I was in Austin at McBrides fun store just for fun, & he came in. I saw his badge & recognized it as a Texas Rangers right away. They are traditionally , & still made from a Mexican peso coin. I hold all law enforcement, & military personal in high esteem, buy I have always wanted to see, or meet a real Texas Ranger. I think they are cool as all get out. I asked him if he was a Ranger, & he said yes, I told him I always wanted to meet a Texas Ranger, & he reached out his hand, & introduced himself as Joe Gordon. I shook his hand & introed myself. He was wearing a .45 high on his left hip. & it had some really fancy gold filigree grips. He was very friendly, & it was fun to meet him, but I would never want to meet him in a combative situation. He looked as tough as nails.
Well that's one more of my to do list things, that I can now cross off. I very much want to go to the Texas Ranger museum in Waco sometime. It's only about 90 miles north of me so I will asap.
Have you ever met a Texas Ranger, &  did he impress you, like Joe did me?

What kind of [red]meat[/red] did you use?

thought maybe you ran across oscar rivera, he's a hell of a guy.

Like some LEOs, They have an "attitude".  I met some poor ones.  They do their job, but are not made of anything special.

Ranger history is full of brave men.  

He said "Meat".

I'm curious what a Texas Ranger really is. Are they a agency of the state police? What exactly is it that they do?

I have met several Rangers over the years and they all seem to be carrying some type of very fancy Colt 1911's. Special people indeed. Yes the Ranger Museum is worth the trip and time. One can spend several hours in there easy.

Met the retired Mr. Jim Peters in Corpus Christi and was very impressed by him.  Took my CHL renewal from him and it was great.  He had some very funny stories from when he was with the DPS and then the Texas Rangers.

I have a good friend of mine that made Ranger. He was one of the youngest to ever make it. They are a very respected LEO in this state. They are chosen for the job because of their dedication and talent for the job.

Yes they are a branch of Texas Department of Public Safety which is Texas' version of state police.  They do mainly investigations now a days.  

I've only met one but he was a dick.  

Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro won't be Texas Rangers next year.

Most of them are pretty nice and know their jobs fairly well. I have one funny story about a Ranger who called us because of a minor issue about kids hanging out near his house that a rookie Patrol Cop could have handled on his own.

The other investigators at DPS Special Crimes kind of seem to dislike them alot. If I need help on something, I usually leave the Rangers alone and call them instead. They do tend to go for fancy, pimped out 1911s, though the last couple I have run into were carrying standard-issue P226s in .357 SIG. That the Rangers have free rein to carry whatever weapons they want also seems to piss off most of the other DPS investigators.

The Rangers basically help out the smaller agencies with crimes that they don't really have the experience and resources to investigate properly, and are part of DPS. I think there are only about 100 these days, and they are selected from within DPS, I think through a written test and oral boards. When the Podunk PD has a Murder, they usually ask the Rangers for help, because the Rangers have more experience and can bring all of DPS's crime lab and analytical support to the table. These days, they mostly seem to run lots of white-collar stuff and public integrity functions. They investigate many police use-of-force incidents as well.

I saw one once, but I didn't even get a chance to thank him.
[img]http://www.fiftiesweb.com/allwall/lone-ranger.jpg[/img]

There's a famous Texas Ranger that disarms perps by singing to them:

[img]http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/walker/assets/stars_norris.jpg[/img]

[img]http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35lerOVCrg0aKdShNemoKznwlIdZiEWyWt76sUkLun2wJW5HHdMv2mqtL6G6koEl5Vm68=[/img]

Met several who are retired, most older ones are noted in this book, like Jim Peters, "Bigfoot" Wallace, Jonny Klevenhagen, A.T. Miller and Ed Gooding.

At one time only DPS officers who were survivors of gunfights in which actual killings occured were considered, and here's my favorite Ranger tale....

[red]While attending a mandatory safety class one old Ranger was accosted by the young safety instructor while doing an inspection of the weapons carried by the LEOs in attendance. Upon viewing the Rangers' old 1911 and noticing that the grip safety was "de-activated" by a piece of leather strap, the youngster call'd him out, telling him his 1911 was "dangerous",'cus he had the grip safety de-activated with a leather strap, The old Ranger looked the young wipp'r-snapper dead in the eye and said, [b]"Son, if it wasn't dangerous, I damn sure wouldn't be carryin it!"[/b][/red]

Mike

When I was slingin' a gun for a living, I had the pleasure of working with a few Rangers.  They were always top-notch fellows.

One in particular was named Haskell Taylor and he was a big, red haired guy.  He worn a basket weave brown gunbelt with a fancy 1911 in it.  He knew every eating place in Texas.  Where ever you were going to visit, he knew the best eating place in that town.

He was a friendly guy, but you could tell that you wouldn't want to "rile him up".

See my sig line.

the popular legend goes thusly:

a city in E Texas was stricken with rioting citizens, pillagers, looters, you name it.

the local sherrif cabled for Rangers to put the riot down.

ONE Ranger shows up.  One.  The sherrif is stunned.  He says: "We need reinforcements!  There's only one of you!"

"Hell, you ain't got but one riot."

I once met Chuck Norris in an airport!

[lolabove]Muhahahaha, did he kick your teeth out just like he did your daddies?

Texas Rangers, best of the best ---one riot one ranger.