Richard Vigslist is the Master Chief Operator (MCO) of the entire VST training setup and the Master Instructor on deck. He brings every student up to par himself — his program, his standard, his direct review — with his instructors handling physical instruction under his direction, so they can go out and run their own teams the same way he has for decades. The rank is open: anybody can become a Master Instructor with enough time and credit hours.
He worked high-risk security from an early age until 2011 — a high-risk operator, often the man called in after people were shot and killed. He was the cleanup guy for the club industry, and he trained more than fifty business establishments across the United States. He's hosted seminars and taught military personnel and law enforcement.
The outdoors background runs just as deep: hunting and fishing since childhood, canoeing certifications earned young, and rivers run that most men wouldn't go near — sleeping on the banks with the alligators. Fourteen months living on a mountain, taking care of himself in extreme conditions. As recently as 2020, health conditions put him in a tent on the side of a mountain in the foothills for fourteen months — he rode out an extreme ice storm in that tent, comfortably.
He'll tell you straight: he was an adrenaline junkie. Whitewater rafting, water skiing, skydiving, bungee jumping — "I used to do all that crazy shit. There's a reason my body's wrecked." He laughs saying it. But at least you know the truth.
And here's what no course — and no AI — can give you: his raw experience. How to escape a choke when it's real. How to stay calm and keep moving forward when you're being shot at from every direction. He's lived those nights, bullets flying, and kept going. That experience is the true gravity behind this program — and it's why every student talks with him, not just watches videos.
He founded Special Protective Services International and taught this combatives system on military bases to military personnel, law enforcement, and security forces across the United States. VST is its continuance: the same instruction that was once operators-only, now open to the public. "I don't want to go to my grave with everything I learned" — so it's all going into this program.
