Page 41 - FOP JUNE Newsletter

was scored on number of tears shed by the audience, the CPD Honor Guard would have won by a million points.
“When we were finishing, I saw a member of our pipes band, and he had tears in his eyes,” Bowen expressed. “We were very hopeful the emotion we had was being transferred and our message was being delivered.”
Mike Ostrowski has been with the Honor Guard for all years of its existence, and he generated the idea for the female-focused tribute for Police Week. The message was designed for the families of fallen officers.
“Many of the families came up to us and said, ‘You touched my heart,’” Ostrowski revealed. “We also had people that have seen us in the past who said, ‘I don’t know how you do it, but every year you make us cry.’ To me, that’s a win.”
It’s not about the wins for the CPD Honor Guard. This is not a precision drill team. The members don’t consid- er themselves part of an elite unit, but rather an Honor Guard creat-
ed 18 years
ago for the
specific pur-
pose of hon-
oring fallen
officers.
There are
25-to-30 of-
ficers cur-
rently in
the Honor
Guard, in-
cluding Os-
trowski who
is one of the
originals. Of-
ficers have
to be invited
to join, and
they have to
try out. The National Honor Guard Competition is the biggest event for the CPD officers, but it’s one of more than 140 or so they do each year.
“Believe it or not, some people don’t know we’re in ex- istence even though we have been out there for 18 years,” Ostrowski commented. “But those who do know about us appreciate the ceremony brought to it and the dignity and respect that is given to the families and our heroes.”
In past years, the Honor Guard has come to Washing- ton, D.C. and honored officers from many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. and even Canada. The idea for this year’s tribute to the women of the Department actually bubbled up on the return trip form Police Week 2015.
Ostrowski has taken the lead role in the past, but this year he decided to stay on the sidelines and essentially coach the team. He knew the Honor Guard included sev- eral female members who each had distinguished them- selves in their jobs. “So we wanted to bring the best to the best,” he noted.
The group began training in February when their idea to honor fallen female of- ficers was just an idea. The members de- scribed their preparation as molding a piece of clay into a polished presentation.
“We decided this was going to be the year of the woman,” Delgado described. “We re- searched the fallen female officers in Chi- cago and Illinois and matched up our team members with an officer. They reached out to the families to let them know we were honoring them and get a feeling of who they
were.”
That the National Honor Guard Competition is scored on inspection and posting of the colors was not of the utmost importance to the CPD officers. They did pres- ent with an impeccability that matched any of the other 13 squads in the event. Of the utmost importance was to honor the fallen officers. “That’s all we could ask,” Delga- do conveyed.
And what was of utmost importance was to be in the company of outstanding ladies. In addition to recogniz- ing the women lost in the line of duty, the CPD Honor Guard, in its own words, also wanted to remind that the women of the Department are not just secretaries, dis- patchers and the like.
“We are people’s mothers, sisters and daughters,” Bow- en asserted. “We have women who are shot and killed or lost in driving accidents and helicopter crashes.”
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2016 41