Buerkle Hangs Up His Hat

Retiring Sheriff Verne Buerkle hadn't always wanted to be a cop. He just always was a cop. After sitting through a presentation from the then Glendive Chief of Police Gary Olson during his high school career day in Southeast Montana, Buerkle thought, "You know what, that's something I'd be interested in." That thought would translate into a 46-year long career in public service culminating in his being appointed Sheriff of Valley County in 2017.

Initially, Buerkle enlisted in the Army in 1972 as an armor crewman. After two years on active duty he transitioned over and added six years in the National Guard. He earned a degree in "Police Sciences" from Dawson Community College before coming on board at the Glasgow Police Department. Buerkle would do 21 years at GPD before retiring, with a three-year stint at the Post Office wedged in the middle.

After retiring from GPD, Buerkle took on a role at the Valley County Sheriff's Office starting on April 1, 1999. Sheriff Richard Wessler would appoint him undersheriff in November, 2001, and he would remain in the post under Wessler and the following Sheriff administration until taking over the post of Sheriff on Jan. 1, 2017.

When asked why he remained a cop Buerkle quipped, "Because I don't know how to do anything else." His serious response revolved around the answer one comes to expect from a man who spent his life in uniform, because he genuinely wanted to help people and found the work, although not enjoyable, rewarding.

Buerkle held up a number of cases he worked or was involved in that were horrific for the community, and required a lot of care, compassion and attention from law enforcement. A fact that he seemingly took with both pride and shame.

Many of the cases he was hesitant to talk about citing local family and survivors of those cases are still alive in the community. One such case was a triple homicide in 1977 in which Buerkle was dispatched to investigate the grizzly murder of a family in their home by the daughter's estranged husband.

Other cases that stuck out in Buerkle's mind involved a private plane crash and a winter storm that sent the Sheriff's Office out into the cold January winter on snowmobiles to search the wreckage and recover the bodies of four killed in the crash. The temperatures and the state of the passengers made that day in 2004 stand out for Buerkle.

That crash involved a father, two sons and one of the son's fiancee traveling back from South Dakota to Cut Bank in a small private airplane when the weather took a turn for the worse. While trying to fly around the storm the plane was engulfed in the blizzard's onslaught and inverted before crashing and killing all on board.

Buerkle described how search and rescue efforts lead an Air Force helicopter to Valley County where they located the wreckage and established that no one survived. The next day the sheriff deputies had to be plowed in by the road department and then continued in on snowmobiles to the crash site. It was a day that demonstrated some of the many tasks Buerkle performed over more than four decades in law enforcement.

Buerkle, responding to a question on the ups of the job, said optimistically, "Just this past Thursday we went and did a blood run from Phillips County to the hospital here, so it's not all issuing citations and arresting people."

A "blood run," by Buerkle's description, meant that they met an ambulance carrying a sample of blood from Phillips County, that needed to be tested quickly to help diagnose an infant, to get it to the hospital here in Glasgow as quickly as possible. It was a source of positive pride for the veteran law enforcement officer to assist the safety and well-being of the public.

Wrapping up the interview and topping off a long career, Buerkle offered just one piece of advice for his predecessor Sheriff Tom Boyer and in true form to the outgoing Sheriff it was flatly practical, "Just try to work well with all the departments and the people of Valley County." He added, "It has been a pleasure working with everybody in the county, both in and out of law enforcement."