Battalion Commander's Letter In Memoriam

Many events have shaped our lives over the last 12 months during our deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Habbaniyah, Iraq. We have all been changed. Of all our experiences, none have been more heart wrenching or made a deeper impact on us than the loss of our compatriots. All 16 of our Fallen Brothers were comrades in the truest sense. These men were our teammates, our peers, and our friends. We ate with them, laughed with them, cried with them, and shared our hopes and dreams with them. They served with us dutifully in Korea as well as in Iraq. They were husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and uncles to family members back home who can never know how their lives have inspired us to live our own lives to the fullest. They had the same hopes and dreams as we did for a world free of terrorism, and they possessed an unquenchable desire for a better future for all people. They understood and lived the beloved words "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." These men gave their lives seeking freedom in a land that was not their own, for a people who did not know them. Theirs was a self-sacrificing noble cause that far exceeded what most men could ever imagine possible from others. These men will always inspire us to dig deeper, to reach farther, and stretch outward to serve and give freely. True patriots and heroes, they will always be with us. They have inspired us, and we will remember their sacrifices on the far reaches of freedom's frontiers for the pursuit of liberty and justice for all men. They have been memorialized in our hearts and our souls. They are Currahees, inseparable in death, and forever part of this Band of Brothers.