The names of 85 service members were added to those already enshrined in Victory Park, adjacent to the 1st Infantry Division headquarters building on Fort Riley, in an Aug. 22 ceremony, part of this year's Victory Week.
Each year, any new stones are unveiled during a ceremony as part of Victory Week. The number of new stones this year were added as a result of the 1st Inf. Div. formalizing the process for a memorial stone to be added in the hallowed park.
"Every year we recognize those that we have lost," said Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, 1st Inf. Div. and Fort Riley commanding general. "We are making 85 additions to our memorial park today. We didn't lose 85 Soldiers this year. What we have done is to formalize and solidify the guidelines, and the process in which someone is memorialized in this park. After formalizing this policy, we realized some Soldiers not memorialized are now eligible, and we are rectifying that today."
Spc. Cameron Stambaugh of the 978th Military Police Company, Fort Bliss, Texas, is one such Soldier. Stambaugh was attached to the 1st Inv. Div. on July 8, 2012, when a military vehicle he was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device. The IED killed Stambaugh and five other Soldiers in the vehicle.
Though Stambaugh perished more than five years ago, his father attended the ceremony overlooking the Flint Hills. As he heard the name of his son and his friends read during the ceremony, Mitchell Stambaugh was glad he made the trip from his home in Pennsylvania.
"It was honorable and emotional," the elder Stambaugh said. "I think it is awesome. It is awesome what they did here. I am looking out over the clouds. The scenery is beautiful. I have been to Arlington and this is just as nice of view."
The ceremony was an opportunity for families to reunite after years of not seeing each other, Stambaugh said.
"I actually broke up more when I heard their names more than my son's," Stambaugh said. "We are all family now. I am friends with most of their parents. I got to connect with (Staff Sgt. Ricardo) Seija's parents. We got to see them one time at Bliss when they had the memorial service there and that is the last we have seen them in five years."
Stones unveiled during the ceremony honored Soldiers who died while serving with the division overseas between 2006 and 2017.
"It does give you closure," Stambaugh said. "Memorializing means you will never forget them. I am so glad we came. It is quite an honor to be here. When I leave here I am going to have a great feeling. I do feel a sense of relieve and a sense of closure."
The addition of the names was spearheaded by Kevin West, chief of force modernization, 1st Inf. Div. It took West nearly 18 months of research to locate more than 80 of the 85 new service members.
"We were pretty consistently adding names of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who had been attached to the division or divisional units and died in theater, but the way we were deploying with the brigades and battalions deploying separately from the division, sometimes we weren't completely accurate on who had attached," West said. "I noticed a couple of attachments going back to '07 and '08 that had inadvertently been left off. I don't think the division knew they should have been on there."
West was present at the ceremony to witness his work come to fruition.
"I am satisfied," West said. "It's the right thing to do. It's good to be able to recognize the sacrifice of them and their loved ones."
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