CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Soldiers and guests viewed the 25th Infantry Division (Light) War Memorial yesterday after its unveiling at Schofield Barracks. The statue represents soldiers who fought last year in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three other statues depicting soldiers from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War are planned.

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Saluting sacrifices

A Schofield Barracks memorial
honors service in four wars

Schofield Barracks observed a historic chapter of the 25th Infantry Division yesterday by honoring the 4,000 soldiers who spent a year in Afghanistan and by unveiling a memorial to the soldiers who served and died in four U.S. wars.

"Sacrifices without remembrance is meaningless," said Morgan "Butch" Sincock, who served as a company commander with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1968. He referred to the many decades it took to build the Vietnam War wall memorial, the Korean War memorial and the World War II monument in Washington, D.C.

"It took too long," added Sincock, 57, moments before a life-size bronze statue of a Tropic Lightning soldier was unveiled.

The statue, representing Tropic Lightning soldiers who fought last year in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the first of four bronze figures that will honor 25th Division soldiers who fought in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We aren't going to let that happen again," said Sincock, executive director of the 25th Infantry Division Association, which is paying for the $450,000 memorial. The association has raised $76,000 so far. Sincock wants to unveil the final part of the memorial in September 2006 as part of its annual convention here.

"That is why we stand here today to dedicate this memorial. The boys of Guadalcanal, the Kumwah Valley and Ia Drang are determined to see that the young men and women of Iraq and Afghanistan are honored now, not decades from now."

Sincock added, "If you look into the magnificent face of this soldier that we will soon unveil, you will understand how a soldiers feels, how a veteran feels about their friends lost in combat."

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM The Tropic Lightning band played during the Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan Appreciation Ceremony held yesterday at Schofield Barracks.

The four sculptures, each weighing 500 pounds, will be placed inside a 17-foot-diameter circle in front of the flagpole on Sills Field at the division's headquarters building. An 18-inch rock wall surrounds the memorial, which has benches and six Manila palm trees.

Liverton, who also created the Stan Sheriff sculpture at the University of Hawaii arena, said the model for the Vietnam War soldier will be a black solder. She plans to use her grandfather, Bernard Weiler, who served as a dentist in the Korean War. She has not found a model for the World War II soldier.

Earlier in the afternoon, 4,000 Tropic Lightning soldiers standing in formation before division commander Maj. Gen. Eric Olson paid a silent tribute to the 15 soldiers in his command who died in Afghanistan.

"It is a tremendous honor and privilege," Olson said, "to be present among you -- 4,000 of the nation's finest, soldiers who made significant contributions to the fable story, hallowed history and legendary heritage of the Tropic Lightning Division. ... You pursued and routed the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan who were terrorists who plotted the mass murder of our countrymen.

"You accomplished much to help the Afghan people forge a new and brighter future."

Among the friends and family members attending yesterday's two separate ceremonies were the widows of three Tropic Lightning soldiers killed in Afghanistan -- Lt. Col. Michael McMahon, Spc. Wesley Wells and Chief Warrant Officer Travis Grogan -- and of two soldiers killed in Iraq, Spcs. Ramon Ojeda and Jose Flores.

Maj. Blace Albert, a member of the 65th Engineer Battalion, said the most memorable moment in his seven months in Afghanistan came in October when he helped plan coalition forces support during the country's first democratic elections, when Hamid Karzai was elected president.

Tropic Lightning soldiers moved ballots to polling places, secured them during the Oct. 9 elections and then spent 30 days moving the ballots to where they could be counted, Albert said.

Olson said the Tropic Lightning Division will now "enter a period of most dramatic change in the history of the 25th Division. Transformation will produce the most potent, the most capable fighting formations with more versatility and more adaptability than this command has ever seen in its long history."