WARSAW — While most of us are familiar with Memorial Day, May is also the month where the country celebrates Peace Office Memorial Day.

Peace Officer Memorial Day was created to honor local, state and federal peace officers and to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty. The day of remembrance was created Oct. 1, 1961, when Congress requested President John Kennedy designate May 15, as a day to honor the nation’s police officers.

Much of the day centers on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. whose walls feature the names of over 20,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

According to the National Law Enforcement Memorial website, 124 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2015. To date, 34 officers have been killed in the line of duty this year.

According to the website, on average, one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty every 61 hours. Since the first in the line of duty death in 1791, more than 20,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have made the ultimate sacrifice.