The nation, and we here in Middleburg, recently honored the all too many law enforcement officers who have given their lives while protecting and serving their fellow citizens.

We think and hear a lot about such "cops" and the sacrifices they and their families and friends are called upon to make as they do their best to "protect" us.

Sadly, we hear all too little about how they "serve," at times in the most difficult of circumstances.

One might argue, indeed, that sometimes, law enforcement officers have more in common with accountants than with their fellow professionals who put their lives at risk.

How?

No one notices them unless they do something terribly wrong.

Doing what's right is the norm and, thus, goes unmarked, unnoticed, and unrewarded.

Just after Mother's Day, our family suffered a tragedy.

A son and husband and father just "disappeared" and all of us feared the worst.

A call to Middleburg Police Chief A.J. Panebianco produced not only his word that he and his officers would do what they could to find him but calm counsel and good advice: call the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and the Leesburg Police Department.

The Sheriff's Department responded in the same spirit as Chief Panebianco. After gently questioning me about what had happened and why we were so worried, the Deputy on duty apologized and put me on hold.

On her own, she spoke to her colleagues and took the initiative to contact the right people at the Leesburg Police Department. "Expect a call," she told me as soon as she was back on the line.

Within minutes of hanging up, the phone rang.

It was the Leesburg PD, asking for details.

Not ten minutes after our call ended the Leesburg PD called me back.

The news was not good.

I left for INOVA Fairfax Hospital.

The Leesburg PD sent two officers to my daughter-in-law's home. They were, she later told me, the best of best of the best.

We all thanked the officers we spoke with and met as best we could.

We hope you, too, will thank them for all they do to "protect" and to "serve."

They deserve it.