Vietnam Veteran, Cop, Musician: The Many Lives of Dan Glenn
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This week on The Brighter Side of Blue, we sit down with a man whose life has taken him through Vietnam, law enforcement, music and some truly unbelievable experiences.
Dann Glenn is a Vietnam combat veteran, former military and police officer, accomplished bassist and guitarist, composer, author and longtime member of the St. Louis community. His story is anything but ordinary.
Dann served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne before becoming a military policeman. After returning home, he began a career in law enforcement, only to realize that his lifelong passion for music was calling him back. Years later, after 9/11, he found himself drawn back toward law enforcement and eventually landed in St. Louis, where his path crossed with Producer John and a number of familiar names from the St. Louis police family.
Dann shares stories from Vietnam, his police career, his incredible music career and the people he's met along the way. And wait until you hear how a chance encounter involving a bag of laundry eventually led to him sitting down with Van Morrison.
Before we get to Dann, we're doing what we always do around here: talking about the police family.
The guys reminisce about the ROMEOs, Retired Old Men Eating Out, including a table packed with decades of police experience, old friends and some familiar faces. Because as we always say, once you're part of the police family, you're in forever.
JJ also discusses the tragic death of U.S. Marshal Bradley Fisher, who was killed while deploying spike strips during a pursuit in Indiana. The guys talk about just how dangerous that seemingly simple police tactic can be and why proper training and positioning matter.
And, of course, there is plenty of the usual Brighter Side of Blue nonsense along the way, including a debate over women's sports, some questionable sandwich history, the St. Louis-born Gerber sandwich, a police call involving a landlord, a tenant and two alligators, snakes, an emu, dogs, cats and pigs, plus the guys somehow finding a way to turn almost every topic into a reason to bust each other's balls.