Trojan Securities Executive Hostage Rescue Course (5 day) :

Before I will start I will say in all fairness this is only a partial
review because I only stayed for 2 days of this course, I actually
packed up my things and drove home at the end of day 2 due to what I witnessed.
This was without a doubt the worst experience I've ever had with a
training company. From lack of communication on even finding out where to meet
on the first day, to the stream of rediculously unprofessional and
childish emails I've recieved from the staff since leaving the course. The train
ing is very unstructured and practically unsupervised. Students were
asking me for guidance on what they were doing right or wrong instead of asking
the instructors. Random odd light "PT" events are thrown in that are
seemingly there just to take up time. Combat mentality on the range was discouraged,
I was "corrected" for performing a combat reload when my weapon
went dry during one drill, calling out threats (contact front, left etc) was also
discouraged. Marksmanship instruction was non-existent,
I watched a student struggle to hit the paper plates that were used as
targets on the static range at 7 yards, and no coaching was given to him at all.
Long periods of time were spent sitting around waiting for the next segment of
training, training time was not maximized. CQB is largely unsupervised,
one drill they had us clear the "tower" shoothouse repeatedly with no instructors
in the tower at all to critique or evaluate. There were basically no
standards at all to any tasks given. We were often times just told to "Go",
while the instructors look the other way. Weapons handling safety was
scarcely enforced,several students had no military background and because they
were not taught proper carry techniques and had no grasp of cqb, flagging
was very frequent. During one drill I was shot by a member of my own team with a
sim round. I have no doubt this would have been repeated live fire.
If they are going to admit total untrained amateurs to what is supposed to be an
advanced level course for security professionals they MUST run through
the basics first of cqb and proper weapon handling, but this was totally omitted.
The instructor cadre is a mix, two were both seasoned veterans with
a background in the british military and the private security industry and seemed
like decent enough guys. One had no background in anything whatsoever,
law enforcement, miliary, or security and was impossible to take seriously.This is
the only training I have ever done that was so bad
I could not stand to take the time to finish the course.
All this being said there were some new techniques I learned and some
useful knowledge was imparted. The two british instructors
seemed knowledgable and experienced, but the delivery of that experience and
knowledge into a coherent, effective safe training course did
not occur. After leaving, the next day I recieved a string of bizarre harassing
emails with totally immature and unprofessional personal
attacks, In conclusion, there is just no way I can possibly recommend this
company's training to anyone.

Here is a transcript of the emails that speak volumes of this company's
professionalism, I was totally caught off guard by this.
It's starts out not so bad but keep reading its gets more rediculous as
it goes, Steve's reply at the end is a little closer to
what should have been said right off the bat....


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Gary;

Did you get lost on the way to the facility this morning ? The instructors
just want to make sure your ok.



Kindest regards,



Kathy J Mastalerz
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kathy;

I'm ok the training just wasn't what I was expecting.

Thank you,

-Gary
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You didn't give it a chance, now everyone thinks you wimped
out because you have realized your not as good as
what you thought you were, it's sad but we had one guy
last year who bragged that he was all that and a bag of chips,
after one day he wimped out, it happens,,,,, Sorry you couldn't handle it.


Kindest regards,


Kathy J Mastalerz
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Somehow I seriously doubt that is what anyone thinks. Thanks for
being so receptive to professional criticism,
your attitude reflects on both you and your company.

-Gary

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well Gary, your only 24 and the guys were saying you seemed to know everything the first day, I mean what would
you think of someone who quits after one day ? Sorry you can't take constructive criticism, but maybe that will
come when you have grown a bit, we are so sorry that we aren't going to be prove to you how great our training is,
we have trained thousands and your only the second one who has walked off a course after the first day and we have
been running training here for the past 10 years here,



Kathy J Mastalerz

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Gary;
Just get your butt out there tomorrow and give it a second chance, I promise your going to enjoy it...no one is
going to think anything about it, just tell them you didn't feel well, I want you to give it a chance and get
your money's worth, I don't like to see people quit when they have spent money to be here and learn from some
really experienced individuals, if someone said or did something that might have offended you then I'm sorry,
we don't sugar coat anything around here and as you know (or you should know) you have to be thick-skinned to be
in this business, I am a Police Officer and I had a Sergeant one time who made my life hell, I hung in there and
now he tells people I'm like his one of his daughters, I hung in there and it got so much better, I'm sorry if I
sounded insensitive, I will gladly meet with you and we can get this sorted, I just don't want to see you go away
unhappy about your experience here. Call me if you want and we can discuss it, if not......Have a safe trip home
and a good life, we only wish you the best !


Kindest regards,

Kathy J Mastalerz

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kathy;
I am a customer. I paid for a service, ie training, and I was not satisified with said service. That's it. It
has nothing to do with anyone's Egos. I have a limited amount of leave days left and did not wish to spend anymore
at Trojan.

Thank you for your time,

-Gary

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OK Gary.....Fair enough, we'll be sure to spread the word that we tried to make you feel warm and fuzzy but you
decided to sit and pout, Steve and the others were right, your just a 24 year old who thinks he knows it all and
you haven't really done anything, You probably got into this business because you know someone, not on your apparent
abilities, you won't get too far with your attitude, you may get by for now but it will eventually catch up with you.



Cheers,


Kathy J Mastalerz

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mr Lanza,

Sorry to hear you were not happy, hope you do well. I will let the board of directors know your comments.
Please do not bother to reply, your right you paid and your not happy with the service, your choice.

Stephen J Mastalerz

Wow..sorry for your experience bro...I've heard of Trojan securities way back, thanks for that info about them...maybe some of the guys have similar experience with them...anyway, I hope you got some of your money back...

I'd never heard of them, but appreciate the post so that I won't waste my $$ on them in the future.
That is one impressive exchange of e mails. That warm fuzzy feeling & professionalism that you get from them is impressive. I bet she was a real joy to deal with when she was a cop too. JEEZ!

well...if things occured as described, all i can say that is it very worrying for the likes of some of us, who are constantly seeking the best training out there!

Wow,

I'm very happy you posted this.I think maybe something like this( reveiw wether good or bad) posted by others on this forum who have trained at facilities could be beneficial to us all.

I have also attended trojan securities EHRT course and was very impressed with the content. You can’t really comment after only attending the two days, as there isn’t a structured itinerary given to students. And trust me it all comes together in the end. In my opinion the course is definitely worth the money and would recommend anyone with forward potential.

Cheers,
Matt

Wow, all I can say is WTF? 24 yoa has nothing to do with it I have worked with 21 year olds that would run circles around most of the guys I have worked with, I would gladly stack their CV's/Resumes against hers and their instructors. Regardless of the circumstances of this issue the e-mails were unacceptable and are enough for me not to even consider their training. I have been to HDSOC and BW and can say that they were top notch and professional. I have an issue with being treated like a lacky or a buddy with them doing me a favor. Bottom line is that a waste of time is a waste of time. When I pay for training its my option to attend or not. Being insulted and shamed into finishing the training is a reflection of the company. Especially by someone that only has LEO training in an administrative position.

Holy S__t!!! Maybe I should take my 51 year old, multiple deployment ass down there and see what the rock stars can teach me. It's a shame when a company allows the egos of their employees to cheat people out of their hard earned training dollars.