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INSTRUCTOR

JAMES "JAKE" JACOBELLI

Personal & Professional

BACKGROUND

     My name is James “Jake” Jacobelli. I am from Bridgeport, Connecticut. I served in the U.S. Army and completed two tours in Vietnam. I was a helicopter door gunner with the 281st Assault Helicopter Company recognized as the first Special Operations Helicopter unit in the Army.

     I later served as a Military Police Investigator /Army CID Special Agent. I performed numerous protective service missions for the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of the Army. I supervised a five-man drug team in Mannheim, Germany, and taught the drug block at the U.S. Army Military Police 

School. I retired from the Army with 24 years of service. My civilian Law Enforcement career began as a police officer in Deerfield Beach Florida. I later served as a senior investigator with the Florida Attorney General’s Office until 2005, when I went to Iraq as a security contractor and performed shooter/intelligence duties.  While preparing for the Iraq mission, I acquired a vast amount of advanced training in Combat/Tactical techniques that I currently instruct in addition to Law Enforcement training techniques. After Iraq I joined the Zephyrhills Police Department and became a detective, firearms instructor, and a Tactical Team member.  I am a graduate of the following U.S. Army training courses: Counter Drug Field Tactical Police Operations, Protective Services, Special Reaction Team (SRT), Counter Terrorism, Air Assault Course. I am also a graduate of, the 186th Session of Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) National Academy. I am a NRA Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor, Florida CJST and Florida Class “K” licensed firearms instructor, License # K 2900067. 

     I teach advanced tactical and combat related courses of instruction. My years of training and instruction have given me the opportunity to work with and instruct hundreds of Military, Private Security, and Law Enforcement Officers. Much of this training is focused on advanced tactical techniques, such as combat/tactical reloading, shooting from cover, and close combat front sight only shooting, survival shooting along with other advanced techniques.     As a Florida Class “K” licensed instructor, I instruct the Florida Class “G” courses for “G” licensed Armed Security Officers as well as the annual Class “G” Re-Qualification course. I also teach civilians with little or no experience the NRA first steps course or the Conceal Weapons course. Both courses exceed the Florida State requirements to obtain a Florida Concealed Weapons Permit.     I emphasize Wyatt Earp’s philosophy on gun fighting, “In at a gunfight you need to learn to go slow in a hurry”. What Wyatt Earp meant was, be efficient, not fast. There are several techniques to help a shooter become efficient to increase their chances of surviving a gun fight.

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