Pat Donahue, Coastal Courier
FORT STEWART – No matter the year, nor the weather, Linda Lamie makes the drive north and east from her home in Homerville.
From there, which is between on Valdosta and Waycross on Highway 84, Lamie and her family pay an annual homage at Fort Stewart’s Warriors Walk, visiting the granite marker for her son Sgt. Gene Lamie. He was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3/7 Cavalry Squadron when he was killed July 7, 2006. A roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle, killing him and PFC LeRon Wilson.
“I tell everybody, ‘dying for your country is not the worst thing that could happen,’” she said. “Being forgotten by the country you died for would be the worst.”
For the last 19 years, volunteers have made sure a Christmas wreath is placed along every marker along Warriors Walk. There are 469 soldiers honored along Warriors Walk, which borders Cottrell Field with its rows of crepe myrtles. Twenty-one Gold Star families were on hand Saturday.
“This is the single-most important ceremony of the year and we gather to honor the heroes of our 3rd Infantry Division, who sacrificed their lives for their fellow soldiers and their nation,” said Brig. Gen. John Lubas, commander of the 3rd ID.
Ornaments drape the crape myrtles that form a canopy over Warriors Walk. A platoon of volunteers places the wreaths and hangs the ornaments, and takes them up again next month. Linda Lamie has been decorating trees since the second ceremony, starting with a few trees and then progressing.
“I decided I couldn’t leave the rest of them,” she said. “Gene wouldn’t have left his men, so I couldn’t leave them, either.”
Families, friends and former comrades- in-arms often leave mementos and trinkets at the trees. Col. Alexis Perez-Cruz, the 3rd ID’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team commander, paid a visit to several of the trees, paying his respects to his former soldiers.
“This is a very special day for me every year,” he said. “I know a lot of the families that come out here. More importantly, the families that are not out here, I get to represent them.”
Col. Perez-Cruz was a young officer with the now-defunct 3rd Brigade during the March 2003 invasion, serving with 2/69 Armor Battalion as a platoon leader and then a company executive officer. He eventually commanded D Company in the same battalion for 15 months in Iraq during what was called “the surge,” spending 28 months in all in Iraq.
“For me, it’s especially meaningful,” he said. “A lot of these names mean a lot to me. We get to honor them, think about them, in this living memorial.”
There are six markers and trees dedicated to soldiers in his company from his tour as a company commander.
“It’s more than just trees to me,” he said. “It’s lives – it’s what they meant to their families, what they meant to their friends, what they meant to me as a leader, because we’re brothers.”
Gene Lamie’s brother John also enlisted in the Army and was wounded in action during the surge. Gene joined the Army just before 9/11, and his brother signed up just after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
“He was a great guy. He was a lot of fun,” Linda Lamie said of Gene, who also left behind a toddler daughter and an infant son when he was killed. “He loved his country. He loved the Army. He loved what he was doing. And we’re proud of him.”
Brig. Gen. Lubas, who thanked the Wreaths for Warriors Walk committee for decorating the trees, also issued a reminder to the commanders under his flag.
“It is your duty to ensure that every generation of dogfaced soldiers visits these memorials, learns the stories of our heroes and keeps remembering and their spirit alive,” he said.
“Each tree has a story,” Linda Lamie said. “Say their name, and tell their story, and they are never forgotten.”
Donahue is the General Manager of the Coastal Courier.