Three months ago we wrote about a policy change at Ft Lewis, WA regarding public memorial services for fallen soldiers home-based at that post.

Fort Lewis will shift to monthly group memorials -- rather than individual services -- for fallen soldiers, a change that reflects the mounting number of deaths as the post fields more than 10,000 soldiers in Iraq.

So far this month, the Army has announced the deaths of 19 Fort Lewis soldiers, including three whose names were made public Wednesday.

It is by far the deadliest month of the Iraq war for the post, which averaged fewer than three deaths a month for the first four years of the war. Post officials say the increased number of fallen soldiers has made it more difficult for rear detachments to pull off the planning and other logistics required for individual memorial services.

May was a cruel month in Iraq for America’s soldiers; most months are. And with a brigade of about 4,000 troops, mostly all combat arms, it’s expected that casualties will occur. The personal memorials conducted at Ft Lewis were similar to a family’s grieving for the loss of a relative. They honored the fallen, and were a token of consolation for the grieving, a sense of sharing in the loss. We have no idea whether the memorial service is conducted by an appointed company, a battalion, or whether it is a post-wide ceremony, which is possible since the Commanding General apparently attends.

The point to be made was that it appeared as though the CG was inconvenienced in some way by these continuous rituals of grief.

"As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm's way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies," wrote the post's acting commander, Brig. Gen. William Troy, in a May 22 memorandum, which was first made public on the Web site of United For Peace, Pierce County, a peace activist group.

The post memorial services are in addition to services held by the Iraq units of fallen soldiers, and graveside and church services held by families.

The post services, which include personal remembrances of the departed soldiers, are a wrenching reminder of the toll of the war. They draw from dozens to hundreds of mourners, and in about a third of the services, include the family of the fallen soldiers, according to Joe Piek, a post spokesman.

I was scathing about this, and in retrospect immoderate. This apology was overdue:

“The Death Factory in Iraq is so productive that the Army can no longer stand the pace of individual memorial ceremonies. They’re going to the group hug system.”

That was wrong because it trivialized a matter of great importance: the death of even one soldier is momentous to his/her immediate family and also to his/her brothers and sisters in uniform. Soldiers want to serve their country and they accept the possibility of death and dismemberment. It goes with the profession, but no one seeks this. Their sacrifice, even in an illegal and immoral war of conquest, must be honored. Each loss is a drop of blood on our national flag. The propriety of the death matters less than the loss to our nation of a valiant citizen.

Faced with a country-wide negative response the CG at Ft Lewis reversed his decision and re-instituted the individual memorial services. It was the proper decision because administrative concerns are nothing compared to honoring out fallen brothers.

From today’s Seattle Times

The brigade has some 4,000 soldiers at full strength, and has lost 47 since departing last June. The week that ended Monday was a particularly deadly stretch, with three soldiers killed July 31, another three Aug. 2.

Then on Monday, the brigade lost Gummersall, Cpl. Juan Alcantara, 22, of New York; Spc. Kareem Khan, 20, of Manahawkin, N.J.; and Staff Sgt. Jacob Thompson, 26, of North Mankato, Minn. The four were killed when a bomb went off in a house they were searching in Baqouba, a city in Diyala province.

I recommend you go to the linked article and learn a bit about this loss to Ft Lewis. It’s a horrible, momentous series of tragedies. Gummersall, Alcantara, Khan and Thompson were not indistinguishable figure in uniforms. They were men, human beings, with families, and dreams, fears, desires. Their brothers and sisters at Ft Lewis will grieve for them and remember them that way.