GRP 27-On this episode of the I interviewed Derek Pleimen who is an Army veteran, and a part of the Warfighter Foundation. We discussed Derek’s career in the Army, the mission of the Warfighter Foundation, and his recent deployment to Afghanistan as a security contractor.

Tu Lam from Ronin Tactics will be in NYC early August to teach a blade seminar. We haven’t locked in the dates yet, but will do so in the next few days. So far the locations we have are in Williamsburg Brooklyn, and Edge Water New Jersey. If you’re interested in hosting a class, or attending send an email to [email protected]. Below is an excerpt from the episode:

John Hendricks: So you were in close proximity to Camp Integrity during the attack when Andrew McKenna was killed?

Derek Pleimen: Yeah our base was actually right beside Camp Integrity where Sergeant McKenna was at. It was around 10 o clock at night and we were just watching TV, and the explosion went off. It was a VBIED that started it off. They went right into the gate. After that they had actual suicide bombers run in. It sucks being a security contractor sometimes because our main job is to make sure our clients are safe. When that happened we were standing on HESCOS watching the entire fight unfold. We really couldn’t do anything about it unfortunately.

We wanted to help, but our bosses wouldn’t let us go, plus we had no comms with the base. We were expecting to be attacked next but it never came. It was a pretty rough night. It was an intense firefight that lasted a few hours unfortunately a great man was killed in Master Sgt. Andrew McKenna.