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When Utah State Parks law-enforcement officer Brody Young greets fellow officers these days, he often gets a hug as a welcome.

His co-workers are delighted he is alive after being shot multiple times by a still-uncaptured assailant in a Nov. 19 incident near Moab.

Grand County officers are required to wear body armor at all time. Young knows immediately whether the officers are wearing body armor. If they do not have it on, even in 100-degree summer heat, they get a friendly lecture.

"I wore it religiously and every officer should do the same," he said. "You never know when you are going to be in a firefight."

That was one of several lessons state park rangers and the Grand County Sheriff's Office learned from Young's shooting, believed to be the first time a state park officer sustained an injury from gunfire or, for that matter, fired a weapon.

From the incident the public learned that state park rangers are highly trained professionals. Young said he is frequently asked about how much authority a park ranger actually possesses.

"I explain that I went through police academy and have the same authority as any Highway Patrol, wildlife, county or city officer," he said. "People are taken aback by it. They see the gun and badge and that says enough. We have some of the best trainers in the state. We are all college graduates, so we have street smarts and school smarts."

Because state park rangers often have to patrol using ATVs, boats, snowmobiles and dirt bikes — each of which requires several hours of instruction— their training can go far beyond the required 40 hours a year. They also receive medical training because ambulances can often be hours away in some remote park settings.

"We have always known we were real officers," said Tony White, a state parks law-enforcement veteran, a trainer for the agency and Young's supervisor. "Any time you are asked to wear a gun, you know you will be placed in harm's way. Otherwise, you should not put on the firearm. We knew this was going to happen in our agency at some point in time. Brody drove that point home."

Like many rural sheriffs or Highway Patrol officers, state park rangers often work alone. Grand County Sheriff Steve White said officers from different agencies rely on each other a great deal, especially in a place like Moab, which hosts a number of special events each year.

"We rely on officers from state parks and fish and game," he said. "We help each other out. It's what it is all about."

Because of the amount of land officers cover, Sheriff White said his agency is working on obtaining the latest GPS technology on patrol cars to give officers as much safety as possible.

Another major lesson learned from Young's shooting is the value of training.

Tony White said rangers like Young do scenario-based training where they learn to shoot through glass or a vehicle, fire from multiple positions and shoot with the offside or weak arm when the dominant hand and arm are injured. All of this training came into play during the Nov. 19 shooting.

"I learned that what you train for you actually do during a stressful situation," Young explained. "There were a lot of things I recalled from previous training. They came to mind and I acted upon them."

Young had also been a part of an officer-involved shooting in Grand County. He did not fire his weapon in that situation, but he learned that things can happen quickly.

"I definitely drew on that experience," he said. "Every officer wonders 'If I am going to pull the trigger' or what the right time is to pull. Because of my training through the police academy and parks, I was prepared and ready."

Tony White said in his conversations with Young, the park ranger would not likely have done anything differently Nov. 19 when he checked what he thought was an abandoned vehicle.

"The Brody incident has given us even greater faith in our training program," he said. "We are confident in our firearms training, our conflict resolution and our scenario-based training. Those kind of things were major components in Brody's survivability."

wharton@sltrib.com Twitter: @tribtomwharton