NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JULY 2014
the community,” said Smith, who spent his early years growing up
in Camden.
The seminar and Krav Maga training that Smith, a 10-month
veteran, participates in is an extension of his father’s advice before
he ever joined the police force.
“He always told me to ‘keep learning and stay fit,’” said Smith,
who expects to earn his Bachelor of Arts in criminology by the end
of the year.
Like Keating, Smith echoed the refrain that a police officer never
knows what might occur in a confrontation. Attending the seminar is Smith following his father’s advice about learning and
remaining fit.
“All of this (self-defense) is easier if you’re fit, and the selfdefense training I receive at Mission MMA keeps me in shape,”
said Smith. “The other plus is that when you’re done, you simply
feel better. That’s worth the workout alone.”
Sergeant Miles Noonan is a police officer of a different stripe,
if you forgive the pun. Noonan is a military police instructor with
the 1-307th Training Support Battalion out of Fort Dix. He joined
the U.S. Army military police to serve his country and simultaneously fulfilled a wish to have a career in law enforcement. He is a
Level 3 combatives instructor at the Modern Army Combatives
Program and trains students that deploy to Afghanistan and the
Horn of Africa.
Because Noonan has a busy schedule and is already a selfdefense instructor, why did he carve out time to attend Dell’Aquila’s seminar?
“I hope to learn anything that could potentially save my life or
the life of somebody I care about,” explained Noonan. “Also, military combatives focuses more on the use of your rifle rather than
your pistol, by virtue of the fact that most soldiers in combat carry
an M-4 or M-16. Military police on patrol use the M-9 pistol, so
having the opportunity to learn and practice techniques with my
67
pistol in a law
enforcement
mindset was
certainly an
opportunity I
did not want
to pass up.”
He added
that because
mixed martial arts is so popular now,
it is more likely that a law enforcement officer might find himself confronting an assailant who has
training.
“I would not want to ever find
myself in a situation where somebody who’s trying to hurt or kill
me is better trained than I am because I did not train hard and
realistically.”
Noonan also has advice for police officers that are thinking
about further self-defense training.
“Seek out a program that works for you and fits your needs, and
constantly train,” he implored. “It will increase your awareness,
confidence and physical fitness. I personally prefer the system of
Krav Maga because it fits my personal needs. And don’t forget the
groundwork as most fights end on the ground. The LAPD did a
study and found that 95 percent of its officer-involved fights ended
up on the ground, so it makes perfect sense to train to fight while
on the ground. Gravity never takes a day off.” d
Tom Peric’ is president of Cherry Hill-based Galileo Communications, Inc. He wrote the history of the Cleveland (Ohio) Police
Department. Contact him at [email protected].