Posted on: Saturday, June 11, 2005
Memorial honoring 25th Infantry's fallen heroes unveiled
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Sgt. James Rivera found it a little unnerving to look into the face of the grieving young soldier in a war memorial unveiled yesterday at Schofield Barracks.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser The statue was unveiled during a double ceremony yesterday at Schofield that also included honors on the parade field for the more than 5,000 25th Infantry Division (Light) soldiers who served year-long rotations in Afghanistan. Some returned as recently as Sunday.
An additional 4,000 25th Infantry soldiers had been honored earlier for their service in Iraq.
The new memorial, which stands outside the 25th Infantry Division headquarters on Schofield, was commissioned through private donations by the veterans and volunteers of the 25th Infantry Division Association. A second portion of the memorial will include depictions of 25th ID soldiers who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and is scheduled for completion in September 2006.
Rivera, a Purple Heart recipient who was injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last year, posed for the statue created by artist Lynn Weiler Liverton after he recuperated from wounds to the leg and face.
• Those who wish to donate to the fund for the 25th Infantry Division Association's war memorial may do so by contacting the association at (800) 953-5812.
• More information about the association can be found at www.25thida.com. The figures that will be added — of soldiers who served in three earlier wars — will watch from behind as the contemporary soldier grieves. The earlier soldiers demonstrate the history of the 25th Infantry and show that the modern soldier does not stand alone.
Rivera said he was pleased the memorial honors his comrades who died in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I mean, people call me a hero," Rivera said. "But the real heroes are those people who didn't make it back, and the families of those people who didn't make it back."
Rivera said that while posing for the statue he thought of the day his first sergeant told him his friend and comrade, Specialist David Fraise, had been killed in action.
Fraise was among 15 25th Infantry soldiers killed in Afghanistan. In Iraq, 13 25th Infantry soldiers have died.
During the unveiling ceremony yesterday, Maj. Gen. Eric T. Olson paid tribute to the hundreds of honored guests, most of whom sat beneath three large canopies near the memorial.
When he asked the soldiers who had been wounded in action and awarded Purple Hearts to stand and be recognized, nearly half of those beneath the canopies rose.
Butch Sincock, executive director of the 25th Infantry Division Association and a Vietnam veteran, said that the association's president, retired Maj. Gen. Andrew Anderson, regularly visited 25th Infantry soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Recently, a nurse told Anderson that the medical staff was overwhelmed with all the visitors and well-wishers, Sincock said, and Anderson was pleased.
"Because when Andy was recuperating for one year after being wounded in '68," Sincock said, "the only visitor he had was his wife."
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
"It's weird," Rivera said, as he looked into clay-colored features that reflected his own. "That'll be around longer than me."
The first phase of a memorial honoring veterans of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) and U.S. Army Hawaii was unveiled at Schofield Barracks. The statue was commissioned through private donations.
Dressed in desert camouflage and body armor with his M4 tucked under one arm, the young soldier in the memorial holds his Kevlar helmet over his heart and looks beneath a furrowed brow toward the boots, weapon and helmet of a fallen comrade.
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