BREWER, Maine — Many people look at Memorial Day as time off from work or school marking the unofficial start of summer. Lt. Col. Darryl Lyon, whose Brewer-based Army unit deployed to Iraq in 2006, knows its true meaning.
Staff Sgt. Dale James Kelly Jr., 48, of Richmond and Staff Sgt. David Michael Veverka, 25, a University of Maine senior from Jamestown, Pennsylvania, were killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb on May 6, 2006, while serving under Lyon’s command. Lyon was a captain commanding the 172nd Mountain Infantry when they deployed into harm’s way a decade ago.
“I think that the further you get away from an event, the more it’s magnified — its importance — especially if that event is the loss of two soldiers,” Lyon said recently while standing in the Fallen Heroes conference room at the Brewer Armory, which displays some of the history of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 172nd Mountain Infantry. “You start to see how life has transpired over the decade and how it affects people, and people don’t forget.
“I think that Memorial Day brings that back even more,” he said.
The truck carrying Kelly, Veverka and gunner Spc. Christopher Fraser, then 19, of Windsor was hit as it approached a bridge in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq.
Veverka was fatally wounded in the blast but somehow managed to unbuckle himself, get to Fraser, unsnap him from his post and pull him inside the truck to safety.
Kelly was driving and was killed instantly when the bomb ripped through the vehicle, but his grip on the steering wheel kept the truck from plunging off the bridge into the ravine below.
Kelly, whose nickname was “Doc,” was an employee at Bath Iron Works, where he had worked for 14 years. He was survived by his wife and three grown children.
Veverka was a wildlife ecology student at the University of Maine in Orono.
The two were among 30 Mainers counted among the 4,424 casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom, between March 19, 2003, and Aug. 31, 2010, according to Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs data. They are also part of an honored group of Maine residents down through history who gave their lives for their country.
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was first observed May 30, 1868, when Gen. John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, or Union Army, ordered flowers be placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery after the Civil War. The holiday later was changed to honor all Americans who died while fighting in any war, and it officially became a national holiday in 1971.
Following is a short list of Mainers whose sacrifice the day commemorates:
World War II
Second Lt. Onias Martin, a native of Madawaska, died on a narrow French country road just outside the village of Bonnetable while serving in the 5th Armored Infantry Division during World War II.
The 5th was making its way to Paris when he was struck by a wayward shell fired from a French cannon that had been commandeered by two young German soldiers on Aug. 10, 1944.
He was the only American killed in the town that was freed from German control by the 5th, and is remembered as a hero. Seven decades later, the town still honors his sacrifice.
Martin was one of 21,000 Americans killed during Operation Overlord — a campaign that began with the invasion of beaches in Normandy and ended with the liberation of Paris — during the summer of 1944.
The 25-year-old Mainer was one of 15 children born to Denis and Alphonsine Martin and had aspired to play professional baseball.
World War II started with Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland in September 1939 and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 50 million people, including 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The U.S. entered WWII when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and sent more than 16 million troops to Europe and the Pacific. More than 405,000 didn’t come home, including 2,551 from Maine.
Korean War
On Nov. 22, 1952, a 34-year-old Portland native flew his badly damaged fighter plane into an enemy artillery battery in North Korea in order to protect friendly forces on the ground.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Charles J. Loring Jr., for whom Loring Air Force Base was named, was posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions while leading four F-80 aircraft on a mission near Sniper Ridge, North Korea.
He was assigned to the 80th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing. During the mission, he was ordered to dive-bomb enemy gun positions which were harassing friendly ground troops, his Medal of Honor listing states.
After his aircraft was damaged, the listing states, Loring “elected to sacrifice his life by diving his aircraft directly into the midst of the enemy emplacements. His selfless and heroic action completely destroyed the enemy gun emplacement and eliminated a dangerous threat to United Nations ground forces.”
“Maj. Loring distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty,” the listing states.
The Korean War, often called America’s “Forgotten War,” started on June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea. The U.S. sent more than 5.7 million men and women servicemembers to aid South Korea, and 36,574 died, 241 of them from Maine. The armistice that halted the conflict was signed on July 27, 1953.
Vietnam War
Maine sent 48,000 soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War, which started in 1954 and lasted until 1975. The U.S. contributed more than 8.7 million troops to support South Vietnam in its conflict with North Vietnam. More than 58,000 Americans died overseas, including 343 from Maine.
One of them was Sgt. Brian L. Buker.
Buker was born in Benton, grew up in Albion and enlisted in the Army in Bangor. He followed in the footsteps of his three older brothers who also enlisted, and all four went to Vietnam. They safely returned stateside.
The youngest Buker, age 20, however, went back for a second tour. Brian Buker was assigned to Detachment B-55, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces in the Chau Doc Province, Vietnam.
He was ordered to take Chau Doc Mountain on April 5, 1970, but his platoon became trapped between two heavily fortified enemy bunkers.
“Realizing that withdrawal would result in heavy casualties, Sgt. Buker unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his personal safety, charged through the hail of enemy fire and destroyed the first bunker with hand grenades,” his online Special Forces memorial states. “While reorganizing his men for the attack on the second bunker, Sgt. Buker was seriously wounded. Despite his wounds and the deadly enemy fire, he crawled forward and destroyed the second bunker.”
Shortly thereafter he was fatally wounded.
For his gallantry, Buker was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
He is buried at Brown Cemetery in Benton, Maine, and in 2010 his family donated his Medal of Honor and other memorabilia to his alma mater, Lawrence High School in Fairfield.
His Medal of Honor, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross and Combat Infantryman Badge are on display in the school’s library.
Somalia
A Medal of Honor was awarded to a Lincoln man whose death was memorialized in Ridley Scott’s 2002 movie, “Black Hawk Down.”
U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, 33, died on Oct. 3, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, when two Black Hawk helicopters went down and he and fellow sniper Randall Shughart went in to defend the crew of one aircraft and were killed in action.
“When Master Sergeant Gordon learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the second crash site, he and another sniper unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site,” his Medal of Honor listing states.
His commander said no, but Gordon didn’t take no for an answer.
“After his third request to be inserted, Master Sergeant Gordon received permission to perform his volunteer mission” and he and Shughart were lowered into the chaotic scene.
After using all his ammunition and losing Shughart, Gordon returned to the wreckage where pilot Michael Durant was the lone survivor, and provided him with a recovered rifle that had only five rounds of ammunition.
“Good luck,” Gordon is reported to have said to Durant, as he headed back to engage the enemy, armed with only his service pistol.
Durant survived and both Gordon and Shughart were posthumously awarded the nation’s highest honor for bravery by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
A total of 29 U.S. military personnel died as a result of hostile action in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope from 1992-94, according to the Department of Defense.
Members of the Marine Corps League Greater Lincoln Area Detachment 976 are working to raise money to add a sculpture monument in his honor.
Afghanistan
The most recent Mainer to die in service to his country was Sgt. Corey Garver of Topsham, who died in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Garver, 26, was serving with B Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
He died June 23, 2013, in Zormat, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, a Department of Defense notice said.
He is one of 18 from Maine who have died so far in the conflict that continues today and has taken the lives of 2,215 service members from across the country.
Garver’s father was a career Navy man, and Corey Garver followed in his footsteps into the military, his friend Sgt.1st Class Rodney Gagnon of Topsham, who was an Army recruiter stationed in Utah when Garver died, said at the time. Garver graduated from Mt. Ararat High School before joining the military, his friend said.
“He loved the Army,” Gagnon said. “I remember the day he enlisted. He was very excited.”
Lyon said all the men and women in military uniforms who have laid down their lives should be remembered on Memorial Day. He said it doesn’t matter if the person was a cook or a colonel, their sacrifice should never be forgotten.
“As I get further and further away, I realize how important the guys who came before us are,” the lieutenant colonel said. “Memorial Day means more when you realize they were looking out for you.”