Life in the Birds Nest Through the Eyes of a South Carolina State Trooper

By Xlibris US

This is my story. The stories in this book really happened. None of the stories were spiced up to make them sound better. Some stories are funny, some sad, some will make you cry, and some of them will make you say Wow.
It tells about how God took control of my life, and how he helped me deal with certain situations as a South Carolina State Trooper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493170883

Book preview

Life in the Birds Nest

Through the Eyes of a

South Carolina State Trooper

SAMUEL BIRD

Copyright © 2014 by Samuel Bird.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 02/04/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

541190

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Academy

Chapter 2 After The Academy

Chapter 3 Second Go Round

Chapter 4 Hitting The Road My First Dui

Chapter 5 My Transfer To Newberry

Chapter 6 Mr. Nixon

Chapter 7 The Miracle

Chapter 8 Creepy

Chapter 9 Mark Coates My Friend

Chapter 10 My Transfer To The Ace Team

Chapter 11 Another Drunk Woman

Chapter 12 The Transfer

Chapter 13 The Naked Man

Chapter 14 The Russian

Chapter 15 The Bus

Chapter 16 Getting Life Back On Track

Chapter 17 Life Has Just Begun

Chapter 18 First Week With My Dream Team

Chapter 19 Give Me The Money

Chapter 20 Just A Little Crack

Chapter 21 2005

Chapter 22 The Big One

Chapter 23 Life Goes On

Chapter 24 The Addiction

Chapter 25 Back In The Saddle

Chapter 26 Integrity

Chapter 27 The Speech

Chapter 28 My Next Canine

Chapter 29 My New Team

Chapter 30 Winding Down

This book is dedicated to TFC Mark H. Coates,

and to the rest of the Men and Women who wear the uniform.

This Book is in the Memory of the biggest influences of my life.

My mom and dad, Mrs. Marion M. Bird and Mr. Thomas Frank Bird Jr.

M Y NAME IS Sammy Bird. I was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on November 23, 1963. I was raised in Inman, a small town about twelve miles north of Spartanburg. I had an awesome Mom and Dad that raised us, three boys, in a Christian home, and they laid a great foundation for me. I was made to go to church as a child, and yes, I said made because I didn’t like it. You will find out later in my story just how important of a role that God played in my life.

When I was three years old, I started having severe dizzy spells. They were so bad that I would literally have to be carried. My legs would tighten up real bad like rubber bands, and the whole world just seemed to start spinning. I would even throw up if I wasn’t able to lie down soon. The only thing that would make the dizzy spell leave is for me to go to sleep. When I would wake up, it would be gone. It wouldn’t matter if it was a fifteen-minute nap or a long sleep. When I would awake, the dizzy spell would be gone. When I was young, these dizzy spells would come about every two weeks. These dizzy spells hindered my whole life. It kept me from playing sports or doing any other activity. I just never knew exactly when they were going to come. As a child, I remember thinking I would never be able to hold down a job because I couldn’t control when the dizzy spells would come. My mom and dad took me to every doctor imaginable, trying to find out what was causing these dizzy spells. I remember even going to a hospital in Charleston and spending a whole week there. So many people bought me presents for the trip. My mom hid the presents throughout the car, and I got to open a present about every twenty miles. We had a long Chevrolet station wagon with a third seat that faced the rear, so you could only imagine that thing held a lot of presents. The doctors in Charleston never found out what was wrong with me either. They ran every test imaginable on me. All that they could say is that I would outgrow the dizzy spells.

I was able to work though. I worked one year in a peach shed when I was fourteen years old. At fifteen, I started working for my oldest brother, Tommy, at the Village Greens Golf Course. I really looked up to Tommy. He was a good older brother that didn’t mind being around his younger brother.

I graduated high school in 1982. My other brother, Bill, graduated in Clemson the same year, and after about a year, Bill got a job at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I also looked up to Bill. I was very blessed to have two older brothers that I looked up to. It comes back to that great foundation laid by my mom and dad I was talking about. Anyway, I said, Hmmmmm, Hilton Head wouldn’t be a bad place to live. So I packed my bags, moved to Hilton Head, and got a job with Sea Pines Security as a security guard. I was working on a gate that led into the main gates for the biggest plantation on the island, so yes, I got to see a lot. That is where I got my first little taste of law enforcement even though I was just a security guard. I remember those highway patrol men stopping at my gate just to talk. I thought, yes, I felt like I was part of the team. I would just stare at those troopers from head to toe. I just idolized everything about them, from the silver bullet patrol car, to their gray uniforms that looked as though you could slice a piece of paper on the creases of their uniforms. I told myself, that is what I wanted to be. That just looked like the most prestigious and most respected job a person could have.

In 1985, I submitted my application to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. I still had my dizzy spells, but they didn’t