The Heroes and Unsung Heroes
The July Storyteller is a special one for me. Recently, I saw a post about a newly established non-profit organization with the mission to acquire a home within walking distance of Arlington National Cemetery to support Gold Star families and combat veterans. I was intrigued and wanted to know more about this honorable mission, so I reached out to engage with the founder to ask if I could write their story. He agreed. I did my research and quickly found myself bound to this very special mission. I think you will as well. Read on:
Some heroes don’t wear capes and don’t have superpowers. If they did, they might still be with us. They give their lives to protect our freedom. They leave their families and friends to travel across the world to places unknown to them, to fight for freedom and to protect their homeland. They fight side-by-side with brothers and sisters of another kind and together they experience the unimaginable. Though we mourn and honor our fallen heroes for making the ultimate sacrifice, it will never be enough.
With the announcement of the Gire House fundraising campaign comes the natural question, “What is the story behind the naming of the Gire House?”
The Story
The Gire House is named for one of our fallen heroes, Staff Sergeant Joshua Gire.
SSG Gire was a Squad Leader and Truck Commander of the lead vehicle in a Route Clearance Patrol (RCP) responsible for clearing routes of obstacles (mainly IEDs) so others could move freely and safely. After completing a mission and clearing a particularly dangerous route in Logar Province in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan on 22 March 2011, while returning back to their base, SSG Gire’s vehicle was ambushed. SSG Gire and his driver PFC Michael Mahr did not survive this attack.
While SSG Gire and PFC Mahr chose to lead from the front and both accomplished their mission on this day, these fallen heroes both left behind young and growing families. SSG Gire left behind his wife Jackie, his five-year-old son Nicholas and his two-year-old daughter Riley. PFC Mahr left behind his wife Stephanie and his three-year-old son Jadon. On top of this, they both left behind parents, siblings, and countless brothers and sisters in arms.
Staff Sergeant Gire was 28 years old when he was killed in the line of duty. He was a family man, leaving behind his widow, Jackie, and their two small children. Having graduated from high school in 2000, he enlisted in the Army in 2001. Joshua was third generation military, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a WWII veteran, and his father, a Vietnam veteran. His goal was to make his father and his family proud. He was at home in the military.
Imagine the Main Street of his hometown, Chillicothe, Ohio, lined with silent observers waiting to honor the passing hearse of their home town hero. The Blue Star Mothers had tied yellow ribbons on the trees and sign posts along the route to the funeral home. The hearse passed under crossed ladders from the local and neighboring Fire Departments. One father, who didn’t know the Gire family, brought his four-year-old son to join the crowd gathered along the route, to pay tribute. He wanted to teach his young son about the sacrifice the brave military men and women make to protect our freedom. Though the young boy didn’t understand what he was seeing at the time, his father knew that he would some day.
SSG Joshua Gire was buried with highest honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Six white horses pulled a caisson bearing Gire’s casket. A military band and escort platoon marched behind. About 50 family members and friends followed on foot, walking in silence as a drummer kept cadence. The landscape was dotted with the all-to-familiar rows of matching white headstones marking the graves of our country's fallen heroes. SSG Gire was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart posthumously, that day. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Army Secretary John McHugh took turns kneeling before Jackie Gire, her children, and Joshua’s parents, offering their condolences.
Six soldiers folded the flag that had been held over Gire’s casket slowly, and with precision, as the military band played “America the Beautiful.” When the last notes had drifted off into the bright spring day, Brigadier General Richard W. Thomas presented the flag to Sergeant Gire’s wife.
It was a beautiful heart wrenching ceremony, as are those of all our soldiers buried at Arlington. Every soldier who serves and has served is part of Gire’s legacy. During America's 250 years approximately 1.45 million of the members of the Armed Forces (including forces on both sides of the Civil War) gave their lives in American wars and military conflicts. SSG Joshua Gire represents every brave, honorable, military hero who gave his life for his country. Like so many others, he leaves behind a legacy which includes a crushingly tragic and moving story, and fatherless or motherless young families finding their way forward. The Gire House will provide a retreat where combat veterans and their families can gather, share their stories, lean on each other, and heal. It provides the rest of us a way to say thank you.
The Unsung Heroes
There is another group of heroes, of another sort. They are the families, friends, and comrades-in-arms of the fallen, those left behind. They are the ones carrying-on, putting one foot in front of the other every-single-day, those missing their mom or their dad, their husband or wife, their sons and daughters, their sisters and brothers, their brothers and sisters in arms. They are the ones who cry in their pillows so the children won’t hear, the ones who wonder if they are enough, the ones with survivor's guilt, the ones who can’t erase the memory of the horror that they’ve seen, even in their dreams. These are heroes among us who most of us don’t see. These are the ones striving to heal.
A tradition of WWI families was to place a blue star on a family's service flag and hang it in the window of their home when a family member was serving in the military. They changed it to a gold star if the family member was lost in the line of duty. The military has a myriad of benefits they offer to our Gold Star Families. They take care of them. These families are honored annually on the last Sunday in September. They are also honored on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. It’s the other days; the unimaginable loss days, the days of walking among couples when your love has turned into a memory you hold tight to, It’s the days when you need a friend who understands the sacrifice you and your family made for this country. It’s the days when you question why, and you hold even tighter to God.
Visiting your loved one's grave at Arlington National Cemetery must be an emotional, heartbreaking experience that takes time and grace to both cherish and recover from. Imagine a welcoming home only blocks away where you can bind yourself with others who understand, where you can gather with your family, or hold a reunion of your peers, where these silent heroes can heal in a place of refuge to honor their own peace and privacy. Military communities have long been a source of strength for surviving families who often find comfort among others who understand and have lived the military life.
The Gire House
Gire House is a new home just blocks from Arlington National Cemetery and was created so Gold Star Families and combat veterans can gather, heal, and honor their fallen together.
The Gire House is not just about Joshua’s story. It is about the thousands of other stories just like this one. It’s about the brave men and women making the ultimate sacrifice for this nation, the destabilizing nature of something that solid being pulled out from under the people they left behind, and it's about the ways that we can turn that chaos into healing and that healing into power, together.
Military men and women are often reluctant to tell their stories, mostly because it’s hard to talk about their active duty experiences. Though bold and brave, many are at the same time, shy and introverted. Hardship, horror, and heartbreak touch many lives, but for military personnel and their families, these burdens arrive sooner and demand sacrifices beyond what most of us can fathom. Many who serve are naturally modest and quietly reflective. Army Staff Sergeant Joshua Gire was no exception. His is a story worth telling and a life worth honoring. Giving to the Gire House is a way to pay tribute to the consecration shown by Joshua, and so many others, to this country, and to the ultimate sacrifice so many make for us.
Make a Gift in Honor of our Fallen
The fundraising campaign for Gire House was first announced by Nassar Jabour, Veteran, President, and Co-Founder of Gire House, along with Jackie Gire on their personal Facebook pages. The Gire House Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts along with the website launched in July and have included announcements about the fundraising campaign. Your gift will honor the service of all our military heroes, combat veterans, their families, and their sacrifices for our country.
Please consider becoming a Cornerstone Partner of Gire House. For $15 a month you can honor the fallen and ensure Gold Star Families and combat veterans can gather and visit their loved ones in Arlington.
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