Trip honors fallen soldiers

• By JOHN A. COLVIN
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Jul 23, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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GONZALES — After traveling about 5,000 miles, retired 1st Sgt. Kirk Alkire placed a personal memento Monday night at the grave of U.S. Army Spc. Johnathan Bryan Chism, who was a Prairieville resident.

It is the last patch that Alkire has to deliver in a monthlong pilgrimage he began planning in the months following the Jan. 20, 2007, attack that claimed the lives of Chism and three other soldiers.

Alkire, who served as first sergeant of all four, designed the patch in the shape of a U.S. highway sign.

“I knew I had to do something to pay my final respects,” Alkire said Tuesday.

“I got to thinking about the miles between their hometowns and the highways needed to get there.”

Alkire’s patches feature a prominent numeral “4” encircled by the names of Chism and three others also executed — 1st Lt. Jacob Noal Fritz, 25, Falls City, Neb.; Pfc. Shawn Patrick Falter, 25, Cortland, N.Y.; and Pfc. Johnathon Miles Millican, who was born Jan. 4, 1987, in Locust Fork, Ala.

The four were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based in Fort Richardson, Alaska.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Chism, 22, a 2003 St. Amant High School graduate, was one of four soldiers abducted in a sneak attack at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, Iraq, then shot to death.

Alkire was still in Iraq when he decided to personally visit each of the fallen soldiers’ graves and to meet their families.

On June 30, Alkire, joined by three of his closest friends from Anchorage, Alaska — Marc Phillips, Laddie Shaw, and Todd Bullock — began the trip as the Rolling Honor riders. They leave on the last leg of their journey today, heading for Seattle, Wash., some 3,000 miles to the northwest, where their odyssey began.

For Chism’s mother, Elizabeth Chism, the visit has been “emotionally draining” but has been a blessing, she said.

“This is helping me and them,” said Elizabeth Chism, referring to Alkire and his friends. “They are all in different stages of hurt.”

She said she stays in touch with Bryan Chism’s friends, but also finds comfort in his spirit.