Pacific West Academy Graduation Class 64 June-August 2024

All right, so we’ll go ahead and get started. I want to welcome everybody to Pacific West Academy Certified Executive Security Specialist Class 6-4 graduation. So give everybody a round of applause. So this is a 10 week training program, and what we’re trying to do here is make each person who attends the course technically and tactically proficient in the security industry in general with a little bit of push toward the executive protection realm, which all of you want to be a part of in the future, or if you’re not already doing that as jobs right now, hopefully making you better. While you were here, the 10 weeks, I know it’s a long 10 weeks while you’re here, okay? We try to do it in a manner that is along with the code of the Department of Education, as well as getting you trained and getting you in the field as fast as humanly possible, right? Because we know everybody wants to get in, get out, and get to work.

That’s the main goal here. So for your 10 weeks, just to kind of remind you, right, the first two weeks that you were here, a lot of law and regulation, just understanding general rules for being around and doing this kind of work. And also understanding that 50 states different rule or 50 different sets of rules, and then of course internationally has their own sets of rules, right? So we did that for about two weeks. You touched on your CPR, your basic stuff, your taser, and then we went into the early firearms portion where everybody was able to qualify for firearms permits as per the state of California when it comes to exposed permits. The latter half of the course is what everybody really wants to get into though, right? And that’s more of the shooting and more of the driving, right? So you ended up doing a total days of eight days with a firearm in your hand while you’re out here, two of which were force on force.

So hopefully you were able to learn something. I think that we’ve assembled a pretty good set of cadre here to be able to teach you fundamentals and fundamentals plus when it comes to using a firearm. Some of you did, came in with great skill, some of you were brand new and ended up having really good turnouts by the end of the, the shooting platform that we have for you. Driving around the car, hopefully you were able to bend the car around the track a little bit. I don’t suggest you do that with your own car on the street, but if you do, you know, get ready to pay the bill for breaking stuff all the time and burning up tires. TECC portion, it is the, the most fast, or it is the fast-paced portion of the class, right? So in total, you end up doing five days of medical while you’re here. Of that, four of which are the TECC program. The TECC program is only supposed to be 16 hours when it comes to that.

We extend that information to give you a good shot at going through and being able to pass, and every single one of you did. Some better than others, of course, when it comes to it, but really it’s a lot of information getting thrown at you really quickly and having to assimilate that. And I commend each one of you for, for being able to do that. The combatives portion, there’s no course that teaches combatives like, like we do. They don’t put the time in that we do, and they don’t have everybody like you were yesterday during your final, simply banging against each other, right? And so that’s one of the great aspects of this course because I think not only does it teach you the fundamental skills to defend yourself and your client, but also it teaches you some life lessons about yourself when it comes to your fitness level and what your skill level is, you know.

Hopefully you learn something from, from that as well, especially from those instructors that you had. The admin portion of things. So we went through some supervisor stuff. We had you give briefs in there and everybody did very well with the briefs when it comes to it. Understanding that the brief that you gave us, you may never do again in your career, or it might be the next job that you have that asks you for it. You never know, but now you have a template and you understand what you may need to present for putting a detailed plan together, right? It’s one of my favorite portions because it really shows me what you’ve picked up throughout the course when it comes to things. So each one of you did really well when it comes to it. Everybody passed in the entire program, so I’m going to present you with your plaques and your certificate.

So just to kind of show you what you have here, inside each one of these certificates is going to be your particular PWA cert on the right hand side and on the left side is the stack of the rest of the certifications that you have that you came here for. If for some reason at any point you lose them or you need to have us contact an employer and say, yes, you did complete this training, a simple email and we’ll go ahead and do it for you. Every single one of you, if you have somebody that needs a letter of recommendation for coming here and talking to me, have them email me directly and I will go ahead and cut that for you. You’ve all earned it. So I do this alphabetically so there’s no surprises when it comes to the final scores or anything like that. So I’m going to go down the line here. This first student physically fit and comes to each task with the best intention to succeed at a high level.

He’s well spoken, intelligent, studious, and has good striking skills as well as some good shooting skills on the range. Stood out in the combatives final and upped his combatives total score with his effort in that final. This sort of Donald, Donnie Breton. Yeah. So come on up here and then we’ll kind of do this thing. Jay, where you at? You want to just do the stamp thing or no?

Give me one second. No, give me one second. All right, This is what we can do. Appreciate it. What you call it? I’m going to have him come up. If you would, if you want to say a few words to your fellow classmates, absolutely.

To my classmates, you guys are awesome, especially to my veterans. I love hanging on my, my fellow veterans. Dre, you’re like the coolest civilian I know. Junior, you’re awesome. You’re like my boy. Kat, you are, excuse my language, the most badass woman I’ve ever met. Okay? You took every, even when it came to the crowd crush, you took it like a beast. Seriously, you didn’t give up or anything. Awesome. To my instructors, I think the instructors are phenomenal. I learned something different from every single instructor. It was like I took something away that not only made me prepared for EP work, but as, you know, as an everyday, in everyday life, protecting my family, my friends, I’m, I’m way more prepared now for life and I appreciate you guys. One, two, three. Good? You – Got some cold hands, man. There you go, Donna. Oh, thank you. All right.

So the next one, we’ll do that first and then you can say something. This next student, we though always was searching for the right answer, truly wants to put his best effort toward all tasks, asked amazing questions for clarification and showed that this industry is the one he wants to put his stamp on. He’s not afraid to insert himself when needed into the operation and has a great heart for doing the right thing at the right time. I forgot to mention Donnie from California, this one from California too, Mr. Claude Crunkleton. One, two, three.

Fellow classmates, y’all are the best. Even still being in active duty that we’ve talked about, you brought me back into the team life. Took me out of that bad spot, brought me back into it. So I thank y’all for that. Seth, Luke, Pat, all you guys, forever my boys, if you ever need a thing, call me. To the instructors thank you. You’ve pushed me in ways that I didn’t expect to be pushed and saw me through it and got me through it, and then always taught me something new. And Benji, I got to point out, always come with intent. So quote of the day right there. And then to my family watching, thank you guys for your support. Love y’all. See you soon.

This next student was a bit quiet, but he can play to his strengths sometimes, taking time to learn what’s happening so that he can make the right decision. He has a great desire to be great every day coming in, accepting of his mistakes and took instruction in a coachable manner, which makes it a great day for us to be instructors when we have students like this. He’s got to find his place in this industry. He’ll go up from there. From California, Mr. Junior Diaz. Great Job. Thank you.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you to the class. I honestly learned a lot. Yes, I was quiet. Yes, there was some challenges. As you guys know, I got out the military in June on a Friday and I started this course on a Monday. So I transitioned right away and for me that was a little bit difficult, but you guys made it very easy for me to transition. That’s why I was quiet a little bit in the beginning. Other than that, I really thank you guys, especially Donnie. He was a boy. And then Benji saying me all the time definitely made me feel at home here. But other than that, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it.

This next student we though was a great professor, had a great professional background and overall professionalism about him. Has a managerial air about him and feels like a leader. Had a great sense of humor, can keep things light in tough times. And that’s good for teams. He’s going to push to the end for a strong finish where he’s at. I know he’ll go on to lead some teams and places. From Texas, Mr. Joel.

I just want to say thank you to the staff, the entire PWA staff. I’m going to miss my roommates, man. Set’s cooking, Luke’s humor. And I’m leaving out of here with the knowledge and the skills I needed to put in my tool bag, but also a better person than before. So thank you. Appreciate it.

This next student, also very professional, very well-rounded, has great work ethic and drive to succeed. He had the top overall firearm scores and led the best operations brief that we’ve had in months in this organization. Great time for him to jump into this industry. He has a ton of potential. Also from Texas, Mr. Luke Sherman. Alrighty. One, two, three.

I want to thank you all for coming to my speech today. I’ll try and keep it short. No more than 45 minutes. No, really I want to say thank you to you guys. I didn’t know what to expect coming into this course, but the class, you guys really made it worth it being with… I really enjoyed working with veterans from all different branches. You guys gave me different, challenged my thinking, gave me a lot of different perspectives, so I really appreciated that. To the instructors, I wanted to say thank you guys. I know a lot of us as veterans coming out, we feel like our skills that we learn in the military doesn’t really transfer into civilian world. They’re kind of worthless skills. You guys showed us that that’s not the case. You can tweak it a little bit and still apply it and make a good career for yourself in a good industry. So thank you guys.

Now I know I’ve used this word A couple of times, but this group really was overall in this way. So this next student, as professional and driven as they come, understands what it takes to win and applies themselves each endeavor with full commitment to excellence. Excelled at every task that was given was one of pretty much, I think there were three total 100s that have ever been given out for the final exam score. And that was one of them. Also ended up with the highest overall TECC score medical. High integrity, high motor. It’s going to be managing a team somewhere that’s for sure from California. Kat Wacker. One, two, three.

Thank you. You know, CAT 2.0, CAT 1.0 kind of got a little scuffed up in theater. I’m sensitive. I got a paper cut. They had to send me home. I was medically discharged. It was crazy. CAT 2.0, I was learning to use my body again, be able to talk. And Lord knows, in 10 weeks, you have heard me talk a lot. I am blessed and grateful that I got what I got back, but that was a baseline. I did not expect, I had hoped, but I did not expect to find the quality of people, the quality of program and the exceptional training that I had here. I told Benji the other day, I said, look, I’ve been in a training environment where I have been a trainer. I’ve been in a training environment. Look, I’ve been on the earth a really long time, so I’ve been in a lot of training, giving and receiving. This is exceptional. This is exceptional.

Everybody that was part of training here was passionate about their subject, knew what they were talking about and delivered it in a way that I couldn’t have not learned if I tried. Literally, if I had resisted learning, it wouldn’t have been possible. There’s a lot of stone between here and here, but I love a quality product. All of you, from Christina to everybody, everybody that’s here made this the best decision that I have ever made. And those of you sitting in these chairs, I’d like to say my guys in the bunk house, I lived alone. You made, not the training, but you made the team in the sense that this is where I belong real. You have transcended just being guys I went to class with to being a family. And we are a good looking family.That hasn’t been mentioned yet, but I think it’s true. But honestly-That’s Because it’s relative.

Every one of… I’m the field expedient mom. Look, I tried to be a regular girl for about a year and a half before I got into the security business. I did some coding. People can’t tell me and Benji apart sometimes. Well, they can. He hits a lot harder than I do. I’m learning. Listen, I tried to be a regular girl. It didn’t work out. I started doing this and this is where I want to be and this is where I feel I should be. And you’re all making that journey possible. So thank you all. And if you ever need anything, a country invaded in your name, a poem in your honor, a silly joke. I’m a grown ass woman full of dad jokes. I don’t know how that happened, but it did. I’m blaming the brain injury, but, but thank you. And I’ve talked a long time and I apologize, but this has meant the world to me and you are all, you are all in my heart now. So whatever you need, you let me know. Thank you. Thank you.

Next student comes with aspirations To blend physical Security with the close protection into an all-encompassing security firm. Great way to start their career when it comes to this. I think if you can go from the bottom up to securing someone’s estate and you understand how to do it in tech and you understand how to do it with the body, you can make a great business for yourself. Even with this size can play an excellent covert protector. Perhaps covert protection and covert surveillance may be in his future in the security industry from Florida. Mr. Patrick Webb. All righty guys. One, two, three. Orange juice.

Yeah. I went from a size 31 to a size 36 here, okay? Hey guys, I just wanted, I just want to thank every one of you, all the veterans that are here, everyone that was in this class, everyone involved. You guys, you know, I’m retired and I felt that brotherhood again, truly, truly filled that brotherhood that I left behind in the military. And that’s something that I never thought I would experience again, but I really did with you guys and I appreciate that. Love being in the house with you guys, although I did bail towards the end. That’s Andrea’s fault. But I just want to thank the instructors. My God, man, this is… Every one of you guys are world class. I, this is, this is like what I keep telling everybody. I kind of like, if you can, if you have a chance to come here, you got to come here. It is… I’m blown away by the, by the professionalism, by the knowledge, by the passion that you guys all give, all give to us.

And and it’s everything from, you know, just job specific stuff to overall life encompassing you know, ways to live and, and how you should, how you should product yourself. And, and it’s just an all-encompassing program that’s just, that’s more about… It’s more than just the security industry, but life. I want to thank everyone. Thank you.

Next student had a great attitude. I mean, such a great motivation to accomplish anything placed in front of him, asking the right questions to figure out the correct path. A lot of fun to instruct where this particular person can run with simple instruction, very little instruction, and they can execute at a high level. Sucked up some injuries throughout here, which is tough, especially with our combatives program and apparently the best chef to have ever come through Pacific West Academy from Illinois, Mr. Seth Williams. All right, guys. One, two, three.

Man. First, I want to thank my classmates. Really, I love the fact that we all pushed each other. We all kept each other focused. Even when we had our, our bad egg in the house, we all still came together, and I hope so you guys continue that. You know, call me if you need me, and I’m going to call you when I need you. To the instructors, I loved your class. All the classes Don gave. Cabatus was difficult yesterday. Still feel like that tender chicken from KFC. To Benji, thank you. Thank you. Really to everybody. Thank you. You all gave us new tools to put into an old bag. It was, it was really excellent. I tell the guys all the time that you guys are making apex, apex protectors. I have intent. We have intent. We’re going to build him a statue. But even to Bigs who’s not here, he took care of us in the house.

He also took care of us in the classroom, pulling us aside and giving us additional information to, to Pretty Boy Matt, who’s not here. Love every bit of shooting, every bit of Craw McGraw, every bit of just… I know I got them two mixed up. But love every bit of it. Every bit of it. Thank you guys.

Don’t, don’t worry about getting back… Like that’s a literally a running joke with us and we call it Crawl McGraw, so… So the next student came to training every day with an open mind and a good attitude for learning the material. Physically a strong practitioner. I think, you know, to me, a little bit sneaky strong when it comes to it. Great combative skills, improved his personal presentation for going out into the job and workforce. He can excel in the market that he’s going to. Came a long way with a pistol from where he started, basically complete novice to running around shooting in a house. All right? Tied for the best combative score overall, Mr. Tyler Williams. Yeah. All right guys. One, two, three.

You know, I have to definitely thank all the instructors for all the knowledge I’ve learned from you guys. Honestly, from the EVOC to the TECC and the, you know, the fire range, I’ve learned things that, you know, unforgettable knowledge at that point. So also to you guys, my classmates, I definitely have to thank you because I learned something from each and every one of you guys. And this last two months, two weeks, learning with you guys’ experience, I’ll never forget. So you guys have my number in the WhatsApp. You guys need anything, you hit me up, hit my line. Thank you. Thank you all.

This next student has all the tangibles to do the job. If he applies himself, he can make it further than just doing it, but excelling and leading people in this industry. He has some stuff already lined up. He’s diving right into it and I’m just going to let him go right there and do it from California, Mr. Tyriek Williams.

All right guys. One. One, two, three. That’s the second time. That’s good. Thank you.

Hey, how you guys doing? I appreciate everybody. My instructors, Benji, you taught me a lot when it comes to fighting. You’re refurnishing my skills and I need to get more into Muay Thai grappling and stuff. Jordan, I’m not going to forget that hook. And Donnie, I appreciate you. I know I was late a couple times. You actually extended a lot of stuff for me, helped me out a lot. Kat, you kept me on time most of the time. All my, all my, all my… Not my students. I’ll say students. All my classmates, I appreciate y’all. Y’all always on my ass and making sure I’m here on time, doing the right thing. And thank you everybody.

Obviously last but not least, this next student we thought was a phenomenal student overall. From pre-instruction to post-instruction, thought that he picked up information faster than most can, retains information at a very fast rate, made big improvements all around from the range to the combatives and even into practitioner going out and doing our field training exercise. Another from Texas, a very Texas and California heavy class. But from Texas, Julian Zuniga. All right guys. One, two, three.

All right. So I just want to start off by thanking the instructors. I really learned a lot from all of you and I could tell that you guys are very passionate about this job and teaching us and you guys have a lot of knowledge and I learned a lot from the 10 weeks that I was here. And I just want to say thank you for having me here because it’s been an honor to learn from y’all. And to my classmates, thank you for having me too. I really appreciate the friendship that we had at the house and I’m just grateful that I met every single one of you and I’m just glad that we all graduated together and thank you for having me too.

So everybody did things here that got scores attached to it. From the first day you showed up until the last combatives day, you were scored on things that you did. Assignments that you turned in physically and mentally, we were trying to just give you a gauge of what you’re going to come up against because this is just the school. This is not I am ready right now. This is I am ready to enter the force or the industry, right? So with that, it does come down to a score. Now what we like is for our people that are going to come away with the top scores to embody our motto of quiet, assertive and in control. And I think that’s what each of these people did while they were here. So I’m going to kind of start from the bottom up when it comes here. So we like to always give a gray man award, all right?

We started this years ago and it’s for a practitioner we think has phenomenal talent, the ability to do this job, the ability not even to be seen when they’re out doing covert protection and just kind of blend in to the outside. I think a lot of you can do this, but he ended up with the fourth overall top score, which put him right up there for this particular thing. Ended up getting just another bag. We got a belt, holster, pimp grip, flashlight inside of here, just some little extra goodies. But the gray man for a CES of 64 is going to go to Julian Zuniga. Yeah. Julian and Tyler have got some sweaty hands, boy. Sweaty hands. The next one is going to go to the second overall score. Now, I’d like to say it was close. It was kind of close when it came to it. We’ve had closer runs, but this particular person, in my opinion, first, second, it’s all the same when it comes to it at the top, regardless of where it should be.

I will say the thing that set it apart was the firearms score. That was the difference. So the second overall score for CS is 64, second place, Kat Wacker. Yeah. So the top score, this particular person, firearms, got a 96 on the final. Great overall student when it came to it, said it before, lots of potential. This particular person with the top gun received a watch that some of us have, and some of your instructors, in fact, that have gone through the course as well. But the top gun for CESS 64, Mr. Luke J. Sherman.

I just want to say thank you to my classmates again. You guys really pushed me. You guys were, like I said, you guys were really good competition. I couldn’t have done it without you guys. I didn’t expect to make the kind of bonds or friendships here that I did, and I’m definitely going to miss you guys and I hope that I have the opportunity to work with all of you in the future. Thank you.

So before I kind of say my final little thing here, I do want to say thank you to all the students, right? We did have a kind of a small class, but I think this class being this size really bonded well. And you said that here at the microphone. And we see it in the classroom. It makes it fun for us to teach because everybody is there for the same goal and things like that. So I really appreciated this class. Like I said, 10 weeks is tough. It’s tough to pull this together and, and do this. Like I said, we got somebody who just straight came out of the military, some people who have been out of the military a longtime, some of them have never been in the military, you know, when it comes to it. So for those that, especially those that were not in the military, jumping in with this group of heathens when it comes to these things is not exactly an easy task in its own. So I appreciate this class.

This class actually was very fun to teach and it made it a fun job to be a part of it. But I do… So I do want to thank you. So give yourselves round of applause for being here too. Secondly, you’re not doing anything without the family and friends and then the, the friends and family and everything that we have showed up today. So give them a round of applause for supporting you. Lastly, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this stuff if I didn’t have the supporting crew that I do, especially the instructors that carry the load day to day, right? I step in and I teach here and there when it comes to stuff, but our instructors that step in every single day and do the full, you know, they’re here before you get here most of the time and they leave after you’re gone setting up for the next thing. So you know, I know that John and Matt weren’t able to be here, Roz, and we have Joe and Bob and Dave and everybody that puts the effort forth here.

You know, and then your lead instructor, specifically Benji, who basically kind of gets everything going in the right direction. Let’s give them all a round of applause. So the last thing I want to do to wrap it up is just to kind of you know, emphasize what I said a little bit before. This is not go home, I did something once and kind of sit around on a throne of experience, right? This is a launching point. We recently had a student who you know, is continuously looking for a position and we talked with him specifically because he was struggling a little bit and the community even came together and said, “Hey, this is the launching point, right? This isn’t the, the go and you get something handed to you right after. You weren’t handed being here. I denied 25% of the applicants, right, before you came here. And so you weren’t just even handed this spot sitting here.

So be, you know proud of yourselves for one, getting here, two, getting to this next step. Now it’s time to be proud about going that even further step, getting out into the workforce, all right? I always like to say hit the ground running, don’t sit on that couch when you go home and, and hold that placard on the wall and then that’s the last thing you’ve ever done, right? Because that’s not the goal. The goal is, in all honesty, to feed the family, make that state of your own, like do those kinds of things and, and set yourself up either with your own business or working for somebody else’s business and doing it at the top level. So please do that. Keep in contact when it comes to these things. We’re going to reach out to you, reach out to us. Like I said, if you need a letter of recommendation, if you have something, “Hey, what’s up with this company? Do you know them?” Ask me. I’ll tell you what I know.

And if I have contacts, I’ll get you in contact with them, okay? So I really appreciate this class and let’s not have this be the end of our training either. We need to continuously train because it’s all perishable. So that is the end. So CESS 64 graduated. Yeah. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to stand up these chairs, going to take a group photo right here.