Church today was great, our Pastor is a gifted teacher and really knows his Biblical history. He spoke on forgiveness, how it helps us to forgive and let that pain be washed away from us. It is then up to the other party to release his unforgiveness or hold on to it like a hot iron. But you make the first move. Sure, I know how this worked: I carried unforgiven feelings around for my 1st wife for sometime, after receiving my Dear John in Vietnam. That one took awhile, as I didn't become a Christian for another few years and learn of letting the anger go. The a second time I harbored those feeling for someone, was a man who tried to ruin my career and this effected my whole family. But learning to forgive, this took the abscess away from inside my stomach. I admit, sometimes its hard to let loose, but we have to learn this is one of the Almighty's orders- Forgive! As you Would Be Forgiven. (paraphrase).
In my career as a cop I've observed a lot of pain and physical injury in what people do to one another, especially in families. Domestic disputes we call it. True, there are times I'd like to pick them up by the scrub of their necks and shake them violently, pointing them toward their children and reminding them of what they are doing to these kids. In fact I may actually have done that once at a seriously bad scene, where a kid got in the way and was hurt. I've had cases that turned in to murders before I arrived and that should never have happened if one party could just have said, "All right, I forgive you..." for whatever it was that made you angry and maybe the situation would've stopped right there and then. Forgiveness is a mighty power in its own right and that's probably supported by the Lord.
CHANGE OF PACE- History or How I Earned My Oscar Nomination
Earlier, ( let the mist clear), I had mentioned being hired over the phone for Skagway Police Department, South East Alaska. This, as I said, is practically an unheard of practice and especially since I had never applied for Skagway's Department. But when I look back, I could see the Lord working on my career. I was down at Tempe, Arizona, University of Arizona, getting ready to apply for their city's Police Department- they had two openings and over 300 plus guys and a few ladies there to sign-up for the first phase of the process. I had already begun the hiring process for an Organized Crime Task Force with Phoenix Police Department and the Holbrook Police Department in Eastern Arizona. This town was situated right between the Navajo and Apache Reservations, who have hated each other since 1400's. My old man lived in Phoenix and he was hoping we, Mona and I, would stay here in Arizona. I'd been away for 10-years of military service and we were just getting to like each other again. We had just left Dillingham Police Department and needed a break from our adventure there, but I needed to find work. Then I felt one of my nudges, which I have experienced all through my life- we can talk about that later-maybe. This time I could almost hear a voice, but not exactly, yet I knew it was time to go home. I was not going to be working for Tempe and Mona was glad, she was uncomfortable with large departments.
During this time I had found a job working private security, guarding schools and warehouses at night. Then the call came from the Police Chief, hiring me and the only question was would I have any problem catching dogs while on duty. I didn't, I had caught a lot of dogs in the military and in Dillingham. I had a plane ticket to Skagway and $40 in my wallet. But a major snow storm was stopping all flights north, so I experienced my first two-day ride on the Alaska Marine Highway- ferries. Cool trip, but really cold in February. I arrived in Skagway right in the middle of that major storm blowing down through White Pass, which the town sits at the bottom of and then there's in the Lynn Canal/Southeast Passage. Over three-feet of fresh snow had fallen since noon and the entire front end of the big ferry was covered in white ice, inches in thickness and stretching out in all sorts of unique directions. I had wished I had a camera. But then a police car pulled up at the huge open ramp to let people and vehicles off. But tonight I was the only one departing and no one was headed south. This meant the ferry could leave right on time. Oh, they could not leave early, there could be someone at home, waiting for ten-minutes before departure before coming down to the ferry terminal to load up. The Alaskan Governor did not enjoy receiving complaints reference his Marine Highway system. I would end-up using that ferry or one of the others numerous times through the next 3 years and a few months.
Now leaving the classic-Western style Dillingham I had set up an interview for an open police officer position in Seward, Alaska. But when we tried to fly into Seward, a storm blocked the city off and I never made the interview. We flew on to Phoenix and later went to Skagway, where we learned about the true enemy. But after 3 years and a few months in Skagway, we felt it was time to leave there- details too long and very complex- I received a call from Seward offering me the job over the phone. That's twice. Now all my life I never ran across anyone who was hired twice over the phone for a police position. I gave the city the minimum time my contract asked for and I was on my way to Seward via air travel. Mona, 2 kids, her oldest brother-Chuck, to help and a very large Newfoundland named Radar, soon left in our old Blazer that suffered numerous rust holes and led a rented U-Haul truck for a 1,000 mile drive or so to another port city of Seward. Oddly enough, all four of my departments I worked in Alaska were port cities. Now in Dillingham, we felt more like 1800's style Town Tamers. We handled bar fights on every shift during the long summer of April to October. We took knives off nearly everyone and with my guard down one evening I felt the point of one of those dang knives cut into my upper chest. Thankfully, my bullet-proof vest took on most of the knife and I barely bled. Smarted some later in the shower. I look back and the Good Lord was always saving my hide. From high school gang banger days to Vietnam and Thailand, plus working forest fires at Eielson Air Force Base.
I was lugging around a 5-gallon pumper and putting out small fires when someone gave me a full body tackle and rolled me for a good 15 feet. Then a tall spruce, on fire, fell right smack where I was. I stood up and looked around for my "hero", and the closest human was over 50-yards away. I even looked under the tree and then I felt that nudge on the back of my neck, looked to the heavens, shook my head and continued doing my job. See, I always believed in the Almighty, Creator of the Universe, but I didn't believe in this Jesus fellow. No, that happened after Eielson and after Dillingham. My experience with salvation occurred in Oregon and then I was baptized in my father's boss's hot tub with my dad present. Oh, he was happy, but so was I.
Oh, I later learned I was selected for both the police officer position in Holbrook and the mysterious position with the anti-organized crime task force. I later learned, the opening came up once or twice a year because they lost the officers to the jobs dangers or temptations. So they were either dead with cement shoes or in jail, marked for death by the other cellmates.
Now Seward gave me the training and experience I needed to later become Public Safety Director/Police Chief for the City of Whittier right about the time the Exxon Valdez went on the rocks and poured oil everywhere. My City Manager went in for open heart surgery the night before the boat and the rock merged. So, the city made me, on top of my other hats, the town's Emergency Operations Manager. I was now so far over my head, but it led into an adventure of a lifetime. BUT, it all provided the training and background I needed to obtain my Investigator position with the State of Alaska. I didn't know it at the time, but I was the only one in the state handling gaming/gambling/illegal gambling issues. My poor boss didn't realize it the time, but I was truly a former cop and sitting around the office was not my thing. Oh, I was spoiled with a brand new duty car I could take home, I worked my own shift as long as I put in my 8 hours and I had a private secretary, who I shared with a State Geologist from England- nice chap. Before too long our office was filled with illegal slot machines and other such devices I had seized in raids.
All this led me to believe the Lord was directing my path to take on a statewide evil element and political corruption. But along the way, I got hurt physically and eventually had to be retired- put out to pasture. Prior to this, with a dear friend and fellow investigator, ( best man I ever worked with and a good friend),proved to the state of the presence of organized crime in our beloved state. I was also able to show a heightened level of corruption in senior politicians.
Now, there are 5-7 organized crime forces here currently, running drugs, white slavery and black market trade goods- up to body organs. They are here to also corrupt our senators and representatives. We showed the existence of dark forces through my travels, witches covens and such operating in the state. People always laughed it off and me, until two men were found tied to ceremonial poles in a clearing, naked and burned to death - I'll leave the location off. Still, I was able to close down some multimillion dollar operations involved in legal gaming, for defrauding the charities they worked for. There are a lot of thieves involved in gaming or gambling, and soon the unit became a Division and extra investigators and accountants were hired. This reduced my area of responsibility to the size of Texas. But I enjoyed the travel and the State sent me to great schools, plus I was able to see 2 Iditarod finishes.
But our unit got too good and the politicians cut most of our funding, stripping us of personnel and reducing us from a Division to a unit under Department of Commerce. I believe after I left it went under Department of Treasury for awhile and then back to Commerce. Now they also handle the busy chore of cigarette taxes and might someday be assisting in the new marijuana taxing when it is legalized.
I am glad I am out of it. I may not be old enough to truly be a dinosaur, but I feel like the last dying breed.
This is why I've chosen to write about the Arizona Rangers, they have a lot in common with the Alaska Police Officers and Alaska State Troopers. More to come later.
God Bless. Hope you had a wonderful Sunday. BILL Oh, please add your comments.