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Fallen hero's memory lives on
Spec. Clint Gertson was killed by an insurgent while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq on Feb. 19, 2005. |
By Tracy Dang
It's been a year since Spec. Clint Gertson of Eagle Lake was killed while serving in Iraq, and Gayle and Susan Gertson are beginning to heal from the loss of their youngest son.
“When they first told me, I wanted to fall on the ground and die,” Gayle said. “It takes everything out of you.”
“Sometimes you wonder how you're ever going to get through this,” Susan said. “But you take one day at a time. What really hits you is when you hear people that don't agree with the war, and you hope that the war is not in vain. My biggest nightmare is that we forget what they die for.”
Clint, 26 at the time, was a member of the U.S. Army 1st Battalion 24th Infantry Regiment 1st Brigade 25th Infantry Division, also known as the Stryker Brigade Combat Team or Deuce Four.
He was done for the day Feb. 19 of last year but had volunteered to fill in for one of his comrades and go on patrol duty again.
“We were loading up to go back when a guy pulled up in a car about 200 meters away and shot a single shot,” Captain Jeff Van Antwerp said. “Clint was standing about a foot from me, and the bullet hit him right above the left shower, went all the way through his chest and came out the other side. We rushed him back to hospital and tried to resuscitate him, but it was too late.”
Clint's killer was not caught right away, but the soldiers were able to get his description and the make of the car from some kids who had witnessed the incident.
“Two days later, a guy with the exact description in the same car was pulled up in a different part of town about half a mile away,” Van Antwerp said. “We shot him before he could hurt anyone.”
Gayle said it's ironic that Clint loved kids so much, and it was kids who helped turn in his killer.
“It makes you feel good that it was the kids that turned his killer in,” Gayle said. “Clint always thought if we don't help the kids, then they're going to grow up and kill our kids. He always said it's too late for the old guys. The kids are the ones that need our help.”
Clint encountered a close call two months before his death when he was injured during a suicide-bombing attack on a mess hall at Base Marez, three miles south of Mosul. The explosion killed 22 people including his captain, who was right beside him, and the sergeant sitting in front of him.
“Clint could have come home, but he chose not to,” Susan said. “He chose to stay and fight for what he thought was right.”
“Clint used to tell me, ‘Dad, there are a lot of good people over here,'” Gayle recalled. “'They are just as tired of the bad guys as anyone, and they want to win the war just as bad as we do.'”
Those who served with Clint said he is one-of-a-kind, an icon many looked up to.
Lt. Col. Michael “Erik” Kurilla was Clint Gertson's commander in Iraq.
“Clint Gertson was the first man I met from Deuce Four three weeks before I took command of the battalion,” Kurilla said. “I approached the support by fire position, and this 6'4” square-jawed PFC stood up and greeted me with that big Texas smile and asked me if I wanted a clinic on how to shoot. He proceeded to hit a man-sized target at 500 meters.”
“I immediately knew that I would love this battalion and that if the rest of the soldiers were half as impressive as he was, I would have the best battalion in the army,” Kurilla said. “Clint Gertson was the kind of man that made you proud to say that you served with him.”
“Being around him was challenging for me, and I always saw a way for me to compete against him,” Kris Shoemaker wrote in an e-mail to the Gertsons. “Despite all the competitiveness, Clint was a model soldier, a great leader.”
“Gerty would have made an outstanding leader in the army,” Shoemaker continued. “He had the respect of the people. He was loyal, strong, ambitious, smart, competitive and had an ego that could made a weak man cry. I will make it my determination and conviction to keep on fighting and doing what Gerty would have wanted us to do.”
Michel Yon was a freelance journalist who followed Deuce Four in Iraq from April to August of last year.
“I didn't get to know Clint personally, but I know he was highly respected, and they still talk about him,” Yon said. “(Deuce Four) is an extremely competent unit, and the morale of Kurilla and his men was so high because of the leadership. When they go into combat, they are focused, and I felt safe with them.”
Yon kept a blog about his experiences and is putting together a book he would like to publish in the near future.
Actor Bruce Willis has also expressed some interest in making a movie based on the experience of the unit.
“I have an agreement with Bruce not to talk about it,” Yon said. “He read my dispatches while I was in Iraq and my first book, and he contacted me about making a movie because he was such a fan of Deuce Four.”
In the meantime, Gayle and Susan Gertson are been spreading the word in what their son believed, “freedom is not free.”
The couple spent a week in late August visiting Craw-ford as part of the “You Don't Speak for Me Cindy” tour.
Cindy Sheehan gained national attention when she went to President George W. Bush's ranch demanding to know why her son died.
The Gertsons also make an effort to meet and keep in touch with the families of those Clint knew.
The Clint Gertson Memor-ial Scholarship Freedom Fund has been set at the First National Bank of Eagle Lake.
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