Saturday, January 05, 2008

Advancement and Promotion in Law Enforcement

Editor's Note: A great deal of the conversation will be applicable to military promotion and advancement.

January 5, 2008 (San Dimas, CA) The January 9, 2008 program of Conversations with Cops at the Watering Hole features a nationally recognized expert on promotion and advancement in law enforcement.

Program Date: January 9, 2008
Program Time: 2100 hours, Pacific
Topic: Promotion and Advancement in Law Enforcement
Guest: Lieutenant
Paul Patti (ret.)
Listen Live:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement

About the Guest
Lieutenant
Paul Patti (ret.) has over 27 years of law enforcement experience in southeast Florida. His policing experience includes over sixteen years as a department commander; four years in charge of hiring and interviewing; and, more than seventeen years as a permanent member of the department's Oral Interview Panel where he was the "Hardass" member that interviewed OVER 500 applicants for law enforcement positions. Lieutenant Paul Patti’s training and education includes a BA in Criminal Justice and he is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute and many other certifications, and thousands of hours of law enforcement training.

Additionally, Lieutenant
Paul Patti’s police experience also includes Personnel Commander, Police Firearms and Academy Instructor, Training Supervisor, Patrol Commander, SWAT Commander, Criminal Investigations Commander, Acting Chief of Police, Acting Deputy Chief of Police, and many other department assignments.

Lieutenant
Paul Patti is a published author of fiction and non-fiction books, magazine articles and special features, and has over 20 years of experience in résumé writing, employment interviewing and job counseling. Lieutenant Paul Patti is the author of three books: Silhouettes: An Andy and Gabrielle Amato Mystery; Death Mate; and Dead Time. According to the books description of his latest book, Dead Time, “In this mystery-science thriller, dead people are spilling government secrets, via their computer-stored consciousness! The government wants to shut everyone up, permanently, but an FBI Agent and a beautiful scientist fight to keep the dead people talking.”

About the
Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting. During the first half-hour of the show, the host, a nationally recognized expert on law enforcement, interviews a subject matter expert on the topic. During the second half-hour the program is joined by two other cops who give a street-level perspective to the conversation.

About the Host
Lieutenant
Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton; and, has completed his doctoral course work. Raymond is currently a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and the Union Institute and University. He has experience teaching upper division courses in law enforcement, public policy, technology and leadership. Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One. He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in law enforcement.

Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement

America Supports You: New England Group Helps Veterans Move Forward

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 4, 2008 - A group in
Massachusetts is offering wounded servicemembers tools to help them transition into civilian life. "(We are) giving our wounded heroes a second chance at the opportunity to become marketable for the 21st century work force through education and training," said Michelle Saunders, director of Veterans Moving Forward.

As a part of the Veteran Hospice Homestead, Veterans Moving Forward is engaging
community college and educational facilities around the country to create solutions to help alleviate the financial burdens of wounded veterans and their families, Saunders said.

The Veteran Hospice Homestead provides medical, psychological and spiritual care to veterans diagnosed with a terminal illness, as well as the elderly and disabled, according to the organization's Web site.

"Veterans Moving Forward will create an environment that allows (wounded veterans) and their families the opportunity to utilize and maximize their educational benefits without financial burden," she added.

The plan includes providing what Saunders referred to as "dignified" transitional housing, support and skills training these veterans need to successfully transition into the civilian work force.

Families have not been overlooked in this plan. Licensed social workers will help families of veterans who suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, Saunders said, adding that case managers also are available to help veterans and families with needed resources.

Veterans Moving Forward recently became a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with
military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. Saunders said she hopes the affiliation will help her organization network with others to provide comprehensive support to the nation's servicemembers.

"There are so many organizations out there," she said. "We need to work together, and what better way to do that than through (America Supports You)? We are better together than we are separate."

Cartoonist Continues Strip, Publishes Book While Deployed


By Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs, USAF
Special to American Forces Press Service

Jan. 4, 2008 - It's hard being only a figment of someone's imagination. Just ask
Air Force 1st Lt. Kenneth Dahl, an F-15 fighter pilot with the imaginary 809th Fighter Squadron. Dahl, call sign "Barbie," is the star of the online comic strip "Air Force Blues," and is a hero, of sorts, to his Internet following. The fictional fighter jock is the creation of Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin M. May, a public affairs specialist deployed here from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.

The general process for production is this: an idea born in May's brain makes its way on to paper. From there, the comic is scanned into a computer, and eventually is published on www.afblues.com. The site boasts as many as 1,000 hits per day when the comic is updated.

Dahl's antics were published in a new book that made its debut in November. The strip also is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the
Air Force's flagship publication, Airman Magazine.

May, who has been drawing since he was a child, said he began the comic strip in February 2007 because he felt it was time to "step things up."

"For almost a year, I had been doing random
Air Force-related comics for a friend's Web site, but I was ready to try launching my own site," he explained. "I wanted a consistent base, a recognizable duty station, and above all, a main character everyone could eventually relate to."

The sergeant said he chose a fighter pilot as his main character for a variety of reasons, the biggest being the wealth of comic potential associated with that particular group of airmen.

"Everywhere you look there are movies, books, video games and more, all glorifying fighter pilots," he said. "Why not a comic to make fun of them? After all, they do some pretty off-the-wall things sometimes."

May should know. As a former aircrew member stationed at a specialized
undergraduate pilot training base, he has spent practically his entire Air Force career surrounded by fliers.

He noted that the comic doesn't make fun of any specific group of people as a whole, but lumps several stereotypes into one character who becomes the butt of most of the strip's jokes, a proven formula for a successful comic. Just as Beetle Bailey is only one goofy soldier in the
Army, Dahl is not necessarily representative of today's men and women in uniform, May said.

The sergeant's first comic strip, AWACker, was started while he was deployed to Southwest Asia as an airborne battle management systems operator on the Airborne Warning and Control System E-3 Sentry. When he wasn't flying missions, May put pen to paper and drew comic after comic to circulate among his fellow fliers. His deployment helped him compile a binder full of comics, which was the basis for the now defunct domain AWACker.com. The site, founded with a fellow AWACS crewmember, had a good run until it was hacked in August 2005, he said. The site never recovered.

"I went on to cross-train into a new career field, and neither of us really had time to rebuild the Web site from the ground up," he said.

Helping May with the current Web site is Air Force Senior Airman Justin Coffman from the 552nd
Computer Systems Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., who volunteers his off-duty time as the webmaster, forum administrator and "faithful lackey," he said.

Coffman is a recurring character in the strip and is described as the "Airman Agitator" who pokes fun at the other characters. However, it's all in good fun, Coffman said.

"I think humor is a required part of daily life," he explained. "If you aren't laughing, you aren't living. Everyone knows it's just a comic and that it's exaggerated."

Longtime reader
Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. William Gordon, from Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., agreed, saying the comic pokes "good-natured fun" at the idea of a stereotypical throttle jockey.

"I enjoy the entire concept of
Air Force Blues," he said. "It brings together all types of people from different parts of the Air Force who normally would not interact. It (also) has opened my eyes to different things about the Air Force that I would not have considered before."

Dahl's personality developed as May elaborated on his new creation, reflecting himself. The character is an F-15 fighter pilot stationed at the fictional "Elmendork" Air Force Base. May's first duty station was at the very real Elmendorf
Air Force Base, Alaska.

"He's very young. He's pretty new to the Air Force still, and he is so in love with himself and his job," May said in describing the character. "He's like a kid who realized what he wanted to do when he grew up and stuck to it," a trait that rings true for the artist today.

"My parents used to take me to air shows when I was little kid. I didn't know what I wanted to do, only that I wanted to one day join the Air Force," said the 25-year-old native of Katy, Texas.

Donations from readers help to fund the project, and May said his greatest reward is knowing people enjoy his creations. Many readers e-mail him saying how much they look forward to the new strips, he said.

Though some money comes n, none of it ends up in his pocket, the sergeant emphasized.

"I don't do it for profit at all," May said. "All the money I make from selling coins, stickers and the books goes back into the site for Web hosting, drawing supplies, more coins and stickers. I've also sponsored a couple of events at the Laughlin Club."

Dahl is gearing up for a deployment to support the real
global war on terrorism at a fictional air base abroad. Readers can follow along online to learn what makes deployments so special for Dahl: "deployment mustaches," he said in a recent strip.

But just because the faux fighter pilot won't be flying real combat missions in his F-15, he will be delivering humor from his cockpit in cyberspace to a desktop near you.

(Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sonny Cohrs serves with Joint Task Force Bravo Public Affairs.)