ALBANY - The speeches at the graduation ceremony for 74 new troopers Tuesday made grim references to the deadly past for State Police, including two officers shot dead in the less than year. But some newly minted members were unfazed.

“I think it made me want to do the job more,” said Connor Sutton, 27, of Ogdensburg. He and Frank Johnston, 32, of Averill Park, simply smiled when asked if they were afraid.

Roommates at the six-month basic school at the academy in Albany, both had previous careers. Sutton taught global studies at Colton-Pierrepont Junior/Senior High School in northern New York. Johnston was a mechanical engineer. Both gave instant, nearly identical answers about why they wanted to be troopers.

“Always to help people,” said Johnston, who was assigned to Troop G in suburban Albany.

“Just to help people,” Sutton said. He was assigned to Troop B in the Adirondacks.

“Welcome to the long gray line,” Acting Superintendent Preston Felton said. All the academy graduates wore gray uniforms and pale Stetsons and got a standing ovation from about 500 family, friends and other troopers in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.

Felton also introduced survivors of some troopers who had died on duty, including Barbara Brinkerhoff. Her husband David Brinkerhoff was killed in an April shootout at a rural farmhouse at the edge of the Catskills. Felton also mentioned Trooper Jose Rosado, who died in January in a crash on Long Island.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the 74 stand on the shoulders of all the troopers that preceded them since 1917, including the 4,900 now serving.

He recalled “fugitive Ralph Phillips cowardly opened fire” on troopers Joseph Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr. last September in western New York, wounding both. One returned fire while the other made a radio call. Longobardo later died.

“They did their duty and never gave up,” Spitzer said.

Both Sutton and Johnston said basic school was difficult, including the three-mile runs at 6 a.m. in winter cold and the calisthenics “until you couldn't do it anymore.” A video of the 194th basic school showed instructors shouting at new recruits wearing formal civilian suits and sneakers in a gymnasium where they were trying to learn to march. Other segments showed trainees boxing and grappling, practicing radar detection and high-speed pursuit, firing handguns, practicing arrest scenarios and getting sprayed in the face with mace.

The biggest laugh from the crowd came when wind blew mace back into the face of an instructor.

Scott Cicirello, the class representative, described their task as a kind of war against segments of society. “We know we're a necessity, yet violence against police officers continues to rise,” he said. “This is a dangerous profession.

“We do it because we believe we can make a difference. We do it so we can take care of our brothers and sisters.”

AP-ES-07-10-07 1615EDT