On the way Up

About the Book

On the Way Up describes the assent of a lowly country boy through the ranks of a growing sheriff’s office in Tennessee. The story begins with the dreams of a youth maturing in the valleys of Western Virginia, and progressing to the post 9-11 trauma felt by all law enforcement officers nation wide. This story relates the steps experienced between a newly graduated educational instructor, and Chief Deputy of The Sullivan County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Office. It isn’t quick. It isn’t simple, and it definitely has no certainty. There are too many indefinable circumstances, and far too many variables prevent it. In this respect, the book and life it depicts run parallel.

As a child, attempting to cope with entering the new age of technology while struggling with self-identity and maturity, I wavered between ambitions to become a jet airplane pilot and a police officer. Both selections seemed equally unattainable at the time. Uncle Earl Benton was my idol during most of my life. He was an officer in the U.S. Air Force. From this I formed the jet pilot notion. Meanwhile, I idolized police officers and mimicked their work habits and actions when I could. I never missed an opportunity to observe and thus perfect my techniques. As maturity found me looking to my mentors for direction, however, I discovered a truth. In order to maintain the family tradition, I would have to become a preacher or a teacher. Naturally it was in this direction that my educational efforts would first flow.

In 1965, I journeyed to Madisonville, Tennessee, where I enrolled at Hiwassee College in a secondary education curriculum. My minor was religion. I was “on the way up” from country boy to social status. None of us look far from our trained attack on life when we are young, and I did no differently. Even had I looked, there was no possible way I could have seen the direction God had for my life.

My first quarter ended that fall of 1965. Winter quarter found my young wife, Janice, finishing high school and joining me at Hiwassee College. She entered in secretarial science while I perused religion under the watchful eye of Instructors Evelyn Laycock and Reverend Clarence McCall. I was confident that I would soon be preaching God’s Holy Word. This was not to be. My 1967 attaining of an associate of arts degree in religion found me having to transfer to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. ETSU offered no appropriate follow-up for a religious curriculum. I had to resume the secondary education curriculum with a major in biology and a minor in general science. It looked as though I was destined to become a teacher. Finally, I really was on the way up. What a contrast the trip would be for a self appointed religious fanatic studying biology and science. Evolution of the species verses the great creation theories cannot be jammed together in one mind for long with such intensity without a rebellion of the spirit. Stress mounted in a mind too frail to shuffle the mental cards for the dealing. The game was about to end.

It was fall 1969 when trouble struck and by early spring 1970 my journey up would take a devastating nosedive. Coming up had blinded me to the fact that I was not traveling alone. There was one coming up along with me with whom I was not equally yoked. She was aiming in an altogether different direction. Her plans rested on a higher plane than I had ever dreamed. Intent on my own career, I neglected Janice. She had finished her associate in arts degree at Hiwassee College, and had accepted employment with the Tennessee Eastman Company. She earned wages to assist me with tuition and living costs. Our relationship, or lack of it, was about to play an important role in my travels from fantasy to reality. Janice turned twenty-one in Februa