Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2020 i SkillSet

FREEDOM’S BEST FRIEND When choosing who we want to feature on the cover of Skillset, we sometimes fall into a trap of one-dimensional thinking. Will we select a flag-waving celebrity or an athlete? Or maybe a public servant who has defied the corrupting grasp of our political system? While such people are definitely worthy of cover status, we tend to overlook some of the most loyal, hardworking members of our law-enforcement and military communities. That’s right, I am talking about canines. While I was overseas fighting in foreign lands, I was able to witness these working dogs in action. Their fearlessness and devotion to their jobs are utterly incredible. I was always amazed how, at the end of the day, they would switch from being terrorist-hunting fur missiles back into…

It seems that with each passing day, we are watching more and more of our history being rewritten. Statues are being torn down, major events like the moon landing are the targets of conspiracy theorists, and basic American facts are no longer a source of pride for many U.S. citizens. Not us. We refuse to give up on the greatest nation on the planet. We’re proud of our past, but we acknowledge that not everything was perfect when compared to today’s cultural standards. However, if we don’t learn from our past, we can’t make the future better for our kids—including a future without Common Core math. But that’s a whole different story. Sadly, we are becoming a society that cares more about TikTok numbers and YouTube views than caring for…

Some guys are just born with it—that thing, that swagger, that magnetism—that makes them stand out in crowds and live lives most people envy. They seem to have no problems landing sweet jobs right out of college despite only being known for winning gold medals at the Dorm Bong Olympics while in school. If you happen to find a $5 bill in your old jeans, it only underscores the fact that they are the type of people who find $100 bills in theirs. A lot of people call that “luck.” Don’t sweat it, though, if you are not that guy because—spoiler alert—most of us aren’t. So what are we? We are the Mediocre Majority. The basic schmoes who have a great time with our friends, who provide for our families,…

Making the decision to bring a protection dog into your home requires careful consideration. These are highly trained and very effective security dogs from specialized trainers. The type of training and style of protection you are looking for are the main things to consider when looking for one to purchase. NO RULES Service and protection dog training is an unregulated industry, so picking your trainer is key. Doctors, lawyers and even realtors have to meet minimum training and accreditation standards. “Not in this industry,” says Mark Cassity of Aktiv Dog, located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Cassity continues, “When explaining a personal protection dog to someone, I like to lay out the two polar-opposite stances on training. The first can be referred to as ‘the street fighter.’ This type of training…

IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, WE’VE HEARD RUMORS ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF AMERICA GOING TO WAR. THE ENEMY? IRAN? RUSSIA? CHINA? YES? NO? MAYBE? REAL OR IMAGINED, SUCH RUMORS INEVITABLY LEAD TO DISCUSSIONS OF THE READINESS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR AN ALL-OUT WAR AGAINST ANOTHER NATION WITH A STRONG MILITARY THAT IS BACKED BY A HARDENED POPULACE. Memes abound, some harkening back to the Greatest Generation or Red Dawn (the 1984 original, with the late, great Patrick Swayze, not that abomination we were subjected to in 2012), lamenting the softness of today’s millennials or Generation Z, or whatever else we are calling “kids these days.” It is easy to see why this happens; predictably, every generation finds the one that follows it somehow lacking. However, there is some truth…

WHAT IS BJJ? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a grappling martial art with roots in Japanese samurai culture. BJJ focuses on controlling one’s opponent and reaching a dominant position on the ground before applying a joint lock or choke that forces a submission. Jiu-Jitsu translated from Japanese roughly means “the gentle art” or “the gentle skill.” BJJ is unique in that it doesn’t involve striking opponents, and it relies on finesse rather than on brute force and athleticism. Carlos and Helio Gracie, a couple of young Brazilians, learned the art from a traveling Japanese practitioner in Brazil in the 1920s. They adapted and added to the system, eventually creating what is known today as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. The Gracie family honed and sharpened the martial art for decades in relative anonymity until the…

“COME ON, YOU APES! YOU WANNA LIVE FOREVER?” You think cockroaches are tough because they can survive through a nuclear apocalypse? Please, that is amateur-hour stuff. Let me introduce to the tardigrade, aka the “moss piglet.” This microscopic creature is basically immortal. It can survive up to 300-degree temperatures, it can live for over 30 years without food or water, and it could even live several days in space. And when things get really bad, they curl up in a death ball and just weather the storm. Now, let’s see if they can make it out of 2020. LAYING DOWN MAD BEATS Look, you can’t invade a country without some killer tunes! On June 6th, 1944, Canadian soldier Bill Millin, armed with only his bagpipes and kilt, played Scottish songs…

When a person thinks of Russia, often there are a few things that come to mind first. Naturally, vodka tends to be at the top of that list, with Stalin pulling in at a close second. The third thing? It’s usually a tossup between their nesting dolls and the fact that Russia is a frozen-over hellscape where the only sense of comfort comes from wearing an ushanka (that big furry hat you see in every movie with at least one Russian character in it) and drowning yourself in enough vodka to numb the pain of frostbite. Over the years, however, one item continually comes up that relates to the Russian penal system: the Russian prison switchblade. With a history clouded by rumors and hearsay, it is impossible to know for…

CQB K-9 is both developing and training in the use of high-tech kits for K-9s designed for on-target reconnaissance, long-distance tracking, canine protection and deployment, sensor placement, and communications between the handler or operator and their multipurpose dogs. These kits provide close- to long-range direct communications to the dog for directional movement via radio or 4G cellular to an earbud mounted onto a harness, inside a helmet or installed inside “Mutt-Muffs” to enhance mission-critical time on target. Goggles, specialized body armor and K-9 helmet cameras also provide level III-A protection for rappel/jump insertions. The helmet cameras provide live feeds directly to the handler with a wrist-mounted receiver or an app on a cellphone with infrared viewing. This shows the dog’s head point of view for examining a device or a…

In a day and age when the word “privileged” is taboo, the person I am writing about knows nothing about handouts. Ryk Maverick is the owner, lead designer, head craftsman, marketer and salesman of the lifestyle jewelry brand known as Starlingear. However, before we talk about his company, let’s talk a little bit about the man with the vision. Ryk is one of those people who is just driven. He is not scared of hard work and will keep pushing on whatever he is working on until he is able to step back, look at it and smile when he feels it is done. If I listed all Ryk’s accomplishments and the businesses he has run while also operating Starlingear, it would take up the entire article, so I’m just…

“THE MASSIVE AVENGER CANNON DISPENSES FIRE AT A RATE OF 70 ROUNDS PER SECOND, AND EACH ROUND IS A HAND GRENADE TRAVELING AT 3,000 FEET PER SECOND. ” PROLOGUE It had been a day of sandstorms, and the moonless sky was thick with dust. Gas flares from nearby oil facilities generated halos of red light in the thick air. It was a postapocalyptic atmosphere magnified by the abandoned feel of the Kuwaiti Air Base and the trash that swirled on the desert wind. It was hot, dry and dusty … ominous. As my combat pair, consisting of Dutch and myself, drove to the jets, both of us felt something in the air. Our two Warthogs were to launch at midnight. Two hours later, we were patrolling a restricted operating zone…

Weighing 168 pounds, holding my six-month-old daughter and posing with my newly issued psychology degree, I had money in the bank, a roof over my head and motivation on my mind. I was four years older than my classmates and a UPS employee when I walked across the stage and graduated debt free. College was never in my future when I was skateboarding, stage diving and stocking shelves as a teenager. It was only after four years in the U.S. Army infantry that I decided to attack college in the same manner as a soldier in the military. Meanwhile, many of my fellow students were taking loans, living on credit cards, driving new cars and tearing up the club three days a week like characters in a John Hughes film.…

Welcome back to summertime in ’Merica! Let’s hear it for freedom, sunshine and backyard barbecues! What’s the granddaddy of all things grilled, you ask? Brats, of course! Let’s start with the history of the bratwurst. Many countries have a national food that was formed out of a necessity of the times, and often this was some type of sausage. During tough times, particularly the winter, the poor didn’t want to waste any of the “leftovers” of the animals they had butchered, so they used the extra bits of lips, assholes and whatnot and encased them in intestines. Sounds amazing, right? The Germans did this, starting as early as 600 years ago with what is known as bratwurst, which literally translates to “without-waste sausage.” Now that the boring shit is out…

“What a hideous colour khaki is.”–Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s begin. COVID-19 has radically shifted our world. Every day we have been given new information on what is allowed, what is right, what is wrong, and what we are to do. Believe what you want, but I have assembled some of our “new norms,” and they are staggering! Here is what we have to look forward to for the remainder of 2020 in the pandemic world. MASKS We all have them now. They’re not going away anytime soon according to the CDC. (Although the WHO said they’re useless, but that’s a whole other story!) So, let’s think about this for a minute. You have to get groceries? Sure, make sure…

As the legendary gangsta-rapper-turned-television-police-officer Ice-T once said, “Pimpin’ ain’t easy, but somebody gotta do it.” I come from a city where pimps like Bishop Don Juan and Twilley Gator Shoes are treated like neighborhood heroes. These local icons were known for their distinguishing possessions that all ghetto superstars are required to have to succeed in urban pimpdom: shiny, bright-colored suits, a fly-ass hat, a pimp cane and the finest street walkers $20 can buy. That said, even the most successful pimps have operational budgets. A good hustler is thrifty and shops for his party favors at various discount outlets—think Goodwill, but for straight-up mack-daddies. In this issue’s fight scenario, our hero pimp visits Charlie’s Discount Brothel Basement for his weekly supply of leopard-skin condoms. Upon his checkout, Twilley notices a…

KYLE DANIELS HAS A SWITCH He is a calm, thoughtful speaker whose day job is helping clinically ill people get the medical services they need. But much like his time wearing the green beret of the U.S. Army Special Forces, flipping that switch means you will see a very different Kyle Daniels—the one who just might kick in your door. If you have only recently met him, you might never know that he was a special operator with two combat tours in Iraq, not to mention a number of other deployments he can’t even talk about. This Illinois native looks and talks so much like anyone else you would find in the Midwest that “Green Beret” might be the furthest thought from your mind. There is nothing sheepish about him,…