Several local law enforcement officials are veterans

Veterans pepper careers of all kinds throughout the country. One career in particular where a lot of veterans can be found in the law enforcement field.

The Kimball Police Department has three officers who are veterans. They are Captain Andy Bremer, School Resource Officer Ryan Smith and Officer Noah Thomas.

Smith served in the Navy as a personnel officer.

“I usually say I was a glorified pencil pusher,” Smith said.

Smith recounts that traveling the world gave him a different point of view on life and how to be appreciative of what he had. Smith spent a year in Germany, working with the intake of wounded soldiers.

“It’s a tough scene. You see soldiers come through missing arms, missing legs. You see people dying everyday. It’s rough, and it makes you really appreciate life, and I mean those images stay with you,” Smith said.

Smith expressed the need for people to show respect to veterans, young and old alike.

“The thing is they’re fighting for other people, they are making sacrifices. Sometimes, more than we’d like, they’re making the ultimate sacrifice,”

Smith said he tries to instill the respect for veterans in his own family. His oldest child is in the Navy, while the two youngest children are still in school.

Bremer, also served in the Navy. He began his Naval service 1996.

“It helps because you spend time seeing things that have happened that make you really appreciate what you have back here home. Not only the freedoms we enjoy, but it makes you look at your family and I’m very grateful for mine every day,” Bremer said.

These veterans have expressed how their time serving their country in the military has allowed them to better serve their community as officers.

Smith said the experience overseas broadened his horizons.

“Traveling and seeing how other countries live, spending that year in Germany, it makes you stop and appreciate what you have and it makes you want to protect what you have, I’m able to do that in my position as SRO,” Smith said.

One of the common viewpoints the officers expressed is that they all feel that being on the police force now has allowed them to continue serving in some capacity.

“I served in the Navy and now I am serving at home. The Navy taught me work ethic among other things and it taught me to value life. It taught me that I wanted to serve and give back to my community and this is how I can accomplish that, by doing my best at the job I have,” Bremer said.

Bremer and Smith said there are many ways to show appreciation for veterans.

“If you see someone in uniform, shake their hand, say thank you. The people who do this, these veterans, they aren’t doing it for the thanks. They are doing it because they love their country and the freedoms it grants its citizens. Just because they don’t ask for thanks doesn’t mean they don’t feel good when they hear it,” Smith said.

Sometimes the topic of service or war can be sensitive. Sometimes talking about their time serving can be painful for veterans. In those instances there is still a way to honor them.

“Fly your flag at home. A veteran will see that and they’ll feel proud and like they did there job, because you’re flying that symbol of what they have fought for,” Bremer said.

Thomas was in Denver recovering from injury at the time of the interviews and was not able to be interviewed.