Terrorist Tuesday!

This past Tuesday, the Santa Clara police put on a terrorist training exercise. A buddy of mine asked if I wanted to help by being a volunteer. The event took place at an apartment complex that is scheduled to be demolished, so we pretty much we had our run of the place. Teams had already prep'd the rooms. Some of the guys went all out and had curry cooking, music playing and pictures of Osama Bin Laden up. We were assigned to play terrorists in a bomb-making house, and we got to play 'dressed up' to better fit the roles.

One of the SWAT teams broke down the door to the apartment I was in. They tossed 'flash/bangs' in my direction...Now if you've never been near one of those when they go off...let's just say that it shocks you, even when I..err you know it's coming. The safety officer with me said "once you see the flash/bangs, turn away for safety". Then he added, "And if it rolls next to you...well, basically you're 'F-ed'". Fortunately I didn't get "F-ed". It took the guys in the kevlar helmets about 2 seconds to have me on the ground at which point I was told "if you move you will be shot". I thought it seemed like a reasonable request. Soon I was handcuffed and escorted out of the building. It was a blast watching the teams work, and a heck of a way to spend the morning.

There is a really amusing story about a sniper, but I can save that for another time.