Speakers at memorial statue dedication reflect on Montana soldiers’ sacrifice

Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Matt Quinn said he's looked into the eyes of people who are about to go to battle.

He said he knows they're thinking about successfully completing their mission, but foremost their concern is for "that family left behind" and whether they'll be able to return to it.

"We are here today to participate in a fitting tribute to those who were not able to return and their families along with them," he said.

Before the Grateful Nation memorial unveiling Friday, which was moved into the Montana Theatre due to a forecast of snow, five speakers, including Sen. Max Baucus, who lost his nephew Marine Cpl. Phillip Baucus, tried to describe the lives of the 40 Montana soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many of the descriptions focused on the love those men felt for those they left behind.

Grateful Nation Montana founder David Bell said he's "haunted by the blessing" of having the images of all the fallen soldiers "etched in his mind." And he wanted to help the families of people who died by easing the financial and social stress that come with the loss of a parent.

Twenty-eight children in Montana have lost fathers to America's most recent conflicts, and the speakers at the ceremony emphasized that people lucky enough to survive or remain unaffected by war should repay families for what they and the fallen have sacrificed.

"They are you and me," he said. "Lives interrupted just as families were beginning."

Grateful Nation Montana and the University of Montana — as well as the Montana University System as a whole — have partnered to ensure that the children of Montana's 40 fallen soldiers receive full scholarships to a state university, as well as tutoring and mentoring during high school.

Bell said his initiative — the first of its kind in the nation — is a chance for civilians to say, "Thank you for paying the ultimate price for my freedom. Now what can I do for you?"

A standing ovation rang around the theater as an audience that had exceeded the more than 500 seat capacity of the Montana Theatre, with rows of people at the fringes, thanked Bell for his work. When he invited them out to see the monument, the huge crowd, despite wet snow, trekked over to the memorial amid the solemn yawns of bagpipes.

Reserve Officers' Training Corps students, dressed in their camouflage uniforms, looked on as the parachute that had been draped over the bronze figures was removed. The names of the 40 fallen are inscribed on stones at the foot of the memorial.

"I think it's really nice to have something like this on campus, especially when we have ROTC here," ROTC pre-pharmacy sophomore Allison Glass said, "I think it'll make [people] more aware of the families who are affected by military service and what happens."

Allison Kluvers, a freshman human biological science major, said she joined ROTC to serve her country. Having volunteered at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Chicago since eighth grade, she's already seen the aftereffects of war firsthand, and she said it's comforting to know that people don't just give up on soldiers — or their families — after they can no longer serve.

"Definitely, the awareness is great," Kluvers said. "That people still do care after it happens. That after the soldier has fallen, people do care for their families.

If efforts like that of Grateful Nation Montana continue, soldiers' stress about the well-being of their families would be lessened, Kluvers said.

"It will still be stressful," she said. "But a lot of it will be taken away."

rebecca.calabrese@umontana.edu