Above: Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke rides to work on his first day escorted by the U.S. Park Police. DOI photo.
On March 2, his first day as the new Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke of Montana rode to work on a horse. Now having access to the horses used by the U.S. Park Police (part of the National Park Service), Secretary Zinke mounted a horse at the NPS stables on the Mall and rode about a mile to the headquarters of the Department of the Interior.
As you no doubt figured out, Secretary Zinke is the one in the photos rocking the cowboy hat.
In his new profession the 55-year-old former Navy SEAL supervises firefighters in the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and about 69,000 other employees.
Of course, some folks on Twitter had fun with this:
“i am sorry senator no body is allowed in here”
“wat about that guy on the horse”
“it is his first day on the job senator he is just lost” pic.twitter.com/sUzycN5ifP— darth™ (@darth) March 2, 2017
Day 2: @RyanZinke takes WMATA pic.twitter.com/j8Vh1udkS3
— Shoshana Weissmann (@senatorshoshana) March 2, 2017
We should start an immediate investigation into Ryan Zinke and his ties to Russia and Putin. Not a horse of a different color! pic.twitter.com/uHFIb1LF2O
— Rum Ham Sinkie (@DMMusings) March 3, 2017
I love to see that the figurehead of the DOI is unwilling to promote PPE on his horse ride up the steps. The cops wear helmets, but he is somehow exempt from that?
All my years of promoting PPE use get flushed every time this happens.
Disingenuous at best but Montana has a long history of thi kind of buffoonery including Conrad Burns and Denny Rehberg.
I still have a few of my “Wildland Firefighters for Tester” bumper stickers that helped “unelect” Conrad Burns back in 2006 after he verbally attacked a crew in the Billings Airport.
There’s an old saying in the West about someone being “all hat, no cows.”
As a Montanan, my judgement is still out on Zinke: his record on the environment in the Congress was less than great, in my opinion.
He claims he’s a Teddy Roosevelt guy. We’ll see.
Me, i’ve got a small herd of registered Black Angus, but no cowboy hat or horse, and I wear my Muck Boots way more than pointy-toed cowboy boots.
Is this the same Dick Mangan who educates Fire Safety and Equipment issues, both across the U.S. and internationally, including Australia, Spain and Siberia?
In my research you are an elite of the TRUE…
So there is H.O.P.E. kids…Dick is still kicking and alive…maybe in his lifetime the issues will finally be touched ?
Dick Mangan:
In your years in the industry, is PPE one of the forefront concerns or the tactics being performed to suppress a wildfire successfully on the line?
The easy answer was stated 25 years ago by my old friend Paul Gleason: LCES.
Nuff said.
I would love to have some folks share to Zinke their pure true stories about the red flowers across the USA where I have a deep respect for the honest ones yet none but prayer for the ones who allow humans and homes especially Firefighters may it be structural…hybrid…wildland…aerial…smokejumpers…marshalls…ICU…have to hold in some rather important true lessons to surface going back to Mann Gulch to the many many tragedies after…I would say the DNA of the industry is fine in my research just some getting wealthier at the cost of lives lost not so fine. Orchestrate. Narrate. Storytelling. Pretend some areas never happened and label it a bad thing happened….chaotic afternoon. One day these kids who faced their mom or dad lost to a fire can have their HAPPILY EVER ENDING!
WHY DO YOU THINK I WONT REST UNTIL I GOT EVERY FOIA AND EVERY STONE TURNED OVER TO ENSURE THESE FIRES ARE PROPERLY ASSESSED.
Lives Matter!
Should be heavier restrictions to easily drop slurry drops in residential or scenic or highways or waterways…less used on forefront and more where back country meets human lives. AND smarter tactics to burn out operations. Do you know how many Fire Chiefs are in a position that I know more fire terminology in interviews than the ones in charge…true yet sad.
Lets improve some areas soon please Zinke.
Please.