Mark Moogalian—one of the other train heroes—tells his story
Ace translates a fascinating interview Mark Moogalian gave to Le Figaro.
In case you don’t recall who Moogalian is, he’s the Virginia-born professor married to a Frenchwoman and living in France, who was one of the first people to engage the terrorist (an anonymous Frenchman was the other) on the train. Moogalian was sitting towards the front of his train car when he saw the Frenchman in the rear of the adjoining train car grappling with the terrorist, and rushed forward, grabbing the terrorist’s AK47.
Here’s an excerpt, but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing:
Q: You had at the same time the reflex to tell your wife to get out of there?
A: I turned towards Isabelle [his wife] who, herself, was still seated, and I told her “get out of here.” This must be serious. I wanted more than anything to protect her. She saw in my face that I wasn’t joking. And then, I don’t know how, I managed to pull the Kalcahinikov from the man.
Q: Did you exchange words with him?
A: No, not at that moment…I left car 12 getting away from him crying out “I’ve got the gun!” (j’ai la arme). I was satisfied… but not very experienced because I didn’t think that he might have a a pistol in addition. I took four or five steps and I felt a pain that almost knocked me unconscious, a shock that knocked me forward. I crumpled to the floor and I dropped the Kalachnikov.
Q: Were you able to keep on watching what was happening?
A: A little. I was between two rows of seats, another passenger against me. I felt my shirt become drenched with my blood. I tried to look and I saw Isabelle, a few rows away from me. We stared at each other, eyes locked. I told her, “I’m hit. I’m done for.” I saw nothing but her eyes. In the past, since as along as I remember, I had always thought: “When my time to die comes, I want to do it well, without any fear.” Well, here it was. I saw that Isabelle was about to burst into tears.
The Ace link also displays a video made by two jujitsu experts, explaining some of the details of the combat on the train as best they could piece together. The video was made fairly soon after the incident, so they get a number of things wrong (they thought Sadler was also in the armed forces, for example, and they knew little about Moogalian and his story). But the video is still of great interest, especially the second half of it, which contains their analysis of the mentality of the sort of people who race into defending the group at great risk to their own lives, and the mentality of a terrorist thus surprised by a group of defenders.
Experts that didn’t have the witnesses lead them through the fight itself?
What kind of expert is that.
Btw, without the police having Zimmerman escorting them through the fight itself and the sequence of events, it was very easy for outsiders or media personas, to distort the chain of events.
Ymarsakar:
They are jujitsu teachers, and they are trying to re-create the fight from reports in the news and interviews with the participants. The point is not whether they got all the details right (I think they realize they did not), but about what was happening generally and general principles of the psychology of the thing.
“When my time comes, I want to do it well, without any fear.”
I want that as well.
Its something that comes from hara, the center point. Martial artists train many years to be in unity of body-mind-spirit and respond without thought (mushin) in combat. The 3 Americans reacted in a state of mushin, it was instantly obvious to them that they had to rush towards danger if danger was to be subdued and rendered inoperable. Respect is also due to the Brit and French man who assisted in preventing a potential massacre in the making.
Now if we could only expand the discussion to ask why we in the West allow these brainwashed monsters to cross our borders some lasting good could result from this incident. However, that is not a part of the msm – ‘progressive’ agenda. Infuriatingly, Fort Hood is largely forgotten and resides in a memory grave marked with a tombstone engraved with the epitaph Work Place Violence.
from reports in the news
How is that not dangerous?
Ymarsakar:
No more dangerous than anyone else who has learned about the incident from the news—which is most people, including me. Much of their information apparently came from interviews with the participants. I don’t see that there’s any more they could do. And, as I said, the point is not the re-enactment (for me, anyway), it is their general remarks about the psychology.
Why don’t you listen, and critique that if you wish?
Infuriatingly, Fort Hood is largely forgotten and resides in a memory grave marked with a tombstone engraved with the epitaph Work Place Violence.
Ft Hood 1 lost just like Waco 1. Waco 2, lost just like Ft Hood 2.
I’m detecting a pattern here.
parker:
As far as I know, there were 4 Americans. Moogalian was born here, a citizen, as far as I can tell. The MSM keeps calling him “French-American,” but as far as I can see he’s an American who married a Frenchwoman and has lived in France for many years. Unless he renounced his citizenship and became a French citizen (and I’ve never read anything to that effect), he’s an American. He grew up in Virginia and his relatives still live there.
From the name, I’d say there’s some Armenian in his background in terms of ethnicity.
Why don’t you listen, and critique that if you wish?
Because it’s not part of my methodology. I don’t contaminate my point of view with unverified and unvalidated sources if not enough accurate information is available.
It’s why I didn’t have a strong view one way or another in Zimmerman until the walk through video came out and I could find a solid foundation to analyze things from.
Watching any kind of intel analysis video will bias the viewer to the point of view. And I neither trust the so called “experts” to be clear sighted nor do I trust the media’s influence on so called experts.
My sources, open or closed, are validated far more thoroughly than the poison out on the air there.
But if you want to talk about the psychological points of view, then I’ll watch it and consider that given your point of interest here.
Ymarsakar:
That’s okay. Watch or don’t watch, as you wish.
But as I’ve said, my interest is in the second half, the psychological part, of the video. I’d be curious to know what you think of that.
That video was way too long, even though I started near the half point where they stopped doing technical presentations.
Much of it was boring, not because the contents are erroneous, but because I’ve seen it before. Then again, that sometimes happens with over stimulation of certain points.
There was one new point they raised that I hadn’t heard before in some format or another. It concerned the 1-2 people who rush bank robber scenario. Where if the first person or the second person fails to rush the armed bank robbers, then nobody else will do so. If the first or second person succeeds, then the entire 50 group of hostages will turn into ravenous wolves and consume the robbers, so to speak.
But they were illustrating the phenomenon in their own words and experiences. That was interesting.
I’m not going to comment for or against their other points, since it’s not necessary. My stance is designed to construct a firewall to keep enemy disinformation out and poisonous mental delusions contained. It’s not a debate trick to try to discredit people, although I’m not generally known to pay respects to people with titles, awards, and fame.
A firewall keeps threats out. It doesn’t concern itself with whether people are right or wrong, useful or unuseful. That’s for command and control to consider, after a long strategic session.
I like to use a couple of concepts to prep the field so to speak. Situational awareness is generally based around the color code system used by Frontsight. http://www.adjunct.diodon349.com/attack_on_usa/front_sights_color_code_of_mental_awareness.htm
Threats or potential threats in my view have a threat rating. Some are rated higher than others, and that will determine what my response will be, if any, depending on a couple of triggers and limits. For every person, I’m sure their system is just a little bit different.
One training exercise involved going through public spaces and then considering lines of attack to terminate all targets in range, no matter who they were. Phantom imaging, as one passed another person, to break their balance and cripple them in as few movements as feasible or imagined. That is the conceptual or mental training. Physical training is required to actually do what people think they could do, of course. However, physical training has limits. We don’t have conveniently placed criminals that we can practice on to our heart’s content, after all. So needs must make whatever people call that.
The other concept I make heavy use of is OODA. Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act. It’s like meta thinking, using reason to streamline one’s thoughts, rather than going around in circles using rationalizations or justifications for not doing anything (freezing).
I watched the second half of the video and absorbed the information. Thoughts? I don’t really have thoughts about that besides what I already use. It’s just one point of view. No different from my own. Emotional reactions I have plenty, though. Thoughts are only allowed to go through the firewall when the emotional reactions have purified potential threats. But that’s a different topic.
Moogalian is American by birth, but I will guess he is well assimilated and in tune with nuances of French culture. One need not be an actual citizen to be ‘French’ or ‘American’ or whatever. We have neighbors who are Mexican, yes they are here legally, and although not citizens, they have adopted Midwest values and attitudes. They are very upset by the flood of illegals and believe in the importance of residing here through the legal process.
In other words, parker, as an ex patriate he has gone native.
Y,
They have gone native and love America. Plus, going to their house for dinner is a real treat.
Good link. I am sure that volumes could be written, and probably have, about the psychology that motivates those who react; and those who not.
As one participant said, he wondered how he would act in such a situation.
Read somewhere that Moogalian’s roots are indeed Armenian. He was raised in Virginia. As far as I am concerned that is where he learned the values that governed his actions. I am sure that he learned to appreciate good wine, and sophisticated conversation in France.
Thanks for the link to Ace’s article. In view of the good outcome, I was able to laugh with excitement at this statement by Moogalian, describing what he saw and felt while he was lying there bleeding:
“I saw two people virtually jumping through the air to join the fight. It thrilled me to see these people throwing themselves into it.”
In spite of some of our “leaders” hearing all these stories of extraordinary ordinary people – starting with the passengers on United 93 “Let’s Roll” to these guys, including the Brit (who is close to my age!), I now believe that Western civilization will not go quietly into the night. Thank God!