Honors at the Memorial
Retired Brigadier General Jim Yarbrough set the tone for the
173d Airborne Brigade Memorial Foundations Honors Ceremony conducted on 11 June at the Brigades
Memorial on the National Infantry Museums Walk of Honor.
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On 1 June 2010, at the Soldiers Center and Patriots Park near Fort Benning, GA, the long awaited 173d Airborne Brigade Memorial was dedicated. An estimated 2,200 spectators attended the hour long ceremony.
The sky was clear, temperatures warm, and the Fort Benning Garrison band was playing as the crowd observed a combined US-Australian-New Zealand Color Guard rise from below the horizon and advance the colors to the stadium where the crowd was seated. The colors were presented to Brigadier General James Yarbrough, the first Commander of the reactivated Brigade.
Following appropriate honors, General Yarbrough addressed the crowd and was followed at the podium by CSM Nicholas Rolling (representing current 173d ABCT Commander COL James Johnson), Australian Major General John Caligari, New Zealand Brigadier A. D. Gawn, and 173d Airborne Brigade Memorial Foundation President Ken Smith.
The ceremony then moved from the stadium adjacent to the National Infantry Museum Parade field to the high ground overlooking the stadium and museum where the memorial is located. Four wreathes were presented. The first was in honor of the Vietnam era veterans and their fallen comrades by Vietnam veterans and Gold Star family members. The second and third wreathes, presented by the Australian and New Zealand delegations, honored the veterans and fallen from those countries. The fourth wreath, honoring Sky Soldiers of the reactivated brigade and their fallen, was presented by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan and Gold Star family members who lost warriors during these deployments.
The ceremony concluded with a rifle salute, a haunting rendition of Taps that left few dry eyes in the crowd, and a Piper who walked the inner perimeter of the granite tables while playing a simple but solemn rendition of Amazing Grace. A helicopter flyover completed the formal events.
During remarks following the ceremony and at his briefing to the 173d Airborne Brigade Association membership at the tremendous Association Annual Reunion hosted by Chapter XXX at Myrtle Beach, Memorial Foundation President Ken Smith emphasized that the work of the Foundation is far from over. Donations are still needed for a "Perpetual Care" fund to maintain the memorial and to add new data from Afghanistan deployments OEF VIII (completed in 2008) as well as OEF X, currently underway. For information on how to contribute to the Perpetual Care Fund, click on "Memorial Donations" link above.