For Capt. Roy Day, who up until Dec. 31 was Phelps County’s Chief Deputy Sheriff, life is coming a little slower now.
Day, 64, retired as former Sheriff Don Blankenship’s second-in-command, a move that was decided long before the Nov. 4 election that brought Rick Lisenbe into that office.
For Day, who is now selling cars in St. James at Action Auto Sales 2, LLC, Wednesday marked the end of a law-enforcement career that spanned parts of five decades, starting in the late ’60s.
“It’s been fun,” Day said Friday afternoon in the Rolla Daily News office.
“I feel like I’ve done some good, brought some bad guys down and had a good career,” Day said.
The retired Capt. Roy Day on Friday was a more relaxed man, as evidenced by the jovial manner in which he fielded two phone calls from his granddaughter during the interview.
“I’m in the middle of something, Sweetheart,” Day told her. “I’ll be with you in 30 minutes.”
“She’s a great girl, but she needs to learn patience,” Day mused.
Day’s began his career not in law enforcement but in the U.S. Army on March 18, 1963, as a member of the 101st Airborne. After his discharge from the Army three years later, Day did what most who had been honorably discharged from the Army would not do — he enlisted in the Air Force on Oct. 6, 1967.
During his tenure in the Air Force, Day found his way into law enforcement and began specializing in drug enforcement.
His duties brought him to some of the more interesting places and circumstances in the world, including Germany, Hawaii, Laos and Vietnam, locations in the States and other places abroad.
“One of our operations in Germany involved an investigation in which military people were smuggling hashish in from Afghanistan in the cargo holds of airplanes,” Day said.
“They’d bring it in and sell it around the base.”
Along the way, Day was part of the first Reverse Sting in the military, in which drug lords in Abilene, Texas, were lured into buying from his operation. The sting reverberated through the Texas drug trade and dealt a major setback for its operation. The  technique has been mimicked throughout the military.
In one circumstance, he had arranged to buy drugs from a service member at that serviceman’s room in his barracks, but things didn’t go as planned.
“When I got there, the room is full of 10 other people,” Day said. “ I’m thinking, ‘If I bust this guy, I’ll never get out of this room alive.’ He walks in the room and tosses this bag of dope at me, and says ‘Let’s party.’
“I’m not about to DO this stuff, so I tell him, ‘Hey, I don’t know who these people are. If you want to party, let’s go down to my car, and we’ll party,’” Day said.
“So, we went down to the car where my partner was waiting, and we arrested him and drove off,” Day said. “I guess the guys in his room are still waiting for him to return with the drugs,” he said, chuckling.
Day parlayed his Air Force career into the full rank of Chief Master Sergeant, before retiring with a full complement medals and of law- and drug-enforcement experience.
Upon his retirement from the Air Force on April 1, 1989, Day took a job with the State Department, a job he could perform from his home.
“My territory was Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois,” Day explained. “My job was to do background checks on people from these states who were seeking security clearance with the State Department.
“It was a terrific job, and I loved it. But my home office was Chicago and it seemed like I was always on the road. It involved a lot of travel. I wanted to be at home,” Day said.
So, in May, 1991, Day took a job at the Rolla Police Department, where he stayed until October, 1993.
“I left the Rolla PD to take a job in Owasso, Okla., as the assistant police chief,” Day said. “But, I didn’t like it. I stayed a year, until October, 1994, when I came back to Rolla and stayed there for eight years, until November, 2002.”
Day spoke fondly of his days at the Rolla Police Department, specifically mentioning the friendship that blossomed with then Sgt. Mark Kearse, who is now the department’s police chief.
“It was pretty good. I knew Mark, and it came at a time when that’s what I needed,” Day said. “There was a time of reorganization. There were three lieutenants: Mark was over Field Operations, I was over Investigations and another lieutenant was over Technology Services.
“It was a great time. Mark and I worked hand-in-hand since ’91. I stayed there until November, 2002, when I joined the Sheriff’s Department,” Day said.
Reflecting on his six years in the Sheriff’s Department, Day said “there was never a dull moment,” and he enjoyed “serving under Sheriff Blankenship.”
“I was his Undersheriff. That’s what the title was called or Chief Deputy Sheriff,” he said.
Day reflected on some high and low moments during his tenure as Chief Deputy and others that didn’t seem funny at the time, but now he can laugh about.
One of the low moments involved a woman who was barricaded in her home.
“She told me from the get-go that the only way she was coming out of the house was in a body bag,” Day said. “We talked for a long time, and I felt like we might get her out of there, but in the end, she shot herself.
“I’ve been a hostage negotiator for a long time, and she’s the only one I ever lost,” Day said. “That was tough. When a person makes up their mind, all you can do is try to change it. Many times you do. This time, I couldn’t.”
In another instance, Day recalled the time they were called to investigate the Steven Mark James shooting, a man who was convicted of murder in April.
“We went out to the house, and Andy (Detective Davis) realizes we should (have more weapons). So, I hand him my sidearm. ‘I’ll take the shotgun,’ I tell him,” Day said.
“Well, you know the story. There’s no one there, but we find the body. We clear the house and come to find out the shotgun was jammed. It wouldn’t have fired it if we had needed it. It was scary then, but we can laugh about it now,” Day said.
As Day leaves the Sheriff’s Department, he reflected on the loyalty of his wife, Johnette, a blind date he met and married 17 days after her 18th birthday, and his son John, who is now serving in Iraq.
He also reflected on his adopted daughter Fredette, who was the birth daughter of one of his 101st Airborne buddies who died in Vietnam.
“It was because of them, I gave up the job with the State Department, to spend more time near family,” Day said.
As for the new regime at the Sheriff’s Department, Day said there “will be a learning curve, but there are some great people there.”
“I’ve worked at the federal level, the state level, the county level and the city level, and I know good people,” Day said. “Don Blankenship is a good friend, and he was a great sheriff. There are good people there in Andy (Davis), Rick Hope, Mark Leathers and others.
“Once Rick (Sheriff Lisenbe) gets settled, he’ll be fine,” Day said.