New trooper took different path to Highway Patrol

Becoming a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper was a longtime aspiration for Garrett Hendrix, but his recent path to fulfilling that goal was not a direct one.

“I applied for the patrol in 2012 after I graduated from Three Rivers,” Hendrix explained. “Then, I got deployment orders to go overseas, and I had to cancel that application.”

A Poplar Bluff native, Hendrix had joined the U.S. Army Reserves “right out of high school” in 2010.

Upon returning home from his deployment, Hendrix said, he and his now wife, Stephanie, were wanting to get married.

“The (Poplar Bluff) Fire Department was hiring, so I took that,” Hendrix said. “I started on the fire department in 2014. I was with them for four years.”

Becoming a trooper “always had been in the back of my mind” as something “I wanted to do,” Hendrix said. “… My wife and I just started taking about it. …

“I didn’t want to look back at my life in 60 years and have regrets of not doing something I wanted to do, and she was supportive of it.”

So, in April, Hendrix again applied to the Highway Patrol.

“This time, the patrol was doing something they haven’t really done before … an expedited (application) process (because) they were looking for more candidates,” Hendrix explained.

Hendrix found out two months later in June he had made the cut.

“It was kind of short notice; normally, it’s a year process” to be selected, he said.

Hendrix entered the patrol’s Law Enforcement Academy in Jefferson City on July 2 as a member of its 106th recruit class.

The 25-week academy, he said, was “what I expected and a little bit more.

“It was a little bit more intense that I originally anticipated.”

Hendrix described the intensity as being greater than what he experienced in his military and fire training.

“The highway patrol academy was harder than Army boot camp,” Hendrix said. “I’m not sure if it was my age, 18 versus 27 … that may have been a contributing factor as well.”

Hendrix said he found some of his patrol training, such as the first-aid, went “hand in hand” with his previous military and fire training.

Being married and away from home for 25 weeks “was a little bit more tough” than his earlier military deployment, Hendrix said. “But, if it hadn’t been for my wife; she was a motivating factor for me.

“She helped me through. I think she studied just as much as I did. She helped me study for the various classes that we had.”

Upon graduating Dec. 21, Hendrix got to return home as he was assigned to Troop E, Butler and Ripley counties.

“We took that into account” that a move might be coming, Hendrix said. “We were ready for it … obviously, we didn’t want to, but if we had to, we would have.”

Hendrix reported for duty on Monday and is riding with his field-training-officer, Trooper Kyle Huggins.

“You ride with someone for three or four months,” Hendrix explained. “They’ll help you along the way.

“Then, you’re on probation for a whole year.

Hendrix said he still has a “long way to go from here (as) the training doesn’t stop now” that he has graduated.

As for Hendrix’s future, he said, he hopes to “progress through my career and keep the public safe.”