Since taking a leave of absence from his position with Independent Security Advisors LLC to volunteer in Ukraine, Mr. Parker has tried to refrain from posting on the company web site and blog.
He has posted an occasional update or commented on topics such as political violence and current events of professional interest, but in general his time and attention were focused on more pressing matters in Ukraine. As we enter the home stretch of 2022 and his pending return, and given the body of work ISA and Mr. Parker have done over the last two months we thought it was a good time for an update from Mr. Parker directly.
October 2022
Hello all from the beautiful nation of Ukraine where we are celebrating the retaking of the regional capital city of Kherson from the Russians.
My thanks to the board and executive team of ISA for keeping the lights on and continuing to serve our clients and students in my absence.
One of the little reported threats Ukraine faces in its war with Russia is the assassination of its local, regional, and national leadership. So, to address the threat we were asked by the Office of Terrorism for The National Police of Ukraine and regional law enforcement to provide executive protection training to a team of officers. This training started October 18th with the first 24 students from various LE organizations graduating after the standard 80 hours of training and completion of all written and practical exams and exercises.
Combat Training
The following week we conducted Urban Warfare training so these officers could assist in the defense of the city should Belarus or Russia make the real stupid decision to come here. We covered reconnaissance, patrolling, OP operations, assault planning and an urban assault of an village to include building clearing.
November
In November we were again asked to conduct training to additional regional and national law enforcement , so this class started on November 1st and we graduated 14 more members of law enforcement. It was during the research and updating of our threat assessment course material that we discovered to our dismay that we had such a large sample size of threats to elected and public officials from political violence in the United States. This led us to post an article on November 1st where we looked back at the 16 articles over the last six years we have written on political violence and the security of elected and public officials. So that makes 17 articles on the topic and only now do we see the United States Capitol Police asking for additional resources, and that is after the attack on the Speakers husband.
Continuing along those lines the company also announced in November that we would offer our protective services in any capacity to election workers in Arizona, as well as to other officials nationally. Now that the midterms are over, we will start looking at how we can support the democratic process going into 2024. This will include the continued training of law enforcement to provide EP operations for their elected representatives and additional pro-bono work with both political parties.
Special Recognition
With training completed on the second class we were honored to present the graduation certificates to the officers from the Security Services of Ukraine, and it became quite an event. Instead of simply providing the commander with certificates to hand out, the command welcomed us to their headquarters for a briefing, speeches, the formal presentation of each certificate, and we were presented with an unexpected honor in recognition for the training program.
The public relations team for the agency released more on Facebook. You can find more at https://www.facebook.com/SSO.Rivne.region
A day later class one came to see us in our office to receive their certificates and they also conducted a presentation to recognize our work. These gifts and honors will never be forgotten and will be front and center in our office when we return to the US.
Location is irrelevant
After consultations with the advisers on the ISA board we followed our policy of giving a portion of the profit and our salary in the classes name to a local charity. Though we received no payment for these classes we saw no reason to stop that tradition simply for financial reasons or because we are in Ukraine.
So, in honor of the students of class 01 and class 02 we decided to fund five scholarships. These scholarships will pay the college and or vocational training for one person to go to personal fitness trainer certification training with an additional training to specialize working with wounded warriors and police.
Scholarships 2, 3, and 4 will cover the cost for wounded warriors, police or their families who may need fitness or rehab services and scholarship 5 will cover the cost to train a current personal trainer in the advanced techniques of working with the disabled.
We hope through these small gestures we will provide for the rehab and fitness of our brothers and sisters of the Ukrainian military and police wounded in this war against Russia and locally build the institutional knowledge to continue treating those in need.
Veterans Day
On veterans’ day 2022 we were extremely honored and proud to announce we have entered into an agreement with a civilian fitness center that provides services to American volunteers, Ukrainians and police who are wounded here in Ukraine.
While the center does not charge anything to the officer or veteran, we will be funding memberships through the scholarships we previously mentioned for their families. The belief being If the wounded warrior or officer and his family work out together, they can heal together as a family.
We are also going to fund the training of a personal trainer in the special needs and techniques for wounded warriors for this center. In addition, we are seeking medical professionals and rehabilitation specialists willing to conduct briefings or training by video conference with the trainers here in the procedures and techniques in use with American wounded warriors.
Final Notes
November 13th we will begin conducting an 50-hour class on how to be an instructor with subtopics on close quarters combat etc.
The first 13 students are coming from Ukrainian law enforcement and the military, and they’ll go back to their organizations with the knowledge of how to conduct training, prepare lesson plans and how to use the ISD process.
These 13 will serve as assistant instructors for some of the training we conduct and when certified will become instructors with the departments, agencies, or units. They will share the lessons they learned on the line fighting the Russians with newer soldiers preparing to get into the fight.
We hope these 13 will become 24- and then 36 and they can send some of the foreigner’s home. We hope this small program helps the Ukrainian Army see the virtue of building their own training command.
So that’s what we have been up to the months of October and November and now we are preparing to possibly return home for the holidays. Any questions about our work can be referred to [email protected].
Closing Announcement
The board of ISA will resume its normal operations and responsibilities as of January 1, 2023, and the interim executive team will resume their previous positions within the company. A notice will be filed with the appropriate state agency when necessary.
This change of company leadership is the result of Mr. Parkers pending return from service in Ukraine and not due to a sale or reshuffle within the company. All contracts entered into during the time of Mr. Parkers absence are in full affect without change. All current financial, regulatory, and legal obligations are likewise in full affect and ISA will stay in full compliance during the transition.
The ISA training schedule for 2023 will not be affected and all current training programs will continue as planned. All operations in support of our clients will continue without disruptions.
On behalf of the entire team at Independent Security Advisors LLC we would like to thank all our partners, clients, and students during 2022. Its never easy to replace a key member of a team, especially one that been with the company from the beginning, but with Mr. Parkers full support and the support of our clients and partners 2022 became a growth year for the company and one of eye-opening enlightenment for the board.
Questions about this announcement should be directed through the ISA web site using the contact us portal at https://www.eptraining.us/
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