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USASOC memorializes 23 fallen Soldiers during emotional Fort Bragg ceremony
RELEASE NUMBER: 050526-01
DATE POSTED: MAY 26, 2005
USASOC memorializes 23 fallen Soldiers during emotional Fort Bragg ceremony
By Walt Sokalski
U.S. Army Special Operations Command
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, May 26, 2005) — "The Soldiers we honor today, could have chosen another profession - one that was safer, or less demanding, or more profitable."
The speaker, Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger, Jr., was referring to the 23 members of the special operations community whose names were added to the Memorial Wall outside the headquarters of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command in a solemn memorial ceremony here May 26.
"But at this critical time in our nation's history," Kensinger, the USASOC Commanding General, said, "these selfless men and women raised their right hands and swore to defend liberty."
Nearly 150 family members of the fallen warriors traveled from across the country to participate in the ceremony unveiling personalized nameplates of the Army Special Operations Soldiers killed in action over the past year. However, Lt. Gen. Kensinger told the gathered crowd the honored Soldiers' real legacy was not the one rededicated at this ceremony.
“In fact, the Soldiers we honor today, and the thousands of other men and women who serve today in Iraq and Afghanistan, have built their own memorial – a memorial far more meaningful than we could ever hope to build.”
The general then went on to site the hundreds of schools, hospitals and polling places opened by special operations units in the two countries.
The general concluded his remarks with a terse command, “Command Sergeants Major, Call the Roll!” And, as the sergeants major read each of the names, a large brass bell rang once sending waves of emotion through the gathered crowd of families, friends, and comrades-in-arms.
“No one can measure this wound,” remarked Yury Tarlavsky after the ceremony.
“It’s like touching a wound that never heals,” his wife, Rimma, chimed in. The Tarlavsky’s are the parents of 5th Special Forces Group Capt. Michael Yury Tarlavsky who was killed in August 2004 in Najaf, Iraq.
Both return to Passaic, N.J. with the feeling that their son will never be forgotten.
“Like the flag, he now flies freely over this country,” Mr. Tarlavsky said.
Michele Sanderson agrees. Her son, Cpl. William M. Amundson, died in Afghanistan in October 2004, while deployed with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.
“All my son ever wanted to be was a Ranger,” the Montgomery, Texas, resident explained.
While today’s ceremony “leaves you speechless,” Mrs. Sanderson feels strongly that this ceremony is all a part of the Army “taking care of your own.”
“The Rangers,” she quickly added, “go over and above.”
The ceremony began drawing to a close with each of the family approaching the wall and laying a single rose at its base. None could resist a loving touch of their loved one’s named memorialized in bronze.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, everyone gravitated back toward the wall to once again touch a particular name or make a rubbing of it.
From the periphery, the general gestured toward the crowd at the wall and simply said, “That’s what it’s all about.”
“Each family knows that we will pay the right homage to their loved one,” he said.
The commander of troops for today’s ceremony, Col. James L. Holloway, looked back on his duties today as a great honor.
“This is the most important event of the year,” he said. “I’m glad that I’m considered good enough to be included.” This is the second year as COT for the USASOC Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.
The Memorial Wall originally listed Soldiers killed in action during combat in Vietnam, and was updated in the 1980s to include Soldiers who were missing in action or declared dead. The wall was later expanded to include all Army special operations Soldiers killed in action from 1983 to the present.
Today, the Memorial Wall displays the names of 916 fallen special operations Soldiers, including the 23 added today.
“This wall reminds us that each name belongs not only to a brave, talented Soldier,” Kensinger said during the memorial, “but also to a human being who was somebody’s husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, a friend…”
They were:
From Operation Enduring Freedom
Cpl. William M. Amundson, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
Capt. Daniel W. Eggers, 1st Battalion, 3 rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.
Staff Sgt. Robert S. Goodwin, 2nd Battalion, 3rd SFG, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Pfc. Joseph A. Jeffries, 329th Psychological Operations Company, Portland, Ore.
Staff Sgt. Robert J. Mogensen, 1st Battalion, 3rd SFG, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sgt. 1st Class Pedro A. Munoz, 1st Battalion, 7th SFG, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Staff Sgt. Tony B. Olaes, 2nd Battalion, 3rd SFG, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sgt. Michael C. O’Neill, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
Chief Warrant Officer Bruce E. Price, 1st Battalion, 3rd SFG, Fort Bragg, N.C
Sgt. Danton Kyle Sietsinger, 486th Civil Affairs Battalion, Tulsa, Okla.
Sgt. Jeremy R. Wright, 2nd Battalion, 1st SFG, Fort Lewis, Wash.
From Operation Iraqi Freedom
Spc. Bryan L. Freeman, 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion, Warwick, R.I.
Staff Sgt. Aaron N. Holleyman, 1st Battalion, 5th SFG, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Staff Sgt. Paul C. Mardis, 3rd Battalion, 5th SFG, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Sgt. Maj. Robert D. Odell, INSCOM, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Staff Sgt. Michael G. Owen, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Lt. Col. Mark P. Phelan, 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, Norristown, Pa.
Cpl. Jonathan Santos, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Maj. Charles R. Soltes Jr., 426th Civil Affairs Battalion, Upland, Calif.
Pfc. Nathan E. Stahl, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Maj. Paul R. Syverson III, 5th SFG, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Capt. Michael Yury Tarlavsky, 1st Battalion, 5th SFG, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Sgt. 1st Class Mickey E. Zaun, USASOC, Fort Bragg, N.C.
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