Ex-Policeman Honored for Being All He Can Be as Army Reserve Recruiter

“Be all you can be.” It was that Army recruiting slogan that impressed Finis L. Cole, who saw action in Vietnam as a Marine and then worked as a police officer in Chicago and more recently in Fullerton.

Those words, in fact, caused him to re-enlist in the military in 1986, this time in the Army as a recruiter for reserve units.

“I really wasn’t getting much satisfaction out of police work,” explained Cole, 42. “Even when I was a patrol officer and gave out a ticket which may have saved that person’s life, I never was able to see the end product.”

Cole said he was frustrated with police work and needed a change.

“I think that stemmed from the feeling I could do more good for my country and for myself doing something else,” he said. “Serving my country was what I was originally trained to do, and I wasn’t doing that in police work.”

He found satisfaction in recruiting, so much so, that he was recently named Army Reserve Recruiter of the Year in competition with 2,800 recruiters nationwide.

Besides citing Cole’s signing of 54 recruits in a fiscal year, the review board making the selection also commended him for proficiency in such areas as counseling and leadership.

“I’d say more than 60% of those I sign up come back to tell me how they’re doing,” said Cole, who is stationed at the Army Reserve Recruiting office in Garden Grove. “It’s a good feeling to talk to people who feel you are helping them. And that’s the reward I’m looking for.”

But as a policeman, he said, “everything I did had a negative connotation. There really was no reward to those things.”

Cole, who holds a bachelor’s degree in police science, said he feels that the Army is attracting “more intelligent” enlistees than in the past--96% of those he has enlisted are high school graduates. He said part of his job satisfaction comes from his rapport with young enlistees.

“These young people are crying out for that old-fashioned discipline, the kind you get in the Army,” he said. “The fact is, they want leadership, someone to help them find the way and to let them know where they stand at all times.”

Although he contends that the Army is offering more these days to recruits than when he served, Cole added, “I’d have to say I liked it a lot better when I first joined the Marines.

“I wore my uniform home and was proud of it. And so were the people at home.”

That feeling certainly exists in his home. Daughter Karen Cole, 18, is a Marine, and his son, Finis Cole II, is about to join the Army.

Santa Ana’s Lathrop Intermediate School seventh-grader Minh-Thi Nguyen belongs to the Honor Society and is a member of the school’s academic pentathlon team.

Besides being bright, he is also healthy. And now he is also rich, comparatively speaking.

For his perfect attendance, Minh-Thi received a $1,000 savings bond from Great American Savings & Loan.

The program is aptly named “Miss School--Miss Out.”

South Coast Repertory held a fund-raising auction, and two of the items on the block were a full-length mink coat and an autographed Rams football.

Pat A. Graham, 61, calls herself the “Saw-C-Lady” and even has it on her vehicle license plates.

“I was trying to figure out a good name for myself,” said the Santa Ana resident, who plays the saw at birthday and anniversary parties. “I thought it had a lot of meaning.”

Graham started playing the saw five years ago with one she bought from a local hardware store. After only six lessons, she entered saw competition.

Now she plays professional tenor and baritone saws purchased from firms in Sweden and Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, she won third place in gospel music at the National Music Festival and Saw Contest held at UC Northridge. She came in second in the jazz category last year in a similar event in Portland, Ore.

“I’m really serious about this,” Graham said, noting that she charges $35 an hour to play at parties. She performs free at schools and churches.

Before playing the saw, she was a partner

in a roller-skating routine that performed at

churches.

Graham also has a calling card shaped like a saw.