COLUMBIA -- Just in time for the big holiday weekend, there are 44 new highway patrol troopers working to keep the roadways safe.
The men and women graduated at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy Friday.
The new troopers have spent the last several weeks in the classroom, on the road and on the firing range.
"It's a big family, the highway patrol. I feel like I just got married," says graduate Christopher Dewberry.
And for the first time ever, a female won the physical fitness award, topping other troopers in the morning training.
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