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28 NEW JERSEY COPS NOVEMBER 2014

BY JOSHUA SIGMUND

Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer Dennis Powlish has a lot tolive up to. Both his grandfather, Paul Zarodnansky, and father,John Powlish, were MCSO Local 187 members, the latter hav-ing retired in 2010, 25 years to the day after first donning hisbadge. Now Dennis, at 29, has built on his family’s legacy by expanding his field of service to the military, a path that began

more than two decades ago.“As a little kid, Dennis was big into soccer,” recalled JohnPowlish. “Any time there was a tussle, he ran to protect his play-ers. He was ready to go to battle at six years old.”

That sense of duty carried through Dennis’ life, maturing intoa desire to follow in his family’s footsteps and become a cop. Butthat proved easier said than done, and after applying every- where including the Connecticut State Police, Dennis ended up

discouraged.“I think he got disgusted trying to

find work,” John concluded. “In 2008,he finally said ‘I can’t find anything, butI still want to do something with my life.’”

So he enlisted in the infantry – again wanting to be on the ground, in thefight, protecting his friends.

Following training at Fort Benning,Georgia, his first tour sent him to Afghanistan for a year from 2009-2010,as well as some short deployments in Africa. Inevitably, his homecoming meant that he would need to continuethe tedious job search. Fatefully, thissearch led him to the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office – a family tradition thatsoon proved to be mutually beneficial.

“He’s a good, common sense kind of

kid,” affirmed Local 187 State Delegate Pat Papero. “He does his job and doesn’t complain, and he brings different tacticalknowledge to the game that people who didn’t serve might nothave. It’s certainly beneficial.”

This past June, just as he was getting settled stateside – in fact,only two weeks after he married his wife, Alexis – Dennis gotcalled back into action, this time to Qatar.

“He didn’t know he was going back over there,” John said.“He’ll be back in June 2015, so when he left, I joked, ‘At least yourmarriage will last a year.’”

Sheriff’s officers continue to maintain contact with Dennismostly through Facebook, and are putting together a care pack-age to send him.

“We want to let him know that we appreciate what he’s doing for us, that we’re thinking about him and that he knows he’s notforgotten,” attested Papero. “It might sound stupid, but we’resending him simple things: hand sanitizer, alcohol wash…things to make him happy.”

The Local is also sending Dennis some PBA shirts and mili-tary challenge coins, proceeds from which support the PBA Vet-erans Association.

On Oct. 3, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, the New Jersey Parole Board and New Jersey Employer Support of the Guardand Reserve (ESGR) hosted an event at the Department of Mil-itary and Veteran Affairs Lawrenceville Armory, at which law enforcement leaders from the Mercer County Sheriff’s Officeand police chiefs from surrounding communities ceremoni-ously illustrated that they recognize the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the National Guard and Reserve.

Mercer County Sheriff Jack Kemler emceed the event andexplained that the National Guard and Reserve members “areout there fighting for us. They leave their family, they leave their jobs, and they leave their homes to defend freedom abroad. I want them to know that they have a job to return to in MercerCounty when they come home.”

Dennis Powlish comes from a long line of cops but as a soldier he’s a pioneerThird generation hero

Mercer CountySheriff’s OfficerDennis Powlishwith his parents,including retiredMCSO JohnPowlish.

Powlish withwife, Alexis.