reservesjf11
John Wayne Said, “Courage Is Being Scared To Death, But Saddling Up Anyway.”
Your diaphragm tightens and it feels like something deep inside has tied itself in a slippery knot, pinching off your breath. Soldiers know it — and reserves know it too. As a cop, you feel it as you make a high-risk car stop or chase your suspect down a dark alley. All folks with badges know it. It’s the courage we muster that gets us through it. And it’s why courage, above all things, is the first quality of a good officer.
Courage is the feeling of one’s own power when summoned to duty. Courage comes not from facing the everyday, but from standing fast against uncertainty. Courage, I think, is not inherited and not a matter of biological chance. Courage is the fatalism to trust we have it, and to know it never comes easy. Because courage is not fearlessness; but rather, as General George Patton put it, “ … courage is fear — holding on a minute longer.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson described it this way: “A hero is no braver than ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” Courage is not dependent on pay. A friend of mine was one of three deputies arresting a fugitive. When confronted in his home, the suspect tried to move rapidly toward his baby’s crib. He was subdued before he got to the 12-gauge shotgun tucked in next to his infant son. After the call, one of the two regular deputies said “Damn hobby-cop, come out here and risk your life for nothing.” My friend responded, “So, is it worth what you’re being paid to risk your life?” The reply was, “You know, I never thought of it that way.”
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