INSTRUCTORS

DAN GRAY

Dan is a retired sergeant from a California police agency with thirty years of full-time active service, where he spent time in both the patrol and investigations divisions, and developed expertise and a reputation as a gang investigator. During his career, Dan also served as his departments lead firearm’s instructor, responsible for the agency’s training center and firing range. Certified by California Peace Officer Standards and Training, the NRA, and the FBI since 1979, Dan holds firearm instructor certifications in Handgun, Shotgun, Patrol Rifle, Select Fire, Tactical Shooting, Precision Scoped Rifle, and is also a Shoot-house, Crowd Control/Crowd Management, and Less Lethal Munitions Instructor. Dan currently instructs locally for the South Bay Training Consortium in San Jose, California, in the area of firearms, and as a Force Options Simulator Instructor, has been an instructor for the local police academy and has taught introductory and advanced firearms through the local junior college. Dan has also been an adjunct instructor at one of the country’s leading firearms training schools, as well as having attended several different firearms schools across the country to increase his own personal knowledge and teaching abilities. Dan is currently a member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearm Instructors (IALEFI) where he has been a presenter at several of their annual training conference; the International Law Enforcement Educators and Training Association (ILEETA); the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA); and the National Rifle Association (NRA). Dan owns and operates Trident Firearms Academy, specializing in providing citizens with the safe and proper instruction in the home defense handgun, shotgun, and low light courses. He has also worked as a consultant for a major firing range equipment company that designs, builds, and reconditions firing ranges all over the world. Dan has been a guest instructor for the DEA and FBI at their academy in Quantico, Virginia, and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy Session 199.  Dan is currently employed as an adjunct instructor for the NRA Law Enforcement Activities Division (LEAD) and travels all around the United States monthly teaching new law enforcement, military, and special units instructors in Handgun, Shotgun, Tactical Shooting Instructor, Select Fire, Patrol Carbine, and Precision Scoped Rifle courses.

Gene Whisenand

Gene is a licensed private investigator, by the state of California, and has been for almost 10 years, specializing in criminal investigations. He was a Navy Combat Corpsman (NEC 8404) attached to the Marine Corps' 4th Marine Division and 1st Marine Division. He is a veteran of both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Gene qualified Expert in both handgun and rifle. The areas of operation that Gene participated in were Cold Weather Mountain Warfare and Desert Warfare and later specialized in Military Operations on Urban Terrain. Through his military service he received very extensive medical training specializing in emergency medicine and trauma care. During his time in the Navy/Marine Corps he was an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and an EMT instructor as well as an assistant Advanced Cardiac Life Support/Advanced Trauma Life Support instructor at Naval Hospital Oakland, CA and Camp Pendleton. He was responsible for training members from all branches of the military. He was also an instructor for Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. In the early 90’s Gene worked in the emergency medical field in the San Francisco Bay Area both in the field on an ambulance and in a County Trauma Center. Gene currently holds certification by the NRA Law Enforcement Activities Division as a firearms instructor. He has been through numerous high profile firearms courses covering handgun, shotgun and carbine.