Patrick Dailey:  

After graduation, I attended Fullerton Jr. College along with classmate Frank Pons, majoring in Police Science. We both transfered to LA State University and graduated in 1972 with a BS in Criminology. I was hired by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office and was immediately assigned to narcotics prior to attending the academy. After six months of buying drugs, I was then sent to the academy. I also had to work one day in the jail while in the academy, leaving me with one day off a week. We didn't get paid overtime, it was all part of the training to see if we could take the stress. After graduation I was transferred to the Main Jail and worked there for a year. I then decided to lateral to the Fullerton Police Dept. (big mistake) and stayed there for six months before being rehired by the Sheriff's Office. I was assigned to the Wrightwood Resident Post and patrolled a 500 sq mile area with another deputy. Because it was a mountain resort and desert community, I worked search and rescue in the heat, rain and snow. After three years I transferred to the Victorville Station where I worked investigations, traffic enforcement and as an observer in the Sheriff's helicopter. I was going to transfer to aviation but decided not to when we had to make a crash landing one day. My wife also said I couldn't transfer after that incident. I was married in 1981, my wife was a letter carrier in Oxnard during the courtship, she was able to transfer to the Wrightwood Post Office two weeks before we married. We have two children, my son just turned 20 and is attending Fullerton Jr. College and will then join the navy after this semester. My daughter is 14 and will be attending high school starting in the next school year. I continued working search and rescue and supervised mounted search unit which I then turned into a mounted patrol unit. I am still an avid horseman and presently have three horses. I was promoted to corporal in 1985 and transferred to the Colorado River Station for fifteen months patroling the river and desert areas. I lived in a 19 foot trailer on the river the whole time, my wife couldn't/wouldn't move because of her postal job. I was then sent back to Victorville to work a project which lasted 17 months and I was then promoted to sergeant in 1988. I worked in the City of Hesperia for 8 years supervising the patrol operation, K-9, Detective Division, Community Affairs and various administrative assignments. I also had the opportunity to be on the tv program COPS. I was later given my own command in Phelan where I worked there for three years and then transferred to the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center (fancy title for a jail). I worked at GHRC for four years as a watch commander and retired in March of 2009 after 35 years with the department. I retired with no health problems and I now volunteer my time at a hospital working with the terminally ill. I also volunteer at the American Cancer Society and US Forest Service in the Angeles Forest...Expand for more