Behind The Badge Shares The Harrowing And Heroic Lives Of First Responders

Forbes

6 days ago

Imagine an America without first responders and ask yourself if that's a country in which you'd want to live? That is both the cautionary tale and the lament of Behind the Badge, Answering the Call to Serve on America's Homefront by Johnny Joey Jones.
Jones is the insightful Fox News analyst and best-selling author of Unbroken Bonds of Battle, who lost his legs to an improvised explosive device while serving as a Marine bomb tech in Afghanistan. Sacrifice is personal for Jones, so is his desire to tell the stories of others who serve for causes greater than their own.
In Behind the Badge, Jones chronicles the stories of firefighters, police officers, border patrol agents, game wardens, sheriffs and dispatchers who all deliver lifelines to those in need and protect us from the calamity and evil of modern society.
The book is especially an antidote to the pendulum swing against law enforcement that began more than a decade ago with chants of defund the police. How America so often whiplashes from one sentiment to another—celebrating the remarkable heroism of the 9-11 responders to denigrating law enforcement across the country after isolated incendiary body cam clips—speaks to the ability of media and others to fan the flames of contempt. As A.D. Ryan famously wrote, 'It takes years to build trust, but only seconds to lose it.'
Before we lose hope, however, Jones reminds us of the untold sacrifice that is inherent in those who serve. That is, one dash cam clip is not—or shouldn't be—enough to render a verdict in the court of public opinion on all who serve.
Jones sees the world through the eyes of his chosen first responders, describing how the mere act of a police officer taking his family to dinner can be a trip down an unwanted memory lane, '…they drive through their battlefields: intersections where they have responded to terrible wrecks and worse.'
Behind the Badge shares memorable stories of dramatic rescues, heart-wrenching losses and awe-inspiring acts of courage by first responders. Jones delves into how these men and women continue to go to work even though they are confronted with worst-case scenarios each day.
In a world so often measured in likes and clicks, the fact that we still have individuals--and often entire families-- willing to serve against a backdrop of antagonism is a gift we must never take for granted. Behind the Badge is a reminder of how endearing that service should be to all of us.
Jones shares the harrowing night his father lay listless on the floor in his home. Jones and his sister performed CPR until the paramedics arrived. They kept his father alive long enough for Jones to say goodbye the next day before his father passed. A few weeks later a fire department commander on duty the night of his father's collapse saw Jones and inquired how his father fared after taking him to the hospital. The fact that the commander showed genuine remorse for not being able to save his father left a lasting impression on Jones.
'How much of that kind of trauma can one man or woman carry?' he thought, for they deal with this kind of loss constantly. What he's really asking all of us to ponder is what kind of person makes heartbreak a career choice? Maybe the answer is too individual, too personal to know…but thank heaven they do.
'At some point, this job is going to hit home. Something is going to physically, spiritually, or emotionally break you,' says Clay Headrick, a firefighter Jones features in Behind.
Headrick detailed an early call where a young child had been run over by a truck in front of his parents. The emotion of the hysterical parents and seeing the child in the road was too much for Headrick to bear in the moment. Nothing at the academy could have prepared him for the horror of the incident. The fact that he had small children of his own and the thought of something like this happening to them was simply overwhelming. That call nearly ended his career.
Many first responders are fed a steady diet of grief and trauma, a reality of their chosen profession. It comes with sleepless nights, counseling sessions and, sadly, suicide and divorce rates that are far higher than the national average. Suffering in silence is never listed in job descriptions, but it is the norm for too many of them.
Actors sometimes say they lose themselves in dark roles, the fear being that it's difficult to extract a soul when tempting Satan's grasp. For cops in our most dangerous cities, however, life isn't an act, it's the gritty reality that some communities are crumbling under failed leadership and the thin blue line is all that stands between them and the abyss.
Behind the Badge gets at the heart of people who run into burning buildings when others run out. It chronicles a game warden's efforts to find the body of a missing girl in frigid waters and shows what it's like to live in someone's darkest hour. Throughout the book, Jones offers personal accounts and parenthetical thoughts on each of the profiled responders, people he has known for varying periods of time.
The book recounts police officers who often witness the horrors of domestic abuse, familial homicides, rape and the like as they live on the front lines of good versus evil. They respond because no one else will--long after the angels have left.
Sheriff Mark Lamb offers the realization that most people don't see a person, they see the uniform, a badge and a gun. Jones introduces us to those people behind the badge and reminds us that we better pray we never lose them.