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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
7-24-2010 Local law enforcement are welcoming two new recruits into their ranks.
Brance Bowen, 31, of San Jose and David Owen, 22, of Yuba City recently completed the grueling 27-week CHP Boot Camp and got their first taste of patrol on Inyo County roads earlier this week.
Bowen has been stationed in Lone Pine and Owen will be working out of the Bishop office.
Before the two new recruits become full fledged officers, they must complete 33 days of field training, where they ride with seasoned CHP officers and learn, first-hand, the ins and outs of everyday patrols.
“What they’re doing is field work and orientation into all aspects of the department,” said Sergeant Rich Underwood of the Bishop Field Office.
Just making it to the field training is an accomplishment, as Bowen and Owen are part of a CHP Academy class that began with 179 cadets, but ended with only 106 elite graduates.
While the CHP’s boot camp has a reputation of being second to none, there is only so much drill sergeants and classroom exercises can teach cadets. That’s why the CHP has a strict year-long probation period for graduates who make it into uniform.
During the almost seven months of boot camp, cadets spend equal parts in the classroom learning criminal law, on the shooting range learning their firearms, on the road where they are taught to be world-class drivers and, the most grueling part, with the physical training staff, where they harden their bodies and train their minds for some of the stress and difficulties of law enforcement.
“If you can’t function at the physical fitness level, it’s all going to fall apart in academy” because the physical demands will begin to wear on the body, creating constant fatigue that will affect classroom concentration, Underwood said.
Owen said that he was prepared for the rigors of CHP Boot Camp, because his father is a retired officer.
Bowen said that he trained for about a year for the physical fitness portion of academy, as he, too, was aware of the demanding nature of the boot camp.
Both recruits said the most memorable part of their time at the academy was graduation day, when they had to opportunity to shake hands with their instructors as equals, rather than “hammerheads” and “Pointdexters,” as the drill instructors were accustomed to calling them.
Another aspect of training they look back on is the Emergency Vehicle Operation Training course, where they learned to control a patrol car on a skid pan, which simulates icy roads, and drive the high speed course, where they learned to control their vehicle at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.
“The high speed track is specifically designed for the instructors to push them to their limit,” Underwood said, explaining that, to be a successful CHP officer, cadets must be comfortable behind the wheel and able to maintain control of the squad car in the best and worst of conditions.
Now that the cadets are in uniform and on the road, Underwood said seasoned officers in Inyo County are “teaching them how to put those 27 weeks of training together.”
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