Veteran Story: Scott Irvine

Scott, dressed as a Hudson's Bay Company officer, looks on as volunteers examine furs in the Fort Vancouver Fur Store

Image Courtesy of Susan Sheets

Park Ranger and U.S. Army veteran Scott Irvine started working at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site as a seasonal park guide during the summer of 2016, but his connection to the park goes back much further than that.

Scott’s family moved to Vancouver, WA from Indiana in the spring of 1980, and his first adventure at Fort Vancouver was a family picnic during the 1981 Independence Day celebration. Not long after, his Boy Scouts of America troop volunteered at an event at the park, where an employee dressed him up in a white linen coat and gave him a quick course on how to serve a seven-course meal, 19^th-century-style. Between the costumes, food, and atmospheric candlelight, the event made a big impression on him, and as he puts it, “I was hooked!!!” Scott has continued volunteering with the park for over 37 years and says that he loves giving back to the community and making a difference in someone’s day.

Scott’s mother supported his love for history and volunteering by driving him to the park every Sunday for a number of years, and he credits his time at the park and some excellent employee-mentors with helping him to overcome the challenges of being the “new, awkwardly shy kid” in the neighborhood. “What makes Fort Vancouver so special is the diversity of the volunteers and staff that bring the history to life…Those Rangers made a difference in my life and I don’t think I would have the passion for public service [I do] if it wasn’t for [them].”

Scott modeling both the U.S. Army and National Park Service uniforms

Photo Courtesy of Scott Irvine

Scott’s connection to the park isn’t just limited to work and volunteering: He started his military service at Fort Vancouver, taking his Oath of Enlistment at the U.S. Army’s Vancouver Barracks, which would later become part of the national historic site. He went to Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO with the Washington Army National Guard and enlisted in active duty in the fall of 1996. He was on active duty for four years and was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Camp Nimble in the Republic of Korea, and Fort Stewart and Fort Benning in Georgia. He returned to active duty after 9/11 and was stationed at Fort Bliss, TX, before his unit was deployed to the middle east in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. Since his military service, Scott has faced many challenges, including learning to cope with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and related conditions. He cites the importance of having a good support system and of being able to discuss these types of challenges openly: “I’m passionate about mental health awareness as a cause, and I believe it’s important to share personal struggles.”

Scott fires a reproduction British "Brown Bess" musket

Image Courtesy of Vldn Taylor Photography

Scott was drawn back to Fort Vancouver after his military service, rejoining the park as a volunteer in 2009. His earlier volunteer experiences helped to shape his future and desire to become a park employee himself, which he later did. One of his proudest moments as a park ranger was having the opportunity to assist writer/producer Beth Harrington with the filming of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Northwest Regional Emmy Award–winning documentary, “Oregon Experience: Fort Vancouver." He helped to enlist and manage park volunteers, pick costumes, design sets, and even made an appearance in it! Some of his personal interests—learning about history, cooking, sewing, making costumes, painting, and model making—overlap with his park career and ensured that he was well suited to the task. Scott has certainly found a way to mesh his passions with his work, and this is echoed in the advice he would offer to prospective NPS volunteers and employees. This “advice to live by” was initially given to him by one of his favorite Army commanders and goes by the three R’s: “Be at the RIGHT place, at the RIGHT time, with the RIGHT attitude and find your passion, be humble, and most of all, just do you!!!”

Scott continues to work and volunteer at Fort Vancouver, helping to inspire a new generation of park stewards through the site’s robust youth programming. Having exemplary mentors showed him how much of an impact National Park Service employees can make on the world around them, and he’s hoping to pay it forward. When asked about why he wanted to work at Fort Vancouver, he replied, “I wanted to be able to make a change in ‘one person’s’ life by giving back to the community that gave me the opportunity to be me.”