Calhoun County, AL – In 2021 Calhoun County Sheriff, Matthew Wade, nominated (then) Lieutenant Falon Hurst, to attend the FBI National Academy. During his waiting period, Lt. Hurst was promoted to Captain and is now over the jail facility.
The FBI National Academy is a ten-week residential course that is held at the Quantico, VA Campus. Students who can attend will choose from the graduate and undergraduate courses they are interested in and will secure one semester of credit from the University of Virginia. The National Academy teaches law enforcement leadership skills that students bring back and can implement in their agencies. They give valuable tools to the students such as international networking, communications with the community, and how to better lead their own department members positively. The more students that Calhoun County can send to the National Academy the more beneficial to the entire community. Captain Hurst was accepted at the National Academy and assigned to attend session 291.
Capt. Hurst spoke with the Calhoun Journal about his experience at the National Academy and said, “I really enjoyed the opportunity to attend this amazing course. I was able to learn a lot of new things that I will be able to utilize at the Sheriff’s Office.” When he was asked what he liked on the personal level he replied, “I think the best thing was the ability to network. I was able to meet another jail leader from Houston County (AL), and we shared some of our ideas with each other. We also plan to visit each other’s facilities in the near future. Captain Hurst went on to explain that he liked the ability to discuss problems and solutions with others at the same level, but not within the same facility.
While he was in Quantico, he joined the international team which was housed with others from around the world. Capt. Hurst said that he shared a room with a student from Pakistan and found the exchange a great experience.
Capt. Hurst also said, “It was nice to get to unplug from work-life and day-to-day routines and have some time to decompress. I was able to sit down and read a book, I read 7 while I was there. I started eating better, exercising more, and sleeping better.” Although the courses were very hard, the students had time to interact with each other at the facility during “off time”.
We also asked him about any of the downsides to this ten-week commitment. Capt. Hurst said, “I missed my wife, Kristin, and daughter, Greenlie, very much. My wife is currently pregnant and had to work through that without any help from me during that time. I am also very proud of how much they supported me through this. There was one funny thing that happened to me while I was away. I tried to fly back home for a weekend, but the weather turned on us. I was able to fly out of DC but instead of seeing my family, I spent the weekend in various airports due to my flights getting cancelled. I was lucky and finally got a flight from Tampa back to DC and was able to return to the campus on time.”
Capt. Hurst started session 291 on July 4, 2024, and graduated on September 13, 2024. Sheriff Matthew Wade, wife Kristin Hurst, daughter, and Greenlie Hurst, were all present for the formal event at Quantico.
