nra american warrior magazine #12 2013

Travis Vendela’sRunaway Victory

God Bless Officer “T”

Panama: A Journey to the End of the Road

Best of Show: SHOT 2013

Tested: Para USA’s Black Ops 1911

WarriorWareWe turned four gun nuts loose on the 2013 SHOT Show exhibit floor and asked them to report on the hottest new guns, knives, clothing and accessories they could find.

American WarriorTHE NRA MAGAZINE FOR THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR N U M B E R 1 2

WARRIOR FEATURESP R E S E N T E D B Y C O L T

Welcome to the Warrior.

Runaway VictoryIn 2007, Sgt. 1st Class Travis Vendela led a convoy into battle in Iraq and lost both his legs. In 2012, Coach Travis Vendela led a Utah high-school football team to a huge state championship win.

God Bless This WomanOfficer Camille Tsitsinakis works hard to keep Sin City’s sin from spilling over into Henderson, Nev.

Warrior Test Drive: ParaUSA Black Ops“Why another 1911?” you might ask. Simple answer: This is by no means “just another 1911.”

A Journey to the End of the RoadNRA Life of Duty correspondent Chuck Holton drove south until he hit jungle. There, he stopped to report on the Panamanian equivalent of the U.S. Border Patrol and bugs the size of rats.

ON THE COVER: Travis Vendela, an assistant coach for the Jordan High School Beetdiggers, celebrates his team’s victory in Utah’s 5A state football championship. Vendela lost both legs during a mission in Iraq in 2007. Photo by Jim Urquhart. THIS SPREAD: Jeremy Lake is a Master Hunting Guide at Castle Valley Outdoors in southern Utah. Castle Valley Outdoors plays host to the annual Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior Cast & Blast, which offers wounded warfighters an opportunity to hunt, shoot, fish and heal. Photo by Michael Ives.

Deep discounts on gear, reports from the front lines and exclusive video documentaries telling the stories of true American heroes— if you’re not logging on to the NRA Life of Duty Network on a regular basis, you’re missing a lot.

Members-Only Gear DiscountsDid you know that NRA Life of Duty members are eligible for discounts of up to 45 percent on products from our family of NRA Life of Duty Gear Discount Providers? Click on the logos at left to start saving.

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attack on American soil, but when. The Direct Action Resource Center, or DARC, was created to prepare us for that reality. Join NRA Life of Duty

correspondent Chuck Holton as he gets a firsthand look at what may be the most intense counterterrorism training available anywhere.

Untold Resistance: The Guerrillas of LuzonThe day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they also attacked the island of Luzon and American forces stationed there. After battling for months, surrender seemed to be the only option for the Americans. Most became

prisoners of war and endured the infamous Bataan Death March, but roughly 450 men refused to surrender and found a way to fight on.

Click here to hear their story in this exclusive Patriot Profile documentary.

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WA R R I O R WAREGUNS, GEAR & GADGETS FOR

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR

A M E R I C A N WA R R I O R

hat do you get when you turn four gun nuts loose amongst acres of new guns

and gear? Only the biggest and best NRA American Warrior SHOT Show Roundup ever! We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed doing the “research.”

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WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E |

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FLASH SUPPRESSORBrownells’ new flash hider/suppressor is a tiny unit that yields big performance. A series of round holes encompassing the suppressor reduces flash substantially over more conventional units. It’s easy to install and available in both 5.56/223 or 7.62/308. —MC

www.brownells.com

BROWNELLS

WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E | WA R R I O R WA R E |

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The Smith & Wesson Performance Center had several new single stack 1911s on display. Taking a page from competitive shooters, the slides have been lightened to reduce reciprocating mass and lessen sight movement. Very nice 30 LPI checkering can be found on them as well. www.smith-wesson.com

Nestled among the other great new Benchmade products was the Volli— a very light and sleek knife featuring spring assist, axis lock and S30V steel. Another great knife from Benchmade, for sure. www.benchmade.com

Greeley Colorado-based Burris continues to build top-notch optics. The MTAC line of scopes continues to impress me. The daylight-visible reticles are a huge plus for both hunters and military shooters. Burris also had its new Laser Rangefinder Eliminator rifle scopes and a new flip mount for red dot magnifiers on display. Good stuff all around.www.burrisoptics.com

MIL-SPEC BOLT CARRIER GROUP Brownells’ Mil-Spec Bolt/Carrier assembly is made for drop-in fit and reliable operation. Extremely durable, it is machined from high-grade 8620 carbon steel alloy and heat-treated for superb strength and hardness.

And Mil-spec tolerances ensure proper fit and

smooth, reliable function in the widest range of semi-auto rifles.

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LODGE JACKETThe Lodge Jacket is made of 22-ounce 50 percent Merino wool, 30 percent polyester and 20 percent Modal, with two hand-warmer pockets with zipper closure, left chest pocket with zippered closure and internal chest pocket. It also features a fold-down collar and Lycra-bound cuffs. —MC

FIELD JACKET The Waxed Canvas Field Jacket is made of 13.25-ounce British Millerain plain-weave waxed canvas featuring a quick-dry, moisture-wicking lining. It features a YKK metal zipper front closure with seven-snap storm flap, and a button-tab stand-up collar. —MC

www.mountainkhakis.com

MOUNTAIN KHAKISMountain Khakis is known for its rugged, functional, comfortable and attractive outerwear. And the company’s new lodge jacket and field jacket meet all those criteria.

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S H O T S H O R T S - T F Magpul has also embraced the AK, and a new grip will be available soon. They also had on hand their custom VW bus with a Minigun sticking out of the moonroof, which will not be available anytime soon. www.magpul.com

Remington introduced its new Commander-sized 1911. The gun is loaded with custom features like night sights, Ambi safeties and a 25 LPI checked front strap. www.remington.com

AAC showed off its entire suppressor line, and also showcased its firearms chambered in 300 Blackout. The 300 Blackout is a shortened 5.56 case that is necked up to accept a 7.62 (.30 caliber) bullet that can be used in AR-15 size rifles and magazines. Two perks of the caliber are outstanding supersonic performance that is better than the 7.62x39 and the ability to easily suppress the caliber with subsonic ammo. I own several rifles in 300 Blackout and I am very happy to see the popularity of the caliber grow. www.advanced-armament.com

2 13WA R R I O R WARE Email the Editor View Patriot Profiles

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Built by Armor Express, the Lighthawk XT was designed to be as pliable, adaptable and scalable as possible. To prove how pliable the Lighthawk XT is, the company hired stuntmen who were accustomed to performing crazy jumps off obstacles and buildings to do so while wearing its body armor (the professional video was playing at SHOT Show and grabbed everyone’s attention). The Lighthawk XT has an integrated quick-release system so that if a medic needs to get to the wearer’s vital organs in a hurry he can do so with the pull of a cord. Combine all this with a rear hydration pocket, front utility pouch, integrated MOLLE webbing, a rear drag strap, mesh lining for airflow, wire restraints for radio equipment, and removable sling hooks to hold your rifle sling in place, and you have body armor that you won’t mind wearing on the job. —JS

www.armorexpress.com

ARMOR EXPRESS LIGHTHAWK XT

S H O T S H O R T S - T F

For the accuracy buffs out there, the SIG P210 is still being made. They’re still hard to find—and still expensive when you do find them. www.sigarms.com

This was Thunder Beast Arms Corp.’s first trip to the SHOT Show. The team at TBAC had their entire line of titanium suppressors on hand. As the owners are serious and accomplished competitive shooters, accuracy and minimal POI shift is the most important feature of their entire line. The titanium construction makes them very light compared to an all steel suppressor. Most of the TBAC line is available with a muzzle brake attachment method. The company also had on hand their new steel 308 suppressor. The price on the steel versions will be lower than their titanium suppressors. No word on a release date for the steel version. www.thunderbeastarms.com

This year, LaRue made yet another improvement to its incredibly accurate and reliable OBR line of AR-15 rifles. Now the hand guards can be changed without tools, and barrel changes can be made with limited tools. As always, accuracy and reliability are still the main focus of the entire OBR line of rifles. Currently the wait for most rifles is more than 6 months, with some models being close to 12 months.www.laruetactical.com

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Despite all the guns at SHOT Show, you seldom see any projectiles being released. But the sweet sound of impact led us to the ESS booth, where company representatives were demonstrating their new Credence

glasses by shooting them side-by-side with competitors’ products. The Credence boasts a hefty does of performance, protection and

style. The broad lens wrap of the unit provides a wide field of view through distortion-free, military-grade polycarbonate. And the frame features low-profile temple arms for comfort with over-the-ear hearing protection, hats or helmets.

And don’t forget Credence is U.S. Mil-spec Battle Rated. By the end of the show the two tubs of glasses that had been shot showed a distinct difference, with most Credence glasses intact and wearable, and many competitors’ glasses shattered and in more than one piece. —MC

www.esseyepro.com

ESS CREDENCE GLASSES

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S H O T S H O R T S - T F Tactical Solutions of Boise, Idaho, continues to impress me with its line of .22 rifles and replacement top ends for pistols. They make complete rifles built around their X-Ring receivers and dedicated AR-15 top ends. Also they have an outstanding line of rimfire suppressors. New this year was a metal replacement trigger group for the 10/22 rifles. For those that do not care for the plastic one that comes stock on the 10/22, this is an outstanding upgrade. www.tacticalsol.com

Mile High showed up at SHOT this year with a ton of Accuracy International goodies and SAS Suppressors. Known as one of the largest dealers of AI, SAS, S&B and Nightforce, Mile High is your go-to shop for long-range rifle accuracy products. www.milehighshooting.com

Also on display by Browning was its X-Bolt rifles. These rifles are available in many calibers, and are slimmed down to fit small statured shooters. The recoil pads on these rifles feel very soft and should help to tame some of the recoil on this lightweight hunting rifle. www.browning.com

The WK II S.A.R. knife from Winkler is a top-quality piece of machinery, like all Winkler products. Developed at the request of a municipal Search and Rescue Team, the S.A.R. Knife is combination of the WK II Utility Knife and the WK II Spike.

The S.A.R. features cpm-154 Stainless Steel, skeletonized tang, integral crusher spike and serrated spine. Blade length is 4¾ inches, with a 9½-inch overall length. Blade finishes available include Caswell No-Glare finish, Black KG finish and Camo KG finish, each with several handle options.

The S.A.R. comes with an ambidextrous Kydex-lined leather sheath that can be worn vertically or horizontally. —MC

www.winklerknives.com

WINKLER S.A.R.

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The ACS (Agile Combat System) is a new body armor and integrated gear system by US Palm. The system currently consists of four different components. When it matures in about 24 months it will have a total of 18 to 24 different components that will allow users to mix-and-match to their needs like a tactical

Lego set. Current components include a front three-sided plate carrier, their Draco Hardened Backpack (which also takes a plate), and their Multi-Platform Attack Rack. The backpack comes with an integrated VS-17 panel for marking and serves as an optional water carrier to help prevent heat casualties. The Multi-Platform Attack Rack is a favorite among tunnel rats on the border who live in a horizontal world and need to keep track of their gear. All of their components snap together, are interchangeable in seconds and are covered in MOLLE for personal customization. —JS

www.uspalm.com

US PALM AGILE COMBAT SYSTEM

S H O T S H O R T S - T F News from Schmidt & Bender is that the not-so-new 1-8 actually has a release date of May 2013. The scope on hand was marked for HK rifles and painted RAL8000, which is an orangish brown color. Like the 1-4, they remain heavy and have a 30 mm tube. I’m looking forward to shooting one of these for sure. www.schmidtbender.com

As always the gang at Blue Force continues to make one of the finest padded slings available. Of all the padded slings I have seen “outside the wire,” the BFG are the most common and are what I continue to use.www.blueforcegear.com

Several new single-stack pistols were on hand from STI. The company’s new line of tactical pistols has forged frames and the blocky heavier weight slides. Like the High Cap line of Tacticals, the Single Stacks have an accessory rail machined into the dustcover. They come in 3-, 4- and 5-inch barrels, and are chambered in 45 ACP.

www.stiguns.com

Klein Tactical had its line of communication equipment on hand. Klein Tactical gear is light, compact and well thought out communication equipment, along with being very affordable.

www.headsetusa.com

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2 13WA R R I O R WARE Email the Editor Visit the Gear Channel

When I spied this rifle on the rack in the Colt booth, the first thing that crossed my mind was what a truly beautiful piece of equipment it was. Then I learned that it has a lot more going for it than just its looks.

The M2012 is the only precision bolt-action rifle on the market with the well-known ergonomics of a modern sporting rifle. Chambered in .308 Win., the rifle features a solid forged aluminum chassis; custom fluted, stainless-steel match-grade barrel; Timney trigger; and a custom Colt muzzle brake.

Handcrafted in the United States, each M2012 rifle is test-fired for accuracy and must shoot a three-shot group of 1 inch or less before shipping. —MC

www.colt.com

COLT M2012SA308 PRECISION RIFLE

MOLLEMINUSBlue Force’s new MOLLEminus technology stands for MOLLE minus the weight, the bulk and the complexity. Blue Force touts MOLLEminus as the thinnest, strongest, lightest modular load carriage standard on the market—

half the thickness of a dime, more than four times as abrasion resistant as air-textured nylon and formed from a single piece of the company’s proprietary ULTRAcomp. Fully backward compatible with legacy MOLLE, MOLLEminus supports existing MOLLE and PALS compatible pouches. —MC/TF

HIVEAlso new from Blue Force Gear is the Hive Satchel. This bag was designed in collaboration

with Chris Costa of Costa Ludus. The bag is large enough to hold most all pistols and some small subguns. The best part of the bag is it does not scream, “Gun in this bag!” Sometimes hiding in plain sight is the best option. —MC/TF

www.blueforcegear.com

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S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W | S H O T S H O W |

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MICROLIGHT STSIf you thought the Inova Microlight was cool, you’ll love the Microlight STS. The new touch-activated Microlight STS illuminates with a simple swipe, making bright LED illumination easy, instant and ultra-convenient. Its durable, water-and-shock-resistant casing is designed to fit comfortably in your hand, and

brightness is an impressive 16 lumens. High, variable dimming, low and flash modes allow you to use the light in a variety of different scenarios. —MC

S-BINER SLIDELOCK

Nite Ize also introduced the new S-Biner SlideLock. This enhanced version of the traditional caribiner will help you organize, connect, carry and keep your valuables extra secure. Made of high-quality stainless steel, each S-Biner SlideLock features two simple, innovative plastic sliders that, when slid into correct placement, keep the gates securely closed. Your S-Biner SlideLock will stay firmly locked until you choose to unlock it, allowing for simple and secure linking, attaching and carrying. —MC

www.niteize.com

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The original M-Pact glove from Mechanix offered full-coverage hand protection, rubberized grip on the thumb, index finger and palm, and sonic-welded molded rubber on the knuckles and fingertips. The new M-Pact 2 adds extreme knuckle guard foam padding and complete impact protection from the fingertips to the wrist area.

Add to that a new and improved fit, and the M-Pact 2 provides the whole package. The new model is anatomically designed with advanced features that include tapered stretch side panels that form comfortably between fingers and a molded Neoprene cuff for a seamless fit to your wrist. —MC

www.mechanix.com

MECHANIX M-PACT 2


PSR BALLISTA Designed to meet the requirements of the U.S. Precision Rifle Market, the Ballista is a fully modular bolt-action rifle designed for surgically precise accuracy at longer distances. It features a high-strength, vibration-isolated aluminum alloy receiver with a top-mounted MIL-STD 1913 rail. It also has additional rail segments for slings, bipods, lights, lasers or other accessories, and a fully adjustable trigger system for single- or two-stage release between 2 and 5 pounds. The Ballista’s 26-inch fluted barrel is configured for .338 Lapua Mag., and is interchangeable with caliber conversion kits for .300 Win. Mag. and .308 Win.. —MC/TF

LONG SLIDE PISTOLFNH also showcased its new FNS-9 longslide pistol. Available in 9x19 and 40, the extended sight radius is sure to help with tight or long shots. This version has interchangeable backstraps and is completely ambidextrous. Like all the FN pistols, it is lightweight and features easy-to-use controls. —MC/TF

www.fnhusa.com

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Mossberg has taken its popular FLEX TLS (Tool-less Locking System) and designed a full

line of bolt-action patrol rifles using the technology. MVP Series delivered a bolt-action engineering breakthrough

with the MVP’s patent-pending Drop-Push bolt, designed to accept and reliably feed from AR-style magazines. Adding to the rifle’s precision

performance is the patented Mossberg LBA (Lightning Bolt Action) Adjustable Trigger System, which is user-adjustable from 2 to 7 pounds.

FLEX your MVP rifle stock and recoil pad to fit individual shooters or to set-up your rifle for a specific application by changing the six-position tactical stock to standard black or camo FLEX stocks with 12-, 13- or 14-inch LOP options or choose the four-position adjustable hunting stock with dual combs. —MC

www.mossberg.com

MOSSBERG FLEX MVP

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AUTO TRIAGE Benchmade’s new Auto Triage should be just the ticket for first responders looking for a top-quality cutting tool. The knife is basically the dynamic Triage packaged in high-strength aluminum with the speed and efficiency of the company’s AXIS auto and an automatic opening hook. Other features include a modified drop-point blade, N680 highly corrosion-resistant steel and a carbide glass breaker. —MC

PLAN D The new Plan D, manufactured by Benchmade in conjunction with HK, is an easily concealed backup knife that could make all the difference when the chips are down. It features a fixed Wharncliffe-style blade made of N680 stainless steel, contoured Grivory handle scales with signature HK texture and a low-profile, molded sheath with ambidextrous clip designed for duty belts. —MC

www.benchmade.com

BENCHMADE

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One of the neatest things at the Troy booth this year was Squid Grip inserts. Those of us that use a Troy hand guard know that after a while the hand guard can wear on your hands. The Squid Grip inserts make the grip much more comfortable by putting a soft plastic insert in the holes. They are not slippery and not so large that you lose the benefit of the slim rail. No more cheese-grater hands at the end of the day. —TF

www.troyind.com

TROY SQUID GRIP INSERTS

PRT OVERLAND PANTDesigned by 14-year veteran smokejumper Jason Ramos, these pants are the product of years of testing and evaluation. By evaluating products and gear for a minimum of a year in some of the world’s most demanding professions, PRg has created a unique business that offers recommendations and consultation for people who don’t want to waste their money on inferior products. These new pants designed by Ramos are

made especially for hot climates. The PBI Trigard material makes them highly breathable, fire resistant and will dry out in only a few minutes when they get wet. They are perfect for guys on race teams, motorcycle riders and others who need a rugged, breathable pant. —MC www.productresearchgear.com

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Walking past the Coast booth on several occasions left us no other option than to stop and look at this new flashlight. This company, a favorite of many military, law enforcement, and fire and rescue personnel, introduced a new line of rechargeable LED flashlights, including the handy

HP5R. The unit features Coast’s exclusive new Flex Charge Dual Power Rechargeable System, including the ProTek Charging Port, with a tail cap that pops up to reveal a mini USB port the charging cable plugs into. At only 4.75 inches long, the HP5R puts out an incredible 121 lumens at maximum setting. —MC

www.coastportland.com

COAST HP5R FLASHLIGHT


Built on the G30 SF frame, the G30S combines the full capacity .45 Auto round count with a slimmer slide. This pistol offers a lighter, more easily concealable option for both law enforcement and concealed-carry enthusiasts. Built in conjunction with elite law enforcement, the newest edition to the Glock product line brings a venerable history of consistency, dependability and safe performance in the powerful .45 Auto round.

Fully loaded, the G30S weighs in at only 30.16 ounces, compared to the G30 at 33.69 ounces – nearly 10 percent lighter. —MC

www.glock.com

GLOCK G30S

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You can’t buy one of these cool brown Glocks directly from Lipsey’s, but that’s the only place your favorite firearms dealer can get one for you. Recently named wholesaler of the year by NASGW, Lipsey’s has many products made especially for it, including this Glock fourth-generation G19 in Flat Dark Earth. It’s the same great, dependable gun as any other G19, but the new finish has made it highly sought after by many in law enforcement.

Check your local dealer for one of these coming soon. If he doesn’t have one, he can order you one from Lipsey’s. —MC

www.lipseys.com

LIPSEY’S BROWN GLOCK

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SINGLE POWER OPTICSWe are glad to see that single-power conventional optics are not being altogether abandoned by reputable manufacturers. While the geegaws are lots of fun and have plenty of legitimate applications, the simple optical complement (fewer lenses and adjustments) means better light transmission and lower weight per dollar in fixed power designs. Fewer parts mean less to break when the going gets tough. And uncomplicated reticles mean no calculations or complexities to get lost in when seconds count and light is low. We saw examples from Burris (2.75x Scout) and Leupold (FX-II Scout IER 2.5x28, FX-II 4x33) that particularly appealed.

www.burrisoptics.comwww.leupold.com

O P T I C A L T R E N D S

—FW

RED DOTSPractically every company is fighting for this piece of the market, including some who should not be. While the JPoint, Burris FastFire, Docter Red Dot, Trijicon RMR, Leupold Delta Point and C-More are tough, reliable and proven, they do make demands on the budget. Their light weight and extreme G-force tolerance make them the only real choice for slide-mounting on pistols. But for other applications—particularly as secondary or CQB optics on ARs—the result is lower-priced options in huge numbers. Many take the form of tube-style red dots like the excellent Bushnell TRS25 ( about $100; an optional package includes an AR-appropriate riser), but in other cases it’s strictly caveat emptor: buyer beware. In an effort to have something out there, companies who ought to know better have their names on some pretty poor products. We particularly noted “dual color” and “multi-reticle” models with switches/controls so loose by the second day of SHOT that we doubt they’d be worth shipping home.

www.bushnell.com

CHRIS REEVE SEBENZAThe Sebenza 25 is the 25th anniversary version of this ultrapopular folder, which is one of the company’s all-time best-sellers. The Sebenza 25 has a satin-finished titanium handle face with a unique 25th Anniversary graphic. The framelock side, edges and pocket clip are all bead blasted. The blade has double thumb lugs and has Chris Reeve’s signature and date.

The Chris Reeve Sebenza 25 has a revised handle shape that incorporates a second finger groove. Overall length is 8.335 inches, with a 3.625-inch stainless blade, which features “Large Hollow Grind Technology” delivering the best of hollow and flat grinds. Weight is a scant 5.2 ounces. —MC

www.chrisreeve.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS REEVE SEBENZA


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1X - 4XThis class is particularly built-out at present, with many choices zeroing in on the AR/Tactical/3-Gun sectors. There are lots and lots and lots of choices. The Millett DMS-1 remains a bargain: 30 mm tube, sharp, etched dot and donut reticle with a small, precise dot, and low-light illumination. I’ve heard good reports on the Millett, even up to .308 applications. Farther up the food chain is a pair of Bushnells (a 1-4x24 mm, and the first focal-plane 1-4x Throw Down PCL—but get that mount vertical: you won’t like first focal-plane mounted even a little off!). “Throw Down” refers to a built-in fold-down magnification adjustment pillar. It features tactical-style reticles and good grippy adjustments; we’ll see what the field reports.

Burris has its great glass in two 30 mm scopes: the XTR (milling-type reticle with dot and donut) and MTAC (CQ reticle + BDC dots); both illuminated, and both available kitted with a PEPR mount and FastFire red dot. An interesting addition to this class is the Leupold HOG in two variants: a 1-4x in 1-inch tube with an interesting “FireDot Pig Plex” reticle (our winner in the “Best Reticle with the Dumbest Name” category). It features a smaller tube—a nice option for a youth/lightweight kit, or for those rings that are just lying around (under $300 too!). There is a 30 mm version in 1.25-4x, illuminated. It’s a little off the beaten path, to be sure, but worth a look. It could find a surprising number of adopters in 3-gun and elsewhere. 1.25x will work for CQB. VX-R and VX-R Patrol (illuminated) look great too: very nice edge-to-edge clarity in the glass; good adjustment ergonomics.

www.millettsights.comwww.bushnell.com

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Kifaru is offering the new Kryptek camouflage pattern and the new Bikini Duplex Frames. The new frames are much lighter—by almost 2 pounds—and are able to accept most all Kifaru modular systems. The new camo pattern should be a winner for the hunter and warrior, alike. —TF

www.kifaru.net

KIFARU KRYPTEK CAMO AND BIKINI DUPLEX FRAMES

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OTHER 2X-7If you’re after a conventional mount in this magnification range, don’t miss the Bushnell 2-7x 32 mm. It features quarter-inch click adjustments and BDC-style reticle. At present it is just intended for .22 AR platforms, but we’ll be anxious to see if anyone steps up to adapting it up to the .223. It’s a great magnification range, and adaptable to close-quarters with practice at the 2x setting. Leupold’s trim 2-7x with a 33 mm objective has three available reticle options, including a BDC.

www.bushnell.comwww.leupold.com

SPEAKING OF ‘SCOUT’ SCOPESThe Burris 2x-7x 32 mm is serious business in this class. Certain types of rifles will flourish with this optic, especially those with open-top actions that are best not occluded by a mount. It is now available with a Ballistic-Plex and G2B Mil-Dot reticle. Don’t let the 1-inch tube fool you.

www.burrisoptics.com

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Rite In The Rain has expanded their all-weather paper products and designed a tactical index card wallet to hold 3x5 index cards. Outfitted with a pack of 25 cards, the durable and tough Cordura tactical wallet is the ideal solution for those heading off to military or law enforcement schools where they will be in field conditions, yet still required to quickly learn large amounts of information on the fly. With these all-weather index cards, you and your battle buddy can pull guard duty while cramming for the next test. Rite in the Rain pen sold separately. —JS

www.riteintherain.com

RITE IN THE RAIN TACTICAL INDEX CARD WALLET


—FW


1X, 1.25 - .50X OR 2X - 5X, 6X, OR 7XThis class of scopes exploded at SHOT this year. We saw at least 9 Leupolds, 3 Burris and some great-looking Vortex products among many, many others. The rage in this class is “true 1x” with CQB in mind, and while we’re believers (and early adopters) of the concept, don’t write the near 1x variations off: both eyes open is the key, and with practice this can be learned at higher magnifications (up to about 2.75x, though intermediate eye relief helps a lot beyond 2x). Col. Jeff Cooper believed thrown clays could be reliably hit with centerfire rifles at up to 2.75 power: We’ve seen it, and done it. The big benefit in a variable scope is higher magnification at the top end, and that is what’s motivating growth in this class. With more older eyes in the tactical and 3-Gun worlds, a little more than 4x is often a huge benefit at 400 yards and beyond. We especially liked the ‘big brothers’ of some of our 1-4x picks: a 2 -7x Leupold VX-R, and the Burris MTAC 1.5-6x (both available with illuminated reticles).

www.burrisoptics.com

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If you want to wear your night-vision goggles, you generally have to wear a combat helmet everywhere you go or endure the uncomfortable strain of an ill-fitting head harness. For a situation where that isn’t ideal, Crye Precision has introduced a new product called Nightcap to fill the void between a Kevlar helmet and the uncomfortable headgear usually associated with night-vision equipment. With multiple mounting options available, adjustable straps, channels to tuck the wires out of the way, as well as a Velcro patch to attach a battery pack, Nightcap is a lightweight, sans helmet option for wearing night vision that won’t give you a headache the first five minutes you wear it. —JS

www.cryeprecision.com


We’ve featured MTM Special Ops watches in these pages before and for good reason—they are top-of-the-line products that won’t let you down in a pinch. MTM’s newest addition is the RAD, a one-of-a-kind tactical radiation-detection watch.

The RAD can be set to sound an alarm at a pre-set level of radiation. Or it can be set to simply monitor radiation levels throughout the day, and the data can be downloaded to your computer via infrared technology. Like other MTM products, the RAD is a tough, precision timepiece you’ll be proud to own.

On another note, MTM is an official sponsor of the upcoming G.I. Joe movie, with the company’s Cobra watch being worn by stars in the flick. —MC

www.specialopswatch.com

MTM RAD

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EPOCH HOLSTER Slated for release in the spring of 2013 is the new EPOCH Holster from Blackhawk, a new level 3 duty light holster. The thumb-activated holster will accommodate a wide variety of under-barrel lights from Streamlight to Surefire, so you won’t need to purchase a new holster

if your department decides to switch lights. The EPOCH holster features three levels of retention and a thumb-activated pivot guard designed in such a way that it cannot accidentally close and lock you out of your holster. The Glock 17/22/33 EPOCH

Holsters are slated to be released first, with other common duty pistols slated to follow. —JS

DIVERSION COURIER BAG Blackhawk’s new Diversion line of products is designed to be tactical, yet look discreet. Among those is their new Diversion Courier Bag. On the outside it looks like any other courier bag you see on the street. But open it up and you’ll find loads of room for your tactical necessities. The outside magazine pouch will hold four 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm magazines with positive retention straps. The lid is removable and features an integrated map case underneath. There is ample storage room inside for everything from first aid pouches and hydration to chemical lights, even pathways for a radio antenna or hydration hose. Throw your pistol inside and you have a discreet bag that meets all your tactical needs. —JS

www.blackhawk.com

BLACKHAWK


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NOMEX RECON WRAP Anyone who has ever spent time up in a gun turret or out on patrol in inclement weather understands the importance of keeping your face covered. The Spec-Ops Recon Wrap works as a sweatband, balaclava, neck gaiter, helmet liner, and anything and everything in between. Unlike their previous Recon

Wrap that many are familiar with, the new version is made out of 100 percent Nomex for those situations where IEDs or fire may make the job a little hotter than normal. —JS

SPEC-OPS

T.H.E. PACK U.A.P.Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, Spec-Ops decided to improve their already popular and battle proven T.H.E. Pack (Tactical Holds Everything) and beef it up with better zippers, heavier buckles and an extra pouch for paperwork or armor plates. The result is a new and improved version they call T.H.E. Pack U.A.P. (Ultimate Assault Pack). To make the whole system even better, the company developed a couple of drop-in organizers to help keep gear arranged. For the smaller pouches they developed the “Top Drawer” insert and for the main pack the “Main Frame” insert capable of holding a laptop and paperwork. To keep your back from getting too sweaty on long patrols, they developed a back pad called the PT Panel to wick away heat and moisture. If you happen to be one of the more than 250,000 troops who were issued or who purchased T.H.E. Pack, the drop-in organizers will be available separately. —JS

www.specopsbrand.com

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BETTER BDU BELT As too many in the military can tell you, most issued belts have two adjustment settings—pants falling down or cutting into your hips. Spec-Ops has sought to change all that with their improved Better BDU Belt. The product is the outcome of three years of development and

testing in the U.S. military. It has heavier webbing to carry anything you clip on, and a 7-percent stretch capability to help hold your pants up in comfort. Because the buckle is not metal, the wearer doesn’t have to worry about noisy gear, and it’s safe for EOD use. —JS


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B.E.A.S.T.Nightforce has finally released its B.E.A.S.T., a first focal plane scope in 5-25. Available in MOA or Mil turret adjustments and a good selection of reticles, it is sure to be a hit. One of the nice things about

the B.E.A.S.T. is the turrets are easy to read. The small lever to add 0.1 mil is very clever and well thought out. —TF

NIGHTFORCE

ATACR Nightforce also had its new ATACR 34 mm maintube scope on hand. The 34 mm tube gives the shooter much more elevation adjustment. The ATACR has over 120 MOA of internal adjustment. —TF

www.nightforceoptics.com


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CZ P-09 PISTOLSNew from CZ this year are the P-09 Pistols. The frame assembly is made of polymer, with a rail for flashlights, lasers, bayonets, etc. Available in 9 mm or 40 S&W, these pistols feature DA/SA triggers and a frame-mounted de-cocker. CZ has also included interchangeable backstraps to allow shooters to better fit the pistol to their hands. —TF

www.cz-usa.com

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AX PSR .338 LAPUA MAGNUM RIFLE Also new at SHOT was Accuracy International’s AX PSR .338 Lapua Magnum. Based on the DNA of their battle-proven AW series, it has all the same characteristics of its predecessors except it is longer and wider so it can accommodate a double-stacked 10-round magazine. The entire stock system is modular, with an adjustable butt, adjustable cheek piece, adjustable magazine well, and a right-folding rear stock. The rifle has a quick-change barrel capability with a 4 mm Allen wrench hidden underneath the cheek piece. With only three screws and the hand guard to remove, the barrel can be unthreaded and a new one installed in short order. —JS

ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL

AX PSR STYLE STOCK The same stock that is featured on the

company’s new AX PSR .338 Lapua Magnum will soon be available for short or long action Remington 700s. The entire system is modular, with an adjustable butt, adjustable cheek piece, adjustable magazine well, right folding rear stock, and full Picatinny rails. The stock will be available in the second quarter of 2013. —JS

www.accuracyinternational.com



ADVANCED PLATE CARRIERThe APC, or Advanced Plate Carrier, is a new body armor offering from Paraclete. Their APC is a smaller, more slim-lined plate carrier designed as a flexible, lightweight option for those who need minimal coverage without going overboard. As with all of the company’s products, heavy emphasis is placed on scalability and modularity, so there are numerous add-ons that can be integrated into the system as the user sees fit. The system also features a quick release for those times when you need to get someone out of the armor in a hurry.

PARACLETE

ADVANCED WARRIOR SYSTEMThe AWS (Advanced Warrior System) is a new Paraclete body armor system that offers superb coverage while offering maximum flexibility. Just like the Advanced Plate Carrier, it can be purchased as a stand-alone vest or with a plethora of other accessories such as neck, groin and shoulder protection to outfit it for maximum coverage and effectiveness. Like the APC, this system also features a quick release. —JS

www.pointblankenterprises.com


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Smith & Wesson has taken their ultrapopular M&P 15 rifle and ramped it up in a special military and law enforcement package. The new M&P 10 is a fighting carbine chambered in .308 Win. and ready for the meanest streets or foulest deserts. The base model comes with 18-inch, 1-in-10 twist barrel, with stainless bolt and barrel, and chromed gas key, bolt carrier and firing pin. A special Magpul model comes all decked out in Magpul furniture.

Smith & Wesson spokesmen emphasize that the M&P 10s are available only to military and

law enforcement. But the company also introduced a camo version available to the civilian market that should prove popular among hunters.

Also the M&P Pistol line has a new version called the C.O.R.E., Competition Optics Ready Equipment. Just forward of the rear sight there is a removable panel to allow access of many of the different micro red dot sights such as the Leupold Delta Point and Docker. They also feature rough-textured grips and a very nice trigger job. —MC/TF

www.smith-wesson.com

SMITH & WESSON M&P 10 AND C.O.R.E.

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The Buck Mark .22 pistol has a new version, the Camper. The barrel and slide are stainless, and the grip has rubber inserts. The frame itself is aluminum, giving the pistol corrosion resistance and light weight. Being a Buck Mark, you know they will run with just about any flavor of .22 ammo you feed them. —TF

www.browning.com

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SUREFIRE SUPPRESSORSThe new SureFire suppressors were on hand at SHOT. After spending a few minutes with the company’s head of research and development for suppressors, I got a feel for their new line of cans. Selected by USSOCOM as the new suppressor for its troops, the new SOCOM line eliminates first-shot flash while retaining the quick-attach system. Made entirely of steel, they are very lightweight and can handle limited amounts of FA fire. The SOCOM line is avail now in 5.56, 6.8 and 7.62. —TF

www.surefire.com

BROWNING BUCK MARK CAMPER

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MSR Remington brought their new Modular Sniper Rifle to the SHOT Show, and it drew a lot of attention. With a skeletonized folding butt stock and free-float tube, the MSR is lighter than previous versions. Also new is easy external access to the barrel nut, allowing simple barrel changes by the end user.

783We expect everybody would gladly have an M24 or M40 to tinker with if they could, and won’t suggest that the new Model 783 meets those vaunted standards. But an out-of-the-box rifle at the $400 mark, which routinely produces 1 MOA groups with factory ammunition, is worth noting. A pillar-bedded action, free-floated, button-rifled barrel and 3.5-pound user-adjustable trigger move the 783 to the head of the budget class—and perhaps further. —TF/FW

www.remington.com and www.remingtonmilitary.com

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We spent a little time with Para at the Show in the wake of a (good) in-depth experience with their new Black Ops single-stack 1911. I had a chance to handle their new Executive Agent 3-inch carry and Elite LS Hunter, and was impressed with both. Executive Agent is an aluminum-frame .45 with great touches—Ed Brown Bobtail, Trijicon night sights, Ionbond-finished stainless slide and G10 grips. It looks great, fits the hand beautifully, and should carry with a minimum ‘print.’ Hunter is a long-slide (6 inch) 10 mm that is ready for the field right out of the box: fiber front sight, adjustable rear, G10 grips and Ionbond-finished stainless over stainless slide and frame. I can’t wait to get our pet 10 mm loads into this pistol—200 yard gongs, here we come! —FW

www.para-usa.com

PARA USA EXECUTIVE AGENT AND ELITE LS HUNTER

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Mike Gibson Manufacturing has become the industry standard for steel targets. This year, rimfire steel was its latest and greatest offering. MGM’s .22-caliber plate rack and whirlygig are things of beauty. They are well designed, and the welding was perfect, as I have come to expect from this company. The .22 plate rack weighs just over 100 pounds, allowing one person to move it around the range.

My home range will have lots of new MGM steel on hand soon, in addition to what we already have. —TF

www.mgmtargets.com

MGM STEEL TARGETS

WA R R I O R WARE Email the Editor Visit the Gear Channel

AICS STOCKAI brought a couple of new items to this year’s show. After a long wait, the company’s AICS stocks are available for Savage rifles. They will be priced the same as its entire line of stocks.

TAKEDOWN PSR RIFLEAlso new this year is a takedown version of their PSR Rifle. The entire rifle breaks down and fits inside a 16x16 Pelican Case. Available in 338/300WM/308, it is a very nice, compact package. While it won’t fit in my Christmas stocking, one will for sure be in my safe as soon as they are released. —TF

www.accuracyinternational.com

ACCURACY INTERNATIONAL

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When it comes to tactical accessories, nearly anything and everything is available nowadays to help you get the job done. But what about a tactical drinking mug at the end of a hard day’s work? Enter the Battle Mug. This hefty chunk of machined billet aluminum features a M1913 rail interface system that allows the operator to mount a standard issue M4 carry handle, tactical light, laser device, or even a bayonet for close-quarters, high-risk operations. Each individually serialized Battle Mug is built with the operator in mind and features Mil-Spec Type III anodizing and a crenelated base. For those looking for a more lightweight non-metallic version, Battle Mug is offered in a polymer version as well. Every Battle Mug is proudly made in the USA. —JS

www.battlemug.com

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P227The new kid on the block at SIG was the P227, a double-stack handgun chambered in .45 ACP. The grip felt just as wide as the P220, but it holds 10 rounds—or 14 with a slightly extended magazine.

SA 226SIG also plans to have a single-action only version of the P226 available sometime in April. This handgun is a lot like SIG’s X5, but at a much lower price. —TF

www.sigsauer.com

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Magpul has decided to extend its popular line of PMAG polymer magazines to the SR25/M110 weapon systems. This is the first time the company has offered a magazine in a 7.62 mm cartridge. They will be making 25-round magazines with the MagLevel Window, and regular PMAG 20- and 10-round magazines without the window. All three magazines will feature the same no-tilt follower, and dust covers so you can keep the magazines loaded without worrying about fatigue on the feed lips over time. —JS

www.magpul.com

MAGPUL 7.62 PMAG FOR SR25/M110 RIFLE

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MARK CHESNUT Editor, NRA American Warrior

A professional journalist for nearly 30 years, Chesnut is a lifelong shooter and avid hunter. This was his 20th trip to the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show.

J.R. SALZMAN In addition to being an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, J.R. Salzman is also an eight-time Lumberjack World Champion once named by ESPN “among the preeminent outdoors athletes” of the last decade. He is a frequent contributor to NRA American Warrior magazine.

TOM FREEMAN A 20-plus-year veteran of the United States Air Force as a C-130 flight crew member, Freeman started competitive shooting, hunting and reloading when he was 11 years old. He is an NRA Firearms Instructor and has numerous top-3 finishes at state, regional and national championships.

FRANK WINN An active competitive shooter and NRA Instructor with a lifelong interest in shooting, Winn holds several state and regional action shooting titles, as well as a GSSF “Master” classification.

C O N T R I B U T O R S

Email the Editor Visit the Gear Channel

PARAUSA BLACK

OPSUnusual grip pattern (checkering? stippling?) seemed aggressive at first, but we quickly grew to love it. Hex head grip screws: just plain better. See that over-travel set screw peeking out of that polymer trigger?

Extras include dehorned

ambidextrous safety and a skeletonized

hammer.

PHOTOS BY DON JONES

PARAUSA BLACK

OPS

S P O I L E R A L E R T : One More Pistol You’re Gonna Have To Buy.

Front and rear cocking serrations are some of

the best we’ve ever seen. Especially in 11-degree

weather with gloved hands.

Pistols on John Moses Browning’s 1911 pattern rarely need an introduction. Classic? Without a doubt. Effective? Beyond question. There is—particularly after 102 years—a variation for every taste and application.

It is precisely this variety and versatility that begged a question in our minds: Why another, single stack, 5”, .45 ACP on Browning’s timeless design?

Turns out William Smalley, Para’s production manager, had a good answer.

B Y F R A N K W I N N

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Relieved grip channel provides great access to the mag release, particularly for smaller hands.

Beefy accessory rail is better to have and not need, than

need and not have.

“As remarkable as the original design is, it can benefit from new tools and technology,” Smalley said. “We’ve spent considerable resources in our focus to create a line of hard-use pistols. We are reclaiming the high ground and building the best products in our history and the best 1911 among our peers. The company that Ted and Thanos started was known for quality and innovation. We felt by dropping some of our in-house processes that we deemed sub-par, Pineville could surpass those pistols built during the halcyon days. The partnerships we have struck with manufacturers such as EGW, VZ and Ionbond are showing positive results, like the Black Ops.”

THE PISTOL The Black Ops is built in Para’s North Carolina facility. The frame and slide are forged, with a match-grade, Para-ramped, loaded chamber indicator-notched barrel. A full-length guide rod mates with a conventional bushing assembly to complete the front-end lockup.

Flat backstrap reflects a modern preference that we

share. The beveled mag well is an improvement that

has become a standard.

PARAUSA BLACK

OPS

Additional technical input:G A R Y K I M B A L L

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PARAUSA BLACK

OPS

The modest undercut of the trigger guard, visible conpared to Browning’s original, allows for higher grip position a lá Col. Jeff Cooper. Tritium, dovetailed, windage-adjustable sights are, well, a far sight better.

All-dovetailed, dehorned Trijicon three dot/tritium night sights crown the flat-top slide. The frame sports a flat backstrap/mainspring housing under an ample beavertail/grip safety. Skeletonized hammer and a mid-length overtravel

adjustable trigger are mated with an ambidextrous safety and VZ G-10 “Operator” grips. Other touches include forward cocking serrations and an integral sight/light rail milled into the frame.

The remainder of the Black Ops’ kit is as it should be: a lockable plastic case that will stand in if you must fly with the pistol, comprehensive owner’s manual and bushing wrench.

The finish on the Black Ops is Ionbond. Smalley gave us a primer: “It has three times the hardness of coatings like Ni-Boron and hard chrome but can run in the absence of lubricant like no other coating we tested and is a mainstay in the aerospace and racing industries.”

As a practical matter, it’s a good-looking deep grey matte and—within the limits of our tests—appears it should hold up very well indeed.

INSIDE We asked gunsmith and 1911 expert Gary Kimball to walk us through the pistol before we headed to the range.

“(The) barrel hood fit is closer than most production guns, and barrel-to-bushing fit is good,” Kimball said. “The feed ramp on the barrel is perfectly blended with the feed ramp on the frame and should result in excellent feeding. Headspace is also correct—not too deep. I like the use of the EGW ‘heavy-duty’ extractor, and the absence of any play in the extended ejector.”

Kimball also took some extra time to review tolerance and lock-up trade-offs with us, reprising the correct relationships of bushing to barrel, slide to frame, and barrel feet to slide stop (pin) fit. Overall, the fit of these crucial components is good: too tight portends a finicky thoroughbred with a long break-in cycle and sensitivity to inevitable contaminants and lube state; too

“It has three times the hardness of coatings like Ni-Boron and hard chrome but can run in the absence of lubricant like no other coating we tested.”

Integral feed ramp, throated chamber, loaded chamber

notch and a close-tolerance hood reflect decades of

improvement upon John Browning’s original.

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Ionbond finish: uniform color, high lubricity and

tough, tough, tough. Trijicon tritium/three-

dot night sights are another $150 you won’t

have to add after you buy the pistol.

PARAUSA BLACK

OPS

Frame bridge cut for integral feed ramp in the Black Ops (left) vs. frame feed ramp in the Colt (right).

The rougher the handling, the greater the benefit of the oft-maligned Series 80 firing pin safety in the Para (left).

loose means disappointing accuracy and unpredictable wear. Kimball said the balance struck in fitting promised very reliable functioning and good accuracy, particularly in the tough operating conditions likely for the Black Ops.

The excellent internal tolerances give crisp action on all controls. 1911 aficionados will want to know that the trigger (~4.75 pounds—more on this later) is of the Series-80 style, with a fourth (firing pin-blocking) safety. The ambi thumb safety, grip/beavertail safety, magazine and slide release all functioned as expected. Recoil and mainspring (hammer) tensions were to spec: 16.5 and 24 pounds respectively.

Kimball also provided us with a short list of improvements, but was careful to note that these are outside what would normally be expected on a production pistol: “Overall the Black Ops is an attractive, nicely finished gun that exceeds my expectations. There are many more positives than negatives, and the negatives are minor in nature—easy to correct without great time or expense.”

AT THE RANGE We prepped the pistol for the range with disassembly,

cleaning and a mechanical check (with action-proving dummies) to be sure all was in order. In the case of the Black Ops, the cleaning took a little “doing.” Para had protected the Black Ops well for an unknown period of shipping or pre-sale storage. We followed the lubrication instructions in Para’s manual. In a wetter operational environment, we might run the pistol wetter than Para recommends, and dryer in other environments to prevent the “debris magnet” effect, but this is a matter of taste and experience, and may even vary from pistol to pistol.

Late autumn gave us a breezy day for our first range session. The conditions would have delayed accuracy work in any event, but the chance to do some “burnishing” meant the Black Ops got a workout all the same.

Our warm-up consisted of 50 rounds of ball ammunition (American Eagle 230 gr. round nose). We loaded and fired one round in a magazine, repeated twice. This gives maximum control in case of a (unlikely) lockwork malfunction but also checks all basic functions, including slide lock and last round feeding. Two rounds from each of the factory magazines came next, reconfirming last round feeding, the absence of hammer-follow to the half-cock notch, or doubling—all with no issues of any type.

“Overall, the Black Ops is an attractive, nicely-finished gun that exceeds my expectations.”

Email the Editor Visit the Gear Channel

Evolution of a magazine: Variations on the original Colt magazines, 1950s-1990s (upper left); Modern feed lips and followers, 1990-present (above center); and for competition, Limited 10-style mags from Ed Brown, Mec-Gar and Tripp Research.

PARAUSA BLACK

OPS


Utatur, conse necab idebist laut mi, opta et audam quatiis imperrovid maio que prat.The next phase of break-in consisted of successively adding a round to

the magazine and firing to slide lock, ending with a chambered round on top of a full magazine. Again we experienced no issues at all: 50 “bangs,” and every mag load state tested. We noted that magazine insertion needed a very firm hand when all eight rounds are loaded, but this is typical and tends to disappear as magazine springs receive some usage and take their set. As a precaution, we cleaned and re-inspected the Black Ops at 50 rounds.

MY KINGDOM FOR A … MAGAZINE Original 1911 magazines were considered disposable, to be dropped on the battlefield after a reload. Civilian and law enforcement adopters of the design did not generally have this luxury. We can also theorize that their magazines were more likely to meet with hard-surface abuse in the course of longer service lives.

Two shortcomings in the original mag design emerged. Still common today, welded bases were and are prone to breakage. More serious, and taking much longer to discover, was the insufficiency of the original feed lip pattern. Long but relatively shallow, the original lip design facilitated easy manufacture and reloading. But over time—and particularly if left fully charged—the lips were prone to fatigue and consequent deformation. This led to out-and-out breakage or bullet pitch and yaw as the round was fed, prematurely slowing the slide with an incorrect ramp collision and resulting in a misfeed. Some early apprehensions about reliability in the 1911 design were in fact magazine issues.

Para overcomes both problems for Black Ops owners with the provided magazines (sourced from Mec-Gar). “Modern” feed lips eliminate the problems at the top of the magazine, and a removable/replaceable polymer base plate not only absorbs shock far better, but also provides for easy magazine maintenance. And Para goes one step further by providing three magazines: many duty and competitive basics can be met right out of the box.

In the longer run, however, even the quantity and excellence of the factory magazines won’t be enough. Or won’t be available. Or … something. Given the imperatives of duty, it is always wise to know what other options are available and known to work in a given pistol. To that end, phase two of our testing

Para overcomes both problems for Black Ops owners with the provided magazines (sourced from Mec-Gar).

A giant leap forward: Para’s removable polymer baseplate vs. the original welded design.

Our gunsmith admired the wobble-free fit of the Para’s skeletonized polymer trigger.

The Para’s integral feed ramp fed everything. The match-grade barrel rendered our shooters insufferable. Check out the precision of the lug cuts (top).

moved to a collection of magazines kept for just this purpose: a vintage (circa 1970—original feed lip

design) and Series 80 Colt; a couple of Chip McCormicks (regular Shooting Star and a PowerMag); a Wilson Combat; a mid-80s Pachmayr; a pair of Mec-Gars (8- and 10-round); a Tripp Research (10-round); a Kimber and a couple of after-market who-knows-whats—all in all, 13 magazines. And just in case that didn’t turn out to be enough variation, we had our rogue’s gallery of hard-to-feed bullet shapes available: everything from a needle-nosed 155-grain semi-wadcutter to a soft-nosed 260-grain jacketed hollow-point.

We concede to a little vanity in producing stoppages in 1911s, but had practically no luck with the Para. With the exception of one classically difficult, very short OAL 185-grain Hornady semi-wadcutter, each of the next 150 rounds in varied magazine and bullet combinations worked very well indeed. As is our habit, we ran a reference pistol alongside the Black Ops, repeating all our procedures. (This is to prevent ammunition issues from presenting as pistol problems.) It was useful in this case, as our well-shot reference pistol had trouble with the 185-grain SWC as well, locking up on the misfeed even harder than the Black Ops. Our first range visit ended at 200 rounds.

THE TRIGGER Trigger variation is storied in the 1911 design: we’ve seen

1.8 to 8 lbs. pulls: just plain gravely, is-this-thing-ever-going-off messes to butter-smooth, thrilling “glass rod” breaks. We’d put the Para in the middle. It is safe and reliable, and should last a long time. We did notice slight improvement in the feel of the trigger over time.

Many purists will attribute the middle ranking as an inherent result of the additional Series-80 safety and parts. They argue this is an intrinsic deficit to a truly excellent “tune” on a 1911 trigger. Kimball assured us this isn’t so, though it demands more of a pistolsmith. Our experience leads us to concur.

Very light, professionally tuned triggers certainly have their place, but duty use is not generally one of them; acquiring the expectation that all triggers will be superb can also become a technique problem. Developing proper trigger control remains the best solution, and we barely escaped with our lives resisting Kimball’s willingness to duty tune the Para for us!

BACK TO THE RANGE A second trip to the range was in order after a

thorough cleaning and inspection of the Black Ops revealed no causes for concern. This trip occurred on an extremely cold day—high of 11 degrees. While this makes for more difficult shooting between the tendency to shiver and overcome bulky clothing, it provides a good test environment.

Email the Editor Visit the Gear ChannelPARAUSA BLACK

OPS


This session was less structured than the first, though we continued to range widely through our selection of magazine and ammunition types. The Para performed very well again, producing a single misfeed that we suspected was ammunition-related, and which we could not reproduce. Particularly impressive was the continued smooth cycling; such temperatures often produce balky feeding and function as lubrication degrades. We did pay special attention to that misbehaving 185-grain SWC from the first session to see how the slightly looser Para would now behave: Three full magazines were dumped this time, all without incident.

Our intended accuracy work was again thwarted by conditions, but we had no trouble putting rounds on any target we posted, including snap shots on gongs at 35 yards. To our eye, the Para sights are regulated to point of aim as opposed to six o’clock hold. This is not a problem, and certainly not incorrect, but good to know depending on what your plans are for the pistol.

A good cleaning preceded a third trip to the range, where we (finally!) had a good opportunity to test accuracy in the Black Ops:

We used two shooters to introduce a little more variability, but the Black Ops continued to perform. Sight regulation had both rounds reintersecting point of aim at 25 yards.

We also did speed work with the pistol in this session. We kept a steady supply of loaded mags with a variety of major power-factor and higher loads (factory) feeding the Para and hammering a plate rack. Even without a tuned trigger and lots of dry-fire, we saw from-the-holster, 6-plate times creep steadily downward, coming to rest in the mid to low 4 sec range at 11 yards. No doubt Para’s Travis Tomasie would run it much faster, but it bodes well for the inherent capabilities of the Black Ops.

It’s important to note that this session took us well over 500 total rounds through the Para, and this is where we believe real-world performance assessment in a 1911 comes to light.

Ammunition: 5-shot 3-shot

American Eagle 230 gr. JRN (845 fps, 364 ft-lbs.) 1.915 1.156

Winchester “White Box” 185 gr. JFP (868 fps, 306 ft-lbs.) 1.925 0.971

25 yard, rested, hand-held five-shot groups (each test group had a “called” flyer, which was not scored)

FINAL ANALYSIS Simply put, this assessment meant we had both Smalley’s and Kimball’s separate but similar words ringing in our ears: “The balance of tolerances between barrel hood, barrel link and barrel bushing along with slide to frame fit give us accuracy AND the ability to run under more extreme conditions. This is where the Para ramped barrel and Ionbond’s low coefficient of friction really shines.” This was certainly our experience.

The Black Ops is a tough, reliable pistol that really delivers. We shot it in the cold. We shot it dirty. We shot it with dozens of magazine and ammunition combinations. We shot it at 50 yards on 8-inch plates and produced reliable hits when we did our part.

If your department or unit will allow it, or as a personal arm to shadow an issue weapon (you listening, Marines?), the ParaUSA Black Ops deserves a serious look. And yes, we’re stalling in getting this pistol back to Smalley.

MSRP on the ParaUSA Black Ops is $1299. See it at www.para-usa.com/new/product_pistol.php?id=93

Staked two-piece

guide rod is a nice and necessary touch; We’ve

had more than one come apart. Polymer bushing

wrench worked, but could be more robust. Para beveled the end

of the guide rod in production before we

could gripe about it here.

PARAUSA BLACK

OPS

S P O N S O R E D B Y C O L T

M A R X M A N C R X - 1 6Serious accuracy. Serious dependability. That’s

what the serious competition shooter demands, and

Colt delivers with its Marxman CRX-16 Competition

Rifle. With a 16-inch, mid-weight, match-grade

4140-chrome-moly barrel; precision-fit forged

upper and lower receivers; and Colt Competition

match-target trigger, the Marxman CRX-16 is a

rock-solid, tack-driving machine. Every Marxman

Colt Competition Rifle is test-fired for accuracy and

functioning and must shoot a three-shot group of 1

inch or less at 100 yards before it ships. When the

match is on the line, the Marxman gives you the

edge you need.

C O L T C O M P E T I T I O N R I F L E

CALIBER AND CHAMBER: 5.56X45 MM/ .223 REMINGTON CHAMBER

OPERATION: DIRECT IMPINGEMENT, GAS OPERATED, WITH CARBINE-LENGTH GAS BLOCK

MAGAZINE CAPACITY: 30 ROUNDS

OVERALL LENGTH (BUTTSTOCK RETRACTED): 32.5 INCHES

OVERALL LENGTH (BUTTSTOCK EXTENDED): 36 INCHES

BARREL LENGTH: 16 INCHES

BARREL RIFLING: BUTTON-RIFLED 1 TURN IN 8 INCHES 6-GROOVE, R.H. TWIST,

BARREL MUZZLE THREADS: 1/2-INCH DIAMETER—28 T.P.I.

WEIGHT (WITHOUT MAGAZINE): 6.45 POUNDS

MODES OF FIRE: SAFE/FIRE

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Coach Tra Vendela was out in front long before Jordan High School claimed its 12th Utah state championship.

n Nov. 16, 2012, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, the Jordan High School Beetdiggers defeated the Syracuse Titans to win Utah’s 5A state football championship. They did so in spectacular fashion.

Jordan took any drama out of this championship matchup early

on. One play into the second quarter, Jordan already led by a score of 30-0. By halftime, the Beetdiggers’ lead had swelled to 51 points. Equally dominant on the defensive side of the football, Jordan held Syracuse to 62 yards of total offense in the game before eventually winning its 12th state title by a score of 58-2. The Jordan High School Beetdiggers

encountered very little resistance or strife in winning the state championship. But on the Jordan sideline was a man who has encountered strife—more of it than most people can fathom. Travis “Tra” Vendela works as an assistant coach for Jordan High School. This was his first year on the coaching staff, and he works specifically with the Beetdiggers’ running backs.

Ironically, he coaches the position—one so reliant on good footwork and leg strength—from a wheelchair.


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Vendela lost both legs above the knee in early 2007 during his third tour of duty in Iraq. Technically speaking, he even lost his life, having to be resuscitated on the battlefield three times.

But one thing he never lost was his spirit. The smile that Vendela wore as his team celebrated its championship

victory on the field is testament to that fact. Despite all the war took from him, Vendela remains positive—in large part because of his current vocation, working with the student athletes at Jordan High.

Just like it is for the young men he now coaches, football was a big part of Vendela’s early, pre-military life. He was a promising high school player himself, even garnering scholarship offers to play at the collegiate level. Vendela strongly considered attending college and continuing his football career, but in the back of his mind, he knew he had a different calling.

“My senior year in high school, I kind of felt like I was doing everything for myself,” Vendela remembers. “I wanted

to do something bigger and better.”That something was military service.“I had been dreaming of it since I was a kid. It’s a family business. Every

male on my dad’s side of the family had been in the military in some form or another.”

Vendela joined the U.S. Army at age 17 in 1997, and it didn’t take long for him to realize that he had made the right decision for himself.

“I loved it,” he said. “The whole reason I stayed in the military after my first four years was because I found early on that I was good at it.”

After a six-month tour in Iraq in 2003, working combat search-and-rescue missions for the 1st Cavalry Division, Vendela came back to the States and trained to be an Army Scout. After completing his training, he embarked on a second tour of Iraq—this time for 15 months before again returning home. After each of those first two tours, getting back into combat was the first thing on Vendela’s mind.


Vendela joined the U.S. Army in 1997 at the of age 17,

continuing a family tradition of military service.

‘‘The whole reason I stayed in the military after my first

four years was because I found out early

I was good at it.’’

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“The Army was my whole life at that point. I was all about the Army, all about getting prepared to go back

again. I wanted to go as many times as I could. Not because I thought it was fun or anything, but because I knew I had guys that were friends of mine or guys that I had trained that were over there. I needed to be there with them.”

Sgt. 1st Class Vendela would return to Iraq in 2006 as a Scout Sniper. And in the early morning hours of Feb. 7, 2007, he would embark on his final mission.

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had a stronghold north of Balad in the Jabouri Peninsula area. There is one way into and out of the peninsula: a bridge crossing the Tigris River. The mission for Vendela’s battalion was to cross the river with tanks and infantry, and push AQI out. Vendela’s Humvee would lead more than 300 vehicles and 1,000 men across the Tigris River into the al Qaeda stronghold. Being the senior NCO in his platoon and having confidence in his training and combat experience, Vendela had no reservations about doing so. He did understand, though, that this would be, as he put it, “a pretty hairy mission.”

As the convoy began crossing the bridge into the peninsula, a large IED detonated on the right side of Vendela’s Humvee. The vehicle’s armor withstood the blast.

“It threw a bunch of dirt up on the hood and scared the crap out of us. But we were already on the bridge so there was no turning around.”

Vendela and his men continued to push across the bridge as fast as their Humvee would carry them. As they crested the top of the bridge, Vendela and his driver both saw a partially buried refrigerator-sized object in their path. They knew what it was—another IED. And Vendela knew what he had to do.

“I had briefed all the guys in my Humvee before that if there was anything we could do to keep other guys alive, we were going to do it. They all agreed. They all believed in the same thing I believed in.”

Vendela instructed his driver to drive over the IED. “We weren’t thinking, ‘Let’s go get ourselves blown up,’” Vendela said. “It was,

‘Let’s drive over this thing as fast as we can, and it’ll detonate either right before us or right after us.’ That was the plan.

“It definitely did not work out that way.”The IED detonated directly under Vendela’s Humvee, ripping the engine

completely out and throwing the heavy armored vehicle 10 feet into the air. Inside the vehicle, a scene ensued that was a close to Hell as anything

one could witness on Earth. Molten metal burst into the Humvee, hitting the gunner in the left leg, which he would eventually lose below the knee. The man to Vendela’s rear in the vehicle was knocked unconscious by the blast from the fireball and would lose partial sight in one eye. The driver was also knocked unconscious and suffered lacerations up and down the right side of his body.

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‘‘We weren’t thinking,

‘Let’s go get ourselves blown up.’’’

Vendela served as a Scout Sniper in Iraq. He is pictured here target shooting at the

3rd Annual Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior Cast &

Blast at Castle Valley Outdoors in southern Utah.

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Vendela, the man who made the call to engage the IED in the hopes of saving

the convoy he was leading,

caught the worst of the impact.

At the Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior Cast & Blast, Vendela was introduced to the art of fly-fishing

by Jon Malovich (right) of Hardy & Greys Limited.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL IVES

One man in the vehicle—the radio operator, as luck would have it—escaped the blast virtually unharmed. He would quickly get out of the Humvee and call in air support to suppress the fire that the convoy had begun taking from the far side of the bridge.

Vendela, the man who made the call to engage the IED in the hopes of saving the convoy he was leading, caught the worst of the explosion’s impact.

The blast violently threw Vendela upward in the vehicle. He hit his head and broke three vertebrae as well as his jaw. His left armed snapped like a pencil, and his pelvis was blown open to a 90-degree angle.

The explosion caused a crack to open in the Humvee’s armor right between Vendela’s legs, and molten copper began shooting through the floorboard, immediately shearing off his left leg and throwing it into the backseat. The blast caused Vendela’s M4 carbine to explode and superheated its barrel, the rear of which became fused to the inside armor of the vehicle. The other end of the barrel sliced

through Vendela’s knee and stuck. He was now pinned in the Humvee by his own firearm and by his arm, which had become smashed between his body armor and the Humvee’s door.

“My medic crawled in through the roof of the Humvee and saw my arm was all jacked up. He took his pocketknife out and released the pressure in it. That kept me from losing my right arm, which I’m extremely grateful for.”

In the meantime, other men began to try to extricate Vendela’s trapped leg using pocketknives and ball-peen hammers—essentially, albeit roughly, amputating his remaining leg in the field.

“Long story short, I ended up dying three times,” Vendela said. “But the combination of my medic and two of my guys who were combat lifesaver-certified kept oxygen going in me long enough that I didn’t have any brain damage. They brought me back.”

When Vendela came to, still on the bridge, the convoy was taking heavy fire. He had no idea where he was.

“I thought I was watching the Fourth of July as a 10-year-old boy. All I saw were tracers and explosions going off everywhere. It was pretty nuts.”

The next time Vendela regained full consciousness, he was in Walter Reed Medical Center. He had been in a drug-induced coma for nearly a month and,


‘‘Long story short,

I ended up dying three times.’’

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Leading a convoy on a mission into Iraq’s Jabouri Peninsula on Feb. 7, 2007, Vendela suffered

serious injuries, including the loss of both legs above the knee, due to an IED detonation beneath

the Humvee he was riding in.

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again, had no idea where he was. This time, his mother was at his side.

“I couldn’t ask her anything because my mouth was wired shut and I had tubes down my throat,” Vendela said. “But she knew I was wondering where I was.”

Vendela’s mother told him that he was in the hospital and that he had lost both his legs. He was able to confirm this shocking news with a quick look under his hospital bed sheet, but Venedela was immediately more concerned about what happened to his men than he was his own loss of limbs.

“That was the most difficult thing for me to deal with—not knowing what happened to my guys. I knew I made the decision that got them hurt. Emotionally, that was the worst thing.”

Vendela would learn that no one in his Humvee was killed, but as he lay in the hospital bed, he still had one concern. His mother could sense that there was something else on Vendela’s mind.

“I had a fiancé at the time … and I thought she was going to leave,” Vendela said. “I was afraid I was going to lose the love of my life.”

“Are you worried about Tiff?” his mother asked.Vendela nodded his head yes, and a moment later, his fiancé, Tiffany,

walked into the room, allaying Vendela’s fears. The two were married a little over a year later, in 2008, and now have a son.

Vendela says he focuses primarily on three things in his life after war. Continued recovery tops the list. His wife’s occupation—as a physical therapist—no doubt helps. Beyond that, Vendela is focused on helping others as an inspirational speaker.

“I try to do inspirational speaking to anyone that’ll listen. Most people look at me and they think all the negative things about war, and there’s not really

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Vendela, his wife, Tiffany, and son, Quentin, enjoy some time on the turf at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, following the Jordan High School Beetdiggers’ state championship win.

‘‘I was afraid that I was going to

lose the love of my life.’’

a lot of positive that comes out of it, but there are bonds that are built and freedoms that are gained for people in a conflict like this. I want people to understand that.”

But Vendela says his most fun and most personally rewarding

post-military activity is coaching high school football.Jordan High School’s head football coach, Eric Kjar, remembers

being immediately impressed with Vendela’s knowledge of the game when he asked to join the Beetdiggers’ coaching staff. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Vendela has an uncanny knack for putting the players he coaches in the right position and describing to them what they need to do, Kjar says.

But he said Vendela brings much more to the team than just his knowledge of the game.


PHOTOS THIS PAGE BY JIM URQUHART


“He’s taught our players mental toughness,” Kjar said. “He has had to overcome quite a bit of stuff, but he does his job and doesn’t let what’s happened to him affect him.

“He asks a lot of our running backs, but they’re happy to give it back to him,” Kjar continued. “The players really love him.”

The feeling is mutual. Vendela loves and respects the young men he leads on the football practice and playing fields just as he loved and respected the men he led into battle in Iraq. He gives them his all, and in turn, they have helped him heal from his mental and physical wounds.

“They treat you like you’re a normal human being and that nothing’s wrong with you,” Vendela said of the student athletes he coaches. “They don’t even look at you wrong. Seeing that from the next generation of Americans gives you hope.

“I guess that’s the bottom line. Hope keeps you upbeat. You can’t focus on the bad stuff, or else life’s not very fun.”

An emotional Vendela leaves the field following his team’s 58-2

victory in the Utah 5A state football championship game. Inset: Vendela

celebrates with his son, Quentin.

‘‘You can’t focus on the bad stuff,

or else life isn’t very fun.’’


‘‘You can’t focus on the bad stuff,

or else life isn’t very fun.’’


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Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior

Cast & BlastThe mountains, grass pastures and trout ponds of Castle Valley Outdoors in southern Utah provide a breath-taking, almost spiritual, setting for war veterans to heal their mental and physical wounds.

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL IVES

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The NRA American Warrior staff met Tra Vendela at the Third Annual Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior Cast & Blast at Castle Valley Outdoors in southern Utah. Each year, the event’s

organizer, Bill Hansen, brings together five wounded warriors from current and recent conflicts, such as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF), and pairs them with five older combat veterans for four days of upland bird hunting, target shooting and trout fishing.

It is a time for healing and camaraderie. A time for younger warfighters to learn from those who came before. Most of all, it is a time to have fun amid an absolutely breathtaking high-desert setting.

The true benefit in attending the event can be seen on the faces of the wounded warriors who gather here. Young fighting men who may have suffered loss of limb or traumatic brain injury often transform in remarkable ways over the course of the four days spent at Castle Valley. Many appear visibly uncomfortable at the beginning of the event—shy, unsure of themselves and maybe even a little mistrustful.

But it doesn’t take long for solemn looks to be replaced by broad smiles and laughter as these men who have been through so much begin to unwind and learn that they have a wonderful support group


Cast & Blast


here—a “band of brothers,” as Hansen says—to lean on and to learn from.

Maj. Gen. George Harmeyer, who served in Vietnam, has attended each of the annual Cast & Blasts. He enjoys his role acting as mentor to the younger wounded warriors and sees tremendous benefit in the interaction.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to share our old experiences and our life experiences with these young guys … and give them a


Cast & Blast

Two generations of warfighters come together to hunt, shoot, fish and heal at the annual Glendon Johnson Wounded Warrior Cast & Blast.

sense that their life means something and they’ve got a lot to live for,” Harmeyer said of the event.

“The old guys that are here, we’ve all been friends for 20, 30 years. We know the value of this friendship and this interaction and camaraderie and mentorship that can take place just by walking around a field shooting a couple pheasant or fly fishing.”

The Fourth Annual Glendon Johnson

Wounded Warrior Cast & Blast will take place once again at the beautiful Castle Valley Outdoors. Those interested in participating or sponsoring the Oct. 6-9 event are encouraged to contact Bill Hansen, president of Cavalry Creek Consulting Group, at (703) 447-1888 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN

I spent two days riding with Officer Camille

Tsitsinakis, or “T,” as she is more commonly known.

The saying goes, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Sin City is the famed escape for those looking to let their hair down, to unleash some of their inhibitions for a day or two before returning home to a more sensible existence.

But for many of the residents who live in the city and surrounding area, the 24-hour temptation can prove too strong to resist. What can be discounted as a momentary lapse in judgment for visitors can prove to be an inescapable downward spiral of depravity for those who spend their lives enveloped in it.

With more than 250,000 residents, Henderson is the second-largest city in Nevada after Las Vegas. And although it is a fair distance from the Las Vegas Strip, it is situated within the Las Vegas metro area, where its residents are not immune to the vices commonly associated with Sin City.

To get an inside view of what law enforcement regularly faces in Henderson, I spent two days riding with Officer Camille Tsitsinakis, or “T” as she is more commonly known by the other officers at Henderson Police Department’s North Area Command. She has served nearly six years with Henderson Police.

Officer Tsitsinakis sits in her Crown Vic filling out paperwork for a vehicle accident in Henderson.


“I wanted to join the Marines, but my mom wouldn’t let me, and I’m more

afraid of her than anyone else.”

Officer Tsitsinakis keeps her eyes on a driver with a long criminal history during a traffic stop in Henderson.

GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN

“Ninety percent of our job is paperwork and counseling,” T tells me as we sit in the spacious briefing room for the 1400 patrol brief. “And then you get that 10 percent, that is really fun and exciting.”

She opens up her Toughbook and shows me some of the recent calls in the area: burglary, car break-in, 9-1-1 hang-up, domestic battery, suicide—all within the last few hours. This is a normal day in Henderson.

We leave Patrol North in her Crown Vic on an unusually cold day. The temperature is hovering around freezing with a biting wind. Moments after rolling out, Dispatch brings us to a local apartment complex in an area of Henderson known as Pittman, a low-income area where officers are frequently dispatched.

The call in question is a routine domestic dispute, made more routine by the fact T was just here yesterday dealing with the same people.

“Do you understand that you control your own mouth, that you control your own actions?” Tsitsinakis asks the female perpetrator.

The situation ends with the woman wailing uncontrollably as she is led away in handcuffs and placed in the back of a cruiser. It is hard for the officers to give her any leeway considering they were here 24 hours earlier and warned her that actions have consequences.

We get back into the Crown Vic and try to head to her assigned area of Henderson before Dispatch again brings us back to the same apartment complex for a health and welfare check on a missing individual. We learn from the manager of the complex that the individual in question suffered a head injury a few days ago. After a few tense moments of wondering if we would encounter a dead body within the locked apartment, the woman is found alive.

We finally make it to T’s assigned neighborhood of North 2 when she gives me a bit of background on her past.

“I always wanted to be a cop, ever since I was little. It was always sort of a calling for me,” she says.

After 9/11, T joined the Air Force and served four years in the Security Forces, the Air Force equivalent of military police.

“I wanted to join the Marines, but my mom wouldn’t let me, and I’m more afraid of her than anybody else,” she jokes. Although her mother served in the Army, they were both stationed in Iraq in 2003.

T’s swing shift is starting slowly, and we spend some time patrolling residential neighborhoods. Eventually dispatch brings us to an upscale neighborhood in response to a domestic dispute over a motorcycle title. As we enter the housing development, it is clear that this upscale, gated community is not a normal neighborhood for a police call.

She brings her police cruiser to a stop around the corner, a few hundred yards away from the target residence. As T looks around the neighborhood cautiously, she explains that this could be a legitimate call, a false call to test


“A lot of people say ‘Don’t take it personal.’ But it

is personal.”

GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN Officer Tsitsinakis jokes with

other Henderson Police officers during their 1400 patrol brief at North Area Command.

their response time to this neighborhood, or any other number of things. “Some people hate us. People hate cops. Some people are sick,” she explains as

we wait for backup. “We don’t know what they’re planning, so you always have to be thinking like, this could be something else. So we have to be cautious and just be prepared for that, no matter what.”

While the call ends up being nothing, it provides a revealing look into her mindset as an officer and the situations she and others have to constantly consider.

As a result of the frigid weather, the night is extremely slow. The dispatches are minor, and her work is mostly tedious. We encounter one gentleman who is convinced people are stalking and surveilling him. Officer Tsitsinakis has encountered the man before, and suspects he is taking bath salts, a drug becoming popular in Henderson. There is an insurance swap for a minor accident. She assists another officer in taking a man into custody on an outstanding warrant. We patrol neighborhoods and look for the perpetrator of a recent hit-and-run.

Due to the unusually slow night, a Henderson K-9 Unit decides to conduct some bite training. Officer Craig Mancuso helps Tsitsinakis into a bite suit, and by the headlights of his cruiser, he directs his German Shepherd, Rony, to bite. Officer

Tsitsinakis is spun wildly by the dog and nearly loses her footing. Although she can feel the dog’s teeth through the suit, she doesn’t mind. Inside the massive bite suit, it’s the first time she has felt warm all evening.

As we approach the end of her swing shift and she steers the Crown Vic in the direction of Henderson Police Department’s North Area Command, we receive a dispatch about a suicide attempt. Tsitsinakis tells me this is an all too common occurrence in their area. Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate in the nation, at over three times the national average.

“For a while it seemed like every day we were having someone threatening or committing suicide for financial reasons, habitual reasons like alcohol, drugs, gambling, whatever it may be. And it just seemed like it was an everyday thing,” she says.

I question where she finds the strength to continually face such adversity. It is one thing to apprehend criminals for stealing, but it’s another thing entirely to deal with people attempting to take their own lives on a regular basis.

“It seems like a job, but for me—I kind of label this as a personal business because we’re in people’s personal lives. We’re in the deepest problems that they have, and it’s personal,” she says. “A lot of people say ‘Don’t take work home with you,’ ‘Don’t take this home with you,’ or ‘Don’t take it personal.’ But it is personal.”

Over the din of road noise, equipment rattling inside her Crown Vic, radio calls and a passing helicopter, she continues. “I’ve been on many attempted suicides, and you try to talk to those people, and try to help them see a way that they can have a solution—have some type of recovery—and try to tell

them, ‘Look, this is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.’”As she parks her car behind the station, she concludes, “It’s a personal business

and it’s getting your hands dirty in other people’s lives. And you have to wash your hands, but does it all ever come off? No.”

The next day as we roll out to warmer weather in Henderson, I inquire what it means to be a female doing a job typically done by males. Standing at only 5 feet 2 inches, T might seem an unlikely person to serve in law enforcement.

“I’m sure some people are skeptical of our abilities because we are the weaker sex, physically,” she answers.

In her view, it has a lot more to do with having a warrior spirit and confidence in one’s abilities than a particular physical size.

“I might not be as strong as you, but it doesn’t mean I can’t do something. Like a lot of fighting training, it’s not how strong you are, it’s your technique.”

Her first call this night is to assist Animal Control. The residents of an apartment are living with a number of dogs and cats in extremely unsanitary conditions. The police were called when Animal Control learned that a 13-year-old child was also living in the apartment.

As I make my way into the apartment, I am immediately hit by the overwhelming stench of animal feces and urine. It is everywhere, including on the kitchen counter where the occupants recently have been cooking food. Roughly a dozen dogs and cats have been living inside the apartment, many with noticeable

injuries or ailments. There is a miniature dog on the couch that seems intent on getting me to pet him, but I resist the urge for fear of disease. Many of the cats are inside cages, meowing in hunger after being rounded up by Animal Control. Everyone has to watch where they step because, rather than just cleaning the pet feces off the carpet or emptying the two large litter boxes that are literally overflowing in the hallway, the occupants just put cat litter over it.

Officer Tsitsinakis is tasked with taking photos and documenting the interior. As she steps into the kitchen area, she turns her nose up more and more in disgust. I watch as she opens a kitchen cabinet door, jumps back, and suppresses the urge to vomit. Cockroaches


A dog peeks out from behind the door of an apartment where the residents

and their 13-year-old child were found living with a dozen pets in extremely

unsanitary conditions.

GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN


There is a miniature dog on the couch that seems intent on

getting me to pet him, but I resist the

urge for fear of disease.


scurry out of the cabinet and run about the kitchen cabinets and walls. T quickly takes photos of everything inside the apartment for documentation.

She finishes the task and only makes it two steps outside the door and down the stairs before she starts gagging and dry-heaving.

“That smelled worse than the dead-body call we were on last week,” she says after composing herself.

We are back in her Crown Vic, traveling down the road when a silver sedan speeds past.

“Oh, I’ve been looking for you!” she exclaims as she steps on the accelerator and skillfully maneuvers her cruiser through heavy traffic. The owner of the vehicle is the resident of a suspected drug house in the area and is suspected to be transporting drugs. He has a viewing obstruction in his windshield, so

she decides to pull him over. She runs the license plate through her computer, which confirms her suspicions about the owner’s record: assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon, transporting drugs, possession of paraphernalia, among others on a very long list of prior violations.

After pulling the vehicle over and exiting her cruiser, she says to me, “He already knows,” and nods to the man holding his hands in the air.

With one hand on her Glock 19 and her eyes fixed on the vehicle’s driver, she does not flinch as traffic passes within inches of her. It turns out the driver is not the suspect she anticipated, but his brother, who also has a long list of violations and is driving without a license. She writes him a citation for driving without a license and for the viewing obstruction. The man is angry and tells her the police have cost him $20,000 in fines, and he is going to file a complaint against her. To Tsitsinakis, it’s just another traffic citation.

Just as she pulls over another vehicle for a driving violation, there is a dispatch for a burglar alarm at a local pawnshop. It is the driver’s lucky day. He will get away with a verbal warning.

As we speed across town to the local shopping area, she tells me that officers have to take burglar alarms very seriously. The police get so many false alarms that they can never tell when they’re real, so it’s a constant battle against getting complacent. She pulls her Crown Vic next to her lieutenant’s cruiser before grabbing her Colt M4 and exiting the vehicle. After a few tense

As he recounts his story to police,

he is strangely nonchalant about

the entire situation.

moments of watching and waiting, it is determined to be a false alarm.

As the responding officers regroup, there is a dispatch about a man being charged with embezzling $40,000 at a retail store at the local

shopping mall. After a short drive we make our way into the back office of the retail store where the alleged perpetrator is already busy telling his side of the story to Officer Bob Hunt. The perpetrator is the store manager, a skinny, frail-looking man in his 30s with a scruffy beard. As the officers question him, he weaves an apologetic tale of a man down on his luck, crushed under the insufferable weight of his financial troubles.

With a broken-down car, the burden of paying child support for his six children, and no one to reach out to, he was left with no other choice but to start floating money from the store’s night deposit to cover his own personal expenses. For a while his racket worked. With a series of successful gambles at various casinos he was able to pay back thousands of dollars of the money he floated without anyone noticing.

Eventually, floating small amounts of the night deposit cash would turn into gambling the entire amount at a local casino, forgoing the night deposit altogether. In fact, he reveals that after he opened the store this morning he took the night deposit cash and used it to place a number of sports bets for today’s games.

As he recounts his story to police, he is strangely nonchalant about the entire situation. He seems to be completely unaware of the severity of his crimes and incapable of feeling the emotions one would normally expect in such a situation. Further questioning reveals the man has a prescription for Hydrocodone, a commonly abused prescription drug. At one point during questioning, the man dozes off with his head resting on his hand. He appears to be too strung-out on opioids to truly comprehend his situation.

With evidence stretching out for nearly a month, the process of documenting his crimes is long and time-consuming. Eventually the man is taken into custody and charged with 29 counts of embezzlement totaling more than $38,000. Officer Tsitsinakis places the man in the back of her Crown Vic, and we drop him off at Henderson Detention Center for processing.

“All he was concerned about was taking his pills,” she says. With drugs, gambling, and theft prevalent all throughout his ordeal, his crimes have many of the same markers that Henderson Police officers encounter time and time again in their slice of the Las Vegas metro.

GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN


As we patrol a residential neighborhood in her area, Officer Tsitsinakis explains, “A lot of people think it’s just like a party town. You come for the weekend, have fun and you leave. But the people, the residents that actually live here, the citizens of this town, a good majority of them have problems: gambling, drugs, alcohol, violence issues, and they all tie in together.”

She explains that all too many times these issues have a similar ending.“We get suicide attempts every day, and we get a lot of suicides. And it all

bases back to financial issues or depression issues related to prescription medications and alcohol. It’s all related, and it’s all easily accessible out here. This town is bad, bad, bad, for people who have addictive personalities.”

As the night progresses, the conversation drifts back to her role as a female doing a job predominately done by males. As one of only four female police officers out of her station who patrol the streets, I inquire if it affects her job in any way, being a woman surrounded by males.

“The guys in my squad, they’re so open and welcoming, I feel like their sister,” she says. “They make me feel like family. I don’t feel any awkwardness or distrust—nothing.”

Her last call of the night brings us back to the shopping mall, where one of the large department stores caught a woman shoplifting. We enter the store’s security office and find Officer Hunt already processing the woman.

A search of her body and possessions turned up two pipes for smoking meth. The woman weighs perhaps 100 pounds and has scabs on her drug-worn face from where she has been picking. She was trying to shoplift a large number of clothes on a slow day, making her an easy target for store security.

Officer Tsitsinakis begins to both question the woman and lecture her on the poorly chosen life path she is heading down. The woman has a history of drug abuse, starting two years ago after her second child was born. After going through rehab for prescription pain medications, she started using meth. Throughout the entire ordeal she was supposed to be taking care of her two children (2 and 12 years old) while her husband served in the Air Force as an EOD technician. Her domestic situation is currently in turmoil because her husband suffered a head injury from a bomb in Afghanistan. His injury and time away has manifested anger issues—issues punctuated by the fact she spent all of their money (presumably on drugs) while he was deployed. She informs Tsitsinakis she was arrested only a week ago for domestic abuse after beating her husband.

The woman is crying and seems remorseful, but it is difficult to tell. Officer Tsitsinakis asks her if she knows what is actually in meth. The woman says she does not. Officer Tsitsinakis continues her tough-love speech from the retail store all the way into the Henderson Detention Center. As we finish the final call of the night and get back into her Crown Vic, Tsitsinakis shakes her

head and says to me, “She doesn’t care.” It is obvious that the call has affected Tsitsinakis

personally. She has a child at home and served overseas in the Air Force.

“They say, ‘Don’t take anything personal,’” she says. “But it’s a personal business. We’re in people’s

personal lives. We are dealing with their personal problems. It’s human nature. We take it a little personal sometimes.”

Our two-day excursion ends where it began, inside the briefing room at the Henderson Police Department’s Patrol North station. In the calm, quiet surroundings, it seems worlds away from the whirlwind of activity we’ve encountered the last two days.

I ask Tsitsinakis how hard it is to be a police officer in Henderson and do the kind of work she does on a daily basis. She tells me the biggest challenge is the reality check in what they encounter regularly: drugs, alcohol, gambling and suicide.

“Before I was a cop I didn’t think about that stuff,” she says. “I didn’t know how many people had it in them to do that. I never thought that people thought about it so much. Suicide is a huge thing.

“Our job is a hard reality,” she continues. “The way we deal with it personally and professionally is something that we have to learn to do from our first day to our last.”

I ask if she regrets her decision to become a police officer now that she has experienced the darker side of Henderson and Las Vegas. She does not, and explains that being a police officer is her identity.

“Being a police officer isn’t coming to work, and putting your uniform on and going out there and arresting people,” she says. “It’s your morals. It’s your ethics. It’s who you are as a person. It’s your integrity. It’s what you believe in because of the personal issues that you deal with in this job.”

It is obvious from her response that her job as a Henderson Police officer is deeply personal. And how can it not be?

Like she said, it’s a personal business.

“Before I was a cop I didn’t think about that stuff. ... Our job

is a hard reality.”

GODBLESS

THIS WOMAN

R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A >

B Y C H U C K H O L T O N

Panama’s equivalent of the U.S. Border Patrol holds the line in the war on drugs.

PHOTOS BY AUTHOR

The Embera and Kuna tribes inhabit the Darien and live much as they did hundreds of years ago.


R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M

The last time I visited the end of this road, I got arrested.

awn’s first rays filtered through the gray mist, quieting the nighttime chaos of the jungle. Indians in

loincloths unloaded hundred-pound stalks of plantains from dugout canoes on the river’s edge, where trucks caked with mud sat waiting for their cargo and for the spine-jarring trip to Panama City, five hours to the west. Here, the road simply ends, replaced by a sluggish, mud-brown river that smells of rot and new life at the same time.

The last time I visited the end of this road, I got arrested. But I’ll get back to that.The place is called Yaviza, and it’s the farthest point south one can drive from the United

States of America. It signals the beginning of one of the most formidable stretches of jungle anywhere on the planet. The Darien.

Today, I’m again surrounded by policemen. But this time, I’m joining them of my own free will. The uniformed Panamanians mustering at river’s edge bear a grim-faced determination that I have seen before—in Afghanistan and Iraq, among troops who are steeling themselves for combat.


Few Americans know about the struggle taking place in this literal backwater on Panama’s eastern border. Here, the remnants of the FARC, soundly defeated after years of terrorizing Colombia, have retreated into the vast wilderness of the Darien to regroup, and have since become Panama’s problem. The narco-terrorists and human traffickers have joined forces

there and are terrorizing the tribes that inhabit the Darien, often forcing them to become mules to transport cocaine to Panama City.

Panama has responded by creating a specially trained unit of the police force to deal with the problem. It equates to the U.S. Border Patrol, and here is known as SENAFRONT, an acronym that stands for “Servicio Nacional de la Fronteras,” or in English, “National Frontier Service.”

Much of my reporting seems to center around borders. Every country faces challenges in securing their frontiers against smugglers of all kinds, and borders like this one often become battlegrounds between governments and

criminal organizations that make their millions moving weapons, drugs or people to meet demand for firepower, labor or addiction. I’ve spent months along the U.S.-Mexican border, ridden into battle with Special Ops forces on the Af-Pak border, and seen entire forests stolen on the frontier between Serbia and Kosovo. Here in Panama, SENAFRONT agents find themselves in armed conflict on a nearly daily basis, and are often outmanned and outgunned by their drug-financed enemies.

We found this out firsthand when the SENAFRONT officer accompanying our team took us to a training base on the edge of the Darien, in a village called Meteti. Here, we saw agents training with new Glock pistols, performing raids on a mock drug lab, and drilling on the PT field. One unit consists solely of females, and they were busy practicing the assembly and disassembly of their AK-47 carbines. We watched for a while, then I began to interview the women as a group.


Here in Panama, SENAFRONT agents find themselves in armed conflict on a nearly daily basis.


SENAFRONT often enjoys better treatment than their counterparts in other police divisions in Panama. Access to new Glock pistols is but one example of this.


“Do you all train with the men?” I asked in Spanish.

“Si, senor,” they answered in unison. “What about hand-to-hand training?”Again they replied in the affirmative.“Would one of you like to show me something you’ve learned?”“Yes! Have Genesis do it!” they shouted.Genesis stepped forward, a pretty and slightly built woman dressed

in digital camouflage and a boonie cap. She stood about 5 foot 2. I would be gentle with her.

“So,” I began. “What would you do, say, if I came at you with a knife, like this...” I thrust my right hand at her at waist level, at about half speed.

The sky spun above me and I landed on my face with a thwump, my arm bent at an odd angle behind me and Genesis’ petite combat boot on my head. The rest of her team howled with laughter.

I got up slowly, brushing grass out of my hair. “Uh ... muy bien,” I said.

The captain stifled an amused grin and said, “Again?”

My cameraman, Dennis Azato, was very excited. “Yes! Yes! Do that again!”

But I decided it wouldn’t be right taking valuable training time away from these young ladies. It was clear they took their training seriously, and with good reason. There are people out there trying to kill them.

Later, we rode up-river with a platoon of SENAFRONT agents headed into the jungle for an

extended patrol. The agents set up listening and observation posts out there to keep an eye out for the FARC and help secure the Indian villages that dot the waterline at increasingly distant intervals the farther one goes into the jungle.

The United States has maintained a quiet presence in this area for several years, with Special Ops units and other government


I landed on my face with a thwump, my arm bent at an odd angle behind me and Genesis’ petite combat boot on my head.



The requirements for joining SENAFRONT are tough, and the unit carries a certain amount of prestige for those who make it.


Females are not

excluded from any of the duties of the

SENAFRONT officers, but are housed in

separate garrisons.

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Panama enjoys one of the highest standards of living in Central America, but little of that prosperity has made its way to the Darien.

The major export from the jungle is lumber, but this has caused massive deforestation in some areas. Efforts are being made to curb the illegal logging.

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Locals here are very happy to

have SENAFRONT operating in their backyard and feel safer

because of their efforts.

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R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A

R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A > R E P O R T F R O M P A N A M A

Much of the equipment and training enjoyed by SENAFRONT is provided by the United States.

agencies assisting SENAFRONT with training and equipment such as boats and all-terrain vehicles. The reason? Panama is acting in our best interests by standing between us and the Colombian drug runners, the literal first line of defense as cocaine is shipped north from Colombia. And while the U.S. and Panamanian governments are both reluctant to discuss how much of a role Americans play in the region, the help they provide SENAFRONT is substantial and much appreciated.

ARRESTED IN THE JUNGLEThe Darien holds a sort of dark allure for

adventurers from around the globe. Nearly the size of Connecticut, the jungle here is so thick and impenetrable that it wasn’t until 1972 that a 150-man British expedition led by the legendary Col. John Blashford-Snell succeeded in crossing it in a vehicle. That’s a feat that may never become a regular occurrence, partly because of a Delaware-sized swamp that nearly sunk the British attempt.

Suffice it to say that this dengue-infested region with houseplants the size of actual houses and bugs the size of your mobile phone will never be a popular place for summer holidays. But there are a few intrepid souls who attempt to trek across it every year. Their success rate is so low that it has become something of a joke among the Panamanian policemen who take your passport information at each checkpoint along the road to the Darien from Panama City. They need your data so that they’ll know who they are looking for when—not if—you disappear.

The first time I visited the Darien was a few years ago when my brother-in-law, who had just completed a four-year hitch with the 75th Ranger Regiment, came for a visit. My family and I were living in Panama at the time, and he and another friend came down for a couple weeks looking for some adventure. We decided to take several days and drive south as far as we could go.



This dengue-infested region with houseplants the size of actual houses and bugs the size of your mobile phone will never be a popular place for summer holidays.

The Pan-American Highway system runs from Alaska all the way to Argentina, with the only gap being here in the Darien. We headed out from Panama City in my four-wheel-drive Hyundai and within an hour had left the suburbs far behind. With every passing mile we seemed to be traveling back in time, with concrete-and-tin homes owned by typical Panamanian campesinos giving way to grass and bamboo huts on stilts, lived in by tribes of Embera indians. The road was in terrible condition, probably because of the heavy truck traffic passing us coming out of the Darien loaded with enormous tree trunks, some more than 10 feet in diameter.

Elephant Beetles like this one are common sights in the Darien.



We soon came across the first police checkpoint. They wanted to know where we were going. We weren’t exactly sure, but threw out the name of a town farther south.

We passed several more checkpoints in the next hour, and they all dutifully recorded our personal details and asked where we were going. We tried to act like we had something important to do in La Palma, near the southern end of the road. One policeman said something in Spanish about the only people who had business in La Palma were drug dealers or fishermen. And we didn’t look like fishermen.

We pressed on. As the terrain became more remote and the rain heavier, the mud began to be a real issue, and we had to be very careful not to slide off the road on tight turns. People began flagging us down and asking for rides—apparently a common practice where taxis are nonexistent. We were happy for the company. Figuring we had about 20 minutes to go, we asked our passenger how far it was to the end of the road. “About four hours,” was the reply. It was only later we realized she was speaking in the only terms she knew—walking distance.

It was after 2100 when we finally reached Yaviza. By then, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but what we found there looked like a movie set. Hulks of rusted logging trailers lined the roadside, with surly-looking drivers huddled around smoking in the darkness. Dilapidated wooden huts built on stilts to get above the mosquitoes sat in a cluster, and Panamanian “typica” country music wailed from somewhere in the village. We were a little apprehensive since we hadn’t bothered to find out if there was a hotel in this tiny outpost on the edge of humanity. The surrounding jungle looked positively malevolent in the black of night.

No sooner had I shut off the truck than it was surrounded by men with automatic rifles. Because my eyes were still unaccustomed to the darkness, it wasn’t immediately clear if they were wearing uniforms, but then a voice rang out in Spanish: “Police! Out of the car!”

It turned out these fatigue-clad Panamanians were members of the Panamanian police force stationed in Yaviza—and we should have made an appointment.

They rounded us up and marched us through the village toward their headquarters on the banks of the Chucunaque River. Naked children stared


It was after 2100 when we finally reached Yaviza. Hulks of rusting logging trailers lined the roadside ...



wide-eyed as we passed, then ran away screaming, “Gringos! Gringos!” Everyone else stared from doorways and windows.

It turned out that since the previous checkpoint had failed to radio Yaviza and tell them about the truckload of stupid gringos headed their way, the police in Yaviza were not expecting us. And because their outpost had been recently attacked, everyone was on high alert. After a couple of hours of being detained, they determined we were not dangerous—just idiots—and we were free to go. They made us promise, however, not to try to go upriver and to be

out of town as soon as the sun rose. Thankfully, there was a new hotel that had just opened next door to the cantina. It was spartan and we were the only guests (besides the giant bugs), but because it had air conditioning, it was the best nine bucks I’ve ever spent.

The Darien will continue to be a hotspot for drug trafficking as long as there is a demand in the north and a supply in the south. But the SENAFRONT officers we visited have made progress in ensuring that the FARC and other criminal groups cannot find safe haven, even in the deepest, darkest jungle along the border. This is dangerous work under miserable conditions, but with America’s help, every kilo of drugs stopped in the jungle can potentially save many lives on the streets of the U.S.

Yaviza by night: the town has the look and feel of an end-of-the-world movie.

There was a new hotel that had just opened next door to the cantina. It was the best nine bucks I’ve ever spent.

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$5.00 donation to NRA Foundation. Charges will appear on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your prepaid balance. All purchases must be authorized by account holder. Message and Data Rates May Apply. Must be 18 years of age or have parental permission to participate. Text STOP to 50555 to STOP. Text HELP to 50555 for HELP. Full Terms: mGive.org/T

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