ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- The opportunity to attend the FBI’s National Academy Program in Quantico, Va., would be a chance of a lifetime for most people, but for Robertsdale Police Chief Bradley Kendrick, it was something more.

For Kendrick, who completed the 10-week training and education course March 16 along with 256 other law enforcement officers throughout the country, the journey began five or six years ago when he was approached by Mayor Charles Murphy about attending the class.

“We talked about it and at the time I decided that 10 weeks was a little long to be gone,” Kendrick said. “When it came up again last year, he said if I was willing to go, it would certainly be something the city would support.”

So, with the department safely in the capable hands of Assistant Chief Brian Middleton, Kendrick said, he decided to go for it. He filled out the paperwork with the local FBI office in Mobile and was resigned to have a long wait.

“It’s possible to be on a waiting list for three to five years,” he said. The training program is open to officers with the rank of sergeant and above. Most officers who received the training have achieved the rank of lieutenant or above. “Since I’m a chief, I was moved up on the list and I was fortunate to get the call that I was selected to go in January.”

The 10-week course, held in association with the University of Virginia, includes classroom and hands-on instruction. Men and women from 48 states, 28 countries, three military organizations and five federal organizations completed the course with Kendrick. Classes included communication, leadership, both crime scene and computer forensics, labor laws and physical fitness.

The physical fitness course included a challenge which extended the full length of the 10-week course. Beginning with a 1 ½ mile challenge, the running course increases over the 10 weeks to a 6.2-mile challenge at the end.

But that wasn’t the biggest obstacle for the 45-year-old Kendrick.

“I was prepared for the physical challenge,” he said. “I was running two to three miles a day leading up to the training. The biggest challenge was being back in a classroom setting and being away from my family for that length of time.”

But while challenging for the 23-year law enforcement veteran who has served Robertsdale as chief for the last 11 years, being back in a classroom setting was also an opportunity to fulfill a dream.

While the opportunity to attend the FBI Academy presented itself just a few years ago, the chance to continue his education has been more than two decades in the making.

Kendrick had received his associates degree and was taking classes at the University of South Alabama when he received the opportunity to pursue law enforcement full time.

“My wife and I were both taking classes and I was trying to hold down a full-time job,” he said. “It was just too much back then.”

So Kendrick decided to join the workforce fulltime with the hope of one day finishing his education. And that opportunity presented itself in the fact that the FBI program includes college credit from the University of Virginia.

“We’re looking into it to see what credits I can transfer from Virginia to South,” he said. “Then we can determine what I have left so I can finally finish my bachelor’s degree. I’m also looking forward to returning to the department and applying the law enforcement management techniques.”