In this episode of The North Idaho Experience, host Seth Horst sits down with Pat Krentz, a veteran life flight medic with an extensive career in emergency medical services. Pat brings to the table an array of gripping and intense stories from his time on the job, shedding light on the challenges and high-stakes situations that come with being a first responder. Listeners are advised that some of these stories are graphic and might not be suitable for children.
The conversation begins with Pat’s journey from Southern California to North Idaho, drawn by the latter’s strong community values and the overwhelming support for first responders. He recounts his early days working in high-pressure environments and the transition to North Idaho, where the sense of community and support is unparalleled.
Pat and Seth discuss the differences in emergency response between urban California and the rural expanses of North Idaho, emphasizing the importance of having a well-trained and well-equipped emergency response team. They highlight how the community’s backing makes a significant difference in their work.
Throughout the episode, the importance of mental health support for first responders is a recurring theme. Pat shares insights on how witnessing traumatic events impacts responders and the crucial need for community and institutional support. The episode serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience and dedication of those who serve in emergency medical services.
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Pat Krentz (00:00.622)
Yeah. So my new thing, my wife hated this at first because I have never been one that partakes in nicotine. But I’ve noticed that it gives me extreme mental clarity. And I think I have, you know, my generation, they didn’t diagnose ADD, but I’m pretty sure it’s severe. And this like seems to tone me down and focus me. So that’s my new tradition that I was talking about. I literally can’t open the container. There we go.
Sure. Wait, that’s weird here. I tried to hand it to you in my hand. Here, let me put it in your mouth. That’s even weirder. They’re only three milligrams, but that seems fine for me. They don’t make me throw up. And I think if I get anything more than that, it’s because I don’t partake any other time, I’d probably throw up. I’m a big cigar guy. I’m like smoking a whole pack of cigarettes all at once.
Get her done in one shot. yeah, you start losing. It’s fantastic. I’ve never done well with cigars. Like I’ve definitely smoked a few, but like the taste in my mouth afterwards of like complete dog shit for hours. Yeah, that’s I can’t handle that. Yeah, that’s that’s been the thing that got me. So you wash it out with hard alcohol, makes it all better. That’s yes. And I probably at the time, you know, was like drinking like.
Old English malt liquor or something, which is probably not the best combination to be honest. that was before my bourbon days, you know, when I was a younger man, we got classy before I got classied up and now I drink bourbon and, and, then sit around and have conversations. So good, good living now. well, there you go, everybody. There’s the, my thoughts on nicotine and, look at that. We’ve got some bourbon glasses out. It’s Memorial day that we’re recording this, so it seems fitting.
We can throw some down for the homies. We absolutely should. Yeah, I’m down dude. Here, this class is relatively clean. I rinsed it. That stuff’s 100 proof we’ll be fine. shit, is it? It’s not a disease if everybody has it. That’s exactly right. thanks sir. Cheers. Happy Memorial Day. Yeah. I need to tell the story of how we met. I should probably say your name too. I haven’t even said that.
Pat Krentz (02:22.478)
that’s good. Not bad. What are we drinking there? What is that? This is Bibb and Tucker 10 year. The 10 years real hard to find. I have to like, smuggle it in from other states. you can get six and eight year here in the six years generally at the Hayden store, but okay. Dollar for dollar. It’s fantastic. Smooth plans. It’s getting so hard to find. Yeah. Thank you, John Wick. He did ruin it for everybody. he really did.
like the latest fan fad that and some guns he’s changed and make them impossible to find anymore so there’s that side of things all right well ladies and gentlemen we’ve got Pat Krenz here today we met in a fantastic fashion and that’s where I’m gonna start this saga and I actually don’t know a lot about you and I intentionally didn’t ask a lot while we were setting up
He came early and he helped me hang a bunch of crap on the wall. So I appreciate that Because I like to have the discovery during the conversation, right? It’s like genuine I literally know almost nothing about your background. So you got tattoos and you’re muscular. I’m like, well shit I get you fit the bill there So there’s that So we met that was the k27 Memorial Gala, right? It was and that he was a Coraline police sergeant was killed in the line of duty. I
some years back and it was put on by the quarterly police foundation. So our team was there and I showed up in this was very strategic of me. I wore a camouflage blazer. Sounds rather rather white trash. I know. But that damn thing was a hit. I had a lot of people come up to me and talk and introduce themselves and it was cool. So I’m really glad I wore it. And I was at the bar buying a
bourbon for myself and something for my wife. Pat came up to me and was like, Hey, it’s a hell of a fucking blazer. Let me buy you let me buy you a drink. And I was like, Well, shit. So there, ladies and gentlemen, that cheap Chinese blazer paid for itself. So well worth it. And that that’s how we met. I just assumed it was American made. I haven’t seen that camera pattern since Vietnam. Well, if you look closely, it was literally falling apart at the seams. It was brand new. It took forever to get
Pat Krentz (04:44.078)
to my house from wherever it came from. It went really well with the camo pattern, man. That shit had to be in K -San 68. It was, you know, it was cool. I got to find an American -made one now. Now I’m on a mission of like, I try to, I try to get most of my clothes made in America. That’s so damn hard to do now. That’s why I got my Origin shirt on. I went with Origin jeans for a while, but the fit was just not working for me. So. Yeah, I bought a pair. They’re almost like spandex. Yes. I can’t.
I got my normal size and they’re like skinny jeans and I’m like, I refuse to wear skinny jeans. So yeah, way too much testosterone for that. It just doesn’t work. Yeah. I gave it away. Yeah. I gave mine away to tend to skip leg day, man. I can’t be more skinny. I don’t believe that. So what do you do? Actually, let’s start from the beginning. What’s your background? I got nothing here. I know nothing about you. Awesome. Yeah.
You could be like, well, I was a schoolteacher in kindergarten. Yeah, I am born, I grew up. I grew up in Southern California. 50 % of the people that live here in Coeur d ‘Alene. It might be more than that, actually. Might be 80. Yeah. The only thing we all have in common is we all hate Californians. We want to pull the ladder out behind us when we move up here. Like, stop coming here. Property values are going insane. Nobody can buy a home. Yeah, there’s truth to that. I’m thankful. Like, the only Californians I deal with are people that they’re like,
all like us. So I meet them, I’m like, damn, we could be best friends. And I’m like, it works out really well for me. I imagine there are other types moving here. They just are not drawn to like, the style or the branding, I guess that we portray in our real estate business. So I don’t see them. It’s, I think there’s a few here that that make the attempt to turn this into the place like they left. Yeah. But thankfully, there’s a there’s enough resistance that the way we live here.
Idaho is going to last for quite some time. That’s why I chose to stay away from Washington. I could see it going California real fast. I don’t care for the politics and the nanny state authoritarianism. It’s not for me. Right. Right. I get that. People ask a lot like, they’re like, we’re looking at Washington, too, because right over the border in Washington, homes are cheaper. That’s a fact. For a reason. Yeah. It’s attractive to some people that are like, I could get this home, the view and all this and that’s cool. But you won’t be able to have…
Pat Krentz (07:08.334)
standard capacity magazines anymore. Some people call them high capacity, but you won’t be able to have standard capacity magazines and good luck on your semi -auto rifles and other cool stuff. It’s all going away in Washington. So that right there, I mean, I like to shoot and that’s a big deal for me. I’m like, I don’t want to live like that. I lived like that in California. Even as a cop, I couldn’t have an AR -15 that wasn’t neutered in California, which was
Insane to me. I had literally in my patrol car every day a Regular AR -15 sitting right next to me that I used not used I took out many times I guess I did use it just didn’t shoot people with it, but you know what I mean and No at home. I I could not have one like that Come on stupid. I got into a competition shooting Back when I was still in, California
And I had multiple felonies in my gun safe. It was time to leave before somebody caught on. Even about everybody else down there. That’s super common. Did you have a military background or anything? I don’t. I grew up in a small white trash town in Southern California called 29 Palms. Marines out there know exactly what it is. yeah. Yeah, they do. That’s not a nice place. It’s a drink you can do math or you can pack up, get the fuck out of there. So you chose the latter? I did.
I did learn to drink with those Marines though. God bless you guys. Yeah, they can throw down. I’ve made that mistake before. Yeah, I don’t have a military background. I did volunteer at my local fire department when I was 18 years old and they required that I become an EMT within six months. Was that, see now I’m wishing Dave was here because he was a San Bernardino County fire captain. So is that where you get, was that San Bernardino County? Yeah. You guys must have crossed paths. Had to. Yeah. Cause he was probably started, he did like,
17 or 18 years with them and moved up here in 90s. So he probably started in like 2001. He was probably on that time. I graduated from paramedic school in 2000. So yeah. So you were on the same time. Interesting. Well, it’s a shame he didn’t make it. He was going to be here. And then I called him at literally the time we were starting and he’s like, dude, I forgot. I hope he listens to this because we shamed him there. Yes. Anyway, whatever. So, okay. A few more drinks. We can roast him. So you grew up in a white trash town, learned to drink.
Pat Krentz (09:28.974)
and got the fuck out. Absolutely. Where’d you go? Well, I hung around there for a while. I’m married to my high school sweetheart. shit.
normal girl in the town at the time. Good snag. Yeah. Was really interested in pissing off her parents by dating me. It worked.
Pat Krentz (09:48.398)
Yeah, we became an EMT and then a paramedic and she followed me into that business became an EMT and then a nurse. So we’ve got the cliche medic nurse. It’s either like, yeah, it’s either like medic nurse, firefighter nurse, cop nurse, like you got to keep it in that incestual family. That’s important. Yeah, absolutely. That’s good. They’re the only ones that get our sense of humor. It’s pretty raw. All right. So paramedic working in SoCal. I was running around working for AMR down in
Palm Springs. I like the work. I didn’t like the employer. It was a rough spot. Yeah. I think I could have made more money working in a hardware store, but I did love the work. Yeah. We had a great system to grow up in the valley where I worked, the Coachella Valley. There was a few pockets of fire departments that had paramedics. I discovered early on that I preferred the medicine side to the firefighting side. Yeah. So I chased my paramedic license and
grew up in a good system where we were completely under supported. There was not enough staff. It was a huge area. You could end up on a multi -car accident out in Coachella somewhere. You could end up waiting 30, 45 minutes for the next paramedic and you got eight or 10 people lying around. You were just handling business. yeah. It was your chicken. The guys that can do that job have so much respect for. I worked with a couple of former flight medics, like CHP flight medics. And those dudes like,
There’s like the textbook way to do the job. And then there’s the way to actually save people’s lives. And it’s down and dirty. And I’m like, bro, you can stick your finger in whatever part of me you need to, if you need to stop the bleeding. And like, I would trust those guys over, you know, a straight ambulance person all day long. It was, the system you come up in definitely leaves a mark on you. And I was, I was glad at the time I was a little frustrated with it, but looking back, I couldn’t have had a better first few years.
ground and then work in that system. Yeah. You probably worked with some chippies down there quite a bit then, huh? Yeah, we had H60 out in Thermal, the airport there. I remember a couple of the guys, I think Craig Martinez was there. One of the medics from AMR actually left us to join CHP and became a helicopter pilot. Hell yeah. He was up there near you in Northern Cali. Those teams, they do some pretty cool, depending on where they’re at, right? I worked with a guy that he worked and they would go into Yosemite and do rescues, you know.
Pat Krentz (12:13.998)
of climbers and stuff like on what half town like some freaking cool stories out there and flying. And I’m like, wow, man, it’s like, that’s a cool ass job. Having your own helicopters. Pretty cool. Yeah. After a few years on the ground, I got hired on with Mercy Air, the air medical provider down there. Same area? Yeah. They pretty much had a monopoly in Southern California, except for LA County, which has their own massive fleet of helicopters. Here’s the big secret in California that nobody tells you.
If there’s a CHP helicopter and like a life flight helicopter, one of these other private companies circling, always ask for the CHP because it’s free. It’s a free ride. And I don’t know if people know that, but it’s important to know that. So he’s not lying. I’m not lying. Damn it. I want the CHP picking me up free ride. We collaborate with those guys quite a bit because they have hoist capability and private helicopters.
Agencies just do not. The insurance is astronomical. So I think there’s like two private services in the whole country that do it. It’s pretty cool what they can do. I mean, there’s some incredible stories of like, they also like the CHP helicopters, you know, they’re following pursuits, they’re doing civil disturbance, riot control stuff, you know, they’re overhead with the big lights and they do a lot of cool stuff. So I give those guys some credit. I guess some buddies that did that and it’s a freaking cool job.
San Bernardino County Sheriff was another one that used to hoist people out for us. We got to Jostretree National Park and get those guys stuck in the rocks up there. yeah. Have to land somewhere and wait for either sheriffs or chippies to come in and long line them out. Yeah. I was so jealous of those guys. It’s cool when you’re working a crash as a trooper and it’s a doozy, you know? People are hurt really bad and then these flight medics show up and they’re like fucking spacemen with their gear.
And you’re like, man, it’s a whole nother level of sexy. I’m going to give you that, dude. Cause you guys step out and you’re like, all right, shit’s serious. You just landed a helicopter on the freeway and you guys, it’s like, okay, cool. Like shit’s good. You guys know what you’re doing. Handle it. I love that. I landed a helicopter in Southern California freeway is something. It’s cool. It’s like rock star status. yeah. You get out and there’s hundreds of people. my gosh. A little kids waving. Yeah. Try to blow them over with the helicopter.
Pat Krentz (14:36.526)
Sorry kids. man. You got any any doozy calls? I hate to ask that question, but but you know what I mean? Like people do want to know. Yeah, like like gory stuff. I mean like everybody’s got that one.
One of the ones I ran with Highway Patrol, I was on the.
some guy ran his Jaguar.
Overpass support. That doesn’t end well. And per the trucker that he blew by, he had been doing about 110. So it was intentional. He hit that thing square. yeah. And we just happened to be a couple of miles away when the call popped and we roll up and the chippy comes over and as we’re getting out, he says, I know I’m not supposed to touch him, but he was sitting on the engine block and he was cooking. golly. So I pulled him off. I’m like, OK, you know, that’s fair. We run up on him and there’s not a bone in this guy’s body.
wasn’t broke, he was absolutely squished. And I said, I’ll get a sheet. I turned around to walk back to the ambulance. And he took a breath. I cannot believe this guy is still alive. He started cutting off all his clothes. And you know, the impact had squirted the contents of his bowels out. So it was covered in poop. And he had hit so hard that his scrotum exploded. I’ve never seen that. I haven’t either. And haven’t sensed not from blood impact.
Pat Krentz (16:02.766)
But yeah, it was so… Safe to say he had a pretty severe hernia then that pushed things through that way, huh? Wasn’t going to be a problem for long. Yeah. I’m guessing that’s not survivable. No, he took a few breaths and it was just timing that allowed us to see that. But just that impressed me more than anything else just how tough the human body is. And even after that catastrophic impact, he stayed alive for a few minutes.
right long enough for you to get there. Yeah. So I should have prefaced this. This may be inappropriate for small children this conversation. So if the kids are listening, I don’t know, you might want to either either going to learn a lot here in the next hour or you know, you might want to shut it off. There’s that. True. Yeah, it could get worse. And, you know, I think like, I try to sum up my experience as a trooper and I’m like, I’m really
It’s weird to say, but I’m thankful to have seen the things that I did, even though there were a massive amount of trauma. I heard recently, I was looking at some statistic and it’s like a normal person experiences like two to four extremely traumatic events in their lifetime. And a cop, for example, is like four to 600 of those traumatic events. I imagine a medic is even more because, you know, a lot of our calls are different things or at least comparable, but probably more. And it’s a.
You know, time heals a lot of that, right? Like I had some things that bothered me for a long time and still do depending on certain smells or things will trigger me for sure. But, you know, I was really shocked by that. I think a lot of the public don’t quite realize, you know, exactly what happens out there in the first responder world. And you definitely realize there’s a sliding scales for us. Drama goes. Yeah. Thankfully, most people in America were so insulated from those horrible things that.
Which I’m glad, right? Like not everybody’s suited to handle that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, a secretary in your office, she might, you know, be upset because they treated her poorly at Starbucks and that would ruin her day. That’s valid. That’s the worst part of her day. Yeah. And that’s the worst she can expect and that’s good. Yeah. Whereas, you know, child abuse victims or murder victims or, you know, drunk drivers, things like that. You’re going to see families destroyed and bodies destroyed. And it’s like, yeah, that’s a bad time.
Pat Krentz (18:27.63)
It’ll change you. I mean, I had like a hard time. My kids were little and I like driving really got like anytime and especially driving on the roads that I worked on. Like I lived in the next town over from where I worked for the most part. But like if I ever went through that town and my family’s in the car, it was just like, yeah, I remember that crash. I remember that died right there. And it was like every freaking intersection. And I was like, you know, my heart rates up. I’m like, I got my family in the car.
I know what can happen on this stretch of road because I’ve seen it a dozen times and it’s like, it was bad. And that got to me. And I would avoid certain roads because I’m like, I’ve seen like 10 fatals on that road. Like, I know that’s a bad road. I’m not going to drive on it. And it’s so crazy, right? Like most people do not think like that. And thankfully, right? Right. You don’t want people don’t want to know. No. And that’s OK. They pay people like us to deal with that. Yeah. Yeah.
I’ve heard more than a couple of people say in our job, we’re supposed to be the best part of someone’s worst day. And that’s a privilege if you’re handling it right. Right. Yeah. You need to be that calm in the storm and like, they look to you for that, right? Like, okay, they’re having the worst thing imaginable just happen to them and they see you and you’re just, you know, stoic, not freaking out. That can give people strength, I think, in that moment to like kind of… Yeah. And sometimes you’re having off days and…
you’re not doing all that you could. I’m sure you’ve met those officers or those paramedics. yeah. They’re burnout and they feel like just showing up is enough and it’s about their interest in this. Yeah, the compassion’s gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve seen it. I’m sure it’s happened to me too. I know it’s happened to me. I’ve known I’ve been that guy before. And I always had a very strong empathy and I think that made me good at being a cop, but also made it very hard for me because there were moments when I’m like,
Man, yeah, it comes with the cost. yeah. Yeah. And you know, when I started, mental health was not talked about, right? It was like shot, shot, you know, like you’re shunned if you even bring shit up like that week. Yeah. All of my career, I went to one critical incident debrief and that was from a shooting and, you know, none for the dozens of fatal car crashes, like nothing. And it’s like,
Pat Krentz (20:49.71)
I probably should have at least sat down with the crew and you know, hashed it out afterwards and shared some of those experiences. Because I think that can go a long way in helping us out on this side of things for sure. Absolutely. That’s that K -27 Memorial is focused on, you know, the emotional well -being of providers. I think that’s fantastic. It is. And we’re seeing more and more of that. And I’m hoping, like, I don’t, I would assume that…
you know, some of these, I imagine a lot of these experiences are what contribute to, you know, suicide rates in first responders, veterans too, of course. And I think like, you know, a bigger focus on that mental health aspect will help that in the future and at least like, you know, temper that somewhat in some of these guys and at least give them that outlet or at least help them find healthier outlets, you know, not alcohol and nicotine and.
It will be on a pinch. Yeah, I had, I had this one crash and I was, it was like one of those instances like you talked about. I happened to be like two minutes away. I was in the middle of nowhere on a down tree call and it was pouring rain. It was nighttime. It was storming like crazy. And I get the, I’m with, my buddy, Sam. I’ll get him on the podcast. One of these days we’re in two different cars and we get this call of a head on like two minutes away.
And I’m like, well, that’s random. Like we’re never up here and we get this call and just hearing the dispatcher. I’m like, you know, it’s like two bodies in the roadway. I’m like, all right. And I never did this, but I’m like, I put the gloves on while I’m driving my latex gloves. I’m like, it’s probably going to be messy. And I get there. I’m like the first on scene. There’s the one driver and then there’s two bodies in the road and they’re like 15 feet apart. And I’m looking at both of them and like, they’re both jacked up. I’m like,
I’m by myself, how am I gonna do CPR on two people at one time? I’m like, do I drag one over the other? And I’m like, I don’t know what to do here. So one guy, he was face down on the pavement and his face was like, looked like it was in the pavement. I’m like, well, he’s probably dead, right? His face is completely flat. So I go to the other guy and I start pretending to work on him and it was just like.
Pat Krentz (23:05.806)
He was dead too, obviously. And thankfully, right at that time, my partner showed up and then, you know, the volunteers showed up and like things started to settle down. But it was like that moment of like complete helplessness. I’m like, how do I handle? And that those are the things that you are not taught anywhere. Right. It’s like, how do you handle that by yourself? Right. And, that was, it was just pouring rain the whole time. And it was basically these two kids, they were out drifting in their car, no seat belts and drifted sideways into the front of an F -150. Both got ejected.
and you see the, like these crazy little things that stick with you. One of the kids, he was, I say kids, they were early, like 20 years old, right? Not kids, kids, but younger than me. He was clutching a lighter, like in his hand, the death grip. And I’ve seen that twice now, actually, I’ll tell you the other one in a second, but, it was really, it was a hell of an experience, man. And then trying to work that crash, like, unless they work it from a trooper side, right? You got to measure things. You got to, there’s a lot of forms to fill out and you’re trying to do all that in the pouring rain. And it was like,
That was one of those nights where you’re like, wow, this, this could not get any shittier, like a hundred percent. And then I’m on the scene and I turn around for a minute and the girlfriend of one of the dead guys who’s pregnant walks up and is standing over his body who we had not covered yet. I don’t know where she came from. There was no other car. She walked there. And now I have this screaming girlfriend, two dead guys. And it’s just like, wow, there we go. That’s the icing on top. Holy shit. Yeah.
That’s a bit. That was a doozy man. Yeah. The, the family is always the hardest part. Hard, right? You get those, those critical patients in front of you. I have a list of things I need to do. Yeah. I’m, I’m under time pressure and I’m, I’m task saturated usually for the first few minutes. So, I don’t have a lot of time to think about how I’m going to feel about this. Right. When family shows up at the hospital, talk to you. It’s like, I don’t think I want this connection. Yeah. Cause that’s, that’s, that’s the hard one to wash off. Right. Is, is the pain that that event left those other people. Yeah.
But yeah, dealing with family is absolutely horrible. I guess you probably saw a lot. If you’re going into somebody’s house, they’re there, right? Like at a crash, it’s pretty rare, you know, except maybe at the hospital. Maybe nowadays it’s a lot more common because, you know, you have apps to track where the kids are and you use it’ll alert you if they get in a crash. And now, like, I could see that happening a lot more now. But yeah, the first brand new trooper, the first fatal crash I went to, I had to.
Pat Krentz (25:34.318)
We get the kid to the hospital, he was like 18 and you know, he was dead but he’s laying on the gurney. I come outside and the dad is right there and I didn’t know shit, right? I was a brand new trooper and you know, he’s like, is my son okay? I’m like, well, this is one of those moments. Hate that question. Yeah, well, and it’s like I learned quickly.
you just got to cut to the chase, right? You don’t beat around the bush and you just say it. No, he’s dead. And, and like, you can’t prolong that, that moment, right? Cause it’s so heavy. And, and another thing I learned on, on crashes is like, you don’t go up to the motorcycle guy that’s crashed and he’s clearly broken and ask him if he’s okay. I learned that the first motorcycle crash I went to, right? He’s clearly not okay. So.
These are the lessons that you don’t learn in the academy. You learn them on the street and they’re hard. I use that one as a sounding board. I always walk up and say, hey, how you doing? Yeah. It’s a stupid question because I’m there, right? Right. You’re there for a reason. But their response can give you a gauge as to just how well they’re doing. OK, that’s a good point from the medic side, right? If they can respond, that’s good. Or if they’re confused, they don’t quite get it. They’re slow to respond. You start thinking about head injuries and…
going to deteriorate on you in the next few minutes. It’s a good way to kind of gauge, you know, if they’re whining about their finger, all right, then we’re probably not too injured here. However, if they’ve got, you know, angulated lower legs where there shouldn’t be angles and they’re saying, yeah, my stomach hurts real bad. All right, well, we’ve got big, big problems and we should probably go fast. Yeah. So it’s, while it seems kind of dumb on the surface, it’s useful.
asking stupid questions. Okay, that makes me feel better about that dumb question I asked that time. I started finally asking like, where are you hurt? That was like my, that was my question that I would bring to the scene then. like that makes more sense in my mind. Like they’re clearly hurt. Tell me where. And then I could get that response. I also learned pretty quickly. There’s a strategy as a trooper of not necessarily beating the ambulance to the call. Yeah, I’m familiar with that one.
Pat Krentz (27:54.926)
Or as you pull up, you see the chippy dropping flares. Yeah. Scene safety, man. Scene safety is number one. Absolutely. There’s a reason guys are doing it like that, right? Hey, bud, I need some hands.
I was always drawn to the medical side too. I was in, I got, I got certified as an EMT, before I became a cop. I never worked as an EMT, but I was always interested in the medical side because I think it’s fascinating. And it probably comes from Boy Scouts and learning, you know, first aid stuff. And, and, but like when you can effectively come somewhere and, and literally help someone like that, that’s pretty freaking rewarding. I think I probably would have been.
better suited as a firefighter or a medic just from that aspect of really liking to help people when they’re having a bad time like that. So I was always drawn to it like you know if anybody needs C -spine like I jump in the back seat and do that or CPR whatever. Yeah I got a warm spot in my heart for all those guys that did that especially the officers it’s not their primary focus. Right. For them to branch out and get into that.
that zone where they’re not comfortable. I was always very much appreciated because if we’re letting them do it, we really need you to do it. Yeah, right. Like otherwise you wouldn’t trust them. Those knuckleheads with that work. And especially as a chippy man, you’re wearing $300 in uniforms that are only dry clean. So it’s like, man, you get blood on that shit. I wear my uniform for like, sorry, this is gross. A month straight until there’s a stain on it. And then it’s like, all right, well, I better swap this one out, right?
So if you get blood on a fresh uniform or grease or anything, it’s like, dang it, man. Yeah. White seats the same way, man. Sweaty ass in that Nomex.
Pat Krentz (29:46.766)
shit. I did not fully intend to have you come here and then rehash all these traumatic experiences. So I hope it’s not too much. All right. I hope y ‘all are doing okay. Sorry. It’s a lot of information out here that you may not want to know, but here we go. When you’ve all you’ve done your entire adult life is that sort of thing. Yeah. You want to talk about vacation. That’s sure. Somebody else can talk about that. I’m not that well world traveled. I’ve spent a lot of time in shitholes. Yeah. But yeah, as far as, you know, that’s
That’s my entire life. My daughter was, she grew up with death being a dinner table subject and traumatic events and the awful things that people do to each other. You know, it’s some of my best friends are cops and firemen and of course, medics and nurses. So it’s just becomes commonplace and you do have to kind of be aware where you’re having those discussions. Absolutely need to need to know your audience. I learned that one at an early, I had a Thanksgiving East coast. My aunt was there.
I was like three or four years on the job, you know, so I’d seen enough. And I remember my aunt was like, Hey, tell me some cool work stories. I’m like, all right. Literally like three minutes later, I look up and she’s crying and I’m like, okay, wrong audience, right? Let me tell you some funny stories. I got some dad jokes. Yeah. So, you know, often people don’t really want to hear, you know, they ask, but it’s like, they don’t really know what they’re going to get. And it’s more than most people can imagine. They think they want to know. Yeah.
Yeah. What’s like your weirdest one? You got a weird one? yeah. Yeah. So I was working on the ground in, in desert hot springs and, there’s a guy on the front queue and a church and there’s a, there’s a woman doing CPR on him. So I’m like, okay, cool. And as I, we run up and we start doing our thing and going down the list and working on the guy and, he’s, he’s got like some weird apparel covering him from the waist down. Like, is this a, is this a kilt? Like,
this guy wearing, but you know, I’m kind of busy, so I’m not putting it together real quick. Yeah. And after we get him off the pew and onto the ground, we start, you know, we put an airway in and we start giving him drugs and ongoing CPR. This woman’s kind of running around doing what you would expect her to do. The presence of her husband just dying. And turns out that that was not a kilt. It was a curtain and he wasn’t wearing anything from the waist down. yeah. There was a little what’s happening here. There’s a little.
Pat Krentz (32:14.99)
extracurricular activity going on in the church. so this was not during a regular church services one gathering. Okay. It was during the day in the middle of the week. So just the two of them were in there. Interesting. All right. Pastor and his old lady are getting all recreation in and the church like that’s an orthodox. Okay. A bit. Yeah. A bit. So we, we scoop him up this, this half naked gentleman and we, we run him down to, to desert hospital, desert regional, the local trauma center and, and,
hand him over and he does not make it. He ends up being pronounced in the ER and the doctor says, hey, the wife wants to talk to you. Okay, I’m familiar with her. I go out into the lobby and I’m looking for the wife and some other woman steps up to me. She’s like, I was hoping you had my husband’s wallet. I’m like, well, who are you? She’s like, well, yeah. She’s like, I’m his wife. I’m like,
Huh? She’s like, so do you have his wallet and his car keys? I’m like, he didn’t have any pants on. boy. Yeah. She’s, she gives me this look. She’s like, -huh. Like she wasn’t fully surprised where I’m getting particularly. And she’s like stone faces me and she’s like, thank you. Yes ma ‘am. I’m out of here. It’s the most uncomfortable thing. Dang dude. Not only died, but he got caught in the Lord’s house. Nonetheless. Whoa, buddy.
You have to repent for that one. Multiple angles, buddy. Wow. That was one of the most awkward times. That was pretty awkward. You are not who I thought you were. I think one of my weirdest medical situations, I was actually at, I was eating breakfast at this place called the Cornucopia in Oroville, California. It’s a dump. Only had food poisoning like five times there, which is impressive out of the hundreds of times I’ve eaten there.
And the call comes out and we’re with the Sheriff’s Department. They get this call or the PD, whatever, and some kind of fight. There’s a guy down. So we get over there and this guy had been shot and stabbed. I’m not sure, but he was jacked up and like dying. And I’m like, all right, we got to do some CPR here, right? Here we go. Skills out. And I noticed that he has a stoma. I’m like, how do we handle this one? How do you get out in?
Pat Krentz (34:40.366)
I didn’t have any particular training in that skill set. So I’m like, all right, glove up. Stick my finger in the hole. Right? That makes sense? Did I do the right thing? You know, short point your mouth on the stoma. Yeah, that was just gooey and nasty looking. So I’m like, all right, I think that. So I stuck my finger in that hole and then we carried on with pretending to do CPR on this guy. He was dying and dead anyway, but.
That was a cool one for me. I’d never seen that before. That’s something you can, they don’t get taught. What was that? Right around 2000ish? Early, early aughts? About the time you were doing that? No, that would have been like, that would have been like 2010, 2011. Okay. So they recently, they changed up CPR. So you don’t have to put your mouth on anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Which is fantastic. Is it work is good? Like honestly? Absolutely. It does. Yeah. It works. It works very well. I mean, obviously you want more air exchange going on if you’re a provider and you have the means.
But what they found was people weren’t initiating anything because they didn’t want to do a half -assed job. So these two would engage at all. So at least this level is a lot easier for people to handle then. Yeah. And because of the recoil of your bellows system, your rib cage, it still draws air in and you can still get some exchange there. It’s not optimal, but it’s better than putting your mouth on a stranger. I didn’t know if that was BS. I’m glad to hear that that’s not entirely BS. So you’re still getting some exchange there. So if you get that undesirable person that you’re like, I ain’t putting anything on that.
You know, if it’s a family member or something, obviously, like go for it. Or if you have a mask, right? I usually have one in my truck now, but there were moments when I, when I did not. Yeah. Like every, every full arrest, return of circulation I’ve ever had had CPR prior to my arrival. Yeah. Because the professionals are always, you know, six to 10 minutes away minimum. Yeah. And, without somebody else lumping on them, you’re always getting them back pretty low. So unless you witness it on the job as a provider,
or someone else has done CPR prior to, they had to get them back or almost none. On people that weren’t obviously dead, so I’d obviously like, if you show up on a crash, and this person is obviously dead, you still wanna have the appearance of trying to do something right, so I’ve done like half at this, where I say like I attempted CPR right, like I pretended to do CPR. Like you gotta have the image of trying, I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I’m not a cop anymore, so I can say this.
Pat Krentz (37:04.078)
But there have been multiple times where I’m like, you know, the guy’s in a car seat and I’m just like, it’s not effective, right? But he’s dead. The times that I was like, maybe like four times, no save. So I’m over four on CPR. So if you crap out right here, your chances are pretty slim that I’m going to be able to save you just just for the record. Don’t feel bad. I’ve had a good run. But it does work. You know it right. OK. All right. I needed to hear that. Yeah, absolutely.
those little things are incredibly important. Like you mentioned earlier that that training is really not passed out to the people that truly need it. Officers in particular, like you see everybody, they carry their little IFAC and turn tickets are my favorite. Everybody’s got two turn tickets. There’s a trick to putting on a turn ticket. There’s some assumptions about them that a lot of people don’t know. I like picking on turn tickets just because as a professional in the US, I’ve needed a turn ticket like maybe 10 times in my entire career.
That’s impressive. I would have honestly would have thought more. I never used one. I’ve always carried one. Well, since they became kind of a thing, not first couple years, I never carried one. But after I went to enough like trauma, you know, officer down classes, yeah, early in my career, the tourniquets were the devil. You know, you had to, you know, there was all kinds of myths out there about them. They’re going to lose the limb. You got to loosen it up every 15 minutes. And none of that shit’s true. Yeah. But the GWAT.
fixed that issue with a lot of things. The global war on terror and the types of injuries that we were seeing over there, that became real clear through a couple of different studies that this is incredibly important, must be managed immediately. Like in old school trauma management, it’s ABCs, airway breathing circulation. Now it’s like TCCC is marches, it’s massive hemorrhage. Must be controlled first, then airway, then respirations. So is it like a…
CAB now or something is that a circulation airway breathing something like that? Yeah, okay. On the tactical side they call it MARCH, the guys carrying weapons and providing care in that environment. Yeah. And there’s a different format to it’s been proven, you know, over tens of thousands of casualties and thousands of deaths. This is now the better way forward. And we had the internet to compile all that data and so many things changed in my career over the years that
Pat Krentz (39:30.51)
Like my early days, I have no idea how many people I killed doing what I was taught to do. right. I was clotting people with normal saline when they had a traumatic incident. You know, two large RIVs wide open. Yeah, we’re washing out all their clotting factors. Making it harder for them to survive. That’s wild. Back early in the day, it was, you know, hyperventilate head injuries. You go, you pump a whole lot of air in there and, you know, the oxygen’s great, but what you’re doing is you’re removing all the CO2, which causes like a cerebral vasoconstriction. No, shit. So you’re strangling.
brain that’s already fighting to survive. That’s wild. They were doing this as a matter of course. I have no idea how many people have killed with that. But you attribute that that knowledge really just came out of the war. Yeah, the changes and all that. Because of the trauma they were seeing over there. Yeah, that contributed incredibly. And then, you know, I’m old and this will show here, but like the use of the internet and compiling data and moving to like an evidence -based medicine. Yeah. Changed a lot of things. So I got to see some big turns in my…
for how we handle those things. That’s wild. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. Turnicates are freaking awesome, man. I had, I worked with this guy, he was, you know, 25 years on by the time I was working with him, so he’d been around. And he told me the story of, you know, because carrying turnicates on our department was like fairly new. I mean, like after 2010, I think 2012, maybe people actually started carrying them. Not everybody carried them, but he told me the story of it. He had a UPS driver one time.
hit something and it sheared his leg off against the front of the truck and he showed up on scene. The dude was bleeding out and he didn’t have anything. So he used the dog snare. We had dog snares in our trunks and he was able to make a turn and get out of that. And I was like, Holy shit, saved the dude’s life. That’s freaking cool, man. Yeah, that’s damn good thinking. Right. I’m like, I’m a guy for medicine. That’s freaking smart. Then I went to a, I went to a train versus ped call one time and the PD like just like podunk PD right near where I was.
They showed up first. We get there 20 minutes later and this dude had I don’t know exactly how this happened. I think he was taking a crap on the tracks, honestly, and he was hammered and it severed both of his legs like right below the knees or right above the knees somewhere in there. Clean, clean severed. And he’s dead by the time I get there. I’m like, why did you guys put it? He was alive when they got there. Like, did you? Why don’t you put a tourniquet on him? Like, like we didn’t have any or whatever. I’m like,
Pat Krentz (41:57.678)
Holy shit, dude. Like if I had gotten here, I had him, my partner had him. I’m like, I’m going to save this fricking dude’s life, man. It pissed me off. Yeah. I freaking chewed him out. I was like, that’s bullshit. You guys failed. They failed. Sorry fellas. Yeah. Yeah. That one bugged me. I was like, damn it. Yeah, it’s a rough one. You know, to see somebody die that is easily savable, right? That’s not cool. Yeah. When you should have the tools and the know how to prevent it.
that’s frustrating. But from their side, you know, maybe that’s not where their focus was. Hopefully it was after that. I hope so. I’m sure that me and my partner lighten them up, maybe helped down the road and they start carrying them. But yeah, man. All right. So when did you come here? I should relate this to there is a North Idaho tie people. Don’t worry. We’re getting there. Everybody’s like, what are we talking about? This is so traumatic. So going back to the K -27 thing. Yeah. My second visit up here, I attended a
Frontier EMS conference at the resort. And while I was here that weekend, they had the service for that sergeant that was killed. And they shut down the entire conference. They wheeled TVs into every room. And the news was showing like all the overpasses through the city were covered with people waving flags and they showed his funeral procession going through town. And the way the entire community handled it, I decided like, I have to live here. That’s
That’s the place, right? Yeah. It was like the level of community support is, was unheard of. Like in Southern California, it’s, you know, there’s a lot of mixed feelings about law enforcement, public service in general and how that works. But the way they, the way the community handled it here, I’m like, this is, this is a fantastic community. I, I want to be among these people. Yeah. I tell people that a lot. And like, especially we get, you know, either retired,
first responders that are looking to move here or guys that want to lateral and work up here because they want to be actually be able to be a cop again. I’m like, you don’t understand this community freaking backs them like nothing I’ve ever seen. And it’s nice to hear somebody else say that too. Yeah. Pretty incredible. That was a huge draw for me to come up here. And obviously it’s a beautiful place to live. There’s every day I wake up and it’s, I’m here. This is fantastic. You know, growing up in one desert or another most of my life. It’s a different landscape.
Pat Krentz (44:18.83)
Very much so. So what do you do now? Currently I work for Lifeline Network, the emergency helicopter company. I manage a couple of bases, Coeur d ‘Alene and Sandpoint. Fantastic crew. Great people up here. This is probably my favorite job I’ve had. I’ve worked for for -profit flight companies and I’ve worked for the government. And Lifeline’s not for profit. So…
they invest everything back into doing a better job. That’s cool. So we get fantastic equipment. They take good care of their people. It’s like our crew’s well -beings are foremost all the time. It’s I’m pretty happy where I’m at. All right. So you’re not on the plane or the helicopter anymore you’re managing now or? So I do fly probably once or twice every two weeks. Yeah. As a medic? Yeah. Not sure I want to give that up. But I still get to fly with my crews and get my hands dirty. Nobody grows up dreaming of being a manager.
If you do, I don’t want to drink with you. But yeah, like still getting in there and doing it. I still very much enjoy that. What’s the difference in doing the job, the same job up here as opposed to where you’re at? Call volume, things like that different? They’re pretty busy up here. But one of the biggest thing I would say is the scope of practice. Like California’s manages your scope as far as like which skills you can apply, which drugs you can administer, high risk, invasive, low frequency, surgical area, which has tubes.
things of that nature. That’s very restricted depending on which county you’re flying out of in California. And California overall is pretty low on the list as far as advanced scope of practice. I’m sure if your buddy was here he would share my frustration and that there’s not a lot of trust in the EMS providers down there. Whereas up here it’s a very, very liberal scope. Probably the most advanced I’ve ever worked in barring my overseas time where there were very, very few rules.
Dude, I talked to a medic, I was a year or two ago, up here. He’s not a flight medic, but, and he was saying that same thing. He’s like, Hey, we’re like way out. You know, you’re an hour away from something. You have to be able to work at a higher scope. And he said, it’s cool. Like they let them push meds that they wouldn’t normally be able to push and do, and do a lot of things like that. And it’s like, that kind of comes with the territory, right? Like if they don’t allow that, people are going to die.
Pat Krentz (46:43.438)
you got to give them a little bit more leeway and let these guys do that job because they can clearly do it. Sure. And there, and I understand some of the reasoning for it, even though I don’t agree with it, they’re, they’re hoping to not cause any harm by, by, inexperienced or, unpracticed providers applying these skills. It’s, you can absolutely harm somebody if you wrongly apply a treatment. So I can see where there’s, there’s definitely some nerves about it, but, you know, any answer to that is training and that costs money. It costs time and you have to have them.
to engage in that. So there’s some obstacles to getting there, but California never really seemed interested in getting past those obstacles. As I was leaving in late 2010, early 2011, they kept taking more skills. It was, you know, LA County, for example, has never been able to innovate pediatric patients, which is an insertion of an invasive airway into your tracheal breathing tube.
Seems pretty important. It is, but there’s also some risks. So if you’re not paying attention, you can, you can suffocate the kid because it’s, it’s likely that that tube could slip out with a little bit of movement and they were losing so many kids. They pulled that skill and then eventually they started pulling it for adults and they started restricting more skills that weren’t being applied correctly and they were doing harm. And that was frustrating. I think most of that was driven by unions protecting the incompetent. I’m not a big union fan.
I think with modern labor laws, they’re pretty outdated and they can become an obstruction rather than a help. So it was a lot of those cases where they were rather than fix the issue, they would just pull the skill for everybody. And that’s when you’re looking to do more and know more and have more tools in the toolbox, that’s a frustrating thing. That’s extremely frustrating. So up here, that’s not much of an issue. Idaho has got a great scope of practice. They have a lot of trust in their pre -hospital providers.
that’s always appreciated to have somebody put their faith in you. How do you feel about the skill level of the medics up here compared to? The skill level is great. Yeah. Yeah. I think that the guys I’ve worked with, they’re fantastic. More than that, like the difference in ego. You’re dealing with different agencies and departments all over Southern California. It’s very difficult depending on that department’s culture. And up here,
Pat Krentz (49:08.366)
Getting it done and doing the best thing for the patient seems to be everyone’s goal. So that in and of itself makes everything so much easier. So I’m not worried about his personality. We’re just worried about, okay, we need this done in this amount of time. Let’s make it work. Hell yeah. So that was one of the biggest things I noticed when I first got up here before the changes in the scope of practice really took hold in my perception. It was just how easy it was to work with everyone. Yeah. That’s incredibly valuable.
Are you guys, is there anybody else doing flight care up here? Are you guys pretty much it? Like do any of the government agencies do it? Well, there’s an aircraft out of Montana called Two Bear Air. It’s funded solely by one philanthropist. shit. Yeah, that’s freaking cool. He’s got a fat checkbook, let me tell you. They’re flying a nine million dollar aircraft. They do hoist.
He funds everything out of his, his personal bank account and they do, they do very limited medical care, but they do rescue, which is very hard to get ahold of. It’s like the long line hoist. and they no charge. Will they come to Idaho too? Absolutely. Holy shit. Our crews work with them pretty frequently. That’s fricking cool. Yeah. So I’ve, I don’t know the guy’s name. I’ve heard about him quite a bit. never met him. I hope to you someday. Cause I mean, that’s amazing. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. Damn.
I mean, not just right. I mean, you think about fuel and maintenance costs. yeah. Yeah. You’re looking at, you know, without fuel and without crew, that aircraft, I think, is somewhere between like 14 to $1 ,600 an hour to operate just in maintenance. Holy crap. So it’s it’s they say to make a small fortune in aviation, you got to start with a large one. That guy is is definitely not afraid to put his money where his heart is. So, wow. Bless that guy. How many aircraft do you guys have?
about here. Somewhere in the mid 40s, I think. Really? Yeah. What’s your full area that you cover? Most of Oregon, Washington, all of Idaho, and Western Montana. okay. So that’s pretty big area. 32 bases at this point. And all helicopters? No, we have, I think, 12 fixed wing now. Is that just for like transport from here to there? Yeah, we do a lot of inter facility flights. Okay. And some of those distances are prohibited for a helicopter.
Pat Krentz (51:25.198)
Not to mention the flight rules for flying in certain visibility or weather. Helicopters just can’t do it the same way that a fixed wing can. And out here we don’t have IFR helicopters instrument flight rules. I suppose we could, but the freezing levels out here make it difficult to maneuver in most of that weather anyway. So we tend to use the fixed wings when we can’t fly due to low weather in the rotor wing aircraft. So.
In the winter time, the fake swings are incredibly busy. So they fly out of Coeur d ‘Alene and Zan Point? Both the airports are? Ann Pullman, Lewiston, Spokane, Moses Lake Brewster, Zula, Butte. dang. They’re all over the place. Okay. Everywhere. Shoot, that’s a lot. We do have a competitor over in Washington, Airlift Northwest. They’re based out of University of Washington. They’re pretty much, I think they’re like an eight or a 10 aircraft program. I don’t know a whole lot about them.
I’m usually focused on my own. Yeah. Crews and problems. So they are around. Met a few of their crews. Nice people. Are the calls up here different than say like San Bernardino where you can’t… Like is it crashes in the middle of nowhere? Is it like… What kind of stuff you deal with? Yeah, there’s… You know, depending on your base and…
Pat Krentz (52:47.79)
I could use the word culture for that. Some bases do a whole lot of inter facilities like the smaller standalone, the freestanding facilities that are looking for more definitive care. Like for example, Shoshone is a very small hospital out in Kellogg. So when they need something like open heart surgery, they need stroke care, then they’re gonna fly them to Kootenai or Sacred Heart where they can get that care. And a lot of that is where we step in. We had a…
I worked when I started working as a trooper in California, I started over in Humboldt County and it was like pretty remote. There was this hospital in this town called Redway. That was the name of the town. I can’t remember the name of the hospital. Damn. Anyway, it it was podunk. And like you go there, you’re going to die pretty much. And we had a deal in the office like, hey, if I get shot or anything like do not fucking take me to the hospital.
You get me in the car and you drive code three north to Eureka. That’s the best bet we got. Or you call the damn CHP helicopter or whoever and you pick me up and you find me somewhere else. Like that was the deal. That was widely recognized. So that I like, I’m not throwing any hospitals down up here, but I understand like some small town hospitals just are not equipped for that. Absolutely. That major trauma. They just can’t afford it. Right. It’s, you know, capability takes money and lots of it. Yeah. And tiny communities just can’t support that. No. And like you’re not getting the best of the best, right?
I’ll speak on the hospital. I know. And like the doctors there were just horrible. Like old, not that old doctors are wrong, but like old. I can say this because I don’t work in this business. Old and competent. And it’s just like, wow, no way. It may be the same here. You don’t need to speak on that because you work here. I’ll just assume whatever I’m going to assume and go from there. God bless them for the effort they put in. I’ll take a finger. Thank you.
Perfect. This stuff’s good, man. It’s one of my favorites. Yeah. Yeah, it’s, I try to tell people all the time, like it’s so, it’s so much different up here. I would love to be a cop here. My wife wouldn’t love me to be a cop anywhere anymore, but I would love it. I think it’s just, the community is so much different. I imagine it’s for like all, all first responders. It’s kind of the same vibe. I’ve never seen anywhere like it.
Pat Krentz (55:09.198)
Across the way, I got a couple buddies who work for Spokane sheriffs and they’re a little frustrated with the system that they have to work under. And the politics over there is not supported by law enforcement. No, the pay is better. That’s what draws people. We get guys that move here and then work over the border in Washington. That’s pretty common as a cop. And it’s like,
You got to wait out, right? Like, yeah, you’ll get paid better, but you don’t get to do the job at all. Like you can’t really take people to jail. you can’t chase people. It’s like, is that worth it? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe it’s worth it to you. Like you got to pay the bills too, right? Yeah. But, that’s a, a morale killer. A hundred percent. Absolutely. And I know they’re having a hard time hanging on to guys on that side of the state line. Yeah. I can absolutely see it. It, it makes me relieved. I.
chose not to become law enforcement. Yeah. As the pay increases over here and it’s slowly increasing, as it increases over here, I think, you know, it’ll be a no brainer for guys. Like I’d rather work in Idaho, work for CUNY County Sheriff or Coeur d ‘Alene PD or Post Falls or Rathbun or any of them. And, you know, like you get to do the job. We just had, we had Shoshone County, SO Captain Seth Green on recently and like stud.
That dude’s cool. And, you know, just hearing, and that’s a small department, right? They’re, they’re over there, but like, dude, they’re dealing with some, they’re, they’re cleaning that place up and I’m impressed. Like they’re pulling guns, they’re pulling dope, like a lot. And, you know, I always tell people it is very safe up here. Like when you hear me say that, it sounds like, man, it’s bad, but this community is extremely safe. And to know that there are cops that can be proactive and like to be proactive.
I mean, it’s just better and better, right? Like down the road, they’re they’re prolonging the safety of this community as the world falls apart. And, you know, stupid policies happen in the states surrounding us. Like, we’re like this little bubble of freaking freedom here. And I freaking love it. Yeah, this isn’t going to be broadcast California as it stay out. It’s terrible here. That’s that’s the common feedback. I actually get a lot of crap on YouTube because, you know, I
Pat Krentz (57:28.174)
I make videos about this place and I say how awesome it is. But my response to the nasty comments that I get, don’t read them by the way, they’re traumatic. I ignore a lot of them. It’s like, hey, yeah, we do attract people, but we attract the right people. I am personally invested in building the strongest community possible, because I just feel like, I’m not saying the world’s gonna completely fall apart, but it’s not getting any better out there.
And I feel like the stronger we can make this community in any number of ways, right? Physically stronger, politically stronger, all of that, the better for us. And this is the place I want to raise my family. So that’s kind of my goal. That’s my pushback on that is like, hey, you know, at the same time, it’s not about coming up here and having all the guns and all the ammo like that doesn’t do shit if you can’t.
maintain the politics of this place, right? That’s the important thing. Group mindsets incredibly important. 100%. Not doing anything on your own. Right. And I heard like recently, the voter turnout up here is actually rather dismal. It’s like 10 to 15 % of people actually go out and vote. And I think the problem is, you know, people move here or they’ve lived here a long time and they’re like, this is great. And then I can just breathe a sigh of relief and just not do anything, right? Not engage. Not engage. That’s a freaking problem because
There are bad actors everywhere out there right now here in this community as well trying to change it. And if we don’t unite and do the right thing, then it’s going to slide. Yeah, paying attention to that’s incredibly important. It is. Unfortunately, I just missed our last election day. I was in Tennessee picking up helicopters. OK, well, that’s a good reason. I give you a pass on that. My job kind of dictated that one. Yeah. But if you’re in town and you were like,
too lazy to vote or didn’t pay attention and missed the vote, shame on you. You need to get out and we’ve got the, I think November the, will be another election. So make sure you get out there and pay attention to who’s running because they may be Republican, but they might not be thinking the same way you want them to think. Yeah, that’s apparently a big problem. It is. I had a couple of gentlemen show up at my…
Pat Krentz (59:49.838)
I run the monthly shooting match out at Fernand Rod and Gun Club. I did not know that. It used to be USPSA, but now it’s a similar format. We call it something different. So it’s action pistol, run and gun sort of shit. I’ve been wanting to come do that. I know a guy that currently I found the right guy. That’s cool. During my last shooter’s meeting at a…
They asked me for a couple of minutes to speak to the group at the beginning of the shoot. We always have a safety brief and run over the format of how things are going to go. And we’ve been getting quite a few new shooters in lately, so it can be a little lengthy by my standards, you know, seven or eight minutes, which I don’t really like because I don’t want to shoot. But they came out and they had a list that they had put together of folks that did vote, you know, along how they advertise and as far as their local political positions and.
they had pointed out that there were some some organizations that were not what they represented themselves to be. Yeah, it’s because they know voters are lazy men. It’s got to make them feel good about what they’re doing. They don’t have to know what they’re doing. They don’t. They feel good. And it’s name recognition. they’re like you get there. And I’ve been there like you get this ballot sheet and you don’t know everything about everybody. And you see his name. You’re like, I recognize that name. There we go. That’s the one. I’ve done it.
state. It is right because you don’t really know what they’re about. And the information is out there. It’s not that hard to find. So find it and make sure you vote because you know we want to preserve the way of life that we have here. But if we don’t actively do it it’s going to freaking it’s going to change. Yeah it will be California junior in 10 years. Right. Or I don’t even know worse. I don’t know. So yeah that’s a big that’s a big deal in my world right now. And and.
the second amendment rights stuff. Like I got a buddy that owns a gun shop in Post Falls, North Idaho Arms and Brian Zelinski. And he’s like, he came from Washington, ran a big gun shop over there. And he’s like, he knows how it happened in Washington. And he’s actively trying to prevent that from happening here. Right. He’s like currently trying to get legislation to pass a law to make it illegal for Idaho to use commerce law against the second amendment rights, because that’s how it happened in Washington.
Pat Krentz (01:02:04.846)
They made it illegal to import, some other words there, I can’t remember. And, and that’s how they got the, standard capacity magazines to be banned from import and make it really hard to get them over there. and that’s a fricking problem. Like that would really piss me off. Yeah. They’re, they’re very interested in letting, letting those individuals go that actually commit crimes, but.
Right. Simply having an item that might be used in a crime is far more serious offense in some people’s minds. I’m not quite sure I follow that logic. I can’t follow the logic. It does not make sense to me. But, you know, that’s how it happens. And so we need to like make sure as conservatives that we’re teaming up and figuring out ways to keep that from happening because if everybody’s complacent, it’s going to die. And it goes a long way towards keeping society polite, man. Everybody in armed society is a polite society. And it’s very true.
there’s a reason we don’t have a lot of property crime here is because everybody I know is carrying a gun. Right. Right. You don’t really want to take that risk if you’re looking for easy pickings. Yeah. We had that was that last year, the year before that at Target right here in Coeur d ‘Alene. And I got a little bit of the insider info from somebody from the sheriff’s department, somebody very high up. And yeah, basically this older gentleman in his seventies had been at the pawn shop and had bought some
gold and silver and had this in his car. This dirt bag from Washington followed him to Target and was trying to burglarize his car because he knew that precious metals were in there. The gentleman stepped in front of his car, drew his pistol and the guy tried to run him over and he shot him through the front windshield, killed him and good shoot. Sheriff’s department had his back 100%.
Fuck around and find out, right? Is that the term, I believe, that we would use here? Yeah. Yeah. That’s legit, man. Good for him for being prepared. It is, right? As a cop, I saw that at first, and I was like, because we had strict policy, like, do not step in front of a vehicle, because then you’re forcing a deadly shoe, basically. So that my initial thought was like, that guy’s going to be in trouble, right? He shouldn’t have done that. But this guy at the Sheriff’s Department was like, no, no, that’s a good shoe. You’re like, stand your ground. OK. There you go.
Pat Krentz (01:04:26.382)
And hopefully other people in Washington and other places in here took note like, yep, maybe I shouldn’t do that. Good chance. Yeah, they’re not criminals because they’re overachievers. Make it difficult for them. Right. Right. Good chance you do something stupid here, you’re going to get shot. Well, and there’s a lot of great people in Washington too. We just got to keep the hell out of the left lane on Idaho freeways. Please move over. If you’re listening, I’m talking to you. That’s hilarious that you said that.
I that was one of my big pet peeves as a cop, as a trooper. And like I would routinely do the whole they’re in the slow lane or the fast lane. I get behind him, hit him with the code threes and take them all the way to the shoulder until they stop. And then I just take off. Like, please, please don’t do that. So frustrating. So frustrating. And they do take the speed limits very seriously. dude. I mean, I know you, J .P .s. You’re like less than 20 over. yeah. No, I had that attitude here. Don’t don’t play around. I got pulled over.
Three weeks ago, I have fine Kootenai County Sheriff, Deputy, and yeah, it turned out fine. He’s a nice gentleman, but I learned a lesson. I was like, okay, the same rules do not apply here. Gotta pay attention to this number. I was nine over.
Nine over. And I’m like, that’s fine in California. 15 over, right? I’d never stop anybody for less than 15 over back there. You get run over doing nine over. Everybody’s passing by. 100%. I now set my cruise control on that particular road for three over because I just have to, I can’t. I hear you. I can’t physically drive the speed on some of these roads. It’s a 35. It’s a 35. It’s like nobody drives 35. I can’t do it. I’ll do it in that school zone. Yeah. 100 % for sure. But I can do 38. That my mind can handle. And,
We’ll see how that goes. But yeah. And you know, I had a buddy, former chippy, lives up here too. And he got stopped by an ISP on the freeway. He was doing like 15 over, you know, once again, California’d be fine. I mean, he got a ticket, which was good, because he drives too fast, in my opinion. So he had it coming. Yeah, I might have had one or two tickets as well. Did you? Yeah.
Pat Krentz (01:06:35.15)
Wish I could say I didn’t deserve it, but I did.
Pat Krentz (01:06:41.358)
So that’s a valuable lesson. If you’re moving here, pay attention to the speed limit. Yeah. And move to the right. And here’s one that got me the sheriff’s department up here has radar in their car. California, at least everywhere I ever worked, none of the sheriffs had radar. Really? Yes. So I come up here and I’m like, I don’t have radar. They do. Yeah. Learn that one quick. Yeah. I think my first month here, I got pulled over for six over. Six? They are serious. Damn. I was on government.
Okay. Yeah. Sheriff. Sheriff. Yeah. Sheriff. Yeah. Very nice. Very polite. He scolded me without being a dick about it. Thank you, sir. Yeah. And I’m like, huh? All right. And so I knew. It’s hard for me to be like, when they tell me like, you know, that’s not safe. I’m like, actually, bro, I could do 90 on this road. I think I could be pretty safe. I don’t say that, right? That would not work out well. But they know they’re lying about it. They do. They do. I just like just.
Just smile when you say it, at least, right? They do got to uphold the standard. 100%. If you let that standard go, right? Then you end up in a place where people are doing 20 over routinely. And that’s not good. A little bit of mission creep there. You got to hold the line somewhere. Apparently it’s six up here. So be warned. Be warned if you’re moving here. Don’t speed. No. Where were we? Traffic tickets. We got off the rails a little bit. This bourbon is great, by the way. Thanks, man.
Yeah, I suggest a six -year. It’s easier to get and it’s just as good. Bibb and Tucker, I’ve never even heard of that. I’m not like the super -burban kind of sewer though. I had a, I got a, I was drinking, what were we drinking? We were drinking Bullet on here. That’s like my go -to. It’s like the Coors Light of bourbon world. It’s easy to drink. And it’s everywhere. Yeah, it is. You get the big bottles for a reasonable price. And I got a buddy that’s a former US Marshal, retired.
Texting me, he’s like, what are you drinking, dude? I was like, well, I shot back. I was like, well, I’m taking, I’m taking donations for the podcast. He’s like, come by my house. I was like, it’s on the porch. I was like, all right. And he dropped off that bottle of trails end back there. And that’s pretty damn good. I was impressed.
Pat Krentz (01:09:00.43)
I’ve not tried this stuff. It was good. It’s it’s got some heat to it. Nice. I noticed this this one the bib and Tucker’s a little bit smoother, but yeah, I was so there we go And then we got that bottle of Pendleton back there that has not been cracked yet. So Eric Bordman my partner dropped that off and I can’t remember we have some he’s like that’s saved for a special occasion. I was like, okay, well Wait, see what that is. But that one’s a good bottle right there. So if you’re out there and you’re looking to donate some bourbon
shoot me a message, I’ll tell you where to send it. And thank you. Cigars too, why not? And ammunition, he needs ammunition. Yeah, I deal with so much ammunition. I’m actually a member of Fernand, Fernand Gun Club. If you see the word, you would think it’s pronounced Fernin or some other way, but it’s Fernand. And there’s a lake, right next to Coeur d ‘Alene, Fernand Lake, and it’s on the far side of that lake. It’s a great…
freaking range. Beautiful. It is. I was very impressed. So it’s gated, multiple bays. You see, you don’t get any knuckleheads in there drinking or anything stupid. Like everybody’s good. That’s a great spot. Yeah. They got flush toilets, classrooms. Yeah. It’s just in a few years that I’ve been there. It’s the improvements they’ve done are fantastic. It’s a paid parking lot. Yeah. Just not freezing your ass off in the porta potty in the winter. It’s fantastic. It is.
They do three gun matches out there. I do my pistol matches. I need to come out for that. There’s I haven’t done that in a long time. There’s a precision rifle shoot with 22s. I’m sorry, Wyatt. I’m forgetting the name of your organization, but they basically do precision rifles with highly modified 22 bolt action. That’s fun and cheap. Yeah. And they’re shooting out to 400. Holy crap. The 22. Yeah, dude. As they’re serious about their game. Wow. So I’m good for like.
25 yards with my 22 all day long, all day long go for shot. I’ve got, so I am a member of Fernand, but, I haven’t even, I mean, I’ve been once this year, I got, I just bought five acres outside of town. So it’s like, I can shoot there. I got some steel set up and it’s like, it’s pretty damn convenient to be able to walk out of my front door and 20 feet and I can shoot. Yeah. So it’s hard for me to get over there. Yeah. I got that going in my yard too, but the organization and all the, all the organized trainings that we do and the.
Pat Krentz (01:11:26.222)
as we hold. They do a lot of good training there. It’s all down there. Yeah I would love to come do some like pistol like because I did a ton of that as a I was a range officer for the my office as a J .P. and it was like I shot all the time like four or five times a month as much as I wanted to shoot. I got bored shooting I was shooting so much. Free ammo is an amazing. It is amazing yeah good ammo too. But yeah I haven’t done like any kind of
you know, running gun, that’s fun. A third Saturday of the month, man, come out. Like that, huh? Is a pistol, rifle, shotgun, or just pistol, rifle? That’s three gun, that’s the first Saturday of the month. Okay. So that one’s coming up. I’m going to be out of town, but if you want to go to that one, then I’ll hook you up with the guys that are running it. I’ll wait till you’re there. I need to know somebody. A third Saturday is pistol only. And that’s probably an easier thing to jump into because you kind of get the full amount of three gun, but it’s a lot less complicated as far as your gear and your game plan and how you need to address it all.
Is there any, is it pretty low key as far like I just need a holster and a pistol and mags? Yeah, some mag pouches. I and Air Pro and good safety habits are good to go. Okay. Yeah. It’s, if you show up this month and you squad with me and I’ll show you how to address things and how we’re doing that. And I mean, we’ve so many new shooters in the last couple of years. My matches went from like 27, 28 people every month to now we’re pushing 75 every month. Damn.
lot of new faces all the time and the core die -hard guys that shoot every chance they get and travel all around and hit the big and small competitions. It’s addicting. It’ll take all your time and money. That’s my time. That’s my challenge. Time. If I put it in the calendar, I will honor it. That’s my go -to. I’ll shoot you the date. Yeah, and I’ll honor it. Cool.
I actually would like that because it’s like it steps me out of my comfort zone. I haven’t done it in a long time. It’s just the act of getting there and then it’s like, all right, I’m good. Like I can do that. Yeah. See how rusty I am. It’s difficult getting certain demographics to come out. Cops don’t like to shoot with us. There’s an ego element there. I’ve noticed that too. As a, as a former range guy, you’d be shocked how many cops out there are not the best shooters. Yeah. They do the bare minimum, which always surprised me because that’s like the,
Pat Krentz (01:13:49.678)
Low probability, high risk skill that you need to be really freaking good at. Because it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, there’s a lot on the line, including your own life, liability, all of that. That and fighting. I’ve been in jujitsu a long time and it’s like getting cops to train in jujitsu is so freaking hard. And I think it’s an ego element for sure. And jujitsu is hard sport to get into. It’s uncomfortable. You’ll probably get hurt at some point.
People are gonna sweat in your mouth and your eyes and that’s gross But it’s really really probably more yeah more important than even being a good shooter because you’re more likely to be in a physical confrontation But trying to get guys to go do that possible. That’s fantastic for your mental well -being you get a physical vent and yeah learn some humility along the way Yeah, just he’s like been a game changer in my life as far as mental health to crap
Yes, I do miss it. I’m starting to get old. I creak when I get up. Yeah, me too. Second language is dad noises. Yeah. I, you know, it’s, I’m thankfully at the level now where I can usually have most control and I know my training partners real well. So the probability of getting hurt is a lot lower than it was, but still occasionally. Yeah. Last week I, I was,
rolling with a 265 pound pure muscle. Dude’s a tank. And I saw this moment and I was like, I think I can shoot a double on him. So I shot in to shoot a double and then my face ran into a brick wall and bent my neck back. And then he like, thankfully, slowly sprawled on me and bent my neck pretty much like it felt like my back of my head touched my back. And I literally heard the tearing in my trap, like this ripping sound. And I was like, my God.
I think I just paralyzed myself and I got up and I was like, okay, I’m okay. But it’s now a week later and I’m dealing with headaches every day that are slowly getting better as the muscles kind of calm down in my neck. And you know, pretty rare. That wasn’t a great sales pitch for jujitsu, I understand that. Pretty rare. And I blame myself. I should not have done that. I should have known better.
Pat Krentz (01:16:12.526)
It wasn’t his fault. And he didn’t he didn’t torque you? No, he’s really chill white belt. Thank you. You know who you are if you’re listening. I appreciate you. He’s really chill. Those giant white belts will injure you. Yeah, but that one I fully notch up to my I injured myself on his muscular 265 pound frame. Damn it. But you know, valuable lesson. I learned I learned that right. You’re getting a fight with a 265 pound jackdude. You’re better off running away. Yeah, don’t you double? Do not. Do not.
Bad idea. Yeah. We’re an hour and 15 minutes. Look at that. Ready? Yeah. Probably should call it. So much bourbon left. We talked about a lot of things here. That’s good, dude. Good conversation. Nice to get to know you a little bit on that side. I, you know, if I’m ever hurt on the side of the freeway, you have my permission to stick your finger in whatever orifice that’s needed to stop the bleeds to stop the bleeding. Let me just put that caveat in there. Bleeding.
You heard it here folks You know what I never got to do and I always wanted to do sidebar. I meant to say this earlier Is it a pneumothorax lungs are collapsing I wanted to needle them Needle thoracostomy. Yeah, dude. You’re you’ve done that. I’m sure yeah and chest tubes. God damn. So jealous I got a needle so you’d go to the I go to the ER all the time because they take people in there for blood draws for DUIs and I just like
I wouldn’t steal it, right? This is, you know, I’d ask permission, but I had like suture kits. I had all this shit and I got like the kit to do that. And I was like, you know, I got some verbal training on how to do it. I’m like, all right, I am waiting and I will do this to somebody or I’ll do it to myself. And, you know, I got permission from my beat partners. I’m like, bro, if you ever, if you ever need this, I like, I’m going to do it. And I know it’s against policy. I’m going to get in trouble, but like, it’s against a lot of it, but I’m going to do it. All right. And I might save your life or I might kill you. I don’t know. Yeah.
Pretty hard to kill somebody with a needle you can make it worse, but okay. I mean I could get rid of the evidence pretty quickly, right? You wouldn’t even see the hole Even if you’re successful just bury the body somewhere A little hard to do when it’s your B partner, but you know hey, we’ll make it work Anyway, yeah never got to do it Maybe my day will come hey, maybe it’ll be you you’re out there on the side of the road and I’m gonna stick a needle in your chest Take pictures put on yeah, I’ll get a waiver filled out real quick. I do it sign for you
Pat Krentz (01:18:40.814)
Don’t die, Sunnets. All right, here we go. man. Thank you. I apologize if that was traumatic for you. Maybe it’s interesting because I think a lot of the public doesn’t get to hear this side of things. And we managed to relate to North Idaho, which is important because this is a podcast about North Idaho. So thank you guys for listening. I hope you got something out of it. Shoot us questions. Do you want questions for Pat? Let me know. I’ll connect you. Thanks for having me on, brother. That was fun, dude. Yeah.
That was therapeutic as well. Always good to get these conversations out. Looking forward to that third Saturday, man. I’m in dude. Here’s one thing. I don’t have a lot of skills in life, but I will fucking show up. Nice. That’s all you got to do. That’s been my entire life, you know, skill set is like, I will show up when I say I’m going to show up. And it’s got me a long way in life. Well, your first one’s free because we know you’re going to come back and we’re going to get your money. perfect. Love it.
Thanks brother. Thanks for having me. And happy Memorial Day to you guys. Yeah, I hope you’re out, you know, thinking about those that are lost in the line of duty, whether it’s as veterans or for me, like, I don’t know a lot of veterans that pay the price personally, but I do know some pops, so that’s to them. Cheers to those heroes.
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