Old School

Certainly am coming to grips with being older.  I was born in 1964, a child of the cold war, to parents who were married when dad was 17 and mom was 16.  Raised in a loving family with two brothers and a sister, I was the baby of the family.

Almost 52 years later a lot of water has run under that bridge.  Air Force, Army, paramedic/firefighter, welder, brick mason, cop.

We were cold warriors with the battle cry of “better dead than red” and “kill a commie for mommy”.  Our shirts had mottos like “kill ‘Em all, let God sort ‘Em out”.  Every one of us that served in every branch of the military expected the mighty Soviet army to come spilling through the Fulda Gap at any time.  Our regulations in Germany required us to keep half a tank of fuel in our personal cars to be used for evacuation of non combatants.  I left Germany before the wall came down and I remember the day it fell.  Watching the news coverage and I turned to my companion and asked “who are we supposed to hate now?”.  You can check out pictures of our old abandoned buildings and what our base has become.  Google Hahn Air base.  Secured facilities now overgrown.  Buildings we called home wasting away.  You can go into air museums and climb into the cockpits of planes that we were authorized to shoot anyone who approached them without the proper clearance.

My how the world has changed.

Even now, in just the 16 years I have worked for my current police department, things have changed.  We have gone from typewriters and dos computers to the latest technology.  We went from notepads in our cars to having officers who are hamstrung by not having their mobile terminal at the fingertips.  Some things are still not up to TV though… the hi tech world of the crime investigation shows just is not a reality yet.

When I changed departments to work fish and game, I took a step back.  There is no computer on our boats, it is still notepads and radio traffic. I am even a step further back.  Let me set this up….

We are always told by management that we don’t have enough money in our budget for some equipment and a lot of it is understandable.  I went to the chief and asked him about being issued a patrol vehicle.  Fish and game is issued 4 wheel drive pickups that have emergency lights and a prisoner cage installed in them.  Two of our officers have newer Ford f150 pickups and the other officer has a GSA Dodge Ram 1500.  They are all okay trucks.

Chief told me that we have no money to purchase a new truck but that he is working on some grants.  When asked what he wanted me to use, he told me that the Blazer is available.  Some explanation:  This is an ex Army 1985 M1009 CUCV Chevy Blazer with a 6.2 liter diesel engine that was free through a surplus program.  It had been issued to our maintenance section but they refused to use it so it sat for a year.  I went out, got the keys, went through the starting process and it started right up.  Fleet maintenance checked it out and gave the thumbs up to use it.  They gave me emergency lights which I installed, I scrounge a police radio to put in it and away I went.

Those of you who drove theses and the M1008 pickups will recognize that even the interior is the original red vinyl seating.

All the other officers are laughing about it.  I have more torque and low end power than any of the other trucks.  I have more ground clearance than any of the others. It maneuvers in the trails better.  Sometimes it’s just better in my mind to go old school.  This rig is pretty much bullet proof. I like it.  It’s simple, powerful and from a time when things were built to last.

Kinda like me.  We are both a little old school.  We may not get there fast but we’ll be there when we’re needed.  No one expects me to be a “cop” when I come rolling up.

So, just a little about being old school.

Remember, if you see me out there, stop by and say hi.

Till next time….let’s go.

BFD