Kern SWAT honors, new Chavez School playground

What began at 6 a.m. with a sniper briefing and ended somewhere around 6 p.m. with a precision handgun shoot had finally paid off for one group of local SWAT guys.

Among the group was my husband, Julio Garcia, a deputy with the Kern County Sheriff's Department who had been a bit worn and challenged to a new level, thanks to the recent Ventura Police Department’s 15th annual SWAT competition.
At the Ventura competition, he and our good friend, Deputy Jay Heisey, landed first place in the “Sniper Team challenge.” It was a two-man SWAT team event where both had to shoot different targets at a distance of 100 yards. The targets were about an inch in size, and each team was timed.
But they weren’t the only local winners.
The Kern County Sheriff’s SWAT team received second place in the overall team competition — the main category of the event. First place went to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Other competing agencies were: Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo county sheriff’s departments; as well as Oxnard, Redondo Beach, Simi Valley, and Pasadena police departments.
Kern’s SWAT competition team featured my husband, and his comrades, Sgt. Drake Massey; senior deputies Dustin Downey and Larry McCurtain; and deputies Jay Heisey, Pat McIrvin and Jesse Alvarez. Alvarez was the team’s alternate.

 “I was so proud of our guys and the effort they put forth,” said Massey, who also serves as the department’s SWAT Team Leader. “The team was ecstatic with the second place finish because all the teams were extremely competitive, and it was so hard to place in the top three.”

To place in the overall team honors, SWAT teams had their scores tallied from the different categories they entered. The categories were Team/Sniper Shoot; Precision Handgun; Entry Weapon Shoot; Team Physical Fitness Course; Team Obstacle Course; and Team-building Exercise.

“It’s nice to know that KCSO SWAT can hold their own against some quality law enforcement agencies from Southern California,” added Massey. 

All eight categories required intense running and some other physically demanding event, like dragging a 165-body dummy, climbing a mountain, climbing numerous fights of stairs, shooting with gas mask, and shooting from awkward positions.

“The team had to tactically plan, strategize and stay focused for 12 hours,” Massey said. “We were beat up and totally exhausted at the end of the day.”

I guess I can forgive my husband for devoting higher-than-usual hours for SWAT training exercises in preparation for this competition.
And it was no easy feat.
Talk about being surrounded by rows of SWAT teams, all who were focused, physically fit, and shot well under extreme conditions.
But gotta give credit to Ventura Police Department for putting on a fine event.

“They put on a quality competition that was very challenging and fair,” Massey tells me. “We have developed a good relationship with Ventura and many of the proctors told us they were pulling for us to do well.”

The SWAT team is now thinking about participating in the Police Olympics next summer.

“We will be selective on entering numerous competitions during the year,” he said. “One, maybe two a year is plenty due to the fact that we do not want competitions to interfere with our numerous SWAT missions and  regular training with the remainder of our team.”

He added, “As I mentioned before, it did not matter where we finished, as long as we were professional, humble and gave 100 percent in the field of competition. Our SWAT troops did exactly that, and as their team leader, I was very proud of them.”

We all should be.

On other matters, I wanted to give special recognition to a local woman who has generously given to Cesar E. Chavez School in northeast Bakersfield.

On Monday, Chavez School is going to dedicate the new kindergarten playground equipment to Nema Traynor, and her husband, Joe.
School Principal Ruscel Reader (talk about another amazing woman) tells me that Traynor has been a major contributor since her granddaughter, Cosette, was a student of the Chavez Challengers. Cosette is now a 7th grader and on to another school.

“The current playground equipment was old,” Reader said. “Nema was out there one day, looked at the playground and says, ‘Our kids deserve more. They're good kids. They need more.’ ”

Traynor recently donated $16,000 for a new kinder playground. It features several slides, decks, climbing latter, and benches. The Chavez Booster Club also helped with installation costs.

“She’s a very humble person,” said Reader of Nema Traynor, who worked as a teacher at Mt Vernon School for many years. “She’s a good kind, generous woman. Unassuming.”

Traynor was also involved in the active Chavez Booster Club and the former Chess Club. In the past, the Traynors have given money in the past for chess scholarships, science materials and other programs.

“They’re just so giving,” Reader says. “They love kids. Just good people.”