Podcasts
What To Look For In A Tactical Flashlight
In this episode of the Maglite Podcast, we ask Kris “Tanto” Paronto what he looks for in a tactical flashlight for security jobs and deployments. Transcript: Maglite: Tanto Paronto here on the Maglite Podcast. Hello again. Kris. I've gotta ask about the hand gesture. Yeah. Sort of famous for it. What's that all about? Kris: Uh, Jambo. I learned the Jambo, actually, I learned in Iraq. Um, when I was working with the agency, um, a lot of our guards that's at the basis we worked with within the agency itself, they usually weren't American guards. We usually hired out because we didn't wanna give the impression that our area was a bunch of Americans, even though you saw big guys with tattoos up and down their arms rolling in and out of the gate. Right, Right. Regardless. But I remember I, whenever we draw the gate in Moo, and this was in 2008, 2009, I would roll out, the guys would always say, I got to know the guards, great guys. And they would always say, Hey, Jambo, Jambo, Tanto. And I stopped one day because I didn't know what it meant. And I assumed, but I wanted to make sure they were... Maglite: Saying, Pass American. Kris: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like saying, Hey, Tanto, go bleep yourself. Right. But I stopped him and I said, Guys, where, what's that mean? And they go, It just, it means, well, what it officially means from Swahili or Tunisia, it means good morning. So they would always throw up and say, Hey, good morning, Jambo. But because of the internet, because of the intro web, I like to make fun of the internet. Right. Because of the interweb and everything out there. They, it may, they got to see the shock all the time. It started to mean the same thing. So it really should be cool. Jambo means to be cool. And what I did over the years, many, many West Africans work in the Middle East. They do most of the menial labor for the Iraqis or the, even, even Afghanis along with the Hazaras and so forth. Kris: Um, there are a lot of 'em over there. So whenever I threw this up, everybody within the country, if I got it back nine times outta 10, I knew they were friendly. I mean, not all the time. And that night, um, you know, after doing this jumbo for many years and getting it back usually meant they were friendly. When that night came and the morning came, I, had nothing else, to indicate. I didn't know how to, I didn't have any phone calls with the Libyan guys. I didn't know who they were. I didn't know what they looked like. The only thing I could think of was, and I was tired, I was very, very tired. I said, Well, I'll just sort the jumbo and Maglite: You were ready to smash some pancakes. Kris: Like, and I was ready to smash some pancakes. And, also I was, oh man. And I also had a 50 caliber pointing at my head, aka was right at my forehead. And I just went, I took my offhand and I went and I was behind that parapet wall. And like the rest of the country, they knew the Jambo and they stir up and they smiled big old smiles. And, and I was like, They're with us. And, and Maglite: You're, and you're, you're known for that. Now. That's, that's Tanto Paronto's thing. Hey, uh, you sent me a text when, uh, we were setting this up and you said, Hey, honestly, all this product Maglite looks sweet. Yeah. By the way, Maglite is the standard for handheld devices, and that they are, that you stand behind that. Kris: I do. I do. They've been around forever. I mean, since we were contracting anything from the big, the big security flashlight. And I worked security for Mutual of Omaha when I was in college guys. So I was a security officer. And what did I have right here on my side? I had a big mag line. I don't, I don't know the actual brand, the, um, the, the model anymore. But the, you know, the old school big got the... Maglite: 4D cell Maglite, Kris: But that's what I carried. And that's the lums that we had. They always had the perfect lums. And I said, They always are invented. And the rechargeable stuff, they were really the first ones to start doing rechargeable flashlights that I got to be involved with. And then every base that we were at within a, within a room or you're within an area, it, there was always a Maglite out there. And, and then, of course, Surefire came along, and then there was some competition. But that's, you know, but, but as far as, as far as me using and the handheld stuff that we used, it was always Maglite. And that Mag-Tac 2 is they're setting the standard again. Uh, obviously. Yeah. It's, it's, it is incredible. And you got the glass break at the end, which, but I said it's, they've always been the standard and they've been around since. Maglite: Is sometimes referred to as the Maglite DNA Collector Kris: Collector. Cause it is, and that's, that's their thing too. Maglite: Not an intended use. Kris: But if you have Maglite: To legally, Kris: If you have to thump somebody in the forehead sometimes that's a good force escalation to do that. Maglite: Again, the Maglite attorneys would say not an intended use. And that is entirely editorial content by Chris Paronto here on the Maglite podcast, by the way. Uh, how important do you think it is to make things in the United States? Kris: Gotta make 'em nice. That's why we're falling behind. That's why we get, we're in the position that we are manufacturing needs to be done here. Bring back manufacturing here. We bring back jobs here, we bring back control here, and we don't have to rely on these other countries that got us under over a barrel right now, like China. And it's a better product. The stuff's made better. So, and dude, if it's made in the USA, you support it. Maglite: And by the way, Mag is manufactured in the United States. We, there are a few components that have to be sourced overseas because we simply don't make them in the United States anymore. By the way, scares the hell outta me that we're buying all of our electronic switches from China. A country that hates us. Yeah. We, you can't, you can't run, um, a, a tactical flashlight, much less, you know, Air Force interceptor or attack helicopter with electronics switches. Chris, it's been great. Thanks for doing, uh, a bunch of segments with us here on the Maglite podcast. We really appreciate it. You are a true American and hopefully, someday we can get you out too, uh, Maglite proper and get you introduced to the whole family. Kris: I would love that. I'd be honored, brother. Thanks, Lou. I appreciate it, man. Speaker 1: Kris Tanto Paronto is here on the Maglite podcast. Thank you, sir. That's all for now.
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Tactical Flashlights: A Discussion
This week’s podcast discusses what to look for in a tactical flashlight and some real-world tips to help avoid conflict. Kris Paronto “Tanto” is a former Army Ranger and private security contractor. His experience within the military and government contracting work spans 18 years. Kris is also an accomplished public speaker, author of The Ranger Way and The Patriot’s Creed, owner of Battleline Tactical, and host and partner of E3 Firearms Association. Transcript: Maglite: Welcome to the Maglite podcast. I got my patch right there so everybody can see it. Kris Tanto, Paronto Ranger veteran, big Oley combatant, movie consultant, author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member of E3 Firearms Association, uh, E3 Firearms Association. You and I had talked about this. You know, you, you're the main trainer, one of the founders, and one of the main things that you do there is train people how to, number one, avoid conflict. Sure. If they can avoid it. And then the escalating scale of how to use force. You if you have to. And obviously you and I have talked about this in previous conversations that, look, if you're gonna be someone who's gonna carry a firearm, learn how to use it. Yeah. I mean, be, be trained, Right? Kris: Well, and, and be trained because it's, it's, it can be dangerous in the wrong person's hands, obviously, if you've seen it in bad guy's hands. And it all can be dangerous in an untrained person's hand, but if you are trained with it, it's a tremendous asset, tremendous tool for you to protect yourself and your family. What I also see too is not just the farm in itself, just learning the firearm, learning the community being around. It gives people confidence. You just see confidence levels escalate. And believe me, if you are confident out there on the street, I'm not saying arrogant, I'm not saying, you know, your ego's out there, but if you walk with confidence, if you portray yourself as that, you can take care of yourself. And we talk about this on the E3 arm. We actually have an online training course. We talk exactly about this. You becoming harder target, your situational awareness goes up. So now you are avoiding a fight or avoiding conflict without even knowing that you're avoiding it. Maglite: You know, Kris: I to win, Maglite: I, I was, I was taught that by a, a trainer a long time ago. And that I actually had a situation in, uh, Paris where I had gone out late at night, um, because my family had gotten back late from, uh, we went to the beaches of Normandy and we got back late to the hotel and the kids were hungry. There was a place down the street that was a 24 hour supermarket. It was about four blocks from the hotel. So at about midnight, I'm making the walk down to there, and all of a sudden I feel more than I see a couple of guys cross the street behind me who had come out of an alley and they're gaining on me. Uh, and I straightened up my shoulders. And what I did is I dropped this little thing behind my back. This is a combat pen, right. Kris: Tactical pen that I'm able to, to carry with me everywhere. And I just dropped it behind me and, and, and showed it to him behind my back. You know, I made it visible. They dropped off. What I mean, that's all it took. Just, Hey, I'm, I'm not gonna go down easy. I'm showing you, I'm, if if you come at me, this is not gonna be easy. I know you're there and I'm armed. Uh, and so, you know, that was enough to dissuade them. Uh, and that's, you know, the sort of thing that you learn at E3. Let me, let me ask you about this little thing right here. This is the Mag-Tac 2. This is a flashlight that is designed for handheld operation. Tactically, you've had a chance to interact with it. What do you Kris: Think? Yeah, actually it's, and it's right. My dresser drawers right there with it. So if I need to grab it, I know exactly where it's at night. Um, what I like about it and putting it, it's, it's with the little ridges on the inside of it, it holds perfectly in my hands. Ergonomically just fits in my hands and it's easy to use and grab and it feels comfortable. And the pressure pad is very sensitive, which is good. You want it to be sensitive, but it's also very easy to use as far as you wanna set it on a constant beam, or you wanna set it on the stroke. It's easy with the some, Sometimes you get the older ones. And, and, uh, Surefire had issue with surefire, not, not your competition here, but where the pressure pad wasn't that sensitive. So you really had to hammer that thing to get it to work where <laugh> exactly. A good, good, uh, especially something that has, you can utilize your gross motor skills to operate. That's the best case scenario, especially in a duress. And it's perfect, dude. And actually it just fits right in my hand. I love those little grooves on the inside of it. It's awesome. Maglite: Awesome. So you're talking about those grooves that you can see there, and then also it's designed so that you can use it this way. You can Kris: Yep. Maglite: And you can use it this way. Um, so that there are the various holds the har hold, the FBI hold, um, that are used with, uh, handheld firearms. And, and so this is designed with that in mind. And also if it's inclement weather, it's cold, it's wet, you're wearing thick gloves. Yeah. Uh, that it's gonna be those ridges, which by the way, makes this product unique because they're actually grooved into the aluminum as opposed to being something that is like a plastic thing that slides on you. Kris: So they're not gonna break. They're gonna, Maglite: And they're permanently there. Kris: Yeah. And you know, at first, first I grabbed like, well, these things are gonna be in the way, but when I grabbed, they just, it fit perfect right between my fingers. And you're right on the Harry's method, doing your shooting and come to an E3 arms, of course we'll teach you the Harry's method. Right, right. I'm sure we have something online with it as well, but yeah, having that ability where you've got that stopper on the back because your hands gets extremely sweaty and that Harry's method it, the light will slip. It does. And with this, if you're married and you like to wear your wedding ring, right, because you have some ethics of Right. And integrity, it will slip on that. But if you've got it with those ridges, and I found out it, honestly, it catch not catches in a bad way, you're gonna rip the ring off, but it stops it and you know it's there. Right. And it's not gonna move on you. And especially, and I, my hands get really sweaty and I've been training with it, and I, but it doesn't move. And I've had issues with the other lights that Maglite: Do. Okay. So we're gonna do one more with Kris Tanto gonna take this a break here. Uh, and, uh, we'll get the rest of the story on the other side. This has been the Maglite podcast.
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Kris "Tanto" Paronto Discusses Faith on the Battlefield
In the latest edition of the Maglite Podcast, Kris "Tanto" Paronto discusses the movie "13 Hours" and the role of his faith while in battle. Transcript: Maglite: All right. Welcome to another edition, the Maglite podcast. We're doing a few with Outstanding American Chris Tanto. As I said in the very opening of the first one, Ranger Your Veteran, Be Goi Combat movie consult, an author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member of E3 Firearms Association. So we were talking about that weird moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the movie, 13 Hour Secret Consult, Benghazi when you hear a bang from behind you and then a couple guys come stumbling out of the bushes behind you. One of them had kind of blown off a hand it looked like. Yeah. And you're like, really? You, you, you blow yourself up trying to fry us. Well Kris: What? Well, I I didn't hear the first explosion. It wasn't actual RPG that went off. Somebody was shooting a rock pill. Grenada and Rock Rocket Propel grenade at us. Um, and when those go, there's an explosion when it takes off because that's what propels it. Suppose boom. And you hear little explosion and then you're lucky to hear the explosion the next time. If it's close enough, hopefully you hear it. You don't feel it cuz you don't see RPG. That's one thing in movies, you don't see a vapor trail and RPG goes so fast, you're a boom and then it boom when it hits. I didn't hear that first boom for some reason. So when I came up, they came out of that side, this side of this building. The guy's running like this. He has no hand, his hand's gone. So he is running by and all I'm seeing is this profile like a carnival game, you know those carnival games. Kris: So my guns up and I'm looking at him and then his buddy comes out from outta nowhere and he's chasing him like this. So I'm seeing this view and he's holding pieces of his buddy's hand. So as I come up, I, I go, I wanna say Stop. You forgot your hand. That's what I'm thinking in my head. I'm like, Hey dude, stop. Your buddy's got your hand. Go back and get it. Um, all I can say to him and I go, What happened? And I probably said, Effing, what happened? The guy goes grenade. When he says grenade, I went, Oh. I thought to myself, Well idiot, don't throw grenades in us. You won't blow your hand off. I thought he tried to cook a grenade off. And I remember I said, I said, Well go up Sun dirt all night, You'll be fine. I was thinking the old football coaches, right. And um, cuz my dad growing up around football so long. And then I took a knee again and that's when that other one hit. And I, this time I did hear the first boom and as soon as I heard that first boom, my head went that RPG. And I remember I just shrunk as big. I, I made myself as small as I could. It hit closer. This one did knock me off my side. And, and then that firefight started the movie. Movie Got it all. Maglite: Another line I remember very clearly from the movie is you're on the roof and it's, you've already been through a couple of battles. Yeah. And I'm sure you get this one all the time. Um, well, I figure if I'm doing the right thing, don't take care of me. Where's that faith come from for you? Kris: Uh, I'm just being a Christian my whole life. And, and I, as you deploy more, um, and you see things more, you see the atrocities. I I think faith can go one or two ways. You either get stronger in your faith or your faith dissipates so you become an atheist or agnostic. Mine went the opposite direction. So I just always felt that, you know, and I was always my best person overseas. If I was being ethically good and my integrity was good, I was gonna get taken care of. And I was where I was supposed to be. And that was one thing I always talked to my pastor, you know, being overseas, I come back home like, Hey, I took a guy's life. I, it doesn't feel right. You know? And he is like, Well what are you doing? Well, you know, I'm at combat. Kris: He goes, You're doing the right thing. That's where you need to be at. So when I was able to come to terms with that and I just, that was how it was. It was just, God, this is where he wants me to be and I'm doing what he wants me to do. I pray on it, Okay, I'm here. Stuff's going wrong. God still wants me here. I'm doing the right thing. He's gonna take care of me. That doesn't necessarily mean I was gonna live. I just knew that that's where I needed to be. That's where he wanted to be. And if I died on that battlefield and I had was a prayer that I read and this is what it said. And I believe this is too, if I die on this battle for today, made a diet peace with you. It was that I had accepted that. If that was where my last breath was gonna be, well then that's the acceptance I'm gonna have because God wants me there. And I just thought to myself, did I tell my family I loved him the last time I talked to him? Yep, I did. I was clear. Yeah, Maglite: I, I travel quite a bit, so I'm not in the kind of danger you are, but every time I travel that's, I I try to make sure I don't leave without telling my kids and my wife that I love them. Um, so tell us about what you're doing now. Kris: Um, well we got E3 arms, definitely that thing's going great actually. I've been having a blast. I, I, I think the website as we're on it, I'm interacting people. It's the most I interact with anybody I, on any media site. I don't interact with people too much just intimately on a social media site. I don't, I I do post an Instagram on Facebook, but E3, the arm's website with the members, I'm interacting with them daily and it's great and it's, it's just fantastic. Cause you get a lot of just good questions that I think people won't wanna, they wanna ask on regular social media, but are just afraid to direct Maglite: Message. It's a safe place. It's a safe place to talk about firearms and tactical because I say stuff on Facebook and you know, you get attack. Oh Kris: Yeah. So we're gonna, we're gonna hold this here and very specifically when we do the next podcast, you've had a chance to interrupt with a bunch of New Mag product. So I'm gonna ask you about that. Um, Kris Taranto here on the Maglite podcast.
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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi
In this Maglite podcast, Kris Tanto Paronto discusses the Film "13 Hours" and shares his firsthand account of what the movie got right. Kris Paronto “Tanto” is a former Army Ranger and private security contractor. His experience within the military and government contracting work spans 18 years. Kris is also an accomplished public speaker, author of The Ranger Way and The Patriot’s Creed, owner of Battleline Tactical, and host and partner of E3 Firearms Association. Transcript: Maglite: Welcome to the Maglite podcast. We actually have a great guest for doing tactical stuff. And of course I'm wearing my Maglite tactical patch. I like see right there. You like that, Kris: Kris? Uh, it looks pretty cool, dude. Looks cool. I like it. Maglite: So, uh, joining us here, Chris Paronto, Ranger veteran, Benghazi combatant, movie consultant, author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member E3 Firearms Association. Man. Have you had a full life? Kris: That is and I'm, I'm only like 22 years old too, don't I? Look at it. It's okay. This is just stress guys. It is just lots of stress right Maglite: Here. Look at this. Look. Look, look at the gray there on me. I've been gray since I was 35 years Kris: Old. Let's is best blonde hair. Dude. We can fix that in the editing process. Christian, I know Christian can fix that in the editing process, man. He's good Maglite: Go. Yeah. All right. So those things. Ranger veteran Ben Oik and Batton. Movie consult, author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member of E3 Firearms Association. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> husband. Kris: Aha. Most important. Husband and father. Maglite: Definitely husband and father. So what's your favorite role? Kris: Husband and father. Right. You know, I, I, it is now to say that it was when I was deploying I, um, no, I think my favorite role was, was being, being that person deploying, I think in life. It just all changes. Your, your priorities change. I, um, you know, people now you're a terrible father for saying that. Well, you know, I then, I guess I am for saying that, but I, I'm just, you gotta be honest and, and I don't think guys go overseas strictly for the money. I I don't think that's what part of it's the ego. It is part of it's seeing if you can prove yourself. And a lot of it's the brotherhood that you have with the guys right and left cuz you don't get that anywhere else. And a lot of, and then another part of it's just how lucky I was to see a lot of the world and see a lot of the world that you just can't get a tourist, a tourists visa for Maglite: <laugh>. Yeah. Sorry. Not go to Somalia anytime Kris: Soon. Yeah. I mean you go. But to see some of those things, and I, I think I've said it on other podcasts, the savage beauty of seeing bombed out buildings, of seeing 50 cow pop marks and concrete structures of, of just seeing those things. It, it, it is, it is very violent, but there is some beauty to it. It's, it's, and it's some surrealism. Um, but then it's also weird cuz you get used to it and you're like, well it is just how it, you know, I remember getting off of, uh, getting off a plane and, and uh, going to Moul, getting off a helicopter in Moo, getting in downtown Moo and then going to Soleman and driving to Kirk Cook. And once you get off, got a Kurdistan, you get into North Kirk Cook, you're back into the really, back in the hot zone again. It was like, man, I'm back home. You know, all the down telephone wires, all the drugs runner, all the dogs run around everywhere, all the, you know, just bullet holes and buildings and, and you know, watching for IEDs, vehicle born, front close devices, it's like, wow, I'm home. And even going to Yemen and getting off a plane in Yemen and getting to Sunan, getting out in some of the bad parts of Yemen, like, all right, well I feel back home. Yeah. Maglite: And I, I don't, I don't feel safe in downtown Seattle, LA or Portland. So Kris: It, it's getting very dangerous down there too. I gotta say it. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna make, I Maglite: Don't go to big cities much and if I do, it's, I'm out of the hotel and into the cab or the Uber and I'm going Kris: Wherever I'm going, Maglite: You know, I don't, I don't walk anywhere in places like that. Uh, speaking of surreal, I I, I had seen the movie 13 hours when it came out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in the theaters and I didn't know anything about you. I, I think I'd seen you contemporaneously maybe on Fox News or something. Kris: Yeah. We're, I was doing the news rounds in those days, CNN, it in Fox, never MSNBC, but CNN, it in Fox every Maglite: Once and then, uh, I saw the movie and honestly from the very beginning my, my favorite character in the movie was yours because you were funny. Kris: Well that's, and you know, that's the truth. Now, now that you've gotten to know me a little bit, I am funny. I try to be Maglite: Funny. So there's a moment in 13 hours when a couple of guys come out of the bushes when you're in the compound and they've got their hands blown off or something. Kris: Yeah, no, no one Maglite: Did your character says to him, So you blew yourself up trying to brag us. Really? Did Kris: That Maglite: Actually, actually happen? Kris: Yeah, actually the movie made it more intense. Uh, then it, I mean more I was, showed me as being more angry when it actually happened. I took a knee, I'm on the backside of this building here. The explosion goes off here, the first one goes up. I didn't catch any shrapnel cuz explosion went this way and I got the, But you get over pressure the movies, when it says, you see the, the win there is that, that happens in the bigger explosion. You can actually see that over pressure with a grenade. You can't, but you can feel it. So, Maglite: So, so you actually, this moment actually happened and it was even more surreal. I did. But it appears in the movie we're gonna ask you about your experience with Mag products and, and the mag tattoo that we just sent you and other things. But we try to keep these short and compact. So we're gonna stop this right here. We'll reset, we'll come back for another Maglite podcast with Chris Paronto.
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Hurricane Preparedness Tips for 2022
With hurricane season upon us, we look at ways to prepare your family with practical tips with Haskell Moore (author of Hurricane Preparedness For The Home And Family). In this interview, we discuss use cases for various flashlight models that include threat identification, damage assessment, and signaling for help. Transcript: Maglite: Welcome to another edition of the Maglite podcast. The man who wrote the book on preparedness, Haskel Moore, joins us again Haskel. It's been a really kind of slow storm season for 2022. Not that I'm complaining, <laugh>, unfortunately, there are a lot of areas that are suffering drought, Southern California, Nevada, Colorado, and other places like Texas, where there isn't getting enough rain. And of course, now you have Texas in certain places getting too much rain. Isn't that a story about rain, You know, there it's either not enough or too much. Um, so why are we off to such a slow start in 2022? Haskell: Well, there are a couple of factors that come into play as far as the, uh, uh, Atlantic hurricane season, one of which is wind shear. Uh, we've seen an inordinate amount of wind shear this year, uh, that, uh, you would normally not expect during a La Niña season, and we've seen a lot of Saharan dust that carried over into August when that's usually done, uh, I start to say done and dusted. Uh, it's usually done by the, uh, when you get into the August timeframe. So those two factors have contributed significantly to a slow start to the season. Maglite: Do you expect, or is this a reason to believe that the rest of the storm season in 2022 will be slow? Haskell: Well, not if you believe the National Hurricane Center. Okay. Right now they are, uh, predicting a 60% chance of an above-average season. They're calling for 14 to 20 named storms, six to hit 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes. And Colorado State University is actually calling for 18 named storms, made hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. Uh, the average season is 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major. That is cat three or above hurricanes. So, no, that this is, uh, even though, and I think part of that is because we've been in what they call a hurricane drought. We haven't seen a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin for over 300 days, but I think that we're on the cusp of seeing that change. We're starting to see some, uh, activity out there. The dust has settled down, wind shear has settled down. The water is hot. So I think we're, we're in for a storm this year somewhere in the U.S. Maglite: So if we're in for a storm or storms, what do people do to get prepared? Haskell: Well, you know, we, uh, uh, this is a Maglite podcast, so it's the foregone conclusion. We're gonna talk about a Mag. Uh, one of the first things you need to do is order this flashlight. This is the Maglite ML300L four-D LED, a long-running flashlight that produces over a thousand lumens of light. Uh, it is excellent for, uh, inspecting your home after a storm to see where the damage is, especially on the roof. It's great for watching, for rising water, and looking for other hazards. And it's really great for signaling for help. You know, if, if you're out in a typical after hurricane situation, and I look, grew up in the Houston, Texas area, so, uh, I've seen several of those, and it's almost a foregone conclusion after a, a hurricane. Uh, you can count on the power being out. This allows you to signal at night when there's no other ambient light. Uh, if you're in your home sitting on top of your car, a light like this can be a lifesaver. It's water resistant, it's rugged, and it's reliable. And of course, Maglite is manufactured here in the United States. Maglite: So your rule of two though is don't just have one of anything. Right. So Yeah, absolutely. You have that one full-size Maglite. Maybe you want a smaller one that's like the pocket size. Haskell: Right. Well, I also have this one, uh, this is a, uh, two-cell ML300L and then over here I have the, one of my favorite pocket lights is the XL50. Uh, I had not seen this light until recently, uh, a few years ago. And I started carrying this thing, and this is my EDC light every day carry, uh, runs on three AAA cells that don't use the expensive big CR 2032 or, uh, which can be hard to find three. Yeah. Maglite: In Haskell: A storm situation. Yeah, absolutely. You want Maglite: Something common. Haskell: This is a fantastic light, a lot of light on high, and you can cut the thing down to a lower level and it'll last over, uh, I believe 20 hours plus on low mode. And then, yeah, so Maglite: You, we wanna have a couple of different choices, obviously, water, food, medicine, and medical supplies, but also you get, need a source of light and your cell phone is not it, especially in an emergency situation when the power goes out, the last thing you wanna do is use a battery on your cell phone as a flashlight. Haskell: Absolutely Maglite: Doesn't. Very effective as a flashlight either. All right. Haskell Moore literally wrote the book, Hurricane Preparedness for Home and Family. Uh, he is a great Maglite contributor. We are glad to have him here on the Maglite podcast, and we thank him for his time. Haskell: Thank you.
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The Best Emergency Preparedness Flashlights of 2022 with Haskell L. Moore
In this week’s Maglite podcast, we speak to Haskell L. Moore, the author of Hurricane Preparedness for the Home and Family, as he discusses his top picks for emergency preparedness flashlight options. Haskell has tested hundreds of lights and the Maglite ML300L is the clear winner. Transcript Maglite: So welcome again to the Mag Light Podcast, or for the first time, if you've never been here before, this is a very important book, whether you live in a hurricane area or not. Hurricane Preparedness for the Home and Family. Uh, you see that name right there? Haskel Moore, the author. Yeah. Well, um, that's this guy joining us here on the Mag Light Podcast. We're all about preparedness, being ready just in case the worst happens. And boy, Haskel literally wrote the book on preparedness. How many years have you worked on this in this field, Haskell? Haskell Moore: Oh, I started on disaster preparedness back in 1999 and started, uh, focusing on hurricane preparedness in 2005. Maglite: Gotcha. Of course, you live in Texas where you get monsoon-type rain as well, which by the way is happening right now, right? In a couple of areas of Texas. Haskell Moore: Yeah. Yeah. Dallas is, is getting hit. The Dallas area, uh, was hit rather hard. I haven't checked on the weather today, but, uh, they picked up in excess of 10 or 12 inches in, uh, like 24 hours in some areas. And in South Texas yesterday they got hammered really bad. They picked up I think five or six inches in several areas as well. Maglite: What makes fast-running water so dangerous? Haskell Moore: Well, um, people underestimate the power of fast-running water. Uh, it's incredible. Just a few inches of water can sweep you off your feet. Uh, maybe not even as much as a foot can sweep a vehicle off into a stream, a lake, a river, or a deep ditch. I've seen that happen with my own eyes. And people think because they're driving one of these big pickup trucks with giant tires on it, what they don't realize is those things are just flotation devices to the water. So, uh, people underestimating the water, how powerful it is and how quickly they can get in trouble. Maglite: Yeah. And there are things like down power lines in the water. You can be electrocuted. There's, um, yucky stuff in the water because the sewer system is being washed out. Uh, there are chemicals in the water because it's runoff from fields or a plant that has been overrun with water. So there are all kinds of bad things that can happen. Yeah. When you've got too much water, right? Haskell Moore: Yeah. As a matter of fact, um, 89% of the direct cause deaths from hurricanes are due to water, either flooding or in some cases blunt force trauma, uh, from people being, uh, slammed around into trees and things like that. So the vast majority of the direct cause of death from a hurricane, water storm surge is the biggest of those. Maglite: And of course, excuse me, um, when the water gets high, the power goes out. Haskell Moore: That's the usual case. Uh, they actually, in the, um, uh, at the power stations, at the substations, actually, they have sensors there. And when they reach a certain level of what they call leakage, uh, when they're bleeding off, uh, a certain degree of power, then the power shuts down. Hopefully, it does. Otherwise, you have what we had during Harvey where we had several electrocutions, but yeah, when the water comes up, uh, you better hope the power goes off. Maglite: And then when the power goes off, you have what's called nighttime, Haskell Moore: Right? Maglite: That happens every day no matter what. It does get dark at some point, and then you need a source of light. Haskell Moore: Absolutely. Maglite: You have plenty on your desk there, by the way. Haskell Moore: Right? These are, uh, actually just a small sampling of the, uh, over 200 flashlights that I have tested in the last couple of years. Uh, everything from cheap dollar store lights all the way up to, uh, I had one light that I recently sold. I paid $450 for it. Uh, so I've tested the whole gamut. I didn't go out and just get, uh, cheap dollar store flashlights. I tested everything from some of the very top makers and I ended up selecting this one. Uh, I'll let you tell the audience what this is if you want to. Maglite: Is that the Maglite ML300L? Haskell Moore: No other. Maglite: Na. So that is the ultimate disaster preparedness flashlight on eco mode for the last two weeks. Continuous use for two weeks continuous use on eco mode. So if you have a long-term disaster, this is the kind of light that you're gonna need. It throws more than a thousand lumens at full power. Popular Mechanics said it is the last flashlight you'll ever need to buy. And by the way, it can put a useful piece of light, a beam of light on something a quarter of a mile away. So for signaling, uh, if you wanna put it on flash mode, on strobe, uh, it's gonna have enough power. You're gonna get noticed. And by the way, it'll last a really long time, uh, because you don't need more than 60 lumens or so in an enclosed space, right, Haskell? Haskell Moore: Uh, yeah, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I, uh, I did a test recently and I had a light that only put out three lumens of light, and it was sufficient for moving around the house, seeing where you're going. And that's extremely important during a power outage. Uh, people don't realize it, but you can get hurt really badly in your own home, uh, during a power outage situation. Uh, I had a friend tell me about his wife who tripped over a dog toy after the power outage of Hurricane Ike and ended up falling, breaking her wrist in her arm. And that's a bad thing. On a good day, much less when you can't get to a hospital. Maglite: And when you live rural like me, there is no source of ambient light. So if it's a cloudy night or there's very little moon or no moon, or it's behind the trees or whatever it is, it's so damn dark you can't see a foot in front of your face, honestly. Right. Uh, so, and there you can also put that attachment on there and make it, uh, good for signaling as well. Absolutely. Like how that looks. All right. House school Moore, we try to keep these to five or six minutes, uh, because I have a really short attention span. <laugh>. So Lou Desmond here, Mag PR Director. This has been the Mag podcast. We're gonna bring Haskell back for one more right after this. We're to talk about storm season this year and why it's been so light and what to expect.
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Episode 57: Jeremiah Voithofer- Mountain Top Outdoors
Outdoorsman Jeremiah VoitHofer of Mountain Top Outdoors joins the Maglite Podcast where he talks about the show and his adventures including hunting. His show on the sportsman channel takes him all over the country where he meets people who use Maglite’s all the time in the course of their daily lives. He also explains the importance of having a reliable source of light when you are going to be in the back country for days at a time. He closes with a discussion of the contest and product giveaway that is coming up by mountaintop outdoors/ Maglite. _________________________________________________________________________ Transcript Maglite: Welcome to the Maglite podcast and our guests today, long time affiliated with Maglite. He is an outdoorsman. He's a television star. He's an all-around just giant human being in personality and he joins us here. His name is Jeremiah VoitHofer, the organization's mountaintop outdoors, and we're thrilled to have him. How are you doing Jeremiah? Jeremiah VoitHofer: Hey, Lou. Good to see you, buddy. Uh, nice to be back on here. And I tell you, man, um, the weather here in Pennsylvania cooperated this spring. We have another rainy day and, uh, other than that, I'm doing great. My boys are getting big and we had another great adventurous fall, uh, Maglite in hand, uh, producing a TV show. Maglite: Well, with the name Jeremiah, you sort of almost had to be an outdoorsman. Jeremiah VoitHofer: That's right. That's right. There was a movie. Uh, what Maglite: Was it? Jeremiah Johnson. Yeah. Robert Redford. Jeremiah VoitHofer: Yes, sir. Uh, Maglite: You and Redford kind of, kind of close anyway. Yeah. We'll see. So how are things going? Jeremiah VoitHofer: They're good, man. Um, we just finished up, uh, season two on the sportsman channel 7:30 Wednesday nights. And, um, for y'all that don't know out there, when I first got into the outdoor industry and first hit the TV show, Maglite was my title sponsor and I'm forever grateful, um, to them. Number one, thanks again, Lou, for, uh, everything you guys have done over there. And, um, number two, I think you're one of my favorite American, um, dream stories in general in the Maglite story. And, uh, being asked, Maglite: Still manufactured in the USA. Jeremiah VoitHofer: It's amazing, still manufactured in the USA and, and still family run. I mean, uh, I run a family business in my day job as a golf course manager for what I do for six months. And, um, you guys are the pinnacle of the American dream, man. Congratulations on that. And thanks for having me back. Maglite: How is the television show going? Jeremiah VoitHofer: Good man. We've uh, we just finished up season two in, uh, season one. We took 11 pop and young, which are, um, respectable type animals. And in season two we took 10. So after coming out on fire, you're not sure if you can do it again. Um, and we just learned and move forward. You know, we grew a lot too. Um, my cameraman, I have a full-time cameraman, which is a young kid out of Penn state college, hired him in 23 and, um, sent him to some film schools. And I tell you what the people on the road that we met, um, in year one, we became like family in year two, right? You go back to these farms, farmhouse all over the country and amazing how farmers in their barns have mag lights. Number one, I'll start there. It's America's brand. And, uh, I think every farmer out of anything that could have come outta my mouth that I would've told 'em my Maglite story, cuz there was a big Maglite on my truck that year in year one, um, was probably their favorite story, uh, here and coming out and meeting y'all and um, man, it's going really well. Jeremiah VoitHofer: Um, we were, we were 30% up this year in viewership and we appreciate every each Maglite: And every now, where can people see the show Jeremiah VoitHofer: Sportsman channel Wednesday night at 7:30 and then in the fall this year in season two, after July, we'll be dropping some of our episodes on our YouTube channel. Um, so folks can see the high grade content that we're shooting now. Um, the show's changed a little bit from season one to season two, Lou, um, we focus on high grade cinematography now and telling a story of each hunt rather than just running around the country and showing people different places that they could hunt in public land. Um, especially, uh, got way back on Outfitters this year. We only hunt 'em with two Outfitters out of 13 hunts. Um, we spent 81 days on a road living in a camper I might add, uh, Dodge's truck pulled a camper around the country and me and my cameraman produced a show out of our, our, uh, camper. And, um, a little bit has changed. We brought on working man bow hunter as a partner. Um, some mountaintop outdoors under the umbrella now has working man, uh, bow hunter and um, cohost of the show. And at the end of each show, Lou, I know it's one of your favorite parts hunt chef cooks it up. Oh Maglite: Yeah, yeah. Jeremiah VoitHofer: Eat wild game at home by man. Maglite: Yeah, the, the cooking part, always one of my favorites, the eating part, as you can tell, just looking at me, I'm with you. Definitely. Uh, one of my, one of my favorite parts as well. So in your second season, sportsman channel Wednesday night, seven o'clock, 7:30. What's been I'm sorry, 7:30. What, um, what, what's a great Maglite story from the road. Jeremiah VoitHofer: Uh, great Maglite story for the road. I have, um, one in particular that more pertains just to the light. So y'all sell that kit with the cone. I actually have one right here, um, in the traffic Maglite: Traffic safety pack. Jeremiah VoitHofer: Yeah. Yep. And um, we had an axle break on our truck in season one at the end of this. Maglite: Oh, Jeremiah VoitHofer: In Kansas and in the nowhere. And uh, our axle broke. Um, so we're sitting on the side of the road. We got a camper behind us and in the safety pack that really let, um, the cars we were in a bad spot. There was no BEM on the road at all. We were still partially on the road and we, we put that cone out there and um, another good story to that. I mean, it wasn't a good situation at all. The first state trooper that pulled over, saw the Maglite on my truck and uh, he pulled his out and uh, that was cool, man. Maglite: Yeah. One of the, one of it's definitely a favorite of our law enforcement folks is the Maglite they've been carrying 'em for years. Well, it sounds like you're enjoying great success with the show. My one question is how's the wife about this? You're gone a lot, like 80 to 90 days. I travel a lot. Yeah, because of Maglite. So I'm, I'm on the road quite a bit. So let's compare stories here. So what's your wife's thing like it. Jeremiah VoitHofer: So I, I help her run, um, her family's business in the summer and I worked lots of long hours doing ah, 17 hour days Maglite: So you sort of earn your, Jeremiah VoitHofer: I earn my vacation time. It's like building, uh, PT time. Right. And, uh, uh, now that my son is at five years old, the finale of this season that'll actually is the father's day special on the, uh, stunt on the sportsman channel is called time with dad. Um, you have three generations of white Hoff offers on there. I take my dad who isn't in that great of health out, uh, hunting. And then my five year old son kills his first turkey, um, on film this year and just passing along and, um, enjoying the great outdoors. My friend Maglite: That'll make that Thanksgiving turkey even more enjoyable. maglite.com is where you can go get all those manufactured in the USA products, the roadside safety, uh, pack, especially important going into what are the deadliest days of the year, which, uh, more people are killed on the road and pedestrians killed through the first week of July. It really spikes then during any other part of the year. And of course, M 300 L four D I know it's something you use in the field and the spectrum series, right? Maglite: Yes. For tracking Jeremiah VoitHofer: The, the, uh, yep. We use that tracking every, uh, Maglite: The green light, the red light. Which one do you use the most? Jeremiah VoitHofer: Well, I use the green light walking in and then in the evening when we're blood trailing or we're tracking an animal, we just pulled out and he's a regular light because we wanna see that red blood, you know, glow brightly, right. The light is bright enough to let that glow shine on the leaves. And, um, you know, Lou, we've been lucky enough to be in a lot of situations to the Rocky deserts of, uh, New Mexico tracking something on rocks to watch that, that blood stand out or, um, in a farm in Wisconsin, Kansas, Illinois, um, all across the Midwest where you got leaves covering up the blood or the blood trail where the game is running away. Right. And that's where bright light is super important. I will say as well. It's nice and little, it fits in your hand. The, the Magtac series, um, is, is my personal favorite. And, uh, especially in the back country, Lou that's where things get really gnarly. Maglite: Well, I'm glad the products have been helpful, really, really glad for your success, Jeremiah. And once again, it's Jeremiah VoitHofer with mountaintop outdoors, and that is Sportsman's channel Wednesdays at 7:30. I'll get that right. Thanks for listening to everybody. This has been the Maglite podcast and we'll be back with a new edition in a couple of weeks.
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Episode 56: Mark Berte - Alabama Coastal Foundation
In this Episode we speak with Mark Berte about the purpose and Alabama Coastal Foundation and how they've partnered with Maglite to help save baby Sea Turtles during their hatching process - the Maglite Spectrum Red flashlights are in a workable spectrum that does not harm Sea Turtles when used correctly. Help support ACF by purchasing our "Share The Beach" Solitaire LED Spectrum Series Red flashlight - click here for details Transcript: Lou Desmond: It's a MAG-TAC Podcast. Welcome to the Maglite Podcast. I'm your host Lou Desmond, PR Director here at Maglite. And, we get to work with some really interesting organizations, and one of them that is really off the beaten path for us, and was a really fun connection that we made a couple of years ago, and a useful connection, is the Alabama Coastal Foundation. And let me bring in my contact from there, Mr. Mark Berte. Hey, Mark. Mark Berte: Hello, Lou. Lou Desmond: Great to talk to you. So, tell us about the Alabama Coastal Foundation. What is it, what do you do? And what's your title there, and what do you do there? Mark Berte: I'm the Executive Director, actually of the last 10 years. But ACF, the Alabama Coastal Foundation's been around for 29 years, to improve and protect Alabama's coastal environment. And, we say we do that through cooperation, education, and participation. Cooperation just means we work with other individuals, other nonprofit groups, the governmental sector, whether that's local, state or federal, private sector, small business industry. We don't care where you are. As long as you're going to do something to help the coastal environment, we're going to work with you. Lou Desmond: And one of your slogans of course is, Share The Beach, with the turtle logo on it. These are actually logoed Maglites that we designed for your organization, with your logo and your tagline there. And of course, that's a sea turtle. And one of the things that your organization is very active in, is sea turtle protection, and this whole Share of The Beach movement. Can you talk a little bit about that? Mark Berte: Yeah. A lot of folks don't know that Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico does have sea turtles. And, our nesting season starts here, May through October. And the mama turtles do come up at night and lay in their nests. They're a protected species. So, the Alabama Coastal Foundation became the new home of Share The Beach, back in 2018. And we've been looking, and looking, and looking for a partner to actually create flashlights that have wavelengths, that don't disturb the sea turtles when they're nesting. And we are so very fortunate. And I know you probably were going to get restraining order, how many phone calls I had made, but this has been such a great partnership last year. And, this will be even better now that we're having a podcast. So, the world can know that sea turtles nest all throughout the world. And these could be purchased right through our website. Can give them a discount if they use ACF20, if they want to go through our website. It's our pen light and it's really is good for human watching, and walking on the beach. And again, that they were tested wave lengths so that the LED light does not disturb nesting sea turtle. You're never supposed to shine any light towards any animal, and directly in the eyes, and you're supposed to stay back 30 feet anyway. But it is one of those things that's, just such a magical thing to see happening at night. Lou Desmond: So let's make clear, just because you have the red light, it doesn't mean go ahead and shine it at the sea turtles or any other animal. Mark Berte: That is correct. And it is in black and white on y'alls website, and on our own website as well. Lou Desmond: Right. Don't do that. Mark Berte: Right. This is really great. You can use this any time of the year. This is literally, a lot of folks, we have hunter, fisher people, part of our organization and they go at night. This is great for them to be able to see. If you're going star gazing, you can use it there. It's a pen light. So it's the great thing. It really is amazing. The Maglite, y'all have a whole package, a carrying case, but it's also got a little pen clip and has our logo. They're durable. They're water, drop resistant. So we are very, very pleased with this product. Lou Desmond: So, what this is to be used for is for humans to find their own way around. But again, let's stress, you don't want to use this to shine at the animals. You don't want to point it at the sea turtles. This is so you can find your way around without shining a light in a spectrum, which is by the way, the name of the lights at Maglite. And we have multiple that are in different colors. Green, blue, red, soft white, all for different uses. That's our Spectrum series. And they come in all kinds of different sizes, from very small to larger, and from various lumens that you can use, and different battery packages and things. And so there's a whole line of them called the Spectrum Series. But in particular, this red light is in a spectrum that many animals don't see, including these sea turtles, right? Mark Berte: That's exactly right. And we're again, so pleased to partner with USA based Maglite, Mag Instruments, to be able to do this. And your CEO and everybody there has been so super to work with on this, as we're a small nonprofit. But again, this thing has applications around the world, in terms of the sea turtle nesting, and will certainly help to promote that. If people go to our website, join ACF.org, they can learn a lot about sea turtles. We actually have a live video feed of an osprey nest. They're at Wolf Bay. They can take our Coastal IQ Program for free, but I'm glad to partner with y'all. Lou Desmond: That is fantastic. And, I really am thrilled that we can partner with you. I know everybody at Maglite is. Anything we can do to help a little bit environmentally with one of our products. These sea turtles are wonderful animals. I've done a fair amount of diving in my life, and they're really awesome to see underneath the water. And, they are of course, a species that is threatened. So, we want to do everything we can to make sure that they don't get disturbed, that they're nesting grounds are very successful. That there are lots of baby sea turtles that reproduce, and this light by Maglite in the Spectrum Series, it's one small way that Maglite can contribute that, to that effort. One more time with your website. And where can they go to buy these lights, and support your organization at the same time? Mark Berte: Well, as I said, they can adopt a nest wherever they are, that's joinacf.org. That's the Alabama Coastal Foundation. We're on all the social media, @AlabamaCoastal, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. But if people go to our website, there's literally right there. They can click on a flashlight link. It goes directly to your website. ACF20 is the code to get a 20% discount on all of our products. Lou Desmond: Mark Berte with the Alabama Coastal Foundation. Thank you so much. And by the way everybody, remember, Share the Beach.
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Episode 55: Bob Inderbitzen - ARRL Part 2
Bob Inderbitzen is back to talk about preparedness and disaster help kits. Emergency radios are an important part to stay informed in a disaster. It might have a short-wave radio, some antennas, but it'll also have their Maglite flashlight. Bob said the favorite light for him was the Mag-Tac LED Rechargeable Flashlight.
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