The Brownwood Garden Club is pursuing the creation of a Gold Star Family Memorial Garden at the Central Texas Veterans Memorial, across Crockett Drive from the Hendrick Medical Center, and American Legion Post 196 recently made a $1,000 donation toward the cause.
Gold Star Families are those whose loved ones have lost their lives during military service. The garden will be a place of reflection for the families and the public, a place to honor and pay tribute to the over 260 Brown County lives lost in hostile actions since World War I.
Lorie and Eric Southerland, parents of SPC Michael Rodriguez who was killed in Iraq on April 23, 2007. Rodriguez was assigned to the 5/73rd Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He and eight other paratroopers were killed in an attack on his small outpost in As-Saddah in the Diayahla River Valley during what was called “The Surge.”. Terrorists used two explosive-laden dump trucks, one to breach the perimeter and detonate making way for the other to detonate next to the building. Of the 300 men in his squadron 22 were killed and 113 wounded during the 2006-2007 deployment.
The Sutherlands said in a press release, “Being a gold star family means being both full of grief and pride at the same time. We are very proud of Michael’s accomplishments. He was a great soldier. He contributed to many notable milestones while in Iraq: the first free radio station was built, first free elections, schools for girls were opened, the crippling of insurgents during the Battles of Turki Village, for which his unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. To go along with that pride, there is loss. He was just a month shy of his 21st birthday.
“The government of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) invited us to visit their country in 2011 for two weeks. They wanted us to see that Michael’s death was not in vain, that he and others had made a difference. We saw firsthand schools opened for the first time in years for both boys and girls, hospitals working with new medical equipment, orchards being planted, new construction of businesses and homes. An amusement park in the mountains, where children could play without the fear of the Baath party. We visited a Christian church and left our Bible.”
For those who would like to make monetary donations for the construction of this project, contact Lorie Southerland at Lsoutherland82@gmail.com or (325)206-1721.