Dave Wilson:  

If you're looking for a spellbinding, captivating biography....may I suggest a local library, lol. My parents moved from Park Layne Manor to Springfield the summer between my junior and senior years so I didn't get to graduate with all the friends with whom I attended school from 4th grade through my junior year. I don't think I realized it then but looking back I wish I could have finished at Tecumseh. I wasn't very involved in after school activities because I worked after school most days, even hitchhiked back and forth to Springfield every day to wash dishes at "Perkins Pancake House". Those were different days then and I certainly would not have allowed my kids to hitchhike that far, especially at night. After graduation I worked at the "Vogue Shop" in Springfield. Remember Percy H. Rosenfield, Jr.; your daily fashion reporter? In November 69 my best friend, Dave Doyle, was killed in Vietnam and in March I joined the Army and set out to Ft. Bragg for basic. From there I made several stops at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. for combat engineer training, Ft. Benning for paratrooper training and then back to Ft. Bragg for Special Forces Medical training. Also went to Ft. Sam Houston in Texas and then to Europe. I spent a year and a half in Germany and loved it. Visited Paris, Amsterdam, Innsbruck, the French Riviera, traveled throughout England. Dropped by Switzerland, Luxumberg, Italy and Monte Carlo. After getting out of the army I went back to Springfield for a couple weeks and decided to head for California in my new MG sports car. Spent several months, about 5-6, living on unemployment, sleeping in the car, yeah--the MG, and then decided I needed to get busy growing up. I went to a year of school in Springfield, Mo. at Evangel University and after my first year decided that Ca. was more to my liking. I decided on law enforcement as a career and started interviewing at different departments. I didn't have much luck until someone told me that if I were to finish and at least get an associate's degree I'd have better chances so I started a course of study at Cerritos Community College and Cal State Long Beach. It was good advice because once I had my degree in hand I was hired by the first agency with which I interviewed. I went on to get a Bachelor's Degree at Cal. State-Fullerton. While going to school I worked at a retail establishment in the automotive parts resale business. I got married in March 75 to Sherril Hunt. So I started work at West Covina PD in Sept. 76 and went to the academy, starting working in the patrol division in December. Talk about a fun job. I had a lot of experiences in that job, some good and some not so good; pretty bad as a matter of fact. In January 1978 I tried to pull a guy over for running a stop sign and he decided not to stop. After a short chase, he spun out on the wet road and came out firing. He killed one of my co-workers and myself and a third officer had to shoot him. He subsequently died. At some point I was promoted to Corporal and was a field training officer for several years. In January 86 I was involved in a second shooting and shot a man who had raped and assaulted his ex-wife. He had been holding her captive in a house and at one point she was able to get away and run out of the building. He followed her and tackled her on the ground. After ignoring orders to stop he put a gun to her head and I ...Expand for more