As the Biblical story goes, not yet the King, David took up to lament King Saul and his son Jonathan who fell in battle. He ordered that the sons of Judah be taught the Song of the Bow, written in the unknown Book of Jashar, mentioned in the Bible. (~2 Samuel 1:18)
Since the Jews went into exile, expelled in 70AD from their homeland Israel and Judea by the Roman conquerors, to be scattered to all corners of the world, they either did not know the art of the bow and arrow or could not defend themselves. However, they were subjected to 2000 years of carnage and persecutions of all sort, till today.
Caliber 3 is the new mindset
Caliber 3, in Israel, established in 2003 by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Col. Sharon Gat (Res.), in part to honor his brother-in-law, Captain Hagai Haim Lev, who was killed on July 10, 2002, in a military operation in the Gaza strip, is operating by active IDF members. The center has become the leading Counter Terror & Security training academy in Israel. Today Caliber-3 offers top security solutions, high threat protection, intelligence operations, and tactical training to military, law enforcement, government agencies, and commercial clients around the globe.
Caliber 3 Israel’s clients are comprised of some of the top law enforcement, military, government, and private security services agencies around the world. Each program specifically geared to their specific requirements.
The academy is certified by:
- The Israeli Defense Forces
- The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office
- The Israeli Ministry of Defense
- The Israeli Police
- The Israeli Ministry of Homeland Security
- The Israeli Ministry of Commerce and Industry
- The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Recently Caliber 3 Israel has spread its wings and two months ago, an official opening soon to take place, Caliber 3 USA opened its doors in San Marcos, in Southern California.
I made a visit to Caliber 3 USA, an Israeli type counter-terror & security academy and the US branch of the world the renowned Caliber 3, Israel, to witness that there are those who are determined to turn a defenseless mode on its head.
A local real estate and businessman went to Israel and witnessed, firsthand, the Caliber 3 Israel training concept and took a great liking to it. With Col. Gat’s directive and the help of his management operations department they established the Caliber 3 USA center where, today, Philip M., the General Manager and Yonatan F., the Chief Training Instructor, an “import” from Caliber 3 Israel, run the center’s day-to-day operations.
Inside the immaculate building, there is a broad array of creative fitness equipment and training tracks, a dry shooting range, and Caliber 3 fashionable garb store.
What the center offers
The goal of Caliber 3 USA, emulating its parent in Israel, is to teach Jews and friends of Israel how to defend themselves. Its professional security training courses, run by experts with field experience in a wide variety of strategic and tactical operations, are geared toward military, security and counter-terror units and personnel who need to hone their skills and keep up to date their field of operation latest techniques.
The training is a wide variety of security and counter-terror courses including, tactical weapons, VIP protection, infantry tactics, Krav Maga – a collection of self-defense and physical training technics, with no rules, first developed by the Israeli army in the 1940s, based on the use of reflexive responses to threatening situations – and urban combat.
Caliber 3 – Israel and USA – that teaches mindset training to real-life scenarios, offers the ultimate tourist experience as well. Whether you are a family, group of friends or looking for a corporate team building outing, one can choose from shooting adventure, paintball, survival training, and self-defense/krav maga or a customized event.
The krav maga course is most popular; so is the combat fitness that gives the tools to defend oneself, one’s family and community, and dry training and live ammunition shooting.
The second floor of the facility, set as a home and an office, to teach the participants how to act when a home invasion occurs, or an office is under some type of attack.
The Caliber 3 USA application
The team specifically approach the Chabad synagogues but also other synagogues and churches. They take pictures of the facility and assess how to improve its security scenario and how to protect oneself inside and outside the house of worship.
The objective is to stop the ongoing circumstances that are happening and will keep on happening around the world.
In its short time of operation, Caliber 3 USA team already worked with 15 synagogues in the San Diego and the Los Angeles areas.
It is located only some 10 miles away from the Chabad of Poway, where, a month ago a terrorist entered the synagogue and opened fire. After the horrific incident, the synagogue approached Caliber 3 USA for its encompassing security assistance.
The Caliber 3 team stresses that it is not enough to have one fully trained security person on premises. A team of between 5-to-10 fully trained volunteers must be behind him – or her – to be able to act when the occasion arises. And it is a process.
Every three months, the security team that must keep fit, needs to go through a refreshment course, and every six months, the location much go through a new security assessment.
Each scenario is different, and all scenarios have much in common: not to be complacent, be sharp to know how to act when in a scene of active shooting and always have the mindset and the fully trained security team collaboration.
Membership
Using delicate acceptance profiling technics, Caliber 3 USA markets its programs to schools, to faith institutes, to military and law enforcement, and to people who want to learn defense, use of a gun, awareness and confidence building mindset.
Partaking in one day to longer-term courses runs from $100-to-$300 and renewable membership is recommended.
Caliber 3 USA is here to make sure that from here on America is much safer.