[NYTr] Tree memorial to dead US troops becoming forest
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AP via CNN - Jan 26, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/26/grief.grove.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Tree memorial to dead troops becoming forest
FORT STEWART, Georgia (AP) -- The sergeant major calls the name, Staff
Sgt. John L. Hartman Jr., as it's unveiled on a granite marker at the
root of a new eastern redbud tree on Warriors Walk -- where hundreds of
these living memorials have been planted to honor the wartime dead.
Hartman volunteered for a third tour in Iraq last year so an Army buddy
could stay home with his newborn son. He was killed November 30 when a
bomb blast tore into his Humvee.
Last week, Hartman became the 318th soldier memorialized at Warriors
Walk, a grove of eastern redbuds started with 34 trees in April 2003.
Fort Stewart has planted a tree here for every member of the 3rd
Infantry Division to die in the war, as well as for soldiers from other
Army posts killed while serving with the division.
Jeff Fornshell, the post's ceremonies coordinator, said he wonders how
many trees he'll have to plant this year. Expanded twice since its
inception, Warriors Walk has room for only 72 more trees.
"Is 72 going to be enough? I hope it is," Fornshell said. "I hope we
don't put any more out here. You're all the time thinking you don't
want to have a new tree dedication."
Earlier this month, the 3rd Infantry began deploying its 19,000 troops
for a third tour in Iraq. Hartman went separately from the division
last year as an instructor training Iraqi security forces.
At least 3,058 troops have died in Iraq. Seven civilian contractors of
the Defense Department also have been killed in the war. More than 10
percent are represented at Warriors Walk, which exhibits the war's cost
in a way that's staggering in scale yet also intensely personal.
The trees already line both sides of two paved walkways flanking Fort
Stewart's parade grounds, stretching nearly the length of three
football fields. A third walkway had to be poured last year to start a
new row.
Fornshell said he never expected Warriors Walk would grow so much when
the first tree was planted. The 3rd Infantry lost 42 soldiers during
the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. Trees honoring those
soldiers were planted in single-file rows, about 13 feet apart.
But the division's second tour in 2005, when its troops faced shadowy
insurgents rather than a stand-up army, proved more costly. The 3rd
Infantry suffered 105 deaths, not counting those among supporting
units. A second walkway of memorial redbuds had to be started.
The expansion encroached slightly on the Army post's golf course. The
tree for Staff Sgt. Jens E. Schelbert was planted less than a foot from
the greener grass of the teeing area for the No. 5 hole.
Birgit Smith of Holiday, Florida, has watched Warriors Walk grow during
visits four times a year since her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Paul R.
Smith, was killed April 4, 2003. Credited with saving dozens of
American lives by holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he
was killed at the Baghdad airport, Smith was awarded the Medal of Honor
in 2005.
"When I first returned to Fort Stewart to visit the tree, the walk
seemed so far to get to Paul's tree," Smith said. "And now it seems so
short because there are so many more trees."
Smith said she likes to leave a single red rose when visiting her
husband's tree. At the foot of the other living memorials lie dozens of
mementos -- toy soldiers, angel figurines, wind chimes, whiskey
bottles, garden gnomes and laminated photos that personalize each.
Two unopened bottles of Corona Extra beer stand next to the tree
dedicated to Spc. Joseph A. Lucas. Nearby, someone placed five golf
balls at the tree for Staff Sgt. Chad M. Mercer. A Hawaiian lei circles
the granite tree marker for Spc. Derence W. Jack.
As curator of the Fort Stewart Museum, Walter Meeks III has collected
more than 400 such mementos from Warriors Walk since the war began.
Some are displayed at the museum, while most are in storage.
"It's a sobering duty," Meeks said. "It's a beautiful monument, but it
represents a great deal of grief and loss for the community. It's
definitely not a walk in the park."
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry, knelt and touched
his fingers to Hartman's granite stone after its unveiling ceremony,
where Lynch praised the 39-year-old for his service.
"We routinely come to this hallowed place to remember our fallen
comrades," Lynch said. "And it strengthens our resolve to continue as a
nation, in their memory, to fight this global war on terrorism."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
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