On October 27, 2018 a lone gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA with the intent of killing anyone he could. Tree of Life was the home to three different congregations, Tree of Life, New Light, and Dor Haddash, all of which were preparing for or having their normal shabbat services.  What followed was the deadliest attack on the Jewish Community in American history. 11 innocent people were killed, and a further 6 were injured.

This attack is the subject of our documentary called Confronting Hate, where we dealt with the attack and aftermath in detail. However, we wanted to make a more traditional episode of The Debrief to cover the team’s lessons learned from the event and their advice to other units. In this episode, we will hear from several of the responding members of Pittsburgh SWAT. As usual, we will not mention the shooters name or discuss his agenda because we are hoping time will erase him and the hate he hoped to propagate.

On Friday May 17 2024 the Surprise Arizona Police department received a call that a suspect had broken into his ex-girlfriend’s home and taken her and their 7-month-old child hostage. The suspect told her that he planned to kill her and the baby and eventually killed her dog.  She eventually convinced the suspect to let her go outside and fled to local construction workers who called the Surprise police.  When police arrived on scene, they found the suspect shooting out the front of the house into neighboring homes.  The decision was made to conduct a high-risk entry to rescue the child.  What ensued was a textbook hostage rescue by members of the Surprise SWAT team augmented by patrol officers who entered the home and rescued the child getting him to medical attention and saving his life. The team, having rescued the baby, then pulled out of the home leaving the suspect barricaded in a back bedroom.  The suspect eventually lit the house on fire before committing suicide.  My guests today are Officer Ryan Scott and Officer Travis Karpuleon from Surprise PD who were both part of the team that rescued the baby

Resources:

 Critical Incident Debrief 5.17.2024 - YouTube

On this episode of The Debrief we are going to be looking at Post Traumatic Stress and Post Traumatic Growth.  These are two topics that I am extremely passionate about because, as you might imagine, each incident we cover on The Debrief has had a profound effect on everyone involved.  Over the years that I have been working with teams and the years I have hosted this show I have seen people destroyed by their experiences.  Yet I have also seen others use the trauma they endured to build a stronger, happier and more purposeful version of themselves.   Although I have certainly seen patterns, I have always wondered what separated these two groups of people, which is why I wanted to have this discussion on Post Traumatic Growth.  Simply put there is a LOT we can do to prepare for and respond to traumatic incidents that will reduce the fallout to those involved.

All of my guests today have a different perspective on Post traumatic growth.  Dr. Richard Tedeschi is the world’s foremost authority on Post Traumatic Growth and literally coined the expression.  His work forms the foundation for most PTG programs.  

Josh Goldberg is the CEO of Boulder Crest Foundation, a nonprofit whose Warrior Path and Struggle Well programs have reached over 100,000 people.

And Finally Chief Chad Kasmar is the current Chief of Police in Tucson Arizona.  Following the suicide of a friend and former fellow officer Chad has led a revolution in the way his city prepares and supports their staff for traumatic incidents.  He has a truly unique perspective on the implementation of these types of programs.

I hope you enjoy this deep dive into Post Traumatic Growth and that this episode inspires you and your agencies to improve on the way we prepare and treat our warriors and first responders.

Resources: 

Boulder Crest Foundation – www.bouldercrest.org 

Boulder Crest: Reborn - Boulder Crest Foundation Presents: Reborn - YouTube

On the 15th of December 2014, a terrorist took over the Lindt Chocolate café in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney, Australia, holding 18 customers and staff hostage, creating a siege that would last for over 16 hours. 

Although numerous hostages escaped, by the time the event conclude,d 2 innocent people were dead, 4 others were injured.   

For 10 years, this incident was suppressed under a government-mandated gag order. This prevented the New South Wales Police Tactical Operations Unit (or TOU) members from even publicly revealing their names.  As a result, despite a detailed and scathing coroner’s inquest report, the largest and most expensive in Australian history, there has been very little discussion about what actually happened that night, particularly from a tactical perspective.

In keeping with the standard policy of The Debrief, we will not be discussing the name, objectives, or affiliations of the terrorist in the hope that time will erase his memory.  We will, of course, be discussing the names of the team, and in this case, hostages, because they are heroes and need to be remembered. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben Besant.

 Guest:

My guest today is Ben Besant.  Ben, or ‘Officer A’ as he was identified in the coroner’s report, was the lead member of the Alpha Team during the intervention and the officer who engaged and killed the terrorist. He is currently the author of a book Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!  which details not only what happened that night but also explains a very personal battle to recover his mental health following ‘the Lindt Café siege.’

Resources: 

Ben Besant - https://tigertigertigerbook.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086482286065#

Resolute Ready - https://resoluteready.com/

Official Report - https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2017/lindt_cafe_findings-and-recommendations.pdf

On May 24, 2022, an active shooter took the lives of 19 children and two staff members and physically and mentally injured the survivors, their families, staff, teachers and the broader community in Uvalde, Texas. At the request of Uvalde's leadership, the U.S. Department of Justice established the Critical Incident Review (CIR) to conduct an independent, objective assessment of what happened that day and assess the systems in place in the weeks leading up to May 24. The goal of the episode is to provide information to those most affected by the tragedy and to build knowledge regarding how to best respond to incidents of mass violence. This panel will provide an overview of the incident and present observations and recommendations from the DOJ report in the areas of tactics, leadership and incident command.

Guests: Nazmia Comrie & Frank Fernandez - USDOJ COPS Office 

Resources: 

DOJ Report - https://cops.usdoj.gov/uvalde

Capt. Trey Sorensen – Pasadena FD and Sgt. Bobby Crees Pasadena PD

Just after 6pm on January 7th, the fire ignited in Eaton Canyon, California. In a matter of hours, powered by sustained 60 mile an hour winds, with gusts as high as 100 miles an hour, the fire spread through Pasadena and into the neighboring area of Altadena. In the days that followed, the Eaton fire grew to become one of the worst fires in California history, killing 17 people, burning more than 14 ,000 acres, destroying more than 9 ,400 structures, and damaging more than 1 ,000 others. In the city of Pasadena, approximately 150 structures were destroyed, but because of the efforts of the police and fire departments, no one in Pasadena lost their lives. My guests today are Captain Trey Sorensen from the Pasadena Fire Department and Sergeant Bobby Crease from the Pasadena Police Department. Trey was the evacuation group supervisor and Bobby was the command post supervisor during the first 14 hours of the fire. Although the fire burned for almost two weeks, for this debrief we will be looking at the first 12 hours of the fire and how the police and fire departments struggled to save lives as an uncontrollable fire tore through their city.

Contact Info:

Capt. Trey Sorensen – [email protected] 

Sgt. Bobby Crees – [email protected]

My guest today is Kim Pastore.  Kim’s husband Jorge Pastore was killed on November 11, 2023 while attempting to rescue hostages with the Austin, TX SWAT Team. This was a case we covered previously with the Team in Seasons 4 Episode 5 released on November 11, 2024.  However, Kim has graciously agreed to sit down with us and debrief the incident from her perspective.  This is an episode we have wanted to do for a long time to consider the spouses perspective on a LODD as well as consider the best practices for handling a LODD that an agency, team and individual offer can engage in to make this process as easy as possible for the family.     

Contact Info:
https://www.jpastorefoundation.com/

My guest today is John Dowd. John is a former navy SEAL who 15 years ago started SOFware, LLC a company that develops software and consults with elite units in their assessment and selection processes.  John and his team work with many of the world most elite units assisting them in not only choosing the right people but also helping them develop over their entire careers.  John’s views on selection and the lessons learned by his team over the past 15 are extremely valuable information for any team to help guide how you evaluate and select personnel.

Book Recommendation:

Assessment of Men: Selection of Personnel for the Office of Strategic Services: The OSS Assessment Staff, Rinehart & Company, Inc. ASIN: B000M6BR7W

Contact Info:

You can reach John and his team at [email protected], and can learn more about their software, FORGE, at https://sofwarellc.com/forge. 

My guest today is Casey Glass.  Casey is the founder of Warfighter Health and Performance and for the past 11 years has been a Special Operations Strength Coach for US SOF units.  Casey’s Grew up on a ranch in Texas.  In college, she played soccer at Texas Christian University and interned with the strength and conditioning staff her senior year.  While pursuing her master’s in health and Fitness at Purdue University she became their Graduate Assistant Strength Coach.  She then went on to work for the University of Arkansas for 4.5 years starting as a paid intern and leaving as the Associate Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning.  Eleven years ago she accepted a position that would change her life working in the Human Performance Program for a US Special Operations unit working to improve our warfighters’ operational performance and resilience.  Last year she founded Warfighter Health and Performance an organization designed to bring the experience and skills our SOF units are receiving to law enforcement special operations units.  

Book Recommendation:

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky - ISBN-13: ‎978-0805073690

Building the Elite by Craig Weller & Jonathan Pope - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0578918099

Contact Info:

https://www.warfighterhp.com 

https://www.linktr.ee/warfighterhp