V Ortmann

Is It Routine? V Ortmann

John Stanley Ortmann was having a routine day when he got the call: A mountain lion that had killed a sheep had possibly been shot and was hiding out in a brushy area near a busy road.

Armed with catch poles, a syringe with a euthanasia drug, and carrying a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, he located the mountain lion but had to crawl into the brush to catch him.

That's when the mountain lion surged into an opening in the brush, forcing Ortmann to his back. He had just enough time to draw his pistol and fire two shots. The mountain lion landed on top of him--dead.

Ortmann shares that story and many more in this memoir highlighting his adventures and challenges with the Army Military Police, as a city policeman and detective, and as a game warden.

From the early 1960s well into the twenty-first century, he describes the training he received as well as the evolution of law enforcement equipment.

He also makes the case that no matter how routine a situation may seem, it can turn out differently--and you always have to be on your guard.