There is a great deal of misunderstanding and distrust between the larger community here in the US and law enforcement. My aim is to impact my community and those who live in it in a very simple -yet important- way. As an officer, my goal is to be a connection point between my community and the profession of law enforcement. I want people to feel respected, cared for, and protected when they interact with me. I want to build trust with my community one contact at a time. I can't prevent every crime or single handedly fix the substance abuse or mental health issues that are impacting our communities. However, what I can do is ensure that justice is delivered equitably, with compassion, and with integrity. I can't ensure that everyone will like me or that every interaction with the public or a suspect will be peaceful or enjoyable. I can, however, ensure that I am always offering an open invitation to civility and empathy for all- even those in thecommunity who are choosing to do wrong. So while it may sound simplistic, I think being a genuinely good and caring officer is what I can do to have the biggest impact on my community. I want people to talk about Officer Bozeman as the officer who was understanding and treated them well when they got pulled over. I want people to know they can come to me with issues and get an objective and just perspective on the situation. Most importantly, I want to make people feel served and taken care of. That is the impact I plan on having in my community. When I was growing up, my grandpa would show my siblings and myself a bunch of old western movies. In one of them, The Sacketts, there were three brothers that ended up becoming sheriffs and deputies of an area under great strife. They aimed to maintain the peace while treating everyone with respect and dignity, and with no partiality. I think this is really where the roots of my passion for law enforcement started. As I grew, I got to know a few law enforcement officers in my personal life. One particularly notable one was Ranger Stapert. Ranger Stapert worked for Washington State Parks as a fully commissioned law enforcement ranger in the busiest park in the state. As I got to know him, I got to see how someone with passion, care, and dedication could have profound impacts on the lives of others. Ranger Stapert has been instrumental in my decision to pursue a career in law enforcement and I owe much gratitude to him for all the things I have learned from him. He showed me that law enforcement was about much more than "catching the bad guys" or enforcing the laws. It was about connecting with people, building relationships, and creating trust in your community. It was through him that I learned about all the rescues and other life-saving activities that law enforcement is involved with. He also contributed greatly to my understanding of the career. From learning how to get involved to being a resource for ride-alongs, he has helped me greatly. Stapert also helped me understand the more difficult aspects of the career, such as dealing with the stresses of the job in a healthy way. All in all, I have had many people, both real and fictional, who have helped inspire my dream to serve my community as a law enforcement officer, but The Sacketts were the root of it and Ranger Stapert helped it blossom. Thanks for your consideration.

The sun was rising, casting a gentle alpenglow upon the steep mountainside we were precariously clinging to. The fog had just started clearing when the thundering "whomp-whomp-whomp" of the approaching MH-60 rescue helicopter approached. My team mate and I placed our bodies over our subject to protect them and braced for the rotor wash. After a few minutes of huge amounts of wind and a noise so intense I could feel it reverberating in my chest, the helicopter left, leaving behind two flight medics from the U.S. Navy- an asset we work with often. I thought to myself "another day in paradise". Here we were, thousands of feet above sea level, witnessing a beautiful sunrise over the rugged mountain peaks that make up my backyard while sitting underneath a rescue helicopter. All the while we were taking care of a newly-wed bride. Her mountain-top wedding ceremony went south the evening before when she slipped down a snowbank badly injuring her ankle. The flight medics packaged her up and lifted her off the mountain. My team and I hiked out with the groom while taking in the stunning sunrise and reassuring the groom that his bride was in good hands. This is my hobby. Searching for and rescuing those who are lost or injured in the backcountry, and I do it all as a volunteer too. My entire team are volunteers actually. Search and rescue (SAR) is by far my favorite hobby. I enjoy it greatly because it provides me with a way to really help my community and impact individual's lives. It is also a great source for challenging and exciting opportunities that continue to grow me as a person. The people I serve with are the most genuine and caring people I know and are a second family to me. I would never ask to be payed for the work we do as SAR volunteers. We pay for our own equipment and often our own gas too. Continuing to be active in three different teams (different counties) and five different rescue specialization units has its costs though. During my time at Western Washington University, I have had to back off my search and rescue involvement due to being financially strapped with paying for my studies. I hope to reach a point where I can continue to pursue this hobby and continue to serve my community while I am studying at Western.

One particularly challenging experience I had involved recovering the body of a man who hung himself off a scenic overlook. I am a volunteer search and rescue (SAR) EMT, in my county and a few neighboring ones. Most of our “missions” involve rescuing injured hikers, and other recreationalists. When we aren’t rescuing them, we are searching for the ones who are lost or haven’t returned home to their loved ones. This particular day, the call was for a technical rope-recovery of a body that was suspended about thirty feet from the ground and about ten feet from the viewing platform. Bodies are something that we're exposed to in SAR. This one was different. His body was warm, still twitching, and slowly rotating in the wind, as blood seeped out of the broken skin on his neck. The stark difference in a body that died of natural causes, and one that caused its own demise is shocking. What made it challenging was that weeks prior I had a teammate who had committed suicide. After seeing his body in a casket, this man’s lifeless corpse dangling at the end of a rope was gut wrenching. I could only imagine the loss both families were feeling, and the hopelessness the individuals felt when they took their respective lives. This one impacted me more than any of the other body recoveries I had previously done. Overcoming this challenge was only possible because of my supportive family and community. What was first an extraordinarily stressful and challenging event for turned into a beautiful story of love and support. As for the gentleman whose body we recovered that day- we rest easy knowing we brought his family closure. We brought him home to rest, and that is our mission.

One thing I have learned about myself is that communication is key. Communication with myself (as odd as it sounds) is very important. I have learned that when I am feeling low, upset, depressed, or anything like that- it often effects me in a way that usually ends up hurting other people to some degree. Sometimes that is just by putting them in a bad mood, sometimes it is because we get into spats or fights because of it. I have noticed that if I take a few moments to analyze how I feel, and be real honest about it with myself, I can then have open dialogue with myself and others about what is impacting me (and then them). This has proved very useful in creating quality relationships and understanding amongst my family and close friends.

Legacy- "leg·​a·​cy | \ ˈle-gə-sē; 'something (such as property or money) that is received from someone who has died" (Merriam-Webster, 2022). Strictly as a word in the English language, legacy denotes some sort of material gain by one person from another person's passing. However, when I think of legacy- specifically my legacy -I am thinking about the impact my life will have on others long after I am gone. The material things come and go: money is spent, houses decay, institutions come to an end, movements cease to exist, and fads fizzle out. The impact one person can have, be that positive or negative, can have profound impacts for generations. The legacy I strive to leave behind is one that will bring the greatest good to as many people as I can. I want that to shine through my future career as a public servant. I want people to say, "Wow, Ranger Bozeman, he really showed genuine care for me", I want to impact the lives of everyday people in ways that show them resounding kindness and love (particularly when they aren't expecting it). The legacy I want to leave for my kids is that of a humble servant who sought peace in a tumultuous world. I want the thing my kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and all those who know me to remember me is not for any astounding accomplishment or fame, but simply for making my little corner of the world a better place. As the character Gandalf, in the book "The Hobbit", put it "I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." That is what I want my legacy to be- a legacy of small everyday acts of love and kindness.

If I could share one sentence with the world, it would be one that might sound cliché, or overused, but incredibly important. That sentence would be "Love your neighbor as yourself". This is a quotation of Jesus of Nazareth, a religious figure from the Christian religion. I think, if the whole world was to spend a little more time tending to the needs of others, versus ourselves, we would all be in a much better place. Taking a look back on the last few years, particularly here in the US, it is obvious that haltered and divisiveness have caused a huge rift in our society. Some might even say that our country has not been this divided since the American Civil War in the 1860s. With the added stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, world tensions at a high, and general civil unrest, it wouldn't hurt if we all showed a little more love and kindness to each other. We are all humans, and we all need to be loved- so let's extend that to each other.

When I think about the things that make me happy, there are three big themes: family, outdoors, and serving others. I find joy in spending time with my close friends and family. Whether that be playing a board game, going kayaking, or dressing up as a family for the premier of the latest Star Wars movie. My family and friend groups are incredibly important to me, and I very much enjoy time with them. I am also incredibly happy when I am in the outdoors. This may mean climbing cliffs, trees, or glaciers. It may mean kayaking a river, or rappelling off of a mountain. Being in the wild brings me immense joy, peace, and happiness. When I am out helping other people- serving others, I find so much happiness. Seeing the joy on someone's face when you find them after they have been lost for 12 hours in the pouring rain. Showing up to pull someone out of the ditch when it snowed and they lost control of their vehicle. Just being there to help those who aren't expecting help is very rewarding. You can't put a price on being a good human being to another person.

We’re bumping along the rough backroads of Tijuana, going back to our camp after a long day of pouring foundations for a house we were going to build over the next three days. Suddenly, a motorcyclist in front of us was t-boned by a vehicle careening through the unmarked intersection. The driver, only wearing a helmet, flew about thirty feet. Immediately we stopped and rendered aid. In our group was one paramedic, two general surgeons, and a EMR. The motorcyclist’s legs were inverted at the knees, blood gushing all over the dirty street. Fortunately, the folks we had who were trained in emergency medicine were able to save his life. It took two hours for an ambulance to reach us, but through God’s grace and the quick actions of those who were on our trip, the man’s life was saved. It was at that moment- when I felt entirely useless to help -that I knew I needed to become an EMT, so I too could help those who are in need. A year after the incident, I enrolled in an EMT class at my local community college. I was fortunate to take it with 5 other members of the search and rescue (SAR) team I volunteered with. It became quickly apparent that my EMT knowledge was impacting others’ lives in a big way. One cold winter night, a 70 something lady who was diagnosed with dementia wandered off into the night- during the biggest rainstorm of the year. After searching well into the early morning, the search was called. We went out the next morning, fearing the worst. Fortunately, we’re able to locate her within half an hour of searching. She was severely hypothermic and on the verge of death. Being one of my first patient contacts, I was petrified. I took a few breaths, and the training kicked in. We got her warming back up and were able to see a rapid improvement in her health before turning her over to the medics. As I was holding her hand, steadying it for a teammate to get a blood pressure, it hit me that we were changing the course of history for her and her family. Her husband, kids, grandkids, and friends were counting on us to revive her and return her home safely. The following summer, I had a number of patient contacts that have really defined my experience as SAR EMT. From the newly-wed bride at the top of a mountain who broke her ankle and was helicoptered out, to the older gentleman who took a nasty fall while out on a hike, to those infected with COVID-19 who we ran tests on. People were blown away that someone who take the time to show them care and love. Sometimes my missions as a SAR EMT don’t have the desired ending. Searches turn into mysteries when an overdue hiker can’t be found after weeks of searching. Occasionally we don’t get there in time and have to pull a little boy’s body out of a river or recover a suicidal man’s body off the end of a forty-foot overlook he had hung himself off of. The majority of our calls have happy endings, and we are able to reunite families, bring friends together who thought they’d never see each other again, save the elderly dementia patient who was on the brink of passing on. Why do I serve as an EMT? I serve as an EMT because I love people and want to make my little corner of the world a better place- one patient contact at a time.