Gettysburg (week of July 18)

This week I got my first chance to ride around with the other law enforcement rangers and was amazed a how differently each one does things. They all know and do their jobs very well but they all have very different styles that they have become comfortable with, which is something I was not expecting. However, one thing that they all shared was the love they had for their job and the park. It didn't matter what the situation was, they always handled it the right way and with a smile on their face.

Since Gettysburg has a large number of monuments and other resources, a lot of time was spent trying to protect them. We got a lot of cases where we would see kids (and the occasional adult) climbing on cannons or pulling on a piece of a monument, such as a musket, that would stick out away from the base. Sometimes we may hear things from the culprits down playing the significance of such events, but if they realized the amount of work and effort that is continuously put forth to get these resources in the great condition they are in now and keep them that way (and also the respect they should have for what they represent) I guarantee they would feel differently.
I also got a chance to run radar and witness some more traffic stops. It was nice to get a chance to see how the different rangers worked these stops and the different reactions you get from the stopped individuals. On one stop the passenger in one of the vehicles was not very happy that they were getting pulled over. After verbally abusing the ranger I was with, ranger Peterson, he actually tried to get out of the car (for who knows what reason). Fortunately all it took was for her (ranger Peterson) to yell out over the magaphone to get back in the car and If he didn't before, he definately realized that she meant business after that.

It was an exciting week and being as though I only got through about half the Law enforcement staff this week, next week is already looking pretty good.