Thank you Ray Walters and Nyle for endorsing us in Martial Arts and Wellness at Linkedin. It is great to hear from you Ray. Been a long while. Many of the old timers like Reid, Dwight and Patrick ask about you.

Workshop on Push Hands has stimulated several questions. This weekend is our Push Hands Workshop , we will be working fundamentals of framework, alignment, sensing and intention. I look forward to it.

The Pumpkin Carving is this weekend too, I am here all day, so bring it when you ready :)

Hop Gar Video Trailor

The Hop Gar Trailor I recently put out on Facebook, Vimeo, DailyMotion and Youtube, was a fun project I put together over the weekend. I took several photo I had of myself and others practicing Hop Gar around 1992 at the Golden Dragon resturaunt.

There was about 5 of us that regular rotated in full contact 'friendly sparrings' out on the asphalt. Hot asphalt is a GREAT way to teach you to move and stay on your feet to fight.

Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Oct 27, 1995

I had already another topic laid out and the memory came back. Not sure what triggers it, but it is a solemn reminder to practice and live strong.

Being a dad now, the memories are even more intense.

I changed to work in Fayetteville so that I could practice KungFu more. I worked in the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab department with some fine folks. My schedule was simple for years. Get up at 5, chikung, posting and breakfast. work, go to the Golden Dragon to practice from 5:30 - 9 or so, come home, crash, do again. Saturdays I got to practice from 7 - 3. Sundays sometimes we would take turns hosting practice at homes. Went on for years.

Oct 27 1995, Normal Day, My office was down the hall from new Outpatient Entrance, Fast access to hospital. Then the alert :

Code blue - Massive Casuality Incident : Code MASCAL, the nurse that was my partner in rehab called me to double time it. Her husband was in Army. And all of a sudden life changed.

The alert calls every hospital staff to ready themselves for a massive casuality. And it started coming. The army hospital was taking people, and Cape Fear was next. Every one was moving, blood, oxygen takes, blankets, guazes, you name it, we were getting it. Some people were already starting to cry, because their relatives could be one of the fallen heading our way.

The hallways filled with stretchers, doctors and nurses were commanding for everything. But it was still very poised. I remember turning all the hours of kungfu practice on, "see no evil, hear no evil". I was trying to cope with all the sadness, misery and pain that came flooding in.

A man that doesn't deserve to have his name mentioned :

Opened fire on the 82nd Airborne during PT

Links to Articles :

Special Forces Soldiers 

Fayetteville News Observer Article 

Unarmed Soldiers Overtake Sniper

Group men Special Forces of the took to forest, armed with Nothing. flanked, fought and secured. tshirts and shorts. PT Instead of running for cover.

I was moving through the Crying of victims, crying of families, crying of staff, stretchers, and responding to orders.

A man younger than me was holding in arm in a wheelchair, and he asked if I could help him. He was cold and injured, still in his shorts. Overwhelming to see that much pain, suffering and fear at once.

Several of my friends that I trained with were part of the 82nd, and fortunately they were not there that particular. One had been scheduled, but was sent out to Camp McCall earlier.

Hero's

The shooter hit and wounded 17 soldiers from the division's 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment as they left an athletic field. He shot three other soldiers who tried to stop him, wounding two and killing Maj. Stephen Badger.

In a fight for their lives, Major Guy Lafaro, Major Stephen Badger and Staff Sergeant Matthew Lewis were awarded the “Soldiers Medal” for risking their lives.

Minor said that the gunman, who was firing at them, turned away. And as he did, he and Sgt. Edward Mongold tackled the man. "It was a fight for his life," Minor said. "It was a fight for our lives."

Sgt. Anthony Minor broke his hand fighting for weapon

Order Amidst Chaos

During those intense hours that day, I remember very clearly what looked like chaos. It reminded me of a MASH episode where Hawkeye and Trapper are working triage for wounded soldiers. Yet there was a very firm steadiness. I knew my priorities :

• Help stop bleeding
• Ease pain where I could
• Provide comfort and support

Those 3 simple emphasis for me, kept order in the chaos.

Why Do I share this memory with you?

It occured because of my committment to train to be a better person with kungfu. I made life changing decisions that put me in the position that day.

That your experiences can teach you what is important, and what is of lesser importance.

Lesson to take today

Life is short and can change in an instant.

Find time to be grateful for someone or something while you are here.

If you have every experienced the type of anguish and misery. Seeing strong people suffering, people crying because others are suffering and found that it changed your life. I don't suggest dwelling on it. But I use it to get my butt going and stop whining because a detail didn't pan out the way I wanted.

Those children and wives we had to console were agonizing over much more than details.

"We may not all agree on the politics that are involved, but I encourage you to agree on supporting those young men that put their lives on the line, both abroad and at home to provide us with the freedom to be happy and to complain."

Get out today, practice, remember someone. If you were any way associated with the events of that day and hear my message today. I would like to hear from you. If there is anything I can do, I will.

Resources For Today :

The only resources I want to list for this episode is :

"I support and ask you to contribute a couple dollars to the Wounded Warrior Project. I wrote them the following :

I am releasing a podcast this wednesday, Oct 22, 2014 to our growing community. It is in regards to my involvement in the Oct 27,1995 shooting on base. I will be asking listeners today and for years to come to donate directly to the Wounded Warrior Project.

I just wanted to let you know :)

www.tibetankungfu.net"
Sifu TW Smith

Don't let me down. Whether you are listening this in 2014, 2020, or long after I am dead. I greatly appreciate you sending even a single dollar to those who need our support.

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