The visitors center at Tulley Gate was named the Staff Sgt. John D. Linde Visitor Center in honor of the fallen hero during an emotional ceremony May 12.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Linde’s wife, Vilma, as she held back tears. “It’s a beautiful, wonderful way to be able to know that his memory still lives on.”
Linde, a Secaucus, N.J., native, joined the Army in 1996 and served with the 212th Military Police Detachment at Belvoir and in a variety of overseas and stateside assignments, including tours in Korea; Fort Carson, Colo.; and Fort Drum, N.Y.
Linde deployed once to Bosnia and twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was killed by a roadside bomb in the village of Tal Al-Dahad near the northern city of Kirkuk in September 2007.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of Sergeant Linde and the Soldiers who perished with him that day in Tal Al-Dahad,” said Col. David Paschal, who was Linde’s brigade commander in Iraq when he was killed.
“He’s touched each of us in a special way, either as a friend, a confidante, or a leader. Today, we all carry a piece of him with us,” he said.
Col. John Strycula, Fort Belvoir garrison commander, said he could not imagine the pain and loss the entire Linde family feels.
“We don’t take dedicating a facility or building on Fort Belvoir lightly,” he said. “We have a very specific and detailed nomination and acceptance process before we agree to dedicate a building to a fallen hero.”
Strycula added that the naming of the building is a lifelong commitment.
“If you come back here in five, 10 or even 20 years from now, this building will still be the Staff Sergeant Linde Visitors Center,” he said. “You can be confident that every visitor that comes to Fort Belvoir will be greeted and welcomed by Staff Sergeant Linde and his face will be the first face they see when they come to the installation, and I think that’s very fitting.”
David Parchman, the installation’s director of emergency services, met then-Sgt. Linde when he was chief of military police investigations at Fort Belvoir in the early 2000s.
“He was a hard worker and soaked up knowledge like a sponge,” Parchman said of Linde. “He was a leader. As anyone who worked with him could see, he was a motivator for those who weren’t as inclined to work as hard as he did or be as dedicated as they should be.”
Parchman had many conversations with Linde, who he said epitomized what it means to be a Soldier.
“I was especially saddened when I heard John had been killed in Iraq,” he continued, “but I knew he died doing exactly what he wanted to do. He’s here today with us in sprit because I can feel him.”
Sgt. 1st Class Sumalee Bustamante, who served with Linde at Fort Drum, lauded his professionalism while recalling his tremendous sense of humor and love of pranks.
“He formed a close, professional bond with his Soldiers, enforcing discipline, trust and mentorship, forming a cohesive and productive team within the squad,” Bustamante said.
The Lindes’ 11-year-old daughter, Victoria, read the poem “Afterglow,” in honor of her father.
“I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one. I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done,” she read. “I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways. Of happy times and laughing times and bright sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that I leave when life is done.”
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