Another war story

I have a black belt named Rick Stone, who was in the first SAS regiment. The SAS (Special Air Service) is the forerunner to Special Ops units like the Green Berets. Their motto is "Who Dares Wins". Rick is now 86 years old and still doing martial arts. He got his black in kenpo at the age of 73. Years ago he came in and told me he'd had an altercation on the street.
     Rick was driving home down McGregor Bl here, a busy two lane road. It's the road that passes Thomas Edison's home here and ran down to Punta Rassa where the ranchers would load their cattle for shipment many years ago. It's historic for the huge palm trees Edison planted along it and that's why they didn't widen it. It makes it difficult to turn into the subdivision Rick lives in when traffic is heavy. Rick was momentarily holding so a car coming from the opposite direction could make the left into the street, an act of courtesy.
   Apparently the driver behind Rick didn't think so and blew his horn. The other driver made the turn, Rick turned in to follow and the driver behind Rick followed. You'd think he was in a hurry but you will see that he was not so time-crunched that he could not take the time to assault Rick.
    The street they were now on is two lanes with a raised grass median between the lanes and a bike lane in each direction. The driver pulled around Rick on the right using the bike lane, got in front and stopped diagonally to block the road. Rick is now stopped on the street between the median and someone's lawn with the car in front blocking.
   The driver got out and approached. "What did you do?" I asked. He stated that he got out of his car. I'm thinking YIKES! and asked how old the other guy was. Rick guessed he was about 35, making him half Rick's age. It ran through my mind that staying in the car was a pretty good option but Rick is not that kind of guy. So he got out to face him.
   "What did he do?" I asked, interested in the development of the situation. "He grabbed me with his left hand on my lapel" and had his right cocked to punch, as Rick described it. When I asked what he did next he said, very matter-of-factly, "I did what you taught me." Rick pinned the hand, struck and locked the elbow with a vertical forearm like the Conquering Shield  technique to get the attacker canceled and up on his toes. "It was perfect, just like you said. I saw the leg and took him down with a looping roundhouse to the back of his leg. I controlled him and had him in a wrist lock, face-down, with my foot on his back to pin him."
   Now, Rick is British and still has a bit of the accent even though he's lived here since the 70's. He continues with "I told him that if he was quite done I'd let him up. He nodded. I covered out, he jumped up and ran to to his car, got in and drove over the median to escape." The mental image of the cover out makes me smile and I get a huge charge out of his polite "If you're quite done I'll let you up" statement.
   "He was going to beat me" was Rick's response when I asked what he thought the man was going to do when he got out of his car. The guy could have simply run his mouth, kicked the car, or something of that nature but Rick was sure the guy was going to get physical. So he handled it.That's Rick - and there are a lot of guys out there just like him. That's why not getting into it with someone is the best course. People get hurt. Rick could have been beaten in the street had he not had the skills and attitude he has. By the way, it's a felony in Florida to attack a senior citizen. Rick could have broken the guy's arm, shattered a kneecap when he took him down, strained or broken his wrist with the lock and stomped him instead of pinning. The amount of force applied was appropriate. Nobody really got hurt although I'm sure there's a bruised ego out there somewhere. How would you like to be that young stud? He has to live with getting all puffed up, grabbing an "old" guy in the street and then getting his ass kicked.
   There's a lot of lessons in this story. Maybe there's something to this Old Guys Rule thing.