A Warrior in the Garden - Why You Should Train with Paul Perkerson, The Battle Gnome.

When Paul Perkerson came calling at Warrior Poet a few years back, we listened. 

"Actually, my wife made me go," Paul recounts. "Evan introduced me to John, and John fell in love with me. The end."

Anyway… 

While it might not have been love at first sight, it was "extreme like" within minutes. Paul spent years in an Army Airborne division on clandestine Long Range Surveillance (LRS) units gathering HUMINT (human intelligence). 

The operations he and his elite team executed, shall we say, "drastically weakened" our enemy's resolve. They also gave our guys a distinct strategic and tactical advantage during the initial Iraq invasion during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. His operations saved countless American and civilian lives. 

Paul was the enemy that our enemies dreaded. And he still is. 

He and his team were trained to sit in the enemy's front yard undetected and lethal. All this clandestine experience taught him how to think like the dangerous people operating today. 

For the following 16 years, he applied these war time-tested skills working on contract security teams for the U.S. government, continuing to fine tune his tactical processes in kinetic environments around the world and constantly play tactical chess with the enemy.

Becoming the Enemy of Your Enemies

What does this mean to you and me? Well now Paul is the Training Director for the Warrior Poet Society. And no this doesn't mean he works in our Human Resources department. 

When Paul joined WPS in 2020 he came with the mission of making our students into the kinds of everyday civilian operators that the bad guys dread and try to avoid. 

"My passion is teaching. I love training people to be harder to kill and more effective killers in the context of being great protectors in the world. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction and I feel a sacred duty to ensure that I deliver the best training possible. In my case, providing the best product means teaching people skills that can save lives." 

Paul is one of the WPS Tactical Training Triumvirate (Paul, John Lovell and Josh Griffiths) teaching everyday people to be operators in the world and protectors of the innocent. 

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The goal is to create realistic and easy to understand training courses that give students a ‘bigger picture’ understanding of their current skill level and immediately-actionable ways to improve. 

"It's all about consistent, repeatable, well executed mechanics," Paul says. "Speed through efficiency, not slamming the gas pedal to the floor." 

Paul excels in breaking down complex skills and tactics into basic and simple ‘bites’ that students can readily comprehend and follow. 

"There are two ways to get good at gunfighting; get into gunfights or get into simulated gunfights," Paul likes to say. " I recommend simulated gunfights first."

Tactical Tools for Tactical Operators

After two decades of tactical operations around the world, Paul has developed a distinct taste for the types of tactical tools that work day in, day out without fail. Here are some of the tools he's helped develop or recommends to our students and other protectors. 

• Folding Karambit
• Groove Belt
• Rifle Sling
• Pistol Brace Strap
• Esstac Magazine Pouches
• Surefire X300 Tac Light
• Duritium III+PA Body Armor
• C-Zone ADAP Target
• COF Heavy Range Bag
• Holosun 507C Sight

You can browse the full list of Paul's picks here.

Why Is He Called the Battle Gnome?

"There are two things about me you should know," Paul says. "I'm short and I cuss a lot. I'm trying to get better at both but only succeeding at one."

What Does Paul Really Think About John Lovell?

"John who?" 

Train Hard. Train Smart. Make the Enemy Fear You.