Meet Cam Torrens | Award-winning author and Search & Rescue Volunteer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cam Torrens and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cam, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I grew up in western Washington State and attended the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. I spent thirty years (and one month) in the Air Force as a mobility pilot, diplomat at the US Embassy in Beijing, China, and a Professor of Aerospace Studies at Virginia Tech. During that time, I married my beautiful bride of 34 years, and we raised six kids, including four adopted from China and Russia.

I am very proud of my military service but found myself at a bit of a loss when I retired from the military in 2018. I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail–a dream retirement gift from my wife–and I think my friends thought I was trying to find myself. Really I just wanted to see if I could do it. When we settled in Buena Vista, Colorado, I knew I had to get back into finding a niche where I could serve. That ended up being in Chaffee County Search & Rescue and working on the board at the Buena Vista Public Library.

My brain works in strange ways. It was reimagining our real-life search and rescue missions gone bad that motivated me to dip my toe into where I spend most of my time these days–writing novels.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
During my 30-year Air Force career, I flew cargo and refueling aircraft in a combat support role while learning how to lead. I was a tactical leader first–managing a crew of 5-6 airmen. Later, I commanded squadrons of several hundred personnel and culminated my flying career commanding a wing of several thousand airmen. From the first Gulf War to conflict in the Balkans, to 9-11, and operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, we were deeply involved in trying to solve problems abroad while protecting our national interests.

I can tell you that by the time I retired from the military, I was pretty burnt out from being the guy in charge. I wanted to be back on the front lines doing what someone else told me to do rather than carrying the responsibility of command. In fact, the suspense series I write has a character going through the same struggle. How do you continue to serve if you’re hesitant to step up and be in charge? I’ve gotten better at taking on more responsibility in my volunteer work. One example is in search & rescue. Initially, all I wanted to do was hike, carry supplies, tend to the wounded, and search for the missing. After a year, I could see they needed support in the incident command section. I went off to training and qualified as an incident commander. I still prefer to do the mission rather than command it–but I recognize I have a responsibility to use my skills in that area.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is a great question because it just happened. When I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2018, I hiked 500 miles of it with a 25-year-old Yale graduate with a trail name of Woody (my trail name was Gumby.) At age 52, I was probably not his first choice of hiking partners, but we fell in with each other and became great friends. In October of this past year, he (now a PhD candidate at Yale) was attending a conference in Denver and contacted me for a reunion. I took him on a hike to Harvard Lakes which is a pretty good warmup hike for someone in shape but unaccustomed to the altitude. I suggested we hike on the east side of the Upper Arkansas River Valley the next day which usually has less snow in October. He suggested Mt Yale. I explained how the altitude, October (Yale was snow-covered,) and his inexperience with fourteeners was working against us. He said he was a conservative guy, and he knew I was on search & rescue, and…well I think he wanted to tell his Yalies that he climbed the mountain named after his university. So we did.

It all worked out. We downed an Eddyline CrankyYanker after the hike and enjoyed dinner at House, Rock, Kitchen in Buena Vista afterwards. Best time ever. So if you come visit me, plan on mountains, beer, and vegetarian specialties in BV!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’re a pretty tight-knit community out here in the middle of the Colorado Rockies, so I have tons of people who have supported my writing efforts. As soon as my wife noticed how much time I was putting into these books, she asked me how long this hobby would last. My secret answer was: forever. I sensed she might not like that as my writing takes away from our hiking plan. We’ve compromised at ten books in ten years and then a relook at where I’m at. I couldn’t do the writing without her support.

I’m also a member of the Central Colorado Writers and our critique group has changed my writing. This team of 6-8 diehard writers meets every other week and they are loving, then brutal, then loving again in efforts to improve each other’s writing. I wrote my first book before joining them and thought for sure all my rejection letters were from agents missing out on a golden opportunity. The critique group helped me understand the book wasn’t very good. That’s probably why it’s still not published, but the rest are!

My SAR teammates have my back when we’re out in the field rescuing or finding lost hikers. Same when I’m writing about SAR. They support me 100%.

My sister is also a writer, besides being my editor. She’s one of my best supporters. She also never lets an opportunity go by to pay me back for mercilessly teasing her in childhood.

Website: https://camtorrens.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cam_torrens/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cam-torrens/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cam_torrens

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camtorrenswriter/

Other: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cam-torrens https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29755278.Cam_Torrens