Last Breath

LAST BREATH: A Ranger's War Against Extinction

A true story. I left everything behind to fight a war most people never even hear about.

At twenty years old, I boarded a plane to South Africa with no plan, no contacts, and no idea what I was walking into. Seven weeks later, I'd been starved, handcuffed to a man I despised, doused with cold water in the middle of the night, and pushed past every limit I thought I had — all to earn the right to call myself a ranger.

What followed were over two years on the front line of the real war against poaching: rhino autopsies at 3 a.m., night ambushes for armed poachers, a jeep crash meters from a moving train, a love story I hid from an entire family, and my own slow transformation from a terrified recruit into the instructor breaking in the next generation.

I didn't want to romanticize the bush. This book is the blood, the exhaustion, the dark humor that keeps a person sane, and the gut-punch of watching a rhino calf refuse to leave its mother's body. It's the story of discovering that home isn't always where you're born — and that some causes are worth losing sleep, comfort, and safety for.

Inside this book, you'll find:

• My full, unfiltered journey from South Africa to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2018–2022)

• 29 chapters covering hell week, survival training, poacher arrests, and life as an instructor

• First-hand accounts from four other rangers who fought alongside me across the continent:

  • an American Army veteran turned wildlife protector in Congo's jungles
  • a Congolese ranger commander's raw account of the human cost of conservation
  • a female anti-poaching pilot flying missions over the savanna at dawn
  • a fellow ranger's own story from the front lines

• Real photographs from the field, taken by me and the people I served alongside

Together, these voices paint a picture no single memoir could tell alone.

If you've ever wondered what it actually takes to stand between an endangered species and extinction — not in a documentary, but in real, sweat-and-blood terms — this is that story.

Part of the proceeds from this book go directly toward supporting the rangers who risk everything, every single day, so these animals still have a tomorrow.