There’s a chance you’ve heard or read about a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper who borrowed a shovel to dig out cars and trucks from ice and snow as they struggled up I-75 on Jellico Mountain. Well, it’s a sure-fire true story. Happened almost a month ago exactly, on Sunday, January 16.
Let’s put a name and face to that trooper. He’s Jacob Anthony Wiser, assigned to Troop C working out of Anderson County. The troop covers Anderson, Campbell and Scott counties as part of THP’s Knoxville District.
Jacob Wiser
Wiser is 28, reared in Blaine and Grainger County. Three days after graduating from Grainger County High School in 2012 he reported to the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit at Parris Island, South Carolina. He was 18. Next was Camp Pendleton at Twentynine Palms, California, for infantry training. He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. Six months later, in early 2013, he was in Helmand Province on the Afghanistan and Pakistan border fighting the Taliban.
After six months in Afghanistan, his unit headed to Iraq in 2015 to support the 7th Iraqi Army that was retaking the city of Ramadi from ISIS. That deployment was followed by six months in Syria and Jordan, training Jordan’s Quick Reaction Force. After three deployments in 5 ½ years he was discharged but served two more years in the Marine Reserves.
During the last assignment in Syria, a fellow Marine helped shape his future. “He was NYPD and we talked a lot about law enforcement and I made the decision then that was my future because I love to serve,” Wiser said. Once home, he applied to the THP in February 2018, as did 500 other applicants. He was accepted and began the six-months-long THP Academy in July 2018 with about 80 others. Only 40 made it to graduation day on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018.
The top cadet is honored with the Calvin Jenks Memorial Award for Excellence for leadership, work ethic and academics. Wiser was that top cadet in his class. The award was named to honor the late Trooper Jenks, killed in the line of duty in January 2007. This award is voted on by the other cadets and the instructors.
“I didn’t expect this honor at all. It came out of left field. I voted for someone else who deserved it heads and shoulders above me,” he said. “It was really special because Trooper Jenks’ father presented me with the award.”
Six months later, in June 2019 after a trip to Paris, he married Hayley. She loves Paris and the Eiffel Tower and he proposed to her there. Today, they have a little girl, Everly, who is close to turning 2, and they live in Halls.
Let’s get back to that afternoon on Jellico Mountain.
The THP knew bad weather was coming. Wiser and his shift partner, Trooper Mike Freels, and other troopers met in Caryville to be in a position to help. They had a plan. “But no plan you make ever survives war or weather,” he said with a laugh.
He was working the day shift, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The snow hit the mountain around 11:30 a.m. and I-75 became very dicey very quickly.
“TDOT had salted the road but within 45 minutes we had 3 inches of snow on the interstate, and then it turned to water and started freezing,” he recalled. “Then the snow started again on top of the ice and the vehicles had little or no traction going up the mountain.”
Wiser and his fellow troopers were working to manage the situation, with cars and trucks stopped, sliding and spinning wheels as others made it past them. He was working to push cars into the tracks of other cars to get them rolling. About 3:15 he flagged down a TDOT Help truck and got a shovel.
“I used the shovel to scrape the snow off the ice and then I’d break up the ice and shove it away from the wheels. I was clearing areas 6 to 8 feet in front of the tires and some behind the tires and we had some success,” he said. This continued until around 9 p.m. He dug out 14 vehicles – 12 cars and two 18-wheelers.
And he added: “It’s our job to be out there and serve and help people. We did not want anyone to get hit by another out-of-control car or truck. We kept people in their cars. We may have saved lives that day. For me it was just another day on the road working for the THP and for the public. You got to do what’s expected of you. I didn’t think I was going above and beyond my job. What I did is my job.”
Knoxville District Commander Capt. Stacey Heatherly offered high praise for Wiser. “Trooper Wiser has been a consistent reminder of what ‘our’ job is. And that is to save lives and protect those victims in need. Jacob is a devoted member that strives daily to be better, and I feel confident that my family is safer with him out here as a trooper just as everyone else should.”
Tom King has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and was the editor of two newspapers. Suggest future stories at tking535@gmail.com or call him at 865-659-3562.