"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Dawes Honored by Department of State

"Katie Sasser makes room for the Department of State plaque presented in honor of her father Mike Dawes. The plaque reads:
"For making the ultimate sacrifice
in pursuit of peace."
(Photo by Will Chavez)"

ELDON, OKLAHOMA - Nearly a year after his death in Iraq, relatives of Mike Dawes gathered at his house to remember him and to receive honors from the U.S. Department of State and Texas-based DynCorp International, the company he was working for when he was killed by a suicide bomber.

Steve Otto, senior training advisor for the Department of State and Jas Gill, Dyncorp's operations officer for the mission in Iraq, came to Dawes' rural home in Cherokee County to present two plaques of appreciation to his family and to tell them the former Cherokee Nation Marshal Service in Iraq training and mentoring Iraqi police officers was appreciated.

Otto said the Dyncorp plaque included the badge Dawes wore in Iraq. The other plaque was from the Department of State that honored Dawes for his service.

"On behalf of the citizens of the United States we do appreciate Mike and his service to the civilian police services overseas," Otto said. "Without men and women like Mike we wouldn't be able to have democratic policing worldwide."

"We really appreciate all that Mike did for us. We talked to some of his fellow officers before coming here, and they really had some amazing stories about Mike and what a great man he was," Gill said.

Otto said it takes dedication and desire to work as a civilian police officer and trainer overseas.

"It takes a special person, and not all officers in the United States can do it. For every 10to12 people that apply, we take one officer. Those people stand out. That's the respect I had for Mike and his colleagues."

Dawes served in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division in the late 1960s and later worked for the Tahlequah Police Department before joining the Marshal Service in 1992. He was one of the Marshals who stood their ground when former Principal Chief Joe Byrd fired them after they executed an order to copy records concerning spending by the Byrd administration.

He left the Marshal Service in 1998 to go to work for DynCorp assisting the U.N. peacekeeping force in Kosovo in the former republic of Yugoslavia. In 2004 he volunteered to go to Iraq to serve as an international police liaison officer where he trained Iraqi police officers.

A suicide bomber killed him on Aug. 23, 2005, in the Diyala Province of Baqubah, Iraq, 36 miles north of Baghdad. An official report said the suicide bomber walked into the dining facility Dawes was in and detonated explosives.

The loss of Dawes left a void in his family. His wife Deretha and sons Mikeal, who served in Iraq with the U.S. Army, and Daniel, and two daughters Lee Dawes and Katie Sasser, survive him.

"It's been really hard. It's been a tough year for us," Deretha said, who still finds it difficult to talk about her loss. "I'm grateful for the honors."

The four children converted a small room in their father's home to hold all his honors. Sasser spent a lot of time gathering her father's honors and putting together memorabilia he left behind for the room. On one wall, in a frame, are the many badges he wore as a police officer. On a shelf is a rock from Iraq he wrote on and sent to his family.

"The room is full of things he collected along his travels, pictures of some of the things he saw and his accomplishments. We wanted to show how proud we are of him," Sasser said.

Deputy Principal Chief Grayson also came to the Dawes home to remember his former Tahlequah High School classmate.

"I cannot think of Mike without smiling. He thought all people should have the benefits and freedoms that we have here in the United States, and he went off to different countries to make sure those people had them."