MANSFIELD — Serving the county in a military capacity is not easy — especially when worrying about holding onto a job back home.
“If they have to spend their time worrying about what they have to take care of at home it’s a real burden,” said Tom Gregory, of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.
Gregory recognized Mansfield Police Chief Ken Coontz and Sgt. Jonathan Ahles as Patriotic Employers for their support of members in the reserve last week. The award comes from the Department of Defense.
The award is in connection with about 20 military veterans within the MPD. Coontz said he has five still serving in the reserves. A member of the reserves “must have” nominated the two, Coontz said.
“I think it’s huge,” said Lori Cope, Mansfield’s saftey services director. “We have people who are disciplined and give up their time and serve our country. We couldn’t ask for better people than that. (They are) well-trained and well-disciplined.”
Cope and Coontz said hiring military personnel is so important, they moved the age limit for patrolling officers to allow those who have served in the military their whole careers to be able to serve the Mansfield Police.
“We knew if someone gets out of high school at the age of 18 and spends their entire career with the military, that would make them at 38 (years) unable to serve our citizens. We want them to come after that — even more qualified and trained to serve. Our citizens would get the best of the best out of that.”
Cope added the new age limit for patrolling officers is 40 years old.
“We are definitely a patriotic police department,” the chief said. “We support our officers of all branches; we do feel the crunch like I’m sure many other employers do when their numbers are down. We generally don’t bat an eye because we understand the importance of serving the country and support they need.”
Coontz added, not only MPD but the city as a whole is a patriotic-minded employer.
Coontz said the department not only keeps their position, but supports military employees by helping them integrate back.
“We have a military liaison who helps keep us in touch when they are gone and we send them a care package or something. We’ve had some really good deployments where guys were gone. We have some wounded military veterans and it’s very important we take care of them and respect what they do.”
