Page 2 - Veterans2016

2 — Friday, November 11, 2016 — El Dorado NEWS-TIMES
Goode: ‘I saw him and I wanted to do that’
By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — Growing up in Hobbs, N.M., Wayne Goode was struck by two events that led him toward extensive and rewarding careers in the military and law enforcement.
When he was 12, Goode, an investigator with the Union County Sheriff’s Office, saw his step-mother’s brother in Marine Corps dress blues.
The crisp, midnight blue coat and color coordinated trousers, accentuated by the stature and carriage of the man wearing the uniform, made quite the impression on Goode.
“I saw him, and I wanted to do that,” he said.
As an eighth-grader two years later, a crush on one of his teachers became the unexpected catalyst for Goode’s early interest in law enforcement.
“She was married to a police officer. He came into the classroom, and I thought that was all I had to do, become a police officer,” he recalled with a laugh.
Adolescent rationalization later morphed into mature reasoning for Goode, who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps while still a senior at Hobbs High School.
Following graduation in 1986, the-then 18-year-old Goode shipped off to boot camp in January 1987.
Tragedy struck three weeks in.
“My dad passed away from leukemia. He was in the hos- pital in Dallas. I came home, buried him and went back,” Goode said, explaining that the regimented environment of the Marine Corps helped him to cope with the loss.
He was stationed in Japan in 1987 when he was once again struck by a life-changing event, and much like in the eighth-grade, this one also involved Cupid’s arrow.
There, Goode met another soldier — Sophia — who would later become his wife.
“She was from Detroit. She was in the Marines, and her dad was in the Marines. That’s what drew her to it,” he said.
Goode spent a year in Japan. Three months after his return stateside, he was shipped to Kuwait in the Persian Gulf, two years before Operation Desert Shield com- menced.
He was placed on ordnance, working 12- to 14-hour days alongside experienced soldiers from the Vietnam era.
“It was hot in Kuwait. We moved around quite a bit. You had one day a week off,” Goode said. “It was an interest- ing experience. I learned that I could sleep anywhere, anytime.”
After awhile, he was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C., where he met back up with Sophia.
The couple wed in 1990, and the family eventually grew with a son and a daughter.
The birth of their son prompted the couple to rethink their future in the military.
“We wanted to try civilian life for awhile. We had just had a son ...,” he said.
Goode left the military at the age of 24, but the decision was short-lived.
The structured lifestyle and fraternalism he had
Wayne and Sophia Goode
developed with his fellow soldiers proved too great to resist, Goode said.
“I was still young and still military-minded. I was only 24 at the time, and I was more military-minded than my peers,” he explained.
“The brotherhood and camaraderie I missed pretty bad, plus at that point, I also had my daughter, so it was a better family decision,” Goode continued.
He re-enlisted in 1996 and went to military police school, implementing a career aspiration that took root when he was 14.
Goode received law enforcement training for nine weeks at Fort McClelland in Anniston, Ala.
He was then sent back to Japan — Okinawa — while his wife and children stayed in Detroit.
When Goode returned to the states, he was stationed in Yuma, Ariz., and was soon joined by his family.
“We loved it. We absolutely loved it,” he said.
It was there that Goode was moved to the military police Criminal Investigative Division, and he uncovered a new passion for that component of policing.
“Then I went on recruiting duty. The goal was to get my wife back home,” he explained.
The orders subsequently came. The family moved to
Detroit, where they would live for 10 years while Sophia pursued a college education, earning bachelor’s and mas- ter’s degrees to launch her own career in teaching.
The couple had thought about remaining in Detroit, but Goode said he had always had designs on retiring in his hometown, El Dorado.
He had moved away as a youngster when his father sought work in the Hobbs, oilfields, at the behest of his brother, Goode’s uncle.
“All my family was from here. It was better weather, and my mom had moved back. I didn’t have any family in New Mexico,” he said.
Sophia came to El Dorado in 2009, with Goode following upon his retirement in 2010 as a Gunnery Sergeant, E-7.
In El Dorado, Sophia worked at Washington Middle School and Retta Brown.
While Sophia worked, she encouraged Goode to enroll in South Arkansas Community College.
He completed one semester with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. However, Goode said he didn’t share the same enthusiasm for school as Sophia.
His professional ambitions lay elsewhere.
“I signed up for the second semester, and I just couldn’t do it,” he said.
Having a relative who worked as a deputy with the Union County Sheriff ’s Office, Goode headed to 250 American Road and met with Sheriff Mike McGough on McGough’s first official day in office in January 2011.
“He said he didn’t have anything. Six weeks later, he called me back. I started on March 1, 2011,” Goode said.
The Marine-turned-sheriff ’s deputy immediately noticed similarities and differences between military and civilian police work.
“The biggest difference is in the military, we don’t arrest people. We apprehend them and turn them over to their unit. It’s up to their unit whether to put them in the bri- gade or not,” he said.
“Civilian police, we make arrests and take them to jail. In the military, we do not put handcuffs on people,” he said.
Goode also noted a broader crime coverage area outside the military.
“Here, you have drugs, thefts, burglaries, shootings. In the military, it’s pretty much the same thing, but it’s just larger with civilian police,” he said.
Yearning to get back to criminal investigation, Goode applied for and was hired for his current position at the UCSO in November 2012.
“I really like seeing something through from start to finish,” he said.
Goode said he also found the same brotherhood and camaraderie in civilian police work as with the military.
He highly recommends the U.S. military for young peo- ple, describing how he benefited from his own experience in the Marine Corps.
“I think in all honesty, everybody should do time in the military. It made me grow up ... It gives you an under- standing of what and how life is supposed to be,” he said.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.
Origin of Veterans Day has roots with World War I
Special to the News-Times
World War I — known at the time as “The Great War” — offi- cially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France.
However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armi- stice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. For that reason, Nov. 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemo- ration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of
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those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations...”
The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and pub- lic meetings and a brief suspen- sion of business beginning at 11 a.m.
The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:
“Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may
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never again be severed, and "Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and whereas the legis- latures of 27 of our states have already declared Nov. 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives con- curring), that the president of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Nov. 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations
with all other peoples.”
An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S.
Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday — a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be there- after celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.”
Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veter- ans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of sol- diers, sailors, Marines and air- men in the nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by strik- ing out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.”
With the approval of this legis- lation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
Later that same year, on Oct. 8, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first “Veterans Day Proclamation” which stated: “In order to insure proper and wide- spread observance of this anni- versary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire cit- izenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the administrator of Veterans’ Affairs as chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other per- sons as the chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary plan- ning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the gov- ernment to assist the National Committee in every way possi- ble.”
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