“Do You Have a Plan for the Worst 15 Seconds of Your Life?” – Life Saving Lessons from CIA Operator Rob Montgomery

SpyCast

Education, News, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2021

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rob Montgomery had a real scare on deployment in Afghanistan…the scare was back in Virginia though; he had a motion detect on his phone that showed multiple unidentified males outside his home in a sleepy college town - while his wife and children were asleep inside. You’ll need to listen to hear the rest of the story, but it did prompt Rob to think more deeply about the life-saving skills he developed over 34 years serving in some of the most austere and dangerous places on the planet. We talk “situational awareness,” CIA training, Krav Maga, and whether you need a go-bag!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to The CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:13.0	Welcome to Spycast.
0:15.0	My name is Dr. Andrew Hammond, a historian and curator here at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
0:23.0	Every week, Spycast explores a world of intelligence and espionage by bringing you in-depth conversations, spies, spymasters, intelligence officers and authors.
0:36.0	We explore the stories, secrets, tradecraft and technology of a world that looms beneath the surface of everyday life.
0:44.0	Welcome to this week's episode of Spycast.
0:48.0	This week's guest is a former Marine whose mission is quite simple, to prepare you to win in the worst 15 seconds of the worst day of your life.
0:59.0	While on his second tour in Afghanistan, Robin Montgomery received a motion detect from a camera back home in a quiet college town in Virginia.
1:09.0	What he saw was very concerning indeed.
1:13.0	An identified man were poised outside his home, one of them with a flashlight that looked like it could be on a handgun.
1:21.0	To give you full context, it was 4.30 in the morning and his wife and children were asleep inside.
1:30.0	You'll need to listen to hear how the story ends, but it will be well worth your while.
1:36.0	Rob is an operations officer in the CIA for 34 years. He served in some of the most austere and dangerous places on our planet.
1:46.0	He's a self-defense expert and author of Seconds Deliver Die.
1:51.0	Rob and I talk about CIA training, situational awareness, pravmagha and whether or not you need a go-bag.
2:00.0	One of the chapters and the discusses a go-bag. So I guess the first question would be, should everybody have a go-bag?
2:10.0	Well, probably no, not everybody needs a go-bag, but in the worst 15 seconds of the worst day of your life, you don't want to be left wanting.
2:20.0	The go-bag was something I threw into the book simply because it's one of the things that I've used over my career.
2:27.0	Obviously, if you're working overseas someplace and you have to worry about bombs and explosions and things like that,
2:36.0	it's nice to have something that you can just grab and go, working overseas. It's just a nice thing to have.
2:41.0	It's just another little step of preparation for the worst-case scenario without being paranoid about it, as opposed.
2:48.0	It's a nice little insurance policy. You know, I got to tell you, I wasn't expecting that to be the first question, but good on you.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from SpyCast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of SpyCast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.