Lieutenant David Dodson, Master Trooper William Bennett, and Ben Hutto are no strangers when they’re at work. In fact, growing up in a town of just a few hundred people, the three lifelong friends see each other as brothers.
“I’m thankful I grew up in a small town. It made me a good person,” said Bennett, who was born only six days after Dodson and his twin brother. “That small yet beautiful community gave us a brotherhood of a lifetime.”
Dodson and Bennett are troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol. Bennett works in the Community Relations Unit, and Dodson at Troop 1 headquarters. Hutto is a program manager in the Department of Public Safety’s Office of Support Services.
Growing up in Pelion, Dodson said, was much like the fictional town of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show: A single small grocery store, relatives who work at your school, and a lot of room for imagination. From playing on the same tee-ball team to being jokesters every now and then in class, their childhood memories are still kept close to each of their hearts.
“There’s days I really do miss it all,” said Hutto, the oldest of the three who has been known to them as Benji since childhood. “We still reminisce about the things we used to do. Bennett’s grandmother’s house was the daycare, some of our parents knew each other when they went to school. It was the quintessential small town.”
After high school, the three went their separate ways. Hutto went to Clemson University and taught high school government. He later shifted to state government at the Department of Administration for 10 years and then joined DPS in 2020.
Bennett started with the Columbia Police Department in 2003, but served the majority of his career with the Swansea Police Department, where he eventually became assistant chief of police. He also served as assistant chief for the Pelion Police Department. Hutto encouraged Bennett to consider the Highway Patrol, especially given his prior law enforcement experience.
“I did the enforcement stuff, chasing and locking people up,” Bennett said. “Now, I go out in the community to talk to people, and at this stage in my career, I really love what I do. I’m in the right spot.”
Dodson’s path to DPS was a winding one. When a relative of his became a state trooper, Dodson began learning about the Highway Patrol, and eventually found “a calling” he had to answer.
Dodson joined the Highway Patrol in 2005. However, an injury during training forced him to resign. A year later, he submitted an application and rejoined the patrol, graduating with Class 83 in 2006.
“I climbed the ranks all the way from corporal to lieutenant, and was transferred to Troop 1 in 2023, which includes my hometown of Pelion,” Dodson said. “Not only was I reconnected in the community I grew up in, but I reconnected with the two guys that I grew up with. It was just absolutely beautiful.”
There are no questions of whether the bunch are proud of each other either.
“I never had a doubt that they would be successful,” Hutto said. “These small town boys became not only solid representatives of their town, but two guys that make the state proud.”
With busy schedules and lives, the three still manage to set aside time to chat about life and look back on old times. Usually over a monthly dinner, the trio always picks up right where they left off, and they keep in touch regularly.
“We share a special bond that I can only sum up as the same feeling as when I look at my twin brother,” said Dodson. “When I see William and Benji, I see two brothers. We’re family. If they need something, they can call me anytime and I’ll come running.”
In looking through high school yearbooks at decades-old memories frozen in time, Bennett points to a handwritten message from Hutto that sums up their friendship: “We will always be brothers.”
