Breakfast with a Legend
By Jay Pinsky
Last week, I found myself in the rugged beauty of West Texas, embarking on a hunt that was as much about paying tribute to my father, the late SFC Robert J. Pinsky, and the Green Beret Foundation as it was about pursuing my first aoudad. It was an unforgettable experience, and I’ll share more about it as Veterans Day draws near.
But this story isn’t about the hunt. It’s about what came afterward. Following the expedition, my guide, the incomparable outdoor writer Shane Jahn, and I headed back to Alpine, Texas, for the night. Before flying out of Midland the following day, we had the honor of sharing breakfast with a true legend in the outdoor community: Sheriff Jim Wilson.
If you don’t know who Jim Wilson is, I urge you to read Richard Mann’s piece on him. Mann, another stalwart in the industry, can paint a much more complete picture of who Jim Wilson is than I ever could. What I can tell you, though, is this: I left that breakfast deeply impressed—not by how Jim Wilson handles a gun, but by how he handles something far more dangerous in today’s world: his words.
The mainstream media would have you believe that a man like Sheriff Jim Wilson—Texan through and through, gun-toting, Bible-believing, and steeped in more than 30 years of law enforcement experience—must be cold, rigid, maybe even condescending. They’d have you think that a man who looks like he just stepped off the set of a John Wayne Western would cling tightly to the wrongs of the world like bigotry, racism, male chauvinism, and hate.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, not only does Jim Wilson steer clear of those mindsets, but he’s never even grazed them. A true gentleman wouldn’t. After more than an hour of conversation that spanned topics from aoudad hunting to politics to firearms, one message resonated clearly: our industry needs more of the “old guard”—men like Sheriff Jim Wilson—now more than ever.
You see, virtues like honor, integrity, and kindness don’t have an expiration date. These qualities aren’t inventions of today’s world; they are timeless. But they are also perishable. If you don’t make them a habit, if you don’t consciously practice them, you risk losing them when they’re most needed. And when you lose them, you risk making mistakes—sometimes catastrophic ones.
I haven’t had the opportunity to shoot with Jim Wilson yet. But if his skill with a handgun is anything like his skill in handling humanity, then the law and this country are fortunate to have such a man on our side. America couldn’t ask for a better guardian from the “old guard” or the new.
Editor's Note - Don't bother looking for Sheriff Jim Wilson on Facebook. Catch him on "X" - sheriffjim4445
Jay Pinsky
Editor - The Hunting Wire & The Archery Wire
Jay@theoutdoorwire.com
