Blurred Lines Between Law Enforcement and Military Service and Sacrifice

Jeremy Henwood was a United States Marine Combat veteran.  He served two tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan.  He had seen the ravages of war up close and personal, but unlike many of his fellow Marines, he had come home alive and whole.

And when he recently returned from Afghanistan as a Captain in the Marine Reserves, he resumed his duties as a four-year veteran of the San Diego (CA) Police Department.  Tragically, though, it was this other war—the war on crime and terror being waged on the streets of America—that would claim this Marine’s life. 

Just a few months ago on August 6, as Jeremy sat in his marked cruiser at a traffic light, a felon who was fleeing police pulled up alongside of him.  Before Officer Henwood even had a chance to look over, the two-bit thug with a gun fired a shotgun blast at his head.  Jeremy died the following day.

Ironically, a security camera at a local McDonald’s had captured Officer Henwood’s final moments before the shooting.  He was buying lunch when a 13-year-old boy named Damian Tinsley approached him and asked if he could borrow a dime to help him buy three cookies.  Officer Henwood was moved to do more and treated the boy to a meal.  He then turned the encounter into a teaching moment.  He asked young Damian what he wanted to do with his life.  Damian said he wanted to be an NBA basketball star.  Officer Henwood encouraged his new friend to follow his dream, saying that anything was possible, as long as you worked hard at it.  With that, Officer Henwood left.  Three minutes later, he was shot and would soon die.

Thousands attended Jeremy’s funeral. His sister, Emily, fought back tears as she called her brother “a great man and a hero to our country.”  His last act of kindness had summed up the way he lived his life.  This Marine combat veteran, this San Diego police officer, simply wanted to serve his country and his community, so he could help make the world a little better than he found it.      

Robert Cottle was no different.  This veteran law enforcement professional was a member of the Los Angeles (CA) Police Department’s elite SWAT unit. He had been there when his friend and colleague, Randy Simmons, was gunned down in 2008.  He had survived the war here at home, but Robert Cottle was also a Sergeant-Major with the Marine Corps, and last March he was in Afghanistan battling the Taliban when he was killed by an IED.  One of his police colleagues called Robert “a very, very special guy.  He is going to be missed.”

The same could be said about any of the more than 19,000 law enforcement professionals who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the performance of duty, or the more than 600,000 veterans of foreign wars who never made it home alive.  The line between law enforcement and military service is often blurred.  Many veterans of foreign wars turn to policing when they come home.  Many police officers are military reservists.  When it comes to helping others in need and securing cherished freedoms, the location of the war or the type of service is not what’s important to our men and women in uniform, it is only the cause that matters. 

Just as there are war memorials and monuments designed to honor those who died serving our country abroad, there is also the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC to honor those who died at home fighting the war on crime and the war on terror. 

Dedicated in 1991, there are 19,298 names inscribed on those marble walls, dating back to the first death in 1791, a Revolutionary War veteran and New York Sheriff named Cornelius Hogeboom.  Sixty-one of those names belong to men and women who were serving with U.S. military agencies when they died.  Many others were veterans of foreign wars. 

One of those heroes is Private First Class Robert J. McKenna of the U.S. Department of the Army, who made the ultimate sacrifice about 45 years ago. PFC McKenna was securing the main gate of the Fort Gordon Army Base in Fort Gordon, Georgia one evening. When he attempted to stop a car from leaving the base, he was shot in the face and killed instantly.

A couple years after PFC McKenna was murdered, Staff Sergeant Daniel S. Tindle of the U.S. Marine Corps was ambushed and killed on his front porch. Sergeant Tindle had been involved in a narcotics investigation. When a military police officer arrived at Sergeant Tindle's house to warn him of an anonymous call claiming his life was in danger, the officer found Sergeant Tindle's lifeless body. A suspect was arrested and sent to trial, but was not convicted due to lack of evidence. Forty years later, the suspect admitted he had murdered Seargeant Tindle before dying of a drug overdose.

Security Policeman Robert S. Gray of the U.S. Airforce lost his life in the performance of duty on January 6, 1978. Officer Gray was stabbed in the chest as he attempted to apprehend trespassers at the Clark Air Force Base in the Phillippines. He was 23-years-old when he died, and had one year of law enforcement service. Over twenty years later, a fellow member of the U.S. Air Force Security Police was killed in the line of duty. Technical Sergeant Charles W. Simons III was outside his vehical directing traffic at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, when he was struck by a vehicle. He was rushed to a local hospital and remained unconscious. Two days later, he succumbed to his fatal injuries and died.

A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. I told the stories of Jeremy Henwood and Robert Cottle.  And, I reminded them of an inscription on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial that sums up the meaning of the heroic service performed in policing and the military.  It reads, “In valor there is hope.”  As long as there are men and women willing to put their lives at risk for our freedom and safety, there is great hope for the future of our nation and the world.


Craig W. Floyd is chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and is a regular contributor to AMERICAN POLICE BEAT.  Visit www.LawMemorial.org for more information about law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.