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CRANE, Ind. -- Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent James E. "Jim" McCartney, formerly of Steubenville, retired on Dec. 31 after 35 years of creditable service in law enforcement.
That included more than 30 years on the federal level and more than four years with the Steubenville Police Department.
McCartney began his career as a GS-03 clerk at the FBI J. Edgar Hoover Building on June 23, 1986. He was promoted at the FBI to GS-05 issued property manager. After 18 months of FBI service, he accepted a special agent position with the National Intelligence Service. He served at Little Creek, Va., Keflavik, Iceland, and Pascagoula, Miss., achieving the rank of GS-12 journeyman.
During a break in federal service, McCartney served as a third-generation police office for the city of Steubenville where he worked patrols and narcotics investigations. After Sept. 11, 2001, he was reinstated with NCIS at Great Lakes, Ill.
During his second assignment with NCIS, McCartney deployed to Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where he received the Global War on Terror Medal. He continued to serve the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps as a civilian NCIA agent at NCISHQ Washington, D.C., Yokosuka, Japan, where he was a supervisory special agent for 18 months.
He accepted the senior resident agent position at Indianapolis and subsequently retired aboard Naval Support Activity, Crane, Ind.
McCartney noted in a letter to the Herald-Star that he was most humbled to have been given the opportunity to serve under the command of his father, former Chief Jerry McCartney, Steubenville Police Department.
It was a dream fulfilled since he was 8 years old to serve among his father's and grandfather's finest, he wrote.
His most memorable service was a deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in April 2003.
He cited his first thanks goes to his "beautiful wife Mary for her personal and professional sacrifice over the years. Without hesitation, she dropped whatever she was doing and packed her house for whatever destination NCIS chose. Mary always arrived and hit the ground running in service to family and country."
He also acknowledged gratitude to "all the great people of NCIS and the city of Steubenville who were there working side-by-side in every op, investigation and administrative necessity.
He said there is not a more mobile, agile, hostile civilian U.S. Law enforcement agency with a global mission than NCIS. "We may be small, but we do it all."
McCartney noted he sees many of the same attributes in the Steubenville Police Department and that he will remember all the opportunities NCIS afforded him and his family to see the world "and the beautiful places a person could only imagine existed."
In retirement, he and his wife, the former Mary Dalby of Fairfax County, Va., a schoolteacher who had a 25-year career, plan to make up for lost time with family and friends in Ohio and Virginia.
The couple plan to retire to South Carolina near the coast.