You're absolutely right. The passage of years has muddied my memory. It was 2/26/83 the night he was murdered. I was still working in VA at the time. News down there didn't cover the tragedy, but a relative from home called and told me about it. I was very disappointed that I could not make it to the funeral to show my respects.

It was February 1983, not 1982

In the early to late 60's, MSP cruisers were equipped with round-topped Federal Beacon Ray's with split domes. Blue to the front, red to the rear. As the years progressed, the single flat-top PA style Federal 4-bulb beacons succeeded the older beacons during the 70's (and were used right up until the AeroDynics were introduced) had only blue lenses. The Aerodynics were first introduced on the Mass Pike (a long-time proving ground for equipment used by the MSP) and Logan Airport troop (which also at one time had cruisers equipped with Whelen strobe beacons on either side of a siren/PA speaker on a cross-bar... very much ahead of the strobe trend in Mass. I remember them as we had similar set-ups on my departments cruisers from the mid-seventies up until '84) around '76 or '77. They didn't start showing up on regular troop cars (A,B,C,D) until 1978, if I recall correctly.

Mass law prohibits police vehicles from showing red to the front. Consequently, fire apparatus are not supposed to show blue to the front (but it is done... in both instances).

The Aerodynics with red to the front were most likely cruisers assigned to E-Troop, or the Mass Pike. The Pike is a private road, and as such, does not fall under MGL Chapter 90 laws or regulations. The Pike has it's own set of violations and citation forms unique to that roadway alone.

If I'm not mistaken, that photo was from 1982, at the funeral of Trooper George Hanna, who was brutally gunned down on a traffic stop on Rte. 20 in C Troop. Cruiser # 668 has forever been retired from the roll of MSP vehicles.

The aerodynics that MSP used were mostly like the St. Regis above (all blue in front, red/blue to the rear). There were a small handfull that had half red/blue to the front. On these units, the red to the front was over the passenger side for some reason. I also remember some rare sightings of MSP cruisers with all blue aerodynics (front and rear).

Boston PD also used this lighting combo in the 80's. All blue to the front and red / blue to the rear.

I have seen pics of MSP cars with red to the front on aerodynics, approx 1978, and others with red only to the rear. However I do not know any specifics on which years had what.

When they switched from Aerodynics to Edge bars(apprx 1986-87), the red became one half of the rear flash and has been that way ever since.

I've never seen a picture of blue AND red lights on a Mass. State Police unit. What years did they experiment with the red lights? Too bad they gave up the red lights visible from the front, this unit looks sharp, and the troopers had the most visibility from both directions.

If my state mandated one color for police lighting, I would hope they would switch to all blue since blue is best for night use when the officers'/troopers' lives are at the highest risk on traffic stops.

Thanks for the great photos, and welcome to the featured contributors section.

MSP funeral 81 or 82