Turkey

Eating My Way Through Turkey
Eating My Way Through Turkey 2048 1536 Greg Ellifritz

Last month I took a great trip through Turkey with a friend.  If you are interested in what I did, check out my post titled Back From Turkey.

 

In that article, I didn’t cover one of my favorite parts of the trip- the adventurous food that I devoured.

 

People like food.  I get more comments on the pictures I take of my meals than any other aspects of my trips.  Because of that, I’m making separate dining posts for each location I visit.  Enjoy the photos below of some of the unique dishes I sampled in Turkey.

 

Lots of my readers are looking for something very exotic or completely different from what they might find at home.  This was the menu from a local Turkish restaurant in Bodrum.  I might be losing my hardcore traveler cred, but I skipped these soups and had some amazing Doner Kabobs instead.

 

 

You might ask: “What is a Doner kabob?”  You’ve probably seen Mexican restaurants serving pork “Al Pastor” from a vertical rotisserie like this one.  Doner kabobs are very similar to Al Pastor pork, but are generally beef and sliced on top of a pita instead of into a taco.

Turkish kebabs are not on skewers like you would expect in a Middle Eastern restaurant here in the USA.. They are grilled meat over rice, a pita, or something else. This is a kabob, but it’s really like the Turkish equivalent of a Philly cheesesteak

 

Thinly sliced grilled steak covered with cheese, tomatoes, and onions. Sitting on a bed of hash browns with a garlic yogurt sauce. One of my favorite meals from the trip.

Dinner at the Bodrum Yacht Club rooftop restaurant. This is fish, shrimp, mussels, and calamari. It’s all placed in a large shell. Add onions, peppers and cheese. Bake until delicious

 

It’s served in the shell over a burning fire to keep it hot while you eat. Definitely better than the smoked cow tongue I had for breakfast.

 

Whole fish was a common option in the seaside town of Bodrum.  The Turkish chefs made eating it easy by making some strategic cuts allowing the diner to quickly split the fish apart and eat the meat from the inside out.  This fish was Bream from the Aegean Sea.

 

Before I get off track talking about some amazing food, I also have to discuss Turkish coffee.  As most of the Turkish population practices Islam, many do not drink.  Coffee shops are the replacement for bars.  This is Turkish coffee.  It’s a thick expresso like drink that is very strong.  When you finish the liquid, there will be about a 1/2 inch of coffee grounds remaining in the bottom of the cup.

 

It’s very popular to turn the cup upside down after finishing the coffee.  That allows the grounds to slide down the side of the cup.  Turks will “read your fortune” by looking at the images created by the grounds sliding down the walls of the coffee cup.

 

In Turkey, appetizers are called “meze.” Waiters will come to your table with a massive tray of different varieties. You pick the ones that look good and the waiter brings out dishes full of your selections.

 

This is from one of our dinners. Beets, a local green that tasted like collard greens, spinach in a garlic yogurt sauce, beans, and mashed fava in a curry sauce. All this was about $8.00.

 

A three-meat kabob meal.

 

Tired of kabobs yet?  This is a “Lebanese kabob.” It’s cooked sliced steak placed on a thin pita. The steak is covered with cheese and rolled up in the pita.

The whole thing is then fried until the pita gets crispy and the cheese melts. It’s then cut up like a sushi roll and covered with a yogurt sauce.

Pretty good. Entire meal with a beer was $9.00.

 

You can’t have food without drinks.  In convenience stores, these little cups of water were sold right alongside larger water bottles.

 

 

The local beers were very malty pilseners and ales.  I tried almost all the local brews and never tasted any hops.  I didn’t find any Turkish IPAs in the country.

 

 

 

A very popular garlic butter shrimp appetizer.

 

 

The local pizzas had a very thin crust and less sauce than you might find in the USA.

 

Corn on the cob was a surprising afternoon snack served from a lot of the food carts in the urban areas.  I’ve only seen that in one other country (Brazil) I’ve visited.

 

 

My final dinner was a casserole of shrimp, mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes.  Locals broke up pieces of the thin, hard crust, bread and dipped it into the shrimp casserole like sticking a nacho into a bowl of salsa.

 

 

I really enjoyed my meals in Turkey.  If you ever get there, be prepared to have more kabobs than you could ever imagine!

 

 

 

 

 

Travel Log- Turkey
Travel Log- Turkey 768 576 Greg Ellifritz

Earlier this month, I went on a short-notice impromptu trip to Turkey.  To be honest, Turkey really wasn’t ranked highly on my travel bucket list and I hadn’t considered ever traveling there.

 

At the end of August, my friend Nathalie and I had an amazing time attending the Burning Man festival.  We had so much fun together, Nathalie invited me to tag along with her on a family vacation she had planned in Turkey.  I had about five weeks to decide if I wanted to go and to book the plane ticket.  Of course I said “yes” and made the arrangements.

 

The 12-hour flight leg from Houston to Istanbul was the longest flight I’ve taken in 10 years.

 

In 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch (who had recently received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis)  shared some advice two months before his death in his Carnegie Mellon University commencement speech.


“It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. I assure you I’ve done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don’t matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: Pretty much any time I got the chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that’s where my solace comes from.”

 

I’ve had a couple of cancer diagnoses myself and have an outlook similar to the one Dr. Pausch personified.  Since reading that quote, I have attempted to embrace his advice.  Traveling with a fun companion on a spontaneous trip to a country neither of us had ever seen before is the very definition of “something cool” to which Dr. Pausch referred.  I booked the tickets and joined Nathalie in Turkey.

 

 

Nathalie’s trip started in Istanbul and then went to Cappadocia, Ephesus, and the Mediterranean resort town of Bodrum, before returning to Istanbul.  Due to previously-booked teaching engagements, I couldn’t accompany her for the entire trip.  I joined her in Bodrum and then flew back to Istanbul with her before spending a few more days in the capital city.  All in all, it was a 10-day trip and I really enjoyed myself.

 

Bodrum is a resort town on the Aegean Sea catering to wealthy Europeans and Russians craving some sun, sailing, and beach time.  Not many Americans make it there.  It was curious.  Many of the local residents spoke some English.  They all assumed I was British despite my lack of a British accent because they so seldom see Americans.  We spent four nights at the luxurious Caresse Hotel lounging on the beach and swimming in the crystal clear Aegean waters.

 

The town was pretty low key, but had some cool history.  We saw the original gates that Alexander the Great walked through when first traversing the country in the fourth century B.C and the nearly 2500 year old Theatre at Halicarnassus.

 

We visited some museums and the historic Bodrum Castle built in the year 1402.  We toured the final resting place of King Mausolos, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  This burial site is the origin of the word “mausoleum.”  It was rather unimpressive.

 

We spent a lot of our spare time walking through the local shopping bazaars, checking out all the fancy boats in the marina, eating great food, and enjoying the fun waterfront atmosphere.

 

I’m not much of a photographer, but Nathalie is.  I let her take all the cool photos.  Here are some of the fun things we saw.  Photo credits Nathalie Weister.

 

Sunrise over the Aegean Sea

 

View from the back patio of the Bodrum hotel room.

 

Bodrum Caresse hotel infinity pool

 

Outdoor dining in Bodrum

 

The most low key of the seven wonders of the ancient world

 

Bodrum hotel beach

 

Bodrum castle at night

 

Bodrum marina from the top of the castle

 

At the Bodrum castle

 

Rooftop dining at the Bodrum Yacht Club with the castle in the background

 

Bodrum marina

 

Seaside dining

 

After Bodrum, we transitioned to the capital city of Istanbul.  Istanbul is a city split by the Bosporus Straight.  Half of the city is in Europe and half is in Asia.  The vibe was very different than the atmosphere in Bodrum.  The big city is a unique mixture of ancient history and a modern, fairly secular Muslim capital city.

 

Despite the fact that the vast majority of Istanbul’s residents practice the Islamic faith, I saw relatively few hijabs.  The regular calls to prayer issued from every mosque generally went unheeded.  It was a strange combination of the historic Ottoman Empire and the hustle of a modern capital city.

 

After Nathalie flew home, I spent a couple more days eating lots of good food and touring the historic sites.  I enjoyed the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the “mini Hagia Sophia,” the Cistern Basillica and half a dozen other mosques that were all more than 400 years old.  It’s a perspective shift to be touring structures that are more than twice as old as the oldest buildings you can find in the United States.

 

Istanbul mosques

 

 

Blue Mosque courtyard

 

Early Istanbul was heavily influenced by the Egyptians

 

Hagia Sophia

 

Spice market in the Grand Bazaar.  Nathalie bought an obscene amount of spices here and now my kitchen smells amazing.

 

Courtyard between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque

 

Blue Mosque entrance

 

Ritual foot washing station at the Blue Mosque

 

Inside the Blue Mosque. If you go here, skip the inside tour. You must remove your shoes before entering. The whole place smelled of thousands of stinky feet.  You can see everything from the open windows in the courtyard.

 

Ceiling of the Blue Mosque.  It was even more impressive in person.

 

The Cistern Basilica is a 6th century underground water storage facility for an ancient Ottoman palace

 

 

One thing I like about traveling is that it allows the traveler to experience things that are very different than one sees at home.  Here are a few more curious things I saw or experienced on the trip that my readers might find interesting.

 

 

 

The Airport

The Istanbul airport is very impressive.  It’s the largest airport in Europe and the 7th largest in the world.  It’s absolutely massive.  On my three visits during this trip I walked more than two miles each trip just to get through security and get to my gate.  The business class lounge is utterly ridiculous.  It covers the entire second floor of the airport and is probably 200 meters long.

 

All the airports in Turkey have a dual airport security system.  Since the famous airport bombing and active killer attack in the ticketing area before security, Turkish airports have placed metal detectors and baggage x-ray systems just inside the each airport’s door.  In order to make it to the ticket counter, you must place your bags in an X-ray scanner and walk through a metal detector.

 

After getting your boarding passes and checking your luggage, you must again go through a traditional airport screening system.  On international flights, the Turkish equivalent of the TSA also hand searches each passenger’s carry-on bags and physically pats each passenger down before they get on the plane.  It’s quite a process.  I got really familiar with how the system worked when I almost got arrested.

 

“The pen.” All international travelers are locked in this area at the gate after getting an additional patdown and physical bag search. I’ve seen this in a few African airports as well.

 

The airport wheelchairs were actually Segway scooters

 

 

Cats

I had no idea how many stray cats I would see wandering the streets in Turkey.  The entire culture reveres cats and everyone regularly feeds the strays that live everywhere.  For the religious background about why cats are honored in Muslim countries, read Why Are There So Many Cats in Istanbul?

 

This article describes the country’s no catch, no kill policies with regards to feral cats and estimates that there may be up to a million stray cats in Istanbul alone.

 

The view of every sidewalk in the country

 

In every outdoor dining experience, you will be joined by a few feral cats

 

 

Police

Other than the incident I previously described at the airport, I had minimal contact with the police.  There was a moderate number of visible police officers in both Bodrum and Istanbul.  In popular tourist areas there was a massive police presence (especially in the days immediately after the October 7 HAMAS attack in Israel).  They didn’t seem interested in shaking down any of the tourists for bribes.

 

After October 7th, I saw lots of random searches at the popular tourist attractions.  The cops stopped everyone carrying large luggage or bags and searched the bags for explosives and weapons.

 

Cops in Turkey carry the 9mm Canik TP-9 Elite in a generic version of the Blackhawk Serpa holster.  Most cops carried handcuffs and two spare magazines in open top mag carriers.  I didn’t see any uniformed officers carrying long guns, batons, or pepper spray.

 

Armored vehicles and portable fencing parked outside of all major tourist attractions

 

The cops used large and medium sized RVs for mobile command posts and officer rest areas

 

 

Guns

 

I spoke to a few Turkish gun owners and police officers during my stay.  In Turkey, citizens may not possess any semi or fully automatic firearms.  A license (requiring a background check, home inspection, psychological exam, and doctor’s note attesting that the applicant is physically healthy)  is required for each weapon they want to own.

 

The licenses must be renewed every five years.  A possession license does not allow the owner to take the weapon out of the address specified on the permit.  The gun possession license also specifies how much ammunition you may have for that gun.  The general license commonly allows for purchase and possession of up to 200 rounds per year for each weapon.  Ammunition is sold by the government.  Possession of ammo without a gun license is illegal.

 

A separate license to carry is needed to take the gun out of your residence or business.  Those are seldom granted and require a documented “need.”  In addition to the weapons ownership permit, a hunting license is also required to own a rifle.  Despite the rigid legal requirements to own a gun, there are 16.5 guns owned for every 100 Turkish citizens.  Contrast that with the USA where there are 120 firearms for each 100 citizens.

 

 

I was on the lookout for local gun stores to visit.  I walked dozens of miles exploring both Bodrum and Istanbul without coming across a single gun shop.  I’m sure they exist, but I didn’t find any.  What I did find in my explorations were numerous storefronts that looked like this.

 

 

They weren’t open during the day, but in the evening the security doors were lifted to reveal airsoft gun shooting galleries.

 

Airsoft shooting gallery with plastic knock down targets.

 

The storefronts were airsoft shooting galleries.  They attracted crowds like the BB gun booths I saw as a child at the state fair.  The shops had high end gas-powered airsoft rifles with knockoff versions of popular optics.  Of course we had to give them a try.  Two magazines’ worth of airsoft BBs cost the equivalent of $10 US.

 

I picked a AR-style rifle with a knockoff EOTech sight.  I went 29 for 30 on the small knockdown targets placed 10 meters away.  The crowd watching was screaming in encouragement and yelling the English word “military” to explain my shooting prowess.  They saw my haircut and assumed I was a soldier.  I didn’t have the heart to tell all the spectators that I have more than a few real AR-15s at home and can shoot them whenever I want.

 

After I shot, I gave Nathalie her first impromptu shooting lesson.  She had never before fired any kind of gun.  She loved the airsoft rifle and did very well.  We are going to go shooting for real the next time she visits.  It seems like these airsoft shooting galleries are just about the only way Turkish citizens can shoot for recreation if they don’t have a firearms license.

 

The blonde sniper laying waste to plastic knockdown targets.

 

Scams

On my first day in Bodrum and my final day in Istanbul, I intentionally played the role of a clueless tourist and engaged all the scam artists and hustlers I could find.  There were plenty of both, but the hustlers were far more common.  Most were touts trying to get tourists to buy the stuff they have for sale.  Most of the “scams” they used involved isolating the tourist, getting him into a private location, and using high pressure sales to get the tourist to buy more of their wares.

 

I did learn one new ATM scam that I will detail in my upcoming travel scam book.

 

The scam I found most amusing involved selling shoes. Take a look at the photo below.   That’s two shoes (one pair) for 20 pounds not two PAIRS of shoes for 20 pounds. I saw a couple of British tourists get taken by this one.

 

 

 

Medical Tourism

I had no idea about the extent of medical tourism in Turkey until I arrived there.  It’s one of the top destinations in the world for tourist surgeries.  I spoke with a few medical tourists who claimed that their surgeries cost 1/3 to 1/2 the price as the same surgeries in the United States.

 

One of the most popular surgeries seemed to be hair transplants.  I saw a stunning number of patients in the tourist areas with large bandages on their heads after having hair transplants.  Almost all the male passengers on my flight back to the USA were wearing headbands covering the area on the back of their scalp that was removed in order to harvest the hair.  It was wild.

 

Head bandage seen all over Istanbul

 

 

I will be posting a few more articles about my trip on my travel blog.  Look there in the coming weeks if you want to learn more about this unique tourist destination.

 

 

Full moon over the Bosporus in Istanbul

 

How I Almost Got Arrested in Turkey
How I Almost Got Arrested in Turkey 1024 768 Greg Ellifritz

I got back a few days ago from a 10-day trip to Turkey.  I’ll have a full article about my trip posted next week, but until then I need to share some critical information for you shooters who travel by air.

 

On my flight home leaving Turkey, I had to go through Turkey’s dual airport security system.  Since the famous airport bombing and active killer attack in the ticketing area before security, Turkish airports have placed metal detectors and baggage x-ray systems just inside the each airport’s door.  In order to make it to the ticket counter, you must place your bags in an X-ray scanner and walk through a metal detector.

 

After getting your boarding passes and checking your luggage, you must again go through a traditional airport screening system.  On international flights, the Turkish equivalent of the TSA also hand searches each passengers carry-on bags and physically pats each passenger down before they get on the plane.  It’s quite a process.

 

The 2016 Istanbul attackers

 

I fly a lot.  I’ve taken a total of 53 flights already this calendar year.  I also flew two previous domestic flights in Turkey earlier in my trip, so I was familiar with their special  security procedures and had optimized my packing to get through smoothly.

 

I put my carry-on and checked bags on the screening machine’s conveyor belt.  I had no metal on my person, so I walked through the metal detector without an alarm.  I waited on the other side of the detector for my bags to come out the other side of the X-ray machine.  My carry-on came through with no problem, but my checked bag was flagged for extra screening.  Security asked me to open the suitcase.  When I did, the security guard removed my large medical kit and a bag of liquids, separating them from the rest of the suitcase contents.

 

That didn’t seem unusual and I patiently waited when they ran the med kit, the liquids, and the suitcase all through the X-ray machine separately.

 

The screener started yelling in Turkish and suddenly two Turkish National Police officers appeared and greeted me in a friendly manner.

 

The screeners seemed a bit excited but the cops seemed relaxed and were smiling.  The problem was that none of them spoke any English (maybe more accurately described as the problem was that I didn’t speak any Turkish).  They were all repeating a single word when talking to me.  I tried to explain that I didn’t understand what they were saying.

 

One of the cops removed the magazine from his pistol and pointed to a cartridge (Turkish cops carry ball ammo in their guns, by the way) and then pointed to my bag.  The other cop pulled up Google translate on his phone and typed a single word.  It was “bullet.”  Apparently they had seen a bullet in my checked bag on the X-ray image.

 

Shit.  That wasn’t good.

 

What the Turkish cop showed me.  He was pointing to the top round in the magazine and then at my bag.

 

I shook my head “no.”  I was absolutely certain that I didn’t have any ammunition in my bag.

 

As I wrote about in my book, I have a very specific procedure to ensure that I don’t take firearms or ammunition into other countries.  I use a separate set of luggage for traveling in foreign countries.  I NEVER use those bags for traveling domestically or for hauling guns/ammo to the range.  Additionally, before I pack for each trip, I start with completely empty bags so I know nothing could possibly be left over from any previous trips. I had followed my protocol meticulously when packing for this trip.

 

 

Besides, my luggage had already been screened on each of the three separate flights I took earlier in the trip and no one noticed anything alarming.  There was no way I had a bullet in my bag.

 

The screeners and cops ran my bag through the machine several more times.  They tore everything apart and couldn’t find what they were looking for.  The process was taking a long time.  They had been tearing my bag apart for about 15 minutes when the cop with Google translate on his phone started typing.

 

He typed: “Bullets are prohibited.”

 

I replied: “I don’t have any bullets.”

 

Trying to personalize the interaction and ensure that the cop knew he wasn’t dealing with a criminal, I typed: “I am a police officer in the United States.”

 

His reply was: “This isn’t America.  Bullets are prohibited, even for USA police.”

 

Ouch.  This interaction wasn’t going well at all.

 

The screeners continued going through my bags until they found what they were looking for.  In the pocket of a pair of shorts I hadn’t worn on the trip, they found a speed strip loaded with six rounds of .22 magnum ammo.

 

Similar to what I had in the pocket of a pair of shorts

 

A couple weeks previously, I had gone hiking and had carried my Smith and Wesson 351C .22 magnum revolver.  I tossed a speed strip full of extra ammo in my pocket.  I had forgotten to remove the speed strip.  It had been through the washer and dryer.  The ammo was so light that I packed the pair of shorts without noticing that there was a loaded speed strip in the pocket.  I didn’t wear the shorts on my trip and didn’t have a chance to notice the pocket contained ammunition.

 

The cop was looking at the strip and appearing very confused.  He clearly didn’t know what it was.  There probably aren’t many folks carrying spare rounds for a .22 magnum in Turkey.  I quickly started typing on my phone.

 

 

The cop nodded his head, trashed the speed strip and walked away without saying anything more.

 

I have no idea if I had received some international “professional courtesy” or if that was their normal response to idiot Americans who bring ammo into their country.  Either way, I’m grateful the cop chose not to make an arrest for what was clearly a criminal violation in his country.

 

I never thought to check my clothing for contraband before packing for an international trip.  I will be sure to check every piece of clothing I throw in the suitcase before my next vacation.  If you are a shooter who regularly carries spare ammo in clothing pockets, you should too.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the above links are affiliate links.  If you purchase these items, I get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. 

 

 

 

Istanbul Airport Terrorist Attack
Istanbul Airport Terrorist Attack 300 238 Greg Ellifritz

On June 28, 2016, three ISIS terrorists conducted  simultaneous attacks on the unsecured areas of Istanbul’s international airport.  They entered the airport armed with AK rifles and suicide bomb vests.  They split up, went to separate areas of the airport and began shooting and blowing up their bombs.  A total of 42 people were killed and 238 more were injured.

 

Why should we care?  We should care because the same terrorists have stated that they will perform similar attacks in the United States.  We can study the tactics used in their overseas attacks and develop countermeasures before they bring them stateside.  Here is a discussion of the key elements of the attack and what we all need to do in order to avoid being killed if a similar event happens here.

 

-Guns and Bombs- All of the terrorist attacks with the largest number of fatalities involve both guns (usually long guns) and explosives.  To prepare for an active shooter requires that you also be prepared to deal with a terrorist bomber.  The two groups use both methodologies simultaneously.

DM GRAB - Ataturk Airport International Terminal terrorists images appeared on the departures floor. Images of the Russian national airline Aeroflot experienced moments of horror in front of the bank where the check-in office and this was reflected in the cameras. (Haberturk News Centre)

One of the terrorists who initiated the attack with rifle fire.

 

Most shooters don’t know enough about bombs.  You must understand how terrorist bombs are detonated, how they are used, and how far away you must get to be safe.  Take a bomb class.  Until then read this article.  Then understand about secondary devices.  This type of information can truly save your life.

 

– Three Pronged Attack.  A hallmark of Al Qaeda (and now ISIS) attacks is the three pronged attack.  They are continuing the trend here with three attackers at the airport.  They use multiple attackers to ensure that at least one makes it to the target if the others are interdicted by the police before arriving on site.  It’s basically a back-up plan.  In this case, the three attempted to enter the airport.  They were stopped by police at the entrance of the building (this airport has additional metal detectors at the airport entrance).  When they realized they couldn’t make it through security with their guns and bombs, one terrorist pulled out a gun and began shooting at police.  That provided enough of a distraction to allow the other two terrorists to slip inside unnoticed.

 

The key thing to remember is if you witness one terrorist attack, you should assume that more are coming.  There will always be a followup attack.  Don’t hang around.  Get yourself to safety.  The followups may not be in the same location like these were.  Police need to be aware of the three pronged strategy.  If one attack occurs, the police should be deploying additional resources to protect other pre-identified targets for attack.

 

– Heavy clothing and large bags remain the best indicators of a potential bomber.  Take a look at the photo below from this article.  All three terrorists are wearing heavy coats that were wholly inappropriate for the June Mediterranean weather.

 

Note the terrorists' heavy coats, hiding bomb vests

Note the terrorists’ heavy coats, hiding bomb vests

The heavy coats are what attracted the initial police attention.  The cops thought these guys were thieves or robbers based on their dress.  Pay attention to people wearing clothing inappropriate for the weather conditions and people who are carrying large bags.

 

– If you plan on shooting a suicide bomber, you must realize that it is likely a suicide mission.  One of the bombers is running through the airport with a rifle in hand.  He is shot from ambush by a courageous police officer.  The terrorist falls to the ground and his rifle goes skidding across the floor.  The cop approaches, noticed that the man is wearing a bomb vest and runs away.  The man detonates.  The cop was killed in the explosion.  Watch the video of the incident below:

 

It’s likely here that the cop didn’t know the terrorist was armed with a bomb until after he shot.  The correct course of action after seeing the bomber trying to detonate is to fire multiple head shots.  The problem is that even if you immediately incapacitate the terrorist with head shots, there’s no guarantee that you will be safe.  The bomb could be on a timer.  The bomb could be remotely controlled by a handler.  You just don’t know.  That’s what I mean.  Taking the shot may save the day.  It may also get you killed.

 

For a hand carried or worn bomb vest, one must be between 200 and 400 meters away from the blast to be safe from the shrapnel.  None of us are going to make a pistol shot through a crowded airport at 200 meters.  If you are close enough to take the shot, you are within range of being killed by the bomb.

 

Luckily, this cop’s shots to center mass didn’t detonate the explosive vest.  That wasn’t the case in Paris, where one of the cops hit a bomb vest and blew up the bomber.  The unstable homemade explosives in the bomb vest may detonate when hit by a bullet.  That means head shots should be the rule.  How far away can you reliably make a head shot under stress?  Most of you won’t be able to do it beyond 50 feet.  Some of you may have to be much closer.

 

The bad news is that in all suicide bombing attacks studied, victims within five meters of the bomb suffered 100% fatalities.  At the 15 meter range (around 50 feet), the victims were slightly more likely to live than die after the blast.  Anyone inside of 50 feet is more likely to die than live.  How far away can you guarantee a head shot again?  If you are close enough to make the shot, you will have at best a 50% chance of survival if the bomb blows.

 

These are sobering statistics, but they are critical to understand.  If you choose to play the hero and engage the bomber like this heroic cop, you will likely suffer his same fate.

 

– The terrorists may be hiding their weapons during the attack.  This article describes how one of the bombers was concealing his handgun after firing several shots.

“He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator. We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and then it was over.'”

 

Note this picture from The Daily Mail of another killer with a long gun.  See how he is attempting to conceal the weapon?

 

Terrorist hiding long gun

Terrorist hiding long gun

 

Adaptation on the part of the killers and the defenders is constantly occurring.  Both groups are learning from the mistakes made in past attacks.  In past active killer events, the killers brazenly walked their killing fields with guns exposed, targeting anyone they could find.  Now we are seeing killers exercising more caution.  As cops and armed citizens are training to hunt and kill the attackers, the attackers know that if they are obvious about carrying a gun, they will likely be killed before getting the body count they desire.

 

When you are either fleeing the scene of an active killing or hunting the killer, watch people’s hands.  The killer might not be running around with a shouldered long gun as he does his killing.

 

– Unsecured areas of airports are very vulnerable.  There have been numerous attacks to the unsecured areas of airports all around the world.  Get inside and through security as quickly as possible.  Although airport security is a joke, you are still far more likely to get killed in the unsecured area than past the body screening machines.

 

Don’t dawdle in the unsecured area.  Avoid checking baggage if possible.  Print your boarding passes at home.  Fly first or business class whenever possible so that lines at the ticket desk are shorter.  Get TSA Pre-check or Global Entry to speed your way through security lines.  Anything you do to speed up the time you spend in the unsecured area of the airport will improve your chances of survival.  One study showed that for every 15 minute time period that you avoided the security line, your chance of surviving a terrorist bombing was improved by 50%.  Again, anything you do to make it through security faster will improve your odds of survival.

 

– You must be an active participant in your own rescue.  That’s a saying from my friend Dave Spaulding and it fits this situation perfectly.  Look at this video.  Watch the response of the victims here immediately following the blast.  They are sitting down on the floor, immobile and cowering in fear with no idea what to do.  They are sitting ducks if the attack had additional components or in the event another bomber/shooter returned to the area.

 

Get out!  Don’t wait for an inept police force to save you.  Find the closest door and use it.

Daily Mail summary of the incident