When did you leave "Condition White" behind?

[imas]

I've always been pretty cautious and fairly aware of my surroundings. I had good instincts when I was younger and that got me out of a few tight spots.

I ran across an article today about my last day in code white. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/09/22/loc_few_warned_of.html

It was a nice day out. Not very hot. I was in high school then. I washed my car and got it looking all spiffy. I went to church that Wed night in condition white. Well it started raining out and then it started pouring out. There was still daylight left and it was just pitch black out there. The kind that just swallows light.

Thats when the power went out. The emergency lights kicked on and it got quiet for a second while my ears started popping like mad. Then things started hitting the building and the wind quickly built into a roar. In the meantime our group was trying to pour out the tiny door to head for the bathroom. We ended up huddled in the hallway.

If I had kept a watchful eye I would have noticed the Severe Thunderstorm Warning and watched the weather. Maybe we would have made it to that bathroom. We got lucky and were not injured but we could have been since we only went for shelter while the tornado was going over head. The church was in its direct path and took alot of damage.

Next week I'm taking my first storm spotter course and I'm looking forward to it. I've been very aware of the weather since that event and also more aware of my surroundings. I turned my back on code white and now I'm always in yellow. I never did go to black in this event but my response was a little late.

This is the slap in the face that finally convinced me to wake up and pay attention. I got to see first hand the results of the people who went from white to black. They were a mess afterward and couldn't even remember their own phone numbers. This fact proved to me that training for self defense is more important than the latest gadget. You will fall back to your level of training and probably not rise to the occasion.

It showed me another thing as well. People ask me CARRY IN CHURCH? Are you crazy? Why would you do that? Some people think you are completely safe in church but I know better. Even alot of people who carry consider church a "white zone." There are many shootings in churches and obviously tornadoes.

In fact I was almost shot to death at another church on another occasion. Thats another story but I'll just say two things I learned from that. 1.Have a gun 2.There is no shame in hiding

The most important lesson reinforced here is that you can't count on the government to protect you. Not from tornadoes or from armed banditos. Click the link the headline is "1 siren sounded late, 4 others not at all"

 

[Nitrogen]

After being jumped by gang members 13 years ago, I think I left condition white behind then.

I kept a watch on every flicker, shadow, and person ever since. My fianceé teases me, she likes to kid that i'm always looking for better looking women.

 

[cosine]

I left condition white behind after I found this forum. After reading about others experiences, I noticed that I usually walked around with my head in the clouds. I figured that I wanted to remain in one piece, so I started paying more attention to my surroundings.

So, I didn't have to have an actual experience happen to me, I just learned from other people's experiences of being in condition white.

 

[mountainclmbr]

For me it was in 7th grade about 30 something years ago. Family moved from one town to another between 6th and 7th grade. I got a very sudden shock about the world I lived in. Had to attend a middle school for 7th grade that was in a very hostile "ethnic" area of town. Got my indoctrination to the "ethnic" forearm-to-head and racial slurs during PE football. Got held up at knifepoint in the bathroom after school by an "older than 7th grader ethnic member" while waiting for the last bus I had to take. Got grabbed by the privates on the last bus by ethnic members to make me say to them how pitiful I was while they did the "nut cracker". The bus driver never wanted to get involved and ignored it. My father always blamed me if anything happened so I had to keep quiet or get punished again. But, if I had it to do over, there would be future crimminals that never got to be future crimminals, my father's feelings be ____ed! I carry now and I would never let it happen again. Period! I am mixed race background, so any acusing me of racism has a complex arguement to figure out! I won't say the race that all of these future criminals shared, it was all the same, but it does not matter. It could happen between any polarized groups and it is always wrong. Never been in condition white (except when asleep, but dogs to interfere with any bad intent) since 7th Grade. That is the impact that going to that school had on me.

 

[Kamicosmos]

For a serious answer: About 7th grade for me as well. Quite a shock to have people that have been your friends for your whole life suddenly jump you and beat the snot out of you cause you're not cool, or in thier clique, or whatever. I have been a paranoid nervous wreck in society ever since.

For my funny answer I have to ask: What caliber for Tornadoes?

I have to say though that I don't think being in condition red would have really saved you from the tornado, unless I'm missing a subtle point here. I mean, it's nature, it quite literally drops out of the sky and randomly hits the ground. No amount of planning and observation can prepare you for something like that. Not like a hurricane that you can see coming for a week. I live in the Midwest, and tornadoes are a fact of life around here. Sure, I have plans for what to do when the sirens go off, but that doesn't mean much against a tornado.

 

[444]

I left condition white many years ago when I started working as a paramedic in Las Vegas.
I see bad stuff happen to good people every day. Yes, it can happen to you. No, there is no such thing as a "good" neighborhood. No, this stuff isn't just on TV.

 

[LadySmith]

Seriously dyfunctional family, rough neighborhoods, etc...
I think I'm trying to achieve "condition white."

 

[gunsmith]

lady smith

amen to that

 

[Working Man]

The summer before my 9th grade year. That's when condition white in the
real world got left behind. I got jumped walking across a dark field between
two parking lots. The situation itself was completely avoidable by choosing
an alternate route. Had I been more aware even while crossing there, I may
not have had to get stitches. But all in all that incident turned out all right.
Thankfully I did not come from a timid upbringing and little blood loss never
killed anyone.... it's when it is a lot you have to worry.

 

[foghornl]

December, 1980. Home invasion, and having to witness the gang rape of a loved one.

There has not been one single night since then (other that a few vacation trips) where there has not been more than 1 firearm at hand during the night.

 

[ball3006]

I leave condition white behind...

when I wake up in the morning. I am much more viligint here in the city than when I lived in the woods in the UP of MI. I am close to condition white when I am at my country place in the woods but my AK and a pistol are always with me. Why? Because I can.

I am going to sign up as a storm watcher when I retire. I have many years experience as a weather observer. The only problem is my place has so many trees, you can hardly see the sky........chris3

 

[The Freeholder]

I'd guess it was in my 20s, somewhere. Not really sure, because it was a gradual thing, like waking up from a long nap.

 

[danurve]

Belive it or not for me right about 7th. grade as well. Moving from the country, to a city, - culture shock. I understood the rat in a cage vs rats in a cage experiment. I also understood my dad had to do what he needed to, but I hated the change.

 

[imas]

Kamicosmos

You're right no condition will save you from a tornado. But preparedness will give you a much better chance. If you don't know its coming you probably won't make it to any shelter area and that will reduce your chances of survival. Being aware I bought a house with a basement and a decent shelter area. It doesn't guarantee my safety but seeing the threat ahead of time and taking shelter is better than running through the house with 2X4s flying around at 200mph.

 

[mbs357]

About condition red vs tornado: If he was more observant, he probably wouldn't have gone to church that evening.
If I thought there was going to be a bad storm, I wouldn't have.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

in 8th grade walking home from school in the spring.
Three kids, one my age with two younger protegés in tow, ran me down on bikes. I had just walked past someone's pile of tree pieces they had left by the road for the city to pick up the next day. On that pile of tree pieces was a piece of cedar limb about a foot long with a knot on the end.
Those kids jumped off their bikes to wail on me (it had been an ongoing thing...) and that piece of wood flashed in my mind. I ran to get it and throttled all three of them, left them lying in the street and ran home all bloody to wait on the cops to show and take me to juvie. Cops never showed. Kids never bothered me again.
About a month after that, a kid cut me with a knife on the playground and the following year I was shot by a guy hunting birds.
And, I was a nice kid. I never bothered anyone.
Now, I never go anywhere without some means to defend, and now that I'm grown I've made sure that even if I'm naked I'm still a weapon.
There's lots of guys and gals who could probably take me in a fight, but not without one. Not the best way to live, but certainly not the worst.
Condition White: gone at 13.
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit = Noone assails me with impunity I've got that bit of latin tattooed on my right forearm so I can read it.

 

[NMshooter]

First time I got my butt kicked, must have been about third grade or so.

I realised I was truly on my own, and began to see how the world was a big place full of potential danger.

Took me a while to figure out what to do about it all, and I am still working hard on this problem.

Looks like it will be a life long research project.

 

[silverbull]

I left condition white behind the day I crossed the Kuwait/Iraq border on the charge to Baghdad. Even being back for 2 years I still drive faster than I should, and catch myself looking and the side of the road for IED’s and such. I always have a handgun on me or within reach at all times, and my level IV next to the bed. The last time things went bump in the night; the police dragged a guy out of my garage.

 

[Havegunjoe]

Kindergarten

A third grader was picking on me. Got worse and worse until I was afraid to go out for recess. No kid should be afraid of recess. Anyway one day I had had enough and just blew up. He came up to me and I nailed him square in the nose. He went down and I was all over him. I'm not a fighter but it was like Ralphie and Skud Vargus in A Christmas Story. That was the last problem I had with him. I've tried to be aware of my surroundings ever since.

 

[308win]

US Army induction center in St Louis, March 1970.

 

[Low-Sci]

Freshman year in high school...

Which for me was only about seven years ago.

Me and a friend of mine were walking to our friends house pretty late at night and just talking about some mindless thing, probably a videogame if I remember correctly. It was a pretty good neighborhood too.

A handful of older high-school age hooligans surrounded us and asked us if we wanted to buy any marijuana from them. We said no, said we wouldn't tell anyone that we saw them, and after a fashion, they let us on their way without any more fuss.

But I can pinpoint the exact moment that I left condition white. A few moments before they surrounded us, I saw four cigarette ends glowing and coming towards us, three of them in the hooligan's hands and one in one's mouth. At that moment, it was all I could see of them except hearing their voices.

We could have been jumped, but we weren't, and I think we got away with one. But since then, I've been making a habit of checking my blindspots frequently.

 

[GEM]

I must admit that when I saw the title, I thought of sunscreen and nudist colonies. Sorry -

 

[2TransAms]

There were two turning points for me: When I went to work full-time at 15,I saw how people,especially men,really are. Kind of a shocker for a kid to go from church and home-school to reality.

Then,shortly before I got married. Being raised in a fairly strict home I was taught respect for women,but I also didn't get much interaction with the fairer sex. When I began dating my wife,I noticed how men would look at her when we were out,whistle,cat-call,and make comments with me right there. One day in particular a group of four young men made some graphic comments on our way out of the mall and that pretty much flipped a switch inside me that had been in the midle position for a while. I realized that some people just don't care.

 

[robert garner]

Was raised that way. No color codes tho,just "be on the lookout ,and leave fast if you can." 1st rifle at nine, knew long before then I was a republican, not a member of the GOP, but a citizen of a republic, with the rights and priveledges
being duties to the Nation,and fellow citizens. My son is ten,has his own rifle and pistol,loves his mom an his dog, understands duty and responsibility,keeps his booger hooks off the bangswitch,if I am lucky, when he's thirty, we will be friends.

 

[k_semler]

09/11/01. I was paranoid enough that I had a 12ga locked and cocked 24/7. I got ready to fire whenever the arab dude came to my door. Granted, I stood down from "condition Red" to "condition yellow", but that's when I got out of la-la world.