Deployment changes focus of the holidays

By Jamie Jones, jamiejones@daltoncitizen.com

The Walker family usually hosts a sprawling Fourth of July cookout attended by upwards of 100 people.

But with the family’s patriarch, first Sgt. Darrell Walker, stationed in Afghanistan with Charlie Troop, their Independence Day celebration today will be subdued. Kate Walker plans to take their seven children — she also has another on the way — to the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department Fourth of July event at Heritage Point.

“I just don’t have it in me this year,” she said. “My kids are a little bit disappointed, but they’ll have a good time over there.”

In January, 86 members of the Georgia National Guard Charlie Troop left Dalton for training in Mississippi before leaving for a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. For members of the Charlie Troop and loved ones left behind, for some this Independence Day will be a departure from the normal family cookouts and fireworks.

For 16-year-old Aaron Knight of Chatsworth, the annual Wagon Train festivities in Murray County this week have been different than previous years. Two of his cousins — Dalton residents Steven Grant, 23, and Chris Hall, 26 — are currently serving in Afghanistan with Charlie Troop. Knight and Grant have attended every Wagon Train together until this year.

“So far it has been kind of weird with him not being here,” Knight said.

The Murray County Saddle Club, which sponsors Wagon Train, will dedicate tonight’s opening ceremonies to all members of the military, with special recognition for the members of Charlie Troop. The 15 members of Charlie Troop who did not deploy have been invited to the 7 p.m. ceremony.

Saddle Club members will present the U.S., Georgia and POW/MIA flags at the ceremony. Knight will ride into the ceremony with pictures of his cousins draped on the saddle.

“It just kind of came to me to show how much I love him (Grant),” Knight said.

Members of the former Charlie Company of the 108th Armor attached to the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart deployed to Iraq in 2005. The group, based at the National Guard Armory on West Crawford Street, changed from a tank battalion to become the 108th Cavalry with other northwest Georgia companies in 2006. The “light infantry” unit does reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition.

Joe Wilkey was part of that original deployment with the Charlie Company. The group returned in May 2006. His wife, Amanda Wilkey, said the family is spending their July 4 holiday traveling.

Walker is also a part of the Family Readiness Group, which provides support, assistance and a network of communication for the families and soldiers. The group meets about once a month, but will not have an organized event for Independence Day. Since the National Guard unit is not an active duty unit, most are still surrounded by family and friends they had before the deployment, Walker said.

Walker said she communicates with her husband as often as possible. Sometimes they talk on the phone everyday, sometimes they go three to five days without speaking.

“We are very fortunate because this has been going on for a longer period of time the infrastructure is much better than it was than back in the beginning,” Kate Walker said. “We’ve got it a lot better than some people have had in the past.”

Derrell Walker will return home later this month for a two-week leave. In-between the fireworks and cookouts, Kate Walker doesn’t believe the first Fourth of July without her husband takes on added significance.

“We’ve always been very aware of its meaning, even when my husband wasn’t deployed, we were very aware,” she said. “I guess it makes me wonder if those around me are as aware as the ought to be. It kind of brings home the fact that a lot of other people aren’t because they’re having fireworks and barbecues, and there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that, you wonder if they stop for a minute and think what it’s all about.”