"Go ahead punk...make my day."

10-41

Today was the day we've all been waiting for. We spent 8 hours on the shooting range. It was awesome. The sunscreen was a little uncomfortable and the heat sucked but we got to shoot our guns!

Surprisingly I did pretty good. When I first started Ogden had me do a gun certification which was pointless because I had no gun training. Needless to say I failed miserably and felt like poop. Today we got taught the basics for about three hours. Then we fine tuned our skills and shot live rounds the rest of the day. Speaking in my most humble opinion I was freakin awesome.

There is a term called "key hole" which basically means when you shoot the target and then the next shot goes through that same hole almost exactly like the previous. In other words, there are two bullet holes right on top of each other with only a slight variation. On four different occasions I key holed my shots. There was even a time where there were six key holed shots on one target center mass! I had to have bragging rights for that one. A few in the class even came and looked just to prove I wasn't blowing smoke. The instructor even gave me props for it. Pretty cool.

Another thing to make it just an awesome day is I put on sunscreen every hour so I didn't even get sunburned! A Yates first!

Its a good thing I had such a good day today because last Friday sucked beyond words. For the past couple of PT sessions I have been getting some seriously bad headaches that come on very suddenly. To the point where I start to see spots and almost black out from the pain. Well, I just couldn't hide it anymore from the instructors and continue on with the PT. I had to say something. Of course they sent me to a doctor to get it checked out. Well, a normal doctors office doesn't have things to look at the brain so I had to go drop a $100 co-pay and go to the ER.

The doc sits me down and tells me a couple things. First he says its possibly the beginning of a brain aneurysm where there is a slight leak in the artery that leads to the brain. Because of the high blood flow while working out the pressure builds up in my head. If the vessels were to ever pop or explode because of excessive strain it could kill or paralyze me. Awesome right? So he tells me they'll do a bunch of tests and figure out if it is a brain aneurysm. If so they would then have to do emergency surgery on my brain and snip the veins leading to the leak and everything would be hunky dory...except for the fact that if it does indeed come to that I get kicked out of POST for missing too many days due to health and Ogden fires me because I'm not healthy enough to do the job. So for about four hours as I sat waiting for the tests to start I was near panic and hyperventilation (thanks for the genes dad).

Finally they performed a Cat Scan (sp?). Very weird procedure. After waiting forty minutes for the results it turns out it sees nothing. Everything appears to be normal. However, the doc says they are only 90% accurate and since I am so young and have a long full life ahead of me 90% accurate just isn't good enough and wants to do a spinal tap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a word of advice for those that ever have to get one of these done. DON'T EVER LOOK AT THE NEEDLE! That puppy was freaking ginormous! They numb the area the needle goes in so you don't feel it. The only bad part is it goes through an entire blob of nerve endings so various parts of your body are screaming in pain while the needle is going in. Very weird feeling when the needle is first going in. It made my left leg jump and twitch and I had no control over it. Really bizarre. Then once the nerve endings get hit its ouchy time. It was like getting tazed all over again. Except for the fact that he had to stick me 3 huggin' times!

Seriously I can still feel in my spine right where he went three days later. Anywhoo...after waiting an hour for those results they came back no blood on the brain everything is fine.

Official diagnosis: We don't know what is causing the headaches but what ever they are they won't kill you. Call a neurologist. Gee...thanks. By the time I was done and out of the ER the day was over. I missed the first DT of the LEO block where they teach all the new moves and I missed traffic stops and procedures.

So I have to set up another doc apt. Until then the jury is out and I still have headaches. The doc even said the spinal tap would make my headaches worse until my body can replace the lost fluid. And whadaya know they did. They hooked me up with some cool drugs to help.

However, on the bright side I'm not dieing and I can still work. Which lead to the awesome shooting day I had. It's all smooth sailin' from here.

Yates 10-42

SFO Certification

Yates 10-41

Today had the potential of being my last day at POST. The first block has come to an end. Today was the tests to certify as an SFO Officer. If I failed any one test I am not allowed to continue at POST.

First we had to pass a PT test. It was the same as the entry test just the minimum requirements are bumped up a little. Passed everything just fine. I can't remember what I did on my entry. However today I jumped 24 inches, 40 sit ups in a minute, 30 consecutive push ups without stopping and ran the mile and a half in 12:39. I know on my entry I ran it in 13 and a half to 14 min (something like that). So I improved on the run.

The next test was the defensive tactics (DT). We had to go through every move of every hand lock, hold and throw along with terry stop and felony prone searches. The test had 149 points possible. Passed no problem with 147 out of 149. The two points that I missed were nit-picky in my opinion but I'm not bitter. 99% is good enough for me.

The last test was a written 100 question test covering all the book work we've gone through in class. This was probably the hardest part of the testing series. It covered all the Utah Criminal Code plus the 10 Code and Police Alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc). The questions got pretty specific and we had to know the details of the majority of the Utah Criminal Code book. I think to just piss us off a little bit they throw in a good chunk of trick questions where because of one word or verb tense it made the statement true instead of false, none of the above instead of all of the above and vice versa. Those kinds of tests just piss me off. Don't make it harder than it already is. Just test us on the knowledge instead of throwing in all these curve balls just to see if we're gonna notice or not. To pass we need to get 80% on everything. I passed the written portion with the skin on my teeth. I could only miss twenty questions and I missed 15. Too close for comfort in my opinion. 5 questions made the difference of employed and unemployed. Yikes. 84.7% was my official score.

Congrats to me being SFO certified! Some others weren't so lucky. One person didn't pass the PT test, three didn't pass the DT test and four didn't pass the written test. I'd hate to be in their shoes tonight. It's pretty sad to know they've been working so hard for almost 6 weeks and not passing. Some of them I've come to be good friends with too.

Tomorrow begins the LEO block. What better way to start than with Man Down PT. Yippy.

Yates 10-42

One Month Down...three to go

10-41

Time is going by really fast. I can't believe a month has gone by already.

In the academy there are two blocks or sections of classes one is the Special Functions Officer (SFO) which is what I'm in and the second half is Law Enforcement Officer (LEO). I only have one more week of SFO then the week after is test week. We get tested on all the class room crap we've been going over which is a bunch of case law. Some was interesting some was boring. We also get tested on all our Defensive Tactics (DT) that we've learned to date. Then we get tested on our Physical Training (PT).

The PT has been kicking my butt but I'll be ready for it. The classroom stuff isn't too hard to remember. We have been taking weekly quizes on all the past material covered and I've been averaging 94.6% on all of them. Although yesterday I did get my first 100% test! It was on CPR and First Aid. Go me!

Once SFO is over with is when the real fun starts with the LEO block. Thats when we start our gun training and driving cars and more of the hands on practice "in the field." Everyone is looking forward to it. We can wear our belt and equipment etc.

So far so good
Yates 10-42