It’s a huge leap of faith to hire a guy or girl for their first job. Others were passed over and you were selected.

In most cases, the people that were passed over had friends on your new team that are not pleased that their pals were not selected. Their feelings are hurt that their buddies did not make the grade. They are embarrassed that they put their name on someone that did not pass muster. Strike one! Not a great beginning, is it? Through no fault of your own, one or more members of your team are not thrilled that you are there. They may even resent your presence.

Now, these same folks have to train you to do things the way that works for the team. The key word here is: TEAM. Everyone has a job to do in order for the team to be a success. They will be looking for weakness, laziness, stupidity; and your attitude will be scrutinized every minute of every training day. They will expect you have a certain level of training and understanding of what they do.  You will get a crash course in what to do, what not to do and how to do things. You will be given very little slack. And you will be expected to pull your weight sooner rather than later. They are working every day busting their asses trying to keep the VIP and the team alive. And now in their eyes, the team has been weakened by a new arrival that does not know how things are done or why they are done a certain way. Tempers are short as they’re pulling their full load and teaching you at the same time. Strike two!

The learning curve will be very steep. You will be judged sternly. Oh, and by the way, this is how things should be done. If a mistake is made, people could die. Your new team will be asked about your progress, attitude, and aptitude. All they know about you is that you are new and someone above their pay grade made the decision to hire you.

One thing about EP work and PSD work that I have to point out is that not everyone is able to do the job. I always wanted to play in the NFL. Guess what, I wasn’t big enough or fast enough to do it. No matter how bad I wanted it, it just wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t take it personally. I still watch the draft every year hoping to see my name called. It’s the same thing in this line of work. Some folks aren’t good enough! Not smart enough, lazy, out of shape, lack decisiveness, lack the skill sets required, or some combination of all of the above. We don’t play a professional sport where we go out and have beer after a bad game. People die when we lose. These are the attitudes of your new teammates as they evaluate you. Are you an asset or a liability?

Nobody really cares what your background is. I’ve fired SEALS, Recon marines, cops, SF guys, regular military guys, SWAT cops, and every other flavor cool guy under the sun. We don’t care what you did yesterday; we care about today and tomorrow. Your past help you get here. Let it go and concentrate on using those skills in your new gig. Enough said.

You got the job because someone liked something about you. They thought you would an asset to the program. With this being said, the people that hired you will listen to the other guys when they ask about your performance. They need to know the truth about your progress and decide whether you can become a valued and trusted member of the team. Lives depend upon this evaluation – BOTH the VIP’s and your team mates. There is no room for a weak link and you will be culled from the herd based upon your peer group’s evaluations.

OK, you have two big strikes against you going in. What do we want to see from you? How can you level the playing field and actually make the grade? How do you impress the guys/girls?

First, it is far better to let people think you stupid than actually open your mouth and let them know you are stupid. Do not give your opinion on how things are done. Unless you were hired to run the show, then for at least a month make no suggestions on how to do things better. Your opinion means nothing until you know the nuances of your new job. The guys do not have time to explain why they don’t do some things a certain way while they are teaching you the way to do something. Reread that last sentence. Memorize it. Learn the team way before you ask why things aren’t done a certain way. These methods are tried and true and work. Believe me, unless it’s a start up gig every method known to the profession has been talked about, tried, implemented or discarded. You will be very hard pressed to invent some new way of doing things.

Second, show up with the proper gear. You will need it. Follow the gear list and bring it all. You may not think something is important, but your team leader sure does or it would not be on the gear list. Four pairs of pants mean four pairs. Two pairs of foot wear mean just that. Don’t try to out think the guys doing the job until you have been there for a while. They know more than you do.

Third, be prepared to work. There is no allowance for jet lag or heat acclimatization. You don’t get paid to rest for three days before you start training/work. You must be ready to hit the ground running. You were hired to fill a slot that may have been empty for a few days. The guys that are there have probably been splitting time filling that slot. They are tired, cranky, and need the rest way more than the new guy does. And now they have to train you. Truly a volatile situation to enter into while everyone is trying to stay alive.

Fourth, be in shape. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. If you have no stamina, no strength, or intestinal fortitude you will be gone quickly. In the private sector, there are no unions, no mandatory sleep times, and no coffee breaks. You eat when you can, sleep when you can, piss when you can and work out when you can. You have to be prepared to work long hours in sometimes arduous conditions and not complain, faint, or get sick.

Fifth, complain at your own risk. Be very wary of complaining to the detail leader, team leader, director of security or anyone else about slights (real or imagined) that you are unhappy about. No one cares about your opinion until you are a respected, valued member of the team. In our world, the squeaky wheel gets replaced, not greased. There is no crying in EP or PSD work.

Hopefully, you will follow these simple steps and some day laugh about how tough your first gig was. And maybe you will only have to wear the tag of “F—ING NEW GUY” for a few days.

Your comments are always welcome – Frank Gallagher fg0321@gmail.com

Read it and feel free to comment – you can comment here on the Blogs or contact Frank at fg0321@gmail.com

What is leadership today? What has happened to the so called leaders of the industry? Who really makes the decisions that affects the lives of the people that we protect? Has the profession sold out?

As a former Recon Marine, I make all decisions pertaining to the daily operations of any protection detail predicated upon 2 principles:

1. Accomplish the mission
2. Look out for the welfare of my men

Seems pretty easy to me. How do I keep the principal from getting hurt or embarrassed and how do I keep my team from getting hurt?  So far, my track record is pretty good. I’ve had zero casualties for VIP’s and zero for my team. I’ve done protection operations in 46 countries. Some extremely high threat, some nearly zero threat. I have taught protection in another dozen extremely high threat countries. None of the people that I have taught have ever had a VIP injured. There have, however, been some casualties amongst the protection teams. Not to be unexpected, as the areas that they are working in are not vacation areas. Of course, we would not have been there if they did not need real help.

The points that I am going to make seem like no brainers to me, but there is something intrinsically flawed in our profession today. Or I wouldn’t be writing this. As usual, I have all the questions and very few of the answers.

40 years ago, being a protection guy meant one of 2 things – either you were a knuckle dragging Neanderthal with an IQ of 80 or you were an ex cop, ex football player, weight lifter, etc that was related to somebody who knew somebody. Your job was to look intimidating and be ready to kick some ass if your principal found themselves in a bad spot. We were professional fighters. Brain not required nor desired. The profession was viewed as a less than honorable one.

30 years ago, this perception began to change as world events put more people in harm’s way.

Major corporations, entertainers, politicians, etc realized that by virtue of being well known or controversial that they needed to make sure they did not become a statistic. Visionaries like Dr. Richard Kobetz (Executive Protection Institute) and Bob Duggan (Executive Security International) saw what was happening and started programs to make the profession honorable. They made people realize that planning and being presentable (not ogres) was the way of the future. We learned that the keys to success lay in never having problems by planning properly and not by having to beat the crap out of miscreants. Of course, the lawyers were pleased to have a new breed of protection specialist that they did not have to represent in court nearly as often.

Others like Tony Scotti realized that getting our VIP’s from point A to point B without getting killed on the road required a different set of driving skills. He saw that just having a driver’s license was not enough to help keep the VIP’s safe. That defensive driving and evasive skills were as important to the VIP’s as planning. That being able to see bad things unfolding on the road ahead of us gave a chance to avoid problems. Again, the lawyers were ecstatic.

Forward thinking corporations, families, entertainers (and their legal staffs) soon realized that our profession could keep them safe, not get them embarrassed and not sued in court as regularly as they used to be. CEO’s and their board of directors even realized that they had a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and share holders NOT to get hurt, killed or sued. And these folks were hiring the graduates of these specialized training courses and seeing them as assets not liabilities.

All of this progress was a good thing for the industry. BUT, like all things, change is not embraced by all. Where did the protection guys fit in the hierarchy of the corporate, family pyramid? Who did we answer to? What was the chain of command? Who did the director of security report to? Who did our reviews? Who decided who was good and should be retained and who should be let go?

Some reported to the CFO, some to the director of human resources, some to the secretary of the boss, some to house manager of the family. No big deal, right?

WRONG! This is where the wheels start to come off the train and where the leadership guys fall far short of their responsibilities to their men and their VIP’s. How can someone judge what we do and how do it if they have never done it? They can’t. And never will be able to. It is up the team leaders, the security directors, detail leaders (choose your term) to enlighten these so called “bosses” and look out for the members of their teams. Unfortunately, today, this does not happen.

Since when did being a house manager, wife of a CEO, butler, human resource director, or anybody else automatically qualify them as security experts? Sure, they can comment on looks, weight, verbal abilities, demeanor, clothes, but they know nothing about the industry. Never have, never will. Why do they have this power? Who gave it to them?

All of this has come to pass because the leadership guys have sold out. They are more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing the job correctly. They don’t have the balls to tell anyone outside their team that they do not know what they are talking about. They don’t tell them to stay in their lane. As a result, the protection of the principal has been compromised as the protection team guys are now asked to cook breakfast, hang up coats, walk the dogs, take the maid to the train station, this list could go on forever. Instead of doing advances, running routes, working out, etc – the protection team is seen sitting around eating donuts by the other worker bees and we quickly are labeled as lazy and probably not needed. True leaders know this and make sure their team is always working, not seen feeding their faces or sleeping in the command post.

This has become a huge factor in our industry and why we are losing the respect that we earned a few short years ago. Combine this with all the PSD (personal security detail) guys returning from the Middle East that are now trying to find state side work and we have serious problems.

Here’s a news flash – PSD work in Iraq does not translate to executive protection in the US. Apples and oranges. You may have been the cock of the walk in Iraq, but in the US, the rules are different. You need to attend a school and learn the realities of state side work. Leave the 511’s in the foot locker and buy some real khaki pants and Polo shirts.

Why do I bring this up, you ask? I have worked in both arenas and I know the differences. I had 60 guys working for me in Iraq and have worked anywhere from 1 man details to 12 man details in the states. The philosophy is the same, the skill sets are different. Too many times, I have seen guys from the war zone work in the states and attempt to hammer square pegs into round holes. It doesn’t work. But, it all comes back to leadership. The heads of any and all details have to be able to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their team and make sure that they never put their people in a position to fail. We all get painted with the same brush if and when a mistake is made.

More importantly, the detail leaders have to make sure that the principals understand what our jobs are and push back when ridiculous requests are made of our people. No, we don’t cook dinner. No, we don’t hang up coats. We are protection specialists. The leadership has to spend the time and energy to make sure that the other employees know what we do. We have to look out for the welfare of our team or we become man servants or woman servants.

Yes, we are in a service industry. Our service is to allow our principals to live as normal a life as possible free from worry. We need to make sure that we always present a professional image. We need to keep our people (both the VIP’s and the team) out of the line of fire.

How do we undo this trend of house managers, wives, whomever from directing our day to day activities? First and foremost, never put your team in a position to look anything other than professional. When comments are made by people not qualified to make them, take them the time to educate them. Be polite, but be firm.

Have a meeting with VIP and explain to him or her how and why you are directing your people to do things a certain way. A lack of respect from the VIP or his family will quickly encourage others to treat you the same way. Don’t let it happen.

Establish a real chain of command. Make sure that everyone knows to come to the head of the detail with issues, problems, requests, etc. Make sure these folks are not going directly to your team. Only the head of the detail should be tasking his team with work to be done. Make sure your team tells anybody asking them to do things to run it through you first.

Get rid of the guys or gals on your team that seem to have their agenda ahead of yours. Beware of those that will try and eat their way to the top. Be firm, but fair. Once somebody has undermined you, they have to go.

Lead from the front. Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t or couldn’t do.

This will be a painful war. Guys will lose their jobs as we attempt to put Pandora back in the box. Is your job more important to you than your reputation or self esteem? It seems in an awful lot of cases that this is true. We need to get back to the basics of being good at what we do and how we do it. While we protect the principals, we also need to protect our teams. I’d rather have the respect of my peer group than kiss the ass of the house manager any day of the week. But, that’s just me.

Frank Gallagher

By – Frank Gallagher Fg0321@gmail.com

First off, I want to say thanks to everyone that took the time to read the original article and responded. Criticizing or making observations is always a double edged sword. Some agreed wholeheartedly with what I wrote, some agreed with parts and others were incensed by what I wrote. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The biggest concept/concern that I was trying to get across was that there is a major lack of respect for what we do. The clients have lost respect for the profession and the protection agents have lost respect for themselves and what we do. It raises the age old question – what comes first – the chicken or the egg?

As I wrote, we are in the service industry. We provide a valuable service to the people that we protect. We keep them out of trouble, the tabloids, the court system, and allow them to live as a normal a life as possible. An honorable goal, if I do say so myself.

Many times, the lines between what we are supposed to do and what we end up doing get very blurry. Again, the acid test for me is always – what is safer for the client. There is no line in the sand nor is it a measure of testosterone levels. The safety and security of the client must always come first.

Anyone that has been in the business knows that we are sometimes asked to do thing above and beyond what our job description is. In an emergency, we do what we have to do. But, what constitutes an emergency? Is a lack of planning by the house staff an emergency that makes us don a butler’s outfit and serve drinks? Is the chef over sleeping an emergency that means we cook breakfast? Maybe, maybe not.

The overriding question (to me anyway) becomes, if it happens once and we do what we think is the right thing have we set the stage for this to become a common place or regular request or expected duties? Are we, the ultimate utility tool for the client? Do we cut the grass when the gardener fails to show up the day of an afternoon party? (HORRORS! The lawn looks terrible! We’ll be embarrassed! Get the security team out there now!) Do we serve drinks at every party because we did it once? Do we begin to make breakfast every morning? How does the client begin to view us? Are we dual or tripled tasked with chores that should be done by the butler, maids, chefs, or nannies? Have we lost the respect for the profession and the respect of the client?

My intent in the original article was to point out that we need to stick to what we do best – protect the client and their family. While we’re serving drinks or making breakfast, who is watching the security cameras? Who’s doing the advances, running the routes, or patrolling the property while we are doing someone else’s’ job? Does someone take our place in the command post? Or does the client begin to think that we’re not really that important? Respect is a two way street.

And always remember, that respect is earned. It does not come with a title or a job description. It is earned every day. Most clients are successful because they are predators, bullies, leaders in their fields. They eat the weak. They respect and acknowledge strength when they see it and meet it. I have yet to meet a client that did not respect me for explaining what we do and why. And, the strange requests rarely come my way.

Where do we, as professionals, draw the line?

Thanks for the feedback.

Introduction

Frank Gallagher is one of the few protection professionals that have the credentials to write this article. Those credentials are impeccable, and his concerns are valid. Frank writes from the perspective of a person that has worked at all levels of risk. He was the AIC of the Bremer detail in Iraq, and the Director of Security for Henry Kissinger for more than six years, and he was a lead instructor for the ATAP program.

 He has done protection operations in 46 countries. Some extremely high threat, some nearly zero threat. To date his track record is pretty good. He has had zero casualties for VIP’s and zero for his team. He has taught protection in another dozen extremely high threat countries. None of the people that he has taught have ever had a VIP injured.

Read it and feel free to comment – you can comment here on the Blogs or contact Frank at fg0321@gmail.com

Executive Protection in 2010 – Have We Lost Perspective?

Being an executive protection agent used to be a vocation of a higher calling. Think about it – we knowingly put ourselves in harm’s way every day to make sure that other people are not hurt or embarrassed. Yet 99% of the population goes through their daily lives avoiding confrontation at all costs. And, for some reason, we look to put ourselves directly in the path of potential danger. The people that we protect may or may not have significant risks to their safety due to their political views, are movie stars, rappers, famous entertainers, their socio-economic standing (rich people), or have made business decisions that angered fringe groups. Some fanatics may believe that based upon their notoriety that these folks are open game to insult or injury at the time and choosing of their fanaticism.

Other times, we are there to simply keep the protected from becoming a target of opportunity. We analyze their daily routines and try to keep them from becoming predictable and attempt to dissuade them from doing stupid things. Oft times we are successful, other times we are not. We strive to keep them from being hurt, killed, their kids kidnapped, from being blackmailed, embarrassed, or cast in an unflattering light. This is an honorable profession. We do what we do because we can. We fight for those who can’t or won’t fight for themselves. We allow them to live a semblance of a normal life.

Think about it for a second. The reward for the truly successful is to be surrounded by people (myself included) that they would never even talk to, if we did not provide a service to them. They look at us as an evil necessity. They don’t and will never understand why we do what we do. To them, we are truly the Neanderthals – we haven’t evolved. We serve a purpose that is not understood by them and never will be. If nothing ever happens to the people that we are protecting it raises the question in their mind of whether or not they really need us. But, the real question is: did nothing ever happen because we were there?

I have been doing this for a long time. I have done protection in 46 countries, have taught thousands of students (both American and foreign), worked in extremely high threat environments and on details where there really was no threat. I have met hundreds of fellow protection specialists (both American and foreign). Some were outstanding, true professionals, others were the epitome of everything that is wrong with the industry today. Why are the less than the best still working in the field? They are destroying our image and making life very difficult for the guys and gals that know what they are doing. They are the reason that our protectees look at us with disdain most of the time.

Fat, lazy, stupid, excuse driven people should not be in the business. We need to know what our job is and how to do it. We need to run routes, do our reconnaissance, our threat assessments, and pick the best ways to keep our principals safe. Unfortunately, there is a subset of protection agent today that seems to think that they should be friends with the principal, that they should cross the line between protector and servant. They want to keep their job at all costs and will do anything to keep it.

Yes, we are in the service industry. In the private sector, do we sometimes carry bags and run to the store for the families that we are working for? Of course we do. The acid test for me always comes down to the question of what is safer for my client. Is it safer for me to run to the drug store and pick up a prescription or is it safer for the VIP to do it? The safety and security of our clients always comes first.

There are, however, some lines that should never be crossed. And once crossed, there is no putting Pandora back in the box. Every time one of us crosses this line, it makes it impossible for the agents that follow to do their jobs properly. We, as professionals need to make sure that our VIP’s realize what our true functions are. We are not butlers, cooks, servants, or other members of the house hold staff. Our job is to give up our lives if called upon to do so. We move in front of threats, cover and evacuate our charges. We do so knowing that may be injured in the process.

Every time a client asks a protection agent to do something out of the norm, we have to respectfully explain that the task asked is not part of our responsibility. We are asked to do these things most often because the client has lost complete respect for our profession. This usually happens for a couple of reasons. We got lost taking the client somewhere, we were late for work, late for a pickup, forgot some equipment (medical gear is the most often problem i.e. band aids, aspirin, meds) or we get caught sleeping in the command post or we get caught trying to impress the buxom maid with our masculine charms. The client begins to think we do nothing but take their money because there never has been an attack or a kidnapping and as long as we’re there, we might as well take the coats of guests and help serve drinks. And, believe it or not, there are protection agents that do these things. They gladly do these things to keep their jobs not realizing that they are allowing the client to disrespect them to the highest order. Do you think for a second that the Secret Service agents take coats and serve drinks? Or the State Department protection agents? Hell no, they don’t.

I recently had a protection agent describe to me how he made breakfast for his client. When I asked why he didn’t wake up the chef to do so, he told me the chef was sleeping. I asked him if the chef would have taken the client to the office that day if the protection agent were asleep. Of course not he answered. Well, I asked him why would he ever make breakfast? He answered that he thought the client really liked how he made his scrambled eggs. What happens when the client asks the next protection agent to make him breakfast and the real professional says no, that’s not his job? Again, what are these agents thinking? This same guy also described to me how the client likes his bagels and cream cheese. When I asked him why he knew this, he said that he prepares them for him all time. The agent gets a sesame bagel, toasts it, and then hollows out the bread part of the bagel before applying the proper amount of cream cheese to the bagel. Are you fucking kidding me? And he was proud of this. This guy is not a protection agent, he’s a servant.

Of course, this same detail does not have route cards so new agents can learn the basics of the daily routine. Evidently this client has a preferred set of routes that cannot be deviated from. Again, why? Has no one ever explained to the client that varying routes is an easy way to NOT being predictable? There is nothing written down that can be studied by new agents. And, of course, these were all brand new ideas that were met with extreme resistance because they it would have meant the agents actually sat down and did some work instead of flirting with the house staff.

Is this the way of the profession in the 21^st century? I hope not. When the principals lose respect for the protection agents, then it is time to move on. Are we becoming a profession of man servants or do we still answer to a higher calling? I, for one, still have to shave every day and the man in the mirror does not lie. You see who and what you are. You can deceive others, but you can’t fool the guy in the mirror. Is there something wrong with being a professional? Or have we reached the point that the clients have such a disregard for protection agents that we are now only drivers/cooks/butlers/house maids?

The only way to change this problem is through education. Both for the agents and the clients.

Respect has to be a 2 way street. We have to respect the wishes and wants of the clients, but the clients have to understand what we do and why. We can’t keep crossing the line between protector and man servant. We have to have enough self respect and self esteem to verbalize what our job is. We need to make the clients understand what we are there for. And we need to do our jobs properly. And when push comes to shove, an agent has to make the right decision each time. Do we face off with bad guy with gun? Of course, we do. Do we face off with VIP when he says to cook his breakfast? In my world, the answer is YES. Breakfast is not my job and never will be. We don’t ask the chef to take on the man with gun, why should we scramble eggs?