News Photo by Julie Riddle “I’ve had murderers sit right next to me,” said Michigan State Police Trooper Charles Collier in his squad car on Tuesday. Collier is retiring Wednesday after 26 years as a resident trooper in Montmorency County.

ATLANTA — “There’s a thousand war stories,” mused a Michigan State Police trooper, days before he turned in his badge and walked away from the job.

For 26 years, Charles Collier has patrolled the roads of Montmorency County as a resident trooper out of the MSP-Alpena Post. He never became a command officer, despite his years of experience.

For him, it would have been a demotion to get promoted, the longtime trooper said.

“I’m meant to kick the door in and go get the bad guy,” Collier said, a flood of stories from three decades in police work flowing from his memory.

There were foot chases and fights.

There was the time he was one second away from a shootout with a drunk man with a rifle.

There were the years on MSP’s Emergency Support Team, the pinnacle of his career, called to hostage situations and barricaded gunmen and riot-gear-clad hours pushing back protesters 15 rows deep.

There were the kids growing up in drug houses, kids watching their dad shoot their mom, kids molested by their own parents.

There were assaults, murders, suicides, grandmothers hiding in the woods, a woman in a psychotic episode and foaming at the mouth who had to be tackled to the ground.

There were the fights that didn’t happen, the calming words that stopped the violence.

There was the worst fight ever, a knock-down, drag-out fist fight with a rapist in an Upper Peninsula snowbank.

“I don’t like bullies,” Collier said. “That’s why I became a trooper. I don’t like people that hurt people.”

Now, he sees that fire in the eyes of younger officers, and he’s ready to let them take over, Collier said.

Besides, he added, the last few years have been harder, what with the rapid advance in technology that’s making its way into police work.

“I’d rather go fight with a guy in a ditch than deal with a computer update,” Collier said earnestly.

It’s time to retire, he decided — to fish and hunt and track deer with his dachshunds, Moose and Thor.

It’s time to spend time with his nine grandkids, said Collier, who officially enters retirement this week.

He’ll have plenty of stories to tell them.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.