A Last Full Measure of Devotion : Officers Honor Those Killed While on Duty

Under a slate-gray sky, a line of 28 police officers solemnly marched Monday morning to the skirl of a mournful bagpipe.

Displayed on a buff-colored monument behind them were sculptures of police and sheriff’s deputies. At the base were three baskets of flowers in remembrance of three Orange County law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 1988.

As scores of fellow officers from throughout the county stoically watched and as relatives softly wept in the audience, the ceremony at the Santa Ana Civic Center commemorated those three officers and 25 others previously killed while on duty.

“Today we pay tribute to three more Orange County law enforcement officers and 25 others before them,” said Cypress Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg, president of the Orange County Police Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn.

“These are officers who honored their call to duty with death,” he said. “We who share their profession are proud of them. . . . The presence of family members and supportive citizens here today lends strength to us and validity to the sacrifices we commemorate.”

About 500 people attended the ceremony in the Plaza of Flags, behind the Orange County Courthouse. The event formally marked the placing of three new plaques into a monument on the plaza dedicated to officers who have been killed on duty.

The new plaques in the Orange County Peace Officers Memorial honor:

* Seal Beach Police Officer Edward Clavell Jr., 31, who was killed Aug. 23. Clavell, who was on traffic patrol, was trying to overtake a speeding vehicle when his patrol car collided with another car at Seal Beach and Westminster boulevards. He was the only fatality.

* Anaheim Police Officer Robert Roulston, 38, who died Oct. 16 after a car struck his motorcycle near Anaheim Stadium as he was directing traffic.

* Sheriff’s Deputy Mark S. Tonkin, 31, who was killed Oct. 24 when the drug-interdiction helicopter in which he was riding crashed near the Mexico-California border. Tonkin was part of a county-state anti-drug team. Four other Southern California deputies and three California National Guardsmen were also killed in the crash.

In Monday’s ceremony, a colleague of each slain officer joined in the formal march past the monument.

Joseph Wambaugh, the best-selling writer of police fiction and nonfiction who lives in Newport Beach, had been scheduled to be the keynote speaker but could not attend. San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer substituted.

“Last year in the United States of America, 153 peace officers were killed in the line of duty,” Hausdorfer said. “Twenty-three were from the state of California, and three--Edward Clavell Jr., Robert Roulston and Mark Tonkin--were from the county of Orange. . . .

“Today is a time to remember, a time to honor, three young men who touched lives, three young men who had relatives and friends and families.”

Hausdorfer said the great wars affecting the United States are not ended. He said the current war involves “a battle against crime; a battle against drugs.”

He added: “But that battle is not being fought by a militia. . . . That battle is being fought by the police officers in uniform around you today and throughout the United States of America.

“These are men and women who dare to risk their lives because they care. Men and women who in fact do create ‘a thin blue line.’ It is a thin line (that stands) between war and peace, between good and evil . . . a thin line that permits democracy instead of anarchy.”

Another speaker, Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, said: “This is National Peace Officers Week, and it is a time to formally express our support for our officers who serve us every day and to honor those who have ended their service (in death). . . .

“The men and women who police our communities represent the very best this nation has to offer, and, as evidenced here today, they often must give their lives to protect us. . . . They never know when tragedy may come.”

A band from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station played taps as the audience rose in formal salute. A lone bagpipe then played “Amazing Grace.” A chill wind buffeted flags around the plaza. A haunting, metallic sound chorused overhead as the wind slapped ropes against the steel flagpoles. Family members of dead officers bowed their heads and wept.

After the ceremony, relatives said the event was inspirational and therapeutic.

“This is for everyone: for the ones who have left us, and the ones still with us,” said Sandra Clavell of Riverside, mother of the late Seal Beach officer.

“For me, it is a closing, and it’s helpful,” she said. “It makes me very proud that my son can be remembered by so many people because he himself touched many people’s lives.”

Also attending was Marianne Wrede of Anaheim, president of the California chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors.

“My son, Kenneth Wrede, was a West Covina police officer who was killed in 1983,” she said. “My husband and I have been very active in this group (Concerns of Police Survivors) because it helps those of us who have lost someone in law enforcement.

“Things like this ceremony here today help the families a great deal. It opens the wound, yes. But it helps them in the healing process, because it helps them come to terms with their tragic event.