“All of them are armed. Many are hard asses.”
I don’t doubt that. I can’t see any other types being attracted to the job. The lack of immediate backup, the requisite degree of self confidence and self initiative are what set this apart from most (not all) law enforcement and military tasks though, or look like it from an outsider’s perspective.
Well, what you lsit may be attributes needed for such a job, but it doesn’t endear you to the public. Far too many folks I know have had encounters with em that lasted awhile with the guy trying to find anything out of order in order to cite them for something.
It’s that kind of mentality that makes people hate government. For example, in Lake Michigan you don’t dare release even one gallon of water waste from your boat, you will get fined into the thousands and be made out to be the biggest eco criminal and polluter around. yet the Milwaukee Metro Sewer District anytime it rains a little hard, despite wasting 4 billion on a deep tunnel holding tank project, dumps hundreds of millions of gallons of partially and untreated sewage out into the lake, and they never get a single fine.
This is the hypocrisy we deal with with the DNR and their (some, not all) maniacal wardens.