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Your Presenter:
Jim Etzin recently retired as the Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services Coordinator for the Oakland County Tactical Consortium (OakTac), a mutual aid organization comprised of 40 law enforcement agencies, numerous fire departments, and other stakeholders protecting approximately 1.3 million residents. Before retiring from a Metropolitan Detroit fire department after 29 years, he served as a Navy Corpsman within the Weapons and Field Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton for the 2nd Marine Division during combat operations in Operation Desert Storm and as a full-time combat medicine instructor for the 1st Marine Division. After becoming the first Corpsman ever to attend the United States Marine Corps Military Police School and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) School, he then served as both an operator and medic for the only full-time Marine Corps SWAT team at the time.
In his capacity as the founder and executive director of the International Tactical EMS Association (ITEMS) and the immediate aftermath of the infamous North Hollywood Bank of America takeover robbery and shootout in 1997, two years before the tragedy at Columbine High School, Etzin was the first in the United States to conceptualize what's now known as the Rescue Task Force approach to casualty management within such environments. He has studied, practiced, and taught active violence response and tactical medicine for 39 years. He is considered a subject matter expert on the history of critical incidents and how to mitigate them tactically and medically.
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