Excerpts from an oral hisory of

Captain
Wilfred O. Jyrkas

Part IV - Challenging Circumstances

I remember another incident as a commanding officer or supervising officer in the mid 1970s somewhere. One point I went out to pick up a policeman. I remember they said, well this guy is crazy. He ended up getting fired off the Department. The chief was saying, bring him into me. So I thought, well, I’m going to put on the bulletproof vest today, I didn’t wear it most of the time because it was uncomfortable, once in awhile if I really thought it was bad, I’d slip it from the locker and put it on.

I thought, well, the Good Lord protected me every other time, he’s going to protect me this time, too. Which may be foolish, but on the other hand you either go at one extreme or the other. I went and got him, I brought him in and I told him, “You’ve got to go to the chief’s office, come on in. I want your gun.” When I said it I was ready to play Quick Draw McGraw if I had to.

There’s a factor in military combat and in police work, that you better have this commitment, I’m not going to fool with you, if you don’t do something, I’m going to shoot you and I’m not shooting you in the hand, I’m going to shoot you to kill you.

You’ve got to have that set into your mind, because if you start trying to play around, I’m going to shoot you in the leg, I’m going to shoot you in the hand, the opportunity isn’t going to be there. It’s only there in the movies, Buck Jones, Tom Mixer, whoever the current, Gene Autry could fire and achieve something with that. You better make sure you’re ready to go on that prospect.

Then a little faith goes a long way from then on, the Lord helps those who help themselves, too, you’ve got to remember that.

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