New Jersey State Troopers 1961-2011: Remembering the Fallen
John E. O’Rourke
The History Press, 191 pp., $19.99
Reviewed by Josh McMahon
When a trooper dies in the line of duty, those of us who pay scant attention to the daily workings of the State Police take notice. For a day or so, we are reminded of just how dangerous those jobs can be. We read details of how the trooper died, view pictures of the funeral and mourners, and then we move on.
John E. O’Rourke, a retired trooper, wants us to linger a while and reflect on the lives of these troopers. He has chronicled the lives of the 28 men who were killed while in uniform during the past 50 years. Some of the names are recognizable.
Members of an underground criminal organization gunned down Phillip Lamonaco on Route 80 in 1981. Werner Foerster was shot on the side of the Turnpike in 1973 by Black Liberation Army leader Joanne Chesimard and her two accomplices. Foerster had gone to the aid of another trooper. A crazed gunman blasted Scott Gonzalez with a shotgun as the trooper sat pinned in his car after a high-speed chase in 1997.
But most of those given space in the book are not so well-known.
And, surprisingly, most died not while shooting it out with a fleeing suspect but rather in a car accident. Some were killed as they stood on the side of a road after a traffic stop, others while in a high-speed chase.
Others lost control of their cars because of weather conditions. O’Rourke suggests that one trooper, Thomas Dawson, who was doing undercover narcotics work, may have been run off the road by those he was investigating.
What O’Rourke tries to do is put a face on these troopers. Each four- or five-page tale is largely given over to stories about the trooper’s family life — his roots, his marriage and his family.
The effect is to let the reader know that these weren’t just troopers who died, but men who had families that experienced the pain of loss.
In many of the stories, how the trooper lost his life is discussed in relatively few paragraphs.
O’Rourke has compelling material, but unfortunately, his writing is rather pedestrian.
He uses a straight chronological style to unfold each trooper’s story and the result is anything but storytelling with a literary flair.
Nonetheless, O’Rourke’s intention is to memorialize these men in a book that allows us to remember, reflect and appreciate the sacrifice they and their families made.
He does that admirably.
Josh McMahon, retired Star-Ledger op-ed editor, lives in Westfield.