Packin' Heat

"You were WHAT?!!"

I had never talked about it, so my son was surprised.
He was making a movie... a requirement toward his college degree. One of the characters in his movie was a cop doing a drug investigation, and my son had bought a cheesy looking plated pot-metal badge for the cop to flash in his movie.

"I was a Deputy Sheriff and I have a real badge and case you can use instead of that ugly thing."
"Man Dad! What else don't I know about you?"
Lots son.
Lots and lots.
I dug out my old badge case and he put it to good use in his film...
He got an "A" on that project, too!

My primary duty in what was, at the time, the fastest growing County in the Midwest, was to fly the helicopter to support the ground cops. Watching them doing their jobs convinced me I never wanted to actually do "Police work".
Cops have my ETERNAL GRATITUDE...
Even Barney Fife is at risk every day he puts on the uniform.

Wearing a regular holster in a helicopter is problematic. Those of you that have been reading "Pitchpull" since 2005 may remember I carried a .38 Special in a regular holster in Viet Nam and used it as genital body armor in order to keep it out of the way of the flight controls.

As a Deputy I carried a piece almost exactly like this one, and at the suggestion of another Deputy, carried it in a shoulder holster.
ON OR OFF DUTY, I carried one of these concealed in an ankle holster. During my three years as a Deputy I never had to pull either weapon from its holster, but it was always comforting knowing at least I had the .380 with me, "just in case".
(Along with some other nice, [bigger] hardware, I still have both guns.)

The latest Muslim savagery in Mumbai has badly shaken and angered me. I think, as a country, we are in BIG trouble because much of our population is still acting like the ostrich with its head buried... some of us refuse to admit we are at war with fundamentalist Muslims. It's my fear the fact we are at war will be obvious to all, and soon. Let me explain:

Watching my sitemeter, I've noticed an odd thing...
I'm now into my fourth year blogging, and in that time I've published 830 posts. One of those posts continues to draw a great deal of attention... This one.
Read the comments there, and realize I reject those that are profane or indecipherable. In light of the horrors we've just seen in Mumbai, I'm now wishing I could legally strap on that shoulder and ankle holster.
Police in Mumbai couldn't respond instantly to citizen's needs, and that's true of most communities...
The "joke" I often hear is "Minutes away when seconds count." Some of the Mumbai Police refused to do their jobs and defend the citizenry. What effect might an armed and trained populace have had on those events?

I fear for my family and I'm tired of being afraid. I'm also tired of feeling naked.
I refuse to be a helpless victim. It's time to get comfortable making tight groups in silhouettes again.

The Halloween Deputy

Late Halloween night.
He collided with a train.
Trains win EVERY SINGLE TIME.
He wore a Deputy Sheriff's uniform, complete with (real) badge.
Returning from a party, he had a load of ethyl alcohol on board.
He was in trouble. If he truly was a Deputy, he was in a HEAP of trouble.

The ER had called the Sheriff's department for information. All they could do was affirm an officer by that name worked for them.

Both his femurs were broken. I've written before about the force required to do that...
Force so powerful it can burst or dislodge organs from their attachment points.
He definitely needed the helicopter.

Whether or not he was a Deputy had no effect on his medical care.
But somehow it did affect the stress level of all providing the care...
Were we dealing with someone who, like a soldier, regularly put his life on the line for others?
If so, what would cause him to be so intoxicated, even on a Halloween night?
This accident would be a life altering event, no matter what.
Would his job also be in jeopardy?

We loaded and transported him to the trauma center, still not knowing his official status.
Only later did we hear our patient's brother had loaned him his uniform for a family Halloween party.

And he survived.