Cole, Robert 1954–

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Cole, Robert 1954–

PERSONAL:

Born October 16, 1954.

CAREER:

Police officer and defense contractor. East Palo Alto Police Department, East Palo Alto, CA, police officer, retired as a sergeant, 1983-2003; Pacific Architects and Engineers, defense contractor for the United Nations, working in Haiti; DynCorp International, defense contractor and police trainer for the U.S. State Department, working in Iraq.

WRITINGS:

Under the Gun in Iraq: My Year Training the Iraqi Police, as told to Jan Hogan, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert Cole was born October 16, 1954. He spent twenty-five years as a policeman, the last two decades of which he was employed by the East Palo Alto Police Department in East Palo Alto, California, retiring in 2003 as a sergeant. Over the course of his tenure with East Palo Alto, he helped to restore order to the town and to end its status as the murder capital of the nation. Following his retirement, Cole became an independent defense contractor, working for a number of organizations in an effort to help restore peace in some of the world's more chaotic nations, and to train other police or military officers to protect their homes and countries. Working with the United Nations, through the independent contractors Pacific Architects and Engineers, Cole spent a year in Haiti as part of a peacekeeping mission. He spent part of his time training local police to handle themselves more efficiently, but the majority of his time in Haiti he acted as a bodyguard, serving to protect the lives of various key figures in the country, including their director general of police. He also spent a month unable to work, after having contracted malaria. Following his stint in Haiti, Cole went to Iraq as a defense contractor with DynCorp International, hired by the U.S. State Department. His job there was quite similar to what he did in Haiti, though in this instance he provided backup for U.S. troops as well. Cole remarked in an interview with Banks Albach for the Palo Alto Daily News Online: "As far as I know, this is new for our country to be fighting a war with private security specialists. I personally think it's a clever way to a fight a vicious and intelligent enemy."

Cole's experiences in Iraq led him to write his book, Under the Gun in Iraq: My Year Training the Iraqi Police. In it, he discusses his time training Iraqi soldiers, the dangers and challenges he faced as an American in Iraq, and the political and religious issues that fueled so much of the violence he witnessed while he was in the country. The book shows both Cole's bravery and the underlying fear that is a natural reaction to many of the situations he faced. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews noted: "Stateside cops usually don't have to contend with IEDs and suicide bombs, and thus Cole finds himself acquiring skills he had not needed before." The reviewer goes on to point out Cole's overall cultural and ethnic insensitivity, but also remarks that there is a level at which that knee-jerk reaction toward the enemy is understandable, if not correct. A reviewer for Internet Bookwatch found Cole's work to be "an unusual stark, realistic portrait of daily life in the country."