he same spirit that drives us to become police officers powers our deep sense of patriotism. An intense love of home and country is shared by most in law enforcement. It was this fierce sense of pride in America and the desire to serve that drove Police Officer James McNaughton to become a military police officer. He joined the Army Reserves right after the 9/11 terrorists attacks.

By all accounts, Staff Sgt. McNaughton was a proud soldier and a proud cop. As often happens in these cases, he came from a police family. His father, William, had recently retired from the job. His stepmother, Michele, is assigned to Transit Bureau headquarters. He had been recently engaged to marry Police Officer Lilliana Paredes, who works out of the 9th Pct. They met as rookies in the Police Academy in July 2001 and served together in that first training class deployed after 9/11.

Police officers understand better than most that freedom isn’t free. We experience that irony every time we’re on the line protecting protestors with whom we couldn’t disagree more. We know that the risk we take protecting those protestors from those who may disagree with them is the cost of free speech. But the heavy cost of freedom doesn’t really hit you until the casualties of war come close to home. It hit all of us hard when the Iraqi conflict took this courageous young man who was both soldier and police officer. He was guarding prisoners at Camp Victory, a base near Baghdad airport, when he was struck down by a sniper’s bullet. He could have just as easily been doing his tour at Transit District 2 — his NYPD command — at that moment. But he was on a foreign battlefield thousands of miles away because he wanted to serve his country as well as his city.

Jim McNaughton is only one of the more than 700 members of the NYPD who are risking their lives to fight terrorism and spread freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must remember that they are men and women who have families and friends and we must support them in every way possible. They deserve our appreciation and to be honored for placing themselves in harm’s way in the fight against tyranny and terrorism. They merit our thoughts and need our prayers.

During the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country: but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” Those words were never truer than they are today.

On Sept. 20, 2001, President Bush addressed a joint session of Congress: “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make,” he said. “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” He asked our military to be ready because the hour was coming to act and that they would make America proud. He said that freedom and fear were at war. That was the call that Jim McNaughton and hundreds of dedicated New York City police officers heard and answered with courage.

We are dedicating this edition of The PBA Magazine to those men and women who served heroically on the streets of New York City and courageously in sands of the Middle East.

God bless them and God bless America.