Heather Young/Atascadero News More than 150 emergency response vehicles, including cars, trucks, tow trucks, motorcycles, ambulances and fire trucks, follow the hearse holding California Highway Patrol Officer Brett Oswald’s remains from Chapel of the Roses in Atascadero to the Paso Robles Event Center, where the memorial service was held on July 2.

North County stood still last Friday morning as a procession of vehicles, including a hearse, limousine and several flashing police cruisers, made its way from Chapel of the Roses in Atascadero to the Paso Robles Event Center for the memorial of fallen CHP officer Brett James Oswald. Oswald died in the line of duty on Sunday, June 27 when he was struck by a vehicle driven by a 22-year-old Atascadero woman.

Northbound Highway 101 was closed briefly to accommodate the somber parade, which included Oswald’s casket, members of his family and fellow law enforcement officers.

More than 1,000 community members, law enforcement and emergency services personnel attended the memorial service ceremony. Local government leaders sat alongside Oswald’s grieving family and friends. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also paid his respects to the fallen officer.

Oswald was born in February 1962 in San Rafael to Richard and Linda Oswald. Brett graduated in 1980 from Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, Ore., where he played football, track and lettered in water polo.

Oswald joined the U.S. Army in 1984, where he was promoted to the rank of specialist/E.-4 and was honorably discharged in 1986. Oswald joined the California Highway Patrol four years later at the age of 28. Upon graduating the academy, he was assigned to the Santa Fe Springs area, where he spent seven years before transferring to King City.

In 1998, Oswald was selected to join the Coastal Division Air Operations Unit, where he served as a flight officer for nearly a dozen years. On May 3 of this year, Oswald transferred back to road patrol and joined the Templeton station.

According to friends and family, Oswald was a devoted husband, loving son and a faithful friend. The CHP officer also enjoyed collecting fine wine, reading, making loved ones laugh and the occasional cigar.

According to family, Oswald was the backbone of his family and “he was always positive and available to anyone who needed him.” As a result, Oswald’s home was often the heart of the family gatherings.

His wife Marlena; his parents, Richard and Linda; and his two sisters, Trinda and Tricia; and a host of relatives and friends survive Oswald.

According to those who knew him, Oswald served the citizens of California honorably without swerving from the path of duty for two decades.

During the ceremony, several friends and fellow CHP officers sang Oswald’s praises, touching on his zest for life, generosity and compassion for people and animals. According to those who knew him, Oswald’s house was home to many deer, pigs, cats and other critters.

CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said Oswald came to work with a sense of duty and readiness to serve for the betterment of the community.

“He was a peace officer that came to work with valor in place every day,” said Farrow. “We all suffer when a hero dies.”

Close friend and Coastal Division Air Operations officer Joe Kingman recalled his time spent with Oswald, which he said he cherished dearly.

Kingman noted Oswald’s “perpetual smile and willingness to help others” as well as his family’s dedication to keeping their home full of love and laughter. After 6,000 hours in the air with Oswald during a decade-long friendship, Kingman said he’d always remember his friend’s sense of humor, adding, “the cockpit was always filled with laughter.”

Oswald’s cousin Jeannie Converse spoke on behalf of the grieving family. Converse said Oswald had the best of both worlds when it came to personality, as “an old soul with a youthful spirit.” She said after going through all of the family stories, she found that most involving Oswald were tied together by common threads of “pride, honor, generosity, respect and — most of all — laughter.”

Marlena Oswald requested that the LeAnn Rimes ballad, “How Do I Live Without You” to be sung near the end of the ceremony. Afterward, the crowd re-assembled in the courtyard outside Commercial Building No. 2 for bagpipes, a 21-gun salute and folding of the flag ceremony.

In a program provided by the CHP, Oswald’s extended CHP family assured loved ones that the local hero, family man and friend may be “gone but not forgotten” and that “[Oswald] will be dearly missed by his family friends and the entire CHP family.”