Hiding in Plain Sight (eBook)

My Life and Adventures Protecting Celebrities

Thomas LeBrun (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
364 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-5836-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Thomas LeBrun-security expert with experience protecting Bill Gates, Elton John, Whitney Houston, and more-tells all in his memoir. With martial arts, high-stakes security tasks, big names in the celebrity and business world, Thomas LeBrun should be a household name. Instead, he could be the man standing next to you, and you've never known. Thomas tells all in his unforgettable memoir, a master of blending in, entrusted with protecting entertainers and corporate leaders over a 40-year career. The boy who wanted to be Superman grew up to be something better: a man of muscle and bone, grit and determination who worked hard to live the life he dreamed of. This heart-pounding, fast-paced story might read like fiction, but it's one man's accurate account of living, protecting the influential, and training for greatness. Learn the ins and outs of a security detail, business, and martial arts in a way you've never seen them before!

Thomas LeBrun has guarded the likes of Bill Gates, Elton John, and Whitney Houston as a Close Protection Specialist. His illustrious career spans three decades and forty-five countries. Within that time, he's had plenty of adventures, incredible encounters, and challenging jobs. For more than forty years, he's worked to improve his situational awareness skills and has trained extensively in self-defense. Thomas lives in the Northeast, and when he's not reading, the writer can be found working out. He's also an academic who has studied Anti-Terrorist subject matter, Maritime Security and taken extensive Executive Protection courses. His memoir discusses his life and career as a protector of influential people and all things related to martial arts, the Executive Protection industry, and his unique journey.

---

Multi Award Winning Book; HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT - My Life & Adventures Protecting Celebrities is the inspiring true story of how a boy with a firm purpose behind his dreams, overcame many personal obstacles, challenges, sacrifices and injuries to forge a life dedicated to ensuring the safety of others When Tom LeBrun was 5 years old he was like most kids his age, full of energy, dreams and imagination galore. But, unlike other kids, young Tom had a stated purpose. He told his Dad that, one-day, like his hero SUPERMAN, "e;I want to fly around the world protecting people."e; This purpose and passion created his journey. Thomas LeBrun has been active within the Executive Protection industry for over 3 decades. often being the advance agent in the world's most dangerous of cities, Mexico City, Johannesburg So. Africa and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil being a few of them. His consistency in his studies both in the physical and academic world has resulted in clientele in the entertainment, corporate and HNW arenas of the highest caliber. The academic element includes subject matter in Anti-Terrorist studies through ATAB (Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board), Maritime Security as it has to do with Anti-piracy issues and Crisis Risk Management as well as various Executive Protection courses. Thomas LeBrun has received Tactical Hall of Fame accolades as the 1999 and 2005 Executive Protection Specialist of the Year. "e;Hiding in Plain Sight"e; is the story of former champion power lifter, Martial arts Hall of Famer, and one of the worlds renowned experts in Executive Close Protection, Tom LeBrun. Learn how he used savvy and dogged persistence to achieve his dream and become a real life Superman.

Textauszug

Foreward

Some time ago, I had a step-brother who lived in the Upper Valley and trained at a Community Center (CCBA) in Lebanon, NH. I had heard a lot about Tom LeBrun, who worked out every day at CCBA before I, too, went there. I’d met Tom briefly in a store where he was working about 35 years ago.

After high school, I went to college in Minneapolis. I had some friends there who were in the Golden Gloves circuit. So, I used to do a lot of sparring with them. As a result, I knew the fundamentals of boxing, and I thought I was pretty athletic. I always liked that one-on-one contact in the sport of boxing.

Like Tom, I trained every day, with a background in lifting and wrestling. So, when I went into the CCBA basement’s weight room for the first time, I believe Tom came up to me, kind of re-introduced himself to me, and said, “Hey, if there’s anything you need in the way of gear, or if you need any assistance, just let me know.”

So, I’m working out there and, after a while, Tom said to me, “Listen, I get together with a small group of people, and we typically go upstairs, and we do some boxing and martial arts. If you’re interested, I’d like to have you come up and join us.”

At that point, I’m thinking, “Okay, that’ll be great!” And, in speaking with Tom, I knew what he was really training for. You know, when you’re in a lot of martial arts groups, it’s more that you are choreographing and setting those moves up. But Tom wasn’t a big believer in that. In the direction he was going, it had to be a full-contact sport, and it doesn’t do anything to pull your punch because of an actual situation. I knew Tom’s approach going into this and figured it would be fun.

While working out one morning, I remember Tom going upstairs with three other gentlemen. So, I finished my workout, and I ran upstairs to take my part in this lesson that was going on with Tom, which would be boxing that day.

When I got upstairs, I noticed that all three of those other guys were sitting down. And, Tom’s there with his gloves on, smiling. And, he says, “You ready?” And, I said… “Okay…yeah…sure,” but I’m kind of looking at these fellas and thinking, “These guys are done, already? Wow! That was pretty fast.” They were breathing hard,… Hmmm.

So, I put the gloves on. And I remember Tom saying, “There’s some headgear there if you want to wear it.” I said, “I’m okay, don’t need any headgear. That’s fine. I’ve got the gloves on.” My gosh! All we had was the mitts you’d use on a punching bag. They weren’t, 8, or 10, or 12 oz. gloves. They were small and light. We might as well have been bare-fisted!

Now, in the days when I was doing Golden Gloves, I was much lighter; I was probably 175 -180 lbs. So, with my powerlifting, I was then up to about 220-225 lbs. My footwork, let’s just say, was very “flat.” But I knew I had a strong punch. I knew I had an excellent left jab. I have very long arms, and I had height.

So, I get in there with Tom, and we’re moving around slowly. Tom is just watching me and feeling me out, and I’m not really thinking that. I can remember throwing a long, stiff jab and kind of catching Tom with it. And, all he said to me was, “Nice long reach!” And, he’d positioned himself, of course, outside that reach.

I thought in my head, “Okay, I’m just going to go in there, and fake with a real quick jab, and hit him with an overhand right.” Well, no sooner had I walked-in to throw that jab then Tom countered an overhand right that comes over my left and “POW! After I caught a few of those, I thought, “You know…for the next couple of minutes while we’re in here, I’m just going to kind of back-off. But I remember Tom was great. Because he said, “If you need to do that, you’ve got to step down, then step- in…” He kind of gave me some instruction. And I thought, “Wow! This instruction is totally different!” That’s what started it all—training with Tom.

With me, I have a competitive nature, very passionate. And there, in my opinion, are very few people, especially with weight training, who have that passion. By contrast, Tom has done some incredible things and continues to do so with weight and strength training and all his martial arts/boxing skill sets. The discipline you have to have, and create within that to go in each day and do it yourself, and not just go in and go through the motions on that day, but go in and strive to be better every single day, for hours? Now, that is really such the1%er of all athletes.

So, when you inspire people by not having to go and pull anyone aside, but by ‘doing,’ that truly sticks with you. And, when you see Tom striving, every day, to do a little bit more than the previous day, to do another rep, he always did just that.

I remember living in New Hampshire going to the Community Center on a cold day, and Tom was always the morning guy there at the crack of dawn. And, I remember going in there one day it was snowy, it was cold. There was nobody there except Tom’s little Toyota, at that time in the parking lot. So, I knew Tom would always be in the center when I saw that car. So, I’m going down the basement stairs. It was cold and dank in this place.

And, I can hear someone jumping down the hall. There’s Tom with a sweatshirt on and a plastic bag over his body with 100-pound weights on his back doing frog-jumps down the hall, and nobody’s there. He’s not looking for inspiration. HE is that inspiration.

Tom, at that time, taught me the most valuable lessons. Many guys came to the center and a lot came there to spar with Tom. Some of those guys weren’t there for the sport. They walked in with an attitude like, “Hey, I think I’m going to be the guy who’s going to put Tom in his place.” So, I saw a young man of this nature in the basement, and he said, “Hey, I’m going to go upstairs and box with Tom, and I’m going to clean his clock.”

He went upstairs, and Tom took one look at this kid and said, “I’m choosing not to have you participate in our session. I appreciate your interest, but I’m not going to have you join us.”

Well, the kid kind of “went off” in an angry way, and he’s saying, “Aw! You know I could clean your clock.” And, Tom says, “Yeah, your probably right. But I’m still not going to have you join us.” Well, the kid didn’t know what to say. He just walked away. And wow! You know, a 21-year-old man who’s aggressive like that. I said, “Tom, why didn’t you get in there and clean his clock?” So, Tom said, “That’s not what it’s all about.” It was that discipline to know not to bring in somebody like that, a person with EGO. Tom’s thing wasn’t to prove a point or prove anything about who he could beat up or who was the toughest, and it was to do something and do it right. That point resonated with me throughout my whole life.

Tom and I reconnected several years ago through LinkedIn, and I said, “I wonder how Tom is doing?” I had put his name in there, and I’d come up with his security business Nighthawk. So, I sent him an invite and a short letter on LinkedIn, and he got back to me. It was a short time after that we had our first conversation. He told me how much he had developed, not necessarily his business, but himself; through all the measures, you can go academic wise because ‘security’ is that way. Tom never wanted to be “the bouncer.”

That was not what he wanted to be known for. That just wasn’t the direction he was going. It was to take himself and become as well-rounded and knowledgeable in all the areas of the Executive Protection field as he could, which he has definitely done.

In having our conversation, I told him I had been working with the Department of Ministry in a foreign country for some time on this humanitarian project that would hopefully get launched soon. I had been very thorough. When I presented my building system, I went into the Prime Minister’s office, the national housing authority, and had this group of 30 people, including engineers. I’m going over this with my team. After going through the energy-efficiency and the cost and all that’s involved with this, I open it up for questions. And the first thing someone asked was,” Will this stop an AK-47 round?” And I thought, “Oh, boy!” Yes, now I have ballistics coding that will actually do that; yes, it will stop that round. But also, I’m thinking, “Wait a second. Is it that bad? Is gang violence really that bad?” And then it came out that crime is considered part of the culture.

I knew that security was needed. When I go there, and I’m meeting with the chief adviser to the Prime Minister. Although we have ‘general security’ in already pre-secured areas all day, there is no security outside those areas. So, in speaking with Tom, finding out all the places of the world he had been in and all the challenges he met, the most significant part for me is that I have trust in Tom. And that trust goes beyond.

Tom has inspired me in things that I’ve done. A good part of my training repertoire, and my whole life, has been through Tom’s inspiration and the trust I have in him. He is a man of his word. He will be there when you need him. And, all the years I have been in business, working with people, many people are not very forthcoming. But Tom is. And that really holds strong with Tom. I have an excellent friendship with him and would do anything for him. And I know he would do the same for me.

Tom said to me at the time, I want to be able to look at you and your...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.3.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-5836-8 / 1098358368
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-5836-5 / 9781098358365