The North Carolina State Highway Patrol announced two new additions to its team Wednesday.
Troopers Clint P. Greene and Jerry D. Wallace are the newest members to join the State Highway Patrol in Richmond County.
Both troopers recently graduated after 16 weeks of extensive academic and physical training from the Highway Patrol Basic School in Raleigh.
This class is the 129th class that has graduated from the Highway Patrol Basic School. The class started with 30 people and ended with 27 people graduating.
Once graduated, the troopers are dispersed among nine different troops throughout the state. Each troop consists of differing amounts of districts. Greene and Wallace are assigned to Troop H District 2 which are Richmond and Scotland County.
Wallace, 25, is originally from the city of Oakboro in Stanly County. After graduating from West Stanly High School, he attended the Charlotte Fire Training Academy and became a full-time firefighter. Moving from firefighter to state trooper was easy for Wallace.
“I’ve always wanted to go into Highway Patrol,” he said. Wallace said the hardest part about being in the academy was “being gone all week with no communication from home.” People training to become troopers in the academy could call home one day a week.
Greene, 28, is originally from Rutherford County. After graduating from East Rutherford High School, Greene entered the Marine Corps. After completing five years in the Marine Corps., he became a police officer working with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department in the Providence Division. “I’ve always wanted to be a Trooper,” Greene said, so he entered the training academy.
Both men said the easiest part of the academy was getting their cars assigned to them.
For 12 weeks, both men will be receiving hands-on training from Field Training Officers. Trooper Greene will be training with Field Training Officer John Martin and Trooper Wallace will be training with Field Training Officer Jerry Dixon.
The training officers will ride in the car with the new recruits and train the men, providing them with much needed hands-on training they do not receive in the classroom.
After the field training is complete, both troopers will be released to patrol by themselves.
Martin said these men are “well trained and good recruits,” and Dixon called them “good guys.” Greene and Wallace seemed happy and eager to learn and get into the field.
— Staff Writer Laura Edington can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 18, or by email at ledington@heartlandpublications.com.
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