STATE TROOPER Akintunde Gillette Monds, center, is pictured on his graduation day with his parents John and Dr. Kathaleena Monds of Grady County.
A Grady County man has officially joined the ranks of the Georgia State Patrol and is patrolling the highways and byways of G.S.P. Post 6 in Gainesville.
Akintunde Gillette Monds, the eldest son of John and Dr. Kathaleena Monds of Grady County, graduated as a member of the 109th class of the Georgia State Patrol Trooper School on Nov. 6.
A graduation exercise for members of the 108th and 109th class was held at the Georgia Department of Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. Keynote speaker for the event was Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp.
Trooper Monds’ graduation followed 32-weeks of intensive training. A total of 43 aspirants began, but only 13 members of the 109th class completed the feat.
Monds, 23, graduated last year from Morehouse College.
To represent Cairo and Grady County, the new trooper selected badge and car number 377, the original prefix for the local phone exchange, and his first assignment is with Post 6 in Gainesville.
The graduation ceremony was led by Captain Garrett Fiveash, G.S.P. director of training, and the awarding of Big Hats was led by Colonel Chris Wright, a Pelham native. The ceremony opened with the national anthem sung by Lieutenant Craig Singletary, also of Grady County. Lieutenant Colonel William Hitchens III administered the oath of office before the ceremony closed with a benediction by Chaplain Greg Loskoski.
