Over 500 American police officers are serving in Iraq as police advisors to the Iraqi National Police.
They are part of the US State Dept. CIVPOL Iraq program.
They go on patrols with the Iraqi police, man checkpoints, and spend days at a time living at Iraqi police stations.
So far, 21 of these police advisors have been killed in Iraq, 8 in the year I was there, and many more injured.
The National Peace Officer Memorial in the US refuses to recognize these officers, stating that they were not policing on US soil when they were killed.
As these men and women were not recognized on May 15th (National Peace Officer Memorial Day in the United States) I thought I would remember them here today.