Bad Memories and Bass Fishing

I ran into a sheriff's deputy yesterday I hadn't seen since I retired in 2013. We chatted for a bit, catching up on family and other things when the subject turned to his retirement date.

Jeff can retire in two years.

Two years may seem like a lot of time to a young person but, when you get older, time seems to fly past. Jeff, of course, is greatly anticipating the end of his career; as a matter of fact, he's already bought himself a 'retirement' gift: a bass boat.

Jeff likes to fish. I hope he can spend at least a couple of decades reeling in some big ones.

That brings to mind another guy I worked with at Mansfield PD. When he retired, he was sixty-seven; he died six months later. The tragic sadness of that can't be put into words.

The field of law enforcement takes a toll on the mind as well as the body. Cops tend to not eat right or get enough sleep. Stress plays its part, too, as well as the things they see and encounter which the average citizen can't begin to comprehend. That stuff sticks with you until the end of your days, permanently scarring your psyche, leaving memories you'd like to flush from your brain but can't.

Jeff talked about an incident in which he was involved, one that I remember well. While I won't go into detail, my pal was trapped behind his cruiser one night for four hours while a mentally-unstable man with a rifle, who'd already killed two people, took potshots at Jeff and his fellow deputies.

Jeff will never forget that night. Ever.

But, two years from now, maybe he can shove it deep into the background of his mind as he's fighting to bring in a monster largemouth bass.

Aging And Understanding

Yesterday I received one of those phone calls you never expect. It was from a guy I worked with years ago; I was in my 40s at the time and he was, I think, 24 or twenty-five.

He called to apologize.

"What in the world for?" I asked. I was mystified because, though we don't see each other much, I still consider this man a good friend, as well as one of the funniest people I know.

'Pete', I'll call him, told me that he now understands. "You know, back then I thought, 'he's just an old guy nearing the end of his career.' You didn't care much for writing tickets or stopping a bunch of cars. Now I'm in my 40s, training young guys, and I understand how you felt. I wanted to apologize for thinking you were too old."

I laughed. "Pete, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for. brother."

He continued. "These young kids, they're driving me crazy. All they want to do is car stop, car stop, car stop. They question everything, too! I don't know how you were so patient."

"Let me tell you something, Pete...I was the exact same way when I started back in 1979. All I wanted to do was write tickets and arrest the world. I'd venture to say most coppers, when they first got on the job, were like that. I know I was."

It was the truth. I know I had to have gotten on a few veteran officers' nerves in my early years. I'd find out over the course of my career, though, that an arrest wasn't always the right solution to a problem or issue. Everything's not always black and white, and sometimes you don't need to go by the book to be effective. Common sense plays a big role in that decision-making matrix and, unfortunately, you can't teach that trait.

Some officers never get that.

You give people a break on a minor violation, chances are they'll remember that down the road and maybe help you out. A couple of joints in someone's pocket or car? Grind it into the pavement with your heel as you tell them they're getting a break and I guarantee they'll remember it. Fifteen or so years ago, another young officer wondered why people would call me or stop on station to give me information on criminal activity or people."George (not his real name, either), you give someone a pass on a violation and that'll happen. You don't treat everyone you come across like crap just because you have a badge."

I firmly believe that the best skill a policeman can develop is learning how to talk to people. I don't care how fast they can run, how much weight they can lift or how well they shoot, they'd better learn how to talk to people. Quickly.

 I once watched a veteran officer talk an enraged man into putting down a knife he was wielding in a threatening manner. I was amazed because I thought the man would surely have to be shot, he was that upset and distraught.

I learned from that incident. I understood the lesson.

Now, all these years later, Pete understands, too.

Principles

Principles. They are a good thing...most of the time.

If you have them you live your life by those principles. They are a benchmark, a shore line that guides your ship through troubled waters. Each of us decides at what level those principles rest.

Principles can also cause negative issues because, sometimes, they conflict with emotions, standards and beliefs. Yours and mine, they can change, depending on external influences over which we have no control, things that are larger than ourselves.

I am conflicted, having to choose between principles and discretion.

Unable to even comment on the issue, especially in a public platform, angers me; yet, at the same time, the axiom 'what angers you, controls you' whispers to me, reminding once again that in life's grand scheme this issue is minor.

It's not life, death, marital or spiritual, this problem, but it is enough that it causes me to question one of my principles and how far I am willing to go to stand by it. It is a conflict within, unseen, but its manifest effect will not be. The outcome will be determined by whatever reconciliation I can make between this particular principle and an issue over which I have limited control.

A $6,000 Raise? I'll Take It, But Oklahoma's Teachers Won't

I love and have much respect for all my friends who are educators. You have a tough job. You're probably still paying on the student loans that got you to where you are today. You put in extra time and spend your own money in order to educate the students you have. Unquestionably you are dedicated. What I am about to say is NOT directed at you; rather it is to the teacher's union in Oklahoma.

I put in over three decades wearing a badge. I worked year-round, in all weather conditions, holiday or not. I saw murder, suicide and fatal accident scenes you cannot imagine, sometimes having to inform members of the decedent's family of what had happened to their loved ones.

I lost friends who died in the line of duty; I also lost 'friends' because of my profession.

I suffered broken bones, torn ligaments and spinal disc degeneration because of the job. I've had five knee surgeries, including a replacement and, eight years later, a revision of it. I had to have my right ankle reconstructed. A fleeing felon hit my cruiser head-on; a drunk driver ran a red light and smashed into the side of my cruiser.

 I've been spit on, assaulted and called vile names...just because I was a policeman. I've had my life threatened and, worse, had the lives of family members threatened. I had a convict tell me he would find out where I lived and rape my wife.

I, too, worked part-time jobs...and all the overtime and special details I could handle. Why? So I could give my family things they deserved since, a lot of times, I couldn't be at home for birthdays and holidays.

A raise of $6,100 a year sounds pretty good, if you ask me, since I retired on disability and have a limited income; there's hundreds of thousands of others who are worse off than I am who would take a raise like that in a heartbeat. You see, we can't go on strike, but you can....

...at the expense of our young people.

A Grandma's Wrath

Any copper will tell you that, on the job, you take your humor where you can find it, such as the juvenile who wants to go to lock-up.

It's probably been nearly thirty years ago when this happened; it still makes me chuckle to this day.

I was working midnight shift on a summer evening; it was a warm, midweek night and there wasn't much happening, save for a loud music call, maybe, or some other type of minor disturbance. When it gets in the shallow end of the pool as far as calls for service you start looking for something to do, to make the shift pass a little more quickly.

Parked next to an abandoned building on the north end of town, in the shadows where it would be hard to spot my darkened cruiser, I sat with windows down and engine off, listening to the whisper of distant tires-on-pavement as well as the common night-sounds, Cleveland's WMMS FM keeping me company in the background. Across the road was another abandoned structure, its cracked parking lot sprouting low, sparse vegetation every few feet.

'Something to do' then decided to make his appearance. Walking quickly right-to-left a mere fifteen feet in front of my cruiser, a teen who was obviously too young to be out on the streets at 0130 was oblivious to my presence. I made him very aware.

"Hey, young man". To my surprise he didn't bolt.

I got out of the cruiser and walked toward him. "What are you doing out at this hour?"

Nervously, after the thought of fleeing made its way through his brain: "I was playing video games at my boy's house. I'm going home right now."

"Well, c'mon over here and have a seat in my cruiser. I'll make sure you get home." I didn't mention we'd be stopping at the station first to make a phone call.

Needless to say, the youth wasn't very happy when we pulled into the police compound lot.

"Listen, we're just gonna call your Mom to come and get you." Sometimes not issuing a summons for a curfew violation is the better solution; parents do not like to be awakened by a phone call from the police in the middle of the night, telling them they need to come pick up their youngster. Their being inconvenienced at that hour usually translated into some significant punishment.

"But you can't call my Mom."

"Why not?"

A hesitation. "Because she's in prison."

I started to feel for the 15-year-old as we walked into an empty office, especially after he told me his Dad lived in another state. "Well, who's taking care of you, then?"

"Grandma."

He told me her name but refused to give me her phone number. "Just take me to the Attention Center", referring to the county's juvenile holding facility.

I looked him in the eye. He was serious about being locked up. "Why would you want to go there? Why not just go home?"

"Man, you don't know my Grandma."

I called Records and had Grandma's phone number in short order; as I started to punch the numbers into the phone the teen became alarmed.

"NO!! PLEASE, please don't call her! Just take me to jail! PLEASE!"

Obviously his grandmother ran a strict household. The kid actually had tears in his eyes; this tall, lanky teen would rather be locked in a sparsely-furnished room than face the woman who was raising him in his mother's absence.

"Look, I can't take you to the Attention Center for a curfew violation. They won't take you for only that."

I spoke to Grandma when she answered her telephone, explaining the situation concerning her wayward grandson, who'd left the house sometime after she went to bed.

"Thank you, Mister Officer. I'll be right there."

It wasn't long before I was notified there was someone in the lobby to see me. It was the teen's Grandma. She was short, her gray-streaked hair contrasting against the chocolate skin of her face, eyes framed with big, round eyeglasses. A large purse was slung on her arm.

 Looking sternly at her grandchild, who was actually trying to resist being guided into the lobby from the police offices, the woman apologized for any trouble the youth had caused me. "I'm sorry you had to call me, officer. I guarantee he won't cause you any more trouble."

After thanking her for coming to get him, I told Grandma the teen had been no trouble and had, in fact, been very polite. "He's all yours, ma'am."

As I turned and walked back into the department, what I heard next was music to my ears.

"NO GRANDMA, NO!! I'M SORRY!! GRANDMA! OOWWWW!!"

Justice was served. There's nothing like a Grandma's wrath.

Toccoa

Northwest South Carolina, where my mother lives, is a throwback to simpler times. Green town squares, edged by storefronts well more than a century old, are dotted by statues and plaques honoring heroes from the past in the flapping shadows of American flags, which seem to be everywhere. Driving through gently rolling countryside, expansive, grand homes whose properties are bordered with split-rail fences dot the landscape, intermingled with pastures populated by horses and cattle. History almost oozes from the very ground itself.

I took a drive with Mom, generally just following our noses, passing through towns like Powdersville, Cateechee, Clemson, Keowee and Seneca. Before long we crossed into northeast Georgia, about as country as you can get. Pine forests at times lined both sides of the two-lane highway, occasionally broken by lakes and streams....along with souvenir shops and billboards encouraging us to visit tourist destinations.

One particular billboard caught my eye and my heart; it became our landing spot.

Toccoa, Georgia.

To those not familiar with history, particularly World War II history, Toccoa might not mean anything.

It means much to me, along with the mountain which stands nearby: Currahee.

Toccoa, Georgia was the site where, in early 1942, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne trained its young soldiers in becoming paratroopers. The 506th, especially 'Easy' (E) Company, was featured in the 2001 HBO series 'Band of Brothers', following the company from its training at Camp Toccoa through the D-Day parachute jump into Nazi-occupied France, the siege at Bastogne and the ending of the war as they occupied Hitler's mountain-top retreat at the 'Eagle's Nest' high in the Bavarian Alps.

My wife claims I watch the series every time it appears on television; she isn't wrong.

Several segments of the opening episode feature the men of Easy company running up and down  Currahee Mountain, a six-mile round trip. Today, the town features an annual event called the Currahee Run, in which  runners navigate some of the same route that the men of Easy ran in 1942.

I had to find the site where Camp Toccoa once stood.

First, though, Mom and I toured the Currahee Museum, which featured a history of the area along with its large display of parachute infantry training which occurred at the military training site. Walking among the glass-encased rifles, parachute gear, old writing desks, mess hall equipment and just about everything a young soldier ever used I was enveloped in the nostalgia of those times, imagining what life must have been like for those patriot heroes now gone: Colonel Robert Sink, Major Dick Winters, Carwood Lipton, Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere, Denver 'Bull' Randleman, Captain Lewis Nixon, George Luz, Don Malarkey...the list is endless.

One entire room of the museum contained the names, profiles and awarded citations of Easy Company. Suffice it to say that the display was awe-inspiring, especially considering what those men endured during the war as seen through the eyes of HBO's cameras.

Also included was an original, complete stable which was first used to house paratroopers of the 506th when they arrived at Aldbourne, England; several stalls of the stable were outfitted as if the men had just left them. They had been destined for demolition, however the museum had been contacted and expressed interest in displaying one of them. Workmen in England dismantled a stable, shipped it to Toccoa and then reassembled it inside the museum.

As for Currahee, the staff at the museum gave us pre-printed directions to get to the mountain and the area where the now-gone Camp Toccoa once stood; unfortunately, Mom and I soon discovered that the access road was closed, barricaded by concrete stanchions, for unknown reasons...

...but there's always the next trip south. Toccoa is a mere 56 miles from Mom's place.

                                             Easy Company, 506th PIR in Toccoa

An original leather jacket worn by members of the 101st Airborne after the war

The original stable from England stands to the left

Carwood Lipton's display

Offline

I'll be unplugged from the world-wide web for the next week, conducting an experiment to determine if man really can live without the internet.

In actuality, I'll be visiting family out-of-state.

Look for a new post on Saturday, March 17.

Stay safe, everyone.