International Police Association

Region 61 

Interest Items

E-mail: region61ipa@gmail.com

Wootton Bassett.  Wiltshire.   United Kingdom.

Show Low.           Arizona.    United States of America

A couple of towns with quirky names separated by 6600 feet  in elevation and an arc of 6600 miles across an ocean and a continent.  Residents of those two towns are fortunately united by a common language and each is accessed by a legendary road system.  Just north of the city limits        of Show Low, 80 year old Route 66 -- now known as I-40 -- bisects Navajo County.  Slicing through Northern Wiltshire just north of Wootton Bassett is a 2000 year old former Roman road now simply known as M4. 

These roads do not connect either those towns or the people who inhabit them.  There is a deeper connection between Show Low and Wootton Basset defined by professionalism, honor and respect.

The International Police Association is exactly what the name implies.  Region 61 of the I.P.A.  United States Section is a recent addition to Northern Arizona, expanding and continuing the tradition of promoting global, cultural friendship among peace officers.   During the almost routine exchange of friendly communications, members of Region 61 were struck by certain activities in Region 7 of the United Kingdom centered in Wootton Bassett. 

The remains of Royal Military personnel killed in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are repatriated to the United Kingdom by military air transport, landing at the Royal Air Force base in Lyneham. After discharging the precious cargo and a brief service, the bodies of the flower of the United Kingdom’s finest are transported by road to a hospital in Oxford.   The road is the M4 and the M4 passes alongside Wootton Basset which is the start of the 46 mile repatriation route through the literal and figurative heart of  IPA-UK Region 7.

Until recently, the residents of the area were alerted to an impending repatriation by the approach of the huge military  aircraft, passing low and with slow dignity over Wootton Bassett as it lands at   nearby Lyneham..  Through experience, members of the community knew that within two hours, the earthly remains of a repatriated hero  -- or even more sadly, heroes -- would be passing by as part of a small cortege enroute to a final resting place.  Without signal or direction, the community turned out – first in ones and twos but later swelling their numbers to thousands – to line the route of the procession to pay their respects.

As a matter of course, members of the police department almost spontaneously began providing escort and traffic control services for the heartrending convoy.   As the numbers of the onlookers swelled, the level of obvious grief was palpable. Military veterans began appearing, mustering in civilian attire but carrying flags of their country and banners of their former service organizations.    The police responded to the growing crowds by providing safety and to the anguish by offering not only emotional support but by serving a variety of refreshments paid for from their own personal funds.   

Reacting to all this from the relative isolation of Northern Arizona, local I.P.A. members felt compelled to do something to express their sympathies to the families and fellow citizens of the deceased.  As serving or former police officers, Region 61 members were impressed by the professionalism and empathy displayed by their Region 7 colleagues – not just on a single occasion, but week after mournful week as the repatriations continued seemingly without relent. 

Region 61 members wanted to express their admiration for and support of their colleagues in the U.K. and in what might be considered typically American oafish and impulsively inappropriate manner, an offer was made for a cash contribution to the morale fund of the local police department.   With equally typical restraint and dignity in keeping with the image of a U. K. Police Officer, that offer was politely refused. It was suggested that a contribution might be better invested in a charity established by and very close to the hearts of area police. 

The Taplow Traffic Charity Trust benefits the children or relatives of motorists who are killed or seriously injured on the highways in the United Kingdom.  It enables the children to take a fully escorted, festive holiday to Disneyland Paris or some other location where they can be at least temporarily happily distracted from the loss of their parents or relatives. 

In accordance with that suggestion, Region 61 made a small donation to the Taplow Traffic Charity Trust which was presented to the local Police Superintendent by an I.P.A.-U.K. Region 7  member.

This is not a solicitation for contributions to the Taplow Trust or to any other charity.  It is just a story about how a connection was made between members of a fraternal organization separated by miles but not by the absence of respect and admiration for their profession and altruism. 

The sad procession of funeral corteges through Wootton Bassett will continue with dreadful frequency for the foreseeable future.   The long-since settled dust once churned by ancient Roman Legionnaires has been replaced with the muffled nightmare drumbeat of a funerary dirge accompanying the reluctantly returning soldier through long, quiet, respectful ranks of the eternally gratefully public for whom a life was given. 

A TALE OF TWO REGIONS

C. P. (Bud) Lathrop, R-61