At first glance, the two men in monogrammed T-shirts and jeans with their rumbling generator could be mistaken for any of the hundreds of maintenance workers scattered across the vast public grounds of the city.
But Kirk Bockman, 52, and Jim Lee, 59, are highly skilled artisans whose specialized craft is cloaked in grief.
In a yearly ritual that began in 1991 with the dedication of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, Bockman and Lee have carefully etched 18,274 names of fallen officers into marbleized limestone.
This year, the engravers’ burden was heavy as they prepared for the annual vigil for slain officers on Tuesday.
The pair has recorded the names of the 181 officers killed in 2007, one of the deadliest years for police in two decades. They also added 177 officers whose deaths had not been previously recorded, some dating to the 19th century, says Berneta Spence, the memorial’s director of research.
“When we do this, we really feel like we become part of their family history,” Bockman says, his voice hushed in deference to a victim’s mother.
Read it all and don’t miss the great story at the end about their visit to the White House.