Federal LEO or Other Jobs for Unfazeable Killer in 1953

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I did find the site for the BIA Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS), and I think that's what's meant by "BIA Police."
I'm honestly not sure they did much between WWI and the 1960s, although they certainly existed.

I know the early 1950s remained well within the timeframe for not-quite-forced assimilation of American Indian populations -- including boarding schools that refused to permit native kids to speak their mother tongues or otherwise engage in tribal cultural activities.

This tells me the few tribal police who existed at the time exercised very little in the way of autonomy; held sharply circumscribed power and authority; and were likely wholly subordinate to federal law enforcement.

Basically, assume that until the 1970s life well and truly sucked (by modern standards) for most minority populations in most places in the United States -- especially on the Reservations.

So, any federal agent that actually helped people, and didn't just control them, would find himself highly valued by just about everybody except his bosses -- and maybe even by them, too.

I still have to resolve the rest of Tony Manzano's military service. He might be rotated out of Korea by September 1951, at the earliest, but there's no way he'd leave his boys in Dog Company, 2d Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division behind. Given the combat losses they suffered at Pusan and Kunu-Ri, less than 20% of the guys of the battalion actually arrived with it from Camp Lewis, Washington back in July 1950, and Tony's already adopted the fresh-faced replacements they've replaced them with, in September and December of 1950, as part of his boys.

Never mind if they have some rear-echelon CPT from the Ordnance branch supposed to command them for the next few months, until said REMF rotates home ahead of many fighting soldiers who've been with the 2d ECB longer, because four years of garrison duty gives you more points than just having spent six months fighting, especially if your unit is officially classified as a 'combat support' unit.

I don't think it makes a difference who asks for him or for what job, Tony won't rotate home until the Army makes him. As soon as the pace of combat slackens, though, they might be forced to rotate him out of the Far East theatre, if LTC Melvin R. Blair, who in real life admitted to almost wearing out the phone lines to the Pentagon bureau concerned with Army-wide Personnel and transfers, as all it takes for someone who has accumulated enough points to be rotated out is their replacement arriving at their post. So, if LTC Blair can locate a young officer of the Army Corps of Engineers actually willing and eager to go fight in Korea, he might be able to force Tony to be assigned somewhere CONUS.

Now, Tony's original enlistment ends in May, 1952. He accepted a battlefield commission, but that promotion isn't permanent unless the Army's Bureau of Personnel makes it a Regular Army or Reserve commission, as theater rank in the 'Army of the United States' is an ephemeral thing that evaporates as soon as wars end. He might even lose it just by being rotated home, depending on his exact orders... but if he does, nothing really requires him to stay in the Army beyond May, 1952.

It's fairly plausible he'd be offered some way to participate in the founding of the Special Forces. If he's there early enough, maybe even without ever going through a Q-course himself, which would mean his weaknesses in land navigation, swimming and general lack of the exceptional athleticism supposed to distinguish the Special Forces would not be revealed. If he's too late for that, maybe he flunks out, maybe someone arranges swimming lessons, orienteering instruction and enough time and medical attention to recover from 6+, maybe as many as 18 months, of what amounted to trench warfare with better weapons, in worse weather, with little shelter and plenty of altitude.

In any case, if he decides he doesn't want anything to do with a new Army outfit, special or not, he'd be out at some point in 1952, maybe mid-point of 1953 at the latest. If he does get rotated home, but doesn't get a Special Forces commission or assignment, he's out mid-1952.

In either case, he'd be looking for a job close to home where he could earn some money driving a bulldozer, bossing around a crew, working in a machine shop or with a firearms manufacturer, or some kind of law enforcement. As long as it's not the Albuquerque Police Department.

While he now knows, from experience, that war is no grand adventure, he's still just twenty-four or five once he's out of the military. He might not yet know how much boredom and report-writing is involved in law enforcement. Radio dramas and pulp stories make it sound a lot more fun than it is.

From the perspective of police departments or federal agencies, he's not an enrolled member of a federally recoqnized tribe, no way to really tell from an application and his honourable discharge he's anything but Italian-American, of whom there are plenty in law enforcement. Plus, GED, A.A.S. degree, decorated former Army officer and inter-divisional boxing champion (that last counts more than all the rest), he's practically over-qualified for any law enforcement agency outside of the really big cities. True, no B.A. or law degree, so the FBI aren't interested, but anywhere without a degree prerequisite, he has a good chance.

Indian Police were sometimes also Deputy US Marshals, so they could arrest anyone on reservation land, no doubt about jurisdiction, which would work out great. And, honestly, even if he does take part in setting up the Special Forces, I could imagine him doing so with a Reserve commission and moving back home and becoming an Indian Police officer and Deputy US Marshal. As long as he marries Vicki Hanson on time and takes over Manzano Gunsmithing in 1976, when Giancarlo died, the timeline is preserved. Well, he'd have to spend some time home, to take part in raising his boys, but if he's policing the local community, that doesn't sound too implausible.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Icelander

(SNIP)

Indian Police were sometimes also Deputy US Marshals, so they could arrest anyone on reservation land, no doubt about jurisdiction, which would work out great. And, honestly, even if he does take part in setting up the Special Forces, I could imagine him doing so with a Reserve commission and moving back home and becoming an Indian Police officer and Deputy US Marshal. As long as he marries Vicki Hanson on time and takes over Manzano Gunsmithing in 1976, when Giancarlo died, the timeline is preserved. Well, he'd have to spend some time home, to take part in raising his boys, but if he's policing the local community, that doesn't sound too implausible.

I think that sounds entirely plausible.