The Hall of Remembrance includes a display showcasing items that family
members, colleagues and friends have left at the National Law Enforcement
Offi cers Memorial to honor fallen offi cers.
Survivors of fallen offi cers gather to cut the ribbon at the ceremony that
offi cially opened the Hall of Remembrance.
Pat Montuore, left, and Unity Tour Executive Director Harry Phillips in front of the case where the bike that Montuore rode in the fi rst Unity Tour is displayed
inside the Hall of Remembrance.
of more than 10,000 fans cheering as riders come into the me-
morial manifested here, on this night, in this hallowed hall.
“You know what, I got a little goosebumps going on,” con-
fided Chris Boller, a seven-time rider, executive board member
of the Ewing Township Local 111 SOA and liaison for the Unity
Tour’s Chapter X out of South Jersey. “You feel you belong when
you walk through those doors.”
What the Unity Tour has wrought is that now, there for all the
world to see, is a hall of a lot of exhibits that will help visitors
understand and appreciate the value of law enforcement to so-
ciety. With more than 20,000 artifacts depicting American law
enforcement historic events and hands-on experiences show-
casing corrections, tactical operations, K9s, dispatch and a trib-
ute to 9/11 – among many other displays – all law enforcement
officers who venture through these doors will feel like a part of
history.
It all leads to the East Pavilion, which pays tribute to the Unity
Tour’s $5 million investment to jumpstart the museum in 2005.
A plaque honors Unity Tour board members, chapter presidents
and delegates for its mission to create a venue where the stories
behind the names on the memorial wall can be told.
“This is our Lincoln Memorial. This is our Washington Mon-
ument,” praised Steve “Moose” Gottschalk, who has made the
tour every year since 2002 and came to the opening with nine
other riders from Chapter VII in California. “I can honestly say
there is no other place like this where there is a history of our
profession, our professionalism, where we have been, where we
are now and maybe where we are going.”
Nobody might know what it took to get here more than Rich
Schultz, a retired Fair Lawn Local 67 member who was one of
the 20 riders on the first Unity Tour in 1997. He stayed in those
motels and turns driving the support vehicle along with all the
other riders, who each paid for their own meals back then.
Schultz recalled how the persistence overcame the “Who are
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