CHP MEMORIES

My first assignment out of the CHP Academy was the Baldwin Park Office, in the Los Angeles area. The San Gabriel Valley incorporates the cities of Alhambra, Rosemead, Temple City, Arcadia, El Monte, Baldwin Park, La Puente, Covina, West Covina, Azusa, Glendora, and several others that I can't think of at the moment. During the first few days of work, I learned that we had the responsibility for all of the un-incorporated areas, plus the 4 freeways that crisscrossed the valley.

When we were deciding where to live, we knew a friend who lived in Anaheim, who volunteered to rent us a place to live. Looking on the map, Anaheim didn't look too far from Baldwin Park, so I said sure, and thanks. When we moved, Mike was 2, and Pam was pregnant with Marc. We settled into a 4 plex, that was about a 20 mile drive to work. Fortunately, my work hours didn't conflict a lot with the 8-5 crowd, so I didn't get stuck in heavy freeway traffic very often. Near the end of my first year on the job, we moved into a rented house in El Monte, that was only a short drive to work.

A new CHP Officer is assigned an experienced Training Officer for the first 30 days, and is on probation for the 1st year. After a short orientation, my first partner was a fellow named Chuck Kidder. One of the first things I remember him telling me, is "you need to know where you are at all times". The obvious reason was that if there was trouble, you could direct help to your location. He would frequently ask me what street we were on, and what was the nearest cross street. There were a few times that I wasn't paying attention, and didn't have a clue where we were, but most of the time I did. Not only did I have to quickly learn the geography, but where the cities ended, and where the un-incorporated areas began. On top of that, I had to always know which court jurisdiction I was in. There was a lot to learn, and in the beginning, it was almost overwhelming.

Then, there were the infamous L.A. Freeways. Our office had responsibility for portions of the San Bernardino (I10), Pomona (SR60), Foothill (I210), and the San Gabriel (I605) Freeways. During that summer of 1969, the smog was often so bad, your eyes would burn anytime you stood outside. The San Gabriel Mountains were only a few miles away, but there were times that the smog was so bad, you could not see them. Those mountains represented the north, and in the beginning, were the most important frame of geographical reference. When they couldn't be seen, there were a few times it became problematic.

I had only been on the job for a few days, when my training officer said "we're driving into L.A. to the hospital burn center, to visit Officer Blomo". Bob Blomo was a Motor Officer who had crashed while on the job, just a few days before I arrived, and was in critical condition. Chuck was a good friend of Bob's and at the hospital, I learned that the prognosis was not good. Before we entered Bob's room, the nurse asked for our sunglasses, and any thing else that was reflective. As we walked in, I quickly understood why the staff didn't want Bob to have any possible way to get a glimpse of how he looked. He had 3rd degree burns over his entire body, except where his motorcycle boots protected his legs and feet. Without going into a lot of detail, this fellow CHP Officer looked horrible, and my emotions were all over the place. After a couple of minutes, I excused myself, and walked out of the room, so sick to my stomach that I almost threw up. During my 20 years off seeing death and injury, this was the only time that I was physically affected by an on the job experience. Bob Blomo died 13 days after his accident, and after only being on the job for a couple of weeks, I went to my first CHP Funeral.