Mounted search and rescue

["T'mi Finkle" <tfinkle@erols.com>]

Thank you for your service Ron and all the years you spent in the saddle.
 
Enjoy your retirement!  You will always have my utmost respect!
 
T'mi Finkle
Commander
TrotSAR Mounted Team
www.trotsar.org 

________________________________

From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org 
[mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of RVASSER@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2013 3:38 AM

 

 

My dear Family, Friends, and Melrose Park Department of Public 
Safety-Homeland Security Staff ,

I would like to inform you that a recent series of business and personal 
circumstances have influenced my decision to officially
bring my active service in the position of Captain of the Mounted Operations 
Division, Melrose Park Department of Public
Safety-Homeland Security to a close. My last day of service with the 
department was on May 31, 2013.

I understand the necessary commitment and participation required to be an 
active member of a unique public safety department that is
moving forward and positioning themselves to be "state of the art" ready to 
respond and serve. I'd hoped to be able to continue to
participate in service and training with the department at a level consistent 
with my rank as Captain, but in light of recent
developments this is simply not possible.

I'm now fulfilling the demanding and time consuming positions of Co-Founder 
and Principal Partner of The Chicago Horse Center, The
Horse Media Network, and Equus Concepts, LLC.  I am also Vice President of 
A.L.E. Security Professional Inc., in charge of special
security and  investigations. 

 I am very proud of the accomplishments that the entire Mounted Team have 
made, and the service and training that has enabled our
mounted personnel to be certified in search & rescue operations and crowd 
control tactics as well as perform patrol details. I'd
like to express my gratitude to David Cooper and Debbie Cowgur for their 
immense commitment and support in helping to establish the
mounted department. I am eternally grateful to all of you for the time you've 
invested in training, serving, and standing by to
respond. 

I'm pleased that the Mounted Operations Division has some new personnel on 
board that can complement the mounted veterans with great
ideas, energy and time to participate in making the mounted unit even better. 
 

Though my business enterprise could yield possible financial gains, it will 
pale in comparison to everything that I have experienced
while training and serving with the department over the years. Working in 
broadcast television over the past 42 years I have enjoyed
the job, money, and some of the prominence, but having the opportunity to 
serve the community with my horse "Sunburn" has brought me
more pleasure than I ever could have imagined. 

 

It was a very difficult decision for me to retire from my service with 
Melrose Public Safety-Homeland Security because I will truly
miss all of the wonderful people that I worked with. 

I've often been asked over the years, "How can you work at a regular job and 
put in all of those hours in the public safety
department and go on all of those details". My response is, the training, the 
respect, the honor and the opportunity to serve and
protect our communities is, in my opinion, priceless. 

It's not every day that someone like me can walk into a town like Melrose 
Park and upon finishing my term of service, the mayor
knows me by my first name. I have had a wonderful journey. I would like to 
also express my gratitude to my wife Elizabeth for all of
her support, understanding and tolerance for the many times that I have 
missed family events and holidays while serving with the
department. I could not have made it this far without her. In return, I have 
been a source of pride to my family, friends and a
champion in the eyes of my daughter Maya.    

With my deepest sincerity, I would like to thank Chief Philip C. Schwartz and 
the Melrose Park Department of Public Safety-Homeland
Security for giving me the opportunity to serve in Melrose Park alongside 
some of the finest public safety personnel in the United
States. 

It is my sincere hope that I served with ability, dedication, and honor. As I 
leave my service with the Melrose Public
Safety-Homeland Security Department, I will rest easy knowing that I was 
always a professional, a team player and I gave my best
every time I went to work. 

Warmest regards,

Captain Ronald T. Vasser