Kalamazoo News Archive Tears and tributes at Fort Custer National Cemetery Memorial Day observance Sunday

Kalamazoo News Archive Tears and tributes at Fort Custer National Cemetery Memorial Day observance Sunday

By Jim Borden May 25, 2008, 9:23PM

John A. Lacko | Special to the Kalamazoo GazetteThe Battle Creek High School Air Force ROTC Color Guard retire the colors at the end of the Memorial Day Program at Fort Custer National Cemetery Sunday afternoon.

AUGUSTA -- At the end of Memorial Day ceremonies at Fort Custer National Cemetery, Laura DeRoo, of Paw Paw, and Julia Edds, of White Pigeon, hugged each other, whispering into one another's ears.

They had just joined an exclusive group, recipients of the Gold Star flag, presented to mothers and other survivors of soldiers who have died or been killed in current U.S. military conflicts.

"It doesn't get easier," said Laura DeRoo, whose son, U.S. Army Sgt. Gabriel G. DeRoo, 25, was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on Aug. 20, 2006. "As a family who's lost a son -- it's your life. It's never the same."

Edds agreed.

"This one (Memorial Day) has been hard," said Edds, whose son, 24-year-old U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jonathan Edds died from injuries from an explosive and small-arms fire in Baghdad on Aug. 17, 2007.

"I cry every day, and I know it gets easier to accept. Everyone says it will get easier," said Julia Edds, who attended the event with her husband, the Rev. Barry Edds, pastor of White Pigeon Church of Christ.

The Gold Star flag and a plaque were also presented to Jacqueline Little, mother of U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jason T. Little, 20, of Climax, and to Vicki Dickinson, mother of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Dickinson of Battle Creek. The Fort Custer National Cemetery Advisory Staff also had prepared to present the flags to the survivors of other fallen soldiers, whose families were not in attendance. They were Luis J. Castillo, 20, of Lawton, killed in January 2007; James L. Arnold, 21, of Mattawan, killed in March 2007; and Brian Lee Morris, 38, of Centreville, killed in August 2005.

Both the DeRoos and the Edds have other children who are in the military, and they say they support their children's choices.

"I'm proud of them," Julia Edds said of her two sons who serve. "We stand behind them 100 percent."

The annual Fort Custer Memorial Day remembrance brought out close to 3,000 people, according to program chair Sherry D. Swann. The event started with a flyover by four jets from the Michigan Air National Guard's 110th Fighter Wing. The day was also filled with music, including tributes from Aaron Tyler of the By Chance Gospel Group, whose "God Bless the USA (I'm Proud to be an American)" inspired some of the veterans to lock hands and raise their arms in salute.

Those attending the service included Jack J. Lindsay, 87, of Richland, and his wife, Sally, and daughter, Ann. Lindsay, a retired sergeant major, served in World War II from 1941 to 1945 and in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

"You still don't ever get (over) the feeling of not thinking of the other guys," especially now that the U.S. has soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Lindsay, wearing one of his old Army fatigue green infantry caps. "It kind of sickens you to think of it."

But he was pleased by the turnout. "Just to see the people -- it shows that some people care."



Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga



Hometown: Alpena, Michigan, U.S.

Age: 34 years old

Died: August 22, 2006 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Unit: Navy, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two, serving with the 1st Marine Logistics Group

Incident: Killed when his Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was struck by a makeshift bomb while responding to a previous strike in Anbar Province.

Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga...

I had the honor and privilege today of riding with fellow Patriot Guard Riders on a mission to serve as a member of his pre-memorial service honor guard, as a detail member making up a Corridor of Flags and as a rider in an honor motorcade escorting Chief Darga's family from the chapel at Little Creek Amphibious Base to the memorial reception.

It was an emotional time. 

Chief Darga was killed by an IED in Iraq on the 22nd of August.  He leaves behind Karie, his wife of 12 years and Kailey Rose, his beautiful 2 year old daughter.

Pray that God will rest his soul and grant peace and comfort to his loved ones.
Paul J. Darga—March 2007 Shipment Honoree

Little Creek petty officer killed by bomb in Iraq

Source:  by Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot (August 24, 2006)

Karie Darga 's husband was gone more than he was home the past few years—which made the few months they had together this spring with their young daughter extra special.

Paul J. Darga, a chief petty officer based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, headed back to Iraq in June for his fourth Middle East tour. He was killed by a homemade bomb Tuesday in the Al Anbar province, the Department of Defense announced Thursday. Darga was 34.

"The few months he was home before this deployment we were closer than we've ever been," said Karie Darga, who met her future husband in high school in Alpena, Mich. "If this had to happen, my last memories of him are the best they could be."

Married since 1994, the couple has a 2-year-old daughter, Kailey Rose.

The past 12 months had been momentous for Paul Darga, who was born in Spain and lived in Japan as an Army brat before his father retired and the family moved to Michigan.

Last September, Darga was promoted to chief petty officer. He was a member of the Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two.

Early this year, he spent more than two weeks of leave from the Middle East visiting his mother, who was dying of cancer. He'd been given the option of going to Michigan to see her while she was still alive, or returning to the United States for her funeral, family members said.

"He needed the time with her when she could talk," Karie Darga said from her Norfolk home. "They had some wonderful conversations. He treasured that time." His mother died in March.

On May 26, less than a month before he returned to Iraq, Darga was one of about 20 members of the Little Creek unit awarded a Bronze Star for Valor for their work disposing of bombs, unexploded weapons and weapons caches while in combat. "It meant a lot for him to be honored, but he truly believed he was doing his job," Karie Darga said.

During a six-month deployment that ended in February 2005, the award citation said, Darga oversaw 163 ordnance disposal missions. He supervised the disposal of more than 6,000 pounds of captured explosives, and his team defused 40 IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. "His outstanding performance, dedication to duty and courage while performing his duties under hostile fire were critical to the success of coalition operations under the most extreme and austere conditions," the citation says.

His father and stepmother traveled from Michigan for the ceremony. Jack Darga said Thursday that he had a feeling while saying goodbye to Paul that weekend that he wouldn't see his youngest child again. "For the last six months I just had a premonition," Jack Darga said from his home in Cheboygan, Mich. "I knew it was going to happen."

Lt. Jim Hoeft, a spokesman for the Navy's Expeditionary Combat Command, said Darga is the second Navy explosive ordnance disposal team member to be killed in combat in Iraq. His team had been responding to a strike Tuesday when a second IED exploded, according to the Department of Defense.

Karie Darga said her husband believed completely in the U.S. mission. He knew the risks and was fully trained and confident in his abilities, she said.

Paul Darga started his 16-year Navy career as a Seabee, then went to diving school and joined an underwater construction team at Little Creek. After a number of assignments and 12 months of rigorous EOD training in Florida, Darga and his wife returned to Hampton Roads in April 2002, when he joined Little Creek's EOD Mobile Unit Two.

Two years later, Karie Darga gave birth to their daughter. "His heart began to melt the day I found out that I was pregnant," she said.

In his little free time, Paul Darga enjoyed woodworking and tinkering on his beloved green 1995 Mustang. Karie Darga would work with him under the hood; the couple did everything together, she said.

On Saturday, she said, they spent a few hours on the phone, talking about everything and nothing, reveling in their newfound closeness. They last spoke on Monday, the day before he was killed, for about 15 minutes.

Now her thoughts have turned to planning his memorial service—and figuring out a way to preserve her husband's memory for their daughter. She's decided to create a box in which she and others who loved Paul can place items that help explain to Kailey who her father was.

Source: by MARK WALKER, Staff Writer, North Country Times

A U.S. Navy chief petty officer who specialized in detecting and removing explosives died in a roadside bomb attack in the Anbar province of Iraq, the Defense Department announced.

Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga was killed while responding to an earlier roadside bombing when his team was struck by another improvised explosive device, the military's term for the weapons responsible for a majority of the combat deaths and injuries in Iraq.

Darga was on his second tour of duty in Iraq and was attached to the 1st Marine Logistics Group based at Camp Pendleton. Married and the father of one, he was assigned to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Va.

In May, Darga was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat Valor for his actions during a previous deployment to Iraq… When he was awarded the Bronze Star, Darga was cited for his actions in Iraq from August 2004 to February 2005. During that time, he and his team of specialists identified and rendered safe 40 roadside bombs and a wide array of other explosives, according to the citation accompanying the award.

Darga was a native of Lansing, Mich. He joined the Navy in 1992 and became a chief petty officer in September 2005.

In addition to the Bronze Star, he had three Navy Marine Corps Achievement medals, two Good Conduct medals and a Humanitarian Service Medal.

The members of Landstuhl Hospital Care Project were honored to remember Paul during the month of March 2007 with our shipments to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and U.S. military hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our thoughts and prayers remain with Paul's family and friends today and in the years to come.

A lasting tribute

Diane Speer POSTED: September 20, 2009

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday at the Besser Museum to honor two fallen heroes from Northeast Michigan who paid the ultimate price while serving their country in Iraq.

A new Fallen Heroes Memorial dedicated to Navy Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga and Army Sgt. Allen A. Greka was unveiled on the museum grounds as family members, brothers in arms both active and retired, and the community at large turned out in full support. The solemn and dignified dedication ceremony, which started with a military helicopter flyover, included several brief but heartfelt messages.

Skip Bushart, president of the Fallen Heroes Memorial Foundation and himself the father of a soldier killed in action, served as master of ceremonies. The monument in Alpena is the 24th one Bushart has helped to dedicate in Michigan for a soldier from the state who was killed during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In presenting the invocation, Father David Greka spoke about how both men "shed their blood so that we could live in a free and democratic society."

That theme was echoed by guest speakers U.S. Navy Commander Master Chief Richard Hastings and Col. Ewin (Sam) Sansom, base commander of the Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena. The two were overcome with emotion as they reflected on how selflessly Alpena's two fallen heroes served their country, and they urged the community to never forget what they did.

"They figured out there's more to life than themselves" Hastings said of Darga and Greka. "They figured what it means to have honor and display honor. They honor their moms and dads, their wives and children, their hometowns and their state, and ultimately they honor their country by making the ultimate sacrifice."

Besser Museum Facilities Manager Randy Shultz, who spearheaded efforts to raise $10,000 for the monument, expressed appreciation to the families of both men for wanting it placed on the museum grounds.

Sansom told the crowd the monument honors Darga and Greka so they are never forgotten and that it is appropriately installed at the museum.

"Part of the museum's purpose is to educate," Sansom said. "We want to educate kids on what it takes to be a free country. We want anyone bringing kids to the museum to stop at this memorial and remember."

Ashes from an American flag and a sampling of earth taken from each of the succeeding 23 memorial sites throughout the state was combined with the soil at the museum and then blended into the concrete that formed the base for the Fallen Heroes Memorial. Bushart said that each of the soldiers brothers in life and unified in purpose are now together in death and not to be forgotten.

Soil taken from the ground at the museum also will now become a part of any future memorials that are erected in Michigan until, according to Bushart, there are no more monuments to be built.

"May our great nation never forget these brave men who made the ultimate sacrifice," Bushart said.

Saturday's ceremony also included a posting and retiring of the colors by VFW Post #2496, singing of the national anthem by Nancy Everett, performance of "Remember the Fallen Heroes" song written by local resident Calvin Howard, a bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace" and "Taps" by Doug Frame, and the raising of the American flag and a Lest They Be Forgotten flag for the fallen.

Diane Speer can be reached via e-mail at lifestyles@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5691

This newly erected Fallen Heroes Memorial — the 24th one in Michigan — was installed Saturday on the grounds of the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan.

Alex, SSG Eugene H. E. Fort Wainwright, Alaska and formerly of Reese Funeral services will take place at 2:00 p.m., Monday, September 11, 2006 from Christ Lutheran Church in Reese. Pastor Tom Senge will officiate. Eugene's family will receive friends at the Ware-Smith-Woolever Funeral Home, 9940 Saginaw Street, Reese on Sunday from 12:00 noon until 8:00 p.m. and at the church on Monday from 1:00 p.m. until time of service. Full Military Honors will be presented under the direction of the Ft. Knox 16th Calvary Regiment. Those planning an expression of sympathy are asked to consider the Alex family. If you are unable to visit with the family in person you may send your condolences through waresmithwoolever. com Ware-Smith-Woolever Funeral Directors Reese, Michigan

Eugene Alex

Wednesday, September 06 2006 @ 10:03 AM MDT Detroit Free Press -- Staff Sgt. Eugene Alex turned 32 on Aug. 30. It also was the day he was wounded by small-arms fire on traffic control duty in Baghdad, Iraq. On Saturday, the former Reese and Bay City native died at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. No other details about his injuries or the circumstances in which he was shot were released by the Pentagon. Alex was a cavalry scout who served with the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska. He also was a "wonderful husband and excellent father" of two boys and a girl, ages 11, 8, and 6, respectively, said Sue Huntley, his mother-in-law. Alex is the first member of the 3,900-member 172nd Brigade killed since U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the unit's extended deployment in July. In Fairbanks last month, Rumsfeld said he could not promise that the full brigade would be home by the holidays. Alex also is the second member of a Stryker Brigade, an armored tank unit, to die in Iraq. The first was Sgt. Gabriel G. DeRoo, 25, of Paw Paw, who was killed in August. Alex, who grew up in Reese and later lived in Bay City, was back in Alaska earlier this year recuperating for three months from neck injuries he sustained when his unit was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq last October, Huntley said. "He got through that roadside bomb and we thought he would be OK," she said. Alex joined the Army in May 1996. He was recently married and had been working at a granary when he decided to enlist so that he could better provide for his family, Huntley said. He served at Ft. Knox in Kentucky and Ft. Hood in Texas before going to Ft. Wainwright in September 2003. He also was previously stationed in Bosnia and Korea. "As a 10-year member of America's all-volunteer Army, Sergeant Alex willingly set aside the comforts of home to defend our nation and extend freedom to an oppressed people. Alaskans are proud to have had him as a part of our community, and we honor his memory," said Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski. "He was a happy-go-lucky guy," Huntley said. "He always had a smile on his face." In addition to his children, Alex is survived by his wife, Melissa; his parents, Ronald and Sally Alex of Greenie, and two sisters who live in Reese.