Most of you know him as San Luis Obispo County’s District Attorney. Dan Dow is in his 3rd term as DA, but what you might not know is his other job: serving his country in the U.S. Army.
It’s a bit atypical for the leading prosecutor of a county to step aside for several months to attend to another job, but when duty calls:
“The Army is why I am who I am,” said Dow. “If I get the call to serve again, I'm going to stand up and go and do what I'm called to do.”
In September of last year, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney, Dan Dow, was deployed as a deputy staff judge advocate, a lawyer, for the 40th Infantry Division in Kuwait. He returned to the states in April.
“In every nation the U.S. has troops, there’s some sort of agreement that we establish with them, either a status of forces agreement or a security agreement,” said Dow. “The lawyers make sure that every operation complies with those documents and with international law.”
So, the question is, what happens to a critical, county department, consisting of more than 100 employees, when its leader is serving the nation out of the country?
“They just did a remarkable, remarkable job. The community was well served,” said Dow of his team. “The community really didn't lose anything by having me gone from my perspective, but I'm also very happy to be back and continue to serve in this role as district attorney.”
SLO County Assistant District Attorney, Eric Dobroth, took the reins while Dow was deployed, a job that added work to his plate, but one he accepted with open arms.
“Not having Dan here was impactful because he's very public facing,” said Dobroth. “He's very involved in the community, but we've got a very strong management team right now, and so things went very smoothly.”
Dow began his tenure in the military in 1989 when he enlisted. Since then, he has been deployed several times, including for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. He now wears many hats; SLO County District Attorney, member of the U.S. Armed Forces, father, and military husband of over 30 years. Dow is eligible for military retirement, but that’s on the backburner for now.
“For right now, my hope is that will be another 3 to 5 years, and I hope it's peace time,” said Dow. “But we all have to be prepared to go. If I wasn't willing to go, I would retire today.”
If, or until, that time comes, Dan Dow is back in office.
