82nd forced to expand memorial

[unhappycamper]

82nd forced to expand memorial
By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 15, 2008 8:37:18 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — When the Army’s famed 82nd Airborne Division dedicated its own memorial to paratroopers killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, three sides of the wide granite column were blank. Three years later, there is no more room.

The last name belongs to Sgt. Clayton G. Dunn, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in May 2007. Since then, roughly 50 more names have been etched onto a granite wall that now stands behind the original column — each a grim reminder that the 13-ton granite tower wasn’t big enough to honor all those who have fallen and continue to fall.

“We can put on as many as we need to now,” said retired Command Sgt. Maj. Roger Vickers, who served for 14 years in the 82nd. “The hope is we don’t ever have to put another name on it at all.”

That is unlikely.

The U.S. has lost more than 4,000 soldiers in Iraq and 800 in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 82nd lost 62 paratroopers in 2007, more than in any other year since the wars began. Three separate incidents in Iraq last year claimed the lives of seven or more paratroopers from the 82nd.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_braggmemorial_051508/