In Remembrance of Those Who Have Died in the Line of Duty

All too often we hear on the news that there has been another shooting in San Diego. Ordinary people enjoying a normal day get caught in the middle of gunfire and are seriously injured or die from their wounds. It has happened to elderly as well as the very young. I do not spend my days in fear as I walk to the bus or through different neighborhoods. We can't spend our life being fearful. But I can understand why someone would be fearful if they have been anywhere near someone who has been shot.

Again our city is mourning the loss of one of our finest. There have been too many police officers shot and killed in the line of duty. The list is long and another name will be added to a memorial this year. This weekend we lost San Diego police Officer Jeremy Henwood. Just last October we lost San Diego police Officer Christopher Wilson in another ambush. The Border Patrol has also suffered loss not too long ago. In 2009 Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas Jr. was killed while on patrol. And the list goes on and on. Oceanside lost two of their finest in recent years.

I especially remember October 12, 1954 when Coronado police Lt. Frank S. Greene lost his life during a traffic stop. Such things never happened in Coronado! We never heard of policemen being killed in San Diego. The last one that had happened in San Diego county had been in 1933 when a San Diego police officer had been killed. Coronado's Frank Greene was a neighbor of Paul's family on Pomona Avenue. He lived right next door to Paul and his family. He had a wife and teen age son. His son Craig was in my sister's class at Coronado High School. Alice Craig Greene, Frank's wife, was a well known mystery writer. Frank Greene had been a Coronado High School graduate and was a football star while in high school. He even played professional football.

Paul has stories to tell about his good neighbor. Frank taught Paul how to throw a curve ball. Frank also witnessed some of Paul's teen age adventures. One time in the middle of the night at, 2:00 A.M., Paul and a friend were fencing, or at least taking the stance of fencing, in the middle of the street outside of the Greene's home on the corner of 5th and Pomona. This friend happened to be a girl, the older sister of the girl that Paul really liked. Anyway they were having fun and not causing any trouble even though it was a strange hour to be goofing around. They were under the street light for any night owl to see. Paul saw that his good neighbor Mr. Greene was silently watching the show.

It was a shock to have a shooting in Coronado in 1954. It was a bigger shock for it to be someone that so many in Coronado knew. There was a big man hunt for the bad guys and many people have stories to tell of their experiences of that day. Some of my classmates shared their adventures of that day even fifty years later at our class reunion. I think some of them wanted to help catch the bad guys. We were seniors that year. Frank's son Craig was a junior when he lost his father. Our 1955 CHS yearbook was dedicated to Lt. Frank Greene. The dedication page reads--

In the praise of Lt. Frank Greene there just isn't enough that can be said of his loyalty, courage, devotion to duty and his service to his "home town." Through the thousands of peaceful nights while we slept, Lt. Greene cautiously and diligently made his rounds in his prowl car in search of marauders. To this departed former student of C.H.S. and a true friend to all we say thanks for a job well done. To the memory of Frank Greene we respectfully dedicate this 1955 Beachcomber.

To this day there is a picture of Frank Greene at the Coronado Police Department. Some time after the new police station was built in Coronado Paul and I decided to go inside and take a look. We especially wanted to see where Frank's portrait was hanging. We asked a policeman where it was and he graciously showed us. We had a very nice conversation with him and it turned out that his family had been our neighbors when we lived on Margarita Avenue and our girls were babies. They lived across the street from us. I had known his parents in those days of the late fifties. Coronado is a small town even if there are more people there now.

There is a Police Memorial at the Chula Vista police station. Paul and I took pictures  of it several years ago. I had especially wanted to see Lt. Frank Greene's name on the memorial. It was there along with all of those in San Diego county that had been killed in the line of duty. Sorry to say there will be more names added when we see it again.

As for catching the bad guys that ambushed Frank Greene, Paul remembers that it was someone that we had known who found the bad guys. His name was also Frank, another home town hero.