NJ Cops June2018 | Page 37

Police Unit y Tour Sussex County Corrections Local 378 and Sussex County Local 138 Embracing the Tour The tie that binds Unity Tour riders – or the band the ties – is the bracelet that they each wear with the name of a fallen officer. When he finished his 11th Tour, Sussex County Corrections Local 378 member John Bannon displayed an awe-inspiring bracelet that pushed him through the 300 miles this year. The name on the band: John Bannon. “Last year, I was flipping through the catalogue at the Memorial with names of the fallen officers,” Bannon explained. “I found a man named John Bannon. He was with the New York City Police Department. His End of Watch was May 27, 1966, the year after I was born.” So Officer Bannon started researching to find Officer Bannon. He learned that Officer Bannon had a daughter who post- ed messages to her father through the New York Concerns of Police Survivors website every once in a while. “Notes like, ‘I still miss you, dad.’ Stuff like that,” Bannon revealed. “So I did a lit- tle more research. I got a phone number and left a message with somebody, but they never got back to me.” Bannon planned to put the bracelet he wore this year in an envelope and send it through his contact to Officer Bannon’s family. “Instead of a phone message, they’ll get something, you know, physical that they can hold on to,” Bannon added. “I’ll put my contact information in there and see what happens.” Bannon rode with 30 members from Lo- cal 378 and Sussex County Local 138. The group has grown from a few – including retired Local 138 member John Hulse – to one of the biggest contingents from any Local, primarily through word of mouth. Bannon said he has tried to get fellow members to embrace a simple feeling to keep coming back. “You get a sense of fulfillment,” Bannon reasoned. “It’s just one of those things that if you do it once, you’re going to do it again and it becomes instilled in you. I’ll be do- ing it forever.”  Mitchell Krugel www.njcopsmagazine.com ■ JUNE 2018 37