After graduating from Flathead High School in the same 1977 class, Randy Owens and Ed Sievers went their separate ways. The former classmates transitioned into adult life – college, military, jobs – and lost track of each other.
But then 14 years later, they unexpectedly reunited at the Montana Highway Patrol Recruit Academy.
“We walked into the same academy class after all those years,” Owens said.
Two decades later, Owens and Sievers are celebrating a landmark milestone: 20 years of service for the Montana Highway Patrol. They are joined by fellow patrolman Roger Dundas, who also works for Northwest Montana’s District 6. Sgt. Steve Lavin will hit the 20-year mark soon as well.
Owens reached 20 years on May 4, Sievers on June 9 and Dundas on July 1. All three now qualify for retirement, though that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.
“I don’t think I’m ready yet,” Owens said. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing still and that’s the biggest thing.”
Owens, a sergeant, is assigned to the Polson area, while Sievers, a trooper, covers the Kalispell area and Dundas, also a trooper, patrols the Bigfork region. Yet those coverage areas are hardly restrictive.
As a highway patrolman, you go where the job takes you. That could mean all the way up to Canada or anywhere else in expansive Northwest Montana. It’s a lot of ground to cover and a lot of hours alone in the patrol car. Patrolmen are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“You have to have that type of personality, to have that kind of work ethic and enjoy the freedom,” Dundas said.
Among law enforcement professions, the vast distances and solitude are unique – and part of what makes the patrolmen feel their profession is special. But long stretches of quiet solitude are inevitably broken by bursts of excitement – another part of the job they cherish.
“Every day is different,” Owens said. “I always say you wake up, put on your clothes, get in your car and then you don’t know what’s going to happen. Next thing you know you’re going 100 miles per hour in a chase.”
Owens recalls when a routine traffic stop led to the arrest of a child abductor and the recovery of a child who had been missing for years. Dundas remembers checking on a parked car and discovering a wall safe sitting on the ground, which solved a string of burglaries that had been plaguing the area.
And Sievers tells of a light-hearted moment when a fellow officer checked on him after hearing that he had pulled over a “pretty bad guy” with a violent rap sheet and a number of beverages in his system. When the officer arrived, he found Sievers casually enjoying a cigarette with the man before putting him in the patrol car.
“(The other officer) just thought that was the funniest thing,” Sievers said.
The three patrolmen have seen countless accidents, some horrific. They have seen what the open road has to offer – its loneliness, its opportunities for reflection and its capacity for disaster. But above all, they have seen people of all kinds, all with their own stories.
While a number of these people have been troublesome, if not downright dangerous, the three patrolmen agree on one thing: the vast majority of the folks they deal with are good.
“You get to be a people’s person on this job,” Owens said.
Maj. Greg Watson, western regional commander for the Montana Highway Patrol, said 20 years of service is a “large accomplishment” and a “benchmark” in the profession. He said the three patrolmen will be presented with a star of service at an Aug. 27 meeting at the District 6 office in Kalispell.
“It signifies that that you are one of the senior troopers in the state and you’ve given 20 years to the citizens of Montana,” Watson said.
“Our agency is very proud of their accomplishments and the job that they’ve done for us the last 20 years.”