Sunday was quiet restful and relaxing. In the afternoon we went to the mall again to shop for more maternity clothes for Jenny. This time they needed to be winter clothes. It was the 14th of November and fall was showing the coming winter chill early.

The mall experience was better this time. It was packed with people hoping to get an edge on the Christmas rush. Security was very heavy – both outside on the parking lots and in the mall. I even noticed tag scanners at the parking lot entrances.

Sunday evening we made a big supper; the full spread. With all the training going on for the next three weeks, good meals would likely be a scarcity.

The agency people were at the gym at 8 sharp. This was another hand-picked group, same as before. Ty handed me a brown office folder sealed with tamper tape and marked ‘For your eyes only’.

“You’re one of the few that I know of with this kind of access,” he replied. “You can read it later,”

Ching Lee, Vicky and I led them to the mats and started. We were still on the mats when Dad led the Rochester group in with Captain Peters.

“Thanks Dad,” I said. “Does Lorrie have you busy all day?”

“I’m going back to the airport and help set up the parts room. A shipment of parts racks came in this morning that are to be assembled in the side hangar next to the temporary office,” he replied. “Call me when you need me to move this group.”

The first place I carried the group was to an office meeting room for introductions and a brief question and answer session. Besides Captain Peters, there were 4 women and 10 men; four of the men were ex-military.

All of them had 5 years or better of service with the department and a variety of life experiences. The first place they were going to start was with Jamie. Peterson had said that our people carrying firearms were a concern for his department. This group was going to get the same training my security employees received. Other than the shoot, don’t shoot this should be a cake walk for them. If they had never been through one of those, it would be a humbling experience.

It was noon when Dad brought in the 20 from Michigan to start the process. They and the Rochester group were carried to Island Buffet for lunch and the bus was full. I sent Roseanne and Jason with them. I stayed and ate in the refreshment center with the agency group.

After lunch the Rochester group went to the gun club for their first attempt at the shoot-don’t shoot course. I went with them to assist Jamie.

The Michigan group went with Roseanne and Jason. The afternoon would be spent on getting their ID cards and all the things that HR needed. It would take two, possibly three days to do orientation, teach the computer system, how to monitor the camera surveillance system and how to document their time and daily routine. By the time they were finished that part I hoped that the Rochester group would be on their way home.

This group from Michigan was somewhat unique compared to our other sites. This entire group was bilingual, a first for JBG security. We had seven languages covered. It was part of a new approach to college security and very necessary at the M&M campuses.

Both of those colleges catered heavily to foreign students and according to the agency, there were a sizeable number who were sympathetic to radical ideologies.

Before the ten days were up I needed to pick one of this group to be site director, then give him the list of people who were to always be split on different shifts from the agency. I had decided that this time around, no one at the site was going to know the agency people were there.

Several from this group were good candidates for the position. They had held leadership positions in their previous jobs.

It was 4 when we finally called it quits at the gun club. We had spent all afternoon there and I had one group of demoralized people from Rochester, including Captain Peters.

The shoot-don’t shoot course at the Queen Anne Gun and Hunt club had been years in the making. It was the oldest gun club on the shore and had a membership list of VIP’s from local industry and politics. Senators, Representatives, former vice presidents and many high ranking military officers were on the lifetime members list.

A person or group could book almost any kind of hunt – anywhere in the world – from the club contacts. Jason, Judge Slaughter and Dad were lifetime members. When we first started using the club with the girls, I used Dad’s family membership. When we started the security business, JBG purchased a corporate membership.

The clubhouse could seat 500 people and regularly did for the Ducks Unlimited events, the Eastern Shore Goose Hunting Guides Association, the Delmarva Whitetail Association and the Maryland Wild Game Club. The Maryland Trap and Skeet Shooters Club had a monthly tournament and the Delmarva Pheasant Club held all their annual events there. The commercial caters in the area fought to cater those events.

The club had a rifle range, an archery range and multiple trap and skeet shooting sites. It sold ammunition at discount rates to members by the truckload.

The shoot-don’t shoot course had been built by volunteers years ago as a different shooting challenge and to break up the boredom. I really think that some of the old timers had OK Corral fantasies the way it was laid out.

The course had steadily improved as technology improved. It was a fifty station course with mock buildings, streets and wooded areas with popup and appearing targets that a shooter had to decide which ones were threats. Some bore disguises and others did not. Each of the stations had several different scenarios to challenge you. All of it was controlled remotely by radio control.

There was a fee to use the course that I gladly paid. The fee paid for the two club employees to operate the course as you made your way through. I required all JBG security people to pass this course with a 95 point rating. They went through the course twice to get a possible 100 points.

A point was deducted if you missed the target, or you shot one that was not a threat or if you waited more than five seconds to shoot or declare a non-threat.

The best – and I gave wiggle room on the times the first run through – for the Rochester was 75 points. The average of the 15 was 60!

I did not need to say how poorly they had done; they knew it and they would feel much worse tomorrow when they saw the scores of the agency group. I was not going to tell them that the agency group had been through the course dozens of times on the taxpayer’s dime.

Jenny, Marcy, Lorrie, Vicky, Ching Lee and I carried the groups to the Farmers Buffet Diner for supper. Dad drove one bus and I drove the other. One of the first things I had done when I came home from the Marines was getting my commercial driver’s license because I was thinking about driving a truck to make a living. This was the first time I had driven a vehicle that I needed that for.

Before I took the Rochester people to the motel I offered them the use of our rental pool, in case they wanted to go anywhere or check out the night life in Washington or Baltimore (that were only an hour away). They took four.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.