Ted Poe: “I rise tonight to honor Sergeant Mike Lane, a lifelong Texan, member of the Beaumont Police Department for 33 years.…”

“I rise tonight to honor Sergeant Mike Lane, a lifelong Texan, member of the Beaumont Police Department for 33 years. Each day a person who wears the badge walks the thin blue line between life and death. Their spouses wonder when their police officer mate reports for duty if that person will return safely home. Last year, 156 of them did not return home to their families. Texas, along with California, each led the Nation last year with 14 police officers killed in the line of duty. Sergeant Mike Lane was one of them. Mike Lane graduated from Beaumont High School in 1969 and received his pilot's license even prior to high school graduation at the young age of 17. He attended Lamar Tech, now Lamar University, until he decided to answer the call of law enforcement. In 1972, Sergeant Lane joined the Beaumont Police Department where his lengthy legacy began. He spent 32 years with the same police department in southeast Texas, fighting crime, helping people. A son of a retired Air Force member, Mike Lane was raised in airplane hangars all over the world from Japan to the United States. He had the passion of the Wright brothers for flying. He had aviation in his Texas blood. In the mid-80s, the Beaumont Police Department seized a plane used to smuggle drugs from Belize to Texas. After acquiring the plane, they began using it for local missions. Sergeant Lane immediately jumped at the chance to get in the pilot's seat for the citizens of Jefferson County.…”