The Debrief with Jon Becker

On the 15th of December 2014, a terrorist took over the Lindt Chocolate café in Martin Place, in the heart of Sydney, Australia, holding 18 customers and staff hostage, creating a siege that would last for over 16 hours. Although numerous hostages escaped, by the time the event conclude,d 2 innocent people were dead, 4 others were injured.   For 10 years, this incident was suppressed under a government-mandated gag order. This prevented the New South Wales Police Tactical Operations Unit (or TOU) members from even publicly revealing their names.  As a result, despite a detailed and scathing coroner’s inquest report, the largest and most expensive in Australian history, there has been very little discussion about what actually happened that night, particularly from a tactical perspective.In keeping with the standard policy of The Debrief, we will not be discussing the name, objectives, or affiliations of the terrorist in the hope that time will erase his memory.  We will, of course, be discussing the names of the team, and in this case, hostages, because they are heroes and need to be remembered. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben Besant. Guest:My guest today is Ben Besant.  Ben, or ‘Officer A’ as he was identified in the coroner’s report, was the lead member of the Alpha Team during the intervention and the officer who engaged and killed the terrorist. He is currently the author of a book Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!  which details not only what happened that night but also explains a very personal battle to recover his mental health following ‘the Lindt Café siege.’Resources: Ben Besant - https://tigertigertigerbook.com/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086482286065#Resolute Ready - https://resoluteready.com/Official Report - https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2017/lindt_cafe_findings-and-recommendations.pdf

On May 24, 2022, an active shooter took the lives of 19 children and two staff members and physically and mentally injured the survivors, their families, staff, teachers and the broader community in Uvalde, Texas. At the request of Uvalde's leadership, the U.S. Department of Justice established the Critical Incident Review (CIR) to conduct an independent, objective assessment of what happened that day and assess the systems in place in the weeks leading up to May 24. The goal of the episode is to provide information to those most affected by the tragedy and to build knowledge regarding how to best respond to incidents of mass violence. This panel will provide an overview of the incident and present observations and recommendations from the DOJ report in the areas of tactics, leadership and incident command.Guests: Nazmia Comrie & Frank Fernandez - USDOJ COPS Office Resources: DOJ Report - https://cops.usdoj.gov/uvalde

Trey Sorensen, a Captain in the Pasadena Fire Department, and Bobby Crees, a Sergeant in the Pasadena Police Department, share gripping insights from the Eaton Canyon fire. They recount the harrowing first hours, highlighting chaotic evacuations fueled by relentless winds. Their discussions reveal the intense pressure faced by responders and the crucial coordination required to save lives. Personal anecdotes illustrate the emotional toll of the crisis, showcasing teamwork under fire and the resilience of the community amid destruction.

My guest today is Kim Pastore.  Kim’s husband Jorge Pastore was killed on November 11, 2023 while attempting to rescue hostages with the Austin, TX SWAT Team. This was a case we covered previously with the Team in Seasons 4 Episode 5 released on November 11, 2024.  However, Kim has graciously agreed to sit down with us and debrief the incident from her perspective.  This is an episode we have wanted to do for a long time to consider the spouses perspective on a LODD as well as consider the best practices for handling a LODD that an agency, team and individual offer can engage in to make this process as easy as possible for the family.     Contact Info:https://www.jpastorefoundation.com/

John Dowd, a former Navy SEAL and founder of SOFware, LLC, shares his insights on elite personnel selection. He discusses evolving assessment methods and the balance of skills and attributes essential for leadership. Dowd emphasizes the importance of choosing candidates who enhance team dynamics alongside physical endurance. He also explores the role of failure in training and how introspection can fortify leadership. Finally, he highlights the need for clear criteria and the impact of mentorship in selecting the right individuals for high-stakes environments.

My guest today is Casey Glass.  Casey is the founder of Warfighter Health and Performance and for the past 11 years has been a Special Operations Strength Coach for US SOF units.  Casey’s Grew up on a ranch in Texas.  In college, she played soccer at Texas Christian University and interned with the strength and conditioning staff her senior year.  While pursuing her master’s in health and Fitness at Purdue University she became their Graduate Assistant Strength Coach.  She then went on to work for the University of Arkansas for 4.5 years starting as a paid intern and leaving as the Associate Director of Olympic Sports Strength and Conditioning.  Eleven years ago she accepted a position that would change her life working in the Human Performance Program for a US Special Operations unit working to improve our warfighters’ operational performance and resilience.  Last year she founded Warfighter Health and Performance an organization designed to bring the experience and skills our SOF units are receiving to law enforcement special operations units.  Book Recommendation:Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky - ISBN-13: ‎978-0805073690Building the Elite by Craig Weller & Jonathan Pope - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0578918099Contact Info:https://www.warfighterhp.com https://www.linktr.ee/warfighterhp 

On June 28, 2022, the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (aka GVERT) was working as a quick response team for narcotics surveillance when a call went out of an active bank robbery in progress.  Two suspects, covered almost completely in body armor and heavily armed with SKS rifles were robbing the Bank of Montreal branch in nearby Saanich BC.  The suspects had herded all of the bank patrons and employees into the back of the bank and then proceeded to wait more than 12 minutes in the entrance vestibule of the bank hoping to ambush and kill the responding officers.  In accordance with their policy of remaining covert until suspects left the bank to avoid creating a hostage situation, responding officers from Saanich, Central Saanich and nearby Victoria PD descended on the area and inserted into covert locations around the bank.  The GVERT team left the surveillance and headed immediately to the bank.  As they arrived on scene and gained situational awareness, the two male subjects, covered head to toe in armor and armed with SKS 7.62 x 39 rifles with high-capacity magazines, exited the bank. The team raced into the parking lot in their surveillance van, deployed a flashbang, and began to exit to effect arrest.  As they did the suspect nearest the van calmly turned and opened fire on the van.  In just a few seconds, 6 of the 7 operators in the van were shot, some multiple times.  All of them were injured and at least one of them was at immediate risk of death.The remaining team members and patrol officers returned fire eventually killing the suspects.  What transpired over the next few minutes can only be described as a heroic performance by team members and army of patrol officers and other first responders who quickly transitioned from taking the suspects into custody, to searching for a possible third shooter, clearing the bank, freeing the hostages, dealing with numerous IEDs and most importantly providing care and transport for their injured teammates.  This is the first of a two part series that will look at this event through the several different perspectives.  This episode will be unlike any previous episode of the debrief because of the sheer number of people we were able to interview.  The agencies, patrol officers and teams involved in this incident gave us access to more than a dozen people who responded to the event.  As a result, we will be seeing incident from the perspectives of the team commander, team leaders, detached sniper element, assaulters, medics, and even the patrol supervisor for the day.  It is our hope that doing so will allow us to understand not only what happened, but how their training allowed them to succeed in an almost unwinnable situation and how their lessons learned from the event informed future training and tactics. In this first part we will look at the timeline of the event itself, in part two we will sit down on video with three of the team members to look back at the events and formally discuss lessons learned.In keeping with the standard policy of the debrief we will not mention the suspects’ names or objectives in the hopes that they will be lost to the sands of time.  We will however mention the names of responding officers as they are heroes and need to be remembered as such.One additional note, this episode has a corresponding decision-making exercise created by the California Association of Tactical Officers.  Please be sure to run that exercise with friends or your team.