Rich is a 23 year retired veteran of the United States Army. During his tenure in the military, he deployed into Iraq as an Infantryman, served in many leadership positions and retired as an Infantry Senior Sergeant. As a government contractor in diplomatic security, he worked his way up and became a Deputy Operations Manager of Security serving several tours in Afghanistan. Upon returning to the United States, Rich wanted to give back to the community and joined Homeland Personal Protection team as a Lead Defensive Firearms Instructor with an emphasis on personal defense against lethal threats.
Rich is a certified Defensive Firearms Instructor and has conducted both military and civilian training. He regularly participates in training with some of the best instructors from across the United States annually. He is qualified to teach the NV CCW, UT CFP, AZ CCW and holds multiple credentials such as the NRA Instructor – Certified Pistol, NRA Personal Protection In the Home, NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home, and NRA Range Safety Officer certifications. In addition, he is also a certified USCCA Instructor for Concealed Carry and Home Defense Fundamentals and recently completed an Intuitive Defense Shooting Instructor Development course, Active Shooter Response course, Armed Defense Around Vehicle course, and Two Person Armed Defense courses for Personal Defense powered by I.C.E.
Rich is dedicated to educating others and helping them to develop the skills that could potentially save their lives, their loved ones lives or the lives of others.
Robert is currently a 22-year veteran of a government contractor currently supporting our nation’s warfighter and national security efforts.
Robert has been affiliated with the HPP family since 2013 and is an Intuitive Defense Shooting course graduate, furthering his HPP journey in IDS, USCCA, and NRA Instructor disciplines. He embodies the philosophy of “every great teacher much first be a great student”. He’s committed as a life-long “professional student” who embraces the “ABL” (Always Be Learning) philosophy in his practices that he can deliver the most relevant and substantive knowledge and skills to improve his personal safety, and that of his family, community, and his fellow citizens.
Robert is an NRA certified pistol instructor and NRA range safety officer. He spent several years as an instructor in the Sabre Tactical Center Axis Relock combat shooting system. He is also a Front Sight Firearms Training Institute Graduate with focus on Defensive Handgun discipline.
He has personally invested in himself with years of time and money to train and certify with national and international experts most notably Tony Blauer (S.P.E.A.R.), Robert Koga (Law Enforcement Officer Safety Tactics – Koga System),
Eyal Yanilov (Krav Maga Global – Israel), and is pursuing competencies in the array of USCCA and IDS disciplines with HPP on his Instructor Development pathway.
He is currently an active Blauer Tactical SPEAR Personal Defense Readiness Trainer under Tony Blauer and SAFE Trainer under Yousef Badou. He is also an active member of the FBI’s Infragard Los Angeles chapter with multiple disciplines that include Active Shooter Mitigation, Workplace Violence Mitigation, School Violence Prevention, Advanced Situational Awareness, Terrorism Recognition Awareness + Prevention, and Open Source Intelligence. He is also an Infragard certified Terrorism and Infrastructure Liaison Officer. He has served on several school site councils advising principals and district student welfare directors on violence awareness, prevention, and intervention.
He is a former EMT/Paramedic spending a culmination of 10 yrs in the field and clinical environments. He more recently attained certification in Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support after the October 2017 Route 91 Incident when he was in town and at the Mandalay Bay that very night. In his earlier years, he was employed at a college Public Safety Department eventually attaining the rank of Chief, then subsequently certified as Police Reserve Officer with a large metropolitan Southern California police agency. Although he isn’t currently active in law enforcement or EMS, he still maintains his competencies and has an enthusiastic passion for sharing his skills and knowledge to anyone intent on enhancing and solidifying their safety IQ.
Robert enjoys training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with his two children (13 and 16) and spending his down time with close friends and his family. His hobbies include meteorology and aviation. He is a National Weather Service Spotter and recently completed fixed wing private pilot and instrument ground school to be eligible to add-on a fixed-wing (airplane) rating to his FAA private pilot rotorcraft (helicopter) license.