Once again, ANZAC Day will be a solemn one. Normally there are parades and ceremonies, but this year is one for introspection.
I’ll tip back a pint this evening in memory of all the ANZAC troops, from World War One’s Battle of Gallipoli to the battle fought today. I’ll think of friends in both the Australian and New Zealand militaries and good times deployed to bad places.
In the early morning hours of 25 April, 1980 President Carter announced to a stunned world that the United States had undertaken an ambitious raid into Iran to liberate 52 American hostages held illegally at our Embassy compound in Tehran. The assault force of what was known as “Operation Eagle Claw” can be seen here, loading C141s.
Unfortunately, the task force was unsuccessful and we lost eight American servicemen in a horrible aircraft ground collision.
However, their deaths were not in vain. The hostages were eventually repatriated and the accident was the watershed event that created, over the next several decades, the world’s preeminent Special Operations capability; USSOCOM and its components. Forty years later, we wouldn’t be where are without the determination of that fledgling task force. Join me in remembering those that had the guts to try.
The history of today’s largest First Responder Distributor, GALLS®, started as one immigrant’s dream of America.
The Peddler was for many rural Americans, the only way to shop.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lexington, Ken. (April 2021) – GALLS® is today the largest leading distributor of law enforcement and 1st responder apparel, gear, and equipment with over 100 locations, 300,000 sq. ft. of distribution, and 1,500 employees. Although its origins were modest compared to the size and breadth of the organization today, the founding principle is as relevant now as it was when Phillip Gall took a wagon laden with household ware into the hills and hollers of Kentucky at the turn of the 19th century.
“Phillip Gall was the epitome of the American dream come true,” Mike Fadden, CEO of GALLS Inc. said. “As an immigrant in a new country, he found a unique niche to call his own, and through his steadfast pursuit of building long-lasting customer relationship, was able to turn a ware-laden wagon into a very successful Lexington, Kentucky-based family business.”
As an immigrant from Lithuania, Phillip Gall came to America with a dream of finding freedom and opportunity for his family. Settling in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and son, Isaac, Phillip traveled the backroads of Lexington’s surrounding hills peddling household items such as cookware, sewing supplies, and tools. Phillip Gall visited his customers’ homes, tucked away in the woods, or standing alone surrounded by farmland, that every visit was special. He developed close relationships with his customers, seeming to know what they wanted and how to turn every exchange of their hard-earned money for goods into a special occasion. Phillip Gall brought his own customer service expertise to the Kentucky hills.
At the turn of the 19th century, Isaac, now a grown man, with his father, opened a second-hand store on Water Street in Lexington. Eventually, the second-hand store transitioned into a pawn shop, which eventually transitioned into a retail store including outdoor camping equipment, firearms, and police gear.
Phillip Galls’ store continued to meet the needs of their customers, whether it was moving the store to better locations or including products that their customers were seeking.
Sidney, Isaac’s son, grew up spending available time at Phillip Gall’s storefront helping out with everything and anything that was needed to service their growing customer base. It was a natural move for Sidney after he came home from serving in the war, to come into a partnership with his father, Isaac. During his tenure at Phillip Gall, the storefront moved from Water Street to West Main Street in 1972.
“During the third generation’s tenure of the Phillip Gall store, Sidney had developed both sides of the business, the outdoor and the law enforcement, as far as it could go within the confines of its location and their business model,” Fadden continued. “Times were changing and Sidney found within Alan Bloomfield, the potential to concentrate on one part of the business and relinquish the other part.”
In 1983, the Phillip Gall store sold off the police equipment and firearms part of the business to a young man who had also grown up in the storefront retail business in downtown Lexington. Alan Bloomfield’s parents owned a women’s department store and the retail business was in his blood. After the purchase, Phillip Gall was called Phillip Gall Outdoor & Ski and continued to serve outdoor enthusiasts. The police part of the business, now operated by Alan Bloomfield, was renamed Galls Inc. Alan Bloomfield hit the ground running, sending flyers to police departments offering specials on everything from guns to uniforms. During Bloomfield’s ownership, Galls Inc. became a national and international supply house for police, EMS, fire, and first responder equipment and the largest mail order and catalog house within that community. Within five years, the Galls Inc. Catalog won the National Catalog Association’s “Catalog of the Year.”
“Bloomfield was a legend in the catalog business. He took a relatively small mom-and-pop cop shop and turned it into one of the largest and most dynamic police and emergency equipment suppliers in the world. He was very much a visionary and saw outside the borders of Lexington and by building the Galls Catalog and mail-order business extended his product line offerings to law enforcement across the country,” Fadden remarked. “By 1995, Bloomfield had taken Galls Inc. from a 4-person, family-based company to a 250 employee-based distributor powerhouse. And he felt it was time for him to step aside.”
Aramark, a company founded in Philadelphia in 1936, provided uniform services, as well as food and facility service to clients in the healthcare, education, business, prisons, and leisure industries, purchased Galls Inc. in 1995 and quickly brought the catalog giant into the digital age. Within two years, Galls Inc. had inside and outside sales force to facilitate serving their growing law enforcement customer base. The new sales force was able to adapt to the current conditions and needs of the community. By 1999, Galls added a new sales partner with the launch of Galls.com allowing existing customers to interface with Galls and attracting new customers with their state-of-the-art website.
“Galls is changing rapidly during these years. The rapid growth included more service centers, more employees, and new technologies. At the same time Aramark purchased Galls, I came aboard Aramark,” Fadden said. “Little did I know at the time that my future at Aramark would put me in a leadership position at Galls. Meanwhile, my focus is primarily on the direct sale and rental uniform side of operations at Aramark. Those twenty-five years, in a variety of leadership positions, became critical stepping stones for my future position at Galls.”
CI Capital, a private North American investment group, purchased Galls Inc. in 2011 and began an accelerated program of growth and acquisitions including some of the top equipment and uniform vendors such as Quartermaster, Blumenthal Uniforms, Muscatello’s, Patriot Outfitters, and Red the Uniform Tailor, to name a few. As part of their aggressive growth platform, Galls continued to streamline processes within their company, and in 2011, eQuip, an online uniform and equipment procurement and management software platform, was launched.
“When a company is in serious acquisition mode and undergoing explosive growth, it is primarily focusing on building its infrastructure and streamlining processes such as accounting, distribution, sales, and marketing. It’s an inward-focused style of management, and although necessary for the company to grow, customers can start to feel as if they are no longer priority number one,” Fadden continued.”
In 2018 Galls, again changed hands when CI Capital Partners sold the company to Charlesbank Capital Partners based in Boston and New York. Within the next several years, Galls accumulated six more uniform and police equipment companies and a change of leadership when Mike Fadden became the new CEO of GALLS in June of 2020.
“Up until the past couple of years, Galls was still a traditional catalog-style company with a smaller B2B mindset in which either agencies came to us or our sales team drove sales to agencies,” Mike Fadden explained further. “Galls was this large company, now comprised of many smaller companies, across the country doing business their way. Unfortunately, in all of this massive growth, something very special was lost, something I think Phillip Gall would instantly recognize; the personal relationship with the customer was beginning to suffer.
As we enter this new decade, businesses are facing increased competition from outside and it is my imperative that we at Galls will always lead when it comes to outstanding customer service. That doesn’t just mean a pleasant voice on the other end of the telephone, but finding ways to provide efficient, cost-effective, and personalized service to our customer base. When I came aboard, Galls already had some of these service drivers in place such as eQuip, which allows our customers to manage their uniform and equipment purchases and uniform allotments. It gives them power and confidence over their budgets they never had when dealing with outside sales reps. What I found in my first 90-days were often small errors, whether a misshipment of product or delays and backorders due to the complicated order processing we had. It was literally dying from a thousand small cuts.
First things, first. We needed a central location to receive customer complaints, suggestions, or compliments and that box literally became my email address. We have been including a small card, a gesture, to our customers in every shipment, to let them know Galls IS listening and we want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly about our company. Since this out-reach program began, we have accumulated enough data to understand where our strengths and weaknesses lay and to act on them.”
Fadden and his executive team drove significant changes to the company’s IT structure to allow greater transparency between departments, increase efficiency, and speed up the process from initial ordering to delivery, thus shortening the duration while eliminating waste and cost overruns. In February of 2021, “Chief to Chief,” an email newsletter for agencies’ executive management was created. The monthly newsletter features a video of Mike Fadden, CEO of Galls, talking directly to the email recipient and encouraging an open dialog between one Chief to another. Again, Mike’s email box has been inundated with praise, suggestions, and some complaints, but Mike and his team compile all results and present changes to the company that has, in a few short months, already benefited customers and Galls’ employees.
“I think Phillip Gall could walk into our headquarters and not only be amazed at what he started but be proud of what Galls’ is doing today, in respect to building the trust and loyalty between our company and our customers,” Mike Fadden concluded. “He never lost sight of the importance of excellent customer service and it helped him build his dream, the American dream. It is our responsibility to continue to build on that tradition because superior customer service is one thing that never goes out of style.”
This article is about how to light a fire. Of course, as is my habit, I will meander a bit on the way to the final objective for this Wisdom Walk. The last week of February, I got the opportunity to do something that was both enjoyable and personally rewarding. I was invited to engage with some motivated young EOD members of the Air National Guard (ANG) at an ANG facility in Portland, Oregon. They had gathered in Portland from EOD Detachments as far away as Vermont and Texas for a colloquium, i.e., a series of seminars focused on professionally developing the junior airmen who had the opportunity to participate. My role, over a couple of days, involved facilitating some small group discussions on leadership and team building. We talked about issues relevant to them and their individual detachments and I told a few (hopefully) illustrative war stories to prompt additional thought and discussion.
Most of the attendees were E-4s becoming eligible for E-5, with 2-3 years’ time in service, and in their mid-20s. Some were full-time and others part-time. A couple had prior service in non-EOD specialties in the Army and USMC. Generally, they were not at all confident that the Air Forces’ NCOES system for their grade was adequately preparing them for leadership positions. Therefore, all the Airmen came willing and eager to learn. To their credit, the EOD organizational leadership had authorized and funded the colloquium – and perhaps subsequent iterations – to formally address at least some of the perceived gaps in their training. From my perspective, everyone involved from leadership to the most junior attendee was switched on and dedicated to the mission. By the way, the NCO who did the bulk of the leg work to put it together and then executed the plan was a Technical Sergeant (E-6). It was top-down supported, but not top driven. That is a good way of doing business. A worthy effort by all to light some leadership fires.
I did get off to a less than stellar start on my first day. Those of us not from Portland stayed at the same hotel near the ANG facility. I shuttled with some of the others in a rental SUV to the base. Because I was the oldest – by a wide margin – they let me ride in the front passenger seat. We all passed our IDs to the driver so that he could show them at the gate. Since I retired, I visit a military base about once or twice a year and normally drive my own car. Frankly, since I was a passenger this time, I was sightseeing and not paying attention or thinking about protocol. I was the only officer in the car and when the ANG gate guard saw my ID he saluted – and I missed it. As we pulled away, one of the guys said something about it and I immediately realized my mistake. I asked the driver to turn around and we circled out and back into the gate so that I could apologize to the Airman on duty and render a proper salute.
I was embarrassed by the unforced error. However, in hindsight, making the extra effort to correct my unintentional mistake perhaps served as a better leadership lesson than if I had done it right the first time. One does not get respect without giving respect. The various seminars that the Airmen attended and the small group discussions I already mentioned were not the entirety of the program. Additionally, they had daily homework which involved readings and informal briefbacks to the group and debate on various subjects. I sat in and observed many of those and, again, was impressed that everyone seemed to be putting in the work. I met briefly with the Squadron Commander who was hosting the event and had the opportunity for one-on-one sidebars with some of the senior NCOs on site. I learned a lot.
I did have an issue with one of the books on their reading list. It was, “On Combat” by LTC(R) David Grossman. This is as good a time as any to share my unfavorable opinion of this particular officer and his books. I served with 2LT Grossman in A Company, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington in 1979-80. He was my Company’s Executive Officer and I was a Sergeant (E-5). The silly SOB once tried to put me in for an (undeserved) ARTICLE-15 (Non-Judicial Punishment). Long story short, I had ample reason not to like the guy. Sometimes new leaders will try hard to be “nice” to their subordinates. Rationalizing, I suppose, that appeasement is the quickest way to get the respect they know that is needed to successfully function as leaders. That is a rookie mistake. Soldiers will take advantage of the “nice” leader but will never respect or have real confidence in his or her leadership. It is a cliché but true, soldiers respect leaders they see as “tough but fair.” Soldiers know that “nice” will not cut it when a mission goes off the rails. Of course, some leaders do the opposite. They imagine they will get respect by being dicks to their subordinate leaders and soldiers. That is also a rookie mistake, but that is the way 2LT Grossman decided he wanted to go.
So, I have a very poor opinion of the guy’s leadership skills in 79-80. To be sure, even leaders who start off on the wrong foot can evolve and improve over time. I never served with him again, and for all I know he got better with age. Maybe. Either way, that is not why I find his books problematic. His first was “On Killing” published in 1995 and apparently based on his doctoral thesis in psychology. For those that have not read it, “On Killing” beats two points to death – no pun intended. One, that humans have a powerful and innate inhibition against killing. Two, that modern military training uses “Pavlovian and operant conditioning” to overcome this allegedly “instinctive aversion” to killing. Moreover, Grossman extrapolated that violent movies and video games were doing the same thing to the youth of the world. The book did not get much attention initially. Then the Columbine School shooting happened in April 1999. Suddenly, in the post mass shooting hysteria, Grossman was a hot commodity and on all the TV shows. He was able to conveniently provide the answer that people wanted to hear. It was not bad parenting, drugs, or simply two demented teenagers who were responsible for their own heinous actions. It was violent movies and video games that were to blame for the shooting. His book sales soared.
Indeed, Grossman continued to repeat his two core assertions over and over again – in all his books. Nevertheless, they are not true nor are they supported by any real scientifically valid data or by the entirety of human history. In fact, the vast preponderance of evidence tends to prove the exact opposite. Humans instinctively averse to killing? Tell that to Cain or Able. Anyone who believes that has not had much contact with homo sapiens or read “Lord of The Flies.” I do not need a doctorate in psychology to have observed that humans kill for any and every imaginable reason – and for no reason at all. I spent some time in 1997 in Liberia. That country was at the end of a twelve-year civil war. One of the signature features of that brutal conflict was gangs of teenage boys roaming the streets hacking their neighbors to death with machetes. They had guns, but liked inflicting maximum pain and terror and enjoyed the kill more when it was slow. These boys had never seen a violent movie, or TV, or video game. Most had never lived in a house with electricity. We had run-ins with quite a few of these misguided “children.” They avoided direct confrontation with us – because they were not suicidal – but continued to terrorize the civilians out of our sight.
I have seen similar albeit less egregious examples in many undeveloped places in the world. Adolescent humans, especially males, are amoral at best. Without proper socialization, supervision, and reinforcement, they are dangerous, undisciplined, and vicious predators. More than that, Grossman claimed in his first book that almost every country in the world was experiencing a surge in violence – especially among teenagers – that was fueled entirely by those evil video games. Wrong. His earnest assertions notwithstanding, even in the 90s, despite high profile events like Columbine, violent crime was – and continued – declining in most developed countries. That is still true today. No matter how realistic the graphics, video games do not cause people to kill. Remember, Grossman also claims that first-person “shooter games” are so dangerous to a young person’s psyche because they virtually replicate the military’s insidious “Pavlovian conditioning.” That is news to me. I have personally trained hundreds of soldiers in shooting and other combat skills. I have routinely applied realistic practical application drills and repetition but I have never used – or seen anyone else use – any “brainwashing” techniques. My mission was to train soldiers not psychos. Grossman knows better and his insinuation about military – and police – training is inaccurate, insulting, and dangerous.
If bellowing out “To Kill, Drill Sergeant” when the NCO in the Round Brown asks “What’s the spirit of the bayonet” during bayonet drills is all it takes to suppress this supposedly deeply ingrained aversion to killing, I would suggest that is further evidence that it was not much of an inhibition in the first place. The American people need not worry. Military training is not going to turn little Jonny and Sally into psychologically damaged killing machines. I have already given this guy more oxygen than I would prefer. But it irks me personally and professionally that these books are still on so many reading lists and taken by some as gospel. I could continue to deconstruct his writings point by point. Many of his other dubious claims – presented as facts – are easily refuted, as are the cherry-picked anecdotal vignettes he provides as “evidence” to support his arguments. However, there are a number of other sources online who already do that debunking in more detail for those interested. Are there any “truths” in his books at all? Sure, there are kernels of valid insight here and there – mostly repeated from earlier writers. But those nuggets are buried deep in the BS that I already described. In my opinion, they are not worth digging out of the surrounding crap.
Since I always try to do my due diligent research for these articles, I did something I never intended to do. I bought Grossman’s “On Killing” and “On Combat” so I could refresh my memory. I looked at them and they were as grossly misleading as I remembered. Now, because I am loath to put them in my bookshelf with better books, I have them sitting on my desk and they annoy me. As a matter of principle, I do not believe in banning or burning books. Nor, in good conscience, could I pass these to someone else. However, if I ever have an emergency and need to start a fire, I will not hesitate to sacrifice these books as tinder for that fire. I do not think that would subtract anything significant from the sum total of humanities’ knowledge. It is probably the most utility I can expect to get from them. I trust that I have explained in sufficient detail why I would never recommend any of Grossman’s books for professional development. Still, I am not trying to make it my business to tell people what to read or not read. Consequently, I intend for this “public service warning” to serve only to more fully inform potential future readers of Grossman’s books.
Now, let us wade out of the swamp and back onto the trail. I would like to more directly address the subject of starting fires. I use fire as a tool a lot here on the Homestead. There is rarely a week that goes by that I am not starting one to burn debris. Just before my trip to Portland, we had an ice storm here. The ice brought down several trees and big branches all over my property. I have already cleared some of the stuff that was in the way, but it will be late in the summer before I get everything cleaned up. Once I get it chainsawed down to a size I can move, I carry or drag it all into an open area to burn. I prefer not to use accelerants like gasoline or fancy fire-starting techniques. I find that a crumpled local newspaper and a Bic lighter gets the job done just fine. I have been trained on a lot of methods to start a fire. I exercise some of those skills – like using flint and steel – from time to time to stay in practice but use the more expedient modern methods to get real work done.
Starting a fire with flint and steel is a neat trick of the trade. It is common practice in survival training to start by introducing this technique first. If I am giving a class, I do the same. It is a confidence builder because the student is rightly impressed that two inherently non-flammable items can produce sparks when struck together. Of course, a spark only lasts a split second – not long enough to actually start a fire. Therefore, it is necessary to capture those sparks on intermediate material like charcloth to produce an ember that will last longer. The ember is transferred to a loose tinder bundle, – a birds’ nest works well – the instructor blows gently into the bundle to introduce more oxygen, and the nest bursts into flames! The flaming nest is transferred under some pre-arranged dry kindling and voila, a fire has been started. There are countless videos on YouTube demonstrating how to use flint and steel and other “primitive” fire starting methods. Of course, in real-life survival situations, flint and steel is sort of the throwaway course of action. Traditional flint and steel are not included in any military survival kits and only someone with training who intentionally wants to go “old school” would even consider those items for everyday carry vice matches or a lighter.
It is probably obvious by now where I am going with this. I truly appreciate the art of making real fire, but I am much more fascinated by the more challenging process of “lighting a fire” in a soldier’s head and heart that eventually – with luck – turns a follower into a leader. I am not talking about motivating a soldier to get the assigned task of the day accomplished. That is different. It is considerably easier to get someone to DO something than it is to get someone to BE something new, i.e., becoming a leader themselves. After Portland, I started giving it some serious thought. At first, it seemed logical to me that starting a fire in the way I described above was directly analogous to inspiring an individual to lead. The premise seemed straightforward enough. An experienced leader provides a spark, magically the spark becomes the ember, the ember becomes a flame, and a new leader is produced. However, the more I thought about my own experiences, the more I realized that I had never seen it work exactly that way. First, a proverbial spark or two from one leader is not enough. Soldiers are not necessarily predisposed to be fire-ready charcloth, tinder, or kindling. Nor, can they simply internalize a spark by osmosis, self-generate an ember, then a flame, without additional outside heat and pressure being applied.
It eventually came to me that a more accurate analogy is that soldiers are like lumps of coal. I grew up with coal fires. Most people reading this probably never used coal to heat their homes or cook their food like we did when I was young. Even before electricity and natural gas were available options for heating, coal was only accessible in certain limited areas of the country – like the hills of Eastern Kentucky. Therefore, most people alive today have only experience with burning wood in their fireplaces – if at all. Coal is funny stuff. It is not easily combustible. Sparks could shower on it all day and nothing happens. You can hold the flame of your trusty Bic on a piece of coal until your hand gets tired and it still does not light. It takes more direct heat for a longer period of time. So, to burn coal, one has to start a hot wood fire first and only then throw in a couple lumps of coal. Once the coal ignites there is no need for additional wood unless the ashes go cold and you have to start over. The coal burns hotter than wood and is not consumed as fast so the fire does not have to be refueled as often. If you have used charcoal briquettes that are not pre-infused with lighter fluid in your grill you might have some idea how hard it is to work with coal. In other words, one does not start a fire with coal. The fire has to come first.
That means that a leader cannot get by just producing sparks, embers, or small flames. A leader has to have a full-on leadership coal fire in his or her belly first. A leader, in direct proximity, has to provide enough heat and pressure to get a subordinate lump of coal (soldier) to ignite and burn independently. It takes time and probably multiple leaders reinforcing the process to make it happen. It is not easy. At least, when lighting an actual fire, one has the benefit of real-time feedback. Sparks, embers, and flames are visible. You can tell immediately if you are producing the results you want or not during every stage of the process. Not so with a leadership fire. Even the best new soldiers are only at entry-level and are still figuring out how to do their individual jobs right. It takes weeks or months – maybe years – for them to recognize, absorb, and internalize, more complicated leader skills.
We often talk about teaching, coaching, and mentoring, in the military almost in one breath. We practically say it as one word “teachcoachmentor” as if the three are interchangeable leader tasks. They are not. I may discuss them in greater detail at a later time. For now, suffice to say that I think of teach and coach as a mostly “push” process. The teacher or coach has knowledge that he or she is pushing down to the students and the student is generally in the receive mode. Mentoring is more of a “pull” process, with the person being mentored pulling the specific information they need from the mentor. I have found that tactical level leaders are fairly effective at providing push (teaching and coaching style) support, training, and guidance to their subordinates. Mentoring, not so much. Additionally, a subordinate may or may not be comfortable trying to reverse the normal dynamic and take the lead to pull information from his supervisor. That is why I recommend soldiers seek to find mentors outside their chain of command. There is just too much baggage between a soldier and his immediate leadership to overcome.
That is also why command directives for supervisors to “professionally develop” their subordinates by mentoring them on a strict schedule never produce the desired positive results. Not to mention the inevitable follow-on tracking and reporting requirements. Real mentoring is not something that can be top driven or one size fits all. Besides, no matter how hot they are, Battalion Commanders and leaders at Brigade and higher are just too far away for their heat to reach the individual lumps of coal (paratroopers) on Ardennes Street. Too far away to pass on that leadership fire. It is Sergeant’s business. It is Company Grade Officer’s business. It has to be done by hand on an individual basis. That does not mean that senior leaders do not have a role. One thing that all leaders can do is set the right example. Remember that a leader is always on parade. Be the best possible role model you can be for your subordinates. Do not try to be nice and avoid being a dick. Make an honest effort to earn respect. Do it right. You are being watched.
In fact, reflecting on my experience, I realize that I got my fire by watching leaders I respected and had the privilege of getting close to over many years. I observed intently their daily successes – and occasional failures – as they strove to achieve mastery of the art and science of war and displayed sincere dedication to principled leadership. I followed in their footsteps as best I could and hopefully provided enough heat of my own to light other fires and pass the torch of leadership successfully to those that followed me. That is the point of this article, and that was the intent of the colloquium. We will not really know if any of our efforts worked until sometime in the future when those E-4s become NCOs and we find out if the fire in their bellies is hot enough to ignite the generation of EOD Airmen coming on their heels. That is when we will have our Tom Hanks happy moment and know that we have done our part to perpetuate a fire that endures.
De Oppresso Liber!
LTC Terry Baldwin, US Army (Ret) served on active duty from 1975-2011 in various Infantry and Special Forces assignments. SSD is blessed to have him as both reader and contributor.
Thanks Al and Baba Yaga!
EAA/Akkar reconfigured their popular Churchill semi-auto and pump shotguns in 20ga and upgraded features to enhance its use as a tactical home defense shotgun as “Home Defense without a Kick.”
Cocoa, Fla. (April 2021) – EAA Corp., importers of select quality and affordable handguns, rifles, and shotguns, built upon the success of their Churchill semi-auto and pump shotguns in 20ga, and with upgraded and enhanced features, has created the ultimate home defense tactical shotgun with the Churchill 220 Optics Tactical semi-auto shotgun and the Churchill 620 Optics Tactical semi-auto, pump-action shotgun.
The semi-automatic 220 Optic Tactical Shotgun features a checkered pistol grip stock, a semi-enhanced loading port for fast reloads, and accessible controls for confidence under any stressful situation. EAA/Akkar machined the Optics Rail right into the receiver for lower optics mounting to give the user easy and quick target acquisition. Simply raise the shotgun to your shoulder and your eye looks directly into the included red dot sight. Perfect alignment means better accuracy, a performance plus for the Churchill 220 and 620 Optics Tactical shotguns at a much lower price than other competition shotguns.
EAA/Akkar also shortened the barrel to 18.5,” making the Optics Tactical shotgun more maneuverable in hallways or tight scenarios. The breaching choke tube is capable of breaking glass when the situation calls for it.
The Churchill 620 Optics Tactical Shotgun is the Tactical Home Defense version of EAA’s popular Churchill 20ga pump-action with all the enhancements that make this a perfect, low-recoil home defense shotgun. With a pistol grip stock for greater control, a breaching choke tube, enhanced loading port and accessible controls for operation under duress, the 620 Optic Tactical shotgun also features an Optics Rail, machined into the receiver for quick and easy target acquisition and fast follow up shots.
Both the Churchill 220 Optics Tactical and the 620 Optics Tactical shotguns give you whole home defense without the kick on your shoulder or your budget.
For more information on EAA Corp., visit www.eaacorp.com.
NP Aerospace is one of a select group of defense companies to have been awarded a contract for the sale of body armor and related accessories through Government Agency, Sourcewell.
The cooperative purchasing contract #011221-NPA was awarded to NP Aerospace in March 2021 and runs until February 2025. It covers ballistic armor plates, helmets, shields and bomb disposal suits.
Sourcewell is a Government Agency that makes the buying process easier and more affordable for North American and Canadian publicly funded organisations by combining the purchasing power of 50,000 agencies into a single cooperative group.
NP Aerospace, along with HiCom Armor Solutions Inc, U.S Armor Corporation, Galls LLC and Atlantic Diving Supply Inc. are the first companies in the defense sector to have been awarded the contract as part of Sourcewell’s strategy to grow its presence in the defense sector.
James Kempston, CEO, NP Aerospace, said: “We are honored to be one of the first defense companies in the US to win the Sourcewell contract. It will form a key part of our strategy to grow market share in the US and Canada for body armour and bomb disposal suits. We are already expanding distributor network so adding a direct route for purchasing will offer additional advantages for publicly funded organisations. The great thing about Sourcewell is that contracts are competitively solicited which makes the process easier and more affordable.”
Sourcewell works with thousands of Government, education and non-profit organisations. Adding defense companies to the list of competitively solicited cooperative contracts will add significant value to businesses looking for quality, cost effective defence and law enforcement products from nationally acclaimed suppliers. The five companies were selected as part of a rigorous screening process.
To find out more about the NP Aerospace Sourcewell contract visit www.npaerospace.com/sourcewell
• Award for contractor logistics support approved through Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement, reflecting high priority requirement and strong user demand from the frontline
• Funded value for contractor logistics support is $13,010,560 with a total potential contract value of $40,852,467
Switchblade 300 delivers unmatched force protection and precision strike capabilities to frontline forces. (Photo: AeroVironment, Inc.)
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., April 22, 2021 –AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), today announced it received a $13,010,560 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract order on March 24, 2021 from the U.S. Army for Switchblade® 300 tactical missile systems contractor logistics support. The contract has a total potential value of $40,852,467, for which funding was authorized via a DoD-approved Joint Urgent Operational Need Statement. Logistics support services are scheduled to be delivered through March 2024.
“AeroVironment provides customers with logistics operation services, such as operator training, flight support and maintenance, to ensure the unmanned aircraft systems and tactical missile systems are operationally ready for deployment at any time,” said Brett Hush, AeroVironment vice president and product line general manager for tactical missile systems.
AeroVironment’s combat proven Switchblade 300 is back-packable and rapidly deployable from ground platforms, including a multipack launcher, providing warfighters with rapid-response force protection and precision strike capabilities up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) from its launch location. Its high precision, combined with specialized effects and patented “wave-off” feature, results in Switchblade’s ability to minimize or even eliminate collateral damage.
