There are five veterans serving in the Athens Police Department who say that veteran support locally is low.
Anthony Fish hasn’t had a scheduled Saturday off in two decades. But if it weren’t for those expected late-shifts at the Athens Police Department, the lieutenant said he might have gone crazy long ago.
The transition from military work to civilian life isn’t a natural one for a veteran — which is why many, including Fish, have said applying for work with APD or the Athens County Sheriff’s Office is a viable option. That transition can carry a heavier weight when there’s a low sense of appreciation for veterans’ services, which some local officials have said is true for Athens.
“I would have a hard time going from the military side of things to a civilian workforce,” Fish said. “It would drive me crazy. As a society, it seems that we have forgotten there’s rules around the workplace. I can’t deal with that. I need to be in a place where your work shift starts here, and you go here.”
Law enforcement officers share the same mentality as military servicemen that everyone must have one another’s back and share responsibility. He said that makes the transition to law enforcement easier, and it’s something he said he implements when coaching football at Warren High School near Marietta.
But even though Fish was able to return home to a band of veterans and law enforcement officers who understood that shared mindset, it was sometimes lost among the residents of Athens.
Kim Spencer, an officer with Athens County Veterans Services, said apathy toward the roughly 5,000 military vets in the county from civilians might be rooted in a lack of awareness.
“The younger generation might just not know what’s going on,” Spencer said.
Fish agreed.
“This town is not very pro-veteran,” he said. “If you compare the attitude toward veterans in this community, and drive an hour in any other direction and talk about the attitude toward veterans in other communities, you’ll see a complete difference.
“You’ll never hear a thank you in this town to a veteran.”
Fish is among five veterans in APD, and enlisted in the Ohio Army National Guard in 1990, and has deployed four times for a total of about five years.
Fish’s first deployment was to Iraq, though because the Turkish government denied troops from launching from their territory to attack another Islamic nation, he was sent home. He was then sent to a 61-man security force that protected a tank factory within the United States.
Following that, he was shipped to Washington, D.C. in part to protect President George Bush’s home in Texas when the president traveled there.
He returned home from that mission in 2007, and left again in 2011 to take on a supervisory management role in Washington. He said he’s considering retirement now.
“There’s actually very little comparison beyond rank and structure between military and law enforcement,” APD Chief Tom Pyle said. “I don’t think if a person knew that a police officer is a veteran that they’d treat them any differently.”
APD Lt. Jeff McCall, however, gravitated toward the military when he was 17. His parents had to sign for permission for him to attend basic training in July of 1988 at Fort Sill.
“I turned 18 in basic training,” McCall said. “There wasn’t much of a birthday party.”
He was then stationed at Fort Stewart, though he was never deployed. Shortly after he left in 1990, McCall said he was at a loss for what to do.
A year later, he decided he’d try law enforcement after a ride along with the Logan Police Department, where he would later serve. After he was recruited four years in a row to provide outside assistance the annual Athens Halloween Block Party, he realized he’d be a better fit for APD.
“Law enforcement has always been said to be a paramilitary organization in rank, structure and discipline when it comes to carrying out tasks,” McCall said.
Jennifer McClain-Eskey, a parking enforcement officer with APD, is another veteran serving in local law enforcement — though she contests that she’s the only female member of this community.
She deployed twice with the U.S. National Army Guard — once to Texas and the other to Iraq. McClain-Eskey played taps on her trumpet at the Athens Veterans Day Parade on Tuesday.
“Southeast Ohio is still pretty predominantly male when it comes to military and law enforcement,” McClain-Eskey said. “People don’t just come up and talk to officers, though, and there’s a younger crowd in the city that doesn’t have the knowledge of what military personnel does.”
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