Kovar led a shopping spree at Costco to buy burgers and hot dogs,
and if you haven’t heard by now, when the store managers found out
what was happening they offered up hundreds of dollars in gift certificates. Stacked end to end, the procession of burgers served might
have gone on for eight miles. There was music. There was laughter.
Wives and children of the fallen Dallas officers even attended.
“We met the widow of Dallas Officer Michael Kroll, and were able
to give her some patches and introduce her to Marc,” Werner said. “We
were able to tell her she was the reason we made the trip.”
For all the citizens lining the streets showing their signs of support
reading “Thank You” or “We’ve got our back,” for all the hugs and people buying meals anonymously and for all the strength added to the
blue line, the opportunity to provide a little something for one of the
widows was the watershed remember.
“When you sit and talk to her and realize how brave she is, what
we are offering is nothing,” Hulse noted. “What we did is minor convenience compared to the challenges she is going to face, and doing so
with strength I can’t even begin to describe.”
A Second Response
The feeling of elation coming out of Dallas was so high that Saturday night.
By Sunday morning it might have reached an all-time low.
The PBA Delegation was in the airport getting ready to fly home.
Hulse and Haase had already left Dallas to return to Jersey. And then
the news came down that Baton Rouge Officers Montrell Jackson,
Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola were gunned down in a 9 a.m.
ambush on July 17.
Kovar immediately called Colligan to make plans to get a team to
Baton Rouge. Through a connection with the Tennessee State Police,
Hulse dropped the trailer at the State Police barracks in Nashville and
drove back to Jersey, returning home on Monday, July 18. He and
Haase refueled, refitted and retooled then went out again with Moran and Curry on Wednesday.
As the clocked ticked on the 17-hour drive, Moran learned about
what to expect when arriving in Louisiana. The first sign came crossing the state line and seeing that state outline done in blue with
white lettering. “We were just hoping…looking forward to being met
with open arms,” Moran added.
And so they were. The trailer was escorted to a church parking lot
along with the Port Authority and offered parking spots right across
from Billy Graham’s apparatus. Yes, that Billy Graham. That’s about as
close as it gets to royalty in Louisiana.
For three days, the PBA handed out thousands more waters, lots of
cups of coffee and an equal amount of hugs. The same signs adorned
the streets, the processions stretched just as long as in Dallas, and the
people of Baton Rouge showed their appreciation in a style that is all
their own.
With food.
“The residents put together a hospitality suite for cops and they
did the home-cooking just for us,” Moran confirmed. “You should
have seen the Jambalaya, the dessert station and they kept trying to
give us more. They couldn’t have been more welcoming.”
By the time they returned to New Jersey, Hulse and Haase guided
the truck and trailer on a journey of more than 5,000 miles that took
the better part of two weeks. And coming home is where Hulse met
the only downside of this adventure: being away from his family and
his beloved grandson, Johnny.
But he had a message for Johnny that might have put all this in
proper perspective.
“I told him that when we go away like this, your family misses you
and it’s hard to understand why pop’s away,” he confided. “I explained
I was going to help people whose pops are going to be away a lot
longer than me. And that the sacrifice will always be worth it.”
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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