Editor’s Note: Geo’s memoir, “Brothers of the Cloth,” a true account of special mission unit soldiers, has sold out in hardcover and will soon be coming out in paperback! You can keep an eye out for it here.

My Glock 17 is 30 years old now. It is the first and last pistol I ever bought. I retained it primarily for personal home defense, as I was up to my neck in pistols at work. When I retired from Delta, I decided to apply the essential modifications to my Glock as I had come to understand them in the Army. Short of lasers and LED floodlights and other whizz-bang devices, these are the mods to my firearm:

• Flared magazine well; this allows for seating magazines that are sloppily introduced in haste into the well.
• Trouser clip holds the weapon secure to the trousers for appendix carry and others; a mod that I consider to be the lowest profile “holster” possible.
• Raised slide stop facilitates the release of the slide for fast reloads while wearing contact gloves.
• A raised magazine release facilitates the release of the slide for fast reloads while wearing contact gloves.

These are the essential modifications I adapted from my experience with combat shooting and concealed carry, and recommend prior to that addition of expensive target acquisition and fire control gadgetry… lasers, scopes, plasma generators, coffee maker… etc.

-Geo sends

This article was originally published in June 2020.