Frank Reports To Duty At The Ranger Camp
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
We're in a series about one of the top Texas Ranger lawmen to ever wear the badge, the great Frank Hamer, who was brought out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde.
Recap
In the last post Frankie had just captured a horse thief and the local Sheriff, who used to be a Texas Ranger, asked him if he wanted to join the Rangers.
Of course he did. Every kid growing up in Texas dreamed of being a Texas Ranger, they were heroic and legendary figures in Texas lore.
Because of the Sheriff's request, Frank, who was 22 by now, was ordered to report to the Ranger camp in the Bend Bend region of Southwest Texas.
In spite having a stellar record of fighting crime the Rangers were so underfunded that they had to stay in tents in a camp outside town.
Big Bend country:
He was ordered to report to Captain John Rogers who was a famous Ranger himself but looked more like a banker. Here he is on the cover of a book written about him by history professor Paul Spellman:
Captain Rogers was short, portly, and wore spectacles and suits so he didn't look anything like a typical cowboy or Ranger.
But looks are deceiving because he was fearless, a great gun hand, deadly in a shootout and had killed many an outlaw in gunfights.
Oh great, he's just a boy!
Frank came on high recommendations from the Sheriff but when Captain Rogers saw him he was thoroughly disappointed because Frank just looked like a kid!
But after being around him it didn't take him long to see that if anyone on earth was made to be a ranger it was Frank Hamer.
At such a young age he was already an expert tracker, hunter, naturalist, marksman, horseman, behavior expert, survivalist...his years of living in the wilderness and working as a cowboy had made him rugged and used to roughing it and living off the land.
Here's Frank at age 22, the year he joined the Rangers in 1906:
Besides that he was big and strong with tremendous strength, raw courage, a photographic memory and a superb analytical mind.
He was self-reliant and independent, his word was his bond, his deep faith in God gave him an unmovable standard of right and wrong, he couldn't be bought or tempted at any price.
Plus he'd already been tested and proved he could remain calm under fire in the gunfight with McSween. In short, he was the most deadly adversary an outlaw would ever dread to face!
And he would be mortified if he read this post! lol..because he was also very humble and quiet. I can't believe I spent half this post just listing his attributes.
I think Kevin Costner did a brilliant job of portraying his character in the Netflix movie The Highwaymen with Woody Harrelson.
Frank's story continues on the next post.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
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Frankie had lived and learned a lifetime worth at such a young age. He is the perfect man for this job. Go get 'em Frankie!
I agree, he never did any foolish things that teenagers always do, when everyone else was playing around and going to parties he was out in the wilderness learning about nature and how to survive! Totally unique.
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Well I’m going to have to watch that one again! What a bad ass!
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I think it was a really good movie because they took care to make it very historically accurate and members of Frank's family was consulting to make sure they got it right. Yeah, the series is starting out slow because I'm laying the ground work but there's alot of action ahead. The guy had 52 gun battles and was shot something like 17 times!
He certainly did have a lot going for him! It's good to know that he lived to an old age and didn't get killed doing his job.
Very true. By the time he retired he'd been in 52 gunfights and shot something like 17 times!
Did you see that ocd has switched back to manual curation and is no longer using their ocdb bot?
I saw the subject line of their post but I don't know what that means for us.
You can no longer pay for votes. I assume they will be randomly curating now like they did before they switched to the bot.
Oh ok, that makes sense. Rats. lol.
I agree!
Have you looked at other services? I heard tipu was good.
I didn't realize you were already into another story, time to read back and catch up.
Howdy sir abitcoinskeptic! Thanks, I'm trying to keep them shorter because I know people are busy or some don't have any patience. lol.
Hi janton, I think that giving accolades to 'good' people is a fine pastime. I like Frankie Hamer.
Howdy angiemitchell! Yes he was a great lawman and human, I like him too!
I usually can't take Kevin Costner seriously, but I might need to look up that movie now!
Howdy sir wwwiebe! Why wouldn't you be able to take him seriously? He's very serious in this movie. lol.
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BEERat steem-engine.Hey @janton, here is a bit
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Frank does have a lot of natural talent for a Texas Ranger or perhaps for anything he set his mind too.
I haven’t seen the movie but will watch for it.
If you like a movie which shows alot of strategy then you would like it. Mrs. J. didn't care for it because there was too much strategy and talking for her, she likes lots of action! lol. I liked it because they took great pains to be very historically accurate.
Frank's family was consulting them so they made sure it was accurate.
Cowboy, I would like it especially if based ( even loosely) on Frank’s life. Biographies are one of my favorites to watch.
Oh very good. Well this is just one incident, the taking down of Bonnie and Clyde, but still captures the character of the man. So I bet you would like it.