I am in Ft. Campbell, KY again this week and today I had some time to travel around the post and visit a few places. One of the first places on my list was Gabriel Field, in the 5th Special Forces Group area. Gabriel field was initially at Ft. Bragg, but after the 5th SFG moved to Ft. Campbell, KY it started to be left unkept. So at some point after 5th SFG moved, they re-designated a field between the barracks and company buildings in the Group area as Gabriel Field.

My purpose of going here was to see the memorial trees or the “trees of the dead” as it is also known to some. I first learned about these trees when I read Eric Blehm’s book, “The only thing worth dying for” about ODA 574. They were the SF A team that brough Hamid Karzai in from the south and helped finish off the Taliban and liberate Kandahar. All of the team was either killed or wounded on Dec. 5th, 2001 when a US B-52 air-strike was mistakenly called in on top of the team’s position.

In Eric’s book, he has a picture of the row of trees. In addition Team Commander, Jason Amerine also talked about visiting the trees. I had been here a couple times in the last few months, but never had the time or chance to look for the location and visit. Today I did.

So as I drove down Indiana Street and by the 5th SF group area, I was looking left and right for a neat row of trees, figuring that had to be them. I missed them as I drove one way, but then I turned around and on the way back I spotted them.

I soon found a parking space and walked over in the 90+ degree heat today. On one side of Gabriel Field were a whole bunch of young new trees that appear to be dedicated to all the group members that were killed in Iraq. On the other side were larger, more mature trees. Here were trees dedicated to many soldiers and airmen that were either in 5th SF Group or attached to the Group. There were several who were killed in Yuma in 1989 aboard a CH-3 Helicopter that crashed, and others who may have been training accidents or something else as they were not during war-time. But then there were the trees dedicated to the fallen members of ODA 574. As I walked among these and all the trees, I thought of all the hundreds of people touched by these men and their lives. Families, friends, fellow soldiers, old High School buddies, etc., etc.

I wondered how many remember or worse yet, how many Americans have forgotten about the first losses of life our country had by it’s military. These lives that were lost as it went to war in response to the horrific attacks that happened just a few months earlier against our country.

So for a few quite moments today in the heat and humidity, I walked in the shade of the trees and paid my respects to many warriors. Warriors I never met and never would but that I was thankful had raised their hands multiple times as volunteers to serve our country and its people. Regardless if they had fallen in training accidents, from enemy fire or from mis-directed friendly fire..they all deserved the same honors and my respect.

It was good today to spend time with brothers I never met…