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Memorial Day Service

While many Tennesseans celebrate this Memorial Day holiday by gathering with family and friends for picnics and fellowship, soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 194th Engineer Brigade (TA), Tennessee Army National Guard, Jackson are spending this day supporting engineer missions throughout Southern Iraq. But for an hour on a hot day they stopped to recognize fallen comrades of past and present wars and conflicts in a Memorial Day Ceremony.

The event opened with a welcome statement from Colonel Allen Harrell, Commander of the 122nd Corps Support Group, Alabama National Guard, Selma, Alabama followed by the singing of the National Anthem and the invocation by Chaplain (Captain) Lyle Shackelford of the 57th Transportation Battalion, Ft. Lewis, Washington.

Keynote Speaker for the ceremony was Brigadier General Jimmy Welch, Commander of the 194th.

After acknowledging the crowd of about 200, he began his remarks by saying, "Today, it is not only our responsibility, but our moral duty as Americans to celebrate our fallen soldiers' sacrifice in hopes to humble ourselves in recognizing that the prosperity of our country, the core of our nation's heart, is fed with the blood spilled by our comrades of yesteryear and today".

BG Welch explained the history of the Holiday, which began in the late 1860's after the Civil War when families would place flowers on the headstones of fallen soldiers. He reminisced about his early military years as a young soldier in Vietnam, "I can remember the faces of my fellow comrades now young and smooth faced with big smiles and excited eyes. Sadly, many of these faces never had a chance to mature like mine has. Instead, those chosen gave the ultimate sacrifice and I, on occasion, had to help retrieve their bodies from the jungle". He went on to explain that he has been "blessed with two children and three grandchildren while those brave soldiers, who now seem more worthy than I, were rewarded harshly with a hostile death". He added, "For it is our duty to not only say thank you' in our hearts, but to say much more of gratitude in our actions".

Quoting an excerpt from an 1884 Memorial Day speech by Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr., BG Welch said "To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might. So must you do, to carry anything else to an end worth reaching. More than that, you must be willing to commit your self to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out. All that is required of you is that you should go some whither as hard as ever you can. The rest belongs to fate".

BG Welch also paid special homage to Specialist Derrick Joseph Lutters who was a member of A Company, 891st Engineer Battalion, Kansas Army National Guard. Specialist Lutters died May 1, 2005 as a result of a vehicle born improvised explosive device. "Specialist Lutters came to Iraq in my Brigade and was a man of 110 percent, simply he gave more". He went on to add, "As his commander, I feel the heavy burden of his death as I'm sure his fellow comrades do". In memory of Specialist Lutters, BG Welch recited a poem for veterans:

"Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints in the snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die."

In closing BG Welch challenged the veterans of this war "to teach the youth back home that Memorial Day is not merely a weekend of holiday and parties..." but to "remember the sacrifices that fellow soldiers here in Iraq and from all of our country's conflicts have made in order to enjoy freedom".

"So I ask each and every one of you to let them know that 'America will only be the land of the free, so long as it is the home of the brave'".

The ceremony continued with a scripture read from the book of Psalms by Chaplain (Captain) John Callihan, 201st Engineer Battalion, Kentucky Army National Guard, and a memorial prayer lead by Chaplain (Captain) Benjamin Sprouse, 206th Corps Support Battalion. Firing of volleys by the Air Force Honor Guard, the playing of Taps and a benediction by Chaplain (Captain) Terry Romine, 2/44th Air Defense Artillery, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky concluded the ceremony.

Brigadier General Jimmy Welch, Commander of the 194th Engineer Brigade (TA), Tennessee Army National Guard addresses the audience during a Memorial Day service held in Southern Iraq.

Story and photos by SFC Pete Quinton, S-5/PAO,
194th Engineer Brigade (TA)
Tennessee Army National Guard
Tallil, AB, Iraq