ITG Alumni Profiles

2008

Greg FAUGHT, ITG 9

“Precision”

Greg Faught is a graduate of all four open enrollment training courses offered by the International Training Group™. He also serves as ITG®’s Subject Matter Expert on Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).

A 1982 Graduate of Lodi, California High School, Greg went on to serve in the California Army National Guard with the 76th Infantry Detachment as a Pathfinder (Airborne) from 1982-1987. He then served in the US Army Reserve from 1987-1988 with the 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne), also as a Pathfinder. After being honorably discharged from the service, he began his Law Enforcement (LE) career and has been serving the Stockton Police Department (PD) since 1990.

Adjusting slightly, Teri then went to the University of Washington, with a double major in Horticulture and Zoology, in hopes of one day working on the Cousteau scientific vessel, the Calypso. Although the Calypso did not turn out to be in the cards, Teri does say that college taught one lesson that has been vital to her in the security / protection industry. That lesson was “discovering that I could understand people better once I understood rats better.”

EOD / IED
Currently, as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) certified Bomb Technician, Faught is a member of the Stockton California Police Department’s EOD Team and the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Bomb Squad. His duties include frequently serving as the Officer in Charge of the EOD response to explosive or potentially explosive related incidents. These situations often require Greg’s coordination between the Bomb Squad, Police Patrol, Fire Department, Fire HAZMAT, and Ambulance services.
Another of Greg’s duties is the planning, coordination, and conduct of numerous training events for the Metropolitan Bomb Squad. The subjects of his training courses have included: Explosives Safety & Destruction, IED Render Safe Procedures, and EOD Practical Exercises. He has also planned and conducted Explosives Recognition, IED Recognition, Vehicle Borne IED (VBIED) Demonstrations, and Explosives Safety training for over 400 Police Patrol, SWAT, Fire Department, and Executive Protection (EP) personnel, including many of the students of ITG®. He was responsible for the planning, production, and presentation of a training video on these subjects for “Roll Call” training to all Police Patrol personnel of the Stockton Police Department.

Pistol Competition
In addition to the precise nature of his IED/EOD work, Greg has also been quite successful at winning marksmanship trophies and medals by shooting more aggressively, faster, and certainly straighter than some serious, top notch competition. However, when meeting him, one is struck by his calm, quiet demeanor and the humility, almost embarrassment, with which he reluctantly begins discussing his impressive achievements. Nonetheless, once he is engaged in talking about shooting, tactics, and competition, Greg’s excitement becomes visible in his normally subdued body language and his passion is easily detectable in his speech.

“I earned individual Gold Medals on two separate occasions as a competitor in the ‘Police Action Pistol’ (combat pistol) event during the California Police Summer Games,” Greg said recently. It turns out that he medaled each time he participated individually, quite an achievement by itself, and also helped the Stockton PD Pistol Team earn team medals on a couple of occasions as well. But this is not the discussion that really gets Faught’s juices flowing. That does not happen until he discusses his greatest triumph.

Greg says, “The highest level I ever competed on was the ‘Law and Order Magazine’ National Tactical Invitational. I had to send a resume of my marksmanship competition record in to the organization and was eventually selected to go to Gunsite Training Center, which hosted the competition at their facility in Paulden, Arizona.” Greg competed with the Sig Sauer P226 9mm as his Duty Weapon and the Walther PPKS .380 as his Back-up. When the smoke had cleared after two strenuous days of competition, he was the high police participant, the “Top Cop” shooter.

He remembers that, “The competition was made up of ten scenarios; seven live fire courses and three force on force scenarios with simulated munitions. There was no gaming these courses.” Unlike any IPSC, USPSA, or other shooting competitions he had competed in previously, there was no prior knowledge of any of the courses of fire and no opportunity to rehearse. “It was more lifelike and reactionary than any other competition I had ever attended. Some of the courses had to be done with unfamiliar weapons and the scenarios included home invasion, room clearing by yourself, targets with clothes hung on them so you couldn’t see the scoring area, box targets with balloons, movers and shakers.”

ITG Training Courses
Over the course of his interview, there is one other topic of discussion that got Greg Faught moving excitedly and speaking passionately. That was his attendance at the Executive Protection Agents, Surveillance Detection, EP Handgun, and High Risk Environments (HRE) training courses taught by the International Training Group™.

“I don’t normally politic within the PD,” Greg says, “but I admit, I worked the angle to get into the ITG® Courses.” He was aware that ITG® conducted some of its programs in Stockton. He really was not certain what the training consisted of, but kept hearing a lot of good things from other cops about ITG® and what we were teaching. “With my background in LE, the Military, where I got to do a lot of pretty cool stuff, and shooting competitions I was very interested in getting involved,” he stated.
Once Greg learned that all ITG® Adjunct Instructors are ITG® Alumni, he also wondered if ITG® would eventually be interested in someone with a Bomb Squad/EOD background providing more robust training and demonstrations in the Explosives/IED/VBIED realm. As it turned out, Faught was such an impressive student that the discussion of his becoming an Adjunct Instructor just naturally developed.

What were his experiences as a student? He says, “My biggest hurdle during the Executive Protection Agent’s Training Course was changing focus from LE to EP in dealing with a threat. I had no problem recognizing an attack. The difficulty was with instantly providing the appropriate response to the attack from the EP perspective.”

One of the most difficult challenges in creating firearms training for personnel with a wide variety of backgrounds is to ensure that students with less experience are able to learn and improve at the same time those with more experience are continually challenged and engaged. Faught’s feedback on the EP Handgun Training Course proves that ITG® hits the mark. “The first day was an important review of all the Fundamentals of Pistol Marksmanship plus the four part draw, weapons presentation, and skills building. Then the second day was full of the movement, tactics, and EP specific skills that really tested those fundamentals. Finally, on the last day the Force on Force scenarios with UTM (Ultimate Training Munitions) made us utilize everything we had learned and make it work in a stressful and less than ideal environment.”

What did Greg like most about the ITG® HRE Course? “A lot of education followed by a great deal of skills building. From a learning perspective the Cover & Evacuate and Vehicle Down live fire drills really reinforced ‘getting off the X.’ Then, the two and four man Fire and Maneuver Courses…well…the truth of the matter is that you cannot do that kind of realistic training in most environments because it can be dangerous and most police officers are not trained to the level where you can safely do that drill…from the weapon handling skills, tactics, and weapon safety standpoints. But the students in the class had all been given enough thorough instruction on skills, tactics, and safety that they could handle it on all three levels. Because you can only go as fast as your slowest person, whether they are the most inexperienced or the least skilled, it is not often you would find a group where everybody in the group would be capable of performing at that level.”

ITG® believes this type of realistic training, designed to help every student who comes through our doors reach an attainable but demanding standard, is a huge differentiator between ITG® and many competitors. Others in this industry seem to believe that training should be a familiarization, allowing students to be exposed to concepts, skills, and tactics so they can feel good about themselves without being pushed to achieve a challenging standard. Unfortunately, some others use training as an attempt to get rid of every student who cannot meet the ultimate standard when he or she enters the door.
Greg sums up his feelings about his ITG® training experience this way, “The most important thing would be the skills building, because you have to walk before you can run. I think most schools, law enforcement and private sector alike, and I’ve been to a lot of them, do not focus enough on the fundamentals of shooting. As the ITG® instructors repeat over and over, it’s the fundamentals of marksmanship that will ultimately allow you to win the gunfight.”

Teri Seago, ITG3

Benefits of Training to a Higher Standard

How does one go from wanting to be Jacques Cousteau to being a highly respected protective services agent and security manager? To find out, ask Teri Seago, graduate of three International Training Group™ courses.

“I went to Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, Washington and that’s where I started being interested in Marine Biology,” Teri said recently. “I wanted to be Jacques Cousteau, but then found out I couldn’t be, because there already was a Jacques Cousteau.”

Adjusting slightly, Teri then went to the University of Washington, with a double major in Horticulture and Zoology, in hopes of one day working on the Cousteau scientific vessel, the Calypso. Although the Calypso did not turn out to be in the cards, Teri does say that college taught one lesson that has been vital to her in the security / protection industry. That lesson was “discovering that I could understand people better once I understood rats better.”

What derailed the path to Marine Biology glory? In August of 1991 Teri started training in the Martial Arts. She fell in love and that training has continued to this day. Teri currently holds an Eighth Degree Dan in Bujinkan, a combination of nine martial traditions from Japan’s Civil War Period.

Teri explains that, “It is a pre–sport Martial Art and includes, among other things, the traditional Ninjitsu skills emphasizing surveillance, surveillance detection, blending in with one’s surroundings, and keeping a low profile.” Teri believes that these are essential skills for a security professional operating in any protective services environment.

Although her work schedule makes it difficult, whenever she can Teri continues to train with the crème de la crème of Bujinkan instructors and, over the last couple of years, has added training in the Russian form of combat training known as Systema. What’s the best compliment Teri has gotten from one of these instructors? “You’re not so bad for a girl.” That’s right, if you had not guessed from the spelling of her name, Teri Seago is a female protective services agent and security manager at a truly high risk location here in the United States.

How did this happen? In Teri’s own words: “I found that I was, by nature, a ‘protector.’ After the horrific events of 9/11, I was compelled to reconsider my purpose in life. I then met Dave Johnson (now the President of ITG Consultants, Inc.) for the first time in June of 2002. When I found out that he was going to be in San Francisco presenting a training seminar called, ‘Introduction to Protective Services,’ something told me that I needed to be there. To my surprise, Dave took me seriously. Not only did I attend the training, but he also encouraged me to pursue a career in Executive Protection. As a female looking to enter into a male-dominated business, I was deeply honored that someone of his professional standing took such an interest.”

Fast forward to November of 2004 - Teri had been paying her dues with occasional special-event security work for one company, while also performing shift-supervisor duties at a convention security firm in San Francisco. Working show after show and dealing with a steady stream of untrained, unmotivated guards, she was becoming frustrated and dangerously close to burn-out.

She says that “what was even worse was the feeling that I was not totally prepared for those frequent occasions when boredom suddenly gave way to total panic. We dealt with medical emergencies, fires, and protest activity on a fairly regular basis. Frankly, each time I encountered those things I had the uneasy feeling that my skill set wasn’t cutting it. In other words, I had just enough knowledge to know what I didn’t know.”

When Teri received the opportunity to attend the International Training Group’s 12-Day Executive Protection Agents’ Training Course, she could not resist. “Although I was more than a little nervous at being such a ‘newbie’ in a class with many experienced operators, the instructor cadre expressed their faith in me. Their confidence was infectious. I found myself diving into each day of training with anticipation and joy. I kept experiencing ‘Ah-HAH!’ moments throughout the program. These were moments where the questions I had not even been able to articulate were fully answered.”

Teri was somewhat surprised by the intensity of the training, but realizes now that this prepared her for the reality of protective operations. “The days were very, very long. There were several occasions when I thought I had reached my limit. Amazingly enough, one of the instructor team would magically appear to give me a pep talk, cajole, or tell a story. They made me laugh, and helped me to find my feet and keep going.”

She recalls being “astounded” by the depth of the instructors’ experience. But, she says, “Their humility was unbelievable as they continually reminded us that all of the curveballs they threw at us during training scenarios and the Practical Exercise were events which had actually occurred to them and their associates on real-world operations. They taught us to learn from their mistakes so we would not make them ourselves.”

No only did Teri graduate from the 12-day Executive Protection Agents’ Training Course, she also completed the three-day Executive Protection Handgun Training Course. Thoroughly convinced that the International Training Group™ program of instruction was what she needed for her professional development, the following March she attended the three-day Surveillance Detection Training Course as well.

Naturally, her employers at the convention security firm were more than happy to exploit her new skills, and as a result she began to receive Executive Protection and High-Value Asset Protection assignments during the course of each convention. Suddenly, she found herself protecting visiting CEO’s, dignitaries, and celebrities who were making appearances at the conventions. She remembers being “delighted” to have the opportunity to secure an exhibition of Salvador Dali’s works and memorabilia valued at close to $50 million, during which time her security team was credited by the San Francisco Police Department for detecting and defeating a pre-robbery surveillance attempt.

She recently recounted another situation where she credits the knowledge she gained from the International Training Group™ with her success. “When King Abdullah II of Jordan was scheduled to speak at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, my company gave me only two days’ notice of the visit and my responsibility for it. But because ITG® had trained me in Advance Operations in accordance with U. S. Federal Protective doctrine and methodology, our team was totally ready. We impressed both the United States Secret Service detail and the Jordanian Consular Security personnel who were assigned to the event.” Not only did she receive a letter of commendation from the Secret Service, she also feels the networking skills she learned at ITG® were invaluable in establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the San Francisco Field Office. Teri has worked with agents from this office on several occasions since and knows that her success on that first assignment, in challenging circumstances, has led to the respect she is given today.

Her current duties began in July of 2005, when she received an assignment to take over a contract as the Security Manager for the largest HIV / AIDS service agency in San Francisco. Her self-described mission is “not only to provide an oasis of safety for the 121 staff and volunteers, but also to protect and work directly with the clients of the agency.” This is easier said than done, as the agency’s offices are located in the area of San Francisco with the highest violent-crime rate in the city.

In that area of high risk, she has dealt with staff members being stalked; shoot-outs in the street; police officers inadvertently pointing their weapons at her protectees; decisively subduing a 6 foot 2 inch tall, 200 plus pound male after forcing him to cease his assault on another man; and the occasional "psychotic, delusional, speed-freaks with guns." In her response to these incidents she credits “my training at ITG® with several direct ‘saves.’ These were situations where I’m pretty sure that I would have been either seriously injured or killed had I not known what to do. I’ve sent several notes to Dave and the team that pretty much say it all. They know how much I appreciate what they have taught me.”

Teri’s job also includes coordinating security for the myriad fund-raising events her agency conducts throughout the year. This requires that she coordinate protection with local law enforcement, Executive Protection teams (government, corporate, and private), and, as mentioned earlier, occasionally the US Secret Service. She is such a believer in ITG®’s training that two of the agents she has selected for her travel team are also ITG® alumni.

Additionally, Teri knows that the Tactical Medicine training she received at ITG® has been useful on many occasions. This she says is “Due to the fact that our lobby’s street-level entrance is at a major intersection in this high crime area, we often have injured people stumble in. Frequently they are seriously wounded, but I always remember that it’s necessary to first secure the situation tactically, as their attacker may be right behind them. I keep a Dyna-Med trauma bag at my desk and I’ve already had to refill the contents a couple of times.”

In addition to the myriad responsibilities she fulfills in her current job duties, she also finds time to serve as a role player in numerous scenarios for several different ITG® course offerings. It is extremely valuable to the International Training Group™ that former students like Teri frequently return to assist in the training of future protective service agents. This adds to the specificity and realism of ITG®’s training courses as well as to the camaraderie within the ITG® Alumni Association.

Teri herself, sums up her ITG® experience better than anyone else could do it for her. “I would like to thank Dave Johnson and the entire ITG® team for encouraging me to pursue a career in Protective Services, while at the same time giving me the skills necessary to survive it. Not only was the ITG® training superlative, but I have been blessed to have the benefit of their continuing mentoring and friendship. I may not be jetting around the world protecting celebrities right now, but in the future, who knows? What I do know is that everything I learned at ITG® is working to keep both myself and my clients safe and happy in a very, very uncertain world.”