By Ollie Reed Jr. / Albuquerque Journal, Staff Writer
May 20th, 2016

 

Maj. Eric Judd, commander of the 377th Security Support Squadron, and members of the squadron salute Thursday during a memorial retreat ceremony for Air Force and local law enforcement officers who had died in the line of duty since the start of the war on terrorism. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)

 

They died in Iraq and in Española; in Afghanistan and Albuquerque; in Germany and in Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and the Jemez Mountains.

 

Some were in the Air Force, special agents or security force officers. Others served with the New Mexico State Police, or with police and sheriff departments throughout this state.

 

But all of these 44 men and women were police officers killed in the line of duty since the global war on terrorism started more than a dozen years ago.

 

And on Thursday, they were all honored at a National Police Week memorial retreat ceremony hosted by Kirtland Air Force Base’s 377th Security Forces Group at the Hardin Field Parade Ground on the base.

 

Col. Richard DeMouy, commander of the 377th, told those gathered at Hardin Field that all of the 44, regardless of what uniform they wore, were part of the thin blue line that separates good from evil and order from chaos.

 

“The uniforms are different, but each leaves loved ones behind, each had stories to tell and stories that continue to be told,” DeMouy said. “And each, I suspect, could not imagine themselves doing any other job. They run toward dangerous situations others so desperately seek to flee.”

 

The roll call of those honored on Thursday started with Special Agent Lee Hitchcock, killed on Aug. 8, 2004, in Kirkuk, Iraq; and ended with Tech. Sgt. Joseph G. Lemm, killed on Dec. 21, 2015, at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.

 

But in between were the names of Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy James McGrane Jr., killed on March 22, 2006, in Bernalillo County; New Mexico Motor Transportation Police officer Robert Potter, who died Aug. 16, 2012, in Vado; Rio Rancho Police Officer Gregg Anthony Benner, killed May 25, 2015, in Rio Rancho; Albuquerque Police Department Officer Daniel Scott Webster, killed Oct. 29, 2015, in Albuquerque; and many more.

 

Representatives of the Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Estancia, Santa Fe and Bosque Farms police departments and the Sandia National Laboratories Protection Force attended the ceremony, which included a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps and “Amazing Grace” on a bagpipe.

 

“It is an honor to stand alongside so many distinguished public servants,” DeMouy said to the military men under his command and to guests attending the ceremony. “Action leads to change that makes a difference, and each of us is here to make a difference.”

 

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