Photo By Spc. Mark Bowman | Sgt. Celina Carter, a human resources sergeant assigned to Headquarters and...... read more read more
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FORT CARSON, Colo. - Eighty years after D-Day, community partners from Colorado Springs and Fort Carson Soldiers gathered at Manhart Field, June 6, 2024, on Fort Carson to honor the Ivy Soldiers who stormed Utah Beach in 1944.
The 4th Infantry Division conducted its inaugural D-Day ceremony at Fort Carson with a museum tour, wreath-laying, helicopter flyover and infantry demonstration, and reaffirmed the oath of enlistment for 12 Soldiers.
“As you think back 80 years, and try to envision what it might have been like storming a beach, I ask you to let your imagination take that flyover, and the squad of steely-eyed killers bounding across the field, and multiply by about 100,000,” said Col. Michael Wagner, chief of staff for the 4th Infantry Division.
After the squad demonstration, Wagner laid a memorial wreath to honor the sacrifices Ivy Soldiers made to defend the world’s freedom.
Helping him in laying the wreath was Sgt. Celina Carter, a human resources sergeant assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Div.
Carter’s grandfather, Tech. Sgt. Bernard Carter, served in the Army as a mechanic with the Tuskegee Airmen during WWII.
“Just knowing that, it’s such an honor to continue that legacy,” said Carter, who was the youngest of the re-enlisting Soldiers.
For community members, witnessing Soldiers reaffirm their oath of enlistment was heartwarming, said Donna Watkins, a Friend of Fort Carson and niece to four uncles who went ashore in the first wave at D-Day.
“One of the ways that we honor their legacy is to continue our service to the same ideals that they fought to protect — to be ready to defend the ideas enshrined in our Constitution,” said Wagner. “We are grateful for our friends in this great community who support us in that endeavor.”
After the ceremony, attendees were encouraged to explore a static display of Stryker vehicles manned by Ivy Soldiers.
| Date Taken: | 06.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.07.2024 17:05 |
| Story ID: | 473400 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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