Soldiers

May 2009 • www.army.mil

The Official U.S. Army Magazine

Nightmare in the Shok Valley

Soldiers stage a daring raid

The fighting cameraman

Combat cameraman earns Silver Star

Remembering our own

Recognizing the sacrifices
of Soldiers

Walter Reed turns

100 years old
Wounded warriors
receive premier care

Honoring the fallen

 Soldiers MAY 2009 • VOLUME 64, NO. 5

2nd Lt. Melissa Stockwell, injured in Iraq in 2004, is fitted with a new prosthetic leg at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. See story
on page 38. (Photo by Michael Dukes)

[ On the Cover ] [ Coming Next Month ]

Staff Sgt. Paul Laird poses for an June 2009 - Year of the NCO
honor guard poster project, Dec. 3,
2008. (Photo illustration by Staff
Sgt. Cody J. Earl)
Contents May
2009

04 Nightmare in the Shok Valley

Soldiers encounter fierce resistence and
treacherous terrain at an insurgent strong- 38 Walter Reed turns 100 years old
hold in Afghanistan. Wounded warriors and others with illness
or injuries receive premier medical care.
The fighting combat cameraman
10
Feature Stories

An Army combat cameraman attached to

43 Employer Partnership Initiative
special forces earns the Silver Star. Reserve Soldiers get valuable training and
guaranteed civilian employment.
19 Tributes to the fallen
A Vietnam veteran honors fallen warriors 46 A Soldier's duty
with sketches he donates to the families. Casualty assistance officer helps soothe the
hurt of families.
34 Remembering our own
A former paratrooper brings recogni-
tion to sacrifices made by World War II
47 Remembering with love
Keeping a special date with a fallen
Soldiers in Europe. Soldier.

(Top) Afghans read coalition newspa-

pers while awaiting humanitarian aid
in Paktika Province, June 26, 2008.
See story on page 10. (Photo by Spc.
Michael D. Carter)

Departments
3 MailCall
Soldiers who died in Europe during
17 Electronic warfare ad World War II are honored. See stories
on pages 34 and 47.

18 Force protection ad

24 On Point

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2 www.army.mil/publications
 Mailcall
Letters from the field

about the Army. It is our duty to make sure we represent the Army and
the Soldiers that fill its ranks in line with the high standards that have
been established and upheld.
The image was selected because we believed it told the great story
of the many missions today’s Soldiers are asked to perform. They com-
plete their missions successfully each and every day, and they have our
support and our gratitude. Thank you for your service, your comments,
and your interest in Soldiers magazine.
Year of NCO ad should reflect high
standards Photo contest submissions
I recently looked at a copy of the Febru- On behalf of the entire Soldiers mag-
ary issue of Soldiers magazine and found azine staff, I want to thank the hundreds
something quite disturbing. of Soldiers, retirees and family members
On page 29 there is a picture of an who submitted photos as part of the “Of
NCO who looks to be deployed. On that Soldiers, by Soldiers” photo contest.
page it shows him in full battle rattle (kind This month’s cover features a photo
of ). It also shows a headline of Year of the (with background illustration) of an
NCO. honor guard Soldier. The photo was
Here’s the problem I have: As noncom- taken by Staff Sgt. Cody J. Earl of
missioned officers, we are dedicated to setting the example. In this Joint Forces Headquarters—Idaho,
picture we are not. This particular NCO has his sleeves rolled up, no Idaho Army National Guard. He is
eye protection, a civilian-type radio (which could set off IEDs), his the noncommissioned officer in charge
chinstrap is jacked-up and his vest is jacked-up. of visual information, as well as a
Now I’m not one to nit pick at things but when the Army is photographer.
campaigning the Year of the NCO and we are putting pictures that are We selected the image based on its quality and relevance.
not squared away in a magazine widely read by younger Soldiers, what We are planning to run photo pages in future months of the maga-
kind of example are we setting? zine, and intend to use some of the submissions we received in those
I didn’t write this to make that NCO look bad or just gripe about layouts. I will do my best to notify individuals, should we decide to run
things or even say you guys are doing a bad job. I wrote it to bring it to their photos.
someone’s attention that maybe we need to look in the mirror and set Thank you again to each and every individual who submitted. We
the example rather than just go through the motions. sincerely appreciate your efforts in this endeavor, and more importantly,
your service and sacrifices.
Sgt. Jeffrey Dilcher
Echo “Eagles” Sincerely,
2-22 Inf. Forward Support Co. Carrie McLeroy
10th Brigade Support Bn. Editor, Soldiers magazine
Fort Drum, N.Y.
Amazing response to story
Editor’s note: Thanks to you and your team and the generous publishing of the
We have received several letters pointing out issues with the image Lara Phillips story in the March issue, Lara is getting a steady stream
used in the Year of the NCO ad in the February issue of Soldiers of email and notes to her Web site: caringbridge.org. Her mom is just
magazine. This letter was written in response. bowled over by the military support coming from your publication and
states that Lara is in “awe” of the response.
Sgt. Dilcher, If you ever wonder, like I often do, if what we do makes a difference,
Thank you for your thoughtful email regarding the Year of the give yourself a moment to look over some of those notes and journal
NCO advertisement in the February issue of Soldiers magazine. All entries at www.caringbridge.org/visit/laraphillips—you won’t
your points are valid, and we thank you for bringing them to our at- wonder as much.
tention. In our effort to highlight the fine work the Army’s NCOs are
doing downrange, we inadvertently overlooked the details you pointed Very respectfully and with much gratitude,
out. Capt. Jay Ostrich
The photos we use in the magazine have been released, and thus Senior Public Affairs Specialist
approved for publication. It is our responsibility to ensure images with Pennsylvania National Guard
the problems you wrote about do not make it into the magazine. In
this case, as the editor, I failed to notice the issues. For that, I take full
responsibility and sincerely apologize.
I do not know the NCO featured in the image. I do hope, however,
Soldiers Values Your
that his fellow NCOs would use our mistake as a leadership opportu-
nity and a teaching tool, rather than an opportunity to publicly berate
Opinion
the subject of the photo. To comment, keep your remarks to under 150 words, include your name,
It is due to the efforts of Soldiers like you, that we are able to rank and address, and send them to: Defense Media Activity-Army,
improve the content of the Army’s flagship magazine. We value your Attn: Editor, Soldiers Magazine, Box 31, 2511 Jefferson Davis Hwy.,
input regarding the magazine’s content, as well as your knowledge Arlington, VA 22202-3900 or email: assignmentdesk@smc.army.mil

Soldiers • May 2009 3

Nightmare
in the shok valley
Story by Janice Burton
T
HERE are no roads leading
into the Shok Valley. The vil-
lage, which stands sentinel over
the valley, is home to one of the fiercest
insurgent forces in Afghanistan—the
Hezeb Islami al Gulbadin, or HIG.
On April 6, 2008, a daring raid
into the stronghold by Afghan com-
mandos and their special forces
counterparts, tested the mettle of
the Afghan forces and further forged
the bond between them and their SF
brothers.
In December 2008, Lt. Gen. John
F. Mullholland, commander of the U.S.
Army Special Operations Command,
pinned Silver Stars on the chests of 10
of the men involved in the raid and the
ensuing six-and-a-half-hour firefight
that saw more than 150 insurgents
killed. It was the largest ceremony of
its kind since the Vietnam era. But
for the members of Team 3336, of the
3rd Special Forces Group, it was never
4 www.army.mil/publications
about the medals.
When you ask them to use one
word to describe April 6, their words
pop, much like the gunfire that rained
down on them.
“A nightmare.”
“Baptism by fire,” said Staff Sgt.
Daniel Plants, “it was my first fire-
fight.”
“Cliffhanger.”
More words followed as the team
went back in their minds to that day.
The team was assigned to take out
high-value targets within the HIG. The
insurgent group was entrenched in the
valley and was guarded by a number
of highly trained foreign fighters. The
sheer number of weapons and amount
of ammo used by the insurgents led the
team to conclude they had been stock-
piling the weaponry within the fortress-
like village since the Soviet occupation
of the country during the 1980s.
A group of Afghan commandos
accompanied the team that day. “We
have such a big rapport with the com-
mandos we’ve trained,” said Staff Sgt.
Luis Morales, the team’s intelligence
sergeant. “They have such a loyalty to
us. They try as hard to protect us as we
try to protect ourselves.”
“We eat, sleep and train with these
commandos,” said Capt. Kyle Walton,
the detachment commander. “We die
with them, too. These guys are close
friends to us. At the outset of the at-
tack, I lost my interpreter, and we were
as close as anyone.”
The interpreters hold a special
place within the team. “They are
just like a member of the team,” said
Morales. “One of our interpreters has
seen as much combat as any of us. He
has six years of combat experience. He’s
been with six SF teams and been in
hundreds of firefights—but he doesn’t
get the six-month break.
“With our tactical knowledge and

Sgt. David N. Gunn
Members of Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group recon the
remote Shok Valley of Afghanistan, where they fought an almost seven-hour battle with terrorists
in a remote mountainside village. Patches and insignia may be altered for security reasons.
(the commandos’) knowledge of the
local populace, terrain and customs, we
can truly become a force multiplier,”
said Walton. “That’s what SF does.
We bring things to the fight that they
don’t have, such as close air support
and weaponry. But in the end, it’s an
Afghan fight, and we are part of it.”
The commandos who accompa-
nied the SF team on the mission have
developed something of a reputation
throughout Afghanistan. “The Taliban
calls them the wolves. When they hear
the wolves are coming, they know they
are in trouble. The commandos are
pretty feared. Everywhere we go, they
identify us with the commandos, and
the fact that this group of insurgents
was prepared to sit and fight us to the
death was indicative of an enemy force
you don’t see every day,” said Morales.
“Eighty percent of the guys on the
ground that day had been in firefights
before,” said Walton. “We feel fairly
comfortable in a firefight anytime.”
But that day was different. The
team was going into the unknown. The
Soviets, during their occupation of the
country, never made it into the Shok
Valley. To date, no coalition troops
have been there. This was a first. To get
into the valley, the team had to fly.
“I feel comfortable with my feet on
a ground,” said Morales. “I don’t feel
comfortable in the helicopter—we can’t
control what happens there. But on the
ground, we have a plan, we go in and
do it, and the rest falls into place.”
“We knew this was going to be a
difficult mission. We expected there
to be a number of insurgents because
of the high-value targets we were after,
but we really thought the terrain would
be the greatest difficulty,” explained
Walton.
That thought proved correct. As
the helicopters settled over the valley,
the pilots couldn’t set the birds down,
Background photos for this article are of a valley
with treacherous terrain, negotiated by Soldiers
in eastern Afghanistan, but not the Shok Valley.
so the soldiers had to jump about
10 feet off the bird. Many of them
landed waist-deep in an icy river.
With temperatures in the low 30s, the
climate immediately began to take its
toll. Then they faced a climb up the
mountain.
Walton explained the idea was to
go into the village unannounced, with
the plan to take the fight to the insur-
gents in the village. “We didn’t want to
fight uphill,” he said, adding that the
village is at an altitude of 10,000 feet.
The team decided to use switch-
backs, which were actually terraced
farm plots, as a means to get up to
the village. The team was divided into
three maneuver units, with members of
the SF team paired up with about six
commandos and their interpreters. The
village itself is situated on a finger off
the mountain. The team would have to
head up a draw to the village.
“The buildings in the village are
Soldiers • May 2009 5
Spc. Michael D. Carter
Afghan National Army commandos from the 203rd Kandak board a coalition forces helicopter before conducting security operations in Khowst
Province, Afghanistan, Feb. 7, 2008.
built one on top of the other on top
of a slope thousands of feet in the air,”
said Walton. “So we started the climb.
The insurgents waited until the lead
element was within a couple hundred
meters of the compound before they
initiated contact. As soon as the shoot-
ing started, we realized that they had
their defensive positions dug in, and
they were occupying buildings 360
degrees all around us.”
As soon as the opening salvo was
fired, the interpreter standing beside
Walton in the command-and-control
element was killed. Moments later,
Staff Sgt. Dillon Behr was shot in the
leg. Behr, a communications sergeant,
stayed in the fight and sustained an-
other wound before he became unable
to continue the fight.
“We knew we needed to regain
the initiative, so we started initiating
danger-close air runs,” said Walton.
Staff Sgt. David Sanders was in
6 www.army.mil/publications
the lead assault force. “I had approxi-
mately 10 commandos with me, and
we got into the village before we started
receiving fire. We couldn’t move any
farther forward,” he recalled. “Through
the radio traffic, we heard some of the
team had gotten shot, so we started
trying to identify the buildings where
the fire was coming from. We hoped to
neutralize the threat.”
Walton said Sanders was the first
person he thought of who might be
able to identify where the insurgents
were. “I was standing next to the
combat controller, and when we got to
a place where we could talk, he called
in close-air support, and the F-15s
rolled in immediately. I knew my guys
were up there, and I know that when
you call in danger-close air, you are
probably going to get injured or killed.
I called back to Sanders and asked
if he was too close. He said, ‘Bring
it anyway.’ Bombs started exploding
everywhere. When I called to see if he
was still alive, all I could hear him say-
ing was, ‘Hit them again.’”
Walton said that it is rare to call
in danger-close air even once during a
firefight. Throughout the afternoon,
the team called it 70 times.
“We did take some casualties from
the danger-close air,” said Staff Sgt.
Seth Howard. “A lot of the commandos
got injured from falling debris. The
bombs were throwing full trees and
boulders at them—they were flying
hundreds of meters.”
At one point in the battle, when it
looked as if the C2 element would be
overrun, Sanders called for the bomb-
ing to come closer. “They dropped a
2,000-pound bomb right on top of our
position,” said Walton. “Because of
the elevation, the bomb blew upward
rather than down. It just didn’t seem
like we had much of a decision. Our
guys were wounded, and we couldn’t

Sgt. David N. Gunn
Members of Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne)
recon the remote Shok Valley of Afghanistan, where they fought an almost-seven-hour
battle with terrorists in a remote mountain village. Patches and insignia may be altered for
security reasons.
go back the way we came.”
“We knew we might get hurt, but
we really didn’t think about it,” said
Sanders.
“The insurgents were so dug in,
so well, that even the close-air sup-
port wasn’t enough. It helped, but it
was by no means a magic wand,” said
Howard. “You would think when the
bombs start dropping they would stop
shooting at you. That’s the thought
process, and you know it might kill
you or somebody else, but when there
are so many pieces of hot metal flying
all around you constantly, you’ve got to
let it go.”
With bombs falling and heavy gun-
fire coming from every side, the team
returned fire. Team members recall
going through masses of ammo, in ad-
dition to the bombs that were dropped
and the rounds the aircraft were firing.
The team’s fire was controlled,
though, said Walton. “Cloud cover was
coming in, and there was no certainty
that we would be able to get out that
night. So we didn’t waste our ammo.
We really didn’t fire unless we had a
shot or when we needed to lay suppres-
sive fire to allow people to move.”
The insurgents, likewise, were
shooting in a controlled manner. The
gunfire was heavy, sustained and ac-
curate. Team members recall that even
if the bullets weren’t kicking up beside
them or hitting them, they definitely
heard them crack near them.
The only break in the battle was
when a bomb was dropped on a three-
story building. The building exploded
outward. “Good guy or bad guy, you’re
going to stop when you see that,” said
Morales. “It reminded me of the videos
from 9/11—everything starts flush-
ing at you, debris starts falling—and
everything gets darker.”
“I was totally in the cloud of black
smoke. I couldn’t see an inch in front
Spc. Michael D. Carter
Afghanistan National Army commando ca-
dets graduate from the commando training
course at Camp Morehead, Kabul Province,
Afghanistan, Oct. 10, 2007. Cadets endured
months of training to achieve the commando
status and earn the coveted maroon beret.
of my face,” said Howard.
Plants recalled hearing the call
for fire and wanting to see where the
bomb was going. “I was staring at it
and saw the building go up,” he said. “I
remember looking up, and then all of
this stuff starting coming down. All I
could do was roll up tight and hug the
cliff wall.”
The battle started to turn when
Howard, a trained sniper, started
picking the insurgents off. Howard
was not in the lead element, and he
had to fight his way up the mountain
to come to the aid of his team. The
fight was not easy. He and the team of
commandos he led up the mountain
were under intense insurgent fire. They
were getting hit with rocket-propelled
grenades, small arms and machine-gun
fire. “We knew some of our guys were
hurt and that we had to get to them,”
said Howard.
“We were pinned down,” said Wal-
Soldiers • May 2009 7
Spc. Michael D. Carter
Afghan National Army commandos from the 203rd Kandak search a village during security operations in Khowst Province, Afghanistan,
Feb. 7, 2008.
ton. “When the fire became so intense,
we moved out onto a ledge against the
cliff to protect our wounded. What
turned the battle was Seth (Howard)
and his element.”
Howard directed the Afghan com-
mandos to fire on insurgent positions
so that he could get into place with his
sniper rifle and his recoiless rifle. “They
had been hunting us, and now they
were getting hunted, too,” said Walton.
“We had been trying to return fire,
but we couldn’t find them. They were
firing in a very disciplined manner.
They were not hanging out windows or
running at us.”
As Howard and his element en-
gaged the enemy, Walton knew time
was running out. Reports from the air
said more insurgents were moving in
their direction.
Everyone on the team had sus-
tained some sort of injury, four of them
critical, and the commandos had their
share of injuries, as well. “Everyone
kept fighting, but there was a window
closing on us,” said Walton. “We knew
8 www.army.mil/publications
we had to get out.”
“Our higher command told us we
had to get out of there,” said Walton.
“The weather conditions were clos-
ing in, and the window to be on the
ground was rapidly closing. Most of
the objective was gone at that point,
but our casualties were mounting—we
were in a mass-casualty scenario at that
point—and they became our priority.
We never thought of retreating. That
was never an option.”
“The weather was a deciding fac-
tor,” continued Howard. “When the
weather rolled in we could be stuck
there at least overnight, possibly for
days. They couldn’t fly in to get us, and
we would have been stranded in com-
pletely hostile territory. That was not
a plan for success, especially with the
pilots observing another 200 insurgents
moving in on us.”
With their backs literally against a
wall, and recognizing that they couldn’t
go down the same way they came up
(the switchbacks they had climbed up
were the primary focus of the insurgent
fire), they began assessing an alternate
exit route.
“We knew we couldn’t go back the
way we came, so our only option was
going down the cliff,” said Walton.
Had the team been healthy, that
would have been a difficult scenario.
But with the number of wounded and
the fire raining down, it seemed impos-
sible. Walton knew he had to take the
chance.
“We were completely pinned down.
There was intense fire all around us.
We couldn’t leave the casualties. We
were prepared to sit there and die with
them, but we decided we were going to
get them out of there,” he said.
Sanders made the first climb down
the mountain by himself. When he
climbed back up the sheer face of the
cliff, Walton had one question, “Do
you think we can make it down?”
Sanders’ reply put the climb in per-
spective, “Does it matter if they have
broken necks or backs?”
“My question was, ‘will they live?’”
said Walton. With Sanders’ assurance

Spc. Michael D. Carter
Afghan National Army commando cadets clear a vehicle during an ambush training mission
at Camp Morehead in Kabul Province, Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2007.
that they would live, the team began
the treacherous climb.
Master Sgt. Scott Ford, the team
sergeant, set up the medical evacuation
and had the less seriously wounded
carry the more critically injured down.
While organizing the commandos,
Ford was shot in the chest plate by
sniper fire. He immediately got to
his feet and continued to lay down
suppressive fire. One of the insurgent
snipers had Ford in his sights, and he
shot him in the upper left arm, nearly
severing it. With a tourniquet around
his arm, Ford climbed down the
mountain and continued to organize
the medevac.
Morales said that the team made
its way down the cliff hanging onto
branches and rocks. “Near the bottom
of the cliff, most made a 20-foot drop,”
he said. “I remember seeing John
(Walding) carrying his leg down”—
Walding’s leg had been amputed by
sniper fire.
As the wounded made their way
down the cliff, Howard, Walton and
Spc. Michael Carter, a combat camera-
man assigned to the unit, remained
behind to lay down suppressive fire and
retrieve equipment.
“There were a lot of guns around
where everybody had been shot,” said
Howard. “It kind of became an issue
that there were too many guns up
there, and we didn’t want to leave them
in enemy hands.”
Carter ran through a hail of fire to
retrieve guns and other equipment. His
own cameras had been shot up during
the initial hours of the battle. He gath-
ered equipment and began throwing it
off the cliff, while Howard continued
to pick off enemy combatants.
“The stars really aligned,” said Wal-
ton. “Bullets were coming down from
the side and behind us, and we could
hear guys yelling above us. An element
that came to reinforce the team that
was on the ground stepped out into
the open and started firing and gave us
the chance to get out. Seth was crazy
enough to stay up there and cover us
while we made the climb down.”
Cpl. Sean Harp
Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland awards Sgt. 1st
Class Luis Morales the Silver Star at Fort
Bragg, N.C., Dec. 12, 2008, for actions in
Afghanistan’s Shok Valley.
Alone, with less than a magazine of
ammunition left, Howard covered his
team as they made their way down, and
only after they were safe, did he leave
the mountain.
“We didn’t go into this mission
hoping to make history. For us, it was
just a regular mission—just like the
one we had done the week before. Our
goal is never to get into a fight. We’d
rather sit down and drink some chai,”
said Walton. “We were hoping this
mission would be the same, but we got
into a big fight, and some of us got hit
while trying to save each other. That’s
what we do.
“We think we sent a pretty big
message to the insurgents. We let them
know that we could penetrate their
comfort zone. We told them there’s
nowhere you are safe that we aren’t
willing to come in and go after you,”
concluded Walton. v
Janice Burton works for the U.S. Army John F. Ken-
nedy Special Warfare Center and School.
Soldiers • May 2009 9
 The Fighting
cameraman Story by Elizabeth M. Collins
Photos by Spc. Michael D. Carter (unless otherwise noted)
U.S. Army Special Operations Command

Spc. Michael D. Carter poses in front of his combat camera unit at Fort Meade, Md. Carter received the Silver Star for saving several special forces
Soldiers during an operation in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley on April 6, 2008.

10 www.army.mil/publications
Afghan National Army commandos from the 203rd Kandak enter a
suspected insurgent safe house during security operations in Khowst
Province, Afghanistan, Feb. 7, 2008.

Afghan commandos deliver school supplies and humanitarian aid

to Afghan citizens, while at the same time working with coalition

C
forces to provide security near the Tag Ab Valley, Kapisa Province,
Nov. 14, 2007.

OMBAT cameraman Spc. Michael D.
Carter is an ordinary Soldier who did
something extraordinary. In a horrific
battle in Afghanistan last year, he trad-
ed his camera for a rifle and heroically
saved the lives of several Green Berets,
some of the Army’s toughest and most
highly trained Soldiers. Today, he wears
the Silver Star as a result.
A soft-spoken, clean-cut young Sol-
dier, Carter is like many servicemem-
bers I’ve had the privilege to interview:
humble and reluctant to brag about or
even discuss his accomplishments. He
was too polite to say so, but I quickly
realized that he was doing me a huge
favor by opening up about what had
to have been one of the worst days of
his life.
According to Combat Camera’s
historical records, he is the first Army
combat cameraman to ever be awarded
the Silver Star, and his story and that
of Team 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces
Group to which he was attached, is one
of selflessness and heroism—one that
has amazed even the most hardened
and battle-scarred of generals and com-
bat veterans.
Growing up listening to his grand-
fathers and uncles who had served in
the Army and Marine Corps, Carter
always wanted to join the Army. He
itched with impatience after he was
first assigned to a non-deployable
training unit in Germany. As soon as
his two years were up, he requested a
re-assignment to a unit he could deploy
with, but when he arrived at the 55th
Signal Company (Combat Camera)
at Fort Meade, Md., he found they
weren’t expected to go anywhere.
“When I first got here, I was
pumped and everything else until
the day I signed in,” he remembered.
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re on a hiatus
right now. We’re taking a break.’ I’m
like, ‘Huh?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re
not going to deploy for a little while.’
I got a little bit mad. Then I was like,
‘Okay, whatever. It happens. I’ll get my
time.’”
So when Special Operations Com-
mand Central came knocking after he
had been there a few months, looking
for someone to document missions
in Afghanistan, Carter eagerly vol-
unteered. He was in country about
a month later in June 2007, without
even undergoing additional special
operations training.
Most special forces Soldiers rotate
in and out of theater every six months,

Soldiers • May 2009 11

 (Right) Soldiers from Combined Joint Special Operations Task
Force-Afghanistan, prepare 155mm howitzer rounds to be
strapped down for a bundle drop on Bagram Airfield, Afghani-
stan, June 14, 2007.

Staff Sgt. Cynthia Bartlett, from 242nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal, helps Soldiers from Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan load a pallet
with 155 mm howitzer rounds for a bundle drop on Bagram Airfield-Afghanistan on June 14, 2007. This is just one of the steps taken to resupply troops.

but Carter spent almost a year in
Afghanistan, going out an average of
three to four times a week and partici-
pating in and documenting a variety
of missions, such as snatch-and-grabs,
cordons and humanitarian aid.
In fact, he was supposed to be
done; he had completed his final mis-
sion and was ready to go home. But on
April 6, 2008, his sergeant had “pink
eye,” and couldn’t go on an operation
with Team 3336 and Afghan comman-
dos to a remote mountain village in the
Shok Valley. He asked Carter to take
his place. Neither of them could have
imagined the horror to come.
Things went south almost immedi-
ately when the helicopters were unable
to land and the Soldiers had to jump
about 10 feet to the ground into icy
water before beginning a grueling up-
hill trek on foot to the village, which
was about 10,000 feet above sea level.
They only made it partway, and
much of the six-and-a-half-hour battle
that followed remains a blur to Carter.
“‘What was it like?’ I haven’t really
been asked that question yet,” he told
me. “I’ve sort of been hiding away from
everybody and doing interviews. ‘What
was it like?’ It was just a bad situation.
“When it all happened, when it
all kicked off, I don’t know what was
going through my mind. I had a lot of
people who asked me that when I came
back. I didn’t have time to think about
what was going on. I just reacted.
“I don’t remember thinking about
anything. I was just sitting there, going
off and doing stuff, helping those guys
out,” he continued, leaning forward in
his seat, pausing frequently and shak-
ing his head as though he still couldn’t
believe what went down that day.
After our interview, he gave me
copies of his award citation and sworn
statements from the unit’s commander
and noncommissioned officers that
detailed his story. The documents
are both chilling and awe-inspiring.
About 13 Americans and 80 Afghan
commandos confronted an insurgent
force almost twice their size. They were
trapped between the enemy above,
more insurgents closing in from below,
a sheer 60-foot drop on one side and a
weather front moving in.
The enemy “definitely occupied
the high ground,” as Carter said, and
overwhelming sniper, rocket-propelled
grenade, small arms and machine-
gun fire rained down on the Soldiers.
Carter’s video camera was destroyed

12 www.army.mil/publications
Afghan citizens wait for a truck to be unloaded with humanitarian aid supplies in Panow, Paktika Province, Afghanistan, June 27, 2007. This humanitarian as-
sistance is conducted by coalition forces.
as a bullet ripped through the pack on
his back and through his Camelbak of
water. Feeling the liquid seep down his
back, Carter thought it was blood and
that he’d been shot.
“I thought, ‘You’ve got to be (exple-
tive) kidding me.’ Then I was like, ‘Oh,
never mind. I’m good.’ Then I threw
my bag down and I didn’t even think
about it. I just started performing first
aid and doing whatever needed to be
done,” Carter recalled.
Their interpreter had been killed
less than two feet from him and at
least six other Soldiers ultimately were
wounded. According to his Silver Star
citation and Capt. Kyle M. Walton, the
company commander, Carter exposed
himself to the enemy, immediately
began returning fire—killing several
insurgents in the process—and helped
cover Walton from a protected nook in
the side of the cliff as Walton retrieved
the interpreter’s body.
When Staff Sgt. Dillon Behr was
shot in the arm and thigh, Carter
charged 15 feet into the open while
under fire to drag Behr to safety
while Walton grabbed Staff Sgt. Luis
Morales, who had been wounded while
trying to help Behr. Carter then left his
covered position again and ran back
to retrieve Behr’s radio. The antenna
was shot off as he carried it back, but
Walton was able to use it to reach
headquarters.
With bombs from airstrikes explod-
ing all around them, and the insurgents
getting closer, Carter both continued
suppressive fire and provided life-saving
aid to Behr, Morales and other Soldiers.
When the insurgents were about
40 feet away, Walton could hear their
voices and knew the unit was about to
be overrun. They couldn’t go back the
way they came, and they were backed
up, not against a wall, but a cliff. The
only way out was down.
Walton asked Carter and Staff Sgt.
David Sanders to see if they could find
a way down without ropes or any repel-
ling gear. Carter remembered that it
was a sheer drop for about 60 feet with
only one or two small breaks.
“It wasn’t impossible,” Carter said.
“It could be done. It was just going
to be hard getting the wounded guys
down. Really hard.”
Carter and two other Soldiers
helped at least six wounded men down
the mountain, searching for hand and
footholds in what Walton termed a
“heroic and daring rescue.”
Soldiers • May 2009 13
 An Afghan girl waits for a truck with humanitarian aid supplies to be unloaded in
Panow, Paktika Province, Afghanistan, June 27, 2007.

“I’d climb down although they believed approximately

An Afghan child walks to her village after receiv-
ing medical treatment and humanitarian supplies
during a medical engagement provided by Af-
ghan National Army commandos and coalition
forces near the Tag ab Valley, Kapisa Province,
Afghanistan, Nov. 14, 2007.
14 www.army.mil/publications
first and then I would
tell them, ‘Climb
down as far as you
can get, and then just
drop on me. I’ll catch
you.’ I did that with
Sergeant Morales and Sergeant Behr,”
Carter recalled.
He then left the comparative safety
of the wadi (riverbed) at the bottom
and climbed into harm’s way once
again to help cover the rest of the
escape and throw weapons and equip-
ment over the side of the cliff, because
150 insurgents had been killed, no one
wanted to leave the remaining terrorists
with any extra weapons.
“In the most desperate of situa-
tions, and under the most intense en-
emy fire, Spc. Carter performed more
heroically than anyone could have ever
asked him to do, especially consider-
ing he was the most junior Soldier on
the mission, and an attachment to our
team,” wrote Walton. “This was the
most intense firefight that I have ever
been involved in. For a junior Soldier
to perform in the manner which he
An Afghan girl pumps water in Panow, Paktika Province, June 27, 2007. Afghan
soldiers built the water pump to help their fellow Afghans.

did…was nothing short of amazing. Carter called his family in

He is one of the most courageous
Soldiers I have ever met and I person-
ally credit him with saving my life, and
several other detachment members.”
Carter doesn’t remember how long
they had to wait to be extracted after
the battle, only how tired he was. He
slept for about 15 hours straight the
next day, finally waking up at about
5 p.m. His main concern was finding
out if his wounded comrades were still
alive. They were, and he was later able
to visit them at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington.
Texas a few days after the bat-
tle, after he had decompressed
a little. They were very proud
of course, but Carter said they
were also a little stunned. And
his aunt was angry. Didn’t he
know that he was supposed to run Afghan children wait to get humanitarian aid sup-
plies in Panow, Paktika Province, Afghanistan,
away from bullets, not toward them? June 27, 2007.
When he received the official word
that he would be awarded the nation’s
third-highest honor last Halloween, he
couldn’t quite believe it. He was serving
with Green Berets and they thought
that he deserved an award? He said all
Soldiers • May 2009 15
he cared about was that they had even
put him in for it, that they thought he
was worthy. That was honor enough.
Carter prefers to remain out of the
spotlight, and he wanted to keep the
award as quiet as possible—a futile
hope. His commander was notified and
made the announcement to everyone
at the 55th. Questions, the very thing
Carter had wanted to avoid, followed.
Except with his friends, to whom he
eventually told the story, Carter dodged
them as best he could.
“I was like, ‘just hit me up some
other day,’” he explained.
The awards ceremony at Fort
Bragg, N.C., Dec. 12, 2008, was the
first time Carter had seen some of
the Soldiers from Shok Valley since
the April battle, and the reunion was
emotional, too personal to talk about,
Carter said. “Certain things are better
kept to yourself. It means more.”
In spite of enough excitement and
danger to last a lifetime, Carter has no
plans to leave the Army any time soon.
He loves being a Soldier and the pride
and camaraderie that come with the
profession. He re-enlisted for another
six years during his deployment, and
at press time, was preparing to move
to his new duty station at the Joint
Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Ac-
counting Command in Hawaii. v

(Above) A Soldier hands out medicine as part of a medical civic assistance program in Khowst Province,
Afghanistan, June 21, 2007.

(Left) An Afghan soldier searches a man before he can get humanitarian aid supplies in Panow, Paktika
Province, Afghanistan, June 27, 2007.

16 www.army.mil/publications
Soldiers • May 2009 17
18 www.army.mil/publications
 Coming home:
Tributes to the fallen
Story by Jacqueline M. Hames

T
HERE are many types of
memories, and many ways
to record them. Our lives are
filled with the sounds, images and
belongings of those we have met,
befriended or lost. With the invention
of the digital camera, we can now pre-
serve in crisp, high-definition clarity
every moment we desire. But there is
something no camera can capture, no
voice recorder can grasp: the essence of
a person.
Michael Reagan, an artist based
out of Seattle, provides free, hand-
drawn portraits to families who have
lost a loved one in the war on terror
through the Fallen Heroes Project.
His portraits have the ability to do
what the camera cannot—capture and
hold the spiritual aspect of the person Soldiers distribute soccer balls to children in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, in 2007. One of the fallen Soldiers
depicted. appearing in a Michael Reagan sketch, Sgt. 1st Class John Scott Stephens, loved giving Iraqi children
soccer balls and playing the game with them. Photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Maria. J. Bare, converted to
Eric Herzberg, a former Army cap- an illustration.
tain, is one of many recipients of Rea-
gan’s work. Herzberg’s son, a Marine, help about a year after receiving the his son’s memory.
was killed in action in October 2006. portrait of his son, while visiting Seattle “It’s been truly a blessing for me,”
After hearing about Reagan, Herzberg on a business trip. He discovered that Herzberg says. “This is more like
asked the artist to do a dual portrait of Reagan had been operating all aspects therapy for me than anything else. If I
himself and his son. of the project entirely on his own. wasn’t helping him, I’d probably be do-
“We had a personal connection “So I said ‘Michael, I don’t know ing something unhealthy to numb the
right away—he’s former military, I’m how you’re even standing up after three pain or deal with the loss of my son.”
former military. But when I received years. You’ve got to be able to just do Reagan, a Vietnam combat veteran,
the portrait that he drew of Eric and drawing and let someone else do the drew celebrity portraits for 30 years,
myself it was just so absolutely stun- rest.’ And he looked at me and said donating the proceeds to charity, prior
ning,” Herzberg said. ‘Well, who’s going to do that?’ And I to starting the Fallen Heroes Project. A
“I had a reaction I didn’t expect said ‘Well, you know, why don’t you nationwide news network aired a clip
because it meant way more to me than just let me take a crack at it. You don’t of him speaking about his portraits,
just the image on canvas, on art board, know me very well—we just met. But and before he knew it, he had a re-
that he had been able to do. It was like you’re going to find out that I’m a per- quest. A woman who saw the broadcast
there was a spiritual component to son that does what he says he’s going to called him and asked if he could do a
it, that, you know, he’s bringing part do,’” Herzberg explained. picture of a fallen Soldier—for free.
of my son back to me and I was just Since then, Herzberg has helped or- Unable to deny a fellow veteran,
always struck by that.” ganize and run the business aspects of Reagan readily agreed to draw the
The connection that he and Reagan the project. By working with the Fallen portrait.
shared prompted Herzberg to offer his Heroes Project, he feels he is honoring “To be real honest with you, I had

Soldiers • May 2009 19

no idea what it was about to do to
my life,” he said. When the woman
received the portrait, she called Reagan
to thank him. The woman had not
slept through the night for a year, since
her husband died in Iraq; the portrait
allowed her to reconnect with her fallen
hero, and she finally slept.
From that moment on, Reagan felt
he was called to provide solace to the
families of the fallen.
20 www.army.mil/publications
“I’m supposed to do this,” he said.
The project has been distributing
portraits for five years, and provides
pictures for every branch of the mili-
tary. To date, more than 1,600 portraits
have been given away, all for free,
including postage. He considers this
project more important than his previ-
ous career as an artist.
Reagan’s work on the Fallen Heroes
Project is a full-time job. It takes six
hours to complete one portrait, and he
finishes two a day, Herzberg said. The
project is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organi-
zation, and as such, it is totally depen-
dent on donations—Reagan receives
no compensation except the thanks of
grateful families. Art-supply manufac-
turers donate art board and pencils to
help Reagan continue the project.
“You have a very talented man who
has set aside his own life because his

life now is doing these portraits, 12
hours a day, seven days a week. And
he has essentially given up his life to
draw those who have given up theirs,”
Herzberg said.
Once, Reagan had the dad of a
fallen hero call and accuse him of
getting something out of the project,
though Reagan reiterated he was doing
everything for free. The man insisted he
was being rewarded.
“I got a little upset with him
and said ‘Well, no I’m not,’” Reagan
recalled, “and he said ‘Sure you are,
Mike, you’re getting to come home
from Vietnam.’ And he was right. I
kept wondering what was happening to
me, what was changing inside of me,
and what was changing was after 40
years I was being able to come home.
That’s my reward.”
“I didn’t know I hadn’t come
“I’m
supposed
to do
this.”
(Small photos) Michael Reagan shades portraits
in his home studio.
(Left sketch) Portrait of Sgt. 1st Class John Scott
Stephens, fallen Soldier. Stephens was a combat
medic who loved sports. His parents, Gene and
Eva Jo Stephens, find great comfort in this picture
and have it placed prominently in their house.
(Right sketch) Sgt. Joshua Brennan, fallen hero.
Michael Reagan said he is driven by love to pro-
vide drawings like this to families of the fallen.
Images courtesy of Michael Reagan
home,” Reagan added, but after com-
pleting the first portrait, something
changed. Reagan said he was able to
feel love in a different way.
Some families are skeptical at first,
waiting for Reagan or the project to ask
for money. But once they discover that
these portraits are gifts and tributes to
the fallen, the family is greatly relieved,
Herzberg explained.
“This is more than the image of
their fallen hero on art board. It’s the
idea that somebody could love them so
much without ever having met them to
give them a gift like this. And at some
point that kindles some spark, whether
its hope or faith or just the idea that
there is goodness left when it seems
that most of it has been stripped away,”
Herzberg said.
Gene and Eva Jo Stephens received
a portrait of their son, Sgt. 1st Class
John Scott Stephens, from Reagan and
were stunned by the resemblance.
“I couldn’t believe how much this
Soldiers • May 2009 21
 Letters from families:
Micha
el
I retu ,
your p r ned fr
a om a
opene ckage was trip
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photo d was g here w
Micha
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ank yo f Sgt.
u so of my so for m eek ago an
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stan
d
We wa pictur yo gt by
c h f o r our t t Stephe
ns, thank u so much . Joshua B the detail i tly
mu c o Go fo renna n
ss Joh n S icture all of d for your r your gift n. I w the
1st Cla n . Your p the fa g t o a n t to
loved
s o gives i f ts t o ur
our be e h i m and l I will milies of th hat you ha family. I
st l i k We stil proud hav e fal ve sha
looks ju h comfort. w i sh ly dis e it profess len. red w
ith
uc nd play i ionall
us so m every day a w a s son J
osh. W t in ou y fram
im .H e rh ed
miss h t o h ug him n d
lately e
. Last have had so ome as a m and
ch an a e
so mu son, m icated the W w m
hite H eek my fam any gifts c ory of my
m
w o n derful d ed fallen o u i l y and o me ou
a as a ed se alo
r. He w ars and lov S n I r way
S o l d i e
2 1 y e h a t he lef oldiers to m g with a few were invite
for him. W
t offic e e o d to
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l w h o h e f a gifts t I can’t help President amilie
s
by al f o r t
’t be hat ha B of
e doin
g
ne can
our so
n. ve com but be so bl ush before
you ar v e d o e our essed
st a lo . Than
k Tha way s w
that lo i n words o u r work nk you aga ince th ith so
b e d ll o f e loss o
descri a e l with a that y i
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l o v e ! Micha the
hens el Bre
Love, a Jo Step nnan
E v
Gene &

picture looks like my son,” Eva Jo said.
Scott, as his parents refer to him,
was an Army medic for 21 years and
loved his job.
“He was a medic, a combat medic.
That’s what he was doing when he
got killed,” Gene explained. Scott was
touring the region training Iraqi med-
ics. “He was killed making one of the
tours.”
Scott, who loved sports and
frequently requested equipment for
the children in areas he was stationed,
started his career with a bang.
On his first assignment in Ger-
many, Scott was undergoing on-the-
job training when a young private got
stuck in the breach of a gun and had
his leg torn off, Gene recalled. Scott’s
supervisor panicked, and Scott jumped
in and took care of the private. He
saved his life.
“Scott’s commanding officer wrote
a letter telling us all about it and what
a fine young lad he was. So apparently
I’m not the only one that thinks he was
a pretty good man.”
The Stephens family finds great
comfort in the portrait of their son.
The picture hangs near the kitchen;
Gene and Eva Jo pass it on a daily
basis.
“This picture is so wonderful. Every
time I look at it, it’s like he’s looking at
me, telling me ‘get with it mom,’ like
he always did,” Eva Jo laughed.
Having the picture is “kind of like
having him here,” Gene added.
Reagan spends time getting to
know every face that crosses his desk,
paying careful attention to family
descriptions and anecdotes. He believes
that each portrait has some sort of
message—he doesn’t know what it is,
but he knows when a family opens the
package and sees the portrait, they will
know.
“A lot of this is very spiritual to me,
and beyond my understanding—but
I don’t need to understand,” he said.
Reagan explained that love drives him
to continue the project, and gets him
through the more difficult emotional
aspects involved in the process.
“I need these people to understand
that I appreciate them,” Reagan em-
phasized. “I love and respect this loss
and I will never forget” the sacrifice of
the deceased, he said. The care he takes
in creating a portrait and delivering it
to a family is evident to most recipi-
ents.
“Mr. Reagan wrote us the nicest
letter that came with this picture, (es-
pecially) not knowing my son, and he
seems like a very great guy. He seems to
care about other people, and that’s hard
to find much anymore,” Eva Jo said.
Reagan hopes that this project will
help heal the families of all those lost,
as well as the country as a whole.
“The country has a broken heart—
it’s not just the families,” he explained.
He estimates that 95 percent of the
fallen from the war in Iraq could cross
his desk eventually, and he’ll be able to
finally send them home. v
If you would like to learn more about
Michael Reagan and the Fallen Heroes
Project please visit:
www.fallenheroesproject.org.

22 www.army.mil/publications
 Year of the NCO
My two basic responsibilities
will always be uppermost in my mind—
accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my Soldiers.

2009
www4.army.mil/yearofthenco
Soldiers • May 2009 23
23 www.army.mil/publications
On Point
The Army in Action

24 www.army.mil/publications
Africa
Gen. William Ward, commander, U.S. Africa Command, meets with
the northern Uganda program coordinator for Malaria Consortium at
the Te-Tugu Camp for internally displaced persons near the town of
Gulu in northern Uganda.
— Navy Cmdr. Denise Shorey
Soldiers • May 2009 25
April2009
 army news
Wounded warriors get

Lt. Col. Mike Kiser

back in the hunt Two shooters and their guide
approach a covey of quail
after the lead dog goes point

T HE “Purple Heart Outdoors Tour” in the “Purple Heart Outdoors

Tour” Bobwhite Quail Hunt in
is now in its second year of spon- Georgia.
soring hunting and fishing expeditions
to help wounded warriors get back on
their feet. number of local businesses
The tour was dreamed up by Army catered meals, free of
Reserve Lt. Col. Dan Hammack, charge, or donated fund-
owner of Southern Wilderness Planta- ing for the event.
tion, a game preserve about 60 miles Local families housed
south of Fort Benning, Ga. them to different activities. Ham- many of the sevicemembers. Local
Hammack has hosted two quail mack said the events also result in landowners across four counties in
hunts and a turkey hunt for wounded overwhelming public support for the Georgia opened their property for
veterans and servicemembers who have troops. hunting and servicemembers came
received commendations for valor in Local residents were extremely from as far away as Walter Reed Army
Iraq and Afghanistan. Other highlights supportive of this year’s quail hunt Medical Center in Washington.
of the tour included an elk hunt in Feb. 13-15, he said. Members of the Future events include a blacktail
Saskatchewan, Canada. community served as guides and deer hunt scheduled for northern
The outdoor events are designed to helped with the hunt. Some brought California in August, and an elk hunt
build self-confidence and morale for their dogs to flush out the quail, oth- scheduled for Colorado in October. v
the wounded warriors while exposing ers served as cooks at the barbeque. A — OCPA-Southeast

Help available for military hit by housing market

S OME military families are finding

themselves in a precarious situation
when it comes to selling their house
new economic stimulus package has
provisions to help military homeown-
ers and Army Emergency Relief is also
and relocating, said housing experts. helping those hit by the crunch.
Some bought their homes at the Renters are not immune to the
height of the market and now, because effects of foreclosure either.
of permanent-change-of-station “In the past couple of months,
orders, are trying to sell in today’s approximately five Army families have
lower market, said Edmond Hackett, had to deal with losing the homes
housing management specialist, Fort they were renting when the owners
Belvoir, Va. The good news is that the faced foreclosures,” said Shawn Wal-
ters, housing management specialist,
Fort Belvoir.
Carol E. Davis
administration, AER.
“Since the housing market
crashed, we are looking at housing
differently,” said Scott. “Multiple-
home ownership used to be considered
a business venture and AER doesn’t
assist in that, but now we realize it
might be because of an inability to sell
in one location.”
The new economic stimulus
package—the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009—includes
provisions to help servicemembers fac-

An attachment to the Joint Fed-
eral Travel Regulations added in late
2008 authorizes a short-distance move
of household goods for servicemem-
bers forced to relocate because the
home they were renting foreclosed.
Although there are no specific
programs to help Soldiers when they
are behind in their mortgage, Army
Emergency Relief is an avenue for
assistance in this tough market, said
Dennis Scott, assistant secretary of
ing losses in the housing market. The
government will cover 95 percent of
the amount lost when servicemembers
are forced to sell due to permanent
change of station moves.
The provision does have some
limitations. The program only applies
to servicemembers who purchased
their homes before July 1, 2006, which
is roughly the time when the housing
market started to decline. v
— ARNEWS/Carol E. Davis

26 www.army.mil/publications

Immersive technology melds Hollywood, warrior training
T RAINING technology develop-
ment in California has Soldiers
walking through virtual environments
that contain both real-world objects
and simulated characters.
The “FlatWorld Wide Area Mixed
Reality” demonstration was a 3-D
gaming environment that didn’t
require Soldiers to wear a visor that
would tether them to a computer.
In the “FlatWorld Wide Area Mixed Reality,” ICT demonstrates a 3-D gaming environment that doesn’t
require Soldiers to wear visors or tether them to computers. It melds concepts from Hollywood,
including real-world props, with technology and projection screens, to make a virtual world Soldiers
can move around in and interact with.
Army releases new electronic warfare manual
“B ATTLEFIELD events in Iraq and
Afghanistan compelled the Army
to rebuild an electronic warfare capa-
bility that it had allowed to slip,” said
Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, com-
mander of the U.S. Army Combined
Arms Center.
His remarks were in conjunction
with the rollout in February of the
Army’s newest field manual, FM 3-36,
Electronic Warfare Operations.
“We encountered a threat we were
not prepared for and we must learn
from this lesson to ensure that our
force is agile enough to deal with future
contingencies,” Caldwell said.
Upon announcement of the Army’s
new Field Manual 3-36, Caldwell
warned that the military services and
other agencies of government should
be keenly aware of the rapidly devel-
oping threat posed by technological
From the Army News Service and Other Sources
It melds concepts of stagecraft from
Hollywood (including real-world
props) with technology and projec-
Randall Hill Jr., executive director of
the Institute for Creative Technologies
in Los Angeles.
tion screens, to make a virtual world The Institute is, said Hill, a
Soldiers can interact with. “nexus” between the entertainment
“We have walls where the outside industry, academia and the Army.
is projected in—where you can have Many projects at ICT are “people-
virtual humans interact with you in focused,” Hill said. One of the most
the spaces, or where you can project visible, now being used by Army
bullet holes onto the walls,” said Dr. Accessions Command, is the “Ser-
geant Star” program. Sergeant Star
first appeared on the goarmy.com Web
Institute for Creative Technologies
site as a non-animated character that
answered questions for site visitors.
The ICT team was asked to turn him
into something more.
Now, the virtual NCO is avail-
able “in person” at Future Farmers of
America events, NASCAR races and
other venues where the Army reaches
out to audiences for recruiting. Ser-
geant Star is projected at full size on a
screen and can interact with potential
Army recruits, answering questions
about life in the Army. v
— ARNEWS/C. Todd Lopez
advances in the realm of
cyberspace.
Caldwell went on to
say the Army is moving
rapidly to build a cyber-
space force, while updat-
ing its legacy electronic
warfare capabilities.
The impetus to rebuild
the Army’s electronic Soldiers and civilians participate in electronic
warfare capability came as a result of warfare training at the Fires Center of Excellence
at Fort Sill, Okla.
radio-controlled improvised explosive
devices, said Lt. Col. Fred Harper, a
key analyst for the TRADOC Capa- In conjunction with re-establishing
bilities Manager Computer Network EW, the Army is also taking steps to
Operations Electronic Warfare Division develop and integrate computer net-
at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. work operations and cyber-electronics
The Army leadership has thrown into the broader Army suite of capa-
the weight of its full support behind an bilities to ensure that cyberspace is
institutional commitment to rebuild optimally exploited by Soldiers of the
EW as quickly as possible into a core future. v
Army military capability. — Combined Arms Center
Soldiers • May 2009 27
 D. Myles Cullen
A Soldier from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment,
“The Old Guard,” positions the Army flag before a
ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arling-
ton National Cemetery. Although Arlington is one
of two national cemeteries maintained by the De-
partment of the Army, the VA’s National Cemetery
Administration maintains the other 128 national
cemeteries in 39 states (and Puerto Rico) as well
as 33 Soldier’s lots and monument sites.

A lasting memorial
& testament
Story by Sgt. Maj. Cecil Edwards

D
YING—it is the last thing
on earth we want to do,
and it is usually the last
thing we are prepared for.
This is evidenced in part by the fact
that more than half of Americans do
not have a written will. In the military,
the Judge Advocate General’s Corps
will readily assist servicemembers to
draw one up, and servicemembers are
asked if they have a written will prior
to deployment.
However, because it is not a re-
quirement, many do not take advan-
tage of this free service. That may be
because wills have to do with dying,
and dying is not a topic with which
we are comfortable. Ernest Becker, in
his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The
Denial of Death,” suggests that death is
the primary concern of the living, but
that we cope with it by denying it will
ever happen to us.
How do you like that introduc-
tion? I start out talking about death,
and follow that with an assertion that
it is something that we do not like to
talk about. You may already be feeling
squeamish, but you have no need for
alarm. That is because the topic, rather
than being dismal and macabre, is un-
alarmingly practical. Someday you will
die, and something will be done with
your remains. Have you considered the
option of being interred in a military
cemetery?
National cemeteries were intro-
duced at the beginning of the Civil
War, when in July 1862, President
Abraham Lincoln obtained autho-
rization through legislation enacted
by Congress, to purchase “cemetery

28 www.army.mil/publications
 F
ME NT O
ESTA
ND T

National Cemetery Administration

A
WILL
LAST Smith
n t John
Sergea dent o
f
m it h , a resi and dis-
d
John S ing of soun the age
geant r
I, Ser irginia, be ry and ove arried
g t on ,V m e mo ll ym
Ar li n
mind
an d la w fu mem-
ars or d or a
posing een (18) ye lly marrie ited States
t fu n
of eigh g been law es of the U e armed
in rc f th
or hav he armed fo auxiliary o ember of
t m
ber of ember of an States or a ed States,
d it
or a m f the Unite of the Un ress, men-
o e u
forces itime servic ed by any d uence, do
ar t fl
the m being actua r undue in o be my
ot e, o is t
and n ud, mistak declare th g all Wills
a d in
ace, fr publish, an ressly revok by me.
make, hereby exp usly made
ill, revio
last W Codicils p
vocate
and dge Ad
Staff Ju

grounds for Soldiers who shall have

died in the service of the country.”
In that first year alone, 14 national
cemeteries were established. Today Fort Smith National Cemetery in Arkansas is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the final
resting place of Brig. Gen. William O. Darby, best known for his organization of the First Ranger Battalion
there are more than 10 times that during World War II.
number: 125 are located in 39 states
and Puerto Rico (not to mention 33
Soldier’s lots and monument sites), “Because I could not stop for Death,
and maintained by a federal govern- He kindly stopped for me:
ment agency known as the National The carriage held but just ourselves
Cemetery Administration (www.cem. And Immortality.”
va.gov/cem/cems/listcem.asp#DE); the Emily Dickinson
Department of the Interior’s National
Park Service maintains an additional
14; and the Department of the Army Portland, Oregon’s Willamette National Cemetery hosts a contingent of the Oregon National Guard, as-
maintains two more, to include Ar- signed to the cemetery to perform full military honors on a first-assigned, first-served basis.

lington National Cemetery. This does

National Cemetery Administration

not include the almost 90 state-run
veterans cemeteries that can be found
in 42 states and two territories, 71
of which are funded by the Veterans
Administration (www.cem.va.gov/
cem/scg/lsvc.asp); and, new military
cemeteries are being established on an
ongoing basis. As for the number of
Americans that have been so interred,
to include veterans from as early as the
Revolutionary War to our present-day
conflicts, the total is estimated to be
more than 3 million.
Criteria for burial eligibility
To be buried in a national ceme-
tery—and this criteria would apply to
most state veteran cemeteries, par-
ticularly those that are funded by the
VA (i.e., they generally must agree to
follow the same rules, guidelines and
standards as the national cemeteries,
though they may also have an addition-

Soldiers • May 2009 29

The National Cemetery Administration

Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash., has a Veterans Service Organization Honor Guard Association that provides honors to 90 percent of the veterans
interred there. It is situated under the shadow of Mount Rainier.

al residency requirement), the indi-
vidual must be a member of the armed
forces who dies while on active duty.
A veteran who fulfilled minimum
active-duty requirements and, “was
discharged under conditions other than
dishonorable,” also qualifies. Military
service during a war or a conflict is not
a requirement. Reservists and National
Guard members qualify if they were
drawing retirement pay at the time of
death, or “would have been entitled,
but for being under the age of 60.”
More detailed information regarding
eligibility requirements can be found
by visiting: www.cem.va.gov/cem/
bbene/eligible.asp.
Another excellent resource is “The
Military Advantage: A Comprehensive
Guide to Your Military and Veterans
Benefits,” by C.P. Michel. People may
be surprised to know that spouses
and dependents are also eligible to be
interred with the servicemember at no
charge, prior to or after the service-
member’s death; state veteran cemeter-
ies, however, may charge $150 to $500
per dependent.
In addition to eligibility to be bur-
ied in a national or state veteran cem-
etery, the servicemember is also entitled
to, at no cost: burial with military
honors (i.e., the DOD is mandated by
law to provide, per request of the fam-
ily, a minimum of a flag, a two-person
detail to present it, and the playing of
Taps); the opening and closing of the
grave; perpetual care of the gravesite; a
government headstone or marker (the

30 www.army.mil/publications

servicemember’s information goes on
one side, and the information of the
spouse or dependent(s) interred in the
same grave is written on the reverse
side); a burial flag; and a Presidential
Memorial Certificate.
Even if the veteran is buried in a
private cemetery, a standard headstone
or marker can be obtained for free by
completing VA Form 40-1330 and
mailing it to the VA (see www.military.
com/forms). For a description of what
can be inscribed onto headstones and
markers, see www.cem.va.gov/cem/
hm_hm.asp.
Advantages of national/state veteran
cemetery burial
One advantage has to do with
expense. When interred in a military
cemetery, the gravesite, the grave mark-
er and their perpetual care and mainte-
nance, are provided all at no cost to the
family. Given that the casket, flowers,
transportation and funeral service can
range from $5,000 to $11,000 (these
funeral expenses are not covered by the
VA), the cost for a funeral and burial
can be quite high. Another advantage
has to do with security.
In military cemeteries, it is often
much tighter. It is not unusual for
them to be equipped with electronic
surveillance, as well as guards that open
and close the gates. In addition, it is
a federal offence to deface a military
cemetery headstone, or to carry out
any other kind of destructive activity
or vandalism on the property, and a
federal investigation is automatically
initiated if it happens. Conviction for
such a crime carries a one-year manda-
tory sentence. A third advantage is that
of exclusivity. One cannot simply buy
his or her way in. Burial in a military
cemetery is a benefit that is earned.
Additionally, the aesthetics of the
cemetery are well maintained. National
cemeteries receive very high marks
regarding upkeep, according to annual
surveys distributed to family members
of the deceased. Statistics show that
national cemeteries consistently obtain
an “A” rating, which is unheard of in
the non-military sector.
Furthermore, if the cemetery is
expanded, the aesthetics are not com-
promised, due in part to the federal
government, which pays for those ad-
ditions and ensures that guidelines are
followed and maintained. Also, “keep-
ing up with the Joneses”—competition
by families to have the largest head-
stone, for example, does not occur. It is
“dress-right-dress,” because the overall
effect of the appearance and placement
of the headstones is as meaningful as
the individual gravesite.
A military cemetery is a national
shrine that memorializes veterans
perpetually. Long after the veteran and
his or her loved ones have passed on,
the U.S. government ensures that the
cemetery is maintained, and that the
veteran is never forgotten.
Another advantage is that it is a
reminder to citizens of our nation of
the sacrifices that have been made for
their freedoms. As such, it becomes a
focal point by which Americans can
show their patriotism and appreciation,
particularly during Memorial Day, Flag
Day, Independence Day and Veterans
Day celebrations.
Now that you have read this
information, what will you do with
it? Your choice may be to do nothing,
intentionally or unintentionally, since
procrastination is still choosing to do
nothing. At a minimum, let a trusted
loved one know your wishes. Surveys
carried out by the National Cemetery
Administration consistently show that
the most common reason a family
inters their veteran loved one in a mili-
tary cemetery is “to honor his or her
wishes.” Visit http://www.cem.va.gov/
cem/cems_nmc.asp for information
and view photos of particular military
cemeteries that may interest you.
You may also want to personally
visit some national or state veteran
cemeteries in your area, and even meet
with the cemetery director. He or she
can familiarize you and your family
with all aspects of the interment. Many
state veteran cemeteries will file and
maintain your documentation, such as
your DD 214, that proves your burial
eligibility.
America’s national and state veteran
cemeteries are a military benefit that
provide not only a final resting place
for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and
Marines, but a lasting memorial and
testament to their service. Don’t keep
this information to yourself. Share it
with those who are serving, as well as
with those who have served and their
families. They, too, will be forever
grateful. v
Sergeant Maj. Cecil Edwards is training to be a
research manager in Human Terrain Systems at the
Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth,
Kan.
Soldiers • May 2009 31
 LEAVE NO SOLDIER’S STORY UNTOLD
Operation Tribute to Freedom wants to tell your story.

We’re looking for Soldiers who’ve served or are currently

serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Nominate yourself, a friend or another Soldier in your unit.

Stories will be featured in Faces From the Front or OTF

Soldier Story.

Send an email with your nomination to

tributetofreedom@hqda.army.mil.

Operation Tribute to Freedom is a program of the U.S. Army Office of

the Chief of Public Affairs designed to share with the American public
the stories of Soldiers who have or are currently serving in Operation
Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. OTF works in partner-
ship with PAOs throughout the Army to tell the Army story.
Faces From the Front is a weekly news product
distributed to national, local and social media.
OTF Soldier Story is a weekly newsletter
distributed to Army communicators.

32 www.army.mil/publications
Soldiers • March 2009 33
 Remembering our own
Story by Renita Foster
American Battle Monuments Commission

“TWO
Soldiers, one
alive and one in his
final resting place, were
about to meet for the first time;
an incident that would exceed all of
Sgt. 1st Class Steve Mrozek’s expectations.”

Of the 8,308 buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery who gave their lives in their country’s service—
from every state in the union, the District of Columbia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico—106 are
unknowns. In no less than 40 instances two men lie buried side by side, while one headstone marks their
common grave. At the top of the hill, on the axis of the mall, is the flagstaff.

34 www.army.mil/publications
T
he Netherlands American The “Mourning Woman” overlooks the reflecting pool at the American cemetery at Margraten. The
inscription on the tower behind the statue is from a free translation of Pericles’ oration as recorded by
Cemetery, nestled in the small Thucydides.
village of Margraten, is an
extraordinary place. One glance at its
regimented and precise appearance
conjures up an ethereal formation of
Soldiers standing at attention before
their headstones.
But that’s just a small sample of

American Battle Monuments Commission

what these departed Soldiers have in
common. First, they voluntarily served
their country in time of war. Second,
despite their diverse backgrounds, they
quickly discovered it didn’t matter with
whom they shared a last pair of socks,
cigarettes or a sleeping bag in a foxhole:
they just needed to stay warm and tell
stories of home. More importantly,
these Soldiers stood bravely together
facing horrific situations, forging a last-
ing brotherhood.
“So it’s appropriate they’re still
together,” said Sgt. 1st Class Steve ment jump on the 55th anniversary the stick eagerly waiting the ap-
Mrozek, a former 82nd Airborne Divi- of the Holland invasion. Flying proach to the drop zone marked
sion historian. “This is the definitive over the Netherlands in a C-47 at 1,000 feet.
measure of Soldier camaraderie.” escorted by a British Spitfire, The second the green
As a servicemember who has Mrozek wore the standard light appeared, Mrozek
dedicated much of his life to helping World War II paratrooper made his jump. After
veterans reconstruct their World War uniform and even carried landing, he quickly
II pasts, Mrozek understands the im- a Thompson subma- discarded his chute
portance of the Netherlands Cemetery. chine gun. As the and headed to his
This landmark was one of the first designated squad rally point.
he included on the “must see” list of leader, he sat in “That has
battlefield tours for veterans returning the middle of to be the
to visit the Operation Market Garden
and Battle of the Bulge areas.
“It’s so rewarding to escort a veter-
an to a place that had so much impact
on his life,” said Mrozek. “Especially
when there’s an emotional attachment
because it’s hallowed ground for them.”
As the only American military buri-
American Battle Monuments Commission

al ground in Holland, stateside visits at

the Netherlands Cemetery were rare,
and Mrozek was determined not to let
that happen on his tour.
A skilled paratrooper with 95
jumps and a recipient of wings from
Great Britain, Canada and Holland,
Mrozek also possesses a deep affection
for the airborne GIs buried overseas. As
a Soldier he felt it his duty to pay his
respects to GIs who weren’t just statis-
tics, but courageous young men denied
the chance for long lives.
Mrozek’s passion for Operation
Market Garden began with a re-enact- The Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten is the only American cemetery in the Netherlands.

Soldiers • May 2009 35

most incredible experience I’ve ever
had,” grinned Mrozek, reliving the
moment.
A carillon atop the 101-foot
memorial tower chimed “God Bless
America” and “America the Beautiful”
the day Mrozek arrived at the Neth-
erlands Cemetery. He paused to look
at the left and right walls where the
names of the significant battles fought
were commemorated:
MAASTRICT*EINDHOVEN*N
IJMEGEN*ARNHEM*JULICH*LI
NNIC*
GEILENKIRCHEN*KREFELD*
VENLO*RHIENBERG*COLOGNE*
WESEL*RUHR
Examining the Court of Honor,
Mrozek discovered 1,722 names with
rank, organization and state of origin;
men killed in action in the region, but
Sgt. 1st Class Steve Mrozek visits Pvt. Paul Stinson’s grave at the Netherlands American Military
Cemetery. Mrozek became interested in learning about Stinson when he acquired the Soldier’s
helmet several years ago. (Photo by Renita Foster)
36 www.army.mil/publications
whose remains were never individually
identified. Above the names, this mes-
sage was carved:
HERE ARE RECORDED THE
NAMES OF AMERICANS WHO
GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THEIR
SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY
AND WHO SLEEP IN UNKNOWN
GRAVES
A chilly breeze accompanied
Mrozek to the entrance of the burial
site. Just beyond were the 8,302 Sol-
diers who had given their lives, mostly
in the airborne, ground and air opera-
tions to liberate eastern Holland and
advance into Germany over the Roer
and Rhine rivers. He silently praised
the mixture of Stars of David for the
Jewish faith and Latin crosses for the
others, arranged in parallel arcs that
stretched over 65 acres.
Mrozek felt a powerful quiet as he
passed the headstones that represented
every state in the union, the District
of Columbia, England, Canada and
Mexico. The stillness intensified when
he reached the 106 graves belonging
to the unknowns and the 40 instances
where two “brothers” lie side by side.
Each headstone provides rank,
name, unit, state of origin and the Sol-
dier’s date of death. Just simple facts,
but all Mrozek needed to identify with
the fallen GIs in a small way.
Then, a chance look at the Regis-
trar Roll in the Visitor’s Building that
stores information about the Soldiers in
the Netherlands Cemetery presented a
startling revelation.
“Private 1st Class, Paul G. Stin-
son. Plot K, Row 1, Grave number
15,” read Mrozek eagerly. “Company
A, 504th Parachute Infantry, 82nd
Airborne Division.”
Frantically, Mrozek searched for
Stinson’s gravestone, determined to
find the Soldier he had come to know,
thanks to a piece of World War II
headgear. Minutes later he stood before
the marker, almost in shock that Stin-
son was really there.
In low tones, Mrozek introduced
himself to Stinson, saying how glad
he was to meet him since records
indicated the young Soldier had never
received any visitors. Mrozek explained
how he had acquired Stinson’s helmet
back in the mid-nineties and from
the name, rank and four Army serial
numbers stenciled inside, learned many
details about the young GI destined to
never return home.
Stinson was a 19-year-old private
from California who was issued a recy-
cled helmet, which meant he was in the
82nd only a short time. In fact, he was
assigned just before Operation Market
Garden began in September 1944.
At an annual paratrooper reunion
a few years later, Mrozek happened
to meet a veteran who remembered
Stinson and knew of the accident that
killed him on Oct. 27, 1944.
After he returned from a river
crossing, Stinson went to retrieve his
bedroll from a supply dump. While
doing so, a Panzerfaust (German
anti-tank weapon) hidden in the
dump discharged, striking him in the
stomach. Stinson was quickly taken to
a house for shelter and given morphine
for pain, but died soon after. The unit
never found out how or why the Ger-
man weapon happened to be there.
“Your platoon leader, 1st Lt.
Reneau Brened, said you were a darn
good Soldier,” Mrozek told Stinson as
he stood at the gravesite. “And that you
were greatly missed.”
The helmet stayed in the house
where Stinson spent his last moments
and worked its way to the attic where it
was eventually discovered. After being
passed around for some years, it was
eventually picked up by Mrozek.
“So it was up there for maybe 50
years and now both the helmet and
liner are with me. Learning what I
did about him made it easier to talk
to him. I let him know I was keeping
the helmet for him, that someone was
thinking of him, and that he wasn’t
forgotten.” v
Renita Foster works for the Fort Monmouth, N.J.,
Public Affairs Office.

Graves area and tower at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial at Margraten. More
than 8,000 Allied Soldiers were laid to rest there, representing 43 percent of those originally buried
in this and other temporary cemeteries in the region. Most of them gave their lives in the airborne
and ground operations to liberate eastern Holland, during he advances into Germany over the Roer
and across the Rhine and in air operations over the regions. (Photo courtesy of the American Battle
Monuments Commission)

Soldiers • May 2009 37

Story by Craig Coleman
and Kristin Ellis D. Myles Cullen
Providing a century of warrior care:
Walter Reed turns
H
E saw the improvised explo-
sive device just before the
explosion.
Staff Sgt. Brian Shar, a team leader
on a convoy moving between bases
near Baghdad, saw what looked “like
a giant cartoon rock, about 18 inches
wide, 11 inches tall.”
The explosion removed both of
Shar’s legs above the knee, caused nerve
damage in one arm and serious internal
injures. Advances in battlefield medi-
cine helped him survive, and 100 years
of experience caring for wounded war-
riors helps Walter Reed Army Medical
Center provide Shar and other patients
with the best health care and rehabilita-
tion technologies available.
WRAMC celebrates its 100th an-
niversary this month. From its start as
an 80-bed hospital, Walter Reed has
grown to a 247-bed medical center
with 60 outpatient clinics and 16
operating rooms. It is the only Depart-
ment of Defense medical-treatment
facility with a clinic dedicated solely to
wounded warriors and their families.
As one of the world’s premier military
medical facilities, it combines patient
care, teaching and research. For Sol-
diers like Shar, that expertise means the
chance to walk again.
Shar arrived at Walter Reed Sept.
23, 2007, after being medically evacu-
ated from Iraq via Landsthul Regional
38 www.army.mil/publications
Medical Center in Germany. Wounds
like his often require multiple surger-
Craig Coleman
ies, as doctors remove debris, bacteria
and dead flesh in a life-or-death battle
against infection. Shar endured several
of these “wash-outs” and was released
from in-patient care after about one
month.
Soon after his initial release, he suf-
fered a setback, when severe back pain
led to a trip to the emergency room.
He was informed by a staff member
that his wheelchair was leaking. In fact,
the pain came from fluid collecting in
his back due to shrapnel wounds. The
fluid was flowing out of a wound and
dripping to the floor. He was rushed
to surgery, where part of his colon was
removed.
“They could have given me a co-
lostomy bag and let my body heal, but
they didn’t,” Shar said. “They removed
the damaged organ tissue and hand-
sewed me back together for six hours.”
Shar spent another month as an Capt. Ingrid Pacowski, Staff Sgt. Brian Shar’s
primary care physician, goes over his medication
in-patient recovering from his in- list in a Warrior Clinic examination room.
testinal injuries, and was released in
late November. His goal was to walk C-Legs, fitted and fine-tuned. Daniel
by Christmas. “They had me up and Carroll, a WRAMC-certified pros-
walking within three months of being theticist, rotates the threaded post of
injured, when I was only out of bed for a three-legged stand that looks like a
one of those months. The treatment miniature swivel stool. The platform
here is great.” rises and Shar rests the stump of his
Shar walks into the Walter Reed right leg on the stand.
orthopedic clinic on prosthetics called They are in an examining room in
(Left photo) Chief of Staff
of the Army Gen. George
W. Casey Jr. writes a
message on Maj. Joesph
Claburn’s airborne banner
at Walter Reed, Nov. 11,
2008. (Right photo) An
occupational therapist
works with a patient at
Walter Reed in 1959. National Archives
100 years old
the prosthetics lab, where fittings for
artificial limbs are created and adjusted
to give the patient optimal movement
and comfort. Pairs of prosthetic legs
lie abandoned in corners and against
walls. The faint scent of plaster wafts in
from the workshop next door. Shar and
Carroll check the socket that connects
the prosthetic to his thigh, looking for
the place where adjustment is needed.
A C-leg is a prosthetic for above-
the-knee amputees that combines
microprocessors, sensors and hydraulics
to allow amputees to walk. Carroll
said the evolution in prosthetics that
brought patients from wooden legs to
the alloy prosthetics of today is due to
new materials. For example, “carbon
fiber as a material is flexible enough to
duplicate ankle motion without bum-
pers and moving parts.”
Carroll said older technology, like
the Solid Ankle Cushioned Heel foot,
could not store energy and help the
patient walk. “When (the C-leg) is
compressed and returns to its normal
shape, it will give propulsion to hope-
fully duplicate some of the muscle
activity the patient has lost.”
The Military Advanced Training
Center is a recent addition to Walter
Reed. The 31,000 square-foot reha-
bilitation center opened in September
2007. It has cutting-edge technologies
like computer and video monitoring
systems and simulation rooms. There,
National Archives
servicemembers at different stages of
recovery, most missing part of one or
both legs, are learning to walk again.
Cristin Loeffler, a MATC physical
therapist, ties an elastic band around
Shar’s thighs. He walks crab-like, hold-
ing onto the rail of the oval track that
dominates the second floor of the $8.9
million facility. The bands increase the
tension on the muscles around his hips.
Shar takes a step with his left leg, the
band stretches taut, then he closes the
stride with his right.
After traveling halfway around
the track, he switches directions and
returns to the starting point, working
out the opposite hip.
Shar says, “She works me hard.”
They are working on his hip, thigh
and gluteus muscles using an exercise
called resisted abduction. “I waddle
a lot, so we’re trying to get the core
muscles stronger,” Shar explains. “I’m
making a lot of progress, ever since I An Army nurse assists a patient in the Physical
had (Loeffler) for a therapist. She’s been Reconditioning section in 1946.
busting me hard, so I’m doing a lot
better.” ment with his primary care physician.
Loeffler agrees Shar is making good Loeffler objects.
progress. “I started working with him “I’ve got you five more minutes,”
in July and he’s gotten away from car- she says.
rying a cane. He went from two canes, “I’ll come back,” Shar promises.
to one cane, to no cane.” Servicemembers injured before the
After more exercises, Shar tells days of infrared, camera-assisted mo-
Loeffler he has to leave for an appoint- tion analysis and treadmills that mimic
Soldiers • May 2009 39

The process of making prosthetics is an essential
part of helping patients return to their normal lives.
In this World War I-era photo, technicians are
shown re-creating limbs lost in battle.
National Museum of Health and Medicine
uneven ground went through different
methods of physical therapy.
Before World War II, amputees
used an obstacle course, where patients
were required to jump from box to box
and climb clumsily over obstacles. It
was eliminated once therapists found
patients would see better results by
receiving instructions and practice on
everyday tasks they would face in civil-
ian life.
“War changes everything in
the military,” said Sherman Fleek,
WRAMC command historian. “The
doctors realized we have to do more
than just heal these guys. Let’s give
them a skill.”
The new method focused on easy-
walking gaits, balance, turns, sitting
and picking up objects. The first step
in the new three-step program required
exercises in balance, climbing stairs,
and 180-degree turns. The second
practiced sitting, getting up, bending,
walking around curves, and 45- and
40 www.army.mil/publications
(Below and two right photos) Cristin Loeffler, a Walter Reed physi-
cal therapist, monitors Staff Sgt. Brian Shar’s walking motion in
the Military Advanced Training Center and uses an elastic band
to put Shar through resisted abduction.
Craig Coleman
90-degree turns. The final focused on
polishing up to give the men smooth-
ness of motion. They were taught to
dance and practiced getting in and out
of a mock streetcar built specially for
their therapy.
“Advancements in (physical and
occupational therapy) have been real-
ized during and immediately after each
major war of the 20th century,” said
Dr. Jeffrey S. Reznick, former senior
curator of the National Museum of
Health and Medicine and director of
the Institute for the Study of Occupa-
tion and Health. “Fortunately or un-
fortunately—depending on one’s point
of view, of course—war can be ‘good’
for medicine in the sense that it pushes
new innovation, and speeds innovation
that might already be underway before
a war begins.”
Like prosthetics, the rehabilitation
methods used with amputees are evolv-
ing, and Walter Reed continues to seek
the best treatments and technologies
Craig Coleman
for its patients.
The Warrior Clinic, with its Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act-compliant
restrooms, doublewide doors and lower
examining-room tables, was specifically
designed for wounded warriors and
their families. Its comfortable seating,
warm amber lighting, and 50-inch flat-
screen televisions invite relaxation.
Shar is here to see his primary care
physician, Capt. Ingrid Pacowski. In
the examining room, Pacowski calls up
Shar’s electronic medical record using
the Armed Forces Health Longitudi-
nal Technology Application. She goes
through routine questions, asking
about his recovery and looking for any
new problems.
“Any allergies?”
“Yeah, I.E.D.s,” he replies.
Pacowski is part of the Triad of
Care, a concept initiated by the Army
Medical Action Plan. It calls for a
primary care physician; a nurse case
manager, who handles the administra-
 Craig Coleman
tion of their medical care; and a squad
leader, who works with the chain-of-
command to solve military issues.
“It’s good for them to have a gen-
eral doctor who can be like their family
doc who then helps all the specialists,
bringing all their care into one place,”
Pacowski said. “(They have) some
place they can go to sick call; and a
doctor they know they can bring their
problems to.”
Pacowski acts as a medical liaison,
delivering medical information to the
case manager and chain of command
to avoid gaps in treatment.
“The Soldier is getting a compre-
hensive kind of care in all aspects of
their lives,” Pacowski said. “Their fami-
lies are taken care of, their administra-
tive and military stuff is taken care of,
their medical side of the house is taken
care of, and they’ve got a nurse case
manager who’s helping to bring all that
stuff together.”
The teamwork approach used today
originated at the outbreak of World
War I, when the resources of Walter
Reed surgeons, prosthetists, nurses
and therapists were consolidated, and
patients were treated by a team to
provide consistent and comprehensive
treatment.
Large-scale combat led to a sharp
increase in the number of Army nurses,
and a new focus on patient rehabilita-
tion and therapy. The growing need for
specialized therapy led to the evolu-
tion of the Occupational Therapy and
Physical Reconstruction departments at
Walter Reed.
“The wounds they came back with,
what we saw at Walter Reed, was a re-
sult of what happened in Europe. They
were out to save lives, ensure surviv-
ability. The idea of how much of a limb
or muscle mass to take wasn’t realized,”
Fleek said. “In World War I we had a
lot of amputees. It was like the opening
of modern medicine.”
Colonel Norvel Van Coots, com-
A nurse massages the leg of a World War I
amputee in preparation for the attachment of a
prosthetic limb.
National Museum of Health and Medicine
mander of the Walter Reed Health
Care System, said many of Walter
Reed’s recent improvements were
brought on by Operations Enduring
Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“Each of these improvements oc-
curred because we rose to the challenge
of sparing no expense (and) no effort
in taking care of these deserving men
and women,” Coots said. “While each
requires constant monitoring and effort
to ensure we are meeting the needs
of our warriors in transition, I believe
these developments have made ‘the
Home of Warrior Care’ a reality, and
not just a slogan.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people
have passed through those gates and
have been healed,” Fleek added, “and
not just the patients, the staff too…
these guys are doctors and nurses be-
cause it’s in their blood.” v
Craig Coleman and Kristin Ellis work at Walter Reed
AMC public affairs.
Soldiers • May 2009 41

CPT Masaki Nakazono
He could have been ministering to a Parish back home, but
Chaplain Masaki Nakazono chose to serve in the Army - and
found himself stationed in the Iraqi city of Heit. He lays his life on
the line daily, traveling unsecured roads without a weapon to visit
Soldiers at forward posts and meeting with local religious leaders
to break down cultural barriers. Platoon Sergeant Phillip Dentis
42 www.army.mil/publications
www.army.mil/facesofstrength
discovered the value of Captain Nakazono’s spiritual guidance
when his roommate was killed in action. “If he had not been there,
I just would have gone to shambles,” Dentis says. “You can see
that he cares.” Nakazono lives the Warrior Ethos and knows that
the bond between Soldiers goes beyond risks and hazards.
The Nation’s strength starts here.
 Sgt. Alicia R. Root of the 672nd Engineer Company inspects a
new overhead lighting system that her unit installed.

Sgt. Claude Flowers

Sgt. Claude Flowers

Sgt. Claude Flowers

Sgt. 1st Class Roy Spain and Pvt. Crystal Stillsmoking, from
the 672nd Engineer Company, repair an electrical system. Their

Reserve, corporate America team up

skills have relevance in the civilian job market.

through Employer Partnership Initiative

Story by J.D. Leipold

L
AST year the Army Reserve
celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jack C.
Stultz and INOVA Health Systems
Chief Executive Officer Knox Single-
ton signed a first-ever agreement that
allowed the Army Reserve to recruit
and train medical specialists not only
for the Reserves, but for guaranteed
employment with the largest health
care-provider in the Washington area.
Coined the Employer Partnership
Initiative, Stultz came up with the
idea as a way to help fulfill Reserve
unit needs and also employment needs
of the civilian sector, in such fields
as medical, transportation and law
enforcement.
In the case of INOVA, the agree-
ment provides new citizen-warriors
with opportunities for employment
at one of six health care centers after
Soldiers have learned military occupa-
tional skills in critical clinical support
areas such as radiology, respiratory
therapy and surgical occupations.
A year after that first initiative was
signed, the EPI program has mush-
roomed to include more than 153
businesses, as well as local and state
governments who are looking to fill
their ranks with Reserve Soldiers.
“We want you to join the Army

Soldiers • May 2009 43

Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
Staff Sgt. Ron Burrous, with the Army Reserve's 688th Engineer Company, replaces a leaf spring on a
vehicle at Camp Liberty, Iraq, Oct. 21, 2008. Burrous is working with the Mississippi National Guard's
890th Engineer Battalion. Through the Employer Partnership Initiative, reservists can receive valuable
Soldier training and gain a civilian skill.
Reserve, but we also want to get you
a civilian skill set at the same time, so
what I want is a successfully employed
Army Reserve Soldier,” said Stultz.
“What I don’t need is an unemployed
Reserve Soldier, because what he makes
on his weekend drill pay is not going to
pay the rent.”
When the Army Reserve first
looked into the viability of the partner-
44 www.army.mil/publications
ship, leadership looked at where the
biggest opportunities and needs were in
the civilian sector and matched them
with the Reserve’s needs. The civilian
opportunities that popped right up
were law enforcement, medical tech-
nology and long-haul trucking.
“The American Trucking Associa-
tion told us they had an aging work-
force that they were going to have to
“We want you to join the
Army Reserve, but we also
want to get you a civilian
skill set at the same time, so
what I want is a successfully
employed Army Reserve
Soldier.”
replace and that they already had a lot
of shortages in finding qualified drivers,
so we thought we could help where we
share the same skill sets,” Stultz said.
“We already have those skills in our
force; we have transportation units,
medical units and military police
units.”
The general pointed out that
Conway Freight, a partner in Ann
Arbor, Mich., visited a Reserve unit
several months ago looking for drivers
and hired six Soldiers on the spot to fill
some immediate needs.
“So, from the standpoint of the
Soldiers, they’re very excited and happy
and saying it’s because the Army Re-
serve just helped them get better jobs,”
Stultz said. “And, Conway, they’re very
excited because they’re saying, ‘Hey, the
Army Reserve just helped us fill some
needs,’ so this is a win-win situation for
both of us.”
Shortly after INOVA Health
System signed on, the word was out
and other organizations and businesses
started calling, waving their hands and
wondering if they too could partici-
pate, Stultz said. J.B. Hunt and Snyder
Trucking have signed on, as have IBM,
GE, Sears, ExxonMobil, Wal-Mart,
Home Depot and the Washington
Metro Police.
“When I’ve talked to some of these
CEOs and vice presidents they’ll tell
you they employ a lot of veterans and
they employ a lot of Reserve Soldiers,
Sailors, Airmen and Marines because of
their integrity and work ethic,” Stultz
said. “Veterans and Reservists under-
stand teamwork and leadership; they
understand followership; they show up
on time and they take responsibility.”
Stultz relayed a story about a con-
Photos depict Reserve Soldiers on the job, performing tasks and using leadership skills that translate to success in the civilian work sector.
(Illustration by Peggy Frierson)
versation he had with the vice president
of Home Depot several years ago when
he was looking at the feasibility of the
EPI. The VP told him that as much as
he thought of himself as a patriot, the
decision to hire Soldiers was strictly a
business decision.
“He told me Home Depot had
done the metrics, measured absen-
teeism, measured productivity and
measured development,” Stultz said.
“He said he could take one of our
junior officers and put him in a store-
management-development program,
and he can get him to the same level in
24 months that takes everyone else 59
months, because he already under-
stands teamwork, responsibility, how to
lead. That’s something we have to teach
to the others, but you’ve already taught
that to the Soldiers.”
In November 2008, Wal-Mart
joined with the Army Reserve—its
director of military recruiting was a
former deputy chief of the Army Re-
serve. Unlike INOVA, which recruits
specifically for medical technicians and
registered nurses and is solely in the
northern Virginia area, Wal-Mart is
nationwide with plans to grow its stores
overseas.
“Wal-Mart has everything from a
store-manager program to warehous- fer possible civilian employment in the
ing and distribution to truck driving same career field at INOVA.
to personnel and finance—I mean, it’s “The gratifying thing about this
a huge corporation with needs across whole enterprise has been to see the
the company and country, so if I’ve response from America’s industry,”
got a Soldier who wants to stay in the Stultz said. “We went looking for a few
local community where a Wal-Mart is to join in the EPI, but now we have
or if I’ve got a Soldier who is willing a wave of 150-plus companies across
to relocate to where we have a Reserve the country that signed and another
unit and a Wal-Mart, we can place him 200 waiting or who have expressed
there.” some interest, because these businesses
Stultz said when the Army Reserve recognize the talent and quality you get
signed on with 333,000-employee with a Soldier.”
strong General Electric in mid-January For more information on the EPI,
it opened the door to recruitment of visit: http://www.armyreserve.army.
Reservists in Europe and Korea. Theo- mil/ARWEB/NEWS/WORD/Em-
retically, he can now recruit a Soldier to ployer_Partnership.htm v
fill a billet with the 7th Civil Support
Command in Germany and work with
GE as a civilian there.
Another positive of the EPI is the
effect it will have on recruiting. Stultz
said in the old days, a prospective
Reservist might walk into the recruiter’s
office in a given area and want to be
a radiology technician. The recruiter
might not have any billets available
locally, but now the recruiter can pull
up a unit in the Washington area, for
example, that does need a radiology
technician. Because the Reserve has an
EPI with INOVA, the recruiter can of-
Soldiers • May 2009 45
Soldier helps
You soared through the air like a screaming eagle
No fear of heights, unafraid that you might fall
Where others gave just a little of themselves

soothe the hurt

You ultimately gave your all.

You epitomize what an American Soldier is

You arrived in an iron bird from East

of families To give the Iraqi people back their lives

To pull them safely from the belly of the beast.

God is your new jumpmaster

Stand tall Soldier and don’t be late
Execute the most perfect PLF (parachute landing fall)
Land softly behind heaven’s pearly gate.

You are now on God’s manifest

Grab your chute and get onboard
Glance down proudly on your tab
You are now a Ranger for the Lord
Rest in Peace, Airborne Angel

Story by Renita Foster

I
T’S a duty all Soldiers dread, yet
when called upon, they welcome
it as an honor and perform it
as such. And while training is
offered to prepare them as casualty as-
sistance officers, there are those who are
“naturals;” blessed with just the right
blend of professionalism and compas-
sion to guide a family through the most
devastating situation they may have
ever known.
Master Sgt. Tyrone Russell, former
noncommissioned tactical officer at
the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory
School at Fort Monmouth, N.J., is one
of those “naturals.” At our initial meet-
ing I never detected a creative or lighter
side to him, just a “spit and polish”
devout Soldier, assigned the anguish-
ing duty of CAO on behalf of a young
Soldier’s family.
During those first hard days,
Russell lived up to that “backbone of
the Army” reputation, helping with
arrangements and talking to the family
about war and their beloved son. He
joined them in their sorrow as they
grieved for their son and for others like
him who would never come home.
“Every time we lose a Soldier
we lose a piece of our soul,” Russell
counseled. He also praised the family
for continuing to support the Army in
spite of their sacrifice. “There are those
who have lost nothing and yet refuse to
support the armed forces,” he added.
It was the day of the young Sol-
dier’s funeral, however, when Russell’s
extraordinary talents took over, begin-
ning with “Airborne Angel,” an original
poem (shown above) he masterfully
penned to honor the fallen paratrooper.
Granted, the military slang might
not have been understood by everyone,
but there was no mistaking the heart-
felt camaraderie Soldiers have—that
brotherhood that comes with wearing
a uniform. I have no doubt the words
soothed and comforted many troubled
hearts that morning.
“I was thinking about writing
something after I left the family one
day,” said Russell, who has been writing
poetry since high school. “I started the
words as I was driving home and fin-
ished it a few hours later. Afterwards,
I sent it to the family and told them it
was dedicated to their son. The father
called back and insisted I read it at his
son’s funeral.”
Russell’s amiable personality also
earned him the respect and admiration
of several of the fallen Soldier’s friends.
This was evident at the cemetery fol-
lowing the funeral service when one
whispered to me that Russell had told
her she had big feet which made her
unfit for the airborne. She giggled
while sharing the comment, indicat-
ing she understood it was just teasing.
Glad to see the young woman smiling,
I jokingly replied, telling her that as
a senior officer I could “order” Rus-
sell to do pushups for his thoughtless
remark. The smile produced laughter
so I immediately informed Russell of
his “punishment.” Before I could finish
the instructions to do them sometime
following the final goodbye ceremo-
nies, he dropped to the ground and
immediately began not just two-arm
but one-arm pushups.
My initial reaction was one of heart
failure as the mourners saying their
farewells turned to watch the bizarre
spectacle. And while they first appeared
stunned as Russell executed the exer-
cise, the performance almost seemed
a natural curtain call to the poem he’d
shared an hour earlier.
Sorrow unanimously turned to
amusement and overwhelming ap-
proval. And I couldn’t help but believe
the young Soldier who was reputed to
love the Airborne, enjoyed it as well. By
strategically employing a simple Army
asset, Russell had once again made the
family’s tragedy a little more bearable.
Later, when I quizzed Russell at
length to reveal the secret to knowing
“the right thing to do, at the right time,
in the right place,” he claimed inno-
cence, that he was simply following
my orders. It’s my belief, however, that
wonderful GI ingenuity all Soldiers
seem to be born with instinctively
told him it was the Soldier thing to
do. v

46 www.army.mil/publications
 R love
emembered
Story by Renita Foster
I
always wondered about the con-
nection between veterans and their
fallen comrades they come back to
cemeteries honor and remember. Take
a Memorial Day ceremony a few years
ago at Margraten American Cem-
etery in Holland. At its conclusion, I
decided in the time I had left to walk
through as many of the rows of heroes
as possible—say their names, see where
they were from. And just offer up a
thank you, and let them know they are
not, and will never be, forgotten.
I hadn’t gone very far when an
elderly woman came jostling by. She
caught my attention for many reasons.
She was dressed rather oddly in an old
dress accompanied by a dated hat.
Despite the solemn occasion, she
had a brilliant grin on her face. And
although a senior citizen, there was a
defiant spring in her step—definitely a
lady with a purpose.
The most curious item of all
was the huge bag she was carrying. I
couldn’t imagine what was in it, but I
didn’t have to wait long to find out.
She stopped about five markers
down from me and began pulling
various items out. The first was an old
Army jacket that she lovingly
placed around the
horizontal
arms of the
cross.
Next,
with
she spread out what had to be the most fiancé. They never had the chance
beautiful homemade quilt I’d ever seen, to marry, raise a family or grow old
and then strategically placed various together. And while she had resumed
pieces of memorabilia about. her place in life (I was told she had a
There were pictures and what wonderful career and volunteered a lot
looked like high school or college year of her time to the needy), she never
books. There was even an old kewpie again entered into another romantic
doll she brought out I thought the relationship. It was simply enough
Soldier she was visiting must have won for her to come back every year on
for her at some shooting gallery—she’d Memorial Day. At last count, she’s been
kept it all these years. keeping this date for the last 43 years,
It was her next item that sent me and I like believing she’s there every
and other onlookers looking for a Memorial Day.
handkerchief. It was a bottle of cham- There were other private memo-
pagne that she held up and inspected; rial services held by visiting veterans
I had the feeling she’d done so many throughout the cemetery that after-
times; it had to be the right one or it noon. I believe each and every conver-
didn’t count. I thought surely it came sation and prayer shared that day were
from their wedding and she’d waited all heard by the living and those fallen Sol-
these years for this moment. diers destined never to return home. v
She uncorked it, poured two glasses
and made what I can only describe as
an eloquent toast to “her hero.” After
placing his glass gently in front of the
memorial, she seated herself for what
would be a long afternoon visit.
That was the moment I knew: the
lady was on a date! And then it all
made sense. Her outfit was from the
1940s, and I imagined this must have
been what she was wearing when they
met, or maybe on their first date.
When she held up the pictures and
talked about them I hoped they were of
children, and that he’d had a chance to
get to know them.
I found out later however, the
young Soldier buried there was her
Soldiers • May 2009 47
 Hurricane
Sudoku
Complete the grid (by crossing out some images) so that each row,
column, and every 2x2 box contains the following 4 shapes:

48 www.army.mil/publications
www.ready.army.mil
ARMY TRAINING:
THE KEY TO A
STRONG FUTURE.
Gain high-tech experience in career fields like avionics,
engineering and medicine. Earn money for college and the
chance to interview with America’s top corporations through
the Army’s Partnership for Youth Success Program. There’s
Strong. Then There’s Army Strong. Learn more by
logging on to goarmy.com or calling 1-800-USA-ARMY.

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