Each year we come together to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

Unless it was our own spouse or parent or sibling who was killed in the line of duty, it is impossible to fully appreciate the extent of the wounds felt by the living. Their loss lives on long after their loved ones perished.

I know this is true for the extended family that is the U.S. Customs Service.

Our officers have been killed along the borders of the United States, at its ports, in its cities, and even at their desks, as the recent dedication of the memorial for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing reminded us.

But we have an obligation to the living. It is the same we owe our dead: our steadfast devotion to duty. Those of us who have the privilege to work in law enforcement do not have just another job to do. Ours is more a calling than a career.

The field in which we endeavor has been sanctified by the blood of fallen comrades we commemorate tonight. We are honor bound to remember them and their sacrifice. We can do that by rededicating ourselves to the mission of safeguarding America, and by bringing its lawbreakers to justice.

Those we remember tonight did just that, and in doing so made America a better place for all of us. That is their legacy. We are obliged to preserve that legacy -- to make certain they did not die in vain. We are obliged, in their memory, to continue the fight; to never surrender, to not despair. We are obliged, in their memory, not to curse the darkness, but to light a candle, and carry on.