Tactical Vision

Here is another episode that occurred at the McCook Police Department when my Dad was a part of it.

Someone in charge decided they needed a tactical team of some sort. The nearest S.W.A.T. team that could respond was the Nebraska State Patrol's S.W.A.T. and they could take an hour or more just to get a few guys in place and ready to roll. So McCook, being the metropolis of southwest Nebraska, needed a team all of it's own.

But S.W.A.T.? S.W.A.T. was a bit overused. Everyone had a S.W.A.T. team. Everyone had already seen S.W.A.T. on television. No, a better name had to be given.

So, the McCook P.D. formed the Special Service Unit, or S.S.U. With a name more reminiscent of the British S.A.S. or a developmentally disabled wing at a sanatorium, they could not go wrong. The only challenge would be finding a sufficient number of qualified officers in a department of 15 or so guys.

In moves that evoked the S.A.S. image, they were soon rappelling Australian style down some of the local buildings. While this was impressive, it was more than equaled by Dan and his friends, who crawled up the side of the 8 story senior living building in the heart of downtown.

In a move that evoked the developmentally disabled wing at a sanatorium image, they had an incident while working on clearing a house. Someone decided the exercise should be a live fire one. Practice as you play, so they say. I guess no one told them not to put their fingers on the trigger while they cleared the house.

And I guess no one taught them about sympathetic reflexes. The idea of a sympathetic reflex is that parts of your body will emulate the actions of other parts of your body. So if you are walking in a house and are startled , for instance, when your leg twitches and jumps, so will your finger. You probably wouldn't notice this happening, unless your finger was firmly on the trigger of your weapon.

Fortunately, a gunshot to the meaty part of the gluteous maximus is not fatal. I didn't hear much about the S.S.U. after that incident.