DC Trip 2012
On May 6 2012 at about 8:00 pm the TBL
group arrived at Frankfort. We drove down to the capitol grounds and
found the Historical Society building where the memorial service was
going to take place the next morning. When we pulled into the parking
lot we found a Frankfort officer parked in his new squad filling out
paper work. We stopped and after being given permission to approach
the squad the young officer proudly displayed a Thin Blue Line wrist
band. He was very excited to hear our story about the TBL Memorial
Vehicle and he brought the news of our arrival back to roll call at
his department.
We returned to our hotel and began
writing up information to be posted on our web page when I got a call
from Glenda Lehmann who is the Kentucky State Auxiliary President.
Her group in responsible for putting together and executing the
Kentucky memorial each year and she had just completed a memorial
planning meeting. During the course of our conversation we decided to
meet tonight at the capitol grounds so she could show us the lay of
the land.
We drove back down to the Historical
building around midnight and once we were there we posted colors for
her and turned on the blue LED flag pole lights and the blue halogen
undercarriage lights on TBL. She was very moved by how beautiful the
memorial was and she then asked me if we would be willing to lead
their procession from the Historical building to their Capital
building and their Law Enforcement memorial. Of course this was a
great honor and privilege and we agreed to do it.
The next day we were up at 5:30 am and
washed then hand dried TBL and drove back to our assigned location at
the Historical building. Around 8:00 am people started showing up to
include members of the seven different honor guards that were part of
the procession, police officers and deputies from around the state as
well as community dignitaries and clergy. All were wonderful people
that care and understand what is lost when an officer is taken away.
As the time got closer to noon when the
memorial started, survivors started showing up with children, parents
and grandparents of the fallen officers. Because of where we had been
intentionally asked to stage, everybody that arrived had a chance to
view the TBL Memorial Vehicle. Invariably every person looked at the
memorial and was pleased at what they saw, there were many tears and
much pride and we were all humbled.
At noon the memorial started inside the
Historical building. At about 12:45 people began filing out of the
building and lining up behind the TBL memorial vehicle. We left the
area and drove very slowly down the street with honor guards directly
behind followed by a lone bag piper and then police officers and
deputies, state troopers and federal officers in plane cloths and
survivors including parents and children all walking together in some
cases hand in hand and at the end they were followed by officers on
horseback.
As the procession worked its way from
the Historical building start to the Law Enforcement Memorial it only
traveled three blocks, but as it moved all the people that were
watching along the way stopped and either put their hands over their
hearts or saluted.
When we arrived at the memorial the
governor read a proclamation and there was music and a 21 gun salute
to the fallen officers.
After the memorial was completed we all
returned to the Historical Center and had lunch. There was an
opportunity to talk to many officers, survivors and citizens. There
were many photos taken of TBL and lots of conversations about how the
memorial came to be. Being asked to lead this memorial procession was
a huge honor and reinforces how strong the unspoken bond is between
officers no matter where you are from, we always come together in
times of solace.
