Photo By Staff Sgt. Sydney Mariette | A portrait of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Weston Lee previously hung in the fieldhouse at Camp...... read more read more
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CAMP TAJI, IRAQ – To lose a service member in the line of duty is everyone’s worst fear on deployment – for the family, for the command team, for the fellow service members. Sadly, it does happen and when it does, everyone is impacted whether they knew the fallen as a friend or merely a familiar face on the same base. Thus, it is common to erect memorials for the deceased as a means of paying respect and keeping their memory alive. When they gave the ultimate sacrifice, it is the least we can do as brothers and sisters in arms. Yet, what happens to these tributes to service when U.S. forces no longer control the base?
On August 23, 2020, Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve transferred Camp Taji, Iraq to the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Forces. After six years of use by thousands of Coalition service members, this is a lengthy and detailed process. It requires a balancing act between the shipping of equipment and movement of troops while maintaining base operations and security.
Amidst all the activity, two Coalition members inherited a delicate task. The base contains more than two dozen murals honoring the U.S. and international units previously residing on Camp Taji. Chaplain (Capt.) Joel Reynolds, and Sgt. Terri Faye Doughten, religious affairs specialist, deployed from the 168th Military Police Battalion, Tennessee Army National Guard, took on the unique mission of preserving the memorials found around Camp Taji.
“On one hand it is very practical,” said Reynolds. “When transitioning a base we do not want to leave behind anything that can be vandalized or defaced. On an emotional or even spiritual level, I found it to be important to make sure the memorials were handled with the proper care they deserved.”
Reynolds noted most memorials were unit murals, a tradition among deployed units to commemorate their time deployed. These hand-painted murals depicted unit mascots, names, home stations and other artistic touches such as helicopters, desert scenery and military insignia. With no formal marking or registration process for memorials on Camp Taji, the Chaplain team had to canvas the base and identify more than 25 unit tributes on site.
With many of the murals deemed too large to move, some over 10 feet tall and painted on heavy concrete “T-wall” barriers, they were designated as “non-transferable” and documented with photographs before being sanitized by painting over the artwork.
Among the two-dozen unit tributes, one was particularly important to the chaplain team, as it honored a U.S. Soldier killed in action while serving at Taji. Fortunately, it was small enough to preserve and transport.
“For most of the mission, it was simply T-walls of previous unit's deployments,” said Reynolds. “However, when we found 1st Lt. Lee's memorial, we worked swiftly to make sure it was taken into our custody and moved to his former unit. For someone who paid the ultimate sacrifice it was very humbling to help preserve his memory.”
1st Lt. Weston Lee was an infantry officer assigned to 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Lee was killed April 29, 2017 while serving his first deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. He died from injuries sustained when an explosive device detonated during a patrol outside Mosul, Iraq. As a tribute to his sacrifice, the fieldhouse at Camp Taji was renamed in his honor and his portrait was prominently displayed.
As a portable item, Reynolds and Doughten documented and secured the portrait. They reached out to the 82nd Airborne Division unit currently in theater and delivered the portrait to Capt. Tyler Morgan, commander for Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 325th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
“Charlie Company is humbled that we will be able to transport the 1st Lt. Weston Lee memorial back the United States and offer it to his family,” said Morgan. “It is the responsibility of this historic unit to never forget the sacrifice of the paratroopers who came before us. Upon redeploying, we look forward to offering it to the Lee family as a token of our continued appreciation for their son's service and sacrifice to this great nation.”
Reynolds said he was frequently asked why the memorial mission fell to him and his team, and he felt the response was simple.
“One of the core competencies of an Army chaplain is to ‘honor the fallen,’ and we often act as unofficial unit historians due to that,” said Reynolds. “It made perfect sense for a unit ministry team to see this mission through.”
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2020 03:32 |
| Story ID: | 376624 |
| Location: | CAMP TAJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 428 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Honoring the fallen: A chaplain’s account of preserving memorials, by SSG Sydney Mariette, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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