With the echo of Native American drums and the mournful wail of bagpipes, the Department of the Interior remembered three of its own at a May 10 ceremony marking National Police Week.  

Special Agent Dan Madrid and Ranger Jeffrey Christensen of the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Tom Cloherty, all of whom died on duty last year, were honored at the Washington, D.C., event and at other observances that paid tribute to the Nation’s “fallen officers.”  

The Interior memorial ceremony, which included a formal wreath laying, also recognized the important contributions of law enforcement professionals to the department’s mission.

“Every law enforcement officer is aware that each day they report for work may be their last. Yet they still report for duty … ready to serve and protect,” said Acting Secretary Lynn Scarlett, who addressed those gathered at the ceremony.  

Other speakers, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and Security Larry Parkinson, NPS Director Fran Mainella, NPS Deputy Director Steve Martin, and FWS Deputy Director Marshall Jones also offered tributes, praising Madrid, Christensen, and Cloherty and their many law enforcement colleagues who continue to serve the nation.

Special Agent Dan Madrid

Madrid worked as protection ranger and supervisor at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and Everglades National Park before becoming an NPS special agent in 1995. His investigative work while stationed at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri included the department’s first successful hate crime case. Madrid died Sept. 25, 2005, while investigating a visitor fatality in Yosemite National Park, where he was on detail.

Ranger Jeffrey Christensen

Christensen worked as a law enforcement park ranger during the 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 summer seasons at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. An emergency medical technician and ski patrol member who was active in search and rescue, he died July 29, 2005, as a result of a fall while on back-country patrol in the Park’s Mummy Range area.  

Special Agent Tom Cloherty

Cloherty, who worked as a criminal investigator at the FWS law enforcement office in East Orland, Maine, died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 7, 2005, while participating in the agency’s special agent fitness program. A former Coast Guard officer and tall ship mariner, he joined the FWS Office of Law Enforcement in 2004 and had recently completed the agency’s on-the-job special agent training program.

Madrid, Christenson, and Cloherty were also honored at other Police Week events. Madrid and Cloherty’s names were added to the Peace Officers’ Memorial at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia where both had completed criminal investigator training. The names of all three men were engraved on the marble walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., along with the names of 152 other law enforcement officers who died on duty in 2005.  

All of these fallen officers were remembered at a candlelight vigil at that site on May 13 and at the 25th annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, which was held on May 15 on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. That convocation featured a keynote speech by President Bush and the traditional “roll call of heroes.”

“Hearing those names brings home the meaning of Police Week,” said Special Agent in Charge Kevin Garlick, who represented the Fish and Wildlife Service at the Capitol event. “All law enforcement officers should be proud to see the Nation honor their service and sacrifice.”