Both masters, who were way ahead-of-their-time in that day, encouraged learning different martial arts and experimentation, thus Jim Wagner also studied the following systems during this period: Vietnamese Kung-Fu, Chinese Po-Keck Yin Yang Kung-Fu, European fencing, Chinese Kickboxing, and Greco-Roman wrestling. This was two decades before the term “mix martial arts” came into vogue.

Joining the military 

  At the age of 18 Jim Wagner joined the United States Army. His MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) was the unglamorous job of combat radio operator. As Jim put it, “I carried a heavy durable radio on my back that had a long whip antenna, packed an M16 rifle in one hand and the radio mike in the other.” It was only five years after the Vietnam War, the Iranians had American hostages, and it was out with President Jimmy Carter and in with President Ronald Regan. Yet, in spite of the low moral and lack of conflict at the time, the military was a defining moment in the way that Jim would approach the martial arts later on in life.

  When Jim Wagner went through “boot camp” (Basic Combat Training) at Fort Jackson, South Carolina he was extremely impressed to the degree of realism that the military trained its people. He recalls, “They were actually training for the real thing: simulated battlefields, replica enemy weapons, live-fire targets that were painted like Russian soldiers, smoke, explosions… the whole nine yards. Even the best martial arts studios that I had trained in before putting a military uniform on had never trained as realistically as this. That is to say, to include props and special effects as part of the training environment.”

   After BCT Jim went onto Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Gordon, Georgia and then to his permanent duty station, the HHC 43rd Combat Engineer Battalion, Fort Benning, Georgia.

   Throughout his stay in the army Jim maintained his martial arts skills and even gave private lessons to interested soldiers. After the army Jim Wagner went back home to Southern California and enrolled in collage majoring in graphic arts and learning the French language to pursue a career in advertising. After his first semester Jim started working as a production artist for Val-Pak Direct Marketing Systems and then landed the position as Art Director for Mammoth Publishing followed by CCM Publications. He then went on to work for a couple of advertising firms, and ended up as the president of Advertising Design Centre. These skills in marketing and advertising would prove useful in later years when Jim would begin promoting his new Reality-Based Personal Protection system.

In 1988 Jim Wagner had stopped teaching under the Jeet Kune Do / Kali banner and was experimenting with scenario training, paint guns, firearms training, and began to read books about SWAT tactics and world terrorism. One of Jim’s top students, Mike DiGiovanni, who was the maintenance supervisor for the City of Costa Mesa, and convinced Jim that he should apply for a new job opening at the Costa Mesa Police Department Jail. The job was that of corrections officer – a jailer. Jim, wanting a career with a little more adventure, applied for the position and received it six months later.

   For two years Jim booked and housed prisoners. It was also in this very environment that he abandoned most of his traditional martial arts training and simplified his fighting techniques. He had no choice. The corrections officers were not allowed to carry any weapons in the jail, and it was a common occurrence for prisoners to attack the guards. This was in the days before pepper spray, and before the popularity of stun guns and the invention of tasers. Immersed in daily violence Jim learned what truly worked and what didn’t.   

Pinning on the badge    

In 1991 Jim Wagner, sponsored by the Costa Mesa Police Department, entered the police academy – the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Training Academy Class 104. It was here that he trained with the shotgun, pistol, baton, and police defensive tactics. Like his military training before, Jim was deeply influenced by the realistic conflict scenarios that his instructors put him and his fellow recruits through. Five months later, on June 21st, Jim was out on the streets of Costa Mesa with his Field Training Officer (FTO).  Along with the uniform, badge, and gun came everything one would expect in an urban sprawl just south of Los Angeles: robberies, rapes, murders, domestic violence, car chases, stabbings, gang activity, and every other sort of evil. He had been shot at, attacked with a knife, and plenty of hand-to-hand conflict. For most of Jim’s eight years with the force he was out on the streets doing patrol. That’s what he preferred, and he chose the part of the city that had the most crime – Area 1, the southwest side.

During this time Jim earned a place on the S.W.A.T. team (Special Weapons and Tactics). For most police departments in North America this is the top-of-the-food-chain, and Jim took full advantage of the opportunities. It was through this conduit that Jim learned about logistics, command post operations, hostage negotiations, entry team tactics, and sniping. On the job training included courses with LAPD SWAT, the U.S. Army Special Forces, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Tactical Training Center, and from U.S. Marines Division Schools MCB Camp Pendleton (Advanced Sniper Course, Military Operations Urban Terrain MOUT, Helicopter Rope Suspension Training HRST, and Range Safety Officer RSO).

   While conducting a myriad of courses at Camp Pendleton, both military units and other law enforcement agencies using the base for their own training discovered Jim Wagner’s unique approach to training and his seamless blending of defensive tactics with edged weapons and firearms skills. Before long he was getting offers from not only the Marines, but others as well: U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group, Department of Defense Police, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections, San Diego Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Probation Department, U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration & Naturalization Service, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines Provost Marshal Office, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the list goes on. Then, by 1996 Jim found himself being invited by foreign unit to train in their own countries: GermanGSG9, Brazilian G.A.T.E., Argentinean G.O.E., Royal Canadian Mounted Police, London Metropolitan Police, Helsinki Police Department, and various units in Spain, Mexico, and Israel.

On September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked by Islamic terrorists using passenger aircraft as piloted missiles. Like most Americans, Jim was outraged by these acts, but rather than complaining about it he volunteered to go “on the front lines.” The federal government was looking for those with special operations experience and accepted Jim’s application, marking it HIGHLY QUALIFIED, and sent him to counterterrorism school at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) at Artesia, New Mexico. In class TSATP-206B Jim learned all about terrorist organizations worldwide, explosives, Close Quarter Battle, weapons of mass destruction, defensive tactics, and spent countless hours at the shooting range. This was only the first phase of training.

Next, Jim Wagner went through the Federal Air Marshal Basic Training Course where he learned all about air transportation security, surveillance, bomb searches, rules of engagement, and participated in elaborate scenarios on the ground and in passenger aircraft. On April 18, 2002 Jim graduated with honors (Academic Award achieving the average score of 97.68 and qualifying as EXPERT on the Practical Pistol Course), and was sworn in as a Special Agent. He was then assigned to the Los Angeles Field Office where he began to participate in Operation Enduring Freedom doing counterterrorism missions on the ground and in the air.

After 146 missions, and coming face-to-face with suspected terrorists, activity started dying down in the aviation sector. At the same time Jim Wagner’s monthly column HIGH RISK in Black Belt magazine, and his feature articles in Budo magazine all across Europe, were becoming increasingly popular. Since writing for these two publication, first in 1999 and then in 2000, the martial arts community was finally awakening to the real threats society was facing and to Jim’s reality-based techniques and training methods that are based upon military, police, and special operations training. In conjunction with several other events happening at the time, Jim Wagner decided to resign from the federal government working his last day on September 11, 2003 – the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Back to training the elite 

Once again Jim Wagner could have photographs of his face published again, and begin teaching the world’s elite teams full time again. This time it included the U.S. Coast Guard Sea Marshals, the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Space Command, the U.S. Army Military Police, and then in December 2003 for the Israel Defense Forces. Jim was once again invited to train in Israel, only this time it was for new recruits, and Special Forces selection, at the famous Wingate Institute, where the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga was born, but not on the civilian side of the facility, but on the military side of the house known as Baghad 8.

   Since 1992 Jim had only been teaching government agencies. Before that he had taught many civilian courses, and even spearheaded one of the most popular women’s self-defense courses of its time (1989) called Women Against Rape, but admittedly Jim had developed the “us against them” attitude over the years; a common attitude among law enforcement officials. Then Johan Lai, one of Jim’s former deputies from the Dignitary Protection Unit and close friend afterward, convinced him that civilians were the ones actually on the “front line” of crime and terrorism, and that all law abiding citizens should be taught how to defend themselves as much as any first responder. After all, the aircrafts that were seized on 9/11 didn’t have military or police personnel aboard to protect the people. It was those brave souls on United Airlines Flight 93 who fought back against terrorists though they all perished in a field at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. When a robber sticks a gun in the face of his victim the police are not going to be there, nor will they be there with a rape victim, or with the victim of a gang related drive by shooting, or…

   Therefore, on January 21, 2003 Jim Wagner made a decision to teach a civilian version of his techniques and training methods under the new name of Reality-Based Personal Protection.

   Once the decision was made to go public with the Reality-Based Personal Protection system Black Belt magazine immediately put their weight behind Jim Wagner’s ideas and filmed the DVD series Reality-Based Personal Protection which consisted of eight titles: Knowledge Domain, Defensive Tactics, Ground Survival, Knife Survival, Crime Survival, Terrorism Survival, Handgun Survival and Women’s Survival. On the other side of the sea Alfredo Tucci, the publisher of Budo magazine headquartered in Madrid, Spain commissioned Jim to work on several DVDs: Police & Military Knife Defense, Special Operations Knife Offense, Police Ground Tactics, and Police Baton Tactics, which to this day are some of Budo’s top selling DVDs.