MSHP 100th Recruit Graduation Ceremony

[MOstang]

I'm excited to share that I received a personal invitation from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain / Director Law Enforcement Academy to attend and display my 1993 Missouri State Highway Patrol Mustang at their 100th Recruit Graduation on June 26th. The graduation events are held on the south lawn of the Missouri State Capitol Building (weather permitting).

This same MSHP Captain also happens to be the MSHP Trooper who was assigned to my SSP Mustang the entire time it was in service with the MSHP. I've had the fortune of speaking with him a number of times and meeting him on two occasions. The last time I met with him was when reuniting him with his former Mustang at MSHP General Headquarters in Jeff City after returning it to in-service specs in 2010. See attached photo when he drove me around the compound in his former SSP. When he sat in it with me and stated "this is exactly how I remember it", everything was worth it at that very moment. At that time, he was a Lieutenant / Assistant Director Professional Standards Division. He was later promoted to Captain / Director of that division and it seems has now been about 18 months (or thereabouts) since his promotion as Captain / Director for the Academy.

As you can imagine, I'm very excited about this opportunity :2thumbs:. It's going to be a unique opportunity for the both of us! Thankfully it's not during PCOOA Branson, but I only wish they were closer together in time proximity. If only it were closer to me and I had more of me to go around, it would be fun to include my 1990 MSHP Mustang in the festivities as well.

[chp1982]

That's great news and quite the honor!

[Unmrkd]

Mike, if you need a driver for the '90, I might be persuaded.

[mac88chp]

That is very cool. Take lots of photos! :2thumbs:

[kapracing]

That's great Mike! I'm very excited for you:2thumbs: please get plenty of pics :D

[28HopUp]

That sounds like a good time.

Mike, if you need a driver for the '90, I might be persuaded.

...and that sounds like a great offer! ;)

[MOstang]

Gentleman thanks for the feedback and Gregg thanks for the offer. Going to be a bit of juggling needed to keep things practical and w/in budget given the timing of events in Branson and Jeff City events. And no doubt, pictures o'plenty will be taken to share. Thank you.

[MOstang]

Many in the police car restoration hobby would state that the devil is in the details with these restorations. To help with that, I'm thankful to have previously obtained a training video from Jim Young that the Missouri State Highway Patrol Training Academy produced on what was Missouri's new 55 mile per hour speed limit law. Even better, the SSP Mustang that served as the "featured star" of the video is my 1993 Missouri State Highway Patrol P641 SSP Mustang. This is known due to the license plate (632-HP), which contains the assigned Trooper's badge number (632). The Trooper who was assigned to my SSP (now a Captain) did not appear in the video, but rather the Academy borrowed his assigned SSP and it was driven during the video by individuals from the Academy.

It had been several years since I'd last looked at the video, but I had it out over the winter and watched it again. In doing so, I studied the video footage more closely and various screen shots I made from the video. I noticed a couple details that were off with my SSP as compared with how it specifically was depicted while in service during the video. More specifically, it was equipped a different style Midland CB Radio and the MPH S80 Radar setup was a bit different (the bracket and no handheld) as compared with how I'd set it up when returning the SSP back to in-service condition. The MSHP didn't always use the exact same CB Radio, so the one I had in it was patterned after an interior in-service picture from another 1993 MSHP SSP.

Figured I'd make those tweaks to my SSP in preparation for next month's Missouri State Highway Patrol 100th Recruit Graduation, where I will be displaying my SSP. The 1st attachment is a screen shot from the video with my SSP in service; 2nd attachment is how it was set back up in 2010 and the 3rd attachment is after tweaking it a bit over the weekend. I'll tinker around with a little bit more before the actual event, but the weather was fantastic this weekend to be out working on the SSP.