Final Closure for Fallen Soldiers

Final closure comes today for the families and friends of two fallen Midland Empire soldiers. Thirty-nine-year-old Staff Sergeant Clinton Wisdom of Atchison, Kansas and 21-year-old Specialist Don Clary of Troy, Kansas died in Baghdad, Iraq in November of 2004 while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fellow soldiers unveiled bronze field crosses made up of the soldiers` combat boots, M-16s, helmets and dogtags at the national guard armories in Horton and Troy. Wisdom and Clary were guarding a convoy of dignitaries when a threat vehicle sped toward them. The soldiers drove their humvee between the bomb-carrying vehicle and the dignitary`s vehicle. Both wisdom and clary were killed in the explosion. Some of those dignitaries flew in today to remember and pay tribute to the men who saved their lives. "It`s important that as a general rule, these two guys be remembered on Memorial Day and every other day, and for me, it`s the rest of my life I owe to these guys, so it`s personal," Sergeant Charles Duelfer, former advisor to the director of Central Intelligence, says. "It gives us a sense of appreciation for what the two soldiers did for us, and it also gives us a sense of closing on the bad times that we had to go through," Sergeant Bryson Wiedmer, Clary`s best friend, says. "It`s just overwhelming to see so many people that care andappreciate what our soldiers are doing," Debbie Hower, Wisdom`s sister-in-law, says. The fallen soldiers` families have worked for the past year and a half to raise enough money to erect the statues and landscaping in front of each armory the soldiers served. Another statue is placed in Atchison. All three field crosses cost about $45,000.