From Kim Minugh:
The silence was deafening this morning as the pregnant widow of California Highway Patrol Officer Joseph Sanders placed a single red rose on the memorial now bearing his name.
Tondria Sanders is expected to deliver the couple's fourth child, Elizabeth, in June - six months after Joseph Sanders was struck and killed while laying down flares on a Los Angeles County highway.
The 29-year-old Galt High graduate was honored this morning at an annual ceremony at the CHP Academy in West Sacramento. His name has been inscribed on a memorial fountain in the center of the facility, a monument covered in brass plaques polished every Wednesday morning by CHP cadets.
On Dec. 15, Sanders joined the ranks for 214 CHP officers killed in the line of duty since the force's inception in 1929. They, too, were honored at this morning's ceremony, as each name was read aloud.
"We pause to reflect on their bravery and their valor and their sacrifice," said Dale Bonner, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees the CHP.
Bonner said the day's events aimed to honor not just the CHP's fallen officers, but those that continue to risk their lives for the community's benefit.
"We appreciate your service and your bravery," he said.
CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow thanked the families of the fallen officers, and said his heart reaches out to them.
"While we can't take away their pain, we can officer the promise that the CHP will never forget its heroes," he said.
The ceremony ended with a 21-gun salute, a helicopter and fixed-wing plane flyover, bagpipes and a heart-wrenching rendition of "Amazing Grace."
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