100 years on the road: Troopers reflect on working in Moses Lake detachment

MOSES LAKE — Troopers from the Moses Lake Washington State Patrol detachment, both old and new, recently discussed what drew them to the agency and how it has transformed in the time they have been there.

September 1 marked the beginning of the 100th year of service for the Washington State Patrol, kicking off a year of remembrance and celebration for the agency.

The detachment in Moses Lake was originally part of District 4, based in Spokane, before moving to the newly formed District 6 out of Wenatchee in 1948.

The Moses Lake WSP detachment’s original location was near where Chico’s Pizza Parlor resides now, before moving to its current spot along the freeway, on Laguna Drive.

Retired WSP Lieutenant Kurt Adkinson finished up his time with the department in Moses Lake this summer. Adkinson joined the WSP in 1995, and served in the Moses Lake area for about 17 years.

He said joining the department really started with a prompt from his father while looking at opportunities after college. He said the legacy and pride the department held drew him to want to be a part of it.

“You could equate it to a lot of the people we have that join the military,” Adkinson said. “There’s all the reasons that they want to be a part of that organization, and it’s very similar with the Washington State Patrol. The patrol is held in very high regard, and I’m just proud to be a part of that.”

Early on, he said the WSP had a lot of draw from people from the military, with many of his co-workers having served in the Vietnam War. He said the department often reflects the generation of people at the time.

In his last few years with the department, he said, he saw a shift toward the WSP looking at a larger scope of society, including more interest in college educations for new hires.

“They’re hiring out of whatever the current generation is and whatever the current generation has to bring,” Adkinson said. “As I went out the door, I was starting to see the young people coming in the door, representative of their generation and the nuances of their generation.”

It is the quality of people the WSP brings in that creates the respect and tradition the department has become known for, he said. From day one at the academy, he said the patrol does a great job of investing in the next generation to become leaders.

Passing the baton is a prevalent feature of the department as the next generation is prepared to take over the helm, Adkinson said.

Sergeant Ryan Raymond heads up the Moses Lake detachment currently. He began with WSP in 2001. Coming into the department, he said, the patrol in Eastern Washington was primarily senior troopers at the time.

Having a chance to learn under Adkinson and other senior troopers for his first few years offered a great opportunity to learn and grow into the role, Raymond said.

“I had a very senior-laden detachment that I was able to work with for a lot of years where I was the young guy for the first eight or nine years of my career,” Raymond said. “I was the bottom guy, but it gave me the opportunity to kind of learn under a bunch of senior guys that had been around for a long time.”

Today, he said he’s still in the minority in regard to age with a primarily young group of troopers alongside him in Moses Lake. He said the WSP does a good job of setting up younger troopers to build off what the people before them were able to do in the agency.

He said they work to transmit that tradition to the next generation, the honor that should be felt wearing the WSP uniform.

“As you become a member of our family, and that’s what we truly are is a family, it becomes part of you,” Raymond said. “Even after all the changes that we’ve had during my 19 years, I’m still grateful to be a part of this agency.”

As new technology advances into the department at increasing rates, he said, the one thing that has never changed about the agency is the need to be able to communicate. With the new landscape of online communication, being able to communicate in person effectively can be difficult at times.

“No matter how much technology they put in front of us, when we contact somebody at a collision scene, or go to take someone into custody or something, we still have to communicate with our mouths, and do it respectfully and humbly,” Raymond said.

Jason Valentine started with the WSP in 1991 as a commercial vehicle officer before becoming a trooper in 1997. Valentine said there have been a lot of changes since he started with the department. For example, he said when he started as a CVO, he didn’t carry any means to protect himself. This changed about five years after he joined the force.

The biggest changes, he said, came with increases in population and traffic around the Columbia Basin area. He said a challenge with this part of the state is the sheer size of the area patrolled.

“We cover all of Grant County, the panhandle of Adams County, we cover a portion of Douglas County and a portion of Okanogan County,” Valentine said. “You start adding those in, that’s a huge area. The challenge is how do you get to those places. I’ve had responses come in that were well over 100 miles to get to for instance.”

Despite some of the challenges this area brings, he said he has enjoyed working here, and he credits the good people around the counties. Valentine is not the only one in his family with the WSP in Moses Lake; his son Michael Valentine joined the agency about three years ago.

Watching his son follow in his footsteps is “very cool,” he said.

“The kid’s got a really good head on his shoulders, he makes great decisions, and has a pretty calm demeanor,” Valentine said. “I think he can take care of himself, which is a concern of mine always. I think he’s gonna be really good at his job. He already is.”

The Valentines are not the only family legacy locally at the WSP, with Spike Unruh and his son, Bryce Unruh, serving together in the detachment since March. Spike Unruh served more than 20 years in the area before being elected as president of the Washington State Patrol Troopers Association last fall. His son recently graduated from the Trooper Basic class.

Jason Aebischer joined the Washington State Patrol in 2018 and was intrigued by the professionalism and public trust the agency possesses. Aebischer’s grandfather, Fred Aebischer, has worked for the WSP for 48 years out of Colville.

He said he reached out to his grandfather when he started thinking about joining the agency a few years ago.

“I talked with him, he was very supportive when I told him I was thinking about applying to become a trooper,” Aebischer said. “He was supportive and had nothing but good things to say about the state patrol.”

Aebischer said the Columbia Basin is a terrific place to work with so many different opportunities, with the interstate, Moses Lake, and various two-lane highways in the area. He said there is a little bit of everything, and always something to learn.

As one of a number of newer troopers in the detachment currently, he said he’s excited for the future and continuing the agency’s legacy.

“We are fairly young as a detachment, but we enjoy working with each other, we bounce ideas off each other, and we learn from each other as we go so we can do our job with more efficiency and professionalism that people expect from the state patrol,” Aebischer said.

The law enforcement agency looks much different than it did in 1921 when the original patrolmen were sworn in. Local troopers look to continue to adjust with society while building off the legacy that was laid before them.

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.