Michael R. O'Brien
 

After graduating from New Milford (Connecticut) High School in 1986 I went against what was expected of me and joined the army.  I was somewhat reluctant to say to my parents: "Gee, thanks for supporting me and providing room and board for the past 18 years.  Now can I have $20,000 a year for college?"

I went to Fort McClellan in Alabama for basic training and military police school and then I was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  In October 1988 my platoon was attached to an infantry task force for a six month deployment in Egypt.  I was stationed at MFO South Camp near Sharm-el-Sheikh in the southern Sinai until April 1989, serving with the Multi-National Forces and Observers there.

When I got off active duty in late 1989 I returned home to Connecticut.  I began working nights while attending Western Connecticut State University in the evenings.  That didn't last too long - I was rapidly running out of money and was bored out of my mind with most of the classes.

I was technically still in the army reserves, so I went from inactive to active status in order to improve my chances of returning to active duty as a helicopter pilot.  I completed everything that was required but my application didn't seem to be doing anything but sitting on the recruiter's desk.  I found out later that recruiters get no credit for prior service people rejoining so they often don't put any effort into those cases.  The recruiter I had been working with apparently lost my file just before he was transferred to another duty station, and when the new guy offered to start me all over at the beginning of the whole process I declined.  So that whole thing didn't work out, even though I did wind up spending five more years in the active reserves in the 344th Military Police Company in New Haven.

In the meantime I was enjoying my two great jobs in New Milford.  One of them was at the New Milford Youth Agency, working as an outdoor adventure-based counselor, taking kids with ADD camping, rock climbing, hiking, and caving.  The other job was at New Milford High School coaching football and, later, baseball.  Both jobs were loads of fun and were very rewarding spiritually, but not altogether rewarding financially.  So after a few years I took a job as an operator at an answering service and began applying to various police departments.

In September 1997 I was hired as a police officer by the Town of Brookfield.  I went to the police academy in Meriden for sixteen weeks, which turned out to be the most stupefyingly-boring four months of my life.  I would bring a stack of paperback books with me every week so I'd have something to read during the mind-numbing lectures.  I didn't study once during the entire time and I graduated second in my class.  Go figure.  I graduated in late January 1998 and returned to Brookfield to work patrol.

Somehow I made it onto the department's SCUBA team, even though I hadn't been diving since 1989.  The only diving I'd ever done up to that point was in the crystal-clear waters of the Red Sea near Na'ama Bay, where you can see at least a hundred feet in every direction, even when you're sixty feet down.  Compare that to lovely Candlewood Lake and picturesque Lake Lillinonah, which are the two main bodies of water in and around the town of Brookfield.  In either one you can't see your hand in front of your face below ten feet and "searching" for evidence or bodies consists of sinking to the bottom and feeling your way though the silt with your hands.  I've found it to be a little less disorienting if I close my eyes when I search like that, which isn't a problem because you can't see anything anyway.

Luckily I don't have to put up with that anymore.  As of August 2005 I resigned from the SCUBA team.

I am also one of two firearms instructors at the department.  I'm proud to say our firearms training program in Brookfield is second to none.  Starting in June 2005 we have a Bushmaster .223 caliber patrol rifle to assign to every single sergeant, corporal, and officer in the patrol division.  If anyone reading this knows of another municipal department in Connecticut that issues each member of the patrol division their own rifle, I'd like to hear about it.

As a member of the Brookfield Accident Investigation Team I have become a certified Traffic Crash Reconstructionist.  If you have no idea what that is you can click here to find out more about it.  I think that accident investigation is one of the more interesting aspects of working in a small municipal police department.  If I had been interested in homicide investigation and had gone to weeks and weeks of schools in order to become an expert on that, I might get one or two chances throughout my whole career to use that knowledge.  My expertise in accident investigation is something I can use nearly every day.

I got married in October 2004 to a beautiful, intelligent woman with a great sense of humor.  She doesn't think any pictures of her are good, but I disagree.  See for yourself:

If you're interested, click on the drop-down box below or the one at the top of the page and check out the links to my lists of favorite books and movies and a monograph on why I think the Atkins diet is terrific.

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