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thedrifter
04-10-08, 07:03 AM
Returning vets move from one force to next
Many sign on for police jobs

By David Rattigan, Globe Correspondent | April 10, 2008

IPSWICH - Patrick Carlin, one of Ipswich's new police officers, always knew he wanted a job where he'd be on the move.

"I love to serve, and never want to be stuck in a cubicle," said Carlin, 31. "I want to be out, seeing different things every day, trying to make bad situations better.

"I've always known, since I was a kid, that I wanted to be a police officer. I also wanted to serve in the military."

With more soldiers and Marines returning from overseas and veterans' status moving candidates to the top of the civil service list, Carlin will be among many joining local police departments in the coming months.

Carlin, the son of a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, joined the Air Force Reserve in 1999 to have a life experience that would include "seeing the world." But after Sept. 11, 2001, everything changed.

"My father called me" that day, Carlin recalled. "He told me to turn on my TV and said, 'Do you have your bags packed?' Then other people called and asked if I had my bags packed."

With training in the Air Force as an emergency medical technician, his first of three deployments was in March 2003 in Germany, a 10-month stint at a medical facility caring for incoming and outgoing wounded. Among his patients was Private Jessica Lynch, whose rescue was an iconic moment in the Iraq war.

His second deployment was for three months in Iraq, beginning in February 2004. He was stationed at Baghdad International Airport for one month, then volunteered for a convoy and went to Balad Air Base in northern Iraq. In September of that year, his third deployment was for four months, at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.

"In Iraq, we got mortar and rocket attacks every day," he recalled. "One night, I was standing on one side of the street and the tent across the street from me got hit. It was a pretty hostile place. We'd spend a lot of time crouching down behind sandbags, still working on the [wounded] troops.

"A lot of troops have post-traumatic stress disorder. Our commander encouraged us to all get together [daily] for coffee and talk about what happened."

When he returned home, he got a job as a medical technician for two years at Beverly Hospital, working in the emergency room. Before his deployment, he had worked as an EMT in Hampton Falls, N.H.

Carlin had taken the civil service exam a couple of times, and learned last year that he was number one on the list in Ipswich. He was sent to the State Police Academy for training and was hired after graduating.

The ranks of local police departments include several reservists who have been deployed. In Beverly, Chief Mark Ray, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, served in both Iraq and Bosnia. Officer Richard Russo, a major in the Marine Corps Reserve, served in Iraq. Salisbury Officer Jim Leavitt served 10 years of active duty in the Air Force and 19 in the Air National Guard - including two calls to active duty and one deployment to Iraq. In Salem, Officer Kevin Gillan served as a gunnery sergeant in the first wave of Marines in Iraq, and Sergeant James Walker, a major in the Army Reserve, served in Bosnia.

Thiago Miranda, a longtime Manchester-by-the-Sea special police officer, is deployed with the Army Reserve in Iraq. Chief Glenn McKiel said he expects to see him near the top of the hiring list "once he becomes available." Last week, Rockport hired Sean P. Andrus, a Coast Guard veteran who was previously a reserve officer, to be a full-time police officer.

Salem Police Chief Robert St. Pierre, who served with the Marines during the Vietnam War era, said the situation is similar to that when he started his police career.

"We all came out at the same time, and there was an influx of veterans into police and fire departments because we went to the top of the list," St. Pierre recalled. "I got appointed to the police force with 10 other veterans."

Given the paramilitary structure of police departments and the call to serve required of both careers, the link is not surprising.

"It definitely helps," said Leavitt, 36, a longtime reserve officer who was hired full time in Salisbury in 2006. "I joined the military at 17. I've always liked a structured environment, and I can't work in an office. I'd go nuts."

Lieutenant Dan Moriarty, acting Ipswich chief when Carlin was hired, said he might be the first new hire taken directly from the civil service list without first working as a reserve officer.

"He'll fit in here very well," said Moriarty, himself an Army veteran. "He's a terrific guy, and his military background will help."

"I love it here," Carlin said of his hometown. "I can't imagine working anywhere else."

Ellie