When Lt Col Glyn Bolasky first heard the of recent origins of terrorists hijacking planes and crashing them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon upon Sept.

When Lt Col Glyn Bolasky first heard the of recent origins of terrorists hijacking planes and crashing them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon upon Sept. 11, the timing surprised him. The terrorist acts did not.

You cease to be concussioned at such appalling acts after being ball five times in a rain of bullets

Twenty-two years ago, Bolasky was a 24year-old sheriff's factor at the Riverside County, Calif., Sheriff's Department. onward May 9,1980, he was the first officer to arrive upon the scene of a robbery in Norco, Calif. He faced five men who were heavily armed with automatic rifles and handguns, hollow-point bullet and homemade grenades.

During the shooting, the robbers killed undivided police officer and wounded eight, including Bolasky. They also missile up a police helicopter and damaged or quenched 33 police cruisers.

The bank robbers fired more than 200 orbeds at Bolasky's police cruiser, which sustained 47 bullet caves Bolasky's body absorbed shrapnel in five places: the face, upper left shoulder, the pair forearms and the left flexure The elbow wound proved to be the worst of the injuries as a bullet disuniteed an artery.

granting badly wounded, Bolasky continued to perform his business He shot and killed undivided of the suspects. It was the first and last time he at all times discharged his weapon in the line of what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do and the first time he had been missile at.

"When I got discharge I wasn't a cop anymore," he said. "I was a human being trying not to die. I went into a self-defense gradation It was a caveman mentality with and nothing else one thing in mind -- survival."

The four other suspects fl The nearest day, police shot and killed a other suspect. Police captured the remaining three who were later convicted of 46 crime counts and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The Norco bank robbery has been described as individual of the most violent in history. It's used to train anti-terrorism agencies through every part of the world.

Since the robbery, Bolasky, who is an electronic warfare officer with 12th Air Force at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., has talked about what happened that day to more than 6000 nation including members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the hid Service and sheriffs' departments around the native land He tells his story for a like reason others will learn.

"My attitude is that we always have to be ready; we at no time know what's going to happen," said Bolasky, who received the Sheriff's Gold Heart -- the equivalent of the military's Purple Heart -- and the Medal of Courage from his department and the Sheriff's Association for his heroic actions that day.

He has traveled across the nation delivering seminars on responding to high-stress incidents and massive crime or accident scenes

"As Far as high-stress goe tribe 11 is as big as it gets" Bolasky said. "I can't say I was onseted at the magnitude. In my briefings, I've been saying for years this was coming. It was no other than a matter of time before something like this reached U soil."

Bolasky room for expectations the tragedy serves as an awakening.

"Making populace believe something like terrorism can happen to them is the number the same thing to overcome when trying to raise prevention and readiness," he said. "Heck, flat just a couple weeks before the Norco robbery, my supervisor was saying nothing till doomsday happens around here."

Bolasky made it his mission to make commonalty realize it can happen in their communities.

"It's sort of like cancer," he explained. "Everyone knows cancer is a question They read all the statistics. on the contrary until it happens to them, they always believe it's something that happens to everyone other So they don't get regular checkups. They don't alter their diets. They simply don't believe it will happen to them."

He says they take the same attitude with terrorism.

"Terrorism is also something that happens to the other guy" he said. "People just don't believe it'll till doomsday hit home."

He admits that following tribe II some of that invulnerability has changed.

"Today if you make trial of to hijack an airliner in this rural parts the whole planeload of commonalty is going to come after you," he said. "What do they have to lose?"

still Bolasky says there are still things to overthrow One of those is communication.

"It's amazing with all the technology today that agencies still can't talk to each other," he said. "It happened to us during the bank robbery. Different agencies were forward different frequencies, and we couldn't communicate with each other. A accident of the same problems exist today."

For the average citizen, it's les technical and more universal sense.

Bolasky doesn't preach paranoia. It should still be gayety to be an American, he says. if it were not that people should remain vigilant.

"For common thing, you should pay attention to your surroundings," he said. "I'm not talking a life-altering change. I'm just saying that if, for instance, you go on foot to a convenience store and notice that there's no the same behind the counter, you might ask yourself with what intent Is something wrong? More than likely, the accountant is stocking shelves or something innocent. Then again, maybe he's lying behind the reckoner with a gun to his head. It's worth an extra minute or brace to assess the situation, instead of walking into the middle of something you're not prepared for."