Page 45 - November 2019 FOP

VETERANS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43
you as nervous because you’re used to processing and acting on information quickly.”
Police officer Jerry Cruz, chair of the Lodge 7 Military Com- mittee and a retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, knows the sacrifices officers-soldiers make. His wish is for the department to make better use of these veterans’ unique skill sets.
“There’s a lot of military roles — not just military police — where these officers can really assist the operations and the community,” he said.
Cruz pointed to the 2012 NATO Summit held in Chicago. Garcia became one of the police department’s lead organizers because he was used to thinking through operational details.
Example: Organizers planned to keep officers hydrated with water bottles. Garcia pointed out that officers couldn’t use wa- ter bottles while wearing riot headgear. Hydration backpacks would be better, leaving their hands free.
Problem-solving comes naturally to veterans, Cruz said.
Still, neither Heuver nor Garcia cite tactical skills as the most important military asset they bring to police work.
“You could teach anybody to clear rooms,” Heuver said. “You run through it enough times and people become pretty good.”
What can’t be recreated in a simulation? For him, it’s the ex- perience of working with every kind of person.
“A lot of the people I met in the military are not [the kind of people] I would have normally come in contact with,” he said. “That makes me more understanding in my work and in my interactions with citizens.”
Police skills go in the other direction as well. When Garcia
was stationed in Bosnia in 1997, the war had just ended. Cities were filled with windowless buildings.
So Garcia took Chicago’s Alternative Police model abroad. He focused on listening to and interacting with citizens, mak- ing arrests only as a last resort. He started a bike patrol with German soldiers. And in a short time, the residents became allies.
“The police officer isn’t just someone who’s serving and protecting. He’s fixing,” he said. “You’re taking more of a social welfare role. That works anywhere.”
Heuver still carries some pain from his parachute accident. But he knows that his military service made him a better offi- cer.
“[Those were] some of the best years of my life, and I would do it all again if I had the opportunity,” he said.
Garcia echoes that sentiment. As a kid growing up in one of Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods, he never could have imag- ined the life he’s led.
He helped design and build the first international airport in Iraq; earned a Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious service; and coordinated the donation of retired Chicago fire trucks and ambulances to Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Nige- ria.
Garcia said his parents instilled their strong work ethic in him. But his path to a life of service came from a group of po- lice cadets who visited his neighborhood and took kids to the movies and parks. They made an indelible impression.
“I was 10 years old, and these guys were larger than life,” he said. “You looked up to them.”
Now, 51 years later, Garcia is the officer, soldier and citizen making an indelible impression around the world.
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