BA Hard Target Shooting Academy

Congratulations to Joshua on Earning your 1st degree black belt last night. An incredible 6 year journey so far (and now is the real beginning). Continue demonstrating perseverance and leadership and no telling how far you can go.

This next post is from his mom.

Makes this momma tear up 🥰 1st to latest belt change. THANK YOU so very much GM Troy Burleson for all you have done for Joshua!!!!! He would never have become the wonderful young man that he is today without you teaching and encouraging him to just keep going forward and stay on track ( there were times he just wanted to give up and quit ) and for all the time you have sacrificed for him and all your students. The best is that you lead by example and your faith in God, THANK YOU!! I also want to say THANK YOU, GM McNeely, Master Lindsey, Master Edwards, Ms Nikki, Mr Hendricks and all the instructors that came through over the years. We appreciate each and every one of you all! Makes this momma tear up 🥰 1st to latest belt change.

And I want to say, THANK YOU, to all his classmates too. I don’t think he would’ve come this far had he not had you guys encouraging him and just standing with him! ( and being there for him to spar with )😁 I say that in jest because there was a time when he absolutely would not spar. Troy and his wisdom, had to help him through that one.😊

Thanks everyone for the hard work ,advice and support you all gave to Joshua and all your students. We Love our Taekwondo Family.

We are starting our journey from Tampa, Florida to North Carolina this morning. Destination, Spruce Pine, North Carolina. We’re meeting up with some local people who are working out of a church there to get supplies to everyone in need. We’re bringing a couple loads of food and water with us that we will be able to distribute and leave there. We will also hook up with the local EOC and volunteer our labor for the next few days. Incredible thing happened over the last couple of days that will make this trip more meaningful for me personally. Spruce Pine in the Cane Creek area is where my family came from in the 1800s before they migrated to Marion county Arkansas. A couple of the Burleson family reached out to me and we have been talking about history and genealogy over the last two days as a matter fact, JD Burleson will be joining us to Spruce Pine. I’m excited to get to see cousins that I never knew existed and be able to help people in the very place where we were from. I learned from their history that the very first police chief in Spruce Pine was a Burleson family member. I feel better now about going into North Carolina with having credible contacts that will be able to, actually help out the people here without being turned back this time. 

Sunday, October 13th. MiB still in recovery mode in the Tampa, Sarasota area. While we had a break in the loading generators, water, food and fuel, we noticed a sign cautioning people about snakes and alligators in the pond next to our Tampa command post. So we investigated further and found we indeed had at least 3 alligators living in the pond. So I’m trying to hold Glenn back and something snapped and he pu his knife in his mouth went into Alligator hunting mode. All in all it was a good break from the tragedy of the hurricane victims.

Although it was short lived fun, it was very much needed. Back to our mission, Our guys are out escorting fuel trucks to refill generators that power entire dialysis clinics. MiB escorting Fresenius Kidney Care staff helping to deliver food in box trucks, to clinics along with fuel making sure employees, staff and nurses can get to work and back. We continue to provide support and we continue to pray for Florida's recovery. Thank you to all of you for supporting Men in Black in our mission. As soon as this duty ends several of us are heading back to North Carolina to volunteer in their recovery. If you know anyone there that we can help, individual or organization or church, please send me their contact information and phone number.

I finally met up with part of my team in Tampa. I began driving from Tallahassee early this morning and drove for 10 plus hours to get here. Much traffic coming back to their homes. We found a beautiful hotel to stay in tonight. It doesn’t have electricity, hot water or air conditioning. Like Glenn Redding said, We are just like the other 2 million around us. I did cheat a little. I brought up my solar generator to the room. We now are the only room in this hotel with some lights and the ability to charge our phones. In the morning back to running gas to clinics so their generators won’t run out and fueling staff cars so they can get to and from work. Water and food was delivered to several clinics. We still have some of our guys out with the fuel truck. FKC rocks when it come to disaster recovery for their staff and patients. The best in the business.

North Carolina Update!!
I have a heavy heart today. I’m frustrated, sad, mad and all those emotions in between. If you want to know about my experience keep reading… it’s a little lengthy.
Jonathan Murphy, a Bergman police officer and a member of the MIB Distaster team has been with me for the last few days trying to help in any way. I have responded to over 35 national level disasters, 29 of them being hurricanes. I have about as much experience as any one I know from armed protection, rescuing people, to handing out water in the mountains of Puerto Rico. As you saw in my earlier post, we tried to help at the very worst of places affected by this storm. On every occasion we were turned away by authorities as was many professional people because we were not registered on their FEMA response plan. We took imitative and walked creeks, looked around ponds looking for deceased persons, did traffic control in the very bad hit areas without their permission. Today’s mission was to contact a medical supply facility that had over 20 staff missing or unaccounted for. Jonathan and I bought ropes, shovels and everything else that we needed to hike into the mountains to locate these people. After driving on back roads and giving over bridges that were out, We finally made it to their facility and talked to a couple of employees that were accessing damage there. They told us they knew the had employees killed and many were missing. They told us to go to another building where they were handing out water and supplies to the rest of their employees and talk to the HR director. We did this and the HR director met us in the parking lot with another gentleman. We told them we were police officers from Arkansas and we had been on a disaster response for Fresenius Kidney Care for the last week and half and that Our duty was over and we were there to volunteer help them locate the missing staff. She said we don’t need your help. I asked her if all the staff had been accounted for. She hesitantly said no. I ask her if they had had any contact. She said I assume they are ok, it’s probable that their cell phones were down and they just couldn’t get in touch. I said you assume, it’s been over a week. I said just please give us an address so we can check on them. I told her that we were prepared to make the hike. She did she would not give us any information about her employees because it was against policy. I said even if they are dying and need help? She said absolutely not they didn’t need our help and they had contacted FEMA for employee support. That means they are not trying to get to those people. The man with her stepped in and told us we don’t need your help for us to be on our way.
At every step, and not just ours, we have been turned away. I have only felt this was during the failure in Katrina, Puerto Rico and now in North Carolina. I don’t know what else to do …. The people who live here thank us at every stage for helping them. Some cry some hug us. These people need help!! I started giving a little money to people individually after I heard their stories. I feel helpless here working with the government and “officials”. We decided to give up and head home. And that is very difficult to acknowledge. While I was gutting things ready I was contacted by a local Doctor from back home and asked how they could help. I almost cried because of what I was feeling. So many people wanting to help. She said that she would raise money because a lot of people wanted to help but didn’t trust the government with their money. And I don’t blame them. I’m willing; my team is willing but we don’t know. what it do. I have witnessed the local churches making the most impact on their communities. She asked me to set up an account any for me to deliver the aid personally. I told her that I wasn’t being very helpful and I didn’t know how I could help. There are so many to help that it is over whelming. She said you and your team should do this personally. DONT listen to the government coverage and what they are saying. This has been a repeat of Katrina. We have learned nothing. Sitting here on the side of the road in Western Norrh Carolina praying for direction.

The real story here in North Carolina is Neighbor helping Neighbor. It’s sure not the Government helping. They are mostly absent in these rural towns. We went to an EOC at the local fire department and listened to the Incident Commander yell at people who were trying to help in any way. He screamed out for all volunteers to leave because they had not been given a mission number so they could not help in his plan. When Murphy and I asked to help he said absolutely not. One of the local firemen pulled us aside and said he could really use our help in a devastated community. The Commander told him to shut up that he could hear that in his presence. This reminds me of the quagmire that I was in Katrina and Peurto Rico. Getting caught up in “proper Paperwork and red tape hurts people. We divided to listen to the local fireman and help the people in that community and I’m glad we did. We will do the same tomorrow and we will not deal with people like that Incident Commander.

Honored to be able to help out in North Carolina. My heart goes out to these folks.

Water lines…gas lines…food lines….ice lines….Prayers for the people in Georgia and North Carolina.

Hello My Friend,

On November 2, 2024 we are hosting a very special competition that involves combatives, fitness and fi****ms. This will be a multi-gun shoot that is within a challenging fitness and martial art type of event. It has been designed for several age groups and will be very challenging and realistic. We realize that this may not be for everyone but it is our intent to invite those that take fitness, combatives and shooting skills

We believe that this event will give you something fun, exciting and productive to train for. I hope you can fit it into your busy schedule and possibly invite some other people whether they be students, friends or other instructors.

We will have a Law Enforcement division as well as a Non-Law Enforcement division. You can go to www. Bahardtarget.net further info about the age and male/female divisions for your review and to register for the event.

We are going to present honor trophies as well as cash prizes for each division. If you don’t have a firearm to compete with you can use ours.

Again we are very excited to offer this new annual event that specializes in combative fitness and safe firearm development. We truly hope you can attend as it will certainly be a highlight for everyone's fall activities.

Thanks for looking this over. Please Share.

Troy Burleson
Hard Target Shooting/Combative Facility
417-239-4451

Summer Greetings!,

I wanted to personally invite you to join us for the June 29th Combatives Training Session held at Lead Hill, AR., beginning at 10 am. We are very excited by the way this Reality Based Personal Protection program has been taken by those that have participated in it. This is probably because of the ever increasing threat level that our country and our communities are experiencing. Let us help you prepare yourself, your family and your students for what could be a life changing event.

We have been researching and training on several different levels to become as Real, Effective and Safe as possible.

Just to give you an idea, during our last Combative training session we covered Gunting (limb destruction), Street Boxing, CQC Knife work, CQC Pistol work, room clearing with terrorists and hostages! Big time in the Ozark's for sure. We always review and then introduce our next training block. Here are some common questions that we get:

* Is it safe to do this if you're older or non-athletic?
Yes, in fact the things we are doing many older people can and are doing.

* What is the schedule for this?
We begin at 10am - 12pm then break for a great lunch and a great visit session. We then resume at 2pm-4pm then return home.

* What will we be covering?
Many times it will depend on who is in attendance and what level of experience they have but we will cover several elements from the 7 Ranges of Combat and the 3 Levels of Severity of Threat. You will learn some very real and effective personal protection methods and tactics regardless of your skill and experience level.

* How do you register for this training?
Go online to www.tkdonlineregistration.com to save your spot.
$50 Early registration fee for the entire day!


2021 WTA TAEKWON-DO REGISTRATION

* What do I need to bring?
Dress in your workout sweats, bring boxing gloves, focus mitts, training knife & training pistol. (forearm pads would be good)

Come join us June 29th 10am for this scientific study of Reality Based Personal Protection. You'll be glad you did! Please share this invite.

Watch for our upcoming LIVE STREAM combative training program that you and your school can participate in. More info to follow.

2021 WTA TAEKWON-DO REGISTRATION World TaekwonDo Alliance Registration