Military lasdretired.org  Home Sheriff Baca Honors Military Reservists      Military reservists may well have one of the toughest jobs in the country. Pulled away from family and career, they are sent into war zones the likes of which would give the rest of us nightmares. Upon their return, they are expected to meld seamlessly back into society as if they'd never left. Some have returned to jobs that have been changed, downsized or eliminated completely; to a family that has adjusted to their absence; to a society that hasn't always been a grateful one.      The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and our Sheriff Lee Baca have traditionally gone out of their way to acknowledge the contribution of the Department's military reservists. For example, LASD reservists are routinely honored at the Department's quarterly management conferences. More recently, however, the Sheriff had the opportunity to convey an even greater honor on Sid Heal, a reservist and Chief Warrant Officer 5 with the Marines Corps, when he asked Heal to take his spot at a meeting with President George W. Bush. "The Secret Service called and asked if we would like to be part of a group of six officials who could have their picture taken with the president. We jumped on that opportunity. I wanted to surprise Sid and give him an opportunity to have his picture taken with the President as a form of appreciation for serving in the Iraqi war," said Baca.      To make the event even more memorable, the Sheriff surprised Heal by promoting him to Commander right there in the hotel lobby just prior to Heal's meeting with the president. For quite possibly the first time in his life, Heal was speechless. "There was not a thought in my head," Heal said with a laugh. "I was the last one to meet the president and after they took our picture, an aide told him that I had just gotten back. He still had hold of my hand. He squeezed it tighter and asked, `From where?' The aide said Iraq and the President pulled me back. He asked what my job was and I told him I was a forward observer. He said, `How was it?' Talk about not having a thought in your head. How do you condense the war into six words? I said, `It had its moments.' He looked at me and said, `I'll bet it did.'"      The meeting capped a curious series of events for Heal: Undersheriff Bill Stonich asked Heal to take Baca's place at the meeting with Bush. Why send a captain, Heal wondered. Being called commander and repeatedly congratulated by Secret Service agents when he and actual Commander Ed Hitchcock arrived at the hotel. "I kept telling them, `No, you mean Ed.' Ed would jump right in and try to cover it up. But I nearly turned around and asked these guys, `You may have never been in the military, but when was the last time you saw a commander wearing captain's bars?'"      And then there was the matter of a uniform. Heal had turned his equipment in when he was activated, but thought there might be a uniform in his locker. The problem was, Heal said, "my brain had been wiped clear of a whole bunch of stuff. I couldn't remember which locker was mine. I couldn't remember the combination and when I did, I mixed up the numbers. Somebody finally found my locker and we figured out the combination. They got my uniform out and had it cleaned."      Heal still had no gun, no Sam Browne, no badge. So he borrowed it: He took Captain Tom Spencer's badge off Spencer's uniform and pinned it on his own. He borrowed a weapon and Sam Browne from Deputy Bryce Stella and LASD Reservist Dan Nathan. "I still don't know whose shoes I was wearing," Heal said.      Even scarier was that Heal was not sure exactly what his new assignment entailed. "If it was an aide position, I could see the end of my career flashing before my eyes."      Heal was promoted to Night Field Commander, a position tailor-made for his abilities. Yet he said he will miss his SEB assignment; it was his ultimate career goal. "I never thought it could get any better than that."      Baca said he is pleased with how Heal's surprise promotion and presidential encounter went. It was a fitting and symbolic tribute to all of the Department's military reservists. "The Vietnam War veterans fought just as hard and perhaps in a more difficult campaign but they didn't come home to the proper respect that a grateful nation should provide. In our case, I represent the 10 million people in the Los Angeles County area, so as a Department we are not just honoring the returning members of our Department, we are honoring what their contribution means to the 10 million people who live in our County," Baca said. "It always makes me feel good when the people in the Sheriff's Department feel good about their work and their patriotism and what they, as reservists, sacrificed. It's a big sacrifice to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the whole family has to go through a lot of adjusting when they leave and when they come back. So if we can do something to enhance their return, I think we are a better Department for that." Top of Page