Joliet police lieutenant returns from Iraq

Joliet police lieutenant returns from Iraq
By Brian Stanley
November 12, 2011

JOLIET — Look out, drug dealers, Ol’ Mac is back.

Dennis McWherter thought the weather here was lousy last week, but he wasn’t complaining.

“It’ll take some getting used to, but I’m just so glad to be home,” he said.

A Major in the Illinois National Guard, McWherter had been in Iraq nearly all of this year commanding 75 soldiers from the Peoria-based 709th Area Support Medical Company. The Major is a Lieutenant in his “civilian” job — supervising the Joliet Police Narcotics Unit.

This was McWherter’s second tour-of-duty in Iraq, which he explained as “essentially running a ‘quick care’ at a forward operating base.”

But within days of arriving, the unit ended up getting split up between seven locations for McWherter to keep track of — all while the Department of Defense was turning operations over to the state department and civilian control.
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