By Tammy Compton
Oct 12, 2010
Wayne County A red dot marks Oct. 24 on Bob Milani's calendar, the
word Pentagon printed just below it.
Milani, 82, a resident at Wayne Delaware Manor in Beach Lake, gave
the biggest part of his life serving and protecting the public.
A New York City police officer in Harlem, Milani served with the 22nd
Precinct, badge #14765, followed by close to five years with the
State Police, Troop K, Hawthorne, N.Y., and more than two decades as
a U.S. Marshal.
It was his dad, the late Ercole Milani of Italy, a hard working,
heavy construction worker, who begged his son to pursue a civil
service job, something with a pension.
His years with the NYPD exposed him to the uglier side of life.
"We came in third or fourth in homicides in the city," he said.
Weary of the high crime rate, and fearful for his family after a
neighbor got mugged, Milani made a decision to leave the city.
He was married 24-years to the love his life, the late Josephine
Milani, who died far too young of cancer. Together they had three
beautiful children: two girls and a boy, who blessed them with four
grandchildren and finally a great granddaughter.
After taking and passing the trooper's exam, Milani served with the
State Police Troop K, out of Hawthorne for more than four years
before deciding to sit for the Federal Marshal's exam.
Federal Marshals were responsible for the witness protection program,
court security, and protecting the judges, he said.
"They assign two Marshals to the courtroom, they're like bailiffs.
And if it's a bad case, they send 6, 7, or 8. We had a lot of
narcotics cases," Milani said.
Then Vietnam happened.
And alongside the war came mass anti-war demonstrations, like the
three-day demonstration just outside the Pentagon, Oct. 21-23, 1967.
"They were sending Marshals from all over the Country to the
Pentagon, and I volunteered. They were expecting trouble; I figured
I'd' do my duty," Milani said.
They estimated more than 12,000 demonstrators. "They were peaceful in
the beginning," Milani recalled.
Dr. Benjamin Spock, an activist in the anti-war movement, was among
them, Milani said.
"It was nice and quiet in the beginning," he said, then someone edged
the crowd.
"I felt sorry for the troops, all military police. There must have
been a couple thousand easy. They were right behind us," he said.
The federal marshals were the first line of defense. And they had no
armor, Milani remembered. 'No equipment," he said, just a military
helmet to protect themselves.
"I always carried a weapon, (but) when I went out with the
demonstrators, you had to check your weapon," he said, you weren't
allowed to have it. "Can you imagine if they got a hold of a weapon?"
Things went bad rather quickly. "It was a free-for-all on the steps
(of the Pentagon)," he said.
Pummeled with fists and kicked in the back, Milani suffered damage to
his left kidney, and had to be rushed to the National Institute of
Health or NIH.
He was "passing blood, throwing up" and had a fever. Things were bad.
So bad that the department considered retiring him since he was
unable to pass their physical, Milani said.
"I was still a pretty young guy," he said, just 37-years-old.
Determination won out.
Milani stayed on as a U.S. Marshal for 24 years, retiring around 1990.
"I think I did a fairly good job with the police and the Marshal
Service. I did my best," he said.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment