As far as Rob Klakamp is concerned, age is just a number.
A year ago, at 41, he quit his job at a local factory after 20 years to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an Indiana conservation officer.
Most recruits are in their 20s or early 30s, but Klakamp made it through the rigorous 13-month program and proved that age doesn’t matter.
Determination carried him through, he said.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“All of my classmates and recruits, they always said, ‘Klakamp was the most prepared’ because I wanted it so bad,” he said. “Failure was not an option for me.”
When the process began, he was one of more than 1,500 applicants. At graduation June 22, he was one of only eight left standing.
“I am one of the oldest ones to ever make it, as far as I know,” the 42-year-old said. “I left a job of 20 years. I had to make it.”
He said the hardest part was being away from his family, including wife Samantha and a new baby. But all along, he knew he had their support, and that helped him pull through.
“Don’t ever fall short of your dreams, no matter your age,” he said. “It’s never too late to follow your dreams. Had it not been for my wife, I would probably still be in a factory.”
After graduating from Brownstown Central High School in 1994, the Freetown native spent a short time working at a tool and die factory before becoming a maintenance technician at Aisin Drivetrain Inc. in Crothersville in 1996.
Even though he said he made good money there and liked his job, his childhood dream still was in the back of his mind.
One day in late 2015, Samantha told him about a hiring process for conservation officers, but he didn’t apply.
Shortly after, Samantha told him she applied. She got a call to begin the process but never had any intention of being a conservation officer. She was trying to motivate her husband to go for it.
“I knew that would light a fire under his chair because he’s really competitive,” Samantha said.
Rob said he had applied once in the past but didn’t go to the testing, but he decided this was the time to do it.
He received an email about taking the test in Plainfield, which was one of three sites in the state. In the meantime, he had to fill out an application, which took nine hours to complete.
Most of the more than 100 questions on the timed pass-or-fail test were related to being a conservation officer, while there also were some English and math questions.
Of the 114 people who took the test in Plainfield, 54 passed.
Then there was a physical part, swimming 100 yards, running a mile and a half in under 18 minutes and doing pushups, situps and vertical jump. They were divided into squads, each led by a drill instructor.
“You’re all sitting in a gym, and they come out and they are screaming at you and telling you orders, which I didn’t expect that at all,” Rob said. “It’s basically just to give you a little test of what recruit school is going to be like. It was a little stressful.”
Rob was one of 24 who passed. He then had to fill out a basic polygraph form before undergoing an extensive 30-day background investigation. The latter was done by retired Indiana Conservation Officer Phil Nale.
“He said, ‘I’ve been doing background investigations for 30 years, and I’ve never sent anybody to recruit school your age,'” Rob said of Nale. “He said, ‘Well, I’m going to send you,’ and I said, ‘I’m not going to let you down.’ He was worried about me quitting, but he said, ‘I never doubted you’ because I told him I am not going to quit.”
After a polygraph through the Indiana State Police, only 15 people in the state advanced to the four-week core values training at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh.
Training
The military-based instruction ran Monday through Friday, and the recruits could go home on the weekends.
“Basically, their goal is to break you down,” Rob said. “They want to see how you react under stress because in this job, you’re going to have to deal with that on a daily basis. Basically, they bring you down and then bring you back up, and then bring you down and bring you back up. It was a very humbling experience, shall I say.”
After the first week, he said he went to his wife’s workplace, sat down and started crying.
Rob then thought about his conversation with Nale and those supporting him, including his family and coworkers.
“I had a huge group of people that supported me,” Rob said. “It was just a lot of people rooting for me, and I didn’t want to let anybody down.”
Rob also relied on his preparation. In December 2015, he could only do 13 pushups at a time and couldn’t run far. By June 2016, he was doing 500 pushups and situps, running at least 6 miles a day and swimming 3 miles a week.
During core values training, he was expected to do those things and more at all hours of the day. Three people wound up quitting, including two on the second day.
“I would say the hardest part of core values is just the physical and the mental stress that you’re put through,” Rob said. “It’s an emotional roller coaster. The first week, I slept like six hours. They are getting you up in the middle of the night, and you’re doing wall sits, they are spraying you with the water hose. It’s grueling.”
Only 12 people were left at the end, and Samantha said she noticed a dramatic change in her husband.
Transformed
“The transformation was incredible,” she said. “He carried himself with more pride. You could tell they really instilled what they call the core values in him, and he took a lot of pride in that, and you could just see it as he walked. It was a good thing for him.”
After a week off, the recruits spent 15 weeks at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. Also training with them were nearly 130 new police officers.
That involved a lot of classroom work with weekly tests. The physical training included driving, firearms and defensive tactics. Again, they could go home on weekends.
The conservation officer recruits then did 10 weeks of essentials training, where they were taught what a conservation officer does.
After that, he was considered a probationary officer and worked 90 shifts with three field training officers in Marion, Johnson, Brown and Monroe counties.
There were meetings after every 20 shifts, and the field training officers approved a person to move on. The recruits did their own investigations in the fourth and final stage.
Four people didn’t make it through the process, so that left seven men and one woman who graduated and became Class A officers.
At graduation, Rob had his wife pin his badge on his uniform.
“I would say it was really overwhelming for me to stand up there,” he said. “It’s a proud moment. I felt good of my accomplishments and (the other officers’) accomplishments. In my opinion, Indiana conservation officers are the highest-trained law enforcement in the state of Indiana.”
Samantha said she noticed all of the graduates breathed a sigh of relief after the program.
“I tried to be very supportive of him and his process,” she said. “He is so determined and competitive in everything that he does, and if there was one person that was ever made for this job, it was him.”
On the job
Rob serves District 6, which includes Bartholomew, Brown, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, Monroe and Shelby counties. He lives in Brown County.
He recently completed boating while intoxicated training and soon will do hunter education instructor school and swift water rescue training.
“After I get through this year and into next, it will ease up, but we train all of the time,” Rob said. “I learn something every shift, every day out.”
Rob makes his own schedule, working a combination of day and night shifts.
“It’s a very family-oriented department, and they’ve told me from Day 1 family is first,” Rob said. “Taking this job, I’ve got more time with my family.”
Rob’s accomplishment inspired Samantha to chase her dream. After holding jobs in social work and sales, she is pursuing her registered nursing degree from Galen College of Nursing in Louisville, Kentucky. Her ultimate goal is to become a nurse practitioner.
“I saw Rob going through this process, and I was so proud of him, and I thought, ‘Man, he never has to go to work another day in his life because he loves this,'” Samantha said. “He then encouraged me, he was like, ‘Listen, you supported me. Please go chase your dream.’ Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t have gone back to school, so he really pushed me.”
Inspiring
People often ask Rob about his job and are inspired by his story. He encourages anyone interested in becoming a conservation officer to be well-rounded.
“My No. 1 advice is to be involved in your communities. I think that’s a huge thing, and be physically fit and honest,” he said. “Our department, that’s what we revolve around — integrity. You’ve got to be honest at all times, no matter the cost. Integrity is our No. 1 core value. The department, they hire and fire by it.”
Even though he makes about half the money he made at his previous job, Rob said his happiness was more important.
“In the back of my mind, I don’t ever have to go to work again. I’ve got a job I love,” he said. “I get up, put my uniform on and don’t think twice about it. I love it. I just try to be a positive role model for the public and serve my communities. That’s what I try to do every shift.”
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Name: Rob Klakamp
Age: 42
Hometown: Freetown
Residence: Brown County
Education: Brownstown Central High School (1994); Ivy Tech Community College (associate degree in industrial maintenance, 2007); journeyman card from the U.S. Department of Labor
Occupation: Indiana Department of Natural Resources Class A conservation officer
Organization: Pershing Township Volunteer Fire Department (firefighter and state-certified emergency medical technician)
Family: Wife, Samantha; children, Mia, Caleb and Jackson
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For information about becoming an Indiana conservation officer, visit in.gov/dnr/lawenfor/2760.htm.
Each of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources law districts can be found on Facebook by searching “Indiana DNR Law District.”
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