Remembering the Valley’s war dead

As groups gather for barbecues and swim parties around the San Joaquin Valley today, the families of the more than 30 local soldiers, airmen and Marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan will mark Memorial Day in far different ways.

For many of these families, their day will start at cemeteries where they will watch as their son or daughter is honored along with the rest of the nation’s fallen heroes.

They’ll stand, hands over their hearts, as flags are raised and buglers play taps.

And when the ceremonies end, they’ll return to their private lives and their private grief.

In their words, here’s how families of the Valley’s fallen will spend their Memorial Day.

“We welcome Memorial Day, and welcome people to talk about Tony.”

Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony “Tony” Butterfield was 19 when he was killed by an improvised explosive device in the Anbar province of Iraq. Butterfield was on his first tour in Iraq, and was scheduled to come home a month after he was killed.

He joined the Marines after two other Buchanan High School graduates, Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, 22, and Cpl. Jeremiah Baro, 21, were killed.

His mother, Robin Butterfield, said her family will attend services at the Clovis Cemetery in her son’s honor, and will put up 50 flags around their Clovis home.

“It seems sometimes that people have stopped talking about the war, but we remember. Another man in Tony’s unit called us from Iraq on a Sunday not long ago to tell me that he could see a difference in the country. He told me what they were doing was making a difference, and that helps.”

“Going out on the boat was how Michael and I spent one of his last days of [leave] before he redeployed.”

A newspaper picture from 2002 shows a wiry Michael Rojas making a tackle for the Clovis East football team.

In 2007, Army Cpl. Michael Rojas’ picture again appeared, this time alongside a story announcing his death.

Rojas, 21, died in April 2007 when a bomb exploded underneath his Humvee on the streets of Taji, Iraq, about 10 miles north of Baghdad.

Rojas’ death was mourned by his large family in Clovis, and his military friends in Washington state. His widow, Katrina Rojas, said she still hears from both his high school and military friends on a regular basis.

She said her husband is remembered every day, but especially on Memorial Day.

“My plans are to attend the Memorial Day services on Fort Lewis [near Seattle] and spend time with family at our beach cabin. We are getting our boat into the water tomorrow which is really nice.”

“We’re talking a lot right now about how much he’s missed.”

Army Capt. Joe Fenton Lusk II was a prankster, the son who never got caught misbehaving and the peacekeeper in a large and boisterous family.

He loved the Army, and flying, and was trained for combat in a war he never reached.

Lusk, 25, died on a training mission in Kuwait Jan. 21, 2005, just 10 days after his unit deployed, bound for Iraq.

His mother, Susan Lusk, said his family honors his memory on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death.

“So Memorial Day will be a pretty low-key day for us. We’ll go to the cemetery, and then come home and barbecue with just our family. And we’ll talk about Joe. It’s been almost five years, and his brothers especially are just starting to feel more like talking about him.”

“It helps us feel connected to them.”

Sgt. Steven Packer joined the Army straight out of Clovis High School in 2002 and had completed two combat tours in Iraq before his unit was sent for a third time in 2007.

He died in May 2007 from wounds he suffered when his patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device. He was injured while searching for three soldiers missing from an earlier attack.

His mother, Robin Davidson, said that Memorial Day has held special meaning for her family ever since.

“We go to the Fresno Memorial Gardens. They’ve had Memorial Day events for years, and we went for the first time the year my son was killed. We decided then to go every year, and there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.

“We used to take vacations, or go out of town for Memorial Day, but that’s just not what we want to do anymore.”