Pct. 2 Constable’s Office continues honors for county’s fallen heroes
by Nancy Flake

The Courier
Monday, January 30, 2012

Cpl. Joseph Daniel Logan

Just as they have for the better part of a decade, officers with the Precinct 2 Constable’s Office will perform a duty today they’re proud to do, but one they wish wasn’t necessary.

This morning, Constable Gene DeForest, Capt. Mike White and their deputies will escort the body of Marine Cpl. Joseph Daniel Logan, a 2008 Willis High School graduate, from the moment his body returns to Texas soil in Houston through a processional that will take him to Willis and through the Lake Conroe neighborhood where he grew up.

Logan, 22, died Jan. 19 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in a helicopter crash, along with five comrades from his unit.

The officers also will be there Wednesday through Logan’s funeral at the North Montgomery County Community Center in Willis and his gravesite services, White said.

They have done the same thing for every one of Montgomery County’s fallen troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“We’ve been doing this since day one,” DeForest said. “They called me and asked if we would do it, and I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

DeForest has supported the escort from “the get-go,” said White, who organizes each procession with other agencies. Today, the other agencies poised to honor Logan will include the North Montgomery County Fire Department, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, the Conroe Police Department and the Houston Police Department – both of Logan’s parents served with that department, and his body will arrive at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

“I try to make it as multi-agency as possible to get equal representation,” White said. “It’s not a question of, ‘Can you?’ – it’s ‘When and where do you need us?’

“This is the least we could do.”

The Precinct 2 Constable’s Office also has provided an escort for each of the Lone Star Honor Flights taking World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., White said.

The escort is “comforting and reassuring” to the families of the fallen, said Rita Crosby, whose grandson Brandon Smitherman was killed in Iraq in 2007.

“Mike (White) was there for us when we needed anything,” she said. “It’s reassuring to know they’re there. It was an honor to have them there.

“They were there not only in a police capacity but as a friend and part of the family.”

White knew Smitherman for years, he said, and escorting his body was “particularly hard on me,” he said.

As they perform their honors of duty, it’s hard not to reflect the emotions from each family who has lost someone they loved, he said.

“It’s human,” he said, with emotion in his voice. “It’s those that don’t tear up I worry about.”

DeForest also grew emotional about helping take the fallen military members home.

“It’s just an honor. It’s really emotional,” said DeForest, who served in the Marines, “especially when it’s a Marine. He’s (Logan) a brother.

“If I never had to do another one, it’d be too soon.”

White looks forward, he said, “to the day when I don’t have to put these things together.

“But ... we’re going to be there for them.”

Joseph Logan Services

Visitation with the family is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home in Willis. The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the North Montgomery County Community Center, 600 Gerald St. in Willis. Memorial donations may be made in Joseph Logan’s honor to the Friends of the Fallen, P.O. Box 2081, Dover Air Force Base, DE 19902.

Joseph Logan’s casket will arrive at 10 a.m. today at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and will be escorted up Interstate 45. The caravan then will go west on FM 1097 and turn right on Longstreet Road. It will then turn left onto Dairyland Drive, circling Midway Drive before arriving at the funeral home.

Pct. 2 Constable’s Office continues honors for county’s fallen heroes by Nancy Flake

Pct. 2 Constable’s Office continues honors for county’s fallen heroes
by Nancy Flake