Planes, Trains & Heroes: A Story of Warner Robins and the Robins Region

investigations, drugs and intelligence, crime
scene investigation, evidence processing, special
response teams, school resource, police K-9,
and [maintains] an excellent on-going training
program.” In 2018, Hart continues to serve the
community as volunteer coordinator for the
Museum of Aviation.
Police Chief Bret Evans works to see that
Warner Robins’ “policing philosophy balances
traditional and innovative…methods,” and
supports the city’s view ‘that community
problems are most successfully addressed and
alleviated by working in partnership with the
community” (“Warner Robins Police
Department”). He signs his emails with a G.K.
Chesterton quote: “Fairy tales do not tell
children the dragons exist. Children already
know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children
the dragons can be killed” which says that
problems arise, but problems can be solved. Of
his life in Middle Georgia, Evans says, “My
family and I moved to Warner Robins in 1980
when the Air Force transferred us here. I
attended Northside and then went to Georgia
College in Milledgeville. I started with the
Warner Robins Police Department in 1987, and
I married my high school sweetheart, Tammy, in
March of 1987. Many of the same mentors that
I had in high school are still mentors today, not
just for me, but for many leaders in Houston
County. It’s the people who make Houston
County and Warner Robins a great place to live.
When we first moved here, Warner Robins had
a single zip code and only two phone number
exchanges, 922 and 923. As a matter of fact, you
could dial either two or three (the last digit of
the exchange number zero followed by the final
four digits when making a call. I remember
Warner Robins Police Department much smaller
but very progressive for an agency its size. I
enjoyed working in almost every aspect of the
agency, as well as growing through the
promotional process, before being appointed
chief in 2003. December of 2017 marked
fourteen years that I have been honored to serve
as the chief of a wonderful, professional law
enforcement agency.”
FROM THE PEOPLE
If you live in Middle Georgia and play tennis, Kerry Bacon may have
taught you the love of the game. He has been teaching for over forty-one
years and has taught more than 20,000 students. More than 100 of them
have played college tennis. Mr. Bacon graduated from the University of
Georgia. After he graduated, he taught tennis to others at his own Kerry
Bacon Tennis Camp. He also was the men’s and women’s head coach at
Mercer University in the 1980’s and 1990’s. In 1975, he was asked to teach
summer tennis camps at Houston County Recreation Department. There
were only four big courts at that time. Over the years, Warner Robins has
added courts at Ted Wright Parks, Shirley Hills, Westside and Miller
Elementary Schools. The love of tennis continues the need to add more
courts in Warner Robins. His tennis camp students love and respect him. He
is patient and makes the game fun. Carys Fonner has attended his summer
camps since she was eight. She is now in eighth grade and on the Tattnall
Academy Junior Varsity tennis team. Kerry Bacon taught her mother
Elizabeth Fussell Fonner when she played in Warner Robins. Carys says
when she wears a Kerry Bacon tennis camp T-shirt that people of all ages
stop her and tell her he also taught them tennis lessons. Warner Robins is
blessed to have this tennis legend.
- Patricia Fussell
Kerry Bacon (right) and Carys Fonner.
FROM THE PEOPLE
“It’s good to see past students doing so
much for the city. I think I taught half the
people on city council, the mayor, half the
people on the police force, and even the
chief of police”
- Linda Faraone
Chapter Seven ✦ 51