User:RightCowLeftCoast/Sandbox/Vance Peterson

Vance Peterson (born in 1953) is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and a district court judge in Spokane County, Washington.

Biography
Peterson enlisted in the United States Army in 1975, and became a special forces operator in 1979. Peterson was discharged from active duty in 1979, joined the Washington Army National Guard, and began studying law at Gonzaga University; Peterson began practicing law in 1982. Eventually Peterson earned a juris doctorate from Gonzaga. Since 1999, Peterson served as a faculty member at Washington State Judicial College. In 2003, Peterson received a mandatory retirement at the rank of lieutenant colonel having served 28 years in the Army and the National Guard.

In 1998, Peterson became a judge for Spokane District Court; his efforts lead to the establishment of a Veterans' court in Spokane County in 2010. The court is funded with a $1 million dollar grant awarded in 2011, which will pay for its operations for three years; all but one of the offenders who have been ajudicated through the Veterans' Court has not been convicted of additional criminal acts.

In 2011, Peterson was recalled to active duty and served as an operations adviser to Afghan Police near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. In Afghanistan Peterson mentored the Chief of police of Mazar-i- Sharif, helping the police transition away from being a paramilitary force to focusing on law enforcement; at the time Peterson was the only active judge on a security force assistance team. Peterson returned to the United States in 2012, suffering from war-related ailments and returned to his position as a judge. In 2013, the Washington State Bar Association awarded Peterson with its Local Hero Award.