I developed an interest in firearms and shooting when I was about 10 years old. My Uncle Chuck was a NRA rifle instructor in a rural town in Washington State. I enjoyed competing for and especially winning Junior NRA medals and matches. It was a lot of fun to receive Junior NRA marksmanship medals. To a youngster those medals seemed liked the Congressional Medal of Honor! From that point on I began to target shot and hunt as often as I could. By time I was 17 years old, I was very serious about handloading my ammunition and I had fallen under the spell of Elmer Keith who was probably one of the greatest ballistics experts and hunters in the world.

On my 21st birthday, I began my career as a Police Officer. After a few years, I took a leave of absence from my Police Department to enlist in the U. S. Army. During my eight years of military service in the Army, my MOS was Infantry. In 1973 I graduated from the U. S. Army Drill Sergeant’s Academy. I enjoyed my years of instructing young Army trainees in military subjects especially in Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM). I had always felt that BRM was one of the most important subjects.

By 1981 I had left the U. S. Army with the rank of Sergeant First Class. I returned to full time Law Enforcement for a municipality in central Washington State. I had a very strong interest in special operations so the Police Administration at that time thought it would be very productive to send me to as many tactical schools as possible with the agreement that I would be an instructor for our agency and other state agencies.

I attended tactical schools sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, United States Department of Justice, Washington State Criminal Justice System, etc. A lot of these schools dealt with criminal investigation but most were tactical courses such as, Basic and Advanced SWAT and SWAT Instructor; Basic and Advanced Sniper and Sniper Instructor; Tactical Shotgun/Subgun Instructor; State Firearms Instructor; and Police NRA Firearms Instructor.

One of the reasons that I decided to develop unique training techniques and specialized tactical equipment was to enhance my fellow officers’ and soldiers’ chances of survival in the field. I felt that the playing field was tilted in favor of the “bad guy”. As I attended various schools, I found that the instructors were excellent but that the schools were woefully lacking in practical tactics such as weapon retention, weapon recovery, as well as weapon transition. I knew that an operator should be able to utilize a lanyard on a handgun using the martial arts concept of leverage points on the hand to provide the operator with overwhelming strength advantage. Therefore, I developed the Tactical Retention/Recover Lanyard (TRRL™).

In addition to the TRRL™ Lanyard, I developed the Tactical Rapid Assault Sling (TRAS™) to utilize another martial art concept, the figure eight movement. Using the figure eight enables the operator regain control of the carbine in a Close Quarter Battle (CQB) recovery, hand to hand fight for the weapon. The TRAS™ was designed to supply the Military and the Police Special Ops Personnel with an alternative to the 3-point only sling and the standard rifle/carbine/assault carry sling. The TRAS™ blends all of the best but limited functions of other slings while providing many more shooting positions.

I designed the TRAS™ and the TRRL™ to work together. These two products evolved into the “Close Quarter Battle/Attached Weapons Tactics” Training Course. The CQB/AWT Training Course teaches the student how to transition between the primary and secondary weapons without losing eye contact with the target. At the same time the TRAS™ and the TRRL™ provide security against loss or take away of weapons. One of the most impressive characteristics of the two systems combined is the ability of the operator to attach or detach from the weapons within seconds!

What I’ve learned through life experiences is that, “Mens telum primum est!”, The mind is the primary weapon! To enhance the mind’s capabilities you need professional training and equipment. That is why TTT/Mission First!™ chose this motto to guide our business practices. We are providers of soft goods, equipment, and training to professional operators requiring the very best.