FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) Operator | SWAT & FBI Agent | Bicycle Bandit | Greg Shaffer
Today we have a Combat Story first with Greg Shaffer, who spent a career in the FBI as an Agent, SWAT member, and Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) operator. He also started his career leading a patrol boat team in the Coast Guard before moving over to the Bureau.
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In this episode, we talk about the selection and entry process to both the FBI and HRT, the origins and mission of the HRT - which numbers fewer than 500 members since its inception in the early 1980s, one of the most successful surveillance and bust operations you’ll ever hear against the Bicycle Bandit, Operation Black Widow, border security, taking down targets and the hunting the deck of cards in Iraq with Delta Force and more.
Greg now runs Shaffer Security Group that provides executive protection, active shooter response, investigations, firearms training and more. He also wrote Stay Safe: Security Secrets for Today’s Dangerous World, which provides practical lessons on mindset, situational awareness, and self-defense.
It took us too long to have our first Bureau agent and HRT operator on the show and we’ll absolutely be looking to have more. With that, please enjoy this hilarious but inspiring discussion with former FBI Agent and HRT operator Greg Shaffer.
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Stay Safe: Security Secrets for Today’s Dangerous World www.amazon.com...
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🎵 Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
⏰ Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro
00:46 Guest Intro: Greg Schaefer's Journey from Coast Guard to FBI
02:27 The Threat Landscape: Border Security and National Safety
05:14 The Significance of a Special Painting: HRT Brotherhood
08:10 Choosing a Career in Law Enforcement: It's in the Blood
08:57 From the Coast Guard to FBI: A Path of Service
16:00 The Rigorous FBI Selection Process
28:34 First Steps and Early Successes in the FBI
40:10 The Dynamics of SWAT Operations
45:10 The Mental Toll of Law Enforcement Work
45:49 Undercover Challenges and Mental Separation
46:35 Comparing Military and Law Enforcement Stress
47:17 The Importance of Mental Resilience
48:19 Transitioning to HRT and Selection Process Insights
48:44 Sponsor Break: Mint Mobile's Offer
49:58 HRT Selection: A Grueling Process
54:26 Tactical Training and Surveillance in HRT
55:36 The Origins and Mission of HRT
01:01:14 Challenges and Operations with HRT
01:13:12 Public Perception of Law Enforcement
01:16:36 Writing a Book on Active Shooter Survival
01:26:37 Reflections and Advice for Future Generations
Greg is a former FBI agent, SWAT team member, and HRT operator. Discover the intensity of his career, including in-depth insights into high-stakes operations such as the Bicycle Bandit and DC Sniper cases. Greg discusses the complexities of HRT selection, major national security concerns, especially regarding border security, and the adrenaline-fueled world of elite FBI missions. Learn about his background, transition from the Coast Guard to the FBI, and the indispensable qualities required in law enforcement. This narrative provides a compelling look at true crime, FBI operations, and military strategies.
Пікірлер: 64
Deploying with Devgru and Delta would have been the highlight of my FBI HRT career if I had one.
@LRRPFco52
2 ай бұрын
No amount of association with actual Patriots and pipe-hitters can compensate for being part of a secret police hit squad wannabe soldiers working for the unconstitutional DOJ.
@waddup177
Ай бұрын
I hear it happens more than often the hrt guys I know have deployed a few times
@JackTavern629
16 күн бұрын
@@waddup177 oh yeah. At least 3-5 deployments and probably constant hours of training at DARC
Sicario- best FBI movie. No disrespect- thanks for your service.
@01Sassoon
2 ай бұрын
That’s funny !! 😂 You really think the FBI raids a place in broad daylight, and rams a Bearcat through a wall !! 😂
@TroyTempest777
Ай бұрын
No way..emily blunt is super annoying in that film. The Town is way better for FBI stuff
@01Sassoon
Ай бұрын
And let's not forget Mississippi Burning.
@POVK9
19 күн бұрын
@@01Sassoonare you being sarcastic? You’ve heard of WACO right? That’s just one known (unsuccessful) opp in broad daylight. There’s thousands of other similar opps we have not or will not hear about of FBI HRT ops
After Waco HRT became known as the Hostage Roasting Team.
This was a solid interview. Well done.
Thanks for the part 2 with this wonderful soldier. I really enjoy your guests.
Great interview!! This is the first HRT interview I’ve seen. Thanks fellow patriots for what you both have done for us!
This was an awesome episode. Thank you. I wish they would teach those lessons to all teachers. Both my daughters are teachers, one is special ed. Thank you!
My uncle joined HRT in mid/late 1980s. No way he'd talk about it like this. They don't want any publicity. Good interview!
@jweh4421
3 ай бұрын
My dad was a hrt commander in the 90's, same
Greg, Al Pacino played an LAPD Investigator in Heat, not an FBI agent. I’m pretty sure Greg is not really in the FBI at this point.
Love the interviews keep it up!
Great interview
Good interview. Video editing got a little rough at the end. Just ordered his book.
Those two men of honor recipients are best buds they are really cool dudes need to read about them if you don’t know them. Just awesome. Completely opposite physically.
ORDERED TWO BOOKS.
Nice.
Good to see Greg, and looking foreward to his book…
My cousin was in Vietnam, when there was only less than 300 Navy seals, and "we all knew each other's name" which is entirely verifiable and funny, because there's so many fakes that people are inclined to not believe me. He actually has a channel here on youTube. Also, would you be interested in interviewing a SEAL from "the Cold War" who returned for a time to work as a seal again!
So this guy misses the “respect and fear” the FBI used to command and the conversations that would ensue, and yet he says now he’d never talk to an agent without them producing a warrant. The unintended irony is rich.
Yall rememeber that psycho HRT guy that went on Cleared Hot? The one that brought his kid sons into a war zone
@mvubu6823
3 ай бұрын
He went nuts halfway through that interview
@LRRPFco52
2 ай бұрын
Got a link to that?
@ksmith87
2 ай бұрын
The podcast is called Cleared Hot, and the guest is Chris Whitcomb. It was a pretty good interview. The guy was at the Waco TX seige and other big stuff.
@LRRPFco52
2 ай бұрын
@@ksmith87 I read Chris’s book 22 years ago. He lied about what happened at Ruby Ridge, backing the story that they saw Weaver pointing his lever action rifle at an FBI helicopter. This was used as justification to shoot him, his friend, and his wife. They got a shoot-to-kill order from Main Justice is what really happened, and that’s in both his and Danny Coulson’s books. He was younger on the team at the time, and looked to the older guys for any pushback for that crazy ROE. The cowards never said anything about it, because they were there to avenge the shooting of a US Marshall in the incident where the Marshalls gunned down Weaver’s 14yr-old son after killing his dog.
@KW-ts6kf
2 ай бұрын
Alot of the hrt guys are cracked.
The boarder problem is not a budget or manpower issue. It’s a policy issue. We can shut it down today but that’s not what the administration wants.
@mikemorris7922
3 ай бұрын
Totally agree, how can he be an fbi agent and not know this?
@russellridge8623
3 ай бұрын
Because he’s compromised
@JBentham-pd3pi
3 ай бұрын
Why shit it down at all
@mvubu6823
3 ай бұрын
Did you see trump and maga stop the strongest bill in history?
Good interview although he has his history wrong, Delta Force wasn't created until 1977 and ST6 not until the early 80s. HRT didn't start until 1982. Only 3 of the Munich terrorists survived. I have to say, does a super SWAT team really need the ability to HALO?
I saw this guy in Philadelphia protecting the Pope in 2015 I was talking to myself and said “oh shit the FBI is here” and he looked at me and responded “we sure are” his LinkedIn says he was in Budapest at the time but no buddy was guarding Pope Francis.
“It used to be when the FBI knocked on your door you could see the fear” Wow and he thinks this is good.
@LRRPFco52
2 ай бұрын
Time stamp on that?
@FrankbullittSFPD
2 ай бұрын
@@LRRPFco52i wish had it but don’t. I didn’t watch it on youtube. I listened to it on apple podcast in my truck.
@ae1586
2 ай бұрын
The fact that these tyrants want you to fear them tells you all you need to know .
This is CNN/ kfwb News radio
you friends with Lon Horiuchi???
Aren’t these the guys that shot the wife and baby at ruby ridge?
@normanpotts3169
2 ай бұрын
Yep.
Did he know the baby killer horuchi ? No respect for any of these tyrants .
👽👽👽👽🌎👽👽👽👽
And why hasn't the Mexican cartel been designated as a terrorist organization so that it could be targeted by GWOT.......
You mean X Files didn’t do a good job depicting the FBI??? 😉
@MrLorenzovanmatterho
2 ай бұрын
Not as hot as Scully.
So... doing what your told, not thinking outside the box nor god forbid for yourself... way to go...
YO🔱⭐.....*_°
Leave my pot,weed,and mary-jane,alone now, please
Lovely day, busy day @ 83y/0