82nd Airborne Memorial

[03Fox2/1]

Associated Press, 5-16-2008, Kevin Maurer


Fort Bragg - When the Army's 82nd Airborne Division dedicated a memorial to paratroopers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, organizers thought three sides of a wide granite column would be plenty of space to engrave the names of the fallen.
Three years later, there is no more room. The last name on the memorial belongs to Sgt. Clayton Dunn, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in May 2007.
To accommodate the rising number of casualties, military officials have been forced to expand the memorial by adding a granite wall. The wall now has 50 names - each a grim reminder that a 13-ton granite tower vastly underestimated how much space it would take to honor the fallen.
"We can put on as many as we need to now," said retired Command Sgt. Maj. Roger Vickers, who served for 14 years in the 82nd. "The hope is we don't ever have to put another name on it."
The U.S. has lost more than 4,000 service members in Iraq and 800 in Afghanistan since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The 82nd lost 62 soldiers in 2007, more than in any other year since 2001. Three incidents in Iraq last year each claimed the lives of seven or more 82nd paratroopers.
The 82nd isn't the only division squeezed for memorial space. A memorial at Fort Hood in Texas honoring fallen soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division - which lost 174 soldiers between the end of 2006 and 2008 as several of its brigades served in Iraq - is filling up, said Denis Webster, executive director of the 1st Cavalry Division Association. The names of future soldiers who die in service will have to be engraved on the back side, Webster said.
The 82nd's memorial stands behind the division museum at Fort Bragg, and displays the words, "In memory of the Paratroopers who gave their lives in support of the Global War on Terrorism." Last year, some of the 82nd's retired sergeants majors and officers raised money to build the wall behind the column once it became clear it would soon be out of room.
The 82nd's expanded memorial will be formally unveiled later this month during the division's "All American Week," an observance that traditionally occurs the week before Memorial Day. Hundreds of veterans from the 82nd are expected to visit Fort Bragg for the event.
The 82nd's 1st Brigade is still deployed to southern Iraq and its 3rd Brigade is training to return to Iraq in the fall.
The constant deployments have made the memorial column and wall hallowed ground for the division's paratroopers and their families. Sgt. 1st Class Rick Hinkle, who has friends listed on the memorial, said every paratrooper serving in the division knows someone whose name is listed on the wall or column.

[airborne]

In honour of the 82nd and all Airborne Forces.


This is the British Airborne Forces Collect, which is always recited on Ceremonial occaisions.




May the Defence of the Most High

Be above and beneath
Around and within us
In our rising up and in our going down
Through all our days and nights
Until the dawn when the Son of Righteousness shall arise
With healing on His wings for the peoples of the world
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
AMEN

Mike

[Frisco-Kid]

After my wife and I attended a VN Veteran's reunion in Georgia the end of APR08, we made a side trip to visit Ft. Bragg. I had been stationed there from JUL67-FEB68 while serving with the 82nd Abn. Div. I returned to VN with them when the 3rd Brigade was deployed there for the Tet Offensive.

As we drove around the post looking for my old barracks [torn down], EM club, etc., we eventually visited the 82nd Airborne Division Museum. I remember seeing this monument and asking myself the same obvious question about more names. I'm glad to hear that they were able to come up with a solution to continue to honor the memories of these fallen paratroopers. Because of time restrictions, my wife and I were unable to extend our visit into "All American Week" for the formal dedication.

If you are ever in the Fayetteville, NC, area, make it a point to go see the museum. It's well worth it. The Special Operations Museum is also nearby. Ft. Bragg is also the home of the Army Special Forces "Green Berets."

[Hollis]

Thanks for the heads up on the museum. I try to visit military museums when I travel. Last one was at Fort Campbell. BTW I visited a few in the UK too.

[thespymaster]

Being a 2nd generation 82ND Airborne Parartrooper and combat veteran of the 1st GulF War, recently turned my show car into a tribute car to Honor The Fallen

[Bombardier]

Great work mate

[rotorwash]

Great looking car Spymaster.

Talking about museums, my wife and I stumbled on one while driving through Danville, VA. It is an armor museum entirely inside (but only partly air conditioned) and has oodles of neat AFV's.

There are about three neat ones up in Newport New, VA. including the Mariner's Mueaum that now has the turret from the U/S.S. Monitor in a preservation tank, but you can walk up on a platform and look down on it. I remember another one from when I was there in 1966 that had a lot of WW I stuff.

RW

[GunBunnyInaMAB]

[quote=rotorwash;38402]Great looking car Spymaster.

Talking about museums, my wife and I stumbled on one while driving through Danville, VA.

Some more information on that museum, rotorwash;

their website: www.aaftankmuseum.com

Every year, around the end of April, they have a "Tank Extravaganza". It runs all weekend long. Check out their website for more information. Oh, and they have it in the spring before the humidity here in Virginia kicks in.