My first law enforcement job after college graduation was at the Ohio State University Department of Public Safety, well almost. It was the only law enforcement agency in the area hiring when I graduated, but first I had some stumbling blocks to overcome.

I had spoken with the city police department in Columbus, Ohio and filled out an application, but their next academy was not until November. That was too long for me to wait. Then, I applied with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service. This was just before they became their own Treasury Department, The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. I took the test, passed it and went to Cincinnati for an interview. But they told me they only planned to hire 10 agents that year and probably would not get to me because I was number 12 on their list.

Plus, many times before graduating from college, I would go downtown to the federal building in Columbus and inquire about federal law enforcement job openings. I remember vividly going several times to the FBI office and trying to get an interview or just information about vacancies. The FBI office at that time had a solid steel re-enforced door with a one-way mirror for them to look out into the hallway and see who was knocking. Many times the door would not even open, I would only hear a voice from the other side ask me what I wanted and then reply in a rude voice that they were not hiring.

I asked my father, a Deputy US Marshal, why the FBI agents were always so rude and he told me they were often that way and maybe I should speak with the Secret Service. He said he often worked with Secret Service agents and they were always professional and easy to talk to and would not turn me away. I did not know much about the Secret Service then. So I did some research and learned the Secret Service was originally established immediately after the Civil war to investigate counterfeiting. Then as they grew they took on other investigative responsibilities and other duties such as protecting the President and foreign dignitaries visiting the United States. This sounded pretty interesting and I paid them a visit.

My father was right. They always took the time to see me and always invited me in for a chat. The first advice the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Columbus office gave me was that the Secret Service normally hires in small numbers. Sometimes it may only hires 10 agents a year. So the SAIC suggested I get a job in local law enforcement for experience and stay in touch. Great advice, but I still needed a job.

Next, I applied with the Ohio Highway Patrol. I honestly was not enthralled with this idea and I did not have anything against them. In fact, my father had been a Patrolman for two years in the early 1950s and only left due to long hours and low pay. I just wanted more from a law enforcement career than patrolling highways. But I went to the academy in Columbus, took the written test and passed. Then the patrolman said I needed to do some more paper work and they would see if I could be hired in time for the next academy class starting soon.

The first thing he did was to have me stand against a wall and measured my height- twice. Finally he asked me how tall I was. I told him I thought I was 5 feet and 10 inches tall. He informed me I was actually 5 feet and 8 inches tall and you had to be at least 5 feet and 10 inches tall to be a patrolman. I left dejected and went home. When I got home my wife asked me how it went. I told her I went and applied for a job I really did not want passed the written exam and when they measured my height I found out I was 2 inches too short for the job. (Note: this was just before all the law suits against height, weight and gender requirements.)

Again, I had a wife and a child and the cold cruel world was now staring me in the face. I needed a job soon, I needed a career.

I found out the State of Ohio was seeking to hire two Parole Officers. So I thought, hey, putting bad guys back in prison after getting a second or third chance at being a better citizen could be a good career. So I applied and got serious consideration for one of two positions. The recruiter told me the annual salaries for these two positions were 10,000 dollars and 7,500 dollars. In 1972 those were decent salaries. But when I kept asking the recruiter which salary I was being considered for he would never give me a straight answer. At this same time I was also interviewing with the Ohio State University Department of Public Safety. I was very impressed with their training and aggressiveness. But, I needed a job and the Parole Office called me first with an offer. I took it. The OSU PD called me the very next day with an offer too, but I remember telling them I had already accepted a position, but wished they had called me first.

On the first day of my new job as a Parole Officer I met the other new Parole Officer. He had just gotten out of the Army where he had served as a Captain. The first day we just filled out employment forms and met all the other Parole Officers. The second day, I reported for work and over heard the veteran Officers in a back room discussing their cases and what had taken place overnight. Such as, who had been arrested and was in danger of having their parole revoked. Then I heard them discuss ways they could keep their parolees out of prison, not how fast they should be sent back to prison. And I began to have second thoughts about this new career.

Later that day I went to lunch with the Captain. He was a nice guy and very open. We compared Army careers, but I could tell he was not impressed with me, after all, I had been an enlisted man and he had been an officer. So I asked him how much his annual salary was for his new job. Without hesitation he replied 10,000 dollars. So I knew immediately why the recruiter had not been upfront with me, I was getting the 7,500 dollar position.

That night I went home, talked to me wife and called the recruiter for the OSU Police Department. I told him my new position was not working out as I had hoped and was his offer for a job still available? He was delighted I had called and said the offer was still good and my starting salary was going to be more than 10,000 dollars annually. I asked if I could start immediately and he told me to report for work the next Monday sound. I was ecstatic.

The next day I went into the Parole office and politely told them I had reconsidered their opportunity and decided it was not the position I truly desired and was accepting another offer. In fact, I wanted out of that job so bad I told them they did not even have to pay me for the 3 days I had worked there. Instead, I would just chalk it up to experience. But they paid me anyway and my Parole Officer career ended as fast as it had begun.

The OSU Police Department job was a great opportunity. I went to the Franklin County Sheriff Academy and became a certified peace officer. I began working as a uniformed patrolman and had the best coach to break me in that anyone could ever wish for, Herman Carter. He was intelligent, aggressive, fair, congenial, knowledgeable and utmost of all he was extremely professional. We rode together for three months and I tried to soak up everything he taught me. We worked hard, but had fun too. I found out I was a natural for traffic directing and I loved it. I liked making arrests and doing traffic stops. The evening shift was always full of excitement and we often worked with the Columbus PD who bordered our campus on all sides.

Twice I met with the famous OSU football coach Woody Hayes. Both times it was because one of his football players met the description of a suspect we were looking for and both times Woody Hayes could not have been nicer. He fully cooperated and made sure the players did too. Both times the victims said the players were not the suspects. I always had the utmost respect for Woody Hayes.

After my first year as a patrol officer I was reassigned to plain clothes criminal investigations. It was not a raise in pay, just a promotion in the form of more responsibilities and a chance to conduct criminal investigations. I knew right away that being a plain clothes detective was the way to go for me. I could dress as a student and do surveillance or I could wear a coat and tie and conduct interviews of victims and suspects. I was able to solve some capers and began building a reputation for being a persistent investigator.

But after a year and a half of criminal investigations I felt an urge to move on. Although OSU was the largest land mass college in the United States I still felt confined. It just was not big enough and I felt as though I was babysitting college students rather than working the law enforcement career I was looking for. Do not take me wrong, there is a need for university police departments and we investigated everything from theft and robbery to rape and murder. I have the utmost respect for those who decide to stay and pursue a career at that level of law enforcement. They are answering a major need in society; it just was not for me.

During my career at OSU I had stayed in touch with the Secret Service. About every six months or so I would stop in and visit with the SAIC. Finally, one day in October 1974 I walked into the local Secret Service office and the SAIC, Bob Foster, told me my timing was excellent, they were hiring 40 agents. He told me to put my paperwork in ASAP. And as they say, the rest is history.

I still remember getting a phone call from a clerk at the Secret Service Personnel Division advising me I was being appointed as an agent to the Chicago Field Office. She asked me when I wished to report for work and gave me three starting dates to choose from. I took the last available date as I had a house to sell and a family to relocate.

I then called the local Secret Service SAIC and told him about the phone call. I needed to make sure it was not one of my OSU comrades pulling a prank on me, as we often did. He had me repeat what the clerk told me and said he would check it out. He was upset because the phone call offering me a position should have come from him. He told me to get down to his office as soon as I could. I ran out the door.

When I got to his office he said he had checked it out and it was true. He said he had also found out that I was supposed to start as a GS-5. A GS-5 did not make much money in 1975. But in a year I would get promoted to a GS-7 and could breathe a little easier money wise. But he told me he had asked Personnel if I could start as a GS-7 instead. They sometimes did this in special circumstances. He said I had done well in college and I had law enforcement experience. Therefore, I met all the requirements for starting as a GS-7. While I was in his office the phone rang, it was Personnel. As I sat in front of his desk he told me they were starting me in the GS-7 position. I had been promoted even before starting the job.

Of course later when I would report to Chicago and all the other new agents learned I was starting as a GS-7, but they all started as a GS-5. I took a lot of heat, but I kept telling them it was not my doing, I just had a better agent than they did. My career way off and running.