Pacific West Academy Graduation Class 70 March - May 2025

All right. Good morning, graduates, family, and friends. My name is Ethan White and I have the distinct honor of being the institutional director here at Pacific West Academy or PWA. Today is a day of celebration, not just for the accomplishments of the individuals seated before us, but for what their achievements mean for our communities, our country, and our world. As we gather to honor the graduates of class 70, I want to reflect on why the role they are stepping into is so profoundly important now more than ever. We live in a world that’s increasingly complex, where security challenges arise in forms we might not have imagined just a decade ago. Whether it’s protecting individuals, organizations, or communities, the need for skilled, prepared, and ethical protectors has never been greater. At Pacific West Academy, we believe that providing you with the knowledge and skills to meet these challenges is not just our mission.

It’s our responsibility. The Certified Executive Security Specialist program is built on the understanding that the work you do matters. It isn’t just about securing a client or property. Is about creating peace of mind, upholding safety, and being a pillar of stability in uncertain times. Your hard work over these past many weeks has prepared you to serve not only as professionals in your field, but also as leaders in a critical and honorable mission. It represents a commitment to equipping you with the tools to face the world’s challenges head on. It is this commitment that has brought students from all across the US to join our program. United by a shared dedication to a higher purpose.

Class 70, your efforts over these weeks have been nothing short of extraordinary. You’ve pushed through rigorous training, honed your skills, and built bonds of trust and camaraderie with one another. And today we celebrate your success, but we also celebrate what that s this success will mean for the people and communities you’ll go on to protect. As we begin this ceremony today, I ask you all to reflect on the journey that’s brought us here and the vital role that you will play in this world. Class 70, you’ve earned your place among the elite and today is the start of a new chapter and we’re proud to celebrate this moment with you. Congratulations to each of you and let’s go ahead and get this thing started. So, I’m going to pass this off to Benji who’s going to hand out your plaques. Good morning. I’d also like to welcome everyone who showed up for graduation today. This is our class 70 right here.

We obviously have a full fully engrossing program here involving classroom mat time, range, medical, all those things. I was one of their instructors where I spent a lot of the time on the mats. And the reason why I like that, even though I appreciate the classroom and I love the range and I think medical training is all really important, I feel like I meet the real you out here on the mats because you can’t pretend to be somebody else out here. Yesterday, during the combatives final, it’s really, really difficult to pretend to be a tough guy, isn’t it? Right? Really, really difficult. So, I feel like I get to meet the real you. And a very wise person told me one time, if you really want to get to know someone, you should fight them and you’ll learn everything you want to know about them. So, this class, because it was a little bit smaller, I actually got to train with every single one of you and I got to really pay, a lot of attention.

And you know sometimes a class will leave and I’ll be like that guy you know hope he learns more when he leaves you know this sort of thing. But I’m very very confident in this group’s abilities. I’m very confident in their intellectual abilities. The social intelligence was also very very high here. With this remaining group that we had here we really didn’t have any issues whether between student or instructor or even between student and if you did, you kept it between each other, which is very good. In the security industry, when we have an issue with each other, we have to be able to handle it amongst ourselves. We don’t really want to be involving management in these type things because we’re field people.

We’re out in the field and we have to fix problems very quickly, whether it’s between us and another individual who’s not on our team, potentially a suspect, whoever it is, but between each other, if we can’t fix things between each other, how are we going to fix things between us and potential suspects or threats or or whatever it is. So, the fact that this class demonstrated those types of things, I’m very very pleased about. And I’m also pleased that I got to meet the real you, each and every one of you. So, that was a real pleasure. For me and of course seeing your progression throughout the course as well. Some of you were total beginners on the range and Matt and our other shooting instructors Mark and Raz really brought you up to a very high level. I showed up on the last day I hadn’t done any dry runs with you guys. I pretty much showed up to test.

We had other things going on and I could tell in the first 5 seconds, 10 seconds, when it was time to go, when I say contact and you have to go into that room and you have to go into a shoot house and carry out a pretty sophisticated shooting exercise, I could tell in the first 10 seconds that you guys had really really absorbed the information and made didn’t make the mistakes that students typically make and that we have to clean up even up until the last second on the finals. So, you guys really performed at a high level over there. All right. Well, I’m going to start talking about each and one of you individually now. So, we’ll get this started. So, our first student, this student was a real pleasure to train. He was always on time, very punctual, ready to train, equally ready to engage in the classroom, asked a lot of excellent questions, demonstrated a real desire to advance his career in the security industry.

He had solid scores all throughout the program and in every iteration of training. He demonstrated great social intelligence and great toughness on the mats, which I got to personally experience yesterday. His heritage definitely showed. Yesterday on the mats during the final, which is very surprising because he didn’t have a ton of combatives training coming in. He definitely had some, but not a ton. And I really got to see that progression and that progression on the range as well. I want you to keep in mind that no matter what your background is, whether it’s in combatives or on the range, most people do have challenges. Even if you’re a very very experienced person coming out here on the mats and we’ve had every level out here on the mats we’ve had guys who’ve competed in the UFC Bellator who own their own martial arts gym so on and so forth they do struggle with certain parts of the training because it is in fact difficult.

So when I see a beginner who is able to really thrive and acquire a lot of these skills in a short period of time that’s very impressive to me and that speaks to this person’s character. I’m talking about Mr. Alberto Reyes.

Well, just shake my hand. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Feel free to say something. Hello. I’m just I want to personally thank Matt and Benji for their instruction. You guys are great. Honestly, very lethal in the mats. Very lethal with the piston pistol. And just thank you. For

Everything. All right. This next student I had a really good time with. He was apart from being a great guy he was also an exceptional student. He demonstrated a high aptitude for all the subjects covered throughout the program. Really excelled at combatives the range and had a very high TECC score. Our medical training is very difficult. We’ve had many failures in the time that I’ve been here. Our instructor is a very demanding instructor. Sometimes people have challenges with that, but in my experience, he’s a very very good professional and excellent world-class at what he does, but he is demanding. So, the fact that you’re able to draw good scores from that iteration of training is very impressive. I knew almost right away the student was sharp and could do what he wants in this industry.

He also had the unfortunate honor of being my demo partner for combatives throughout the course, which if you don’t know, is usually referred to as a UK. And it’s a uniquely painful experience. So, he got a little bit extra than the rest of the guys did. So, I appreciate him for that. Took a little extra abuse. What was really impressive for me was yesterday. He had contacted me that he had had an injury of some sort. I didn’t know how severe it was. But he shows up after a graveyard shift with his eyes bloodshot and puffy with a giant knee brace on his leg. Turned out this student competed in an amateur Muay Thai match while he was here at the academy, which it’s not the first time. We’ve we’ve had that a handful of times, but that really says something about this individual’s character and their ability to endure.

I was actually very surprised when I was sparring him yesterday with that giant knee brace that he was really giving me a run for my money. I thought, “Oh, this will be easy. I’ll take it easy.” And I was like, “No, don’t take it easy. You definitely you need to bring it up ju just a little bit. Never mind the knee brace.” Right. So, he still managed to give everyone a run for his money during the final. I’m really really looking forward to seeing this student in the field and having him as a part of our team. I’m talking about Mr. Armon Meena. Hey everybody. I’d like to thank all the instructors here. I would like to thank all the students here to push me. I think this is a strong group. I could have done any of what I did or achieve what I achieved without everybody here. The instructors to the students push me to achieve excellence in whatever I do. I appreciate everybody here.

And I appreciate all the instructors here. Thank you.

You know, one of the nice things about having these smaller classes is that there is like a little bit more sense of camaraderie and I and we get to meet everyone on a little bit deeper level. And I know I said that before, but I think it really comes across in the for this class. So our next student, another excellent student, big guy, definitely gives off the security vibe but in the friendliest way possible, which is a very very difficult thing to do in our industry. A lot of times when people see you’re a big guy and you’re involved in the security industry, people immediately have ideas about you. I think we could all learn a little bit about this person in terms of being approachable and also having the social intelligence that we’re always talking about. Social intelligence and your ability to fight are the two main things that clients really care about. Can I have you around my children?

Do I know that you’re going to speak properly? You’re going to maintain a professional demeanor and if something happens, are you able to physically confront this situation? So, I think in terms of social intelligence and being professional, I think we could actually learn a thing or two from this student. Very well spoken. Really upped his game at the range on the mats. I got to see more of his progression on the mats than the range this time, unfortunately, because I wasn’t able to participate at the range as much this time, but I heard a lot of great things from the instructors who had the pleasure of training him. I also heard he can handle the vehicle pretty well out at the track from what I understand. Maybe had a little bit of fun while he was out there, which is okay. Even though I give my my safety brief before that one, my famous one, but looks like he had a little bit of fun anyway, which is fine.

If you have fun by accident at the program, it’s really not a big deal. So, the student also provided a lot of comic relief when we were out at the range, those long hot range days. They’re really needed. You really do need that guy in a program like this. There’s eight to 16 people. If we can just have one guy with good vibes kind of keeping everyone loose but on task at the same time, it’s a difficult balance to strike between professionalism and being the comic relief. But I think this student really really did that throughout the duration of the program. He has tremendous potential. I think he could succeed in close protection, low profile, whatever he needs to do. I think he’s going to find success in our business. I’m talking about Mr. Jeffree Johnson.

How’s everybody doing today? I want to say thanks to all the instructors and all the guys that stayed at the house with us and just everyone who’s been in this class. Man, it’s been a long 10 weeks, but at the same time, man, I’ve learned a lot. I mean, I got a chance to learn a little bit about everybody as well. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who’s, you know, been part of this journey. I want to thank my daughter and my wife for being patient during this 10 weeks. Love you

Guys. All right, so moving on. This next student is a real character in a very unique way. He’s always looking for the deeper meaning. He really likes to get into the minutiae of any subject that interests him. I think we’re lucky that security is what interests him. Because he’ll be able to do a lot of good once he’s in the field. And ultimately to really be good at security like Ethan mentioned in his opening comments, you have to be ethical. And being ethical is just a fancy way of saying be a good person and do the right thing. And when I don’t have any apprehension about someone always doing the right thing when they’re out in the field, that makes you an asset because we all know that force can be a part of our business sometimes.

And if you are wrong about how you go about that c about using that force or if where you’re coming from is not the right place, you’re going to pay some pretty significant consequences and also the people that you are supposed to be protecting could also pay consequences for that. So in that sense I’m not worried about the student at all. Gave off very good vibes. Truly good person with impeccable character which is not something that I usually state about a student so in a such pointed fashion but he’s exactly the type of person we need more of in our industry. I’ve met very few people whose heart is always in the right place and has that and get and getting that sense from a student. He could be a little bit more efficient speaker.

He could be a little bit better with how he goes about asking his questions, but I think that’s a very small price to pay for having such a good guy out there protecting his fellow security people and the public or individuals if that’s where we go. So, I think his character now accompanied by what he learned here at the academy will make him a tremendous asset to any security or in any industry that he chooses to pursue. He showed a tremendous progression in everything that we taught him and achieved an extremely high level. His he had one of the if not the highest range score with this group and considering that he did not have a vast amount of pistol experience at the time to achieve such a high score in such a sophisticated shooting scenario is extremely difficult. And I want to say something very quickly.

There are exceedingly few, if any, private organizations that allow students to go into a shoot house with live ammunition and shoot with a safety officer walking behind behind you with only two or three days of training. So, when you’re able to achieve a high score on something like our range without a lot of previous experience, that really speaks to how hard this student was working while he was here in the program. And he also threw down on the mats yesterday even a little bit with his in with his beloved instructor. I’m talking about Mr. Jeremy Scott.

All right. Thank you, sir. I really appreciate that. All right. Hey y’all like to thank the academy and all all faculty and staff, especially my instructors. Honestly, I haven’t had any type of teachers or instructors in my life relative to the ones that PWA provides. Not even my own drill sergeants and my military experience. So, I don’t know where they found you all, but I was lucky and my class was lucky and anyone else who graduated from this academy and was your students were very lucky and I’m really proud to be a graduate here. I was able to also learn a lot from my fellow peers and fellow students. I actually learned a lot from y’all and I do know I’m a kind of a different person, but it’s going to take a lot to get used to my dramatic ways, but I do feel like the security world will benefit from thinking outside of the box. So, all right. Right on. I told you he’s a character. All right.

So, this next student, so me and the student shared a lot of common interests. She’s a real student of the game of boxing and as someone who’s a lifelong fan and practitioner of the so sweet science, I can tell you how nice it is to talk to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the game of boxing. I can tell you even though I practice a lot of different martial arts and I have love for all of the martial arts, every single one of them, even ones I haven’t trained in, I can tell you that boxing is the only thing that I’ve done every single day of my life since 1997. It’s a long time ago. I’ve done it every day in some way or fashion, either training, shadow boxing, watching boxing, talking about boxing. It’s been a lifelong obsession of mine. So, it was really nice to meet someone who shares that type of passion and has the boxing skill set to back this knowledge up.

So, he was a high performer in every training iteration, demonstrated the exact temperament needed to succeed in our business. That’s a big one as well. You can have all of the skills in the world. If you don’t have the correct temperament for our business, you could really struggle. You really could. And this guy really demonstrated the exact type of temperament and psychology that you want out there in the field, whether law enforcement, security, military, whatever it is. Made huge strides on the range, had solid medical scores, was very inquisitive student in the classroom on every subject. I think we’ve convinced him to bring his grappling skills up to his boxing skills to make him even more formidable. But this student could succeed high or low-profile security. I think he’s a close protection guy deep down and I think that’s what he should pursue. I’m talking about Mr. Mark Ollison. Yes, sir. First, I want to give up honor to God.

Thankful for PWA. If you know, Benji, learning so much information from Benji. I love being in the classroom. He’s such a knowledgeable person. Thankful for Matt getting me up to speed when it came to the range. I’ll never forget everything we trained for and just a blessing to be around people. Thankful for that. I’m I’m from the Navy, so like if you know, So thankful. That’s right. All right. Our next student, yet another excellent student from this class. I think we all know he’s a true do-gooder. Like I was telling them this morning, a real do-gooder, which is what we need out there. We need ethical, good people out there applying the knowledge that they learned here at Pacific West Academy. The knowledge that people gain here, it can be used for good or for bad. And we have had that unfortunately many many years ago an unfortunate student decided to use some of the information that he learned here to do evil essentially.

So one of the reasons why I don’t train people outside of here and why I’m not interested in having a gym is because I’m not super interested in handing this information to just anyone who walks in and pays me a fee. There was a process for you to come here. A lot of the knowledge you used, you could use it to go left or right. And getting to see your character and getting to see who you are and passing this knowledge on to good ethical people is extremely extremely important to me. It just is. People ask me, “Why don’t you have a gym? Why don’t you have that?” Because I’m not going to run a background check on everyone who wants to come to my gym. But that’s what that’s generally speaking what I need. To know you personally or you’ve gone through our process to come here to this academy. That is who I’m willing to train. I don’t want to just hand this information out to anyone because it can be used in a dangerous fashion.

I’m not worried about this individual using that in absolutely any way. He also helped facilitate a lot of training. Always being helpful, always showing up to class, putting in real work. This student really worked extremely hard throughout the course and it showed. He’s also a person of high integrity which can be difficult to come across. He does need to switch to Glock. That that is true. Yes, Matt agrees. We all agrees. Get a Glock, you know, please. But even though he had a substandard pistol, he also performed at a very, very high level while he was here at the academy. Impressive considering the low quality of the gear he chooses. So, so this student is going to thrive no matter where he goes. I think low profile would be very very excellent way for him to go. I think he can also do close protection, but some of us have different proclivities.

But this guy’s going to succeed wherever he wants to go and in whatever industry, whether it’s security or anything else. Talking about Mr. Nick Rodriguez.

All right. Appreciate you. Okay, got it. I’m on it. Now, I just want to say thank you to everybody especially my family. You know, one of the things that I just want to continue to tell the class is believe in yourself. You guys are all killing it. The instructors, you guys take a lot of pride in what you do and we all appreciate that and we all took that in and really listened to what you guys are saying because you guys just really want to give us the best knowledge. So, thank you for that. And from veteran to veteran, continue to put the best foot forward. Believe in yourselves and go handle. All right. Yeah. All right. This next student really showed that he has all the intangibles. Physically imposing guy, very powerful on the mats. He got to be my a little bit more during the grappling portion of combatives because he brought a very substantial wrestling background in.

It was very very useful to me during that iteration, the second half of combatives training. I got to feel this several times throughout the course. He’s got the intelligence and the background and the desire to really go far in our business. I think we’re very lucky that he’s chosen to go this route. We also had a lot in common. He lived in Chile for several years, which is where my mother is from and where I lived for a long time and still visit every year. I’m sure you were a great well driller. I’m really glad that you’re back with us in the security game. And I think you’re going to be overall a lot happier overall. We’ll talk about that later. He’s seen a lot of the world the good and the bad and that is what guides a lot of his decision-making in the field including his own personal faith as well which I think also translated into good leadership skills which all of the instructors realized while he was coming through the course.

I’d wish him luck but he’s not going to need it. Talking about Mr. Nicholas Appel. Wow, what a grind. First and foremost, I’d like to make a public apology to both Mark and JJ. I know at times, I can be a little impatient and, I’m I’m a sinner saved by God’s grace, and I give glory to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Tommy, thank you for being by my side through this course. I wanted to quit. I’m not usually a quitter. But I endured the race and I appreciate the perseverance that God gave me to do that because I’m happy to be here today. I’m proud of myself. My kids are watching at home along with my wife. Joanie, thank you for It’s hard to be away. It’s hard to be away from your kids. We’re all veterans here. We fight to be our best, to put our best foot forward every day. Tristan, Ethan, Kaylor, Paisley, you guys are my heart and soul. They’re part of my driving force, and I love to be here and learn.

Matt, and this guy here, Benji, they drive me to be a better man. They inspire me to go home and to do better and to be strong. I’m I’m one of the oldest in the group. I’m I’m retired, but I’m not done yet. I’m not out of gas. So I’m just going to put my best foot forward. Lord, thank you for the time you gave me here. Tommy, thank you for being by my side the whole way. I’m glad I didn’t quit. And thank you all for having patience for me. I am sorry that I wasn’t perfect. I was able to hold off for a while, but 10 weeks is a long time. I love you. Guys. Scott, you’re awesome. And man, what a what an honor. What a blessing. Thank you guys. Have a good day. I swore I wouldn’t cry. I’m not going to. Do it. I’ve kept it together. All right. Last but not least, this guy, I got to say, is a real greyman. Real greyman. Plug and play. Put him where you need him. He can do whatever you need him to do.

Could thrive in counter surveillance, close protection, low profile, even investigations. I don’t know if you’ve thought about that, but you give me that PI look. You know, maybe offer both, you know, we’ll protect you, we’ll investigate you, whatever you need, you know. I think he could definitely definitely thrive in whatever he chooses to do. But especially in our industry, he really demonstrated a high degree of intelligence mixed with very strong physical skills. He’s the type of guy that can really stay under the radar, which is an important quality in our business. Very few agents can do both, and I’m confident he’s going to demonstrate that to a high degree in the field. In our business, you’re usually either a close protection guy or you’re a low pro guy. Very few people can do both. I’m very confident this individual can do both. Truly excellent on the range and in combatives. What makes him such a gray man?

You know, I watched him all through combatives and I said, “Okay, not bad. Not bad.” you know, good, good, improving, improving. And then I went with him and I was like, “Wow, you’ve really improved. You really got a lot better there.” You know what I mean? It makes me stay on top of my own training. Showed a lot of progress in those areas. Had a very high medical score as well. He can write his own ticket in this business. And I hope to see you out in the field one of these days soon. Tell him about Mr. Thomas Ferrigno. All right.

Wow. All right, we’re here. We made it. I want to say thank you to everybody at PWA, especially Matt and Benji. You guys, some of the best training I’ve had in my entire life by far. I definitely want to say thank you to all you guys. I’ve learned a lot from each individuals, all of you. Definitely want to say thank you to my family for supporting me through these 10 weeks. It’s definitely hard being away from your family the whole time. My wife, my kids, miss you guys. But I just want to say thank you to everybody and I love you

Guys. All right, guys. I really took my time with you guys. It took me about the same amount of time to do eight as it took me 16. I’m going to just say one thing very quickly. No more side quests. Okay? You’ve all done them. All right? You guys got out of the military. You tried this. You tried that. You tried this. You tried that. Now you’re here. Okay? This is where you need to be. Your security people or your law enforcement people or your military people. That’s it. I had to come to this realization myself. Okay? I did the salesman thing, the business thing, the software engineering thing. Very bad advice. I’m no programmer. And the issue isn’t that these are not good things to do with your life. That’s not the problem. Computer programming can be a perfectly good thing.

Being a salesman can be a perfectly good thing, but the longer you stay away from this type of work, the more you’re going to realize things about yourself and the type of people that you want to be around and the types of things that you want to be doing. You can make all the money in the world. You will feel empty, and I know that’s a little bit of a strong word, but you will feel a sense of emptiness. You are protectors. That is what you’re here. What you just did, 10 weeks over here of training, very unique. You’re not going to meet a lot of people that have subjected themselves to that type of thing in their life to take time away from their family to take time to come across the country. You might have noticed that we’re not seminar instructors.

Me and Matt, your full-time instructors here, we’re not seminar instructors. We don’t show up once a month and make an Instagram page and say, “Follow my Instagram and put up a video a day.” That’s not what we do. We show up 7:30, 6:30. We stay late. We come early. We give everyone as much attention as we possibly can inside of that day. And then we do it again the next day. And then another 16 guys show up a few months later. And we do the same thing with them. And we do it over and over again all year long. It’s not easy, but when we have good students and we have good classes, it makes it easy. You guys made it easy for me to wake up, for Matt to wake up in the morning to come here early. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not a morning person. You might have noticed I hit a lot harder in the morning than I do in the afternoon. That’s why it’s more impressive in the morning because I’m a little angry, right?

That I had to wake up so early. It’s why I get a little loud in the morning. You know, it’s a good thing I do it here and not at home. So, just keep in mind that you’re exactly where you need to be. You’re in the exact industry that you need to be or you need to be in a similar industry. No more side quests. You can turn this into a career. I’ve turned it into a career. I have no regrets. I started in 2006 making a lot less than what you guys are going to be making out of the academy. And I’m very pleased with the decisions that I’ve made because this industry is consistent with who I am as a person. And each and every one of you has this same thing. You’re a protector. That’s what you do. So go protect somebody.

It’s a very synchronized tap there, Benjamin. All right. Morning, guys. How we doing? All right. First off, I’d like to give a round of applause for the family and friends that are here attending, but also looking at the live feed, so we can give them. So for those that don’t know me, my name is Matt Cheun. I’ve had the absolute privilege for the last 10 weeks of babysitting. No, just kidding. But, I am one of the instructors. So I’m one of the firearms instructors and I pretty much instruct you guys pretty much on and off the range. So I’m just here. All right. With that being said, congratulations to you guys. It’s been a long 10 weeks. It’s been real. It’s been fun and ain’t been real fun sometimes. All right. But, ultimately, the best part is seeing you guys come into this academy how you are and seeing how you leave. It’s the the best part for me. So, with that being said, at the end of the day, this is still an academy.

Still an academy. And so, everything comes down to grades, and I get to be the bad guy to tell you those. But with that being said, we have a couple different awards. We have our, our Greyman Award, which is essentially kind of like our third place. Sometimes it isn’t, but, oftentimes it is. All right. Greyman Award. We have our second second place overall in the entire class. That comes down to percentage again. And then we have our top gun award. And with these awards doesn’t mean that any of you guys are less or better than the others. Ultimately it just comes down that by mere percentages you happen to come out on top because of a grade. Simple as that. All right. So, with that being said, I’m going to go ahead and start with the excuse me, the greyman award. This was a great student and we’ve we’ve talked about it before.

Being a greyman is a hard thing to do because a lot of people either stand out too much or they fall at the very end. In my personal opinion, I think being a greyman is a great place to be because you don’t stand out, but you also don’t fall short, but you have a skill set that a lot of people don’t recognize. All right. So, with that being said, our greyman for this class is going to be Mr. Thomas Ferrigno.

Thank you. All right. All right. Our second overall, this was a phenomenal student. High performer, learned very quickly. We’ve already said a lot about this student before, so I’m not going to dive too deep, but our second overall for CESS 70 is going to be Mr. Armon Meena.

All right. It’s always the fun one. So, again, the Top Gun Award, doesn’t state that this person is better than anyone else or is worse than anyone else or anything like that. This simply means that they performed at a level of which percentage- wise they came out on top. I believe that this student is a very high performer, highly skilled. I definitely can see this student on a overt security team, covert security team, you name it, whatever it is, I believe that he can do it. I think that he absolutely embodies our motto of quiet, assertive, and in control. And keyword in control there. All right. The top gun for CESS 70 is going to be Mr. Nicholas J. Appel. If you have anything to say, please feel free to do so. What a grind. Man, Armon, I thought you had it. Again, I want to tell my wife, Joan Autumn, thank you for enduring this 10 weeks from me.

Naval special warfare gave me some roots. But this place woke me back up. I was hoping it would do that. You meet guys like Benji and guys like Matt and they really drive you to introspectively look inside and wake up early, go to the gym even though you’re tired. Eat the right things, treat your body like a machine, and I couldn’t be more honored to leave class 70 and be a graduate top gun. You’re all Top Guns in my eyes.

What what we had a tragedy in the beginning losing some students which is why I wanted to quit but I ended up getting into a tighter net group with a bunch of guys that I really enjoyed being around. I’d like to shout out to my dad if he’s listening. You instilled a lot inside of me, Papa, even though I may not speak to you as much as I should. But I appreciate our Dutch heritage and I appreciate the honor of walking away from this class as the top gun. URA, go Navy. And I love you all. Thank you so

Much, gentlemen. Man, super proud of you guys and I hope you guys are proud of yourselves. Don’t take this accomplishment or graduation from this program as the end all be all. U, ultimately this is just the beginning of everything you have in front of you. I’ve told you guys the first day that I met you, I don’t care about your past. I don’t care about your background. I don’t care what you did in the military. I don’t care what courses you went through because ultimately I care about who you are today because that person is going to shape who you are tomorrow. Just because you went through this training, do not sit on a pedestal and say, you know what, oh, I went through this training. I know everything there is to know. Continue to train. Diversify your training. Train in the gym. Go train in a martial arts gym. Go take firearms classes. Go train. Consistently. Train.

The reason why I say that is because you are either getting better or you are getting worse. The reason why I say diversify your training is because if all you do is lift weights inside of a gym, that does not make you an asset. As much as we may think it does. So, diversify your training. Continue to be an asset, not a liability. You are either getting better or you are getting worse. I hope to see you guys out on the range. I hope you guys get to see me and we meet in the field. Ultimately, I hope you guys reach out to me if you guys need anything whatsoever. Maintain being an asset. Do not be a liability. Be the protector that you are and that you came to be. Congratulations, gentlemen. All right, we’re almost done here. So, as we come to the conclusion of this ceremony, I want to take another moment to just reflect on the significance of today and the people who helped make it possible.

First and definitely foremost the friends and family of our graduates on live stream here. Behind every graduate is a network of loved ones who provided strength and motivation through every challenge. And today we celebrate not just the graduates but also the unwavering support that has brought them here. So a round of applause to our exceptional instructors especially Benji Matt. Your knowledge, dedication, and leadership have transformed these students into professionals that are ready to take on the world. You’ve done more than teach skills. You’ve instilled the principles of quiet, con confidence, assertiveness, and control that define the PWA motto and the foundation of our training. So, a round of applause for them. To our administrative team who works tirelessly behind the scenes and you don’t even always see them. We’ve got Christina, our student services coordinator.

Mari and John in admissions, Jordan in marketing, we’ve got Omer who does just a little bit of everything, and Andrea, our director of administration. Your leadership and attention to detail keeps everything running seamlessly. So, round of applause for them as well. Okay, so graduates of class 70, you now join the ranks of an elite group of certified executive security specialists. You represent PWA in everything you do from this day forward. The values you’ve embraced, quiet, assertive, and control, are not just words. They’re the principles that will guide you in your careers and in your life. They’re the qualities that set you apart and prepare you to excel in this vital and challenging field. But let let me remind you, it’s not the end of your relationship with us. You’re now part of our family, and we’re here to support you as you continue to grow and succeed.

Whether you seeking some guidance, additional training, or just to call us up to say, “Hey, I did this really cool thing,” know that you will always have a home with us. And as you leave here today, I urge you to carry the lessons you’ve learned and the principles you’ve cultivated into everything you do. This world needs protectors, those who bring safety, stability, and integrity to every single situation. So, be proud of what you’ve achieved. And know that we’re proud of you. So go forward with confidence knowing that you’re equipped not only with the skills but also with the character to make a lasting impact. You are quiet, assertive, and in control of what you do next. So congratulations. The future is yours. Now go and make your mark.