Field aims to honor fallen soldiers

There were teardrops falling in a home in Roy as the stranger's voice cracked over the telephone and he talked about his dead buddy.

The tears, as the story unfolded, then began to fall thousands of miles away in Alabama.

He wanted to sponsor a flag, and Utahn Fay Dolan, who lost her son in the same war, was going to make that happen.

It is how she and others who are behind what is to be the nation's largest Healing Field at the Weber County Fairgrounds spend much of their days: talking about the dead, remembering, and wanting to pay tribute.

Five thousand flags will bear the 5,000 names of those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in the war on terror.

The flags will be on display July 23-Aug. 3, arranged alphabetically by state and by name in the shape of the United States.

Sponsors, for $25, get a certificate with the name of the soldier and the flag afterward if they desire. Or, they can arrange to have the flag sent on to someone serving overseas or someone recovering in a military hospital.

The Healing Field of Honor is being presented by Mike's Guardian Eagle Foundation and the Gold Star Families of Utah.

Bob Lehmiller set up the foundation after his son, Michael, 23, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. Fay and her husband, Tim, lost their son Daniel a year later in Iraq.

The parents share a cruel bond, but it is what drives them to make sure people don't forget the sacrifice given by all those who died in the war on terror.

The number of flags sponsored so far, ironically, has taught them people have already forgotten — 325 out of a possible 5,000.

"I thought we would sell that field twice, really, that was our goal. I am shocked and dismayed at the low turnout," Lehmiller said. "It shows the public has forgotten these guys already."

Lehmiller stresses that he is not bitter or angry over what he sees as a lackluster response.

"I have mixed feelings," the Clearfield man said. "What I do every day to make sure my son is not forgotten, that's who I am, that is my mission I carry on every day. I can't tell other families how to grieve, but it confuses me."

For the public, he understands that times are tough, and every dollar counts in a strained economy.

"But when you have 25 million American Legion members, how can they forget their fallen comrades? It just confuses me. These are the people who defend you, defend me, and it blows me away how people can forget."

The Lehmillers and the Dolans are at the core of a group a half-dozen strong trying to get the field up, solicit sponsors, track them and enlist other volunteers.