The group of new recruits lines up at the Rhode Island State Police Training Academy, in Foster, as Trooper Kevin Barry gives orders. The class comprises 37 men and women.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

FOSTER –– In drizzling rain, they charged down the drive outside the Rhode Island State Police Training Academy, trotting in their business suits and carrying duffel bags of their personal belongings. They nearly resembled serious-minded people determined to catch a plane. That is, except for the state police instructors shouting at them to keep moving.

The 37 men and women from Rhode Island and Massachusetts were beginning a journey of sorts Monday morning. It was the end of their former lives and, if they make it, the beginning of a new career by December as troopers in the Rhode Island State Police.

They are the 2009 class, the first academy in four years, and the first under Col. Brendan P. Doherty, superintendent of the state police. He said his “stamp” on the 2009 class is to hold the academy’s status quo and its tradition of discipline.

“The esprit de corps of the state police all starts here,” Doherty said outside the academy’s headquarters. The residents of Rhode Island hold the state police to a high standard, Doherty said, and so do the troopers themselves.

“The discipline starts here,” he said.

The recruits assembled in the rain, filing in four rows in front of the academy and staring straight ahead as Doherty, his command staff, and leaders of the academy lined the walkway facing them.

Out of 1,923 candidates, “you 37 are characterized as the cream of the crop,” the academy’s commandant, Lt. Ernest C. Quarry Jr., said to them. “That was yesterday’s news.”

The recruits include 4 women and 10 minorities. Eight were police officers from departments in Central Falls, East Providence, Middletown, Narragansett, North Kingstown, and Raynham, Mass., and New London, Conn. Eleven served in the military.

The one with the most military experience is selected to carry the guidon for the 2009 class, the regimental flag that “tells everyone who they are,” said Lt. Col. Raymond White. Kyle A. Gorenski, an Army military police officer from Narragansett, was selected for the honor because of his two tours in Iraq.

The academy emulates the paramilitary culture and the next several months will be physically demanding and mentally challenging, Doherty said. It’s not uncommon for 4 to 10 recruits to drop out of the academy, Doherty said.

The recruits are paid $1,300 biweekly during the academy, attending Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For those who make it to graduation in November, jobs await, at a starting annual salary of $47,883.

The $1.128 million being used to run the academy was hard-won in the budget approved by the legislature. Doherty had advocated for the academy at the State House.

The ranks have been thinning since the last academy in 2005; under state law, all troopers, except for the superintendent, are mandated to retire after 25 years. This class is expected to bring the state police up to the full complement of 220 troopers. “The troopers on the road and the detectives are eager to have them succeed,” he said.

As the recruits stood in the rain, their commandant addressed them.

To be a Rhode Island state trooper, Quarry said, they needed to possess three things: “A good attitude, the desire to be a trooper, and number 3 — What is it, Mulcahy?”

“Sir, heart, sir,” responded recruit Courtney E. Mulcahy, of Dalton, Mass.

“A whole lot of heart!” Quarry boomed. “That’s the only thing going to get you through this training academy.”

amilkovi@projo.com