Certified Executive Security Specialist – Executive Protection Training: CESS Class 82 Graduation

Hi, my name is Benji Rosenfeld. I’m one of the instructors here at Pacific West Academy. I’m going to oversee the graduation for class CESS 82.

All right, just to speak briefly to the people watching at home. These gentlemen went through a 10-week training course. Very unique course. It’s actually designed to be a semester’s worth of training. And these guys performed at an extremely high level. And I’m going to take a little bit of time to say something about each of these gentlemen who really showed up and put in a lot of effort. It’s really no small feat to come through this program. There’s lots of programs all over the United States that they could have chosen to go to. Some of them are three days, five days. A lot of people can go to one of those courses and feel satisfied. These gentlemen wanted a little bit more from their training.

So, just to get right into it, I’m going to start talking about each one of these fine gentlemen. Maybe a little bit of roasting and we’ll get them their plaques and send them on their way to start their careers.

So, I’m going to talk about this first student. Our first student comes to us from the great state of New York. Definitely a more seasoned gentleman who brought a lot of previous military experience and also just good old life experience that I know he used to push through the more physically challenging parts of the course. He made tremendous strides on the mats and on the range and it really showed on the combatives final yesterday where he gave as good as he got and never stopped coming forward, which is the essence of all martial arts training. That is basically what we’re training to do. We’re training to be able to take damage and to keep coming towards our adversary and give as good as we got. I also think we can all learn about integrity and honor and dedication from this student and how to carry ourselves in life. And his instructors know that he’ll do great things in the field coming up here soon. I’m talking about Mr. Johnathan Moore.

Right here. Shake my hand over there. Thank you. And a great speech, guy.

All right, our next student, definitely one of the more soft spoken students in the class, but he definitely speaks combative. I was a bit worried when we started going to the mats. However, myself and his classmates quickly realized that he is not an easy out. He was also excellent in the classroom, asked a lot of excellent questions, and performed very well on his FTXs where he was able to demonstrate the knowledge he acquired and really demonstrated excellent tactical and shooting skills in the shoot house and flat range. Definitely has a grey man character about him. He doesn’t stand out too much. And that is a big — I don’t even know if you can teach someone to not stand out. Like teaching someone low pro, some people really have it, some people don’t. I love doing low pro work, but I have the problem of standing out, you know, and this student, as an advance man, as a covert agent, or even as a close protection, is going to be able to do really great things in the field, and I look forward to his progress. I’m talking about Mr. Branden Nuzum-Lewis.

I want to thank my wife for always backing me up, being in my corner, and supporting me all the way.

Yeah, don’t forget to thank the ladies at home. So, this next student, this student really knows how to put his head down and go to work. He’s the exact type of student that we look forward to having here at the academy. Coachability is one of the great predictors of success in any field. And this student embodies being a good student. He really was able to absorb and apply everything he learned in the classroom and applied daily the lessons he learned on the mats. Was a little bit lost on the mats when we got started, but by the end he was a real problem. Also scored excellent on his medical training and made big strides on the range. He also has the correct temperament for someone who wants to be a bodyguard. Never gets too hot or too cold, which is a very desirable attribute the security companies and clients look for in agents. He’s one of those guys you can put anywhere on the team and he’s going to be an asset immediately. He’ll do great things in the field in the coming years and I also look forward to hearing about his progress. Mr. Cade Byerly.

Saw that ID picture, man. What happened.

Yeah, I’d like to thank my girlfriend. She really helped me through this since I wasn’t really making much money. I’d like to also apologize to all you guys as the only one who’s not wearing a suit. I expected more of you guys, but you let me down, but it’s okay. Thank you.

All right, so obviously I’m the combatives guy here, so obviously I talk about combatives a lot. I also really love the fact that we graduate where we do combatives, right? Where I get to actually meet the real version of you guys, right? The real version of you isn’t when you show up on the first day and you’re all dressed up and trying to convey how squared away you are. The real you is who you are when you’re completely exhausted and your opponent is in front of you coming forward. How you react to that is who you really are in that moment. We don’t learn much about ourselves from comfort, right? We learn most about ourselves from discomfort. So, I’m glad that I got to spend some time meeting the real version of you guys.

So, this next student came into the academy in tremendous physical condition. Excellent athlete with a strong mindset and heavy hands. I called him the cyborg. Also has all the physical and mental skills that clients look for in bodyguards. He’s definitely quiet, assertive, and in control. Top performer across the board and he’s going to be a real standout applicant once he starts applying to some of the bigger security companies that can offer him what he’s looking for. Highly skilled young man with tons of potential and I hope to see him in the field one of these nights. I’m talking about Mr. Chris Watrous. Excellent work. Thank you.

All right. This next student, a little bit of an enigmatic type. Never know whether he’s joking or not. So, I’m still not sure how to pronounce his name properly. So, I’m going to say it how I feel comfortable saying his last name. This next student came with a lot of previous experience and his knowledge really showed all throughout the course. He and his group ran the best FTX that I’ve ever been a part of as an instructor at this academy and I’ve been here almost nine years just on this side of the building. So, I like to think that I know a good FTX when I see one. He’s definitely a presence on the mats. Brought some very good boxing skills to the mats which I know all his classmates got to enjoy. He has plans on starting his own contracting company, has tremendous medical knowledge which he looks to put to good use in the field. I’m sure wherever he ends up in the industry, he’ll be a big success and if he goes with his business, I’m sure he’ll have a very successful business. Talking about Mr. David Makuch.

All right. This next student, real globe trotter, very worldly, very cultured individual who’s really been around, very physically fit, but he mostly uses his mind and social intelligence as a weapon. My old coach, he moved to Ireland recently. He had the same tattoo on each arm and it said that sometimes you fight with your mind, you know, and that really I think is true of this student. He’s very physically capable but he uses his social intelligence to navigate issues. A really excellent student who has a real attention to detail. So watching him improve and adjust to the various situations he was in was a real pleasure as an instructor. Someone with this type of disposition, someone who can fight and has social intelligence, can do great things in our industry, and I really hope to see him in the field sometime soon. I’m talking about Mr. Edward Massaquoi.

Appreciate it.

All right, this next student, one of my three mijos of this course, this next student is a really high potential individual. He’s a real natural at combatives with a lot of natural athletic ability. Still trying to find himself a bit. I also didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do when I was his age. But if he decides to pursue this career path, I know he’s going to be very successful and be a tremendous asset on any security team in the world. He does need to learn to enjoy dark classrooms a little bit more. Needs to learn a little bit more about — how do I say this? Stay awake is one of the things, but he’s got time to learn that. Also looked like a real operator in the shoot house and demonstrated excellent tactical skills. There’s definitely room for this young man in our industry. I’m talking about Mr. Frank Cruz.

Excellent work. Thank you. Went with the Michael Jackson look today, huh? That’s cool.

All right. This next student, very interesting background. He didn’t come in with some super strong law enforcement or military background, but he came in with a tremendous desire to learn, improve, and be a great student. He definitely has the right disposition, character, and presence to be in our industry. But now, he also has the skill set to be a tremendous asset in the field to any security team. First time he went to the range, he barely knew how to hold a pistol properly, and by the end, he was navigating some pretty complex shooting scenarios in the shoot house. Very exceedingly few programs, if any, allow students to go through shoot houses or even touch shoot houses. It’s a big liability. It is very dangerous as you guys know, but we like to push the envelope at this academy. We don’t think that hard skills is a dirty word. So to put a student in with relatively little experience and with such short a time be able to navigate a shoot house like that is a pretty difficult thing to do. With all these things combined, he’s going to do great things in the field and I definitely look forward to hearing about his progress. Talking about Mr. Inderpreet Dhahan.

And pretty. Thank you.

Where is he? Oh, there. Okay. So, the next student, another one of my mijos. He came to us with a solid military background and excellent student mentality. Bit of a soft spoken individual. He also needs to listen to my taco truck recommendations. I don’t know why he doesn’t listen. But that’s a conversation for another time. Though he’s soft spoken, he has a real fire burning inside of him. I saw him take some big shots all throughout the course and he has that ability to take punishment and bite down on his mouthpiece and keep coming. And this is a very important skill for life as well because sometimes you’re going to go apply to the big job and you’re not going to get the job. Sometimes you’re going to go to the detail and you’re going to have a bad detail. You might get sent home. You might lose your job on the spot. How you react in that moment is going to say a lot about you and your character and where it is that you’re going to be going in life. So combatives does seem to have a little bit to do with real life, doesn’t it? What goes down on the mats is probably going to be how you react to difficulties in your own life. And I’m not even sure you can necessarily be taught how to bite down on that mouthpiece and keep coming. But this student definitely knows how to do that. With continued discipline, with his quiet, assertive, and in control disposition, he’ll be able to do what he wants in this industry. I’m talking about Mr. Jacob Proo.

Good job. Thank you guys. Thank you, David.

Liver King. Oh, okay. I was going to say you’re way taller than that guy. Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times. Still feel it? Yeah. Yeah. Good.

All right. This next student, let’s just say he’s a man of many cells, showed up on the first day wearing a Black Panther rash guard, which I will be wearing as soon as he’s out of here. He’s one of those students I had a very good back and forth with that perhaps I had too much fun with. He definitely has his beliefs and he definitely needs to drop the whole vegetarian fruitarian thing he has going on. But all that aside, he’s been an excellent student who came in excellent shape. I’m just saying you would feel better anyway. And did his best to embody the Black Panther. I’m just not ready to give up the title to the younger man. But in the meantime, he’s ready to go into the field and make a real impact in the field with any security team that he finds himself on. I’m talking about Mr. James Conner IV.

Thank you. If this were a vegetable conference, you’d be up there for a while. Yeah, be up there for a long while.

All right, my third and final mijo here. This next student, he really does have the grey man thing. What is a grey man? He’s not necessarily an expert at anything, but he’s darn good at everything or a lot of things. Okay, like we talked about yesterday, there are people who are specialists, right? And I realized this on the mats. If you’re really good at jiu-jitsu and I’m really good at jiu-jitsu and wrestling, the guy who’s just jiu-jitsu is going to have a hard time taking you down. So being well-rounded is definitely a very good way to go. So he is very excellent across the board and can blend into any environment. Get the information, go into an environment, get the information he needs and execute a security operation. When he first came to the mats, he was kind of fighting a little bit like Oscar De La Hoya, but by the end he was all Julio Cesar Chavez. Definitely quiet, assertive, and in control. And now with the skills to match, he also came in with a strong background and a strong desire to improve and make himself an indispensable asset. I know he’s going to do great things in the field. I’m talking about Juan Carlos Osorio.

I had to thank my wife for being such a strong person while I was gone and I had to thank a lot of you for helping me out with a lot of personal life situations. So, thank you. Thank you all.

Oh, sorry. My fourth mijo. I almost forgot. My fourth one. So, this next student was another excellent student. He really showed excellent temperament and disposition for the job. He’s another guy who never gets too hot or too cold, never loses his cool, always keeps his mind on the mission or whatever matter is at hand. That focus is going to take him far in the industry. I also think we helped him catch the combatives bug, which I think is going to really pay dividends for him. It was also easy to see that he doesn’t mind a little contact to get close and go to work. I also got to spend a good amount of time with the student in the shoot house where he really did an excellent job. The progression was really excellent in there. I thought we got to spend a lot of good time in there and watching his improvements, especially in such a short period of time, was very, very impressive. Like I said earlier, it’s no small feat to properly and skillfully navigate a live shoot house drill. And knowing that he didn’t have a ton of previous experience in the shoot house, but he could have fooled me. We also got to do some good shooting drills in there that I think really helped bring his skills up. He’s a great guy. It was a lot of fun and a pleasure to coach. I look forward to hearing about his progress. I’m talking about Mr. Mario Frias.

Thank you to the family. Always learning. Thank you to everybody here showing up, you know, doing your thing.

You know, just like the shoot house, very high liability type training, very dangerous training for a private institution like us to take on. And here’s another little secret. We are not required to do combatives at this academy. It is an additional course. It is not a requirement. I do not have to show up in the morning and do combatives and neither do you. Yet, even though that is not a requirement, you guys still get around 40 hours of combative training. Our nearest competitor gives around five or six hours. So, we’re not required to do that. So that extra effort of coming in here and putting in the work — I know I didn’t tell you at the beginning that you didn’t have to come, but now you know that is an entirely additional piece of training that we just throw in there because even though the state maybe doesn’t think it’s important, maybe the three, four governing bodies that we have overseeing this place maybe don’t think it’s important, we think it’s important. So we put in the extra time to make sure that our guys don’t go out there and get hurt.

So, this next student really came in with a lot of skills and a strong background. It really showed throughout the course. He achieved excellent scores from the range to medical to combatives to also participating in the best FTX that I’ve overseen. These guys were really, really on point. I threw them curve balls. They thought I was going this way. I pulled in the other way. They always kept me on the inside of whatever formation. They were leapfrogging through the malls. They stayed completely low pro. We must have walked by 10, 11, 12 different security individuals in the mall. We were never noticed at any point and we have had to change our training venues from time to time because we get burned. So the ability to not get burned by other security is a very impressive thing. What also speaks to his character is that he got a bit banged up at the beginning and towards the end of the course and his attendance never wavered. When he was too banged up to participate and had every excuse to stay home, he still showed up and observed and participated to the best of his ability. And I know it was tough. I popped that shoulder back in and it needed popping. So, I’m glad that he still came up and put out. Someone with his background and disposition can do what he wants in this industry and will be an asset to the team and to the public at large. I’m talking about Mr. Tanner Thompson.

Excellent. Okay. Have I missed anyone? Just one. All right. Good.

All right. This next student is another student who I really got to enjoy. We had a very cool back and forth and had several very interesting conversations about a variety of subjects. Very intelligent individual with lots of social intelligence. What is social intelligence in our business? What that really comes down to is, can I have this individual in my house? Can I have them around my kids? Are they going to be polite? Are they going to avoid using profanity? Are they going to be able to do all those things and have the disposition of a security person? I think this student really has that. Like I said, the two most important things for any agent are, do you have social intelligence and can you fight? Those are the two things that come down to the daily thing. Can I have this person around daily around my family without embarrassing me or my family or causing dysfunction in my family? And if something happens, can this person go to work? Those are pretty much the two things. You have social intelligence and you can fight, then you need maybe a Pacific West Academy to come and refine some skills and then you’re ready to go. And I think we accomplished that with this student. These are the two most important things to clients and most employers in our industry. And this student definitely has those attributes in spades. Excellent attitude, excellent student, has everything that leads to strong great careers in this industry. Students come to this academy to become assets and this student has definitely become that. I’m talking about Mr. Truman Hill.

Luke here. No Luke. Nice.

So, we had one more student. I guess one got away from — oh, that was on my fourth piece of paper. I guess. Why do I only have three? Anyway, this last student was another really really excellent student. Big improvements. Not the biggest guy. Really used his speed and intelligence to deal with his larger opponents and really demonstrated a lot of toughness. Also excellent on the FTXs. He’s going to be a real asset. Came in with a very strong background as well and was also a real pleasure to have in the course. You know, these are the types of guys — sometimes us big guys, we can kind of get away with things on the mats that the smaller guys can’t get away with. So hopefully you caught the combatives bug and hopefully he’s going to maybe be an instructor one day on the mats because these are the types of guys that you actually want to learn from, the guys that can’t get away with anything. And the movement yesterday on the final, avoiding a lot of big shots and really really staying in there and giving as good as he got, was a very impressive thing. Also heard he had a little fun in EVOC training. We’ll talk about that later. Talking about Mr. Luke J. Scofield.

Appreciate it. Good luck, gentlemen. Get hired.

All right, gentlemen. Well, that concludes my portion of the graduation. This is the last time I’m going to be addressing you guys as a class. Stay sharp out there. Stay training, really hit the ground running. Don’t hang around too much. Maybe take a week off, a few days, go on vacation with the lady or whatever, and really get out there and start your career. So please go out there. You’re students of Pacific West Academy. You’re graduates of Pacific West Academy. You’re the only people in the world that can make being a graduate of Pacific West Academy mean anything. Okay? So go out there and really make it mean something. And thank you very much for being a good class. Thank you.

What’s up, fellas? How you doing, guys? It’s another day, man. Another day. Exciting day for you guys. For those that are watching, morning. Yes, still morning. My name is Matt Cheun. I am one of the instructors for the guys that are here. Thankfully for me on my side, I get to do the presentation of the awards for you guys.

So, as you guys know, since you guys have been here, you guys have been continuously assessed in a multitude of different ways. A lot of your guys’ grades come down to stuff that’s inside Google Classroom, from combatives to medical to EVOC to the EP fundamentals to the range, everything has an assessment to it. And so, in turn, based off the scores that were put in to the classroom, that determines the award system that we have.

So, just to kind of break some of that stuff down. We have our Grey Man Award, who doesn’t always tend to turn out to be kind of the third overall. Now, a lot of the times it works out that way, but the Grey Man Award is not necessarily the third at its root. It’s really the person that we believe performs not super above the baseline or below the baseline, but falls right in the middle, that can perform at a high level still and be an asset to any team that they so choose to be on. And in this case, it happens to be the third overall. From there, we have our second overall award. So, when we’re looking at the scores that have been put into the Google Classroom, everything comes down to a GPA or a percentage. So, our second overall, we have that award. Those two individuals will receive some goodie bags with some things that are inside there. I’ll have you guys go through them on your own. Okay. And then from there, we’ll talk about our Top Gun award here shortly.

But for starters, our third overall and also our Grey Man award. The student was a very good performer. He asked a lot of questions and was continuously trying to gain the best types of information so that way he can apply it, and was very quick to apply that information. So, our third overall for CESS 82 is going to be Mr. Tanner Thompson.

From there, our second overall. This student was a very high level performer. Also asked a lot of questions. We did a lot of stuff on the range and there was a huge progression on the range overall. I heard he also did very well in the medical portion as well, which turns out to be one of the more difficult portions here at Pacific West Academy. But our second overall for CESS 82 is going to be Mr. Juan Carlos Osorio.

Dang, dude, you dropped something. All right. So, yeah, our Top Gun award is the person that performed with the highest GPA in your guys’ class. They’re going to receive two things. They’re going to receive one, a Suunto Core watch. I’ve done a lot with this watch. I had two of these in the military. I’ve jumped with these. I’ve dove with these. And both my watches are still rocking and rolling. So, they’re going to receive a Suunto Core watch as well as a plaque that states that they took the Top Gun award for your guys’ class and they can freaking take a picture of it and send it in the group chat every year to rub it in your guys’ faces. So, it’d be kind of nice.

But with that, this student was a very high performer, performed very well on the range, has a lot of experience. We’ve sat, we’ve chatted about a lot of different things, medically wise, from background to stuff on the range, all those good things. But this student performed at a very high level both in combatives and the range and had the highest TECC score. Again, as I said, is one of the most difficult portions here at Pacific West Academy. But overall the Top Gun award for CESS number 82 is Mr. David Makuch.

You got a broken hand — make it work. Appreciate it. Feel free to say anything if you want. All right, man. This class was a class of very few words up here. All right.

Overall fellas, I want to thank you guys for coming here and putting in the work. I know especially with you guys being in the dead of heat, dead of summer. The range was kind of tough, right? Long days on the range. It gets hot out there. But you guys toughed it out. And with that, I know 10 weeks is not a short period of time, especially for those that are away from their families and things like that. It’s a lot of time, right? And we deal with our own personal things. Take that with you when you jump into the EP world because when you get into the EP world, depending on what side of the industry you turn out to be, you may be traveling a lot.

So, one thing I urge you guys to do is one, continuously train, continuously make yourself the best asset you possibly can. So that way, you’re never a liability for the people around you and for yourself, because ultimately we’re protectors first. From there, always make sure you got things taken care of at home, man. We said it in the military. If things aren’t good back home, things aren’t going to be good downrange. So, always make sure you take the time to get your life together back home because then it allows you to invest all of that mental processing on what it is that you have to do, which is being the best protector that you possibly can.

But again, continuously train. Make sure you guys maintain yourselves as an asset. We talk about the whole certified executive security specialist, that term specialist. Be very mindful because just because you went through this program doesn’t mean that you know everything. The question is how much more do you need to learn to maintain viewing yourself as such. All right? You can never learn too much. Continuously learn so that way we can train and perform at the best that we possibly can be. All right? You never rise to the occasion. You only fall to your lowest level of training. If our lowest level of training is better than the person in front of us, that gives us an edge.

All right, guys. So, I appreciate you guys. Next thing, I appreciate the families that are watching and supporting. You guys are a huge asset to these guys just as much as they’re an asset to you. Reason being is because for all the families that are holding things down back home, you guys allow them to perform at the best that they possibly can. And without the support that you guys have provided these guys, these guys wouldn’t have been able to perform at the level that they did amongst their time here. So, I just want to give a big round of applause to the families back home.

Next, a couple other people. So, we have Andrea, who tends to handle a lot of the compliance to make sure that a lot of things on your guys’ end is taken care of. So, big thank you to Andrea for getting those things taken care of and constantly being on top of it.

Next, we have Christina. She turns out to be kind of like mama bear for you guys. Any questions you guys had, anything to make sure that you guys are taken care of while you’re here, she really deals with a lot of that aspect. So, big thank you to Christina.

And big thank you to the instructors. I think the instructors are kind of the backbone. I think that if you have bad instructors, the academy turns out that way as well. And these guys come in day in day out doing their best to give you the best types of information that they possibly can. Now, information that they gave two years ago is very different from what they’ve given today. The reason being is because every single one of your instructors, from all of your in-house instructors to all of the instructors that you guys have had that are contracted, all of those guys are actively doing the things that they’re teaching you to do. They’re actively learning even more about the skill set that they’re teaching you guys to do. So, I urge you guys to do the same thing. Those guys come in day in day out. They show up in the mornings. They leave later than everybody else. Those guys are the guys who really I think we owe it to because they put the work in to make sure that you guys are taken care of. So, big thank you to all the instructors. Myself, Benji, Z, Frank, Raz, Mark, Dave, all of those guys.

And final thank you to you guys, man. You guys were a fun class. There’s a lot of things said that I’m not going to say on here, but there’s a lot of things that we’ve talked about and the conversations and the laughs and things like that. I like that you guys took things serious, but also didn’t take things too serious, right? We’re all able to kind of, you know, have some laughs, especially when we’re in the dead of heat and we’re tired and all those things. You guys make it easy to show up and do the job. Why? Because then it makes us as the instructors enjoy doing the job day in day out. So, a huge thank you to you guys. Thank you guys for being sponges, for showing up and just learning as much as you possibly can.

So with that, gentlemen, I hope you maintain being an asset. I know all you guys are going to make great agents for any teams that you guys are on. But with that, CESS class 82, you guys have officially graduated Pacific West Academy.