'For all of us'
Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 13 2010 06:06 AM
By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily HeraldFORT HOOD – More than 700 names line the black granite walls of the 1st Cavalry Division's Iraq war memorial. Of those, 169 fell while serving with the 1st Cavalry-led Multinational Division-Baghdad from 2004 through 2005, 492 fell during the 2006 to 2008 surge years and 69 fell during the division's latest deployment to Iraq from late 2008 to early 2010.
Soldiers, families and other loved ones gathered at Fort Hood to honor those men and women Friday as the memorial was rededicated in honor of the 69 newest names on the wall. Each name was read aloud and a bell sounded in their honor during the ceremony, which took place at Fort Hood's Cooper Field.
"We knew them well," said Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, 1st Cavalry commander. "There are those here today who heard their last words, saw their final glances and touched them one last time. We fought hard to bring them all back – and that we did. But we did not bring them all back alive."
Proud to wear the big patch
The 69 were a mix of soldiers, Iraqi interpreters and a civilian contractor who were more than familiar with the 1st Cavalry's big patch. One of them was 1st Lt. William E. Emmert, a National Guardsman with the 269th Military Police Company, 117th Military Police Battalion who died Feb. 24, 2009, in Mosul, Iraq, when he was shot while participating in a local Iraqi police function, according to information from the Defense Department.
In his civilian and Army lives, Emmert was never far from public service. He was a special agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who spent time as an enlisted soldier before being commissioned as an officer, said his friend, Capt. Jim Rodgers, a fellow guardsman from Tennessee who traveled to Fort Hood for the rededication ceremony.
Community is crucial to any National Guard unit, Rodgers said, and the company received wonderful support not only from its hometown of Murfreesboro, Tenn., but by the unit it served under in Iraq: the 1st Cavalry's 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
The brigade was the company's "broader community" in Iraq and that relationship didn't end when its soldiers returned to the United States. Brigade leaders cared enough to help several from the Tennessee company to Central Texas for Friday's ceremony.
Rodgers and Emmert were "deeply honored" with their association to the 1st Cavalry, the captain said. The company's soldiers proudly wear their 1st Cavalry combat patches, he added.
The people of Murfreesboro did a good job of honoring and remembering Emmert, Rodgers said, and his etched name at Fort Hood was a nice way to memorialize him in a way that represented the effort of which he was a part.
Choosing the blessing
Each of those listed on the memorial met the end in different circumstances, Bolger said.
"Some heard the sharp crack of gunfire or the harsh roar of a roadside explosion," he said. "Some heard their fellow soldiers, the medics and nurses, the people around them. And they strained to hear the voices of those they loved most. I think most did – I pray that they all did. But in those final seconds, I think each one of our honored dead heard something else."
Bolger quoted Deuteronomy 30:19: "I set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, in order that you may live, you and your descendants."
Some would say the 69 soldiers chose the curse, the general said, but that couldn't be more wrong.
"They chose the blessing – not for themselves, but for us, for all of us," Bolger said.
"They chose life not just in the instant when the bullet flew or the bomb exploded. They chose life over and over, soberly, sensibly, with both eyes open. They chose it when they left home and family behind and went forth to serve. They chose it in small ways every day in Iraq: when they volunteered for another armed convoy, when they dismounted in the smoke and darkness, when they went forward under a hail of bullets, toward enemies determined to kill them."
'Look out for our boys'
Col. Gary Volesky knows names on the memorial's walls.
Friday was the third time he stood on Cooper Field to honor the men and women honored there, and each ceremony is special in a different way, he said.
Volesky spent the last year leading the 3rd Brigade in Mosul, Iraq, his fourth deployment to the Middle East. The first was as a captain in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The second was from March 2004 to March 2005 when he led the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, in Sadr City, Iraq. He deployed again to Iraq as III Corps' deputy chief of staff.
During a run with the 3rd Brigade's new officers Friday morning, Volesky took them to the memorial. It was important to show them the meaning of service, he said.
Already awaiting the rededication later that morning were four names listed together on a slab facing Fort Hood's busy Battalion Avenue: Lt. Col. Gary Derby, Sgt. Joshua Ward, Spc. Albert Jex and Pfc. Jonathan Roberge.
Derby commanded the 3rd Brigade's 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. Ward, Jex and Roberge served on his personal security detachment. The four died Feb. 9 in Mosul, Iraq, in a roadside bomb blast.
Volesky and Derby were close friends.
A variety of feelings arise among visitors who look at the names of those they knew. When Volesky looks at Derby's name, he remembers great times with a fallen friend who joined those with whom they led.
"I just tell him to look out for our boys," Volesky said.
Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at
astair@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7547. Follow her on Twitter at KDHmilitary.
Remembering Pfc. Jonathan Roberge
To read more about the 1st Cavalry Division's memorial rededication and what John Roberge wants people to remember about his son, Pfc. Jonathan Roberge, see Sunday's Daily Herald. Also, read about what 1st Lt. Jason Bates and Spc. Keith Maher said about their friend, Roberge, and how they honor the memories of their other fallen comrades.
'Let us remember'
Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, the 1st Cavalry Division's commander and a published author, urged those who attended Friday's rededication to embrace the gift of freedom given by the fallen honored Friday.
"Let us live each day in ways worthy of their great sacrifice," he said. "Above all, let us remember.
"Let us remember."
To read a copy of Bolger's remarks in full, go to
www.kdhnews.com.
To see a list of the 69 names added to the memorial, see Sunday's Herald.