Indian Billy and The Will To Prevail

 "The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail ... the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation" - Col. Jeff Cooper 

During the days of The Old Patrol, Agents were trained early at the Academy that things were different than in the military.  Several Trainees in Actor's class had just exited active duty in the Marine Corps and this was a bitter pill for Actor to swallow.  At first, it seemed as if it could be a "deal breaker".

Our class of Trainees was on a fairly easy run: five or six miles; one of our classmates became too exhausted to continue and fell out.  Naturally, Actor and another vet broke ranks, went back to where the panting Trainee was, picked him up and carried him.  "No man left behind", right?

What rescuers didn't notice while struggling with their burden was one of the instructors, Swede, had circled around behind them.  Actor realized that he was there when he kicked him in the ass.  He did the same thing with the other vet Trainee.  "Let Pork lie where he fell", Swede shouted.  They dropped him and re-joined the formation to complete the run.

Back at the barracks, Swede locked everyone into a formation and lectured them: "This job is different from the military.  Because we work by ourselves with our shift partners miles away, there may be a time when you don't have anyone there to pick you up and carry you.  You have to be able to carry your own weight, administer first aid to yourself and to prevail in whatever situation you find yourself".

By the next morning, "Pork" had vanished from the Academy.  No one had told the remaining ones why ... but all of them knew.

A couple of years later, Indian Billy and Actor were working a large group that had managed to cross the All American Canal about fifteen miles West of Yuma, Arizona.  They knew that the group was disoriented because they had crossed over Interstate 8 and were still traveling North toward the mountains.

Actor had cut their sign late in the day shift and Indian Billy had joined him in chasing them.  They were still following their sign on foot through the rocks North of the Araz railroad siding well into the night - long after our shift ended.  Off in the distance, Actor and Indian Billy spotted them.  Finally, they made the apprehension.

By that time, it was around 2300 and very dark.  They were on the way with the group back to their vehicles when the cheap, government issue flashlight batteries in their kel-lights gave out.  That's when two of the group made their move.  Indian Billy and Actor were knocked to the uneven surface of the ground.  The group split into two smaller units and began to run.  Actor ran after one group of about four and got them contained while Indian Billy pursued the other.

The six that Indian Billy was chasing ended up wanting to fight him, but it was so dark that Actor couldn't see what was going on.  All he could hear was the "thump" of bodies sliding down a rocky slope.  After several seconds, Billy called out, "Actor!  Over here!  You got any extra cuffs on you?".  He did.  His Tonks were more docile that Indian Billy's Tonks.

When they arrived back at their vehicles, and loaded the Tonks into the Ramchargers for the trip back to Yuma for processing them, Actor saw Billy's face in the light of his Ramcharger's dome light.  He had a three inch cut running from just under his right eye down toward his lower mandible.  Indian Billy had not only survived; he prevailed.  There was no one there to help him.  Indian Billy prevailed.

Deo Vindice