Officer Down Memorial Page

Sgt. Rath, Thank you for sharing Don’s eow story to the youth in our community. I wish you could have known Don, he was a true inspiration to everyone that got to know him. Since childhood it was always his dream to become an officer. As soon as he graduated from high school he immediately began looking toward this goal to be a Phoenix police officer and he began taking classes at Phoenix College. Knowing that he could not get into the highly competitive Phoenix PD force Don decided to join the Air Force and he spent the next four years as a Security Police Officer for the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Casper Wyoming for two years, spent a year overseas in Turkey, and then came back to Arizona and spent his last year at Davis Monthan AF base in Tucson. Don loved the great outdoors camping, fishing, archery, hunting, swimming and scuba diving. Don had a passion for life that is rarely seen in people. He lived each and every day to the fullest and was a true inspiration to any officer on the force. After a few years on patrol he immediately set his focus on becoming a motorcycle officer where he spent a few years on a bike in South Phoenix before getting transferred to North Phoenix. Don was never satisified and always pushed himself above and beyond in everything that he has done and he then set his sights on the elite nine member dive team and went back to school to train to learn to fly a helicopter and worked his way into the Phoenix Police Department’s eye in the sky ranks. He was an amazing person and I am sorry Sgt. Rath that you were never able to get to know this amazing man that was my friend. He was a special man. When you are telling our youth about Don please tell them that the most amazing thing of all about Don is he lived his life to the fullest in and out of his uniform. He never let no prevent him from accomplishing any goal that he ever set for himself. If he told you he was going to do something, you better know he was going to do it and he was going to be one of the best at it when he did. Tell them to live there life to the fullest and never be afraid to dream and dream big and then go after those dreams and never let anyone stop you from getting those dreams.

Annonymous
Friend
May 17, 2012

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