Remembered and Honored

Downtown parade, concert to honor fallen police officers
Donna J. Miller: Plain Dealer Reporter

In the line of duty, death can strike in many ways.

Gates Mills police Lt. Earl Thomas died at age 55 after battling a Cleveland blizzard that swallowed his police car.

Fairview Park Police Chief Henry Walton was 52 when he died of a heart attack while keeping bystanders away from a burning building.

Much younger men in uniform were killed in the Iraq war while serving with a Marine reserve unit based in Brook Park.

All will be remembered, honored, celebrated and wept for during the Peace Officers Memorial Parade on Friday, followed by a concert Saturday at the State Theatre that will feature five pipe-and-drum bands from the United States and Canada, Irish dancers and the U.S. Marine Corps Quantico Band.

The pipes and drums will accompany a slide show of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. The 25th Marines have lost 48 comrades in the last 14 months in Iraq.

More than 80 fellow Marines will attend the slide show.

There will be lighter moments as well, with the Police Pipes & Drums of Bergen County, N.J., belting out pop songs.

The parade Friday is expected to draw 1,000 officers. It steps off from Lakeside Avenue and East 12th Street at 10:30 a.m. and marches west on Lakeside to West Third Street. There, a service will honor the 166 fallen police officers named on the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial.

"It's most important for the families," Fairview Park Patrolman Paul Shepard said. He researched Walton's death and had the chief's name added to the national police memorial in Washington, D.C. Read more.

Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band Help DoD Kick Off Military Appreciation Month

Actor and director Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will perform during an afternoon concert at the Pentagon beginning at noon, Friday, May 5, helping the Department of Defense’s “America Supports You” program kick off Military Appreciation Month.

“America Supports You” is an ongoing nationwide initiative that showcases and communicates America’s support for the men and women of the Armed Forces. Since its launch in November 2004 by DoD, the “America Supports You” program has welcomed more than 200 grassroots organizations and more than 20 corporate sponsers to its team. Twenty-seven of those groups will be attendance at the concert. For a complete list of the groups attending the concert, please visit: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/d20060504sinise.pdf .

Renowned for his role as Lt. Dan in the movie “Forrest Gump,” Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band have performed USO concerts for military men and women at American military bases across the United States and throughout Europe. Gary Sinise recently returned from a trip visiting the troops in Afghanistan.

Other Military Appreciation Month events “America Supports You” will be highlighting are the Joint Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 19-20; New York City Fleet Week in New York City, N.Y., May 23-29; and the Indianapolis 500 in Indianapolis, Ind., May 29.