President & Owner Jim Smith's Training Biography

Jim Smith is a highly skilled instructor with 25+ years of tactical firearms instruction experience. He is a well-respected member of the Special Operations community. Having been an Airborne Ranger, Special Forces Engineer and a special ops operator, Jim has the knowledge, skills and abilities to better any unit’s combat abilities.

Having a lengthy operational background and real world combat experience with Special Operational forces, Jim participated in several combat raids and high threat security details in hostile overseas locations. He is an accomplished breacher with years of

Jim Smith, Spartan

explosive training and has a wealth of timely experience and current knowledge on urban warfare.

Jim has attended numerous military and civilian tactical firearms schools and is a certified Federal Firearms Instructor. He is also a SOTIC trained and certified Sniper Instructor as well as a certified FBI combatives instructer.

Jim has trained Army Special Forces teams, the Army 75th Rangers, units from most of the Army divisions, Air Force Special Op’s, MARSOC and select US Marine Corp units. Jim has also trained several foreign military units from Israel, Jordan, Greece, Germany and Italy.

Having trained both State and Federal Law Enforcement agencies, Jim was one of the instructors called upon to help write the post 9/11 Federal Air Marshal training program. He was responsible for the hands-on training of the Federal Air Marshals for 3 ½ years. During this time, Jim also wrote a national firearms training program (SURGE) for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). He also conducted this training for the same service with great success.

Jim wrote and conducted an advanced training program for the TSA's Federal Flight Deck Officers (armed pilots) and has trained many of these officers personally. He is an endorsed instructor with the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association (TTPOA), and trains SWAT teams through out the country.

Most recently Jim worked a major program with the US Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group to write a training program that totally changed the Army's rifle training program. The program he and a few associates wrote addressed many aspects of training from basic entry level marksmanship to advanced combat skills and tactics.

He is a decorated combat veteran having been awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Legion of Merit and numerous other military awards. While engaged in an armed conflict in Somalia, Smith's Blackhawk helicopter was shot down and he was wounded. Jim was shot in the shoulder with an AK-47 while rescuing fellow crewmembers and is classified as a disabled veteran.

Jim's laser direct and intuitive style of teaching, coupled with his vast tactical experience, will quickly elevate any organization's combat ability.