Thirteen Years After Iraq Invasion, Fallen Remembered in Colorado

Iraq War Vets Honored At Civic Center Park On 13th Anniversary Of Invasion
CBS News
March 20, 2016

“Each one of the chairs here represents a person who died serving,” Brittany Bartges with VFW Post 1 said.

DENVER (CBS4) – Sunday marks the 13th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq where thousands of U.S. service members were killed. Several veterans groups gathered to honor those from Colorado who served.

Kevin Sonka’s son David was killed fighting overseas in 2013. He was from Colorado and loved the outdoors — and his military work dog Flex.

“He and his dog were killed together,” Sonka said.

Today Sonka runs the Rocky Mountain Dawgs Project in his son’s honor. It’s just one of multiple organizations that honored those killed in the Iraq War at Civic Center Park Sunday.

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Empty chair reserved for Capt. Erik Anthes' fallen friend

Soldier keeps alive the memory of old friend killed in Baghdad
Tampa Bay Times
By Bill Stevens
Times Columnist
Sunday, September 23, 2012

Two-hundred soldiers stood in formation, ready to meet their new commanding officer. Friends and family filled the chairs for the ceremony.

All but one.

Army Capt. Erik Anthes mourns his former classmate, Spc. Patrick Miller, at the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell.

Capt. Erik Anthes reserved it for a fellow soldier, a man he hadn't seen since high school back in New Port Richey, but promised he would never forget.

As Anthes snapped salutes and accepted the responsibility for Company E, 1st Battalion of the storied 16th Infantry Regiment which dates back to the Civil War, he felt awash with emotion. How coincidental — no, how fitting — he thought as he glanced toward the empty chair and the sign taped on it: Spc. Patrick "P.J.'' Miller, March 29, 2008.

That was the day a roadside bomb exploded next to the young soldier's vehicle in Baghdad, one week before he was scheduled to return home. His outfit: the 16th Infantry Regiment.

Anthes, 26, assumed his new role on Aug. 30 at the regiment's headquarters in Fort Riley, Kan. At night, when he went home to be with his wife, Kelli, and their 5-month-old daughter, Reagan, he changed from his uniform. He didn't remove the bracelet that bears P.J. Miller's name.

"I never take it off,'' Anthes said. "I never forget.''
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5 U.S. soldiers killed in northern Iraq blast

5 U.S. soldiers killed in northern Iraq blast

By Hamid Ahmed - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Apr 10, 2009 11:58:28 EDT

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a sandbagged wall Friday in northern Iraq, killing five American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen in the single deadliest attack against U.S. forces in more than a year.

A sixth American soldier and 17 Iraqi policemen were wounded in the blast that took place near the national police headquarters in southwestern Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city and al-Qaida’s last urban stronghold.

Suicide bombings — a hallmark of al-Qaida’s attack style — continue to threaten the city, which U.S. troops must leave by June 30 under an agreement with the Iraqis. The approaching deadline
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5 U.S. soldiers killed in northern Iraq blast