Migration
Fallen Hohenfels troops honored with new memorial
Stars and Stripes
May 23, 2015
The names of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment Soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan grace a new memorial recently unveiled at a ceremony in Hohenfels. (Brian S. Ueligitone/US Army)
The names of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment Soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan grace a new memorial recently unveiled at a ceremony in Hohenfels. (Brian S. Ueligitone/US Army)
Visitors pay tribute to the fallen at a new memorial honoring 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment Soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice. (Brian S. Ueligitone/US Army)
Gold Star family members Nickayla Garner, Evan Masterson and Sandy Masterson remember their Soldier at the unveiling of a new memorial in Hohenfels, recently erected to honor those 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment members killed in Afghanistan between 2006-2010. (Brian S. Ueligitone/US Army)
1-4th Infantry Battalion hosted a memorial dedication ceremony to honor fallen warriors. (Courtesy of 1-4 Infantry Regiment Facebook page)
1-4th Infantry Battalion hosted a memorial dedication ceremony to honor fallen warriors. (Courtesy of 1-4 Infantry Regiment Facebook page)
A new stone memorial with the names of 11 Hohenfels-based troops killed during combat operations in Afghanistan now stands next the headquarters of the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment.
The recently unveiled memorial honors 1-4 troops who were killed in Afghanistan between 2006 - 2010.
“This year marks the 5-year mark since the battalion suffered losses in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with three soldiers from Dragon Company paying the ultimate sacrifice on July 6, 2010,” Lt. Col. Barry R. Carlson, 1-4 commander, said during the ceremony. “We dedicate this memorial as a tribute to our fallen and as a testimony that we will not forget the sacrifice (they) have made in support of our nation.”
The monument includes a plaque featuring the names of the fallen and the battalion’s mission in Afghanistan.
In Germany, 1-4 soldiers play the role of opposition force fighters at the Army’s training grounds at Hohenfels, where in recent years they have helped prepare deploying units for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unit, however, also was called upon to serve on the ground in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2010
“This battalion doesn’t necessarily get the press of some of the other units in Europe,” Carlson said, “but when a mission absolutely needs to get done, the 1-4 is called.”
Among those named on the memorial is Capt. Mark A. Garner, who was killed by a roadside bomb during a 2009 deployment in in Zabul province.
His wife, Nickayla Meyers-Garner, was on hand at the ceremony in Hohenfels.
“Soldiers who may have never known these men will walk by the monument, and they will see this symbol of remembrance and will always know that if they or their friends lose their life fighting in service to our nation, they will be remembered like these men,” Meyers-Garner said in an Army release.