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| A L W A Y S I N O U R H E A R T S |
Operation Remembrance In The News
Articles about Operation Remembrance:
| Published in the interest of the Fort Benning community |
March 17, 2006
Operation Remembrance helps collect memories for families of fallen Soldiers
Melissa House
Bayonet staff
Kristen Pirog is no stranger to grief,
having lost her sister to cancer five
years ago. But what she remembers
most is the outpouring of love
from everyone.
Then, last year, a close friend was
killed in Iraq, bringing what she
called the "fringe" of the reality
of war creeping in to her doorstep.
After attending Capt. Stephen Frank's
funeral, she wondered what she
could do for his widow and his young son.
"My first thought was no flowers," Pirog said, recalling their overwhelming smell
after her sister's death, "but I wanted to do something to help collect memories."
So she began searching for something to hold those memories she knew would
be offered in condolence and settled on the idea of a box. She finally found one
on the Internet, and although it wasn't exactly what she envisioned, used it to
collect letters from Soldiers who had served with Frank - most of them written to
his son that would let him know about his father as he got older.
"And once I had the box idea," she said, "it just hit me. Every family deserves this."
That was the beginning of what is now Operation Remembrance, a non-profit
organization started by Pirog and her "back-door neighbor" Julie Pierce in May
2005, providing memory boxes to the families of fallen Soldiers.
Pirog and Pierce met at Fort Benning in 2004 where their daughters attended the
same preK class. Pirog had moved to post while her husband was in Saudi Arabia
to be close to her parents.
The two discovered they had plenty in common and plenty to complement each
other. Not only were they back-door neighbors, but they were sorority sisters. And
when Pirog asked Pierce what she studied in college, she knew the art major
would be the perfect person to help her with a project.
"I had been playing around with the idea of a military ABC book for years," said
Pirog, who approached Pierce with a proposition for collaboration. "I gave her the
stick pictures and she translated my gibberish."
It was during the final phases of the book that Frank died, killed as he popped the
trunk of a car during checkpoint operations, bringing the war in Iraq to Pirog's
door. He had been one of her husband's lieutenants when they were stationed in
Alaska and the two had crossed paths on post while Frank was in the Infantry
Captains Career Course.
"So we decided if the book did well, we wanted to give back to Army families,"
Pirog said. Then came the box.
"My mom didn't want my sister to be forgotten and I know families don't want their
Soldiers to be forgotten," Pirog said.
"The families can use the boxes however they want to use them. They're a tool to
help them create and hold onto memories."
She marched out her back door and over to Pierce's to ask what she thought of
the idea, having already bought the www.operationremembrance.org domain
name.
"We just weren't sure how we were going to do it," Pirog said, "but we were going
to do it."
They called the IRS and secured non-profit status, found a wholesale company
owned by a veteran to provide the velvet-lined, cherry wood boxes and got their
first donation - almost $800 - from another neighbor's IOBC class.
"That was the jump start we needed," Pirog said. "Then came the Web site -
Julie's effort- and the key way for people to contact us."
Pirog's parents bought the first shipment of boxes and she and Pierce paid the
shipping. Now, as part of the National Heritage Foundation, their organization has
oversight from the NHF and donors can receive confirmation of their tax-free
contributions.
For a while the boxes were taking up space in one of the Pierce family vehicles.
"My son complained about them," Pierce said, "and I just told him 'Every one of
those boxes represents a Soldiers' life, so you're not going to complain about
them being in the truck."
Monday, Pierce and Pirog, now visiting from Fort Bliss, Texas, mailed off the 50th
box to the family of a Soldier killed while training in Hawaii.
Although their initial thought was to provide boxes to the spouse of a Soldier killed
in combat, they've expanded their scope.
"This is something that can grow," Pirog said. "It's heartbreaking to have to give
them at all, but it is so important. It's not only a gift, but a tool they may use to help
deal with the grief."
Pirog said the average person doesn't wake up one morning and decide to start a
non-profit organization. She feels this project "found" her and she "found" Pierce
for a reason, drawing some of her inspiration from her own experience and from
the chaplains' words at Frank's funeral.
"Memories help fill the void left by a loved one," she said. "I don't know what
everyone needs, but I knew what my family needed."
Within a year, Pirog sent another box to another friend.
And now, as she prepares for her husband's deployment, she sees Operation
Remembrance as something that will help her not to focus on herself and what
she's about to go through.
"As military spouses and military children, we're so aware of Soldiers," she said. "If
you live on post, it's so much a part of our culture - the cemetery, hearing Taps
playing every night. You don't want to dwell on the what if."
As heart wrenching as it is to send the boxes, opening the thank-you notes are
even more so. The idea that families wrote letters of thanks in the midst of grief
touched both women.
"We feel like we've helped some families," Pierce said.
Her husband, who watched a box presentation to a widow, told her he could see
the effect of what the two were doing.
"Our guys have been so wonderful supporting us. We knew it was right when our
husbands said it was good."
But both women are hesitant to have their names or faces prominently attached to
the project.
Visitors to the Web site have to search for information about them, and there isn't
much to find.
"This project isn't about us," Pirog said. "We're just spouses wanting to help."
What they do want, is to continue providing the boxes to the families of fallen
Soldiers and offer them some measure of comfort in their grief. And they want to
let more people know. Operation Remembrance is now represented at Forts
Hood, Stewart, Wainwright and Drum in addition to Bliss and Benning.
"Military wives are our eyes and our ears, and once they find out, we're able to
help a lot of families, Pirog said.
Anyone interested in joining the Operation Remembrance efforts can contact
Pirog and Pierce through the Web site at www.operationremembrance.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Melissa House
Bayonet staff
Kristen Pirog is no stranger to grief,
having lost her sister to cancer five
years ago. But what she remembers
most is the outpouring of love
from everyone.
Then, last year, a close friend was
killed in Iraq, bringing what she
called the "fringe" of the reality
of war creeping in to her doorstep.
After attending Capt. Stephen Frank's
funeral, she wondered what she
could do for his widow and his young son.
"My first thought was no flowers," Pirog said, recalling their overwhelming smell
after her sister's death, "but I wanted to do something to help collect memories."
So she began searching for something to hold those memories she knew would
be offered in condolence and settled on the idea of a box. She finally found one
on the Internet, and although it wasn't exactly what she envisioned, used it to
collect letters from Soldiers who had served with Frank - most of them written to
his son that would let him know about his father as he got older.
"And once I had the box idea," she said, "it just hit me. Every family deserves this."
That was the beginning of what is now Operation Remembrance, a non-profit
organization started by Pirog and her "back-door neighbor" Julie Pierce in May
2005, providing memory boxes to the families of fallen Soldiers.
Pirog and Pierce met at Fort Benning in 2004 where their daughters attended the
same preK class. Pirog had moved to post while her husband was in Saudi Arabia
to be close to her parents.
The two discovered they had plenty in common and plenty to complement each
other. Not only were they back-door neighbors, but they were sorority sisters. And
when Pirog asked Pierce what she studied in college, she knew the art major
would be the perfect person to help her with a project.
"I had been playing around with the idea of a military ABC book for years," said
Pirog, who approached Pierce with a proposition for collaboration. "I gave her the
stick pictures and she translated my gibberish."
It was during the final phases of the book that Frank died, killed as he popped the
trunk of a car during checkpoint operations, bringing the war in Iraq to Pirog's
door. He had been one of her husband's lieutenants when they were stationed in
Alaska and the two had crossed paths on post while Frank was in the Infantry
Captains Career Course.
"So we decided if the book did well, we wanted to give back to Army families,"
Pirog said. Then came the box.
"My mom didn't want my sister to be forgotten and I know families don't want their
Soldiers to be forgotten," Pirog said.
"The families can use the boxes however they want to use them. They're a tool to
help them create and hold onto memories."
She marched out her back door and over to Pierce's to ask what she thought of
the idea, having already bought the www.operationremembrance.org domain
name.
"We just weren't sure how we were going to do it," Pirog said, "but we were going
to do it."
They called the IRS and secured non-profit status, found a wholesale company
owned by a veteran to provide the velvet-lined, cherry wood boxes and got their
first donation - almost $800 - from another neighbor's IOBC class.
"That was the jump start we needed," Pirog said. "Then came the Web site -
Julie's effort- and the key way for people to contact us."
Pirog's parents bought the first shipment of boxes and she and Pierce paid the
shipping. Now, as part of the National Heritage Foundation, their organization has
oversight from the NHF and donors can receive confirmation of their tax-free
contributions.
For a while the boxes were taking up space in one of the Pierce family vehicles.
"My son complained about them," Pierce said, "and I just told him 'Every one of
those boxes represents a Soldiers' life, so you're not going to complain about
them being in the truck."
Monday, Pierce and Pirog, now visiting from Fort Bliss, Texas, mailed off the 50th
box to the family of a Soldier killed while training in Hawaii.
Although their initial thought was to provide boxes to the spouse of a Soldier killed
in combat, they've expanded their scope.
"This is something that can grow," Pirog said. "It's heartbreaking to have to give
them at all, but it is so important. It's not only a gift, but a tool they may use to help
deal with the grief."
Pirog said the average person doesn't wake up one morning and decide to start a
non-profit organization. She feels this project "found" her and she "found" Pierce
for a reason, drawing some of her inspiration from her own experience and from
the chaplains' words at Frank's funeral.
"Memories help fill the void left by a loved one," she said. "I don't know what
everyone needs, but I knew what my family needed."
Within a year, Pirog sent another box to another friend.
And now, as she prepares for her husband's deployment, she sees Operation
Remembrance as something that will help her not to focus on herself and what
she's about to go through.
"As military spouses and military children, we're so aware of Soldiers," she said. "If
you live on post, it's so much a part of our culture - the cemetery, hearing Taps
playing every night. You don't want to dwell on the what if."
As heart wrenching as it is to send the boxes, opening the thank-you notes are
even more so. The idea that families wrote letters of thanks in the midst of grief
touched both women.
"We feel like we've helped some families," Pierce said.
Her husband, who watched a box presentation to a widow, told her he could see
the effect of what the two were doing.
"Our guys have been so wonderful supporting us. We knew it was right when our
husbands said it was good."
But both women are hesitant to have their names or faces prominently attached to
the project.
Visitors to the Web site have to search for information about them, and there isn't
much to find.
"This project isn't about us," Pirog said. "We're just spouses wanting to help."
What they do want, is to continue providing the boxes to the families of fallen
Soldiers and offer them some measure of comfort in their grief. And they want to
let more people know. Operation Remembrance is now represented at Forts
Hood, Stewart, Wainwright and Drum in addition to Bliss and Benning.
"Military wives are our eyes and our ears, and once they find out, we're able to
help a lot of families, Pirog said.
Anyone interested in joining the Operation Remembrance efforts can contact
Pirog and Pierce through the Web site at www.operationremembrance.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Melissa House Julie Pierce, left, and Kristen Pirog prepare a memory box for the family of a fallen Soldier. The Operation Remembrance project began after Pirog searched for a box for a friend's widow to save memorial letters for her son. |
| Operation Remembrance |
| "This is something that can grow. It's heartbreaking to have to give them at all, but it is so important. It's not only a gift, but a tool they may use to help deal with the grief." Kristen Pirog Co-founder of Operation Remembrance |
