RICHMOND — Growing up on a small farm between Hagerstown and Economy, Grant Mendenhall dreamed of working for the FBI, but he never imagined he would lead the agency’s operations in his home state.

After nearly 30 years on the job, he’s now managed to do both.

Mendenhall, 54, is the agency’s highest-ranking official in Indiana as the state’s special agent in charge, a position to which he was promoted earlier this year, having risen through the ranks as a counterterrorism expert for the bureau since joining in 1990.

The Hagerstown High School graduate, from his office in Indianapolis, oversees more than 250 federal agents and support staff.

He’s also a graduate of Ball State University, having earned his political science degree in 1986.

“We never thought we’d make it back; it took almost 32 years,” Mendenhall said. “I think so much time had gone by ... we just kind of discounted the possibility the longer we were away.”

In his early years with the bureau, he worked on a violent crime and gang task force, but after 9/11, things changed and his career path was turned upside down.

Mendenhall, at the time stationed in Salt Lake City, was tasked with coordinating security and anti-terrorism efforts during the region’s hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Since then, he’s worked anti-terror assignments almost exclusively; he’s worked in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and as an attache in Baghdad.

Now he’s back home, leading the agency’s statewide efforts and overseeing more than 130 special agents and a support staff of an additional 120 analysts, staff operations specialists and other professionals.

Mendenhall was named leader of the FBI’s Indianapolis office in February and has since made his way throughout the state with a focus on outreach and goodwill visits to local law enforcement agencies and other public and private institutions with whom the agency partners.

He said his job is a bit different from what it used to be — “I talk to more good guys these days,” he said — but he considers it a unique opportunity to take the helm in his home state.

“You really have a greater appreciation for the work you’re doing if you’re able to do it from home, to see the impact it has on where you’re from,” he said. “I think that’s a big part of what makes this return so incredible for me.”

The idea of joining federal law enforcement sprouted during Mendenhall’s time in junior high school, he said — about the same time the ABC television series “The FBI” was in its prime. The show was a drama series looking at actual bureau cases, through the eyes of fictitious characters; it ran nine seasons from 1965 to 1974, with re-airings in the years after.

The show also spawned a spin-off several years later, called “Today’s FBI,” which Mendenhall said he was enthralled by during its one season on the air.

“I think it was the combination of that TV show with knowing that a couple of my dad’s old buddies were federal agents,” he said. “It kind of got the wheels turning that some farm kid from Indiana can go do something really cool like that.”

Following his departure from Ball State, Mendenhall enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he served “at the tip of the spear during peacetime,” he said.

For four years, he was a Marine — “still am, in my heart,” he said.

His experience in the corps and the skills he learned translated well when he applied three years later.

“I never did anything for real in terms of combat,” he said. “But I gained a lot of skills in my time in the military and it really put me in a good position to get into the bureau.”

Mendenhall said his application process took about 18 months and included extensive background checks, interviews and assessments. Through it all, his friends and family didn’t seem surprised that he maintained his interest in federal law enforcement.

“I used to yap about it all the time,” he said. “If anything, they may have just been surprised I was selected.”

By the time he got to Salt Lake City, a lot had changed for the bureau and how it used technology, intelligence and other skill sets to conduct investigations. He had been on various task forces and focused on a variety of case types, including organized crime and gang activity.

“I was working those kind of sexy, violent crimes that the FBI is really known for,” he said.

But following 9/11, he made a definitive jump to national security work — along with a large portion of the agency nationwide.

“I got thrown into that world while preparing for the Olympics,” he said. “The eyes of the world were on Salt Lake City, preparing for the biggest special event in the aftermath of 9/11.”

He said he learned most of his job on the fly, and that it was a much faster transition than what he probably would have encountered had he not been stationed in Salt Lake City at the time.

“Everyone was going through the transition, but mine, I think, happened a whole lot faster because of the Olympics,” he said. “And the primary focus is to make sure nothing happens during that.”

He said following the Olympics, most all his career moves were dictated by national security work and counterterrorism efforts. He bounced from Salt Lake City to Guantanamo Bay, back stateside and to Guantanamo Bay again, where he was heavily involved in the criminal prosecutions of numerous detainees at the facility.

“I’ve been what feels like everywhere,” he said.

In 2009, Mendenhall was assigned as a unit chief in the International Terrorism Operations division and later worked for a year in Iraq as a deputy legal attache; he then served as an assistant section chief in another International Terrorism Operations division and then worked as the deputy director for law enforcement at the Joint Interagency Task Force’s Capitol division.

From 2014 to early 2018, Mendenhall had numerous positions in the Washington, D.C., area; among them were assistant special agent in charge of the intelligence division for the Washington Field Office, then he was named section chief for the International Terrorism Operations section one, then deputy assistant director in the counterterrorism division of another unit. Before taking the job in Indiana, he was named the assistant director of that counterterrorism division.

“It’s a lifestyle more than it is a job. It’s a family team to be part of the FBI,” he said. “To go through some hardships and some separations is tough, but having that family support is critical.”

Mendenhall said his family — which included Jean and their daughters Chelsea and Katie — took a team approach to any decision related to a potential move to a new city.

“It wasn’t something where I would decide and that would be that,” he said. “It really was a family matter, so we all really discussed the options and made sure everyone was on board.”

Mendenhall oversees more than 250 people throughout Indiana in his role as the state’s bureau head. He said his job most days boils down to gaining, and keeping, the public’s trust and establishing and nurturing partnerships with other statewide agencies.

This includes a focus on what he called “strategic issues,” such as ensuring the agency is focused on the right priorities and that it has adequate staffing and distribution in Indiana. He said relationships with private- and public-sector partners is also part of his daily routine.

Mendenhall’s day-to-day involvement in cases is limited, he said, but he’s often required to authorize certain crucial elements of operations.

The FBI has nine resident statewide offices, including a location in Muncie that serves Richmond and many of the state’s easternmost central counties; Mendenhall said the Muncie office covers an area as far south as Lawrenceburg.

The Muncie field office recently added an additional special agent, and Mendenhall said he plans to add another in the coming few months.

Most of the boots-on-the-ground leadership rests with his three assistant special agents in charge, each of whom leads a section of the state (north, central or south), or with the squad supervisors.

Even so, Mendenhall said he has retained the skills he used throughout the earlier parts of his career, and even picked up a few new skills. He’s also been exposed to a wider gamut of work done by the agency, which he got away from in the wake of his move to counterterror.

“I sort of feel like a new agent again, because I’m sort of being reintroduced to everything else the FBI does other than counterterrorism,” he said.

“I’ve found myself having to relearn some things I haven’t really had to pay attention to, and learning some things I’ve never really had much involvement in in the first place.”

He said cybercrime is an area in which he’s never been involved as an agent, and that he continues to be impressed by the skill sets possessed by more tech-savvy and younger agents statewide.

“Coming back out here to the real world, it’s been a fun and invigorating transition,” he said.

He said he also has a renewed focus on the statewide image of the FBI, particularly about how its viewed in light of recent high-profile incidents related to law enforcement in general and what he considers the politicization of the bureau by multiple parties.

He said he views the modern era as among the most challenging times for law enforcement — regardless of agency — in the history of the United States.

“Having the public’s trust is of huge importance,” he said. “And people want to know what we’re doing here (in Indiana); what our partnerships look like, how our investigations are impacting communities.”