Rob:  Earlier, I visited with the organizer of the strike force raid, CareerTech instructor, Mark American Horse.  Well, Mark, in seeing operation puppy strike, I was struck, myself, by how many different paths law enforcement can take.
Mark American Horse:  Yes, in just the law enforcement half of it, we had, you know, the FBI agents that were involved, we had highway patrol people that were involved, sheriff’s office, police department.  Within just what we were doing, we had the SWAT team operations; regular law enforcement was setting up external security communications.  You have people who are just operationally handling the logistics from it all, as well as you know, the NSA, network security administration, that we have, and people that did our computer forensics.  You know, we also involved HOSA students; they role played as our EMTs that were there on the spot.  And we even had some people from welding that helped us put together one of the targets that popped up to surprise the team.
Rob:  And bringing all these people together, that’s very real life; that how it really works.  
American Horse:  Yes.  Well, what I wanted to do was to show everybody kind of what their little piece of the pie is, where they fit in, in the big picture in homeland security.
Rob:  Okay.  Tell me if you would, educationally, what does it take to do this in real life?
American Horse:  Well, for students who are planning on going into the FBI, they’re eventually going to have a Bachelor of Science degree, and they can increase their chances of being marketable by taking something like accounting or something along that line, and same with highway patrol; you’re going to have to have some college to do some things like that.  Most law enforcement agencies now days require at least an Associate’s degree which is actually pretty good for our program, because our students, whenever they graduate get up to 44 hours going toward an Associate’s degree depending on what school that they go to.  So they have a pretty good jump going into that area.  
Rob:  Yeah, and just looking at your students, at the video that we have, it looks like they’re from all ages.
American Horse:  Yes.  I have them ranging from 16 to I think my oldest one is over 60.
Rob:  So what can we expect for next year?
American Horse:  For next year, bigger and better, and we’re planning on getting, as of right now, we have about nine state that are interested in doing this with us.  I’ll know more; I’m going to the nationals this year with four of my students, and when I get there I’m meeting with several of the instructors from the other states, and we’re planning on kind of getting a roster together of who wants to be involved.  And of course, now that they’ve seen that it can be done, and see the benefit of it, I think it’ll be easier to get a lot more people involved.  The instructors are very willing.  The hardest part is getting an administration that’s willing to help you go that far outside the box.  
Rob:  Uh huh, because it’s work that’s going on In the middle of the night and it’s bringing everyone together.  Well, it’s certainly a fascinating program and one that I’m sure we’re going to be hearing a lot more from.
American Horse:  Thank you.
Rob:  Thank you.