Elizabeth Local 4 Offi cer Alfredo Beltran had the honor playing “Taps” at the
New Jersey Law Enforcement Memorial Service.
The procession into the
Great Auditorium featured
combined honor guards
and pipes and drums
bands from across the
state.
AWEINSPIRING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65
sense of sorrow is simply aweing. And when contemplating that
feeling, Tim Brennan, captain of the West Orange Honor Guard
and a Local 25 member, found himself getting a little choked up.
“This just makes it real,” Brennan specified. “That’s why I’d
like for more of the officers to come and see the reality of polic-
ing. This is reality.”
Walk into that memorial service, and law enforcing hits home
for all the reasons that you might think: remembering fallen
officers; remembering their family members; remembering
the reality that this could happen to any officer on any given
day. But the wooden structure of the building and its cavernous
shape elicit a faith that something mystical can happen here on
any given day.
And that nearly brings those empty chairs to life.
“You wonder what they’re thinking right now, what they
could be thinking,” Elizabeth Local 4 member Alfredo Beltran
submitted. “It kind of raises the hair on your back because there
is such a solemn feeling and you’re like, ‘They got to hear us.’”
High notes
Beltran tried his best to provide the sounds to reach all fall-
en New Jersey Officers, from Newark Officer Maxwell Badgley,
whose watch ended on Oct. 23, 1854, to Summit Officer and
Local 55 member Matthew Tarentino and Montclair State Cam-
pus Police Sergeant Christopher Vidro, who were honored at
this year’s service. Beltran was the bugler who played “Taps” at
the memorial this year, reprising a performance from his years
in the Marine Corps, funerals that he played for officers lost on
9/11 and accompanying the Elizabeth Honor Guard.
Beltran tried to provide the notes that would accentuate the
camaraderie and the commitment for every officer who walked
through the Great Auditorium doors, to compel them to always
have a sister’s or brother’s back. He was certainly motivated to
make the sounds resonate.
“The camaraderie here is incomparable to anything else that
I’ve experienced besides in the military,” Beltran said. “I hope I
played well enough to make them proud. It’s always those but-
terflies in your stomach. You’re not worried about the people;
you want to represent for the fallen officers.”
In addition to remembrance and honor of fallen officers and
their families, the memorial service brings together New Jersey
law enforcement in one of its most illustrious efforts. Prior to
the service, honor guards lined up outside the auditorium pre-
paring for a procession accompanied this year by the choir from
West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and South doing a
heartfelt rendition of “Danny Boy.”
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ JUNE 2018
Keynote Speaker Attorney General Gurbir Grewal (center) with NJ State PBA
President Pat Colligan (left) and Executive Vice President Marc Kovar before
the ceremony.
More than 100 agencies are represented in a stream that
marches into the hall and wraps around the pe rimeter. It’s a
display of precision and immaculate Class A dress that every-
body should see. And being part of such a detail can only be
described as one of the great honors for any officer.
“We do it for the guys who can’t be here,” Brennan reasoned.
“We stand for those who can’t.”
Pipes and drums from agencies across the state also came
together to play some of the most inspiring music that many
who attend will ever hear. They played “Amazing Grace” with
amazing grace, and the scene of the players marching out side-
by-side heightened the emotion and the tribute.
“It kind of makes you tingle a bit because you are filled with
so much emotion,” explained Elias Nyktis, a piper with State
Corrections Local 105 who played his third memorial this year.
“When we play ‘Amazing Grace,’ it really gets me every time.”
The service featured Asbury Park Local 6 member Tyron
McAllister singing the national anthem, Attorney General Gur-
bir Grewal giving the keynote address and Burlington County
Local 37 member Michelle Koroseta of the Florence Police De-
partment providing a crescendo singing “Amazing Grace: The
Policeman’s Tribute.” And then came Beltran on “Taps” and the
traditional gun salute.
The performances, presentations and tributes made the me-
morial, in a word, well, you know.