Very foggy in our neck of the woods this morning, couldn’t even see Cherry Heights from here – barely could see across the road.

The fog is lifting now, but the chill in the air this morning is still here this afternoon.

And, as I finish writing this the sun is shining through!!

Ken brought up a truck load of meat to split with several families.  Wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with him, but what little we had was nice; miss him and his family.

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Chapter Fourteen

Kidnapping of a Trooper

As I wrote Chapter 13 I was reminded of another chase, one I was ready to assist on, but didn’t actually get involved.

There was an OSP trooper that grew up in The Dalles and when he joined the State Police was assigned to The Dalles office.

He went to school with Norm.  Norm told me a few stories of how tough this guy was – one time he was in a fight with several individuals, and took them down swinging a chain; you wouldn’t know it to be around him, he was very unassuming, though quiet he had a good sense of humor, he was confident and you knew he knew is job and could handle himself, but he wasn’t cocky.

After graduation he joined the Navy.  He also accepted Christ before he got out.

I got to know him and really admired him.

In 1970’s vernacular, he was cool.

I read the book “Officer Down Code Three,” a book on mistakes made by police officers that resulted in the officer being seriously injured or killed.

As I was reading the book one officer in particular reminded me of the Trooper.  He was professional, made good arrests and didn’t make mistakes.

But, no one is perfect.  This officer, very experienced and walking a foot beat, made a mistake when being asked to remove an unruly patron from a bar.  The guy left, but came back a bit later.

The Officer told him he had warned him and now he was going to have to arrest him for going back into the bar.

He walked to the nearest call box (while rarely if ever used now a days, a call box was used by the police to communicate with the office – particularly before radios became every day, and even then many used them to keep those with scanners from hearing the calls and often showing up and getting in the way of situations.)

The officer was calling for the paddy wagon to take him to jail.

He had not handcuffed the man; while he had searched him for a weapon on the first contact, he did not on the second.  While the officer was inserting the key into the box and opening the door to the phone, the man pulled out a gun and shot him.

Trooper was just as confident and professional as this officer.

He had a confidence and demeanor about him that even criminals came to respect him.

I watched him stop a number of riders from an outlaw motorcycle gang on the freeway.  As it happened I was riding with another officer and he pulled over, on 6^th St. and conspicuously sat where the bikers could see us.

Trooper just walked through the group – not sure, now, how many, but it had to be in excess of ten – gathering their driver’s license as he did. 

He called in and had the dispatcher check them out on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), via teletype, and none were wanted.  However, several had violations and he walked back down the line of bikes issuing citations to each offender.

There were no threats or angry bikers, they just sat on the bikes, accepting their citation if given, without saying anything.

I just shook my head, he was just good.

The incident I am about to relate was serious, and almost cost him his life – while he was saving at least one other person. 

This became an even more of a lesson to me having just finished reading the book less than a week before, what I was to see was a reinforcement of having to take care on any stop.

Trooper made a traffic stop on the Freeway, east bound, between Mosier and Rowena; both communities to the west of The Dalles and east of Hood River.

He walked up to the driver, got his license and ran it.  If I recall correctly he was suspended.

Trooper arrested him but as he started to take the man into custody the fight was on.

The man was a black belt and instructor in Karate.  Trooper was holding his own, but the guy got a hand on Trooper’s gun, it was still in the holster.

In the holster the State Police wore there was a pin like latch inside the holster so the Troopers could put their hand on the gun, poke through the trigger guard, push the pin in and pull the gun out.

Unfortunately, after a while the holster would become too flexible and the gun could be drawn without pushing the pin in – and that is what happened in the struggle.

The suspect got the gun out and pointed it at Trooper.

As they were struggling a truck driver was passing the scene; seeing the fight he pulled his rig over in the front of the cars, grabbed his gun and started heading over to help Trooper.

Trooper was in between the trucker and the suspect, the suspect started pointing his gun at the trucker, back and forth he went pointing to Trooper and then the trucker.

Trooper stepped totally in front of the suspect, turning his back on him and told the trucker to get back in the rig.  He didn’t want to, but he finally did as ordered.

While all this was going on OSP and 9-1-1 started getting calls about the incident.  We were not allowed to leave the city, we were told to standby at the far west end, but not to go on the freeway to help him.

Deputies from both Hood River and Wasco County were notified and in route as well as other Troopers.

The suspect ordered Trooper to get in the driver’s seat, he got in the back – at that time they didn’t use cages so he had full access to Trooper.

He ordered him to drive off.  They got to Rowena and the suspect ordered him to take the off-ramp and then go back towards Hood River.

No other officer was yet on the scene. 

Trooper convinced the suspect that he needed to contact his office by radio and let them know where he was – or they would be sending others to find out what has happened to him.

The suspect allowed him to radio out, and Trooper gave direction of travel as if the stop was over.  He used whatever code the State used to let them know he was in trouble.

He headed west bound and as they were approaching Hood River the suspect told him to cross the bridge.  Trooper took the exit and started towards the toll booth.

He could tell the suspect was somewhat distracted, so slammed the transmission into park and bailed out of the car.  The car was heading right to the toll booth with the operator jumping out to avoid injury – the car hit the booth, but I can’t recall how badly it was damaged.

Not sure which agencies, but the backup was there, ordered the suspect to drop the gun out the window and get out.

The suspect complied.

A little while later we were told that Trooper would be bringing the suspect into the Jail.  We met them there and stood by as he took him out of the car and into the jail.

I was still new, but it was a good lesson and reinforcement of my training for me.  Never take any traffic stop or anything else for granted, you just never know who is in that car.

No matter how good you are, you can be attacked and lose the fight – you have to always be careful.

While a lot of attacks take place at night and in areas that are isolated, this was in the middle of the day, with all kinds of traffic on the freeway, but it didn’t make any difference. 

Even in the most mundane of stops you have to remain on guard and on the alert, if you don’t you could die.

The department will give you a nice formal funeral, hundreds of officers will come to it, but that is little condolence to your wife and children.

Trooper was promoted to Sergeant and stationed in the Coos Bay area for a while.  Since my folks lived there I made a point to give him a call whenever I was there.

He was eventually promoted to Lieutenant and took over The Dalles office until he retired.

He never appeared to have problems from the kidnapping, of course what happens behind closed doors we are not often privy to; but back then no one thought of offering counseling.

You just sucked it up and went back to work.

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Galatians 2:20  KJV  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

I don’ stop myself enough and ask myself, if you met Jesus right now, would you be embarrassed?

I accepted Christ, I am filled with His Spirit, I talk with Him every single day, but I still do things I know Christ does not approve of – yet, I am His representative on this earth and I need to remember that.

Are people seeing Christ in me, or am I interfering with that vision?

For 52 years I have been His child, yet, I am still learning, still having issues and yes, still sinning.

I need to remind myself more often Christ liveth in me: and act like it.

Later, Art (-: