Two Top Wildlife Enforcers Retire

RALEIGH, N.C. (July 9) — Two of the state’s top wildlife officers have ticketed their last poacher.

Col. Roger LeQuire and Maj. John Blanton have retired from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, effective June 30. The Wildlife Commission has not yet named successors in the two posts.

“I feel comfortable that there’ll be no letdown,” said LeQuire, who was chief of enforcement for the Wildlife Commission. “We sat down about a year ago, when we realized that John and I were going to be leaving at the same time, and we made sure everybody was brought up to speed. I think everything will go smoothly.”

“It’s just a coincidence for Roger and me to be leaving together,” said Blanton, who headed administrative operations for Wildlife Enforcement. “If I didn’t have prior service [on a state road survey crew], I’d still be here another 2½ years.”

Also coincidentally, the two launched their state careers in the same place. Blanton is a native of Polk County, where LeQuire was first posted after graduating from the Wildlife Enforcement Officers Basic Training School.

“John was doing surveying at the time,” LeQuire recalled, “and we got to know each other. He asked me about applying with the Commission, and I encouraged him.”

Blanton said he enjoyed the outside work of surveying, and was already in charge of his own party. “I decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I wanted to keep my state retirement and benefits,” he said.

They followed separate paths for a while. LeQuire, who grew up in Swain and Burke counties, moved through the ranks in mountain postings — Henderson, Transylvania and Elkin counties — before coming to Raleigh in 1992 as a captain in charge of wildlife officer training.

Blanton also worked in the west — Yancey, Cleveland, Polk, Henderson and Transylvania counties — before moving to the other end of the state, Pasquotank County, as a lieutenant in 1991. Five years later, he earned a promotion to district captain for the 13 northeastern counties, where he remained until 1999.

LeQuire had attained the rank of colonel, chief of all 200-plus wildlife enforcement officers statewide, in 1997. Two years later, when a major’s slot opened — in charge of purchasing, communications, hunter and boater safety and officer training, as well as enforcement pilots and K-9 units — Blanton joined LeQuire in the Raleigh office.

Neither envisioned rising to the ranks they attained. Both enjoyed outdoors work and couldn’t imagine being tied to a “desk job.”

“In 1989,” LeQuire said, “when I was a lieutenant and the assistant training director for the recruit school, somebody asked me would I want to come to Raleigh. I said they couldn’t tie me up and put me in here. Three years later, I was here.” He chuckled. “After then, everything fell in place for me.”

Richard Hamilton, chief deputy director of the Wildlife Commission, praised LeQuire as “the epitome of professionalism and integrity in the field of wildlife law enforcement. He has led his officers by example in an exemplary manner and brought distinction and honor to the Wildlife Resources Commission.”

Having spent much of his career as an instructor at the Wildlife Officers School in Salemburg — where he taught everything from pursuit driving to patrol techniques — LeQuire said he is proudest of his work in that area.

“I’ve seen them through their entire careers,” he said of his junior colleagues, even the highly ranking ones. “The captains — most of them I remember when they went through recruit school.

“It’s neat the way you get to know everybody that way,” he added. “You can absorb some of their new energy. It sort of keeps you going. As I look back on my career, that’s been the neatest thing about this.”

The main lesson he’s imparted to successive waves of new wildlife officers is that protecting North Carolina’s wildlife resources and its hunters, anglers and boaters is more than just a job.

“I used to tell young officers: This job is whatever you make of it. If a person spends one day bored in this job, something’s wrong,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done anything else.”

Post-retirement, his immediate plans are to remain in Raleigh, where his wife, Faye LeQuire, works as an executive assistant for the Wildlife Commission. But he will spend as much time as possible with his father, Harvey LeQuire, a retired Baptist minister in Bryson City.

“Every time I’ve moved, it’s been farther and farther away,” the younger LeQuire said. “My Dad is my hero in my life. He spent a lot of time with me as a kid, hunting and fishing as far back as I’ve got memory. It’s from him that I got the values that I have. You obey the law — no question. He believes in doing what’s right.”

He also has three grown sons and three grandsons to keep him occupied.

Blanton, who has four adult children and four grandsons, plans to move back home to Polk County with his wife, Diana. “I learned to hunt there when I was 4 or 5 years old,” he recalled fondly. “My father was not much of a hunter, but he was a good fisherman. My grandfather kept me in the woods.”

To put his outdoors skills and wildlife training to work, Blanton has considered starting a business as a wildlife damage control agent, taking care of nuisance creatures. “We’ll see—maybe a few days out of the month,” he said. “It’ll be a good way to keep me in wildlife, to keep up with the changes in laws as they come along. And it’s a good opportunity for me to meet the people that have moved in to Polk County. I’ve been gone 30 years.”

Two Top Wildlife Enforcers Retire

RALEIGH, N.C. (July 9) — Two of the state’s top wildlife officers have ticketed their last poacher.

Col. Roger LeQuire and Maj. John Blanton have retired from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, effective June 30. The Wildlife Commission has not yet named successors in the two posts.

“I feel comfortable that there’ll be no letdown,” said LeQuire, who was chief of enforcement for the Wildlife Commission. “We sat down about a year ago, when we realized that John and I were going to be leaving at the same time, and we made sure everybody was brought up to speed. I think everything will go smoothly.”

“It’s just a coincidence for Roger and me to be leaving together,” said Blanton, who headed administrative operations for Wildlife Enforcement. “If I didn’t have prior service [on a state road survey crew], I’d still be here another 2½ years.”

Also coincidentally, the two launched their state careers in the same place. Blanton is a native of Polk County, where LeQuire was first posted after graduating from the Wildlife Enforcement Officers Basic Training School.

“John was doing surveying at the time,” LeQuire recalled, “and we got to know each other. He asked me about applying with the Commission, and I encouraged him.”

Blanton said he enjoyed the outside work of surveying, and was already in charge of his own party. “I decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I wanted to keep my state retirement and benefits,” he said.

They followed separate paths for a while. LeQuire, who grew up in Swain and Burke counties, moved through the ranks in mountain postings — Henderson, Transylvania and Elkin counties — before coming to Raleigh in 1992 as a captain in charge of wildlife officer training.

Blanton also worked in the west — Yancey, Cleveland, Polk, Henderson and Transylvania counties — before moving to the other end of the state, Pasquotank County, as a lieutenant in 1991. Five years later, he earned a promotion to district captain for the 13 northeastern counties, where he remained until 1999.

LeQuire had attained the rank of colonel, chief of all 200-plus wildlife enforcement officers statewide, in 1997. Two years later, when a major’s slot opened — in charge of purchasing, communications, hunter and boater safety and officer training, as well as enforcement pilots and K-9 units — Blanton joined LeQuire in the Raleigh office.

Neither envisioned rising to the ranks they attained. Both enjoyed outdoors work and couldn’t imagine being tied to a “desk job.”

“In 1989,” LeQuire said, “when I was a lieutenant and the assistant training director for the recruit school, somebody asked me would I want to come to Raleigh. I said they couldn’t tie me up and put me in here. Three years later, I was here.” He chuckled. “After then, everything fell in place for me.”

Richard Hamilton, chief deputy director of the Wildlife Commission, praised LeQuire as “the epitome of professionalism and integrity in the field of wildlife law enforcement. He has led his officers by example in an exemplary manner and brought distinction and honor to the Wildlife Resources Commission.”

Having spent much of his career as an instructor at the Wildlife Officers School in Salemburg — where he taught everything from pursuit driving to patrol techniques — LeQuire said he is proudest of his work in that area.

“I’ve seen them through their entire careers,” he said of his junior colleagues, even the highly ranking ones. “The captains — most of them I remember when they went through recruit school.

“It’s neat the way you get to know everybody that way,” he added. “You can absorb some of their new energy. It sort of keeps you going. As I look back on my career, that’s been the neatest thing about this.”

The main lesson he’s imparted to successive waves of new wildlife officers is that protecting North Carolina’s wildlife resources and its hunters, anglers and boaters is more than just a job.

“I used to tell young officers: This job is whatever you make of it. If a person spends one day bored in this job, something’s wrong,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done anything else.”

Post-retirement, his immediate plans are to remain in Raleigh, where his wife, Faye LeQuire, works as an executive assistant for the Wildlife Commission. But he will spend as much time as possible with his father, Harvey LeQuire, a retired Baptist minister in Bryson City.

“Every time I’ve moved, it’s been farther and farther away,” the younger LeQuire said. “My Dad is my hero in my life. He spent a lot of time with me as a kid, hunting and fishing as far back as I’ve got memory. It’s from him that I got the values that I have. You obey the law — no question. He believes in doing what’s right.”

He also has three grown sons and three grandsons to keep him occupied.

Blanton, who has four adult children and four grandsons, plans to move back home to Polk County with his wife, Diana. “I learned to hunt there when I was 4 or 5 years old,” he recalled fondly. “My father was not much of a hunter, but he was a good fisherman. My grandfather kept me in the woods.”

To put his outdoors skills and wildlife training to work, Blanton has considered starting a business as a wildlife damage control agent, taking care of nuisance creatures. “We’ll see—maybe a few days out of the month,” he said. “It’ll be a good way to keep me in wildlife, to keep up with the changes in laws as they come along. And it’s a good opportunity for me to meet the people that have moved in to Polk County. I’ve been gone 30 years.”