Killed in Iraq during a bloody three weeks in July and August, the first Georgia National Guardsmen to die in combat since World War II were honored Thursday alongside fallen active-duty comrades at Fort Stewart.
After a brief memorial service, families wept and left mementos at the root of eastern redbud trees planted in memory of each soldier on Warrior's Walk, the Army post's living memorial to its war dead.
``I don't look at any of them as soldiers,'' said Patti Saylor of Bremen, whose son, Sgt. Paul A. Saylor, died Aug. 15. ``This was my son. He prayed before every mission and he was a person.''
Saylor said she prefers to remember her son as a star linebacker at Bremen High School, a handsome on-stage leading man as Danny Zuko in ``Grease,'' and as the future husband of the finance he planned to marry upon returning from Iraq.
Saylor, 21, of Norcross and two others Sgt. Thomas Strickland, 27, of Douglasville and Spc. Joshua Dingler, 19, of Hiram were killed when their vehicle overturned in a canal during a night mission.
Multiple casualties from back-to-back roadside bombings during 48th Brigade patrols stunned communities across Georgia shortly after its 4,300 troops deployed for a yearlong tour in Iraq in May.
Eleven soldiers died in three separate attacks just 10 days apart.
Robert Stokely's son, 23-year-old Sgt. Michael Stokely of Loganville, was killed Aug. 16 when he stepped on an improvised explosive devise. He had been assigned to a communications unit working with telephone and computer systems, but requested a transfer to a scout unit.
``Mike and the other guys in the 48th, they took the brunt of what the insurgents threw at them,'' Stokely said. ``But Mike told me he wanted to be on the front line. He wanted to be the tip of the sword.''
Sgt. William Rousseau of Milledgeville, home from Iraq on leave, witnessed the first two roadside bombings that killed eight members of his platoon July 24 and July 30.
``We miss these guys like crazy,'' said Rousseau, standing between the trees planted in memory of two of his friends Sgt. Jonathon Haggin, 26, of Kingsland and Sgt. Ronnie Shelley, 34, of Valdosta.
``It'll never go away, it never leaves the memories and the pain and the gross reality of what happens over there every day,'' Rousseau said. ``Every day you go out there, you know that we're not untouchable.''
A total of 18 soldiers of the 48th Brigade have died in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Chad Mercer of Waycross, killed June 30 in a vehicle accident, was memorialized at Fort Stewart last month. Two brigade soldiers killed by a roadside bomb Sept. 1 will be honored at a later ceremony.
Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, commander of the 48th Brigade, said last week his troops will soon leave Camp Striker near Baghdad International Airport to take on combat support and security missions with a reduced chance of direct combat.
``I hope all the rest of them come home, because I'd hate to see anybody else go through what we've been through,'' Saylor said. ``I'm glad they're moving to a safer place. I wish Paul had made it.''
There are 150 soldiers of the 48th based in Gainesville.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/9/125923