Move from Los Angeles to Moore Fits Perfectly for Montague FIRST RESPONDER SPOTLIGHT

He joined the Marine Corps Reserve and says he enjoyed it and the military lifestyle. His unit was activated in 2008 and sent to Iraq in 2009. When he returned, it wasn't long before the possibility of law enforcement arose.

"Towards the end of my military career, a recruiter from LAPD came down and talked to a bunch of the Marines. They were offering the written test right then and there. I passed it and was off to L.A."

disappear for a while. In Los Angeles, it's like building a sandcastle at the beach. The waves sweep it away as soon as you build it."

More importantly for Montague, the Oklahoma lifestyle truly fits him and his family. He says he always felt like a fish out of water in California. Now that he's in Oklahoma, he enjoys outdoor life as a single dad with two young daughters, ages six and three, and a son who is five years old.

Officer Chris Montague was born in California's Bay Area but grew up in the Los Angeles area when his family moved there shortly after his birth.

"I was pretty much born and raised in Southern California," said Montague. "I grew up doing the beach thing, surfing, skateboarding, and all that. Pretty typical Southern California kid."

Montague says he loved history in school and originally wanted to be a history teacher.

"I still am a history nerd to this day," said Montague, "But I really wasn't at my best academically, so when the war broke out in the mid-2000s, and I graduated in 2006, I decided to take some time in the military to figure things out."

That was 2010, and Montague says he really enjoyed working as a police officer in the sprawling city of Los Angeles, even with the obvious challenges that came with the job.

"I think it was a great workplace," said Montague. "And holy cow, what a great place to learn and get exposure! I had a lot of great mentors, too. But once I got married, had kids, and was thinking about raising a family, we started looking for a good Christian value-based area."

That search led Montague and his family to the Moore area. He started in Norman, but it was only a short time before he moved to Moore. He says he quickly fell in love with the city.

"I think one of the best things here is that the community is much smaller, so have a larger impact," said Montague. "If you arrest somebody who's burglarizing an area, you'll actually see those burglaries

"We're hitting the t-ball stage, and we love to go bombing around our property on the quads," said Montague. "We're on ten acres, so if we're not doing sports, we're swimming in the pond or digging for bugs, fun stuff like that."

And after having patrolled in some of the toughest urban areas in the country, including South Central Los Angeles, Montague says the move to Oklahoma has been perfect for him.

"The way I was trained in L.A. was essentially that I was a hammer looking for a nail," said Montague. "That's not the fault of the police force, necessarily. It was just all the things that had happened over the years that led to a challenging situation for both police and the public. But here, we're just super fortunate to have such a great city to work for and such great leadership, from Chief Gibson through the city council and city manager. They all put us in a position to have a positive impact in our community."

Moore Norman Technology Center is celebrating 50 Years of service and education to our local community. Established in 1972, MNTC is considered one of America’s top educational and training institutions. It’s also one of 29 technology centers within Oklahoma’s globally-recognized CareerTech System. Moore Norman is constantly adapting to the times, providing critical training and skills to a workforce that is undergoing consistent change. With more than 1,000 career programs and hundreds of short-term programs, businesses and students can gain meaningful career and technical skills, including state and national certifications.