A Tribute to Mothers' Sacrifice

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Roses and Cards Are Presented to Those Who Lost Children in Duty

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 9, 2005

Two dozen women representing mothers of U.S. servicemen and women who were felled in wars got pink roses yesterday and handmade cards written by schoolchildren across the country at a Mother's Day tribute at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

"I know how hard it is to be away from loved ones. I have four cousins and one brother in Iraq," wrote April, one of the children from 13 states whose notes were presented by Girl Scouts from the District, Maryland and Virginia.

"You never know if they will be coming home again. Thank you a lot," she wrote.

Ann Herd of Dallas, national president of American Gold Star Mothers -- a group whose members have a son or a daughter killed in service -- accepted the children's notes and addressed a small crowd against the backdrop of the black granite wall.

"When our veterans walked away from their homes and everyone dear to them, I cannot imagine what that must have been like. It must have been then when they became warriors," said Herd, whose son U.S. Army Sgt. Ronald Ward Herd was killed Aug. 5, 1970, near Danang, Vietnam. "We will always be indebted to them. We will never forget them."

The brief morning ceremony was one of several Mother's Day and military tributes across the region.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey and retired Army Gen. Frederick J. Kroesen, former commander in chief of U.S. Army Europe, were at the National World War II Memorial to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.

American War Mothers, a veterans support group organized during World War I, marked the 80th anniversary of its congressional charter at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns.

At the Wall, members of the mothers groups dressed in white received cards from two rows of Girl Scouts. The women then placed the notes -- decorated with glittery drawings of flowers, fireworks, flags and butterflies -- at the base of the memorial.

Herd walked with Mallory Shipe, 10, a junior Girl Scout from Chantilly, then took Shipe's hand and placed it over her son's name on Panel 8 West, Line 85.

Ronald Herd, a company commander, had 23 days left in his tour when he was killed, his mother said.

Herd said that in her son's absence, she had gone to his room and sat on his bed to talk with him.

Army Lt. Col. Tammi Reilly, 43, of Arlington watched as her daughter, Katelyn, 8, a Brownie Girl Scout, participated.

Reilly, who works for the office of the secretary of defense, said, "I wanted her to come and understand a little about history and about sacrifice."