There are 15 names engraved on the bottom right corner of the Clark County Veterans War Memorial, in memory of the 15 Clark County men who have died in conflicts overseas since Sept. 11, 2001.
Their names also represent the widows who lost their husbands, the kids who never got to know their dads and the parents who lost their sons too soon.
For the families, it’s more than a name carved into granite, and it’s for them that this year saw the beginning of a series of memorials scheduled on the anniversary of each fallen serviceman’s death.
The Never to be Forgotten ceremonies, organized by the Community Military Action Committee and the Patriot Guard Riders, seeks to offer those loved ones some sort of peace, said Lynn Vaughn, Southwest Washington district captain of the Patriot Guard Riders.
Remembrance ceremony
The sacrifice of Army Pfc. Andrew J. Shields, who was killed in 2008 in Afghanistan, will be honored Friday.
The ceremony, to be held on the 11th anniversary of Shields’ death, will be at the Clark County War Memorial at Vancouver Barracks.
Shields was killed by a suicide car bomb May 31, 2008, in Jalalabad City, Afghanistan.
The Community Military Appreciation Committee is asking the Patriot Guard Riders and community members to stand in remembrance during Friday’s ceremony.
Family and guest arrival will be at 11:30 a.m., followed by the Never to be Forgotten ceremony at noon. The remembrance ceremony is scheduled to conclude at 12:30 p.m.
The Clark County War Memorial is at Fort Vancouver Way and McClellan Drive at the Fort Vancouver National Site.
Vaughn has been a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle group that shows up to events honoring fallen servicemen, for the last decade.
Part of the role of the Riders is to escort service members’ bodies from the airport to the cemetery. That job put Vaughn in contact with many local families grieving the loss of a loved one.
“I actually helped bring a lot of these soldiers home from the war,” Vaughn said. “I kept in touch with a lot of the families over the years, and I saw that they were actually grieving behind the scenes.”
Vaughn watched them struggle for closure, he said. Striking the balance between moving forward and honoring the past is hard, and often traumatic.
“They would show up to the Veterans Day parade, and they would be carrying their son’s or husband’s pictures down the street,” Vaughn said. “You could just tell by talking to them that they were still grieving in their own way, and this was the only way they had at that time of telling people that their loved one meant something to this community and them personally.”
Vaughn teamed up with Larry Smith, of the Community Military Action Committee, to set up a more personal way of honoring the fallen servicemen and their families.
The idea for a rotating cycle of memorials — every three years, to be held on the anniversary of each serviceman’s death — rose out of a desire to guarantee to families that the community had not and would not forget their loved one’s sacrifice. There would always be a reminder coming up.
“As long as they have a legal residence in Clark County, we’ll pick them up and put them on the wall,” Smith said.
Holding the ceremonies every three years prevents burnout, he said, in both the organizers and families.
There’s comfort in closure, Vaughn added, but there’s also comfort in knowing that Clark County won’t move on from losing one of its own. That knowledge, in itself, can help facilitate closure.
“I saw that they really needed more special recognition than just their names on the wall and a Memorial Day service,” he said. “(We needed) to ensure the community has the opportunity to step up and be with the family on that given day and say, ‘We care. We’re here.'”
Getting the names and contact information of family of the 15 men was a complicated undertaking — a lot of families had moved. Some family members had since died. Some wives had remarried, taking different names. Tiny babies had since grown.
It involved a lot of research on Facebook, Vaughn said, and cold calling. His job in real estate made it easier to find names and addresses, and he’s been able to track down contacts for all 15 names on the wall.
In the end, not every ceremony was the same. For one, a group of nieces, nephews, siblings and grandparents crowded onto the Clark County War Memorial.
For another ceremony, Smith said, it was just the fallen soldier’s brother — one man, a circle of Patriot Guard Riders and a group of community members who came out.
Grief isn’t one-size-fits-all, Vaughn added. It’s complicated, and as life moves forward, the memorials can stir up complicated feelings. But complicated is better than forgotten, he said.
On Friday, the Community Military Action Committee and the Patriot Guard Riders will hold their final Never to be Forgotten ceremony of the year for Army Pfc. Andrew Shields, killed 11 years ago in Jalabad City, Afghanistan.
The cycle of ceremonies will start again Aug. 13, 2021, to honor Marine Lance Cpl. Kane Funke.
