Andy talks with a great guy, fellow podcaster, and a gentleman about town, Walt Settlemyre. Walt is a US Army veteran, former firefighter, and now Paramedic. He’s been working in 911 systems for the past 30 years. He is also the creator and host of The Distinguished Savage Podcast.

He has worked in the Special Operations side of EMS as both a Tactical and Rescue Medic, specializing in rope rescue, swift water, confined space, structural collapse, and trench rescue. He built and teaches the Defensive Tactics program for the EMS system he currently works for and is an instructor for Tony Blauer’s Spear system and a Gracie Survival Tactics instructor for that program.

Walt is also a big supporter of Greg Williams and Brian Marren of Arcadia Cognerati. So they discuss human behavior and situational awareness to keep your family safe.

Join me today for a discussion with Walt Settlemyre the Host of The Distinguished Savage Podcast. Walt Settlemyre is a US Army veteran serving with the 25th ID for the majority of his 4 years active duty. After the Army he followed several career paths along with higher education but was always missing something meaningful!

Looking for purpose he initially found Fire Service and ultimately Emergency Medical Services as a Paramedic. With 30 years now as a Paramedic in 911 systems the vast majority of that time has been spent in EMS Special Operations as both a Tactical Medic and Rescue Medic. Until recently the last 20 years was focused more on the Rescue side of the house including swift water, and swift water boat operations, rope rescue, high angle, structural collapse, trench rescue, infectious disease response, and Search and Rescue.

After an injury made it difficult to remain in Special Operations and moving in to Field Operations on a regular ambulance he then focused both on teaching Tactical and Austere Med Courses to civilians and on revamping the defensive tactics program for his department, Austin Travis Co EMS. The program he helped build now consists of elements from different defensive tactics methodologies that flow well together. Situational awareness and deescalation, Tony Blauers Spear, Gracie Survival Tactics, Jon Burke’s P4 program, and elements of the Shivworks Collective’s Managing Unknown Contacts as well as fighting in an enclosed and entangled environment as in the back of an ambulance, where a majority of assaults on EMS personnel occur.

Two years ago he also started a podcast, The Distinguished Savage in an effort to talk to other like minded individuals on self defense, EDC, critical thinking skills, along with people’s story. Now nearing retirement in EMS he’s looking towards moving in to executive protection and continuing the podcast!

This episode we are pumped to have Walt Settlemyre of The Distinguished Savage Podcast on the show.  Walt is quickly becoming a great friend from a far, is a likeminded dude and is a true renaissance man walking the walk.  He is a US Army veteran (11B Infantry), Spear Instructor, GST Level 1 Instructor, Shivworks ECQC alum, has trained with Cliff Byerly of Hill Country Combatives, Tony Blauer and much more.  He also currently trains at 10th Planet JiuJitsu Austin. 

Walt is a veteran in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and runs the Medic Safety classes of his agencies academy.  He incorporates Shivworks MUC and wrestling and JiuJitsu, and Spear principles to prepare candidates to deal with possible violent encounters with patients.

Unfortunately for part of this episode we discuss the tragedy in Uvalde TX, the lefts politicization, and our non-expert opinions on how to make these active killing events far less frequent. 

We then move into Walt’s expertise in EMS, his training background, his choices for tourniquets, upcoming events and much more.