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‘National treasures,’ lost

Oct- 4-2007 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

MIKE ARCHBOLD; The News Tribune

Six helmets, six rifles, six pairs of buff-colored combat boots, six framed photographs. They proclaimed the memory of six locally based soldiers who died last month in Iraq. All were members of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – the only Fort Lewis infantry unit that remains in Iraq after its sister brigade returned home in recent weeks.

All of the men were in their 20s. Five were from the same battalion. Three were killed in the same explosion.

Family, friends, fellow soldiers and other members of the Fort Lewis family came together to honor the six Wednesday afternoon at the Main Post Chapel.

The fallen were:

• Cpl. Nicholas P. Olson, Cpl. Donald E. Valentine III and Cpl. Joseph N. Landry III, who were fatally wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Muqdadiyah, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad.

• Cpl. Luigi Marciante Jr., who died two days later in the same city, also a victim of an improvised explosive.

• Cpl. David L. Watson, who died of wounds sustained in a noncombat-related accident.

• Cpl. Graham M. McMahon, who died of a noncombat-related illness.

News this week of lower death tolls among U.S. soldiers last month in Iraq seemed distant and irrelevant inside the chapel, where both the stoic and the tearful faced the reality of war.

Maj. Chad Sundem, 4th Brigade rear detachment commander, said he was driving home recently and found himself crying as he had as a 6-year-old at his grandmother’s funeral. He was struck by having no answers as to why these men should die so young.

Wednesday was his 10th time, he said, holding a service for a total of 27 “national treasures … all them wonderful friends, sons, brothers, fathers – courageous, brave.”

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