Pocatello Idaho;"Vietnam veteran Gary Richardson hammers a cross commemorating a casualty of the Iraq war into the Field of Heroes at Irving Middle School's football field Sunday afternoon. The Field of Heroes will open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on today, Tuesday and Wednesday. A special ceremony on Thursday, Veterans Day, will begin at 10 a.m..... >>>What was once a football field is now hallowed ground. Sunday morning, Angie Cook started four solid days of camping behind Irving Middle School and patrolling the track on her bicycle to keep out vandals. There's a registry for people to write their feelings about the sacrifices of the deceased. There will be flowers and wreaths, and there have already been tears.It took all of Sunday for Cook and a group of volunteers to convert the grassy playing field into a cemetery, and a visual symbol of what the country has lost. Family members of Jerrick M. Petty III, a soldier from Idaho Falls who was killed in Iraq Dec. 10, 2003, Mayor Roger Chase and military dignitaries will speak from a podium on the 50-yard line during a Thursday Veterans Day service. It will be followed by a candlelight vigil.Small, wooden crosses are perfectly placed in rows of three. Volunteers used a tape measure to stake each row exactly 3 feet apart and crosses in the rows precisely 6 feet from one another. American flags line the sidelines. "Just appreciate these are our guys who have died, and we're not going to forget them," John Rogers, a Vietnam veteran, said while he carefully hammered a white cross into the earth. Each cross is labeled with the name of an American soldier and the date that soldier died. The 143 crosses from the conflict in Afghanistan stretch from the south endzone to the 5-yard line. Rogers calls the other 95 yards Iraq. It's covered with 1,128 crosses, and counting. Rogers knows the numbers precisely. He wouldn't dare forget a single soldier.Blank crosses are at the ready to post for soldiers who may die before Veterans Day. Irving teacher Raejean Cates and her husband, Mark, built the crosses with donated wood and paint. Irving's librarian made all of the laminated names. It took them nearly three weeks to make the crosses. Sunday morning, members of the U.S. Marine Corps arrived at the field to place emblems on the crosses of their deceased - 275 enlisted Marines plus several reservists. After several minutes of posting emblems, a few of the Marines approached Cook with teary eyes. "They said, 'Oh my gosh! I didn't realize there were so many," Cook said. "They cried, and I gave them a big hug." There are eight larger crosses with the names and stories of the Idaho soldiers who were killed in combat. The most recent cross is dated Sept. 26, 2004, a memorial to Capt. Eric L. Allton, of Boise, who was killed during a mortar attack in Ramadi, Iraq. During the Veteran's Day service, the volunteers will hand out carnations for people to place next to the crosses of their loved ones. They also encourage people to bring their own flowers and tributes. The cemetery will be open for viewing today through Wednesday from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m.The city has a tree draped with 60 yellow ribbons containing the names and ranks of Idaho soldiers. Rogers hopes to obtain additional names of hundreds more Idaho soldiers to add to the tree, which will be displayed at City Hall until Nov. 15. Upon their return, members of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, made of Vietnam veterans and their families, give the ribbons to the soldiers. Idaho soldiers in the Boise-based 1-148th Field Artillery Battalion are expected to leave for Iraq in December."These guys are choked up about it, and it means a million dollars to them," Rogers said. "These are top-flight kids. I am proud that they're serving the country the way that they are. You would be proud to know every one of them. We're not bemoaning the dead. We want to say everyone in Afghanistan and Iraq is of that same quality. We want to teach these school kids that." I live by this school and I watched them work on it all day Sunday and Monday, I tip a hat to these people that worked so hard to, Allow us all the blessing to be able to pay respect to those who gave their life to fight for what they believed in and us. For giving their life's also For the......United States Of America
We will miss you Dearly...
