SPOKANE, Wash. – For the second straight year, the Washington State Fallen Heroes Project held a Memorial Day ‘Boots on the Ground’ tribute outside the Illuminating Courage Memorial behind the Spokane Arena.
The Illuminating Courage statue was completed in 2015, honoring all Washington- and North Idaho-based service members who died since 9/11 during or as a result of their service. The Fallen Heroes Project honors those same people.
For Memorial Day, the statue was lined with boots, many of which were worn by the fallen veterans themselves. Inside each contained an American flag and a picture of the honoree with their name, date of birth, date of death and their service record.
“This morning, I made the decision to bring his boots out here,” Gold Star mother Charlene Hawley said. “It means a lot.”
Her son Daniel “Danny” Metze took his own life in 2011 at the age of 38, likely due to the PTSD Metze struggled with after multiple tours overseas. Sadly, his story is all too common, with the Military Veteran Project saying 22 veterans take their own lives on a daily basis.
“That’s one of the reasons that this is so important to me,” Hawley said. “It’s not just the ones that have fallen overseas but also the ones who come home and haven’t made it.”
Hawley says her other children have told her it’s time to move on, and for them, Hawley says that might be the case. Instead, Hawley follows the motto of the Fallen Heroes Project: ‘Heroes aren’t forgotten until their names are no longer spoken, and that won’t happen on our watch.’
“As long as I can keep coming, I will keep coming,” Hawley said.
