[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 43 (Friday, March 22, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S2326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING THOMAS MADOLE

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, in law enforcement there is 
spirited debate over who walks the toughest beat in America. The 
village public safety officers, or VPSOs, our first responders in the 
last frontier, are rarely part of that debate because they largely 
function out of sight and out of mind of the broader community of law 
enforcement officers.
  Alaska's VPSOs wear all four hats of first response. They are at the 
same time police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians 
and search and rescue coordinators. They are the sole first responders 
in the bush villages of Alaska--villages with populations that might 
number 400 to 600 people--and carry out their dangerous work with no 
backup in the immediate community. The closest backup is often an 
Alaska State Trooper in a rural hub, who must fly in to the village by 
air--assuming weather conditions allow the troopers to fly. I would 
submit to you that our village public safety officers, who patrol 
unarmed, in fact walk the toughest beat in America.
  This week the people of Alaska are mourning the line of duty death of 
Thomas Madole, age 54, the village public safety officer in Manokotak, 
AK. Officer Madole was killed while responding to a report of a 
possibly suicidal person. He was unarmed. His assailant was not. The 
name Manokotak is an English transliteration of a Central Alaska Yupik 
word, and 94 percent of its residents are Alaska Native descendants of 
the original people to occupy the Bristol Bay region.
  Officer Madole is the second VPSO to give his life in the protection 
of his village. The first was Officer Ronald Zimin, whose end of watch 
was October 22, 1986. A sad coincidence that Officer Zimin also lost 
his life responding to a domestic violence call while serving in 
another village in Alaska's Bristol Bay region. Officer Zimin's name 
appears on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Judiciary 
Square, Washington, DC. I suspect that a delegation of Officer Madole's 
friends and colleagues will journey from the Bristol Bay region to 
Washington, DC, to honor Officer Madole when his name is added to the 
memorial in May 2014. I expect to join them.
  The heroes of law enforcement are remembered for how they gave their 
lives and not the manner in which their lives were ended. There is much 
to say for how Officer Madole lived his life. He will be remembered as 
a man of peace. An ordained minister of the Assemblies of God Church, 
he preached and mentored in the Yupik hub community of Bethel, AK for 6 
years before moving to Manokotak. Patricia Zulkosky, a board member of 
the Bethel Assemblies of God Church referred to Madole as ``a man of 
God, he walked his talk.'' And in the community of Manokotak, Madole is 
remembered as a friend and a role model for the youth as much as a cop.
  Officer Madole leaves behind a wife and a son. On behalf of my Senate 
colleagues, I extend condolences to Officer Madole's survivors and the 
people of Manokotak on this tragic loss.

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