Tears for Lima Company

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Tears for Lima Company
'Honor them always'
BY JON CRAIG | JCRAIG@ENQUIRER.COM

COLUMBUS – Nearly 1,500 relatives, friends and fellow Marines paid tribute Friday to members of Lima Company killed in Iraq in 2005.

During a Statehouse ceremony laced with pain, hope, tears and spirituality, the Ohio-based Marines were remembered for why they volunteered to fight overseas: To protect Americans’ freedom back home

“Each family lost one man,” said Carole Hoffman, mother of Sgt. Justin Hoffman, 27, of Delaware, Ohio, killed in one of the deadliest attacks of the war on Aug. 3, 2005.

“Lima Company lost 23 brothers,” she said. “Honor them always. Not just today.”

Life-sized oil paintings memorializing the fallen Marines – including six from Greater Cincinnati – were unveiled in the Statehouse Rotunda. The free exhibit will be on display through Veterans Day before moving to the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Senate President Bill Harris, a retired Marine Corps major who served in Korea and Vietnam, said, “I am totally convinced that God has a place for each one of these Marines and a (Navy) Corpsman in heaven.”

“To those left behind, the hurt will not go away,” said former U.S. Sen. John Glenn. “It was simple: Their nation was at war and they volunteered. … They went ahead of their normal years, but I firmly believe we all will . . . know them again.”

Lima Company Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Delgado said his company’s fallen Marines “were all humble warriors and I doubt any of them would have wanted a picture or a painting … I doubt any of them would have wanted all of this.”

“But if you forget your warriors, if you forget your heroes, they’re doomed to have to fight that battle again … If you don’t carry on the stories of these brave warriors, they will be forgotten and that would be the tragedy.”

Gov. Ted Strickland said the 6-by-8-foot portraits by Westerville artist Anita Miller “tell a story of courage and strength and hope. The Lima Company will remain in our hearts every day.”

Four F-16 fighter jets from the Ohio Air National Guard flew over the Statehouse as the Marine Forces Reserve Band began to play “Purple Heart,” a song composed by Miami University band director David Shaffer. Shaffer wrote it in memory of Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, of Oxford, who played tuba at Miami.

Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, whose son served in Iraq with Lima Company, said he and his wife, Frankie, fell to their knees in prayer on Aug. 3, 2005, after learning 10 Marines were killed by an explosive device.

“While my son by birth was not among the fallen, many of my sons by destiny … and the sons of Ohio were among the fallen.”

• Video: See the portraits and meet the artist

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...0519002&Ref=AR

• Read about the portraits and the artist

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...5190372&Ref=AR

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