Week 10, 11, 12

WOW, sorry for the long delay in the update, I will skip the job update because if you read the last update you have seen that I will be working in the OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK!!

So Week 10 started with the O.C Spray (pepper spray), in short it hurts….ALOT!!! We were sprayed in the mouth and eyes and had to defend ourselves against a suspect for a timed minute. I was actually sprayed by 2 people at the same time. I had to try and hold one of my eyes open just to be able to see in glimpses of the suspect. I got some great shots in though, a front kick that backed him up and then I attacked. It is very painful and hard to breath with it in your lungs. Your nose and mouth leaks like a bad faucet snotty gooey substances. Then you had to unlock your patrol vehicle and get inside and make a calm dispatch for medic and back-up. Let me tell you that was one of the longest few minutes of my life and it continued into the second day. We had firemen and nurses on scene to take care of us. There is no quick solve to a oleoresin capsicum. (OC Spray) Any contact area of the skin turned bright red like a sun burn and hurt long one as well. My right eye was still watering the next day. Even talking about it now makes it water a little, but that is mental. Those next 2 days I washed my face maybe 100 or more times!!

We did some Search and Rescue drills. We got to see our King County Police helicopter fly into the school land and tell us about their job. That was pretty cool. Good advice is not to run up-hill when exiting a helicopter.

The next day we got to do some simunitions where we were shot at with tiny paintball like capsules that are smaller and move faster, so they sting more too. I was fortunate to not get shot!! We were put in scenarios to try to deflate escalated situations that involved armed suspects.

Finally that week we learned Collision Investigation. Measuring skid marks, determining speed and re-creating the accident. I hope the drawing I made would make the engineers in the family happy.

WEEK 11
This week turned into a half week, so I was able to stay home Monday. The Emergency Vehicle Obstacle Course was a blast. Driving through cones over cones and hopefully between cones at a high speed in a Crown Victoria (Cop Car) was a adrenaline rush. We were taking the class up at the Bellingham Airport on a landing strip. There were two main courses. A forward course that took a little over 2 and a half minutes and a backwards course that took around 2 minutes. The forward course had high speed corners, quick lane changes, last second decision making turns, long fast straight-aways, swerving you know all the fun stuff and all surrounded by accurately measured cones. We needed to passing turns in 4 trys. Later we followed it by a top-gun run. Where you drove the course as fast as you could but as soon as you touched one cone you were done. The object is for the fastest perfect run. Everyone only got one try. We had 13 of us in our class and 7 of us had a perfect run. I was the top-gun for our half with a time of 2:35, I was pretty stoked about that. The other classes top-gun had a 2:34 (Oh dang). In the backwards course we needed to run a perfect course twice in a row under a certain time limit, So we couldn’t tap one cone. So 2 minutes driving backwards, swerving, parallel parking, a lot more swerving between tight spaces. During top gun I believe 6 of us had perfect runs. Ernie (my buddy from the Hoh tribe) had an amazing time of 1:45. There might have been 1 or 2 runs that were under 2 minutes but barely. My time was 2:01. We also got to do the course at night with the lights going. The first run we did it quickly just to prove we can see just as good in the dark, the second time could have been called a time to see how many cones you could take-out. The most exciting was doing persuit of the instructors in another cop car. We got to chase him around in whatever pattern direction he wanted to go, he did not follow the course and did take it off into the grass some as well. We chased him down for 5 minutes straight while maintaining calm contact with dispatch.

I don’t care how uncomfortable you are as a driver, if you got to take this course you would of loved it. We had a few uncomfortable cadets that were having a great time by day 3!

WEEK 12
Field sobriety testing was cool. I look forward to trying it on some of you!! Radar and Lidar was interesting but not too much you can write on that class. Basically it tells you the speed the vehicle is going. The other class we had was Rifle training. These guns are cool and accurate and they have way more power than my beebee/pellot gun.

So that is pretty much it for the last 3 weeks, last week and this week coming up I will write next weekend. I only have 2 weeks left! Tomorrow, I have my physical fitness test, it’s one of the last big tests left, you need to pass all categories or you do not get certified! I feel I am prepared and ready, tomorrow I will know for sure!

God Bless All and thank you for being part of this journey with me!!

Gods intervention

As we all know God is pretty powerful!!  He intervenes in our daily activities and we usually don't even notice.  Maybe it's a sunset, or a flower, or possibly just a nice shade of green on a tree.  Some of the interventions He made for us a long time ago and we still get to enjoy them today.  He had you and me in mind when creating these interventions.  Other interventions happen and change our lives, and most of those we miss as well.  Now and then we thank God for all His blessing and we really can't grasp how many blessings there truly are.

Every now and then God intervenes in a way that leaves us breathless, amazed and feeling His love. We get this feeling that He is there right beside us and we feel how much He cares for us.  We all yearn to see and feel this love, and it is overwhelming and indescribable.  God has made an intervention in Janelle and my life just recently and it has us both so in awe.  So I am going to tell you a full story to try and point out how these little interventions turn into one big one.

As you all know I have been in a Law Enforcement Academy that has consumed my life recently and it has taken great sacrifice from Janelle as well as me.

First noticed intervention:   when I left Canlis Restaurant I was given a candle for Christmas.  These candles were pulled from a box of many(random) and my sticker tag, it happened to say "Ranger-inspiration" it didnt say this on the candles given to the people next to me, I thought that was pretty crazy.  I use that candle to connect with God and find strength for this long academy.

Janelle and I found out that I was going to need to apply to many National Parks to find a summer job and the job could take me anywhere in the U.S.  Janelle is committed to her residency both by contract and love and she will be there till the end of September. The news that I would probably have to leave after the academy to a different State had both of us worried and stressed.  We tried our best to give it to God and put it in His hands.  I filled out around 40 applications and with this economy and the competitiveness of the job I was advised to take the first offer I got.  My very first application was for the Washington National Parks including the Olympics.  It was due the day of my first day of the academy (Dec.29th).  Dec. 3oth I was taught how to fill out these applications properly.  Well I filled out my application wrong for Washington and was deemed ineligible for a job in the State for all the Law Enforcement jobs.  This obviously put Janelle and I in a frustrating and upset mood.  

It was hard to think that I was going to be in the academy for 3 and half months and then leve the state for another 5-6 months.  Not a great thing for your second year of marriage.  As most of you know we didnt get to see each other that much in the first year between my Canlis work hours and her Medical school and boards.

I started getting eligible notices back from parks all over the U.S.  I am new to the field so my rating isn't as high as people with prior experiences.  So being eligible was good but that didn't come with any job offers.  Slowly people in my academy started getting phone calls and job offers.  Janelle and my stress levels went up as we prayed, hoped and wished something would come along.  It is normal for it to take a while in your first hire but it is also possible not to get a offer.

A Ranger from Olympic National Park suggested I also apply for a Back-Country position in the Olympics.  Now this isn't a Law Enforcement position so it doesn't help me gain and earn experience to get a full-time L.E (Law Enforcement) Job.  At 34 years old it is important I get off to a quick start in L.E because I need to be hired full-time before I turn 37 or it is impossible to be hired full-time for the government in L.E.  I told her I was already deemed ineligible in Wa. and she told me to try again and it wouldn't hurt.  I applied because if I didn't get any offers as a L.E Ranger it would be still good to get that job at Olympics, since Janelle and I plan to move to Port Angeles in October.  Well I got deemed eligible but didn't get that position either.

About 4 weeks ago my first call came.  It was from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado.  The U.S Park Rangers there checked my references and interviewed me and offered me a job.  They said we want to 99.9% offer you the job here.  They said the .1% was just that my paperwork for eligibility needed to clear.  They both said they looked at my resume and said it shouldn't be a problem and they would call me when it was 100%. 2 weeks ago today they called and said, for some reason you were not deemed eligible.  They thought this was strange, as did I.  I have been deemed eligible in every region up to that point.  It was the first region to say I wasn't. Hmmmmmm 

I tried to get it all straightened out but by that Wednesday morning I was told it wouldn't work out and I wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere in that region.  I was crushed!!  It was my only offer and it was gone, and it is a GREAT park.  I went to my friend Sara's to pick up her and Alec to drive to EVOC training (emergency vehicle obstacle course)(FUN STUFF).  I was crushed!  I turned to some christian music to try and uplift myself.  I only had time for one song.  The one song that came through a shuffle mix of 520 (1 in 520 chance) songs was called "second chances" by needtobreathe.  It was perfect for the moment.  I decided I was going to trust God and know it wasn't the right place for me to be.  I told Sara and Alec what happened with Black Canyon but I think I kept a pretty good positive attitude.  Sara told me that Olympic Park had called her that morning and offered her a job.  She had turned it down because she had already accepted a job at Yellowstone.  She suggested I give them a call.  I reminded her I was deemed ineligible earlier this year when I applied wrong.  She told me it wouldn't hurt.

I called.  The Ranger who had talked with Sara answered and I said "Hi, my name is Brian Doolittle and I am part of the Park Law Enforcement Academy at Skagit Valley College". Her response was "Brian, we were just talking about you!"  I almost fell over.  She explained that she knew I had problems with the first application and that might be a hurdle.  Then a thought came to me....I was deemed eligible for the Back-Country position and I told her.  She said that should work and continued to tell me about the park and the job.  She told me to get resume and paperwork and we would see what would happen.  REMINDER:  this is the same day I lost the Black Canyon Job REMINDER:  I haven't been getting calls from other parks.  REMINDER:  Out of all the parks in the U.S THIS IS THE PARK I WANTED TO WORK FOR!!!  I quickly got the paperwork in. Waiting and trying to control hope and emotions (guarding) was hard for both Janelle and I.  I think we both aged 10 years!!  We trusted God and knew whether we got the job or not our life was already FULL and BLESSED and we would be ok because we had God and each other but of course we really wanted that job spot!

To make my long story end quicker......   On Saturday I was offered an L.E position in the Olympic National Park based out of Kalaloch.  It wasn't a miracle it was God and I wanted to share that with all of you.  He might not get you to place you are trying to get too but he will guide you to Him and the place you need to be.  Trust Him!!!

The two of us and our family as well our so excited.  I know that our church has been praying for us and this situation as well as Janelle's parents church.  Family and friends have also been praying!

We are overwhelmed with love!!

Thank you all!!

P.S Come see me at the Olympic National Park, I will be the one with the really cool hat!

Coming Soon!

Week 10, 11, 12

Oh Week 9!!

Wow week 9 was packed with events. Started out with a test. (93%) and then we learned about crime scene investigation. Which is a really exciting topic. We talked about evidence and fingerprinting, tracking and a whole lot of other cool stuff! Wednesday we had a mock crime scene in the wooded park next to the college. I was lucky enough to be one of the first on scene. There was evidence everywhere including weapons and a right leg from the knee down. We had a cadaver dog there to help find evidence (which he ended up tracking blood everywhere). I was able to work with the dog owner and dog. (Really cool stuff) I also got to make my own trail through the woods to give back-up to a fellow ranger who was trying to detain a man in camouflage. Exciting and fun and later on I realized how many sticker bushes were actually out there. It was good experience trying to put the evidence together to figure out what happened. I really look forward to the first time I get to work on a crime scene! Thursday and Friday we had testing for our defensive tactics fighting and firearms. There our 4 different firearms we needed to pass (shotgun, hand gun national (day and night) and state. I only had the day course left to pass and I passed it on my second try on Thursday (huge relief) I hit 24 out of 30 shots and needed 21 to pass. In Defensive Tactics we had 22 moves/takedowns/punches etc to pass. We partnered up and we were called out of a waiting room to go in and test. I was able to also pass all my moves Thursday. This made Thursday night really nice! Friday some people continued to test and we also learned extra cool stuff to work on both in firearms and in DT. Saturday was EMT training during the day.

Then I WENT HOME (first time in 5 weeks) it was great I was full of energy the whole night in excitement. Janelle and I went to my parents for a big family dinner and game night. Sunday came early as I had to be at the Monroe Fire Department by 8 am to try and get 5 ride-along patient contacts on the ambulance. Well I am still here and it is 8:30pm and I have only got 1 contact. So I did not get to see Janelle very much this weekend and I have to comeback again and hope for a more full day at the fire department. My first ride-along was nervous and exciting, it is good to have the first one out of the way. I am getting ready to take off and head back to Mount Vernon. Sorry for the poor typing but I am trying to finish this in a hurry.

Next week I should have at least one good story for tomorrow. I get sprayed in the eyes with pepper spray. You have to wait till the weekend to hear more about it!

Have a great week everyone!