John was heard muttering to All 
 about Competent trainers 
 JP> d.      He must have "seen the elephant" either in a military
 JP> My Comment:  I'm not sure I agree with "d".  Assuming your instructor
 JP> himself received a thourough grounding in correct technique and
 JP> tactics, then "a" & "b" is all you really need in an instructor.
 This is not necessarily a disagreement with your position.  It is
 however a somewhat different view.
 One may not _need_ to have experienced combat to be a good instructor,
 but when somebody is telling you that you experience such-and-such an
 emotion or physical reaction to being shot, shot at, or returning fire
 are you more likely to believe the person who has experienced such or
 the person who's been there?
 JP> The fact that he either did or did not shoot somebody once upon a time
 JP> strikes me as fairly irrelevant.
 If you were to have the choice of hiring an instructor and two
 candidates were approximately equal in everything except this
 experience, which do you think you would choose?
          "Clinton thinks a family value is when he can get
          all the women in one family at a lower rate than
          if he bought `em one at a time."
... What's moral for the GROUP is moral for the INDIVIDUAL.
--- FMail 1.02
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