Sean C. Morgan
Searching for a position as a police officer, Christopher Sobremonte chose to apply only to Sweet Home.
City Manager Ray Towry swore in Sobremonte as a police officer on Aug. 14.
Sobremonte grew up in a small community along the McKenzie River, and when he decided to begin a law enforcement career, he began looking at small towns. He liked what he saw in Sweet Home and applied.
Had Sweet Home Police Department not hired him, he said, he would have applied with the Oregon State Police.
Previously working for the federal government, Sobremonte, 29, said he took a pay cut to go to work here.
“It’s more enjoyable work,” he said.
Sobremonte grew up in a small community, where he had just 24 students in his grade. He spent most of his time involved in school sports – football, basketball and baseball.
After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman in June 2006 and was stationed at Ft. Campbell, Ky. He deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, from November 2007 to February 2009 with the 101st Airborne Divsion.
Upon returning, he qualified for the Sniper Section through a tryout process and completed U.S. Army Sniper School and the Expert Infantryman’s Badge test. He went on to represent the 101st Airborne Division in the 2009 International Sniper Competition – Top Sniper. After that, he led a sniper team with his battalion’s sniper section to Kandahar, Afghanistan, from March 2010 to March 2011.
Sobremonte was honorably discharged from active duty at the end of 2011 and joined the Oregon National Guard Sniper Section.
While attending school, he dated his future wife, Sasha. He became a military recruiter after two years of college.
Most recently, he was employed with the federal government as the separate Major Army Command manager of logistics. He currently is a sergeant first class in the National Guard and leads the 1st Battalion 82nd Brigade’s sniper section.
He is now married to Sasha, and they have a 1-year-old son, Ren. Sasha works in Eugene for Holt International, an adoption agency.
The Sobremontes are planning to locate in the Brownsville or Marcola areas, to split the commute while being able to raise their son in a small community.
“I chose to be a police officer because I enjoy helping people and serving my community,” Sobremonte said. “Sweet Home was my first choice to become a police officer. This town reminds me how I grew up and would want my son to experience, also. There are a lot of hard-working, respectable people I would love to get to know in Sweet Home. It is my pleasure to serve as a police officer.”
The National Guard is called out for emergencies, he said, but it isn’t often. Sobremonte said he wanted to connect his military skill set to something he could do regularly.
“A lot of my buddies are cops,” Sobremonte said. Two members of his unit are police officers. His friends soon talked him to pursuing a career in law enforcement, where he can use his knowledge to help people.
Sobremonte’s long-term goal is to “obviously become police chief,” he said. “You always want to shoot for the top.”
Still in training, he said that means becoming the best police officer he can be and then moving into a senior officer and sergeant position eventually. He is used to leadership with his position in the National Guard, where he leads a group of 30 to 100 people.
The best part of being a police officer, he said, is meeting people.
As an officer, he wants to combat “the public perception of police at especially the national level,” noting a lot of wrong and negative press across the nation about police officers. He wants help people and to show people that they can rely on police officers.
“We are very excited to have Chris at the Sweet Home Police Department,” said Police Chief Jeff Lynn. “During the hiring process I was impressed with his maturity and focus. This is a situation where Chris was focused on our department and through the process we realized the potential in him.
“We are looking forward to Chris and his family being a part of our department and community for years to come. We expect great things from him.”