Half Staff

As I drove up to the county offices in Columbia Gateway today I noted that the county and state flags were flying at half staff. When I checked in the guard station I asked what this was all about.

“It’s for the soldiers in Afghanistan,” the guard replied.

“Was a soldier from Howard County recently killed in Afghanistan?”

“Yes,” he replied. “There is information about it on the website.”

When I got back to the office I checked the county website and couldn’t find any mention of why the flags were flying at half staff. I decided to call the public information office.

“Let me check,” said the woman who answered the phone.

It turns out that this tribute has nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan. It is for PFC Thomas P. Jensen, a Prince George’s County police officer who died on March 9th from injuries sustained in the line of duty. According to this story by Scott Wykoff in WBAL.com, Officer Jensen was “badly injured while responding to an emergency call late last month”

“Officer Jensen was critically injured while responding to a call to assist the fire department with a disorderly person reportedly under the influence of PCP. He struck a sheet of black ice on Baltimore Avenue at Greenbelt Road in College Park at 6:55 a.m. on February 27th causing his vehicle to crash into a telephone pole.”

It would be nice if the folks on the front line were a little more informed about this.