Joel Reynolds is enjoying the ride

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Not long ago, Joel Reynolds finally saw the light, or in his case, the lights.

Reynolds, who has been with AEDC's police department for 23 years, had purchased his "dream machine," a new GL1800, a Goldwing three-wheeled motorcycle in 2005, but it was only recently that he decided to take it to the next level and beyond.

This meant having his motorcycle extensively customized with specialized light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and a few other illuminating features.

"I got interested in the lights by going to rallies and seeing light shows," Reynolds said. "And I said, 'Man, I've got to have that.'

"I knew it was expensive. So, last summer I had it done by Daniel Nicholson, at Cycle Concepts in Murfreesboro. So he started on it and he lightened my checkbook considerably."

Sitting on his motorcycle on a break at work, Reynolds was showing a co-worker the result of his friend's labors.

"There's about, roughly 3,216 LEDs on that [motorcycle], which comes out to about 45 feet of LEDs," the veteran lawman said as he used a switch to run the lighting through a spectrum of colors, including red, blue, green, yellow, teal, white and orange. He not only changes their colors but could also make them strobe.

"I've had all of the tail lights done, gone from a regular bulb light to LED," he said. "My headlights are the HID (high-intensity discharge) headlights. There are really great at night, as long as I can be seen, that's what I care about. I want to be seen."

Reynolds, who came to AEDC in 1988 after retiring from a career in law enforcement with the Air Force, has a few words of advice for anyone who is considering buying a motorcycle.

"Safety [is] number one," he said. "If you're going to ride a motorcycle, get yourself a safety course, I don't care whether it's a two-wheel course or three-wheel course.

"Wear the right safety gear," he said. "People will cheat, [saying] 'Well, it doesn't matter if I have long pants on, it's not going to make it any less [damaging].' Well, that first contact with the pavement is going to be a little less if you've got long britches on versus shorts. If you've got over the ankle boots, that will possibly save you from twisting up a little bit there. Anything you can do to be safe and have fun with it."

Reynolds has also found a way to combine his love of riding his highly customized motorcycle with making a difference in the lives of young people.

About four years ago, he joined the Tullahoma chapter of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) and soon learned about the fund-raising rides some of their other chapters make in support of the work being done at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, located in Memphis.

"We have been riding for the past three to four years I guess [for the St. Jude benefit]," he said, explaining that he rides with the group from Bristol.

"This ride starts out in Bristol, Tennessee and it travels from there to Dickson, where we spend the night," he explained. "Then the next morning we get up and travel through Jackson and into St. Jude. This year I believe it will be the 18th of September."

Reynolds recalled how the tour of St. Jude affected him.

"It touches you right in the heart," he said. "Unless you've been to it and seen the presentation and seen the hospital, you don't get to mingle with the patients and understand [how important these donations] for diseases [help the organization]. It's very warming to see that hospital and it's a worthwhile venture."

Reynolds said the GWRRA's efforts have already paid off over the years he's been involved with them.

"Last year we broke the million dollar mark," he said. "Every year it seems like it's been about $80,000 to $90,000 that we donated. All year long they have fundraising events and some people donate quilts, some people donate toys and it goes on and on."

Reynolds, who said a focus on helping others, has been what has guided his law enforcement career, reflected on how that choice of occupations happened.

"I was a military brat," he recalled. "My stepfather was stationed in California. I went to high school there. The draft was knocking on my door and I didn't want to go to Vietnam, so, I joined the Air Force, and a year later I volunteered to go to Vietnam."

Reynolds said he never went into the Air Force with the intention of making it, or law enforcement his life's work.

"I never was serious about saying, 'I'm going to make it a career,'" he said. "I just took it a four-year hitch at a time. The highlight was working with the dogs. I worked with military working dogs, and I was patrol dog handler.

"Then I was a narcotics slash patrol dog handler, and then I worked as a kennel master in my last four-five years. I had one stretch in Alaska where I was on snowmobile patrol, that was right up there with the dogs, that was really neat, but the dogs, in my opinion, the dogs were the most important and the most fun part."

Reynolds said it is an understatement to say the bond between the handler and the dogs is memorable and unique.

"You can take a dog and train them to do just about anything and they're so happy when you reward them," he said. "When they do a good job, they know they're going to get rewarded and they're very dedicated to you, the handler. It is a very special kind of relationship - It's hard to describe, a police dog is the most loyal partner you could have.

He added, "I was stationed in Arkansas and after I made the comment that, having to give up a dog in the military and leave him behind is probably like, it was probably harder than getting divorced, leaving a wife. There's a special bond there that I can't quite describe."

Reynolds no longer works with dogs in his job, but still enjoys his work.

"I am a police lead officer, and I work the desk," he said. "That is my primary job, and I do the dispatching and the report writing, and the scheduling, the charting of overtime, etc."

Reynolds spoke highly of his coworkers and their qualifications.

"Nobody is going to come in here unless they've had prior police experience," he said, pointing out that many of them have Air Force or other military backgrounds.

"We've got such a wide variety of people with [an extensive breadth of] knowledge," he said. "There's a lot of dedication with the people here. I haven't found anybody yet that I can't say, 'Hey I need help in doing this and doing that,' and you know, they give a hand."

Reynolds advice to anyone considering law enforcement as a career is straight forward.

"Use your head. If you stop using your head then you're going to have problems; it's not the way to go."

He also said it depends what someone wants out of a career in law enforcement, whether in the Air Force or in the civilian sector.

"If you're in it to better yourself and be a better person, you're going to have to keep your morals high because there's going to be a lot of temptation and you can't have that," he cautioned. "It's going to catch up with you, it really is."

Asked if he misses working with dogs in his job, Reynolds smiled.

"No, that part of my life is over," he said. "I've got a dog at home, and she's my friend and that's it. Macey is 10 years old - she's a yellow lab, and I haven't trained her, she's got her own head, I just let her be."

Reynolds said he is looking forward to hitting the road in his well-lit motorcycle and he encourages others to donate either their time, or consider sending donations, to St. Jude. For more information on the organization, go to www.stjude.org, and go to www.gwrra.org to learn more about that organization and what they do.