Battle heroes of Fort Bliss maintenance company remembered in special ceremony

Gold Star families, former members, and others in the community were invited to a rededication ceremony on Wednesday honoring the members of the 507th Maintenance Company.

A monument to the 507th Maintenance Company was placed within the battalion’s area at Fort Bliss in 2006.

The project required air defenders to plant 11 trees. ( One for each soldier killed) pave a new sidewalk with four cubic yards of concrete and laid 26,000 pounds of brick and rock.

Wednesday’s rededication of the memorial is part of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade’s “Imperial Week.”

The 507th Maintenance Company was a U.S. Army unit that made headlines in 2003 after it was ambushed during the Battle of Nasiriyah in Iraq.

Eleven soldiers were killed March 23, 2003, including nine members of the 507th. Five others were wounded, and six of them were taken as prisoners of war.

Two of the soldiers, Sgt. Donald R. Walters, who was killed, and Pfc. Patrick Miller, who was taken prisoner, were recognized as battlefield heroes and were given the Silver Star Medal for valor.

Pfc. Jessica Lynch’s rescue from an Iraqi hospital received worldwide media coverage.

Lynch, who suffered serious injuries when a Humvee in which she was riding crashed in the attack, was taken by Iraqis to a hospital in Nasiriyah, where she was held captive until her rescue on April 1, 2003.

The monument is open to the public and can be seen in west Fort Bliss.