The story of Lt. Victor Singleton, chief accident investigator, Marine Corps Police Department, Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, is filled with love, faith, family and golf.
Singleton was born and raised on the eastside of Albany, Georgia, and he graduated as a Trojan from Dougherty Comprehensive High School. Things begin to unfold for Singleton when he was 19. After talking with his family, he left home to join the Marine Corps in 1984.
He says the negative environment he was in as a teenager drew him to a career in the military.
“After talking with my mother, I decided the environment would not produce the kind of person I wanted to be or my parents wanted me to be, so my choices were limited,” Singleton said. “We had limited opportunities to do anything other than work in some of the factories in Albany, and I didn’t feel like I wanted to do that at the time. The military was my choice to keep me stable and to get me out of that environment that produced negativity.”
He was stationed at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island for a couple of years before making a lateral transfer to the Army in March 1988. He spent most of his Army career stationed in Germany before going to “Desert Storm” in 1990.
Two years later, he left military life, but did not retire, to begin his career in law enforcement. Singleton says it was the perfect fit.
Singleton said he didn’t want just to put people in jail; he wanted to be a proactive mechanism for protecting vulnerable people he cared for from becoming victims of senseless crimes.
“Growing up in the environment I grew up in was tough, especially for teenagers,” he explained. “I saw a lot of things happening to kids and the elderly, so when I got out of the military, I asked myself what I wanted to do. I coined myself as somewhat of a humanitarian and wanted to do something to help somebody, so I got into law enforcement.”
During his career, Singleton happened upon a hobby that further assisted his humanitarian efforts for the community. After the military, he began playing golf, and if you know Singleton, you know he enjoys playing and teaching golf.
“Once I got introduced to playing golf, I learned how to teach golf and eventually ended up working as a golf instructor with the First Tee Program, which was perfect for me. Then, I got to work with and teach people from ages six to sixty-six how to play,” he added.
Helping people inspires Singleton the most, especially regarding safety on the base and training for young officers.
“Whatever is good, then that is what I want to happen,” he noted. “So, being the traffic supervisor and accident investigator, I don’t set out and tell the guys that work for me to go out and write tickets to anybody…It’s a preventive measure to make the base safer for people to travel.”
When it comes to what he values, it’s his faith and his family.
“My mother has always taught my siblings and I that (God) has to be number one. You know you don’t have to kick no church doors down, but your relationship with Him has to be set before you do anything, so God and then family,” he said.
As Singleton enters the next chapter, which is retirement, he said it seems surreal to him. He retired once before in 2008 from the Albany Police Department. He says this time it feels different.
“Because I knew (after) the last one, I was going directly into another work environment,” he explained. “It wasn’t a permeant retirement. This retirement, it hits different, as they say. It feels different; it’s a little more emotional.”
Singleton admits it will be a challenge moving on from MCLB Albany, but he will take things one day at a time as he moves to the next chapter.
“It’s not an ending of my book; it’s just the turning of a chapter,” he added. “I’m looking forward to whatever is in that chapter, whether it’s something adventurous or whether it’s something challenging. I will see when I get there.”