I’ve just completed 2 books back2back about rangers. Not Rangers, but rangers. Park rangers. The stories are real; so is the PTSD, mental breakdowns, danger, heartbreak and feelings of resentment towards the community they are sworn to protect.
I highly recommend both, there are so many similarities in what these folks deal with compared to Vets that I think most of you will find quite a bit that resonate with you. Some of the recuse missions (wins and losses) described in Ranger Confidential get pretty honest and gruesome, so be warned.
Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Langford
I would consider this a woman’s perspective of the “there we were” type books that so many Vets like to write. She’s seen it all in the Grand Cannon; death, crime, suicide, bear attacks, entitles BASE jumpers, you name it.
The Last Season by Eric Blehm
The Last Season tells the true story of the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson who, over the course of twenty-eight summers spent in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, became arguably the most celebrated ranger in the National Park Service’s most adventurous SAR unit.
He eventually went ‘native’ on the bit and disappeared, causing the same type of dangerous search for him by his peers and friends, that he had executed so many times in the past.