A bell rang every few seconds for more than 10 minutes inside Sherwood Forest on Saturday, honoring each central Arkansan who died while serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
At American Legion Post No. 74’s ninth annual Tribute to Fallen Heroes, attendees - including soldiers and their families - stood with heads bowed and hands clasped in front of them, listening to the familiar, haunting sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”
Barbara Kordsmeier has been attending ceremonies such as Saturday’s since her brother, Patrick Kordsmeier, died April 24, 2004. He was one of four soldiers in Arkansas’ 39th Infantry Brigade who died in a rocket attack on their Camp Cooke base in Taji, Iraq.
“I want everyone to know that my brother was a hero,” Kordsmeier said. She added that her brother was close to retiring, but he extended his stay to serve alongside his fellow National Guardsmen.
“He considered them his brothers,” she said.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Patrick Kordsmeier, who was 49 and a grandfather at the time of his death, was one of 108 Arkansans recognized Saturday.
The first serviceman honored - and for whom American Legion Post No. 74 in North Little Rock is named - was Little Rock native Michael Vann Johnson Jr., who died March 25, 2003, in Iraq. The last recognized was Sgt. 1st Class Ricardo D. Young, 34, of Rosston, Ark., who diedAug. 28, 2013, while serving with a battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C.
“‘If you’re able, save a space for them in you … save a glance when you leave the places they can’t go,’” read the keynote speaker, retired chaplain Lt. Col. Walter Carter Tucker, from his book Men Who Fought … Boys Who Prayed.
Tucker spoke about his time presiding over funerals and comforting servicemen since first shipping out with troops in the 1960s during the Vietnam War.
Tucker talked about Army Capt. Riley Pitts, a man he knew who died in combat. Pitts, an Oklahoma husband and father of two, was honored - posthumously - with the Medal of Honor in 1968.
“Hero? He’s one,” Tucker said.
Jarvis Johnson, 21, said Saturday that he had looked up to his brother Michael Vann Johnson Jr. - who died while serving as a Navy corpsman in Iraq - so much that he and an older brother heeded his advice to enlist. Both brothers are now serving in the Army Reserve.
Johnson also attended Saturday’s ceremony to honor his high school friend Jamar Hicks - who was killed in Afghanistan last year while atop his truck, defending it amid an attack.
“Jamar Hicks is a born leader,” Johnson said. “He’s real selfless.”
Johnson said he and his family have attended the Fallen Heroes ceremony every year, and he encouraged other mourning families to attend future ceremonies like Saturday’s because of the support for military families it conveys.
“We’re all in this together,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/30/2014