American Graffiti
(April 28, 2011) | 
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Staff Sgt. Ray Clair, the supply sergeant for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, gazes at some of the names scrawled across the walls of his supply office at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. |
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JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (4/24/2011)
There
are stories on the walls of the office. Stories
of America - of sacrifice and honor and valor
and families. Of missing home. Of loyalty.
Humor, too, has a place on the walls of his
office. As does sorrow. All those sentiments are
scrawled across plywood, creating a virtual
bulwark that drips history.
Words and
names of the men and women of America's military
that lived, worked and fought at Joint Base
Balad from the beginning of Operation Iraq
Freedom until today.
There are people
from Ohio up there on that wall, people from
California.
Soldiers from Washington
state, Wisconsin, Texas, Maryland, New Hampshire
and New York stand out in stark black marker
script. |
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There are other soldiers from other states on
those walls, too. |
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Occasionally, Staff Sgt. Ray Clair, the supply sergeant for
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th
Cavalry Regiment, 77th Sustainment Brigade, 310th
Expeditionary Sustainment Command and a native of La Grande,
Ore., said he will stop and look up from his desk and his
gaze will focus on a name or a unit.
“It is almost a
stress reliever,” Clair said. “You sit at your desk and see
a 100 people who have already been here and got through it.”
Tales of war are as old as Homer's “Iliad,” but the
walls in Clair's supply room at the 3rd Battalion
headquarters tell a different kind of narrative. The plywood
stands mute, but there are stories there if you look hard
enough.
While Clair toils at his desk as a supply
sergeant he is, in a way, not alone.
Up there on the
wall is Spc. Green. He's from Seattle, Wash. Green declares
through his black inscription that he was a member of the
758th Maintenance Company.
There is Spc. Furnas from
Lebanon, Ohio. He was in the same office in the same
building as Clair from 2006 to 2008.
Sgt. M. Muller
of the 890th Transportation Company is up on the wall, too.
He came to Balad in March 2005 and left in February 2006.
Spc. Kjos from Milwaukee, Wis., was with the 758th
Maintenance Company, too. He's on the wall as well.
Then there is Staff Sgt. Hembre. He arrived in Balad in
October 2005 and left Oct. 9, 2006. He was with the 322nd
Maintenance Company.
Staff Sgt. Karl Muller is there
as well. He's from Oakland, Calif.
Sgt. Dustin Gillory is
on the wall. He was in Balad twice; once during Operation
Iraqi Freedom II and again as part of Operation Iraqi
Freedom 10.
The names can tell a casual observer a
lot of things. Their favorite sports team for instance.
Sgt. Crowell, out of Fort Hood, Texas, loves the Crimson
Tide of the University of Alabama. Someone else scrawled
“Hook-em' Horns” on another piece of the wall.
Though he does not know the men on the wall, Clair has lived
with their presence for more than six months.
“It is
a lot of history,” Clair said as he stared at the wall.
Clair said he often turns reflective while he ponders
the names. There are unseen faces with the names, of course,
and unknown lives. Each name translates into an existence in
some part of the country.
Clair, one day, might add
his name up there on the wall. Yet he understands the
reality of the future regarding those names. One day the
wall will come down. He knows that. Still, there is that
persistent feeling of something left undone for Clair when
he contemplates the wall.
“It makes me sad to see it
torn down,” Clair said.
He said he understands that
the American presence in Balad will end soon. Workers will
arrive one day and they will bring with them the tools of
their trade and tear down the wall.
The script on
the wall will vanish. The names will be discarded easily.
Like turning a page from a history book and then closing it.
Until the workers arrive, until the plywood is
pulled down, Clair and anyone else who ventures into his
supply room can stop and look up and see the different names
from diverse sections of the country, spilling out a short,
concise story. | |
Article and photo by
Army SSgt. Patrick Caldwell
77th Sustainment Brigade
Copyright 2011
Provided
through DVIDS
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