Page 29 - November 2015

COVER STORY
‘Things took a turn’
Raymond Sloma decided law enforcement might be for him after a high school seminar on the topic. The only problem was that he was one of 5,000 applicants for 50 available spots as a police cadet in the mid- 1960s.
Sloma beat the odds and was part of the Police Commissioner O.W. Wilson’s second cadet program class. But, after being sworn in as an offi- cer in August 1966, things took a turn just eight months later.
“I was assigned to the 1st District when I was drafted into the U.S. Army in April 1967,” he explained. “At that time I was 21 years old.”
Sloma was sent to Fort Knox for basic training and then Fort Gordon in Georgia for advanced military police training. After that, he spent the remainder of his service time at Fort Still in Oklahoma where he was eventually promoted to a personal property administrator for the pris- oners’ property fund in the Fort’s stockade.
He returned to the Chicago police in early 1969 after receiving an “early out” from the Army. Sloma spent the next three decades with the CPD.
“While on the police department I worked in records and transcribing, data systems and bureau of operational systems until I retired in April 1999,” he recalled. “My time in the service mirrored my time in the police department working on law enforcement and admin- istrative duties.”
~Dan Campana
‘I took an oath twice’
While still with the National Guard in 1968, LePore joined the Chicago Police Department “on a whim” when he was 25 years old and served in the patrol division for 30 years before retiring in 1997.
“It wasn’t always
easy,” he explained, noting that he had to balance his National Guard duties with serving in CPD, and on top of that, added the pressure of starting a family. “Going from one to the other, I had some idea of how to accept orders and be responsible.”
Those traits were vital for LePore, and something he saw in other veterans who joined the police force around the same time he did.
Looking back at his long career, the now-72-year-old retired veteran and police officer couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“I took an oath twice; once with the service and once with the police department. And I was proud of that.”
~Nick Swedberg
For six years between 1965-1971, Joseph LePore served in the U.S. Army National Guard, eventually rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He was on active duty at a time of civil unrest in Chicago that included the explosive 1968 Democratic National Convention.
“I took an oath twice; once with the service
and once with the police department. And I was proud of that.”
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2015 29
RAYMOND SLOMA
JOSEPH LEPORE