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Ceremony salutes latest names on memorial
Posted by: Don Carr ()
Date: May 18, 2008 05:55AM

Potomac News/Manassas Journal Messenger
May 18, 2008

Ceremony salutes latest names on memorial

By JULIA LEDOUX

The mournful sounds of “Taps” washed over the Prince William County War Memorial Saturday and the American flag snapped in the breeze as two hometown heroes were honored during an Armed Forces Day cere-mony.

Pfc. Steven A. Davis and 1st Lt. Benjamin A. Hall were killed nearly a year ago while fighting the war on terror.

“We must never forget the service of Specialist Steven Davis and Lieutenant Benjamin Hall,” keynote speaker Fort Belvoir installation commander Col. Brian W. Lauritzen said.
“These honored soldiers and warriors who trace their ties to Woodbridge gave their last full measure of devotion, serving their country in Af-ghanistan and Iraq.”

Davis, 23, died July 4, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with grenades. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo., at the time of his death.

“He comes from a family rich in military tradition,” Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart said of Davis. “His mother is a paramedic
currently serving in Iraq and his grandfather and younger brother are there as well. His father is currently working at Fort Bragg.”

In his two years in Iraq, Davis received the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and a Combat Infantryman Badge.

Hall died July 31, 2007, in Asadabad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit in Chowkay Valley. The 24-year-old was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based at Vicenza, Italy. Hall grew up in Woodbridge and elsewhere. Hall gradu-ated from C.D. Hylton High School in 2001 and went on to earn a degree in political science from Michigan Tech, where he was a top cadet in his ROTC program before serving as a paratrooper and Ranger.

Hall “became a paratrooper and Army Ranger, which was his dream,” Stewart said. “For Lt. Hall, the military wasn’t just a way life, it was his whole life.”

Laurtizen noted that the motto of Davis’s unit is “Having been led by love of country.”
“I submit to you that both men lived by this motto and it is that very spirit we celebrate on Armed Forces Day,” he said.

Davis’ father, Guy, wife Ayala, and daughter Elizabeth, 2, attended the ceremony and laid a wreath at the memorial. Hall’s family attended an Armed Forces Day ceremony elsewhere and sent their regrets.

“Today in Afghanistan, Iraq and nearly 80 other countries around the world and in our great nation, soldiers who make up America’s armed forces are fighting for, defending, or preserving freedom,” Lauritzen said. “These men and women are planting and cultivating the seeds of democracy.”

The county war memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1992 and recognizes those from the county who gave their lives during World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In 2006, the county worked with local veterans to find the best way to honor those who had given their lives in the Middle East. It was decided to engrave the op-posing face of the stone with the names of the 12 community members that had been killed in Iran, on the USS Cole in Afghanistan and Iraq. The names of two Marines killed in Iraq were added to the memorial last year.

“Let us take this opportunity to rededicate ourselves to always remember how much we owe the valiant men and women of the armed forces, those who have served and those who are serving,” Laurtizen concluded. “Let us always remember the Specialist Davis’ and Lieutenant Halls for their supreme devotion, for what they stood for and what we stand for today.”

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