Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my name's James Gearing, and this week it is my

absolute honor to welcome on the show, SWAT legend and the author of The Long Road Home, Sandy Wall.

Now, in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from Sandy's early life, his journey into law enforcement,

working narcotics, the evolution of the SWAT program, SWAT medic, school safety, and of course his book, which is filled with some incredible stories from his career and some of the men and women that he's served with.

Now before we get to this amazing conversation, as I say every week, please just take a

moment, go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and leave a

rating. Every five-star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for

others to find. And this is a free library of over 800 episodes now.

So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women's stories

so I can get them to every single person on planet Earth who needs to hear them.

So with that being said, I introduce to you Sandy Wool. Enjoy. Well, Sandy, I want to start by saying thank you so much for taking the time and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.

It's my honor. Thank you for the opportunity.

Now, we were connected by Chuck DeCheriera. So just as a kind of icebreaker, how do you guys know each other?

I used to run the Safari Land training group. It's Safari Land. I don't know if you're familiar with them out there. there, about the largest manufacturer of law enforcement equipment in the United States.

And they had a training program primarily consisted of the use of their products, which Chuck, being a SWAT guy, he probably could have taught a whole lot of things, but he primarily was a self-defense instructor.

And one of our product lines was Madadnaq Baton's,

and he was one of our instructors and hosted our conference a few times up there at his agency.

So I've known him for years.

He worked for me as an instructor when I was running the program, but a great guy, super talent, really enjoyed my time with those guys. Beautiful. Well, kind of first question, where on planet Earth are we finding you today?

I am in beautiful southeast Texas along the coastal bend, we call it, not far from the Gulf of Mexico. I'm about halfway

between the city of Houston and the city of Corpus Christi, and about 30 miles inland, if that

makes sense. Okay, absolutely, it does. So I would love to start at the very beginning of your

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