GILLETTE, Wyo. — Shots split the air, 21 of them to be exact.
Hands touched brows in the silence that followed; the only sound being a single bugle playing the hallowed notes of “Taps” where, minutes earlier, 60 names echoed somberly off stone walls as dozens gathered outside the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office.
Those names belonged to every law enforcement officer in Wyoming to have died in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Every one of them, along with the 25,783 others to have died nationwide, answered a higher calling to serve their communities while continuing a tradition of service laid down by their predecessors, according to Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny, who addressed the dozens gathered on Wednesday, May 18, formally known as Peace Officer Memorial Day.
Within the walls of the CCSO, Matheny said, there is an inscription that reads, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
“I believe that is what our profession is all about,” Matheny continued. “Good men and women doing something so evil will not triumph.”
In communities across the United States, residents go about their daily lives, secure in their belief that their paths to and from work are safe from criminals and people who may wish them harm, Matheny said, and that sense of security can sometimes be taken for granted.
“What makes it possible, what makes freedom possible, are the law enforcement officers that we honor today,” Matheny said. “It’s the men and women like so many of you, anyone who has ever put on a uniform or worn a badge in the name of law, in the name of order, in the name of protecting the community and the United States of America.”
It only takes the actions of a few to alter the public’s perception of the many when it comes to law enforcement, Matheny said, which is why it is important that they remind each other every day that the authority they wield is part of a sacred trust placed in them.
“To all officers gathered here today- retired or active- please know that your service and your sacrifice are highly valued by the citizens of Campbell County,” Matheny said. “I believe we do not always hear the words ‘thank-you’ nearly enough, but I urge you to keep doing what you are doing.”
Fallen Wyoming Law Enforcement Officers:
Dwaine L. Hardigan
Charles M. Cosby
Alfred Henry Bath
C.E. Pierce
Craig Leo Schulte
Robert Widdowfield
George F. Radden
George “Bill” Stanford
Dennis Merwin Shuck
Jack Norwood Jernigan10
Hugh C. Petrie
Charles Henry Edwards, Jr.
Daniel C. Hansen
Bryan Phillip Gross
Josia Hazen
Steve M. Crerar
Jon Roy Hardy
Clifford E. Smith
Mark Lamonte “Mont” Mecham
Edward Goodfellow20
Frank Bedford McFarlane
George Edward Price
Edward L. Lloyd
Robert Arthur VanAlyne, Jr.
Norbert E. Tuck
Arthur Emil Osborn
Frank B. Roach
Adolph Cuny
Grant Neeley
Tom Majors
W.C. Ricker
D.M. Baker
Anthony Bernard Nelson
Charles Lewis
Delavan Lewis Dixon
Thomas J. Kling
John Baxter
Michael Angel Rosa40
Thomas Harris
William S. McPherren
William H. Veach
Edward Phillips
Boyd L. Hall
William H. Edwards
Harley Lorenze Mark
Charles B. Holden
Edward N. Dawes
Bill Miller50
Louis Falkenburg
Wayne Martinez
Orville Lee Ventling
Ed Samuelson
Kirk D. Inberg
Clifford Dean Stevens
Bill Lakanen
Don Simpson
John Buxton
Chris S. Logsdon
Peter Visser
George Walter Henderson, II
Fallen Wyoming K9s:
K9 Robbie
K9 Nyx
K9 Koa
