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Some Army posts to end individual memorials

Soldiers from Fort Lewis, Wash., and Fort Drum, N.Y., who are killed in combat will be honored during monthly group memorials instead of individual services beginning in June.

At Fort Lewis, the decision was announced in a May 22 e-mail from Brig. Gen. William Troy, the acting commanding general of I Corps and Fort Lewis, to the command and staff on post, said Joe Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesman. The first group memorial is expected to take place the third week of June.

“As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies,” Troy wrote in his e-mail. “I see this as a way of sharing the heavy burdens our spouses and rear detachments bear, while giving our fallen warriors the respect they deserve. It will also give the families of the fallen the opportunity to bond with one another, as they see others who share their grief.”

Group memorial services already are taking place at other Army posts, Piek said.

Nineteen Fort Lewis soldiers were killed in Iraq in May, and the Fort Lewis community has lost nine soldiers in Operation Enduring Freedom and 117 soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Also, an Air Force master sergeant killed in Iraq was stationed at Fort Lewis.

More than 10,000 of the post’s 28,000 soldiers are deployed, including soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd and 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Teams and more than 20 smaller units, Piek said.

The group memorials will be “a way for the greater Fort Lewis community to come together once a month to honor our fallen warriors,” Piek said.

Officials also are “doing this to help take some of the planning off of the shoulders of the rear detachment members” who also “have a significant other mission of continuing to train soldiers and taking care of soldiers’ families who are here on post,” he said.

Troy discussed having monthly memorial ceremonies with commanders overseas, rear detachment commanders and family readiness group leaders, Piek said.

Post officials have received “a couple of phone calls” from people who have expressed concern about eliminating individual memorial services, Piek said.

“The best way for us to look at this is the memorial service we do here at Fort Lewis is truly the public’s only opportunity to come together and remember our fallen soldiers,” Piek said.

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Some Army posts to end individual memorials