Later this year, Arlington will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and salute the efforts of public-safety personnel who saved innumerable lives at the Pentagon that day.
No police officers, sheriff’s deputies or fire department personnel lost their lives at the Pentagon that day. But last Friday’s Peace Officers Memorial Day ceremony was a reminder that many would carry physical and emotional scars of 9/11 with them for years to come.
Among them: Arlington Police Cpl. Harvey Snook III.
Snook was among public-safety personnel responding to the intentional crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Nearly 13 years later — on Sept. 9, 2014 — he was diagnosed with a form of cancer traced to his week spent there collecting evidence and victims’ remains.
Snook, Badge #884, died on Jan. 14, 2016. The following year, his name and a commemorative plaque were added to the Memorial Wall during a ceremony attended by his mother.
“He was grounded in moral clarity, overflowing with joy in a job he loved,” said Mary Gavin, who spoke at this year’s commemoration, held outdoors at the Arlington County Justice Center.
Public-service personnel from across the region and even the United Kingdom joined civic leaders for the program.
Cpl. Snook, a U.S. Army veteran who served on the Arlington police force for 27 years, is the most recent officer enshrined among the Hall of Honor, commemorating the lives of county public-safety personnel lost in service-connected incidents.
Others, with the years of their deaths, include Special Police Officer Louis Shaw (1935), Detective Russell Pettie (1954), Officer Arthur Chorovich (1964), Officer Israel Gonzalez (1972), Officer George Pomraning (1973) and Officer John Buckley (1977).
“Revisit their courageous stories. It’s the strongest steel that is forged in the hottest of fires,” said Gavin, a 22-year Arlington police veteran who later served as chief of police in Falls Church.
“We are all connected by a thread that time cannot break,” Gavin said. “There’s a bond without question. It’s a connection that becomes part of your inner world.”
More than 400 first-responders died on or in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, all in New York City. But as Police Chief Andy Penn noted at the commemoration, thousands of others, including Snook, faced long-term, life-threatening damage resulting from exposure to chemicals and toxic dust at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.
“They answered the call of duty no matter what the cost,” said Penn, who was a police detective in 2001 and worked with Snook.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade without our beloved Harvey,” he said.
Though the deaths of those on the memorial span more than 80 years, each had a major impact on the department, the chief said:
“Their loss is devastating. The enormity of their absence is felt every single day. We commit to never forget their sacrifices. Let us also honor them … by being the best that we can be.”
Penn was joined by Sheriff Jose Quiroz in placing a wreath at the memorial. Representatives of a variety of community organizations also placed memorials there during the hour-long ceremony.
Rev. Michelle Reynolds, who serves as chaplain to the police department and sheriff’s office, praised the “courage, dedication and commitment to justice” of those in public safety.
They should be regarded with dignity and respect, she said.
At the ceremony, there also was a final roll call of local police personnel who died over the preceding year.
Among them was Heather Hurlock, who in retirement volunteered for the Arlington County Police Department and rose to become a lieutenant and head of the auxiliary program.
A familiar public face of the department in the community, Hurlock died April 12 at age 88.
Penn said Arlington public-safety personnel attempted to uphold the core values of competence, commitment, courage, compassion, restraint, respect and integrity.
“They are more than words,” he said. “These officers chose to do something extraordinary with their lives — deeds few [outside the profession] will be able to understand or appreciate.”
In her remarks, Gavin shared the story behind the man whose statue is the centerpiece of the memorial at the Justice Center.
He was not one of those who died in the line of duty. Rather, when a committee in the mid-2000s was planning the memorial’s design, they sifted through hundreds of photographs before settling on retired Arlington Police Capt. Clyde Embrey.
Embrey — Badge #057 — a Marine Corps veteran who served on the police force from 1953-82. He rose to be the department’s personnel director.
Gavin, who served on the planning committee, recalled a group of officers driving to Embrey’s North Arlington home, seeking permission to use his likeness as the basis for the statue.
They told Embrey, who died in 2013 at age 83, it would be lifelike but with one exception: While the officer himself stood a diminutive 5’3″, the statue would rise 6’2″.
“He was clearly pleased,” Gavin remembered.
President John F. Kennedy in 1962 issued proclamations declaring that Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Week would each be held annually in May.
