<font color=blue>could you describe what it feels like to have done the work you've done</font color=blue>
Nope, Muhammad doesn't have a big enough server to handle all of it. Nearly 40 years ago, I heard of a author who got permission to ride a few months with police officers in New York, who then wrote a book about it. He supposedly said he wondered why otherwise intelligent, healthy young men would chose to be a police officer and he concluded it was because "They have a grandstand seat to the greatest show on earth." I agree. I was a Patrolman from March '64 to October '68, working the streets in a marked car, except for a 7 month stretch during which I was the department's first active recruiter in Personnel. I was a detective sergeant October '68 to January '70, supervising a 6 detective Burglary and Theft unit. I was a lieutenant January '70 to September '75, and had an opportunity to work in several different specialized divisions; watch (shift) commander in Patrol, watch commander and section commander in Traffic, watch commander in the Jail, section commander in Helicopters, division commander in Personnel, with brief special assignment jobs in Youth and in Planning and Research. Then I was a captain from September '75 until I retired in January '89 as commander of the Communications division, then the Inspections division, then the Vehicle Services division, and finally the Planning and Research division. Besides the recruit school (13 weeks) and a wide assortment of 1 to 3 week in house training programs, I got to go to the Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute's Southern Police Academy at SMU in Dallas (12 weeks in 1970), the Northwestern University Traffic Institute in Evanston, IL. (9 months, '70-'71 school year), and the FBI's National Academy in Quantico, VA (10 weeks in '86). I used to be a member of the National Association of Fleet Adminstrators - Law Enforcement Group, the Public Safety Communications Officers Association, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, as well as the alumni associations of the schools.
So . . ., what does it fell like? Well . . ., I had a lot of fun and a very interesting career. And the most fun? Being a patrolman; I only worked for promotions for the bigger salary./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
And, yes, it's easy to get pretty cynical when you see enough of the unbelievably cruel things humans can do to each other, and the injuries, deaths, and destruction caused either by accidents or the deliberate actions of others. Of course, I still remember a little speech the head of the academy once made. He was a pretty rough and foul mouthed sort of guy that I suppose most folks would never have suspected of having any "religion", but he quite seriously told the recruit class that "if you don't have a pretty strong belief in a Supreme Being and have a pretty personal relationship with him, you're going to have a tough time in law enforcement." I think he was right.
Oops, and now I have talked too much - again./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
