Thinking Man's Corner

Article by: William G.

The last article published just before this one, was dedicated to James A. Green. Today, on Christmas, as I sit in an unmarked unit, in full uniform, I am thinking about my friend, James. He was a very early member of GALEFI, and is the reason I became a member. He is also the reason I became a cop, and the reason I became a firearms instructor.

He started his career with the Americus Police Department, and worked his way up through the ranks, serving as a shift supervisor, Detective/Sergeant, Training Lieutenant, Internal Affairs, Assistant Chief, and Chief of Police. He gave over 31 years to that agency, 7 as Chief.

He was very, very progressive; especially for an agency of that size (around 60 sworn at full capacity at the time). He was a FBI NA graduate, a regional coordinator for GALEFI, and also a graduate of Command College. He got the agency it’s first State Accreditation, and adopted many revolutionary ideas over the years. He pushed for patrol rifles in the mid 80’s, he created a personally owned weapons policy and program, he sent officers all over for training, and he brought training to them.

This is a man who went to Mid South to see how to teach his officers to shoot better, but also drove across country to Gunsite to learn a different shooting style than what he had been trained, to see if it could help any of his officers. If it was anything that could benefit another cop, he kept an open mind, and felt it his duty to give the most relevant and reasoned training to those he was responsible for. The agency has no clue the level of training they were receiving under him. He even went so far as to bring in Marcus Wynne (if you look that name up, plan to spend several weeks going down that rabbit hole) to teach some of his key staff cutting edge neural based methods for performance gains. This included James’s small department in the ranks of BMW racing, NASA, DARPA, and various OGA’s. Think about that for a minute.

He bought, on his own dime, lots of cutting edge equipment to see if it would be better for his officers. He was not afraid to change or upgrade when needed. In 2009, when I told him that 9mm was making a come back, he was the only person that didn’t think I was crazy. He asked me why. When I explained it, he did some research on his own, and he swapped his agency from the 40 S&W back to 9mm, while everyone else thought he was crazy-like me. Now this is significant because he was one of the first to push for the 40 S&W when it came out, and carried a HK USP for many years in that caliber. He was willing to listen to a different opinion, saw that it would benefit his officers, and then changed his opinion; not allowing ego or other’s perception to sway his mission.

When one of his officers was forced to take a life to save a life, he was sent to what we now call “fit for duty evaluations.” The shrink had told this officer all the things that they may experience, but had forgot to say “may.” This officer thought something was wrong with them, and talked to James. James explained how nothing was wrong with them for not feeling bad about being alive or saving someone’s life, and he made it his mission to change the way we dealt with officer’s mental health after traumatic events. This was way before anyone else thought of an “officer resiliency program.”

Earlier I mentioned he had seen the need for, and allowed personally owned, patrol rifles since the mid 80’s. He pushed for the agency to supply them to all officers. When there wasn’t enough money for that, he sought out two alternate methods. He got M16-A1’s for officers, and modified them for general issue. He couldn’t get enough so he sought out how to better modify the shotguns already in inventory. That lead him to become one of the first adopters of the “flight control wad” variant of buckshot, effectively extending the range of the shotguns his officers relied on.

I could literally spend hours talking and writing about all of James’s accomplishments and attributes, but I will sum it up briefly with his most important. James loved cops, training, animals (especially dogs, lots of them), his community, his country, his agency, God, and most of all – Allison, his wife. He would light up every time he talked about when he first saw her (and he remembered the exact dress she was wearing). Allison was a dispatcher who worked her way up to the rank of Sergeant and shift supervisor for the Americus Police Department. She, on her own, was a tough as nails street cop who was respected by the other officers and the community. James loved Allison with all his heart, and his memory lives on through her and the others that called him friend.

Much like Jeff Cooper (who James met, and issued the rank of Colonel through decree of council and by his authority – if you are ever at Gunsite and get to tour the armory at the Sconce, just inside the door to the right-hand side, you will see the decree and a badge marked Col. Jeff Cooper, Americus Police Dept.), James Green is a legend, and when legends are remembered, they never die.

This article is for you, Allison.