{"id":13364,"date":"2009-08-07T12:32:56","date_gmt":"2009-08-07T17:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=13364"},"modified":"2009-08-07T13:48:53","modified_gmt":"2009-08-07T18:48:53","slug":"we-lost-you-five-years-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=13364","title":{"rendered":"We lost you five years ago today…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has it been so long?<\/p>\n

We haven’t forgotten you guys, and we won’t.<\/p>\n

H\/t to My battle Buddy, Schwilman, and Sniper for the pics<\/a>, he has more over at his shop.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SSG Cherry<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"SSG<\/dt>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SGT Bobby Beasley<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Battalion salutes its first fallen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soldiers of the 29th Division remembered two soldiers killed in action on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By John Cramer<\/p>\n

GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan \u2014 Two hours before it was time for the dead to be remembered Monday, Sgt. Maj. Mike McGhee walked to the middle of the gravel compound in Camp Ghazni.
\nHe toed the rocks aside, clearing a patch of dirt so he could pivot cleanly when he called his fellow Virginia Army National Guardsmen to attention.<\/p>\n

“You want to do it right,” he said, quietly.<\/p>\n

At 10 a.m. precisely, he did just that, making a warrior\u2019s graceful about-face and ordering the men of the 3rd Battalion upright.<\/p>\n

Several hundred men \u2014 some gray-haired, some teenagers, some tearful, some angry \u2014 snapped to attention.<\/p>\n

It was time for a battlefield goodbye to two of their own and a native son of this war-torn Central Asian nation.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after arriving on the front lines of the war on terrorism, 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, suffered its first casualties Saturday at the hands of Taliban militants.<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Craig W. Cherry, 39, of Winchester, and Sgt. Bobby E. Beasley, 36, of Inwood, W.Va., died when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their Humvee during a routine patrol, according to the Department of Defense. An Afghan interpreter also was killed but his name has not been released.<\/p>\n

The attack occurred on a dirt road between two remote villages in the southern part of the province, about a four-hour drive from the 3rd Battalion’s headquarters at Camp Ghazni.<\/p>\n

The patrol passed over a bridge spanning a murky green river in the desert and was making the long climb out of a rugged ravine when an explosion tore through the armored vehicle.<\/p>\n

Cherry, Beasley and their interpreter died at the scene.<\/p>\n

The vehicle’s only survivor, 1st Lt. Heath Phillips, scrambled to his feet and briefly took command of the scene until medics started treating him for broken ribs.<\/p>\n

U.S. and Afghan soldiers searched the nearby village, kicking down some doors in their quest, but the bomber escaped.<\/p>\n

“If we\u2019d found him” and he had resisted, “he\u2019d be dead,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jim Shepard of Company A, the patrol\u2019s leader. “I\u2019d have made sure of that.”<\/p>\n

The guardsmen stayed at the scene that night, holding a prayer service and gathering debris from the destroyed vehicle.<\/p>\n

“We weren\u2019t going to leave any souvenirs for those f—ing savages,” Shepard said. “I don\u2019t just want the guy who pulled the trigger. I want the guy who made” the bomb. “I\u2019ll come back here as long as it takes. I\u2019m going to leave them with a U.S.-made brass tattoo.”<\/p>\n

The next day, the soldiers made the long drive back in a sandstorm, arriving after nightfall and entering the base through a silent honor guard of soldiers standing at attention.<\/p>\n

The Americans\u2019 bodies already had been flown to the United States and the young interpreter\u2019s body to Kabul, where their families were waiting.<\/p>\n

Cherry was scheduled to retire from the Guard in six months. He leaves behind a wife, two teenage children and an 8-month-old son.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018I never thought this would happen,\u2019\u2019 said his father, Roy Cherry, of Windham, Maine, where Craig Cherry spent much of his childhood. \u2018\u2018And it hurts. It hurts bad.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Cherry entered the Army after graduating from high school in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Roy Cherry said his son was eager to lead the younger men in his unit.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Unfortunately, he was the first one killed,\u2019\u2019 Cherry said. \u2018\u2018My son, he\u2019s one of the best. There\u2019s no way around it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Beasley married his wife, Juanita, four years ago, according to his brother, John Beasley. Bobby Beasley worked at Kraft General Foods in Winchester.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s memorial ceremony opened with an invocation by the battalion\u2019s chaplain, Maj. Tim Mattison, who wished the three men Godspeed.<\/p>\n

The battalion stood in front of an ad-hoc memorial \u2014 made not of stone or marble but of plywood, 2×6\u2019s and nails painstakingly crafted into a temporary tribute by the guardsmen.<\/p>\n

Three flags \u2014 of the United States, Afghanistan and Virginia \u2014 flew at half-staff, rippling in a warm desert wind.<\/p>\n

Below, another two Stars and Stripes and one more Afghan flag were tied tautly across wooden racks standing upright in front of three boxes draped in camouflage cloth.<\/p>\n

The soldiers’ and interpreter\u2019s colleagues took turns approaching the boxes and setting upon them the personal and military remnants of the three men\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

First, photographs of the dead were propped between bricks stamped with “911” \u2014 an Afghan brickmaker\u2019s tribute to the tragedy brought to America and the resurrection to Afghanistan by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Then came the combat boots, bayonets, rifles, helmets and dog tags of the soldiers \u2014 the timeless sculpture to a dead warrior \u2014 and the sandals and black-and-white scarf of the interpreter.<\/p>\n

Roll was called for the anti-armor section, known as “Tows” for the missiles they fire. Every soldier responded but the two, whose names were repeated three times, a symbolically plaintive quest that went unanswered.<\/p>\n

A seven-man rifle squad fired three times, and a bugler played taps, the echo of the gunfire and musical sorrow carrying across the compound.<\/p>\n

Several soldiers wept. Three men collapsed from the emotion and morning heat.<\/p>\n

Finally, the anti-armor soldiers \u2014 13 of them \u2014 filed past the memorial. Each stopped and saluted. Some whispered final words of goodbye.<\/p>\n

Some held back their tears. Many could not, including Phillips, the lone survivor, who walked painfully away to cry alone.<\/p>\n

Spc. Ron Creswell joined the National Guard with Beasley 12 years ago.<\/p>\n

“I lost my buddy,” he said, tearing up. “It\u2019s a nightmare I just can\u2019t wake up from.”<\/p>\n

Spc. Ian Kenney said, “One day they\u2019re here, the next they\u2019re not. It\u2019s shock, just shock.”<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re just missing them,” said Spc. Jonathan Fournier.<\/p>\n

Spc. Gary Miller said, “My crew\u2019s gone and I\u2019m still here.”<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. Eric Horne, a Roanoke police officer in civilian life, said the deaths hit the battalion hard.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve buried a few friends, but a lot of these young guys aren\u2019t used to losing someone they have coffee with and play ball with and eat breakfast with,” he said. “It\u2019s a terrible thing.”<\/p>\n

McGhee said the deaths have united the battalion even more.<\/p>\n

“One positive is it makes the unit tighter,” he said. “The love these guys have for each other gets more concentrated. That sounds strange to say, but it\u2019s the brotherhood of soldiers. It\u2019s a hell of a cost to pay.”<\/p>\n

Staff Sgt. John King of Roanoke also knew the men.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just unreal,” he said.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony, a young anti-armor soldier shook the right hands of his colleagues and slipped something into their left hands \u2014 a shell casing from the 21-gun salute he\u2019d picked up from the ground, a brass keepsake for two fallen comrades.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has it been so long? We haven’t forgotten you guys, and we won’t. H\/t to My … We lost you five years ago today…<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}