NEW YORK CITY ' A recent high school graduate dons combat boots dedicated to a Soldier who died Nov. 27, 2007, in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq.
Walter Wolford, 18, dedicated his boots and a year of service to Pvt. Isaac T. Cortes while participating in the Step Into Their Boots program.
At a ceremony dedicating a Bronx post office in Cortes' name, Wolford addressed the audience wearing boots dedicated to Cortes.
"I read his story and I said 'man, only he knows what it means to do a sacrifice,' Wolford said. Wolford was in Junior ROTC at his high school, and said he understood what it was like to wear the uniform, sort of.
Wolford graduated from High School of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan this school year and was sworn in to the U.S. Marine Corps at Fort Hamilton this summer. He is scheduled to report to recruit training in October.
Jessica Bryan, 19, founded Step Into Their Boots after a visit when she was 16 to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where fallen service members of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
Step Into Their Boots is a youth program targeted for young adults. The participants select a fallen service member to honor and creatively personalize a pair of combat boots to reflect the service member's interests--maybe by drawing with marker the service member's unit crest, a U.S. flag or a guitar. Part of their research into the service member's life and interests may include speaking to his or her family and friends to learn about him or her.
Then participants wear the boots for one year and perform service projects and outreach in their local community. As people ask about the boots, the participant is able to tell citizens about the fallen service member's life and sacrifice.
At the conclusion of the program, participants are given a statuette of a pair of combat boots with the chosen service member's name and years of life engraved on the base to present to the veteran's family or sponsor during a public retirement of the boots.
Step Into Their Boots accepts donations of combat boots to support the program. Donations can be sent in care of the United War Veterans Council at 346 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10013.
Currently, Step Into Their Boots has 30 young adults in the New York City area participating, 25 from a Navy JROTC in Alabama and a few dispersed throughout the rest of the United States.
"I want the program to go nationwide and have as many young adults understand and appreciate the sacrifices of our veterans as possible," Bryan said.
Four Step Into Their Boots participants including Bryan and Wolford wore their combat boots to the Post Office dedication. During the ceremony, they recited the following pledge:
"We, the youth of America, do hereby pledge to Pvt 2nd Class Isaac T. Cortes and all fallen service members that we will be the bearers of the torch of freedom you fought to preserve. We will strive to learn more about the sacrifices you made, so that we may enjoy the fruits of liberty. We ask your family and fellow service members to share your experiences with us, telling us about your service so that we might learn. You faced a vicious enemy who sought to destroy our way of life and you were victorious. We pray that we will never have to face a war of our own, but if we do, we will do our duty as you have done yours. We learn about your hopes and fears, your hardships, rewards, your courage and patriotism. We learn about your fellow comrades who fought beside you on land, sea and air. They tell us of your ceaseless combat you endured and the heroes that shaped the ultimate victory. We have only the pictures and read the history of your battle. You lived it, but we will tell your story. Your fellow service members tell us so we can learn, they tell us so we can retell your stories; they tell us so we can keep your memories alive. They tell us so that the future can learn from your sacrifices. We promise that your legacy will live forever because we will remember. We will remember, and we will tell others."
To learn more about Step Into Their Boots, visit www.stepintotheirboots.org or e-mail Bryan at stepinto.theirboots@facebook.com.
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