PTSD in the Police Service - it exists and is deadly

PTSD blights lives, it is not just a condition exclusive to the Armed Forces,

Writes Frank Whistler, who provided this piece...

'The job is what you make it...'

When I joined the Police service in the late 1980's an old Chief Inspector told me that on the first day in the job.

I had no idea what the future was going to be on that initial day, for me it was a change of career and just a means of putting something back into society and leaving it a better place at the end of things.

My service was cut short due to an injury received on duty, by the time I was retired on ill health grounds after about seven years of service, I had had about enough of the job to be honest. But it wasn't something that was just going to rest. The job came back to haunt me most days of most weeks for the next 20 years.

The career

Many people I knew in the job seemed to be able to navigate it without any real apparent stress or be subject to any really testing situations. Perhaps it was just some sort of destiny that although my time in that 'world' was relatively short, it was packed with what some might call 'adventure'. I certainly seemed to see more challenging situations than some of my colleagues.

Situations

The problem with an arena like this is that one moment you can be on foot around a town minding your own business and the next thing, an armed robbery at a bank has just gone off and you're picked up by a Patrol Car and off around the area looking for the offender.

That actually happened to me. On our drive around, I spotted a person on a railway station platform that matched the offender's description from the bank job and my colleague and I went to investigate - unarmed. 

This is no bullshitting or heroics, we went on to the platform and came around behind the person of interest and fortunately, it turned out that our 'suspect' was just an innocent football supporter on his way to a match. 

But that could easily have been a very nasty situation. (You just get in there and have to act. You don't really think about what could go wrong, that's the difference between ordinary citizens and those in the Police service. When most people go to work, their exposure to danger is often a lot less than ours.)

The incident all ended pleasantly and we just went back to what we were doing. They never did get the offender for it. But when you get too many of those occurrences building up, you need a safety valve to deal with it.

The hanged woman

I recall in our force that a policewoman was found hanged. The verdict was suicide. I didn't know her as she was from the other side of the county, but it made me wonder what drove her to this desperate action?

There had to be something that started that process. Why didn't she seek help? That was just the start of the obvious questions in my mind. At each stage of the events that led to her death, why did she not stop or get help? The answer is I don't know. I hope she has found peace.

Sadly, a young man I was at school with hanged himself aged around 27, a terrible waste. Colleagues of mine attended that one. Drugs was a major factor causing psychosis in his case, he got caught with drugs and charged and maybe that tipped him over the edge to take his own life, when his ideal of starting a new life abroad was torn to shreds by
that conviction.

Walking towards possible death

I happened to be walking back to the station one lunch time when a WPC I was with was approached by a member of Joe Public and reported a car with no number plates parked opposite a mainline railway station we were near to. 

In reality, it was off our ground and out of our jurisdiction, but we went to take a look anyway. The WPC was newly engaged, I decided that risking both our lives was stupid and she had more to risk losing than me.

So I gave her my radio and said 'There's no point in us both getting killed' and walked towards the car to investigate. Perhaps a stupid thing to do, someone could have been watching from across the tracks ready to set something off when I got near to it.

To cut a long story short, I'm still here. But for a few nasty moments there was always the possibility that it could have been a car bomb. The walk there to that car I can still recall, it was a lonely place to be. When you think about it afterwards, it really does shock you to consider that your life could have ended then.

There is a fine line between courage and stupidity. I just hope I was on the right side of it then. I thought about the situation afterwards and it did make me take a few deep breaths, then I just got on with things. 

That was just a situation that you had to act on, weighed against the possible distraction of shutting a 4 track mainline rail route which might have turned out to be a false alarm. I got away with it, it could have gone horribly wrong though.

Actions and consequences

The job can take a toll of people's relationships, even people in the job who marry people within, it doesn't always last and I've seen plenty of that happening. The WPC in the last snippet married, it didn't last long. Sadly.

What if I had been killed at that abandoned car? I guess its just the way it goes. Just another person who had died in harness. Or got lucky because I didn't. When I consider my late school friend's lost potential, what he could have done, it made me value things more. 

Because we often have to deal with things in the job that the average member of society doesn't, unless you can manage it, it can build up. These days there is counselling at the drop of a hat, 25 years ago, you just mostly got on with it and dealt with it as best you could.

Some did succumb to stress or alcohol, or gambling for example, but these last items are displacement mechanisms to push away the real cause of the problems. Realising and acting to do something about a recognised problem is a start.

Recognising the problem is the key. Not being able to see the wood for the trees is a big problem, some people can't see they have a problem. That's a dangerous situation starting to form.

Combat stress

The world has become more violent without a doubt since my time in the job, the root cause of most crime back then 25 years ago was to feed drugs habits and not much seems to have changed. DVD players, camcorders, alloy wheels, car stereo systems were the hot crime trends. Just to feed the habit, enough to buy a fix.

It was often the same old faces, doing the same old crimes, same old usually small price for the fenced goods to pay for a drug hit. 

I heard about combat stress and PTSD in respect of a program I saw about the Vietnam war and realised that some of what the American soldiers reported experiencing were things I could understand. 

To me, leaving the job when I was retired on ill health was sudden and final. Although I did continue to work occasionally with some colleagues on unfinished business, I ceased that after about three years, making a break and moving to a different country to make a new life. 

It was about then you'd start more to experience more night dreams where you'd be in a Police situation but you'd either be with no one you knew but they knew you or you'd be somewhere you knew. It was very inconsistent. But in those dreams you always felt a bit of an outsider and that the reason for being in this 'experience' was unfinished business. 

I'd had those dreams within the time in the job, but I suppose they were some sort of occupational hazard and probably discounted as being unusual because of the environment I was in.

But how to deal with it? Otherwise I had a pretty normal 9-5 type existence of sorts.

At the end of the day

Well, what now? How do I fix this? Will it get me? - The really big question was why was I continuing to have these dreams? It was a line in that film - 'Eight years later, they're still fighting the Vietnam war.' A way was needed of putting the old life 'to bed.' 

I worked out that the unfinished business was at the root of all this, but I realised that all I had done was enough in the job, I had had my experience in that arena and it was time to move on to do other things.

That I did professionally, but still these things plagued me. One day I embarked on a writing project which I thought about basing on my professional experience and wrote a fictional book about a fictional Police Force.

Maybe who knows, that the purpose of my service was for this end as part of some great plan? I had started writing novels after I left the job, whilst I looked for something else to do, maybe I was slowly dealing with the unfinished business through that. 

About twenty books later I started on the massive tome, it came to about 510 pages of A4 in all. There was the right mix of how life was then, how people are and a dollop of farce, because I saw plenty of that. Mindful of not giving away 'trade secrets' as such, I based my book on knowledge in the public domain and fictionalised events.

Some characters I based on people I knew or worked with, some on actors I thought could play the roles if it was filmed. The concept was to write a good book, but at the same time it did largely solve my situation. 

The unfinished business was now mostly finished, to the extent that the experiences are now just rare experiences. I was lucky, some can never shake off the unfinished business. Sometimes it winds up killing them. 

It all seems a long time ago. It was.

Mind how you go....

Just before I do, there is another compounding problem, the Police service is run along military type lines and it is easy to become institutionalised in the lower ranks - 

like those in the military also find after they leave, they have to think for them selves, self-start and just 'do things'. 

After years of following orders, this disconnect when added to the major disconnection can add to the strains of leaving 'the job' and act as an additional set of factors in 'tipping someone over.'

Squier Bullet Hardtail Stratocaster in Fiesta Red review

Squier Bullet Hardtail Stratocaster in Fiesta Red review

Squier Bullet Hardtail Stratocaster in Fiesta Red

Question: Why have I just bought this guitar? 

The simple answer is I have designed a trem system and need a base to put it into. This looked the part, although it has a 40mm instead of 45mm thick body that shouldn't matter, its the design principle I want to prove.

I've had a lot of Squier guitars over the years and most have been pretty good. So I was interested to see what the bottom of the range Bullet was like. I have a 2007 Pink bullet with trem and that is a nice player too. This guitar was used, from Ebay but essentially like new. I have owned Pre-CBS and Custom Shop guitars so guess what? This guitar holds its own.

Out of the box

The first impressions were that the guitar was on Fender strings, the neck relief was a bit out, the intonation was out on a few strings, string height at first fret was too high and the unplugged sound was fair. It wasn't easily playable. It had that 'music shop setup.' Plugged in it sounded acceptable but I realised it needed some adjustment.

It wouldn't buzz, but it was hard work to play. Not good for a starter guitar.

Finish was faultless and for a guitar of this ticket price, outstanding. The Fiesta Red was more toward a darker than normal 'Fiesta' but good for any budding Hank Marvin or Knopfler.

The neck has a matt, satin finish which almost feels like bare wood. The neck profile is like a Pre-CBS and with a 9.5 radius is easy on the hand. Nice grain on the neck too.

Frets were nicely finished and ends filled to prevent protrusion and the ends were filed off well.

Hardware is budget, but you get what you pay for at this level. Acceptable though.

The body is the 40mm thick type and the contours are well cut, like a pre-CBS I won and also on the Affinity,  especially where the sloped cut for your arm to rest on, here the wood  is about as thin as a pre-CBS where it contours out to the thinnest point. The body is comfortable. It is Basswood and quite resonant.

Plugged in it sounded nice but I could see that it could sound and play better.

Set up: Needed.

I admittedly bought this used, so what this was like new, I don't know. I suspect it was bought on-line and just visually checked and shipped. I don't think the previous owner had played it much, looking at the condition.

Received like this the guitar was playable but hard, and for a beginner or child might be off-putting. On the plus sound, the guitar resonated well unplugged.

First up was a good dose of D'addario  fingerboard oil for the fretboard, which was about as dry as a Spinster's cupboard. This revived it and the grain of the fretboard wood looks nice and now feels much better.

A change of strings from the factory Fender ones ( I find Fender strings higher tension) to a set of D'addario 9-42's improved matters -  I use D'addario strings on all my guitars pretty much. Next a check of the neck and a slight adjustment to flatten the neck relief and all was well there.

I did the intonation and a few of the strings were out but soon adjusted to 'normal.' The string saddles were done and set correctly for height. Next a go at the nut, a Tusq type one is fitted and a bit of work was needed there, I did a setup here and then test played it.

Now it is improved:

Yes, it plays well now, the pickups sound good and for a guitar on this budget level it is nice. Considering the cost factors if I'd had this guitar 40 years ago set up, it would have made playing easier. I'd take it out to play live.

The sound and playability were improved with a few minutes worth of work.

Its a good basic guitar and the deletion of the tremolo means it can be made cheaper with less machine work required. 

I owned a 1975 hardtail and in comparison that was heavy, cumbersome and this guitar set up, is better than that.

If you want to buy this as a first guitar, I'd advise having the strings changed and a basic set up, this should take at most half an hour and any music shop that will look after you like this is worth knowing. Strings may have been on the guitar for sometime in storage. 

I like the D'addario strings, they have less tension, stay in tune and sound better longer, I've been using them for 30 plus years and never had any bad ones. 

The ideal 'office' guitar and for those band jobs where you may want an occasional electric.

Out of 10 all things considered a 10/10. Given that yours may need slight adjusting, this is normal for any new guitar. 

Its a budget guitar but you can make it sound and play really well. 

The routing is not 'swimming pool' so gives better sustain

Apart from the lack of Trem on a hardtail, its not much different

The Squier 'Mini' 3/4 size guitar -which may have led to the development 

of the Bullet Hardtail full-size option Stratocaster

Dartford's Fiesta Red Cellulose 400ml aerosol guitar paint from Rothko and Frost review

Using Dartford's Cellulose paints on my Fiesta Red Stratocaster project guitar

Bare bones of the Hank Marvin Stratocaster project - 

Mexican Std 2018 neck, locking Tuners for the neck and 

Kinman Impersonator pickups for the 'engine.'

For this project, I started with a bare wood Hosco Vintage pattern Stratocaster Alder body with the intention of finishing it with Cellulose guitar paints from Rothko and Frost's Dartford's product range.

The guitar body was carefully sanded down and I used Dartford's White sanding sealer 400ml aerosol as the base coat.

White sanding sealer

Fender use a grain sealer on their guitars which is sprayed on and does what the name implies, fills any irregularities of the wood. Most bodies are sanded well and I used a very light fine paper flour grade type to get a final finish. 

The Hosco body with White Sanding Sealer Primer applied, ready for top coat

The Hosco bodies are very well made and finishing before spraying is negligible. 

Application

I found with the sanding sealer that it seems to get 'sucked in' to the wood on the initial coat. I sprayed a tack coat on and watched it almost disappear and the wood 'fuzz' up in places where little strands stood up. But not to worry....

I simply waited until the coat had dried and they broke off. I ensured that they would not cause any visual defects and applied a few more coats of the sealer, allowing it to do it's job of filling and sealing.

Left to dry for a few days, I then set about carefully rubbing down with 1200 grade wet and dry paper. I used water with a few droplets of washing up liquid as this stops the paper clogging. 

The filler part does clog the paper, so you need to rinse the paper and remove the wet slurry from the guitar surfaces and wipe with wet kitchen paper. Once the rubbing down was done, I wiped over with clean running water and dried the body. The body was washed again before the top coat and thoroughly dried. 

Hycote Filler primer -  extra step

I decided to use Hycote Filler primer from a 400ml aerosol as an intermediate paint layer as it works with both Cellulose and Acrylic paints and provides a strong white blocking colour base. As I was going onto what had been a bare wood body, I know that paints can sink and these Acrylics tend to work well, it may not have been necessary to use this, but I wanted a really sound finish. In time the paint may sink as Cellulose is prone to do.

First Fiesta red top coat applied - 

it looks redder than it really is due to the lighting.

Dartford's Cellulose 400ml Fiesta Red top coat

I was very pleased with the colour match on this paint, it looks very much like the original Pre-CBS colour I found inside a 1961 Stratocaster trem route which I had the colour copied.

The white primer rubbed down, I decided to go for the final coat stage. The Fiesta Red went on well, I sprayed a 'dust coat' over to see how the paint would go on to the body for speed of the paint from the can and covered the guitar over, applying a thicker coat over this and leaving it to dry.

Fiesta Red top coat applied 

The next coats were done close together, allowing the paint to almost dry. They weren't thick coats but enough to give good coverage. The remainders would be done the next day if the weather was good and after a careful light rub down.

The paint flowed out well, there was a slight 'orange peel' effect on the surface but this was pretty much gone as the paint relaxed as it dried out.

Fiesta Red top coat in the workshop as sprayed -

it worked well, glossy from the can

Fiesta Red top coat might look 'pink' -

but in daylight to the eye it looks the right shade.

Overall findings

The paint was the right shade and went on easily. I've sprayed a lot of paints from spray guns and cans and this was easy to use. The coverage was good and you might want 2 cans to do a guitar depending on how thick the finish is to be.

I got a shine from the can and after a day or so, it flowed out as it dried and any slight orange peel was lost almost entirely.

Building up the guitar

The paint did create quite a bit of dust which means that it contains a lot of paint solids and isn't just thinned out leanly, which is why it is not cheap to buy. 

Fixed a solder wiring joint problem and it sounds great

I let the paint harden off for around a week, cut it back carefully with Farecla G3 compound by hand and then assembled the guitar up as you can see.

I've now completed the guitar and it sounds and plays nicely. 

**Please note that Dartford's have now made their 400ml colour paints a thicker mix and these give better coverage. I have sprayed a Stratocaster body and it looks great even though it hasn't been polished yet.**

Parnis mechanical and Parnis automatic watches

Parnis Chronometer - Power Reserve automatic watch

There's that old saying 'you get what you pay for' and that is often true. 

But sometimes what can surprise you, is what you actually get for something you didn't pay over the odds for. Welcome to the world of Parnis watches.

Parnis 44mm Military Aviator Vintage style hand wound watch

You can see any number of 'big name' watches on sale in shops or on-line with often 'big price' tickets hanging off them. But you don't have to pay big money for a nice looking watch. These examples show that.

Parnis 44mm hand wind Bauhaus style watch

With the demise of the majority of mechanical Swiss watches in favour of quartz movements in the 1980s, the industry discarded much of the tooling associated with the 'old' way of making a watch. So where did this technology go? Mainly to Russia and the Far East.

Parnis 44mm hand wind watch with 6497 style movement

With the lower wages and costs of the Far East, this has allowed makers in China to produce watches which look quality pieces at a fraction of the cost of a Swiss made one. The big names survive in Switzerland with their quality and price making some very nice pieces.

Parnis 6497 movement 46mm hand wind watch

The Chinese brands can suffer from rather 'indifferent' brand names, that sound quite comical to the Western purchaser. Parnis, although French sounding might be comical to some. However, joking aside they are nicely made and great value for money.

Another factor that has been overcome by the Parnis brand is the metallurgy, the material in these watches looks very good quality, the casings don't look 'brushed' there are no sharp edges on any I have had and the 46mm above looks even better than the photograph.

Parnis 43mm Power Reserve automatic watch

So the big question is - are they any good? The short answer is yes. The quality and price are there, at the moment these watches are way, way underpriced for what you get.

Parnis 43mm Power Reserve Automatic movement

What you get is a well designed, well made timepiece that is great quality. I have bought a Sewor tonneau watch before and it was cheap, it didn't keep time well. It may have been a bad one but after a few weeks it was not worth me wearing it. 

So I was a bit wary about buying another Chinese made watch, but I bought the silver power reserve at the top of the page used in the UK for about £50 and was surprised how good it was.

Parnis 44mm Hand Wind military style watch

I've run a selection of Parnis watches, most of which are from this page for a few weeks and they are all keeping great time, with each other and a 35 jewel Elysee I tend to wear a lot. 

Another good thing is their customer care is good, having not got the face colour in stock, I was offered a choice of hands on the watch I ordered, you'd have to go to someone exclusive for that otherwise. Most mainstream brands don't give you that.

Parnis 47mm Aviator style watch

The conclusion I have come to with these Parnis watches is that they look good, work nicely, are made and finished nicely and look more expensive than they actually cost. I must say I am very pleased with the ones I have purchased. 

With Elysee watches now going up steeply in price and many of them being made as quartz watches instead of using the Citizen Miyota movement as previously (Parnis uses this movement too), I am left with the thought - do I buy a Parnis watch I like or pay perhaps 5 times more for an Elysee?

I am a convert to Parnis, although I still have a few Elysee watches too. For everyday wear, I think these watches are underrated and unless you are a watch snob with deep pockets who can afford a big name Swiss watch, I'd say that you'd be on to a winner with one of these.

Check out www.mywatchcode.com for best prices on these watches plus also on Corget and other brands, some of the products on this site are not on Ebay, many are though. There are more on Ebay but they are more expensive. 

Fender Mexican Standard Stratocaster Maple Neck review

The Mexican Standard Maple neck - 2018 example

The Mexican Standard Maple neck rear - 2016 example

The Mexican Standard Maple neck peghead - 2018 example

The Mexican Standard Maple neck was retooled at the end of 2014 and the profile was improved and made easier to play, I noticed this on a 2015 Sunburst Standard that I swapped for a 50's Mexican Stratocaster. It was much easier to play than a 2013 standard.

Gloss face on the fretboard and peghead

The Mexican Standard as above is styled on the 1980 'Smith' style Stratocaster redesign necks. These were part of the Stratocaster 'back to basics' type of design that occurred when the infamous '3 bolt neck' guitars were discontinued in 1981. 

The old '3 bolters' suffered from a cost conscious compartmentalised CBS Fender, the 3 bolt guitar quality reputation led many to rediscover the old Pre-CBS guitars or the new impersonators - guitars made in the style of the early Pre-CBS instruments by Tokai, Fernandes, Columbus and many others.

The problem was that the impersonators were making great guitars! Fender CBS wasn't which is why it almost died as a company. The guitars had heavy bodies, U shaped necks, and the contours were not cut deeply, plus the Poly paint was trowelled on thickly.

But in the last glow of fire in the Fender ashes, Dan Smith revamped the guitars to go back to what Fender CBS should have been producing and the so-called 'Smith era' guitars were produced, but it was too late in the day to save Fender CBS.

 Staggered height locking tuners eliminate the need for a string tree

 The 'Smith' style of neck has largely remained in production since, that being a one piece maple neck with skunk stripe and with the small headstock, (bigger CBS type logo in recent years) and truss rod adjuster at the nut end. Essentially the evolutionary next step of the old pre-CBS 1958 neck.

The 'vintage' one piece neck is still made for the 50's vintage and Custom Shop guitars. The vintage is a shallow v and is a nice easy player, not far from the feel of a C shape.

The 'modern' Smith style neck is a shallow C shaped neck, nice to the feel and finished in satin poly lacquer on the back with a gloss finish to the front and the headstock face, the best of both worlds.

The frets are medium jumbo for easier fretting and the radius is a 9.5" somewhere between the vintage 7 1/4" and the modern 12". I find the 9.5" radius an easy to play neck, it is the neck that should have been made from 1973 rather than switch to the U shape, Bullet truss rod style of neck.

 Staggered height locking tuners rear view

I really find no fault with the new Mexican Standard neck, for my recent project guitar I'm using one on I purchased some locking tuners made by Fender and they fitted perfectly, as you can see above.

The price of the Fender neck was high when compared to other Fender lookalike necks on the market, but at least the Fender decal is genuinely applied by Fender and it has other Fender parts that fit without any modification.  

I have found the 2015 Mexican guitars whether Standard or Vintage reissues, of high quality and the feel and playability is excellent. Whether you are a serious part-time player or earn money from your playing, you'd have to go someway to beat these guitars and I've played pre-CBS instruments too. 

If you're looking to build a custom Stratocaster, then these necks are well worth using, the vintage counterparts being made in Mexico likewise if you seek that style for your project.