FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Fort Leonard Wood’s Survivor Outreach Services hosted a survivor family recognition event Saturday at the USO, offering 10 invited families of fallen service members the opportunity to meet new people and share stories and a meal.
The intent of the annual get together, according to SOS Support Coordinator Jody Carmack, is to assist those who lost a loved one in service to the country with their “grief healing process.”
“Our survivor families, when they lose their military person, they can often times feel disconnected, like they don’t belong anywhere anymore,” Carmack said. “By having a recognition, we give survivors an opportunity to talk about their loved one, honor their loved one — to make sure that new Soldiers and Sailors and Airmen and Marines will remember these people a little bit longer and honor their lost loved ones and honor the survivors themselves.”
First held by Carmack as a “family style meal” in 2010, the event has evolved over the years to include several additions.
One popular event is the story sharing time, when each survivor is invited to build a display with photos, awards, maps, uniform items — whatever they choose to share about their service member — and the idea, Carmack said, is to allow the survivors to socialize with each other and installation leaders, as sharing memories is “a powerful aid” in healing.
Another popular event is the memory concert, performed by Soldiers with the 399th Army Band. The survivors request the songs, based on the meaning the music has for them or had for their lost loved one.
After a dinner provided by the USO staff, Carmack introduced a new event this year that began at dusk. Called an honor glow walk, the survivors and installation senior leaders walked a two-mile route from the USO to Memorial Grove and back. The route was lighted with nearly 400 luminaries, some featuring the names of fallen service members, whose families live in Missouri.
Carmack said this year’s recognition included assistance by Military Police Soldiers attending the captains career course, Engineer Soldiers attending the basic officer leader course, Sailors from the Center for Seabees and Facilities Engineering Detachment Fort Leonard Wood and Airmen from the 368th Training Squadron.
“They are shadows for the survivors,” Carmack said. “It can be very uncomfortable to go into a new place and just be yourself. So, we assign a battle buddy to them. They are there to fill in conversation, help the survivors find restrooms, to get them beverages, introduce them to leaders.”
2nd Lt. Molly Sawyer is an Engineer BOLC student assigned to the 554th Engineer Battalion, who volunteered to serve as a survivor battle buddy. She said the survivors impressed her, adding the experience is especially beneficial for junior officers.
“As an officer who will be in charge of Soldiers, I think this experience helps to see the family side of our Soldiers and the sacrifices they make for us,” Sawyer said. “(The survivors are) very resilient and courageous people for coming out here today to share their stories. It’s important to keep someone’s memory alive and to share the experiences they had in life.”
Sawyer’s assigned survivor, Phyllis Hunsley, spoke about her husband, 1st Lt. Dennis Hunsley, an Army Ranger, who served as a platoon leader with Company C, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 5th Infantry, in Vietnam. On March 15, 1969, Hunsley’s platoon was ambushed as they patrolled an area between Cu Chi and Tay Ninh. During the firefight, Hunsley pulled five wounded Soldiers from a personnel carrier before he was killed by hostile fire. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for these actions — and just two weeks prior to his death, Hunsley was awarded the Silver Star for previous heroics.
Phyllis proudly pointed to a map of Vietnam next to her display table during the story sharing portion of the day. One location highlighted on her map is Patrol Base Hunsley, posthumously named after her husband by the Soldiers in his unit. His widow said she wants people to know what kind of person Dennis Hunsley was.
“He was persistent,” she said. “He had a persistent quality to stick out the Ranger training, to stick out going to (officer candidate school). He got turned back six weeks at OCS — I was told that a lot of people wouldn’t do it, but Dennis stuck it out.”
Phyllis said the couple, originally from Hannibal, Missouri, took a long road trip in their 1964-and-a-half Ford Mustang before Dennis left for Vietnam.
“I think he wanted to see as much of the country as he could, which I didn’t realize at the time,” Phyllis said. “I kept trying to convince myself he was not going to get killed.”
Phyllis, who now lives in Columbia, Missouri, was put in contact with Fort Leonard Wood’s SOS three years ago and attended the 2021 remembrance event here as well. She’s also in contact with a group in St. Louis — and attended a cruise in June with other survivors — but, she stressed, “this is home because Dennis went to Fort Leonard Wood for basic training.”
“He’ll always be in my heart, and (events like this) help keep his memory alive,” she said.
More information about Fort Leonard Wood’s Survivor Outreach Services can be found here.
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