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Soldier knows sacrifices military personnel make for their country

Story by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Memorial Day — this year May 31 — calls everyone to recognize military personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice in wars fought for almost 100 years, beginning with family members who fought and died in World War I.

This day of remembrance would be incomplete without speaking to the sacrifices families are making right now as loved ones go off to war in Iraq or Afghanistan where lives are changed forever.

Army Staff Sgt. Keith Gimmy from Marion but now stationed in Ft. Campbell, Ky., spoke about the importance of Memorial Day.

“This is a time our nation has set aside to never let Americans forget why we are free,” Keith Gimmy said. “Having been there, seeing the carnage and feeling the homesickness, I know well the price.”

Memorial Day observances give people at home a chance to hear the stories, realize what it means to go to war, and what people are sacrificing of themselves when they decide to join the service.

“I’ve picked up body parts of my brothers in arms; I’ve helped clean the carnage of car bombs, and I’ve felt the stabbing pains of being gone from the country we have sacrificed so much for,” Gimmy said.

Keith Gimmy, 26, has served three tours in Iraq, joining the Illinois Army National Guard as a 17-year-old. His first training took him to Ft. Sill, Okla., where he was given Advanced Individual Training as a Field Artillery Cannon Crewmember.

In 2004, barely 21, he had joined the active-duty Army, and was sent to Ar Ramadi, Iraq for his first tour.
He left in 2005, was transferred to Ft. Campbell in 2006 and in February was deployed back to Iraq, northwest of Baghdad.

Keith Gimmy reenlisted in the fall of 2006 after returning from Baghdad, this time reclassed as a Cavalry Scout. Then, in 2007, he was again deployed to Iraq, this time to southwest Baghdad where he stayed for the next 13 months.
He knows personally what it means to be in harm’s way, and rather than wavering, his faith in God has been strengthened and defined by his experiences.

He defines his deployments as “a religious experience as well as a physical one.”

Biblical references came alive for him during his time in the Middle East, he said, especially when “you find yourself there” in the same region where Jesus lived and taught. He understands desert experiences better than others who have never lived surrounded by sand and a sometimes desolate countryside.

During the time he lived his life on two sides of the world — here and being deployed to Iraq — his relationship with a high school friend he met on a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) retreat in Marion grew serious.

The couple decided to marry, but it wasn’t easy since his bride, Andrea, was and is a sergeant in the Army Reserves, and at the time, was also deployed to Iraq (but not in the same area as her fiance). Communicating electronically with each other and their families, the couple made plans via the Internet.

Keith Gimmy’s mother, Laura, said everything was eventually worked out, describing her son’s marriage to Andrea “as one of the most romantic war-time weddings” ever.

Laura Gimmy said her son’s experiences in the Army and in Iraq have matured him. And she was happy that her parish, St. Joseph’s, customarily read the names of those in the service who had been deployed. They prayed in a special way for those sent into harm’s way.

“It was very comforting to hear his name every weekend during the Prayers of the Faithful,” Laura Gimmy said.
But that was by no means the only time she prayed for her son, and his two younger brothers who are not in the military. “I already prayed for them every day,” she said.

Relying on God when she learned of her son’s first deployment, Laura Gimmy said, “God gave me the strength to deal with it.” Somehow, she didn’t worry more about him when he was gone, she said.

Keith Gimmy values his family’s prayers and support. “I remain very close with all my family. Family is what keeps you supported through all life’s trials, not just combat,” he said. “My family has been very supportive throughout my military career, as well as life in general. Without them, it would have been an extremely trying time.”

Laura Gimmy said she knows her son was in dangerous situations, but he has shielded her from information about his role in the field, partly because he couldn’t tell her, and partly because he wanted to protect her from too much information.

However, he spoke briefly about the fear a soldier can experience, depending on location and situation.
“I have been frightened several times both here at home and especially overseas,” he said. It’s what you do with that fear, how you respond “that makes us.”

Fear can be used to sharpen the senses or to overpower and stop a person, possibly jeopardizing the safety of others around you. “Over there, there is no time to cower or hide because the man to your left and to your right depends on you keeping your head for survival,” he said.

This Memorial Day, as Keith Gimmy and his wife, Andrea, remember their friends and comrades in arms, Keith Gimmy said he will also think about the Patriot Riders, motorcyclists around the country who “help to safeguard funerals from protestors. These fine patriots will escort a funeral procession, blocking traffic for the fallen, then rev up their motorcycles around the protestors to drown out their disrespect.”
To these “patriots,” Keith Gimmy is very grateful “Thank you,” he said.

In the fall, Keith Gimmy will end his enlistment and is thinking about returning to the Marion area, to his family that has been a vital support to him where he will look for work and return to school.

His wife, Andrea, is also working on her college degree and will join him in Marion as soon as she can.

Keith Gimmy described those deployments as a time when he was “there, standing watch, keeping the wolves at bay, fighting for those who cannot or will not protect themselves.”

As so many others who stand in harm’s way these days, he did the job he was asked to do in spite of the dangers he faced. Whether people agree that this is or is not a “just war,” real people — sons and daughters, husbands and wives — answer the call to arms and risk their lives as they are asked to do.

This Memorial Day, please remember those who have sacrificed their lives for others.