Kentucky town remembers its war dead

Monday, September 1, 2014

LONDON, Ky. -- On an unseasonably cool August day, Zola Hamlin pulled up to a small cemetery on the outskirts of town, saluted the headstone of her fallen grandson and offered a somber thought for the parents and grandparents of future soldiers who might get caught again in an Iraq war.

"I listen to the news every night, and I pray for the families that lost their loved ones," she said. "It tears at your heart forever."

In another part of town, Donald Storm thought about the war as well, particularly the sacrifices that soldiers made securing a country that's now in a new stage of chaos.

As Iraq crumbles and President Barack Obama assesses the American role in the country, Storm looks back on lost opportunities and on the U.S. decision to pull out when it did.

"I feel a great sense of loss, but it just didn't occur now," Storm said. "It occurred when we started telling people our plans" to leave.

Storm is speaking as the former top official of the Kentucky National Guard, a man with 37 years in the military who saw 14 of his citizen-soldiers die in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. They were people who'd been quick to volunteer, eager to serve.

He's also a native of London, a town that suffered more than its share of loss providing the nation with troops to fight the war in Iraq. Three years ago, as America's presence in that war was winding down, reporters visited the picturesque town in the hills of southeastern Kentucky to chronicle its war losses. The reporters recently returned to ask -- given the turmoil in Iraq -- whether those sacrifices were worth it.

Now, Storm is mostly retired. He maintains a role in a family security company and spends his summer days fishing. He also monitors the collapse of Iraq on the news.

"It's disappointing. It's disappointing," he said. "I don't think anybody associated with the operations in Iraq thought we could just leave these folks and they would have the infrastructure or anything else to sustain without some kind of help in the long term."

"You either win a war or you lose a war," he said. "You don't just walk away from it."

In a bright-red county such as Laurel, where London is the county seat, the pro-military attitudes run deep.

At the county courthouse, a red-brick, white-steepled building on South Main Street, one memorial commemorates the Battle of London from the Civil War, a second remembers all who gave their lives in the nation's wars and a third celebrates all veterans -- living or dead, branch by branch. Flags from military branches and veterans' organizations fly above the memorial.

Three soldiers killed in Iraq listed London as their hometown, and another who'd grown up here but had moved also died. The area has one of the highest rates in the country of veterans collecting disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to an analysis of Department of Veterans Affairs data.

For Hamlin, reminders of her grandson's sacrifice are all around. They are for other residents, too: The town has a Sgt. Chris Hamlin Memorial Lane.

Chris Hamlin joined the Junior ROTC at North Laurel High School and ultimately served multiple Army tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad in May 2007.

On days she cleans his gravesite, Hamlin also salutes it, raising her arm in a slow-motion tribute. She's been to funerals of other London-area soldiers, and she fears what may happen in Iraq next.

"So many people have already lost their lives over there," she said softly.

At the Wildcat Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership that same night, Col. Charlie Jones of the Kentucky National Guard was doing his part to help remember those who did.

Pulling up on his Harley-Davidson Road Glide, Jones set up for a presentation before a few dozen leather-and-denim-clad riders.

A native of London and a member of the Harley club, he'd ridden 100 miles from the Kentucky National Guard headquarters in Frankfort to be here.

His task? Raise money for a memorial to Kentucky guardsmen and women who died in service to their country. Officials are vetting about 460 names for inclusion, including 18 from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"These are Kentuckians who were in the Kentucky Guard who died in the line of duty doing what we asked them to do," he said. "I get personally attached to this -- I commanded a brigade in Iraq in '06. In 2003, we lost our first casualty, a Kentucky guardsman killed in Iraq."

He then talked about the last name to go on the list, and was quiet for a moment.

"I pray that last name is the last one to put on this, but I'm realistic enough to know that's not going to happen," he said.

Jones' son, Sgt. Charles Jason Jones, was one of the Kentucky guardsmen who died, on Sept. 20, 2006, in Baghdad of noncombat-related causes. He was a graduate of South Laurel High School in London; his name will be on the memorial, too.

A Section on 09/01/2014