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UPDATE: SOLDIER FELLED BY ILLNESS TO HAVE SPOT ON

WARRIOR'S WALK AT FT. STEWART -- "I'm just so happy.

He deserves it. I think it's the right thing that they did.

I'm just happy that it has a happy ending."

Suzette Detulio wanted her son, Pfc. Ryan D. Christensen, included in a Fort Stewart, Ga., memorial. The soldier's room at her Monmouth County home contains a quilt made by a military support group. (photo: MIKE DERER / Associated Press)

For the previous story about the soldier being denied a place on Warrior's Walk...click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf112607-1.htm

Story here... http://www.courierpostonline.c
om/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/NEWS01/712060409/1006/news01

Story below:

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Soldier felled by illness to have spot at memorial

By REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press

TRENTON -- The Army has reversed a decision that had barred a Monmouth County soldier who died of an infection contracted in Iraq from being included in a war memorial because his death was noncombat-related, U.S. Rep. Christopher H. Smith said Wednesday.

Smith, R-N.J., had been helping Suzette and Mark Detulio with their efforts to have their son, Pfc. Ryan D. Christensen, included in the Warriors Walk memorial at Fort Stewart, Ga., a grove of trees planted for each soldier in the 3rd Infantry Division who died in the war.

The 22-year-old Christensen died in 2005 from an infection contracted in Iraq.

"I'm just so happy. He deserves it. I think it's the right thing that they did. I'm just happy that it has a happy ending," said Suzette Detulio, speaking from her Brick home after she received the news.

Suzette Detulio said she was told by Lt. Col. P. Brian Gale, who called her at home Wednesday evening to let her know of the reversal, that including Christensen in the memorial was "the right thing to do."

According to Smith, Gale will travel to New Jersey to meet with the Detulios next week and a ceremony dedicating a tree for Christensen will be held Jan. 17.

"It's an honor that should have been done right from the start for his memory," Smith said Wednesday evening. "I think they're going out of their way to right a wrong."

The Warriors Walk memorial is a grove of eastern redbuds which were first planted in April 2003 with 34 trees.

The 373 trees currently there are for each member of the 3rd Infantry Division to die in the war as well as soldiers from other units who died while serving with the division.

Family and friends leave mementos of their loved ones at their tree, and the division has ceremonies when new trees are planted.

Christensen, who grew up in Monmouth County, was a member of the division and had been in Iraq since January 2005 when he fell ill at the end of October 2005 and was sent back to the United States.

He died about a month later.

The Detulios first learned of the memorial and their son's exclusion when they visited Fort Stewart in the fall of 2006.

Suzette Detulio wrote a letter to the division command pointing out that no tree had been planted for her son.

In February of this year, she received a letter from Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the division commander, offering his condolences for her son's death but saying that the memorial was specifically for people who lost their lives "due to combat actions."

The Detulios called Smith, who petitioned the Army to reconsider.

Smith said he was told last week by the Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, that the Army was taking another look at the family's request and that the secretary would personally monitor the review.

The 3rd Infantry Division is currently on its third tour to Iraq.

The Detulios' frustrations over the memorial have been compounded by the fact that they haven't been able to learn more about why their son died.

The walls of the Detulios' home are hung with pictures of Christensen, many taken with Army buddies.

A box holds the flag that hung on Christensen's coffin, and the bed is covered with a quilt made by a military support group.

Outside the house, the Detulios have erected a flagpole and planted a Douglas fir in memory of their son.

The couple has stayed in touch with members of their son's unit and recently sent over a care package to them.

They're also organizing a gift drive for injured troops at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Suzette Detulio said the gift drive is a way to make "something good out of something bad."

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

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