A former Navy Seal reflects on the people, places, and experiences that shaped the trajectory of his life in this superb memoir.
In Riding the White Bull, Jack Ratliff narrates his fascinating years as a college student-turned-Navy-officer that included stints as a rodeo bull rider, wildfire firefighter, and Navy SEAL.
Beginning with his college years at the University of Texas, Ratliff cherry picks the most entertaining stories from his youth and spins devilishly good tales. Home from classes one summer, Ratliff and a friend sign up for a rodeo, for which the Sonora, Texas native has the boots for, but perhaps not the bronc-riding experience. He searches out Tommy Barstow, a wizened cowboy and rodeo hand, whose pro tips on bareback and bull riding help Ratliff live through the experience of riding a pure white bull called Monkey’s Uncle. Ratliff writes this conversation as an engaging dialogue that captures the knowledge and spirit of the plucky old cowpoke.
Despite Ratliff’s fears of physical injury, a bullying episode from his childhood fuels his fortitude, a running theme throughout his memoir. “Despite Tommy’s warnings, I was able to ignore any thoughts of risk. My macho, West Texas upbringing included getting past my emotions.” After staying on for eight seconds—and winning the bet with his buddy about who could stay on longest—Ratliff visits Tommy with a celebratory case of Falstaff beer to toast his first and last rodeo.
After that, Ratliff recalls his unexpected role as a volunteer firefighter in Yellowstone National Park in 1953. To earn some cash over the summer, he and his best friend get part-time jobs in the park. But when a large forest fire breaks out, they answer the call for volunteers to cut firebreaks and trenches. But when the wind shifts and the fire races toward his position, Ratliff runs for his life before hearing loud explosions above and before him, like gunshots. “It was the tops of the pine trees in my direct path that were exploding. I can’t remember when I’ve been so scared.”
Ratliff writes with a crisp efficiency that makes his colorful tales a joy to read. When he begins to chart his stint in the U.S. Navy in 1957, the memoir really hits high gear. From his dalliance with flight training and the notorious Dilbert Dunker, a contraption that plunges trainees upside down into a pool. Ratliff makes the deft comparison of the white-coated Dunker to his riding of the white bull: “Like riding Monkey’s Uncle, it was a test I’d signed on for but wasn’t quite sure I could handle.”
Ratliff’s trajectory in the Navy is never boring or linear. Deciding against becoming a pilot, he opts to join the fleet service aboard a destroyer. Readers get an insider look at what life was like in the peacetime Navy through Ratliff’s junior officer eyes. His memories are energetic, as if they happened yesterday, and he blends the quotidian details of life aboard the ship with moments of terror like a natural raconteur.
Restless aboard the claustrophobic destroyer, Ratliff answers a bulletin calling for volunteers for the Basic Underwater Demolition Team service (later to be named SEAL training). In 1959, he heads for Coronado Island, California, to begin training. He recalls with poignancy one of his teammates, a Japanese man named Nakamoto, who gave him problems in the beginning, but whom Ratliff soon earns respect for during the aptly named Hell Week.
“Hell Week has a single objective—to get you to quit. It’s not for training. It’s not for proficiency. It’s a test of tenacity.”
Ratliff peppers his account with shiny nuggets of wisdom about his time surviving SEAL training: “I learned that survival is a game having little to do with the body and everything to do with the mind.” From here, Ratliff gets a deep-sea diver certification and is assigned to a crew rescuing downed aviators in the ocean, where his training in the Dilbert Dunker reaps benefits.
Along with his adventures, Ratliff recounts one of his romantic relationships in Coronado. It is a moment of raw honesty and self-examination that reveals a man—and writer—of dignity and integrity. The memoir is not a record of his entire life but rather concludes after his four-year service in the Navy ends.
Riding the White Bull is a captivating memoir, written with flair and humor, of four transformative years in a young man’s life.
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