It’s with heavy hearts that the RECOIL editorial team found out about the recent passing of one of our own. Chad McBroom was a U.S. Border Patrol tactical officer who wrote frequently for the entire RECOIL family of publications. He was a prolific contributor not just to this magazine, but also to our sister titles CONCEALMENT and RECOIL, as well as RECOILweb. We were deeply saddened to learn of his untimely departure from our lives at the end of August, and we felt compelled to share some thoughts with those of you who may have crossed paths with him or known his work.

I personally recruited Chad as a contributor in 2015, after taking his collapsible baton tactics seminar. It was a one-on-one training session conducted in a local park. I was impressed not only with his level of knowledge in a particularly niche self-defense subject, but also with his highly approachable demeanor and the ease with which he conveyed techniques and principles. I immediately began working with him, and he went on to have a rich career as a truly beloved member of our team, both as a writer and a photographer.

But Chad was so much more than his articles. He was a devout family man, and a consummate professional in both his law enforcement career and as an educator of our audience. Every member of the RECOIL OFFGRID team will tell you that the thing we recall most fondly was his passion to convey knowledge to those who sought it and his absolutely unshakable positive attitude. It’s easy to get jaded in this industry — the politics, the constant stream of product launches and media events, the re-hashing and de-bunking of tired old survival stereotypes — but that wasn’t the case for Chad. Every opportunity to evaluate a new tool or learn a new skill was a joy for him. He seemed to quickly find the best parts of every product — and every person — he encountered. Every class or range trip was a chance to teach and to learn. He was a life-long student of all forms of self-defense, from shooting to tactics to martial arts. He never got tired of seeing new things and sharing these discoveries with us and with you. We can’t think of a single person who dealt with him personally who ever had a negative thing to say about him — an unfortunately rare report to give in today’s day and age.

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It was an honor to watch him continually grow and develop. Not only as a passionate subject matter expert, but as a writer and photographer. Over the last several years, he honed his skill behind a camera as he would have behind a knife or gun, and his photography prowess soon grew beyond magazine content to include real-estate, portraiture, and street art. As was his style, he shared these endeavors through multiple social media streams, most notably the legacy Instagram accounts @cmcbroomphoto and @cmp_street. At time of writing, these accounts are still available to view and, if you knew him or his work in the shooting community, we encourage you to look at them and share his enduring passion for visual art.

Chad McBroom truly embodied the warrior spirit, both in his passion and his compassion. His depth of knowledge and unwavering enthusiasm for anything he deemed worthy of his time will be fondly remembered and sorely missed. We are, beyond any doubt, diminished without his continued presence in our lives and wish only the best for his family, children, and grandchildren.

Written by Tom Marshall