'Impactful statement': Thousands of boots at Fort Bragg represent service members lost

FORT BRAGG — A sea of boots, representing U.S. service members who died in the past two decades, are on display throughout the weekend at Hedrick Stadium on Fort Bragg.

The 7,500 boots represent military members of all branches who died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks or as a result of conflicts or personal battles that followed.

Ahead of Fort Bragg’s Run, Honor, Remember 5K, set to start at 7:45 a.m. Saturday at the stadium, volunteers on Friday affixed to the boots U.S. flags and identification tags bearing photos, names, date of death and location of the service members.

The football field-sized display is in honor of those who've made the "ultimate sacrifice,” said Charlotte Watson, Fort Bragg Survivor Outreach Services program manager.

“We can never do enough for those who have served our country and lost their lives,” Watson said. “The other major part is letting our surviving families know that their loved one is never forgotten. It's a powerful tribute.”

The tribute started at Fort Bragg in 2014 with a Gold Star mother and is also a reminder to the community how many service members and families have been impacted by 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and personal battles like suicide or illness back home, she said.

Among those volunteering to place the boots out Friday was Neil Graffa, who is new to Fort Bragg.

Graffa said people have heard the names of those lost during the past 20 years of the Global War on Terror.

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“Putting this perspective in a visual sense, ultimately, that gets a lot of people more than just hearing numbers, so I thought it’d be good to come out and help and get the visualization,” he said.

Graffa said his uncle, Staff Sgt. Brian Hobbs, a 25th Infantry Division soldier who died Oct. 14, 2004, from a roadside bomb, in Afghanistan, is one of the names he’d be on the lookout for when his parents come to visit him this weekend.

Volunteer Julie Varayon was moved to tears when she started to think about the children whose military parents have died over the years, or of the mothers grieving the loss of a military child.

“It’s a reminder of their sacrifice for sure,” Varayon said through tears.

Varayon, whose husband works at the Pentagon, was visiting her friend Anna Waggoner on Fort Bragg when she decided to volunteer at Waggoner's invitation.

Waggoner said she hopes Gold Star families know they are still a “cherished part of our community, and their family members will never be forgotten.”

While she's heard the names mentioned over the years, Waggoner said seeing them in chronological order by date of death caused her to realize how many service members from certain units died together on certain days.

“It’s utterly heartbreaking,” she said. “It’s mind-boggling to me to put faces with names with all of the time that’s gone by.”

Fort Bragg soldier Erika McCoy brought her 5-year-old daughter McKenzie Hewitt with her Friday to place the boots and honor her “brothers and sisters who gave their lives” to make her safe and secure.

McCoy said McKenzie understands the soldiers' sacrifice to make the country safer for them but she asked difficult questions about why the soldiers died or how they died.

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“It makes me wonder if any of them were single parents, or how their children have been impacted,” she said.

In addition to seeing how many boots are on display, McCoy said what stood out to her is the age ranges of those who have died — from young privates in their teens to senior officers in their late 40s and 50s.

“I feel for their families, and hope this is an impactful statement to them that we are honoring their loved one’s sacrifices and know they put on the uniform and boots,” she said.

Valencia Hunt, a support coordinator for Fort Bragg Survivor Outreach Services, said Fort Bragg is honoring those who have died and is available to provide the Gold Star families long-term support.

Watson said the boots will remain on display until early morning Monday.

She said volunteers will gather the boots ahead of Memorial Day in order to allow for other events at the stadium and to preserve some of the boots from outdoor elements for future use.

Survivor Outreach services requests donations of boots in good condition each year ahead of the display.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Boots honor Fort Bragg and other fallen service members