Hanging Up the Sam Browne

Congrats Sir!

I been playing the game for right at 33 years. This will likely be it for me. I still enjoy it, but not as much as in the past. The people are what I'll miss the most, at least those without any stripes,bars, or stars on their collars. I'm needed at home now, so that's the job that needs to be done.
 
Muley Gil said:
In October 1976, I was offered a job as a deputy sheriff-jailer by the department that I had done an internship with that summer. I was still in college, taking a full load in order to graduate. I took the job and juggled my classes around work. Slept in class quite a bit and wound up going another quarter to get my BS in criminal justice degree.

I stayed at the sheriff's office until I realized it would be quite a while to get on patrol. I left there and worked at a prison near Montgomery, Alabama that offered more money. I soon realized that the only difference between guards and inmates was that the guards got to go home after their shifts. I had taken the civil service test in Jefferson County, Alabama and was offered a job by a small city in the Birmingham area. I left the prison after three months.

I wound up staying the police department for the next 23 plus years. I believe I made an arrest for every crime in the Code of Alabama except treason and abuse of a corpse. I responded to or worked an average of 8-10 murders a year during my time there. The money was good, for LE work. I took the Federal civil service test three times and could have gone to Border Patrol, Customs or US Marshals, but I would have had to take a pay cut. Being married with kids kept me at my PD. I should have bitten the bullet and gone Fed, but as always, hindsight is 20/20. :)

I retired at 25 years and moved back to Virginia. I soon went to Kosovo for two years as an international police officer, followed by a three year stint as a police advisor in Afghanistan. Came back home and soon realized that I couldn't live on a cop's pension, so I took a job working security in a Federal building.

I have been wearing somebody's badge and gun, with only a few breaks, for 40 years now. I'm tired. We have folks working for the security company in their 70s, but I'm not going to be one of them. I'll turn my gear and uniforms in the first week of November.

I'll miss my friends and most of my co-workers and even some of the public. :o

I'll update this thread as I get closer to pulling the plug.
Click to expand...

I'm at 15 years, 7 on patrol and 8 and counting in investigations. My badge gets heavy at times but I get up everyday and pin it on. I'm jealous and happy for you at the same time. Good luck and congrats!
 
You get to know when it is time to go. My health got me at 32 years, but I don't think I would have done more than 35 had I been able.

One of my mentors just retired from my department. John Barker did 45 years and was the heart and soul of our office. He was a one man peer counselling unit and made it a point to get to know every new hire. Having problems? He'd just turn up and talking to him was easy, he saved a lot of people a lot of grief. His last few years was as watch commander, probably his favorite assignment was K-9 and then K-9 sergeant. Many of us feared he would hang in forever and not get to enjoy the retirement he so deservedly earned.

Good on you, Muley Gil.
 
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Hanging up the Sam Browne

MG, glad you made it.I considered a career in LE but couldn't provide for a family on the pay. Contented myself with Reserve work with my county SO. Time for you to catch your breath, renew and refocus. Lot of life ahead. I believe you beat me to retirement as I turned 70 this year and still going to the office. One day.
Thank you for your service. There are good people out there and you know you made a difference many times, although thanks are slow in coming. My partner and I often discuss a book then dismiss it because it would be non fiction and nobody would believe those situations could ever happen.
Thanks again for standing in the gap those many years.
Consider Jeremiah 29:11 when thinking of your new status.
Take care
Bob
 
50 target said:
MG, glad you made it.I considered a career in LE but couldn't provide for a family on the pay. Contented myself with Reserve work with my county SO. Time for you to catch your breath, renew and refocus. Lot of life ahead. I believe you beat me to retirement as I turned 70 this year and still going to the office. One day.
Thank you for your service. There are good people out there and you know you made a difference many times, although thanks are slow in coming. My partner and I often discuss a book then dismiss it because it would be non fiction and nobody would believe those situations could ever happen.
Thanks again for standing in the gap those many years.
Consider Jeremiah 29:11 when thinking of your new status.
Take care
Bob
Click to expand...

Bob, some times a story by one sounds like another's life. I turn 70 this year too. I really liked LE more than my Day job and did reserve work for the County. My day job, due to layoffs moved me 1/2 way across the state and I did not continue LE.

I worked in a Class C county which determined the pay scale for City or County LE's, there was not anyway I could have cut my salary by 66%. Most of the local LE's wives worked to make up the difference.

My job moved me further after the 1st move, I left behind many friends both city, county and State Patrol. That was the hard part.
 
MG: Congrats on your retirement. I just retired out of LE three months ago, after 37 years on the job. I found the first six weeks kind of strange before the reality of pulling the pin finally set in. Now, the wife and I are so busy day to day I don't know how I ever worked all those years.
 
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