Weapons cache????

From the Soldiers side: The first four month of my visit to Iraq, I had a special team...we traveled around and had chats with some not so nice folks.  Besides smelling really bad and often having the I.Q. of a donkey, they did not value human life as most of us do.
At the time we were in Iraq, the weapons laws for citizens there were more liberal than they are in many parts of the United States.  For example, each adult male could have one semi or fully automatic SKS or AK 47--without any special permits.
They could not have RPGs or belt fed machine guns.
The confusion that often came up was when there were more than one adult male in the home...well, hell many of the males had two or three wives and 25 kids.... so as the kids grew up, a guy might have several adult males living in one house.

Then some GI out on patrol would come across a home with more than one rifle and make a detention for a "Weapons Cache."
When they came in with the evidence, I'd sort through it and tell them: "Shit, I know lots of folks back home who have more than that in the garage."

We need them.....

From the Firearms Instructor side: As most of my regular readers know (both of you) that in my Army and Police careers I was a firearms (weapons) instructor.  I tried to add up how many Cops and Soldiers I’ve run through ranges and advanced courses… I’m not good at math, so help me out.  For the Army/ Cal Guard we qualified at least once a year, for 19 years (the first year I was too dumb to know anything).  … About 70-100 troops per range. 

A handy off duty weapon: M249 SAW

For police work, 32 years (the first year I was cop, I helped on the range base on having been a grunt).  We’d have ranges about 4 times a year, with between 20-40 per range. 

And then there were the Boy Scout ranges I ran on vacations when my boys were in Scouts.  Round that off to about 200 kids and adults. 

So, I know a little about weapons and teaching others to shoot.   What have I learned?

1.)    Firearms very rarely shoot by themselves.  They need a human to load and fire them.  Most “modern” handguns have 2 or more safety systems built into them- they will not fire unless the trigger is pulled.  This takes a human, or in some cases a monkey. (Firing pin blocks, trigger safety, and some have a thumb safety. the 1911 of course has the grip safety)

2.)    Many Cops and Soldiers do not practice with their duty weapon as often as they should.  In some cases this is due to budgets, in MANY cases it is because they don’t like shooting….and often they suck at it.  This can be corrected with good training.

3.)    Many senior Cops and Solders will not listen to a range master when he/she tries to help them shoot better.  Funny, the civilians who’ve paid lots of money do listen. 

4.)    There are a few citizens, public officials and others who are afraid of all guns.  This is to the point of being a mental illness.  We can’t correct this problem.  If you know anything about phobias, like arachnid phobia, hydra phobia, clown phobia, you know that these people can’t help it.  They are very much afraid of these things and we can’t change that.  However, we don’t like folks who are freaked out by spiders write laws to kill all spiders.  We need spiders. 

We also need guns.  Guns are used for lots of GOOD things everyday.  Today, for example, over 2 million guns were NOT used to commit any crimes today.  Because they are owned by honest, law abiding citizens. 

Today, not far from where I live, there are dozens of good citizens knocking little round clay things out of the sky with some very expensive shotguns.  There are others at another range shooting all kinds of rifles, pistols and shotguns at paper targets. 

Before this day is over, there will be some good citizens somewhere who are legally using some type of firearms to defend themselves or others. 

Remember, the cops are only 6 minutes away, when you need them in 20 seconds. 

The anti gunner nuts never mention the good things firearms are used for.  They want to ban all guns…they’ll start with some now, and work on the rest later.  This year it’s semi auto rifles that they like to call “assault rifles.”  However, most citizens I know who legally own these types of guns, use them for target shooting.  Why?  Because they are very accurate.  The M16’s we qualified with in the Army were able to fire a 3 shot group at 25 meters with the holes touching each other.  That’s accurate. 

The problem is you can’t explain anything to an anti gunner.  When they see or hear “gun” they freak out.  Remember, it’s like somebody who’ afraid of spiders or clowns--- you can’t reason with them…it’s a mental illness.  Their eyes glaze over, they start having fits, frothing at the mouth, a big rise in blood pressure….and their brains shut down. 

It’s a form of mental illness.  I hope the NRA will soon recognize this and start a collection to get these poor assholes some help. 

 I also think that if you study the gun laws in the US, you’ll see that the cities and states with the most restrictive gun laws, also have the highest violent crime rates.  Cities and states that have “shall issue” concealed weapons permit laws have lower violent crime rates.  Why?  

US ARMY: 238 YEARS OF TRADITION ….Happy Birthday US Army..

From the Old Soldier side: When I was in the “regular Army” back in the 70’s, we had changed many of the sayings and motto's for the Army and our Battalion.  It was something I carried on many years later when I joined the California Army National Guard. 

Some of those old sayings we changed: “US Army, we can break more shit before 9, than most people break in a year” or my favorite: “US Army, we can waste more time before 9, than most companies waste in a month.”

Spec 4 CI Roller dude somewhere in Vest Germany

The only US Army patch with the name of a city on it

I was in West Berlin for the July 4^th parade in 1976.  We had every Soldier who could walk (and a few who couldn't  march in that parade.  “I love a parade….as long as I don’t have to march in it.” Was our motto for the day. 

"There's DUMB and there's ARMY DUMB"

One of genius Spec 4’s (E-4, now just called a “Specialist” because they did away with Spec 5, 6’s and 7’s) came up with something I never forgot: “The US Army, 200 years of tradition, history and shit unchanged by progress or common sense.” 

I continued using that motto, just updating the years for the rest of my career.

Some of the silly shit the US Army does is just baffling.  Some of the leaders I had to work for were very good, and I’d follow them anywhere…but many others were less than useless.  Why anybody would have put some of these dummies in charge of people was something I could never figure out.  Usually what I heard was: “I’m the senior ranking person here, so I’m in charge.”  In my last years in the Guard, on deployments, fires, earthquakes etc, that sort of system failed many times.  In some cases, the smarter bosses wouldn’t put the dummy in charge even if he did have more stripes.

Never sleep when the rubber chicken is loose...

Well, we can look back at the last 238 years and see what our Army has done…where it’s been, what it’s done.  How much it’s changed history (along with the Marines, Navy and Air Force.)  I still read history books about past wars…and I still wonder if our leaders have read any of them.  If you don’t study history, you are doomed to repeat it.  It seems like we have at least a few times.

There were many stories I’ve read of past wars and thought that the players were the same, just different equipment and different enemies…but the story seems to repeat.  I read a story about soldiers in the civil war being issued food rations for 3 days…then eating them all the first day because they were so hungry.  One training mission we did at Fort Irwin many years ago, we were issued MREs for 3 days to get us through the “battle”.  By the end of the first day, half my guys came up to me and said: “Sarge, we’re starving.” 

I just looked at them and thought that the troops really haven’t changed over the years….just the crap we carried.

Ft Ord about 1990? Getting ammo ready for the M60 range

The US Army uniforms have changed many times since the 1770’s.  Many times in the Army’s history the uniforms and weapons they were using at the beginning of some wars were not what they were using by the end.  This history lesson repeated around 2005.  Our unit was wearing BDUs’ before Iraq (we wore them in Bosnia). Then for Iraq we were issued DCUs.  Part way through our deployment, troops were arriving wearing the ACUs’. 

The ACU’s are the worst piece of shit uniform ever issued in our Army’s history.  Polyester and Velcro that fails when needed the most. 

In my Army / National Guard career, I wore 4 combat uniforms.  In 1974 we were issued 2 sets of Class A’s (dress uniform) with a  Class B (minus the green dress jacket) 2 sets of khakis, 4 sets of OD Green fatigues, and a set of PT shorts and shirt…and  2 pairs of black combat boots and 1 pair of black low quarter shoes.   

For more History of Army uniforms:        

 US Army Uniforms

How come the Marine uniforms always look better?

Just another 3 day weekend.... For Mike and Roberto.

Like 1500 BC with cell phones....

From the Soldier side: I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older and sometimes have a little less patients for people who should try harder. I had to sleep through another boring sermon in church today, given by somebody who still hasn’t a clue what Memorial Day is for.  (I know some of you are wiping liquid off your keyboard after laughing about me going to church.  It won’t make any difference, I’m still going to hell.)

Memorial Day is to honor those in the military who died serving for their country.  It is NOT about those of us who made it home.  OK, get it right or I’ll have to start bitch slapping people.  (sorry, my old Army Sergeant thing kicked in for a minute.)    

So, let’s think about this.  What does a hay truck driver and a US Border Patrol Agent have in common?  They, like thousands of others were in the US Army Reserves or National Guard and died in Iraq.  Both were friends of mine, but I’m sure neither knew the other and they were from two different units. 

Mike Ottolini was in the 579^th Combat Engineers. This was one of my old units and I had the honor and pleasure to work under Mike many years ago.  He was one of the nicest guys and best leaders I had ever known.  In his normal life, he drove a hay delivery truck. 

Mike was killed by cowards using an IED in November 2004.  Just a few weeks before I got to Iraq. 

MIKE 

Roberto Arizola was a US Border Patrol Agent and in the US Army Reserves.  He was also a range master for the B.P., so we had started a conversation about shooting one day in Baghdad.  We never got to finish that conversation.  I had to fly out on a mission, whilst Roberto stayed in Baghdad to run his mission. 

In June 2005, just a few weeks before he was due to go home, another coward got Roberto with an IED.   

ROBERTO

I guess if I was going to give the sermon in church, I’d say something like: “War is bad, and it’s started by really bad people.  Until we can get rid of all the really bad people, we’ll have to send really good people off to fight them wars.  War sucks, but have a world run by insane assholes would be worse.  When you think about Memorial Day this weekend, lets put a face or a few faces on it.  When we watch the news on TV, we can pretend it doesn’t matter, and it’s happening somewhere else.  But for ever troop killed in war, he or she had a mom, dad, bothers, sister, wife, husband and friends.  Tomorrow I will have 3 beers.  One for Mike, one for Roberto and one for me.  Thank you lord, now carry on, amen”

Yeah, I'm going to hell.

Withdrawls...

OK, If this blog was a job, I'd have been fired for slacking.  I have several good idear's coming up...just need time to write them up.  I have been going through shooting withdrawals for the past few months.  I can "sneak out" to the Sheriff's range, but ammo is hard to come by.  For a guy who used to shoot 100 or more rounds a week from pistols, I'm hurting.

I know there's lots of speculation as to why there's so little ammo, but the sad part is when I do find it, the prices are insane!

So if you have any of the following type of ammo, please send me some:

.22
38 special/ 357 mag
9 mm
.40 cal
.45 ACP
45 Colt
5.56mm
303
30-06  

Or anything else you have...

I just bought a new Kimber and got to shoot it the other day.  Nice, accurate and fits my hands just right.

For all you mothers, have a great Mother's Day.  Mom, we miss you.

CI Roller Rules of Order for meetings

From the new job side: One of the things I have to do at me new “non-sworn” job is go to meetings.  With my quick observation skills, law enforcement and military training, I observed how many of these meetings went.  In most cases, these meetings have no or very few sworn law enforcement folks attending.  The meetings where they do have such persons, they are on time and go very quick. 

The county I work in now, has about two dozen cities, bus services, schools, colleges and other agencies I haven't even found yet! 

So, I came up with some rules to help MY meetings go better.  I showed them to my boss, and he sent the document out to have a poster made.

Rules for meetings with multiple agencies

1.)    Try to be polite to everybody and treat everybody with respect (but have a plan ready to throw them out of the room)

2.)    Don’t ask questions that are just asked to show how smart you think you are

3.)    Don’t ask somebody a question about another agency that they don’t work for if it’s an off the wall question

4.)    Speaking of “off the wall questions” avoid asking them.  (There are no “dumb” questions, just people who don’t think before asking them)

5.)    If you have a “special” question, or something that is going to suck up a lot of time and doesn’t impact anybody else, then consider asking it after or before the meeting 

6.)    Your lack of planning or reading stuff ahead of time is not a reason to ask a question.

7.)    If people cringe when you walk in the room or when you ask a question, consider not coming to the meetings…actually consider retiring and moving away

8.)    If all you do is go to meetings and never actually do any work, don’t ask others at the meeting to “summarize” information or to do your work for you, most of them have jobs

9.)    If you were supposed to bring something for the meeting or do a presentation, don’t wait until the last minute to find that everybody is using a Windows 9 type system but you have a Windows 3.0 and can’t hook it up.  Plan ahead. 

10.) If you always come late to meetings, sneak in quietly… don’t shout out “sorry I’m late…”.  Everybody knows you’re sorry for being late.  Most of the time we’re not starting the meeting until you get there because we know you violate all the above rules. 

11. If you need to make more than ten points, have another meeting next week.

12. If someone comes up with a good idea early in the meeting and that idea is still intact by the end of the meeting put that someone in charge of all the meetings. 

Never say the following phrases or words:

“Basically”.  “One quick question.”  “ Stake holders.” And the worst: “ With that said.”  or any other word or phrase that's used more than 20 times a day.  
 

SUPER BOWL....- 2005. Who played?

(As the Editor and Chief is busy getting ready to watch the San Francisco 49er’s win (update-Loose)  another Super Bowl, we’re running a re-run story today.  Go Niners!)

  

From the Soldier Side: (I told this story a few years ago... but it’s one of my favorites)

Super Bowl Sunday, Jan 2005! There I was, in Baghdad, Iraq. My team had just flown in that day from some shitty mission.... (Mosoul/ Telafar). We were worn out and tired. We had been sent to Mosoul/ Telafar to help after the Army mess hall had been blown up by a suicide bomber. Still, after all these years, I think one of the hardest things to investigate is something where the primary suspect has killed himself. In that case, I really wish he had made a mistake with his fuse and blown himself up outside the camp.

No, I didn't jump out of planes!

But the biggest hindrance in that investigation was not the insurgents, but the idiot Sergeant who had put herself in charge...she had no idea what she was doing and was just a retard.

Anyway, after we got off the Blackhawk chopper in Baghdad, we were trucked back out our rooms. We dropped our gear and headed for dinner….

We walked over to the mess hall, grabbing a tray of chow, I saw that they had a bunch of ice cold beer. I thought it was a celebration for our safe return.

Nope. I asked the sergeants guarding the beer,  It was Super Bowl Sunday 2005. This is the most important holiday in the US Army. The Marines have the Marine Corps Birthday, I'm not sure what the Navy and Air Force have, but the Army has Super Bowl.

Now, I figure a lot of you won't understand how important beer was....because General Order #1 said we could not have anything with alcohol in it...unless a General authorized it. But, even with a General's approval, there could only be a 2 beer limit per person. Now, to be honest with you, I don't normally drink that much anymore. But that time of the deployment, a cold beer sounded really good. 2 cold beers sounded even better. They went down quick.....ice cold, yummy.

When those “M” religions come in handy….

Then, my #2 guy looked around and found all the Islamic Terps and the Mormon soldiers.  

I’d ask: “Hey Joe, aren’t you a good Mormon?”

Joe: “Yes Sergeant, I am.”

Me: “Good, go get your 2 beers and bring them over here please.” 

We did this with Achmed, Whaid, Jim and a few others..... 

We convinced them that they should get their ration of beer and bring them to us.....only 2 at a time.

                             and the General said: "Have 2 beers!" and it was good.  So we had 2 more.

I lost count of how many beers I had. And wouldn't you know it, walking out of the mess hall (really kind of staggering) there was the battalion commander and the sergeant major. They were assholes, and I just walked by and said: "Gentlemen, dinner is on me."

We made it back to our rooms, laid on my rack and passed out. I never did watch that game and I have no idea who was even playing. But the 2 beers were sure gooooood! I admit.. I was feeling very good that night.

(For those reading this outside of the United States...the Super Bowl is kind of like the world cup soccer, except better ads on TV.) 

Not worth dying (or killing) for

From the Cop side: It’s funny what jars my memory these days.  I had to attend some training the other day for my new job.  It was targeted towards hospitals…which I have nothing to do with unless I have to see a doctor or something.  But the training was about Active Shooters. 

It was OK training…but for a semi retired cop who used to train other cops how to do this stuff it was hard to stay awake for 8 hours.  Over 200 Power Point slides and lots of talking…lots of talking...but not much action.  Did I mention there was lots of talking and lots of Power Point slides?  

But, somewhere in the fog around slide #180 or 190, it jarred my memory of a copper call I went on many years ago. 

It was back in the 1980’s.  This was before all the high speed toys cops now have.  No pepper spray, no taser, no bean bags guns, and no hostage negotiators.  Just cops with guns, sticks, hands and our ability to talk and think. 

The call:  I was working in a very quiet area of the county.  I was the only officer on duty from our agency.  There was a county deputy who covered the area down the street…and about a half a mile further was another small department with one officer on duty.  Usually on a Sunday that was all you’d need.  There were several other cops, deputies and the Highway Patrol on covering the rest of the county….miles away.

Just down the street was what I called the “insane asylum”.  I swear it looked like something you’d see in a Alfred Hitchcock movie from the 1950’s.  A dark and dreary place.  All the patients were very, very crazy and usually locked in a room alone with lots of medication…and I suspect a few  had been given a lobotomy or had shock therapy. 

The loony bin had a policy if cops had to take somebody inside, no weapons.  This was a good idea because I’m sure some of the patients could have easily eaten one of us if they had the chance…then used our guns to shoot out the door and escape. 

However…some rules need to be bent or broken in some cases. 

The deputy who’s jurisdiction the loony bin was in got a call: 

Zebra 21, we’re getting a report of a patient with a knife and a club in the “……” hospital.  Can you respond code 3 and I’ll see if we can get a cover.” 

Zebra 21: “I’m a block away and I have CI Roller Dude following me.” (we were parked bullshitting)

The deputy and I arrived and a few minutes later the cop down the street showed up.  We were thinking about what we had and the deputy looked at me (since I’d been a cop a whole 5 years longer than he had been at that time) and he asked: “should we go in with weapons?”

I looked at the deputy and said: “I’m not going in there without my stick and .45.”  (at that time I was packing a Colt 1911A1 .45)

The other copper who showed up had about one year of experience and had no idea what to do.  I suggested that we have the dispatcher call the loony bin before we went inside and tell them to lock all the other patients up in their rooms...because we were coming in with weapons. 

In a few minutes, we were advised by dispatch that the loony bin folks had everybody locked in their rooms except the nut job with the knife and club…who was barricaded in the kitchen. 

So we went in with sticks and guns (in our holsters) and proceeded towards the kitchen.  We found one of the hospital psyche nurses yelling at the guy with the knife and club.  As we entered the kitchen, we could see that the nut was a little guy, but very amped up for some reason.  He was very upset.  The nurse continued screaming at the dude and she was starting to annoy me. 

I told the nurse:”Mam, can you back out now, we’re the cops and we’re here.”  She finally shut up, then I asked her why the guy was so upset. 

About that time, the crazy dude said he was going to stab us all, so we pointed our guns at him and he backed into the corner and shut up. 

Since the nurse wasn’t helping, I suggested to the deputy that he talk to the crazy guy and see what he’s so upset about. 

He wanted another glass of orange juice.  The nurse told him he couldn't have anymore.  So, he broke off a table leg (for a club) and got into the cooking area and grabbed a big ass butcher knife.  

I asked the nurse if he could have another glass of OJ.  She said “NO.”

I looked at the deputy and said: “damn it’s shame we’re going to have to shoot this guy over a glass of orange juice.” 

The nurse got pissed off…but the nut heard what I said and threw down his knife and club. 

Problem taken care of and nobody hurt. 

….and the bitch nurse made a complaint because we entered the nut hospital with our weapons.   

What do you miss most about the Army?

From the Soldier side: Veteran's Day is coming next week.  For my Vet friends who read this dribble, let me know what you miss the most about the Military.  If you were not in, then you can comment on what you think you missed.

Here's a couple of things I miss:

M-11 9MM shoot

and

Using a SAW

Operation: Payback, CI Roller Dude style:

From the Soldier side: I still tell folks my Bosnia deployment was one of the “Best Jobs I ever had”.  I didn’t like it when we got stuck on Eagle Base (too many officers running around with nothing to do) but when we went out on a “mission” it was extremely cool. 

Camp Cody in Ugljevik was our Area of Operations

Some of the folks I considered “cool” were in the EUPM mission (European Union Police Mission).  These folks were from civilian police departments all over Europe.  Since my normal job back home was a civilian cop, I got along very well with these coppers.  We shared stories and stuff…and I became good friends with some of them.  They were given a very large per diem to live on, so most of them spent what was left over on alcoholic beverages…and there were many “meetings” I had to attend where folks were well lubricated…and the spoke in many languages—trying to speak English.  My ear was tuned to compensate and I could actually understand most of them most of the time.

Camp Cody- our base of operations for this mission

The one lad I had a hard time understanding even when he was sober (which was usually before noon) was a copper from Scotland.  I mean I was impressed with anybody who enforced laws and made arrest without a handgun, but this guy was awesome…and very Scottish—including the kilt on occasions.

One such event was a going away party where he wore his kilt.  And yes it’s true they wear nothing under the kilt.  I usually brought my compact digital camera with me everywhere, and this one night I made the mistake of leaving it on the table when I went to the bathroom.  (make a note to never do this around some folks). 

I returned and my camera was still on the table, but it appeared to have been “on”.  I was pretty sure I had turned it “off”, but dismissed it all to just being forgetful. 

When I returned to my Sea Hut room on Camp Cody later that night…I down loaded my pictures to my computer.  The last picture made me laugh.  I won’t describe it in full detail because many readers might become ill.  But let me say this about that picture: I had digital proof that the Scots do in fact wear nothing under their kilts… and let me just say somebody was creative with toilet paper hanging out of a certain body cavity. 

So…how does a good Soldier and NCO get payback in a case like this?  I had already ordered some special bumper stickers on-line for another mission.  I figured when those arrived, I would divert some of them for another mission.  I even came up with a mission title and op order. 

“Mission EUPM Even the Score”.  I was not concerned with starting an international incident because my EUPM comrades had already established that there were no R.O.Es. (Rules Of Engagement).  My own moral values added that it would not be life threatening and would be nothing that could cause any mission member to be subject to any UCMJ action. 

Here's how the mission went, (redacted for Op Sec): Dress in all dark clothes.  Make sure we have a full load of ammo, fuel and commo plan.  Contact those parties responsible for the offense and insure that they are home and going to bed.  Go and park a few blocks from where the offenders live, walk in a stealth manner to where their vehicles were parked...conduct mission.  

General area of operation for this mission...

SPEW ALERT, swallow your coffee before going further!!!!

One picture is worth a thousand words…      

Have a good plan, have a better back up plan

From the Cop and Soldier side: One of the things my team got complimented on while we were in Bosnia was our Mission Planning.  Some guy from USAER (United States Army Europe) came around and checked out all the little teams we had scattered around Bosnia.  When he visited our team, he watched how we did our planning. 

Our style was to let the Soldier who was running the mission for that day do the plan.  It didn’t matter if he was a Specialist E-4 or the team leader…the plan was presented to everybody who had to go and we all looked at it to see if it was good or it sucked.  If it sucked, then I’d make “suggestions”. 

Then we had a backup plan because of Murphy’s Law.  No matter how good the plan was, just like the law of gravity, the law of Murphy was always there and it would mess up even the simplest of plans. 

I got everybody on our team to do this…except the guy who was the orginal team leader.  He later got fired and they gave me the team.  Now, if you’re not aware of it, the US Army will promote you with duties, but not always with the rank that should go with it--- so you are made to do the work, but without the extra pay….and no over time. 

Anyway, the team leader would never plan his missions.  Hell, most of the time he forgot to even tell anybody that he had a mission the next day and the first anybody heard of it was at breakfast.  Then he’d ask the SECFOR (Security Force) guys if they had the vehicles fueled and ready to go.  They always did because I trained them to always be ready.  The team leader was never ready.

After about the fifth mission the team leader messed up by being unplanned and late, I asked him why he didn’t plan ahead.  His response: “I always do better under pressure.”

I thought it over for a few minutes while I was driving like hell to get us to a “job” we were late for, then I said: “you know you may think you work better under pressure, but really all you do is fuck shit up, yell at everybody, and stress us all out, then screw up the job.”

He wasn’t used to people being so honest and blunt with him.  That day he didn’t say much--- you see he was in such a hurry he had forgotten to bring his weapon and we had no time to turn back and get it.  He knew I could cover him and outshoot anybody, so he didn’t worry. 

When they finally relieved him of the team, they gave it to me.  But by that time, we had reduced our number of Soldiers and I also had to take over another team.  So instead of 8 Soldiers to do the job, we did it with 2.5 (I could borrow a guy from one of the other teams if I needed.)  none of it mattered much, as SFOR (Stabilization Force Bosnia) was soon to go away. 

Damn it, I loved that job.  Oh well, at least I have the stories and the experience.

As a cop, I learned early that when going to make an arrest or do a search, the best made plans always were not perfect.  Include things that you don't know and be able to adjust and overcome.  

So, for planning…are you the type who waits until the last minute and thinks everything is OK, or do you plan ahead and have a good back up plan.