Free Within Arm's Length: A Secret Service Agent's Definitive Inside Account of Protecting the President by Dan Emmett

but of course never where he could hear us.
    Most, but not all, of these instructors were fun people who enjoyed their work, including the somewhat seemingly demented hand-to-hand instructor. One instructor, who did not seem to fall into the category of even approachable, did, however, seem to enjoy throwing cast-iron training handguns at the head of any student he did not feel was paying attention to the lesson. These dummy weapons were designed for official training purposes, although they could also be used unofficially to deliver a point, as a classmate discovered.
    One day, a student was not paying attention, and this instructor let fly with the training weapon, striking the student squarely in the head drawing considerable blood and nearly knocking him unconscious. The instructor looked at my bleeding classmate, who was beginning to resemble a case from the ER, and spelled his name for the student in case he wanted to file a complaint. We looked at each other and looked down at our colleague, each of us with an “oh, shit” look on our faces, and then helped him to the emergency medicine office, where he was tended to and promptly returned to class. Even if my friend had required stitches and hospitalization, which, fortunately, he did not, there would have been no complaint filed.
    This particular instructor became one of our best friends after graduation. He was from the old school, and simply believed that hard lessons were the ones best remembered. Being a graduate of the Marine Corps school of pain presided over by Staff Sergeant McLean, I had no problem with this sort of thing and understood his methods. Then again, I was never struck in the head by a flying cast-iron handgun.
    ELEVATORS AND DISLOCATED JOINTS
    As with most who serve in the military and law enforcement, everyone in my class enjoyed life a great deal, and there was always something fun going on, usually at someone’s expense. One morning, that someone was me.
    On this day, the class was sitting around the mat room and practicing various holds on each other while waiting for our sadomasochistic instructor to arrive. Without warning, I was seized by three of my classmates, who handcuffed my ankles together and my hands behind me. We had been practicing handcuffing, and I was duped into believing it was practice until I was carried like a freshly slain deer toward the elevator banks. Upon reaching the elevator, my classmates lowered my PT shorts to my knees and threw me into the elevator after pushing the buttons for all floors. Keep in mind that this was a main Secret Service building, where many people worked and rode the elevators each morning. Just before the door closed, my pals picked me up again, and this time delivered me to the women’s locker room, where I was unceremoniously deposited on the floor amid several female Secret Service employees in various stages of undress. Hearing screams of disapproval, my classmates returned to retrieve me, at which time I was delivered to the mat room and then released in time for class as if nothing had occurred. If this type of incident occurred today it would probably trigger a congressional investigation. In those days, this was considered good, clean fun, and as usual, no complaints were lodged.
    During the same session, while practicing a counter to a rear chokehold, I dislocated the elbow of my partner and good friend, who happened to have been one of my morning assailants. There was an audible pop heard by all in the mat room, he went pale, and his elbow was not in the place where it should have been. He was taken to George Washington Hospital, where his elbow was relocated to its normal place, and then he returned to training. Even today controversy about the issue still swirls, and I am asked whether or not I intentionally popped my friend’s elbow.
    THE FORMAL FOLLOW-UP
    A great deal of our training was both practical and fun. An example of this was training in how to operate out of the