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40-year police career began in Air Force

WARREN — In the late 1970s, Warren police Capt. Jeffrey Cole remembers sitting on summer days on his dad’s front porch on Parkview Avenue on Youngstown’s South Side watching people streaming in and out of the popular Idora amusement Park.

It was during this time that Cole, now 58, had been impressed with the U.S. Army during a trip to Fort Knox, Ky., to attend older brother David’s military graduation ceremony.

“I remember a drill sergeant yelling out ‘Come here’ and about 30 people came a running,” Cole laughed. “That sold me.”

After Cole graduated from Youngstown South High School in June of 1981, he entered the delayed entry program of the Ohio Army National Guard.

A few months later, Cole found himself at Fort Dix, New Jersey, for basic training and then to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, for further training in administration. During his time in the National Guard, Cole said he worked at the old Armory along Victoria Road in Austintown.

“But I still wanted to go on active duty,” said Cole, who had maintained a job in a grocery store while serving in the National Guard. “However, the Army wanted me to go into the infantry and I didn’t want any part of that.”

Read more about this veteran in Monday’s Tribune Chronicle.

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