During 2004 I received orders to the Savannah Georgia I-I (Inspector-Instructor) Staff to serve as their 1stSgt. As the war in Iraq ramped up and the insurgents started massing casualties against us, I began losing friends at the rapid rate. We had a changing room for our staff, that was across the hall from my office. As I lost each friend, I posted their photo on the backside (facing the door) of my wall lockers. I continually had Marines stopping by to look at the photos and read about the fallen warriors.

During 2007 I received orders to Cherry Point NC for duty as the Squadron SgtMaj for VMAQ-4. I took down all of the photos of my 27 KIA friends and packed them up. I was never one of the people who put all their “I love me” crap all over my office walls. But I ordained my walls at Cherry Point with photos of the fallen.

One day I had a Marine in my office, because he was in some kind of trouble. I needed to take care of something, so I told the young Marine to have I seat I would get back to him in a minute.

When I got back to my office, he was standing up reading about all of my fallen friends; with tears in his eyes. Unintentional, my photos of the fallen had counseled him without me saying anything. When I sat down, he looked at me, still with a tear in his eyes:

Marine: I finally get it SgtMaj.

Me: Get what? (I honestly did not know what he meant).

Marine: Can you tell me about these Marines?

Me: (I stood up and walked over to the photos on the wall and then began to explain each photo and the story behind each one).

Marine: SgtMaj, I will fix myself right now. You will see. I finally get it; it is not about me; it is about them.

I was happy to hear this and told him to go back to work. This Marine turned out to be a good Marine; and problem free.

I learned something that day; I could use my fallen friends’ deaths to help me motivate others to do their job well, so we could prevent more photos on my wall. For future counseling’s I would intentionally leave Marines alone in my office and every time when I got back, they would ask me about all the photos on my office wall. FYI, the count is 59 now; yes 59 of my friends given the fullest measure of love for their friends. May God bless all of their souls.

SF DKD

They a picture tells a thousand words; here you go.

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