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DEL.ICIO.USA familiar sadness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Striker, Iraq � At a memorial ceremony just five days ago, Lt. Col. Mark Davis stood with other 48th Brigade Combat Team officers and listened to the battalion commander of an infantry regiment offer eulogies for four fallen soldiers.
Even then, Davis knew it soon would be his turn. He had just learned of the deaths of three of his own.
Davis, a banker from Statesboro, had pondered the heavy price of war, the life-changing scars cruelly etched forever in the hearts and minds of Georgia’s citizen soldiers. It fell to him Monday evening to soothe their sadness.
In the gloaming, as sand swirled through the Iraqi capital in the midst of a violent storm, Davis stood solemnly by himself. He saluted and hugged trios of soldiers as they stepped off the Camp Striker stage, where they fell to their knees in front of the upended rifles, helmets, boots and dog tags symbolizing the lost soldiers. It was their last goodbye to their comrades-in-arms, their friends, their brothers.
The names of the dead pierced the air, ringing out over the microphone and in the first sergeant’s roll call they could not answer.
Sgt. 1st Class Charles Warren of Duluth, Spc. Jerry Ganey of Folkston and Spc. Mathew Gibbs of Ambrose, all of Charlie Company, 648th Engineer Battalion, were killed after a suicide car bomber attacked a traffic control point on nearby Route Aeros Aug. 3. Davis said his soldiers made “valuable contributions” to the 648th and had died valiantly doing their duty.
“We struggle with feelings of shock, anger and sadness,” he said. “We are all heartbroken.”
Comments
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By Mary Lou Geary
August 9, 2005 03:55 PM | Link to this
I don’t know anyone in the 48th but I send my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed. God Bless you all! Thanks for doing what you do.