Law and Order

For many years my father had an interest in police and security work. He became part of the Military Police Corps sometime late in 1946, early 1947 at the latest. The pictures of him as a military police officer are taken fairly close to his retirement in the early 1960's, I believe, based on his uniform and decorations. The branch insignia, as seen here also, is of the old type pistol sometimes referred to as the Harper's Ferry Pistol. It was selected since it was the first American Military pistol and continued as the Army's standard model for many years. Also, the insignia shows that he was assigned to the 504th Military Police Battalion, which is designated as a combat military police battalion. They were known also as the "Dragonfighters," which is reflected in the regimental insignia my father wore on his epaulets, as seen here in the dragon being grasped by a fist. The motto on the insignia is "Duty, Justice, and Honor."

A couple of links for future research would be Dean's 504th MP site, and a history of the battalion is located at GlobalSecurity.org.

Although its history dates back as far as 1922, the beginnings of the battalion as such appears to be dated at 1941. It was deactivated in 1947 and reactivated again in 1950 which is when I think my father most likely became part of it at the beginning of the Korean conflict. The article at GlobalSecurity.org notes that: "On 2 October 1950, the 504th was reactivated at Camp Gordon, Georgia and for the next 12 years, remained a combat ready military police force that was called many times to deploy throughout the world." The 504th was finally restationed in Ft. Lewis in 1962, a year before my father's retirement from active duty.

After retirement he drove cab for a time in Stevens Point, WI, and eventually ended up in private security work (which suited his experience in the military.) His first employment in 1970 was with Pinkerton Security Service. The web page for Pinkerton's includes the rich history of this very old agency. Wikipedia also has an article for those interested in the more ancient history. He picture to the right with him in a gray coat and badge is him as a Pinkerton guard. I believe he was living and working in Wausau by this time. He not not with this agency for very long.

His next employment was with J. J. Security, Inc. Although they were headquartered out of Green Bay, my father was employed at the Wausau office. You can see his ID card here with a picture of him when he first started, which is given away by the old "horned rim" glasses he wore when he met and married my mother in the early 1970's. His name is listed with a rank of" Captain", and I'm sure he enjoyed being bumped up to officer status after spending all those years in the Army as a non-com! The picture below this is of the general manager of the agency, Dolph T. Lehman.

J. J. Security was originally founded in 1967, so it was a relatively new company when my father joined in the early 70's. The name was changed in 1995 to "J.J. Protective Services, Inc." to reflect the change in the organization, which was obviously branching out into a variety of protective services. At present the remnants of my father's old company are in Pro-Tec Fire Services, LTD, and International Total Service, Inc., which bought out the security contracts of J.J. Protective Services in 1996. -- To the right you can see a picture of the old communications equipment they were using, probably in the early to mid 1970's.

My father was not in the best of health when he began working for J.J. Security, since he had already suffered one heart attack during his time in the military. He would be forced to retire permanently by the 1980's when his heart trouble became acute, resulting in open heart surgery and by-pass work, and eventually as he was also forced on oxygen 24-7 as his emphysema likewise became acute. He enjoyed his work with the company, and I think that he felt a sense of pride when they filled more than one position when he was replaced. Not only was he given a uniform and a pager to wear, but his company car was this homely purple AMC Gremlin (I have a picture of it and will post it when I find it!). It lacked air conditioning and rode like a truck.

By the way, I worked for J. J. Security myself while my father was still alive, beginning after college graduation in the summer between college and seminary (1983). My father had retired from the company by this time.