Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 04 - 01/01/04 to 02/10/06

Galloway Column 2/1/2006

Joe knocks another one over the fence:

SAYING FAREWELL TO FALLEN SOLDIERS

By Joseph L. Galloway

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CAMP SYKES, Iraq -- On a cold January day on this American base outside
Tal Afar the soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment paused to say
farewell to three of their own who died earlier in the month in a
Blackhawk helicopter crash along with eight other Americans.

Those who could get away from duty for an hour filled an
auditorium set up to provide a warriors' memorial service for the three:
Maj. Douglas A. LaBouff, 36, a native of Baldwin Park, Calif.; Maj.
Michael R. Martinez, 43, who grew up in Missouri; and 1st Lt. Joseph D.
deMoors, 36, who was born in Montreal, Canada. LaBouff and deMoors were
military intelligence officers. Martinez was a legal affairs officer.

It is good that on occasion we look upon the faces of some of
the fallen and learn the names of their wives and children. They are not
numbers but Americans whose deaths in a distant and dangerous land broke
the hearts of three wives, nine children, mothers, friends and comrades.
The soldiers' memorial service -- which happens far too often in Iraq --
is as close to a Viking funeral as you can get these days. On a stage
flanked by the American flag and the battle flag of an old and
distinguished regiment, which dates to the 1847 war with Mexico, there
stood three bayoneted rifles -- each with a pair of desert boots in
front, a helmet atop the rifle butt and a set of dog tags attached.

The program provided biographies of the three, and they were, of
themselves, enough to make you weep.
Doug LaBouff, the program said, loved football and collecting stamps.
He came to the Army as an ROTC graduate of Whittier College. He is
survived by his wife, Karen, and two children, Cassidy, 7, and Douglas,
3, as well as his mother, Lela LaBouff.

Mike Martinez enlisted in the Army out of high school in 1980
and served as a paralegal and court reporter and rose to the rank of
staff sergeant. He then went to college and graduated from the
University of Missouri School of Law in 1998. He returned to the Army as
an officer in the Judge Advocate Corps. He was a talented amateur
photographer and a weightlifter. He is survived by his wife, Kelly, and
four children -- Alex, 20, Kathryn, 19, Colby, 18, and Ben, 15, as well
as his mother, Beatrice Martinez of Albuquerque, N.M.

Joseph deMoors enlisted in the Army in 2001 and was a French
cryptologic linguist. In 2004 he completed Officer Candidate School and
was commissioned a second lieutenant. He is survived by his wife,
Vendella, and three children, Moroni, Demetrius and Chastity.

After the national anthem was played and chaplain David Causey
gave the opening prayer, the regimental commander, Col. H.R. McMaster,
spoke movingly of the selflessness of soldiers who willingly go into
harm's way trying to help a people escape tyranny and terrorists. The
colonel is a passionate and emotional leader when it comes to his
troopers.

Half a dozen brother and sister officers rose to speak of each
of the three and how hard they worked and how little they complained and
how proud they were to serve with the Brave Rifles.

A bagpiper played "Amazing Grace," and then there was a last
roll call in which sergeants with booming voices repeatedly called the
names of the three who will never again answer "Here, First Sergeant!" A
firing party just outside fired three volleys and a bugler sounded a
sweet and mournful Taps.

With that, two by two, the Cavalry commanders and their
sergeants major or first sergeants came on stage. Each knelt on one
knee, head lowered, and tightly gripped the dog tags on each of the
rifles and said a personal goodbye to Doug LaBouff, Mike Martinez and
Joseph deMoors.

There is pain and pride and pageantry when you say farewell to a
fallen soldier, and rightly so. The unspoken line I kept hearing that
day was the question Frederic March asks at the end of the movie "The
Bridges at Toko Ri":

"Where do we get such men?"

To which I add my own question:

What are we doing as a people and a nation to deserve the
service and sacrifice of such men and women? We are entering our fifth
year in a declared war against global terror, but our leaders ask no
sacrifice of the 99 percent of Americans who are protected by the 1
percent.

They and we leave the sacrifices to those like the three
soldiers, and their widows, and their children.

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