By Ed Meckle, Retired LAPD

As I write this I realize I live in a world that no longer exists. It is bits and pieces, fragments of memories and dreams, half-forgotten, half-remembered, faded photos of friends and events, of people and places of long ago, of adventures lived, tales told and experiences shared. It is of lives loved and lost, of friends long gone, the sights and sounds of a city, vanished. It is of sacrifices great and small, some known, most unseen. We marvel at where we have been, what we have done and who we have become.

 

The nights were dark and home to the unknowns. Only we stood at the gates. We shared the companionship of the finest people on this earth. I live with the knowledge that there may not be tangible proof of my efforts or even of my existence, but I rest knowing that I left something much greater behind. My service to my fellow man but mostly to my companions. I left it better than I found it. I was part of a select group to take part in a great venture that most never experience or even know exists.

 

I had a front row seat to the greatest show in the world. Who was I? A member of the world’s finest…

 

…the Los Angeles Police Department.