Having his interest in law enforcement piqued at an early age led Mike Pulliam to a career spanning more than three decades with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
"I've always been around law enforcement; my mom's career" included serving as a secretary at St. Louis City Police Headquarters for many years and then Crestwood, Mo., court clerk, said Pulliam.
"I was always around law enforcement officers as a young child visiting my mom at work and the different functions we would go to," said Pulliam, who recalls meeting a trooper as a young man.
"Just to see the uniform, the hat, his demeanor just made an impression on me," Pulliam said.
So much so that at age 21, Pulliam was appointed to the highway patrol and began its training academy on Jan. 1, 1984.
Pulliam said he knew going in he planned to make the patrol his career.
"I knew this is what I wanted to do; this is where I wanted to be," Pulliam said. "Now, I'm at the end, and I'm very fortunate to have done it."
Pulliam is retiring March 1 after 34 years of service to the citizens of Missouri.
His first assignment when his class of 21 graduated was Troop C, Franklin County.
"I was there for five years, and then, in 1989, transferred to St. Louis, Jefferson County, because that is where I grew up," Pulliam said. "I worked the metropolitan area.
"In 1993, I was promoted to corporal; I was still working that same area."
While in Troop C, Pulliam said, he served six years as a member of its Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, along with his regular road duties.
"Then, we just had three SWAT teams, so our team actually handled the entire eastern third of the state," said Pulliam. "We worked from northern Missouri" south.
Among the team's call outs, Pulliam recalled, was the time they responded to rural Cape County to "effect the arrest warrant" on a man wanted for a triple homicide in the early 1990s.
"In 1995, I elected to try a new division the patrol had, and that was the gaming division," Pulliam said. "Casino gambling was relatively new in Missouri."
Pulliam described his reassignment as a new opportunity and a change of pace.
While with the gaming division, Pulliam first was assigned to the President's Casino in downtown St. Louis, Mo., where he worked for two years and was promoted to sergeant.
Pulliam subsequently transferred to lead the unit at Harrah's Players Casino by the river at Westport, Mo.
"In 1999, I was offered a promotion to lieutenant at Troop E, Poplar Bluff, and been here ever since," said Pulliam, who indicated he made the move since it was an opportunity for promotion.
"I was trying to make the patrol a career, and sometimes, especially, at the lieutenant's position, it requires a complete geographical move," Pulliam said.
Since Pulliam has had so much diversity in his career, he said, it is difficult for him to pinpoint what was the best portion.
"Working rural Missouri has its rewards and advantages," Pulliam explained. "The public and the people treat you entirely different than in a metropolitan area, but then working in the metropolitan area, it's very active.
"It's constant; it's steady. It's exciting for a young officer."
While working for the gaming division, Pulliam said, he learned a lot about investigative work that he "probably would never have encountered as a road officer."
Troopers assigned to the casinos, he said, dealt with a lot of counterfeit, not just money, but counterfeit casino tokens.
"We dealt with a lot of cheat scams, a lot of cheating devices," Pulliam explained. "They sent us actually to casino dealer school so we could learn the game inside and out to be able to adjudicate and detect problems and cheats."
Then, serving as a staff officer at Troop E, Pulliam said, he was given the opportunity to see the other side of the patrol and how it operates.
Pulliam said the interaction with law enforcement is so much different in St. Louis than rural Missouri.
"I truly, honestly, did not know a trooper personally up there (as compared to) here, I think a lot of people do know them personally," said Pulliam. "I think that is why a lot of our recruits come out of rural Missouri because of that."
As Pulliam looks back on his career, he said, the most difficult challenge he faced early on was due to his being "as young as I was. I was 21 when I was appointed, so I did still have a lot of maturing to do while trying to take on a very responsible role."
Other challenges over the years involved the safety issues troopers face, as well as time away from the family, Pulliam said.
Additionally, it's the "unfortunate times we have to bury officers," Pulliam said.
When Pulliam joined the patrol in 1984, he said, it had been "serving the public for some 53 years then.
"We had 11 officers killed at that time. In my 34-year career, we've added 20 to that list from Missouri, which is hard to fathom."
Two of those line-of-duty deaths were Pulliam's classmates, including Robert Guilliams, who was killed in a traffic crash on Feb. 16, 2001, on Interstate 55 in Pemiscot County.
"You attend those not just as an officer, but as a classmate," Pulliam said.
During his career, Pulliam said, he has had so many positive experiences.
"I've had the positive experiences of helping people, helping young children, helping them at accident scenes or homicide scenes," said Pulliam. "We've had the spring floods; we've had the extreme winter weather."
As a SWAT team member, Pulliam said, he was part of a lot of manhunts, which required "lots of time from home, but all in all, it's been a great career.
"I'm happy to have made it to this point. A lot of people don't."
Pulliam said he could stay around for another four years until he hits the patrol's mandatory retirement age of 60, but "in reality, life is short.
"We know when the day of our life begins, but we really don't know when the end time is. I just want to enjoy (it) while I can and enjoy retirement with my wife and son."
The hardest part about retirement, he said, will be leaving behind the officers and employees "I work with day in and day out because we truly are a family."