Banner that flew in Afghanistan is raised at Capitol
Javier Manzano © The Rocky
Cindy Dietz, right, mother of fallen Navy SEAL Danny Dietz, waits with state Sen. Steve Ward, holding flag, and Colorado State Patrol Trooper Mike Garcia for the start of Thursday’s ceremony honoring her son. “I don’t know what else to say other than we love him,” Dietz said.
By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News
June 29, 2007
The American flag hung motionless in the hazy, breezeless sky, a solemn red-white-and- blue reminder of the man who had sacrificed his life for it two years ago to the day.
For the tourists who took photos and the strolling locals who paid no attention to them, it was a sleepy-quiet Thursday morning on the west steps of the state Capitol. Even the traffic below seemed more lulling than clamorous.
But for Cindy Dietz it was “a very hard day.”
On June 28, 2005, her son, Navy SEAL Danny P. Dietz, was killed on a mission in Afghanistan.
On June 28, 2007, a star-spangled banner that had once flown over Bagram Airfield – Dietz’s base – in that faraway Asian land was hoisted up a 35-foot flagpole that sat on a hill not very far from the Littleton neighborhood where he was born and raised.
Moments before Colorado State Trooper Mike Garcia raised the flag, Cindy Dietz had said softly, “I’m honored. It’s so special to me that this flag was flying over Danny’s base. And now it’s flying in his home state.”
Later, she would overcome her sadness. Summoning up composure and grace, she would stand before the media and say, “Two years ago, my oldest son was killed in Afghanistan.”
A soft hesitation, then, “I don’t know what else to say other than we love him.”
Joining her for the occasion were Danny’s brother, Eric, and his grandmother, Dolores Gilmer, along with a smattering of public officials.
Among them was state Sen. Steve Ward, who not only represents the Dietzes’ district, but who, as a Marine Corps colonel, was stationed at Bagram for two years himself. It was Ward who obtained the flag for the Dietz family.
“He was a brave man who died tragically and heroically,” said Ward, alluding to Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz being posthumously awarded the Navy Cross – the nation’s second-highest military honor – for his bravery in the face of fierce combat.
The same flag that honored -Dietz will be used Wednesday at the July Fourth dedication ceremony of a statue of him that will be held in Littleton’s Berry Park extension.
But Littleton Police Chief Heather Coogan wasn’t thinking a week ahead as she watched the ceremony.
“This demonstrates that we have so many fine young people who have such a strong sense of duty, honor and patriotism,” said Coogan. “Being here to watch this just feels absolutely right.”
After a long minute, Garcia slowly began lowering the limp flag.
But halfway down, a quicksilver breath of wind caught it. And suddenly, for several blinks of the eye, there it was, spread against the sky: a 3-foot-by-5- foot piece of red-white-and-blue cloth that represented something for which a Colorado warrior was willing to give his life.
If you go
• What: Dedication of the Danny Dietz Memorial Sculpture
• When: 11 a.m. Wednesday
• Where: Berry Park extension, 5507 S. King St., Littleton
• More info: littletongov.org
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 
July 1, 2007 at 08:56
[…] Flag marks SEAL?s sacrifice The American flag hung motionless in the hazy, breezeless sky, a solemn red-white-and- blue reminder of the man who had sacrificed his life for it two years ago to the day. For the tourists who took photos and the strolling locals who … […]
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July 3, 2007 at 17:30
http://pressposts.com/Education/Flag-marks-SEALs-sacrifice/
Submited post on PressPosts.com – “Flag marks SEAL?s sacrifice”
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July 5, 2007 at 08:20
Source:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5615783,00.html
‘Enduring inspiration to generations to come’
Javier Manzano © The Rocky
The unveiling of a statue of Navy SEAL Danny Dietz, who was killed June 28, 2005, while serving in Afghanistan, was celebrated by thousands of people Wednesday during dedication ceremonies in Berry Park in Littleton.STORY TOOLS
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By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News
July 4, 2007
On a small swath of park that used to be a vacant lot, the kind of lot where a young boy might ride his bike and begin to dream of becoming a brave warrior, they are getting ready to dedicate a statue to a native son who lived – and died – that dream.
It is the Fourth of July, and under a sky swollen with heat Danny Phillip Dietz Jr. will soon be frozen in time. The kid who was so smart he was bored by school, the kid who had every kind of pet you can imagine – including spiders – the kid who was both serious and goofy-funny, the Littleton born- and-raised kid who was freakishly strong and knew his career path when he was only 14 – that kid grew up to be a U.S. Navy SEAL.
Then, not halfway through his 26th year of life and fifth year of service in the U.S. military’s elite fighting force, fate, duty and honor brought him to a desolate, wind-chiseled mountain in Afghanistan. And there, on June 28, 2005, Petty Officer Dietz died a death so heroic his country awarded him the Navy Cross, its second-highest military honor.
The 11 a.m. start time for the dedication ceremony is almost at hand. Two thousand people – maybe 3,000, maybe more – are clustered in the Berry Park Extension, 5507 S. King St. Some of them are likely camped out on ground that DJ – Dan Junior; everybody called him that – rode his bicycle across. Some are standing. Some have been waiting for hours. Some, like Artie Guerrero, would wait longer if they had to.
Clad in a dark pin-striped suit, his Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart pinned to the pocket, the former Army Ranger sits in a wheelchair and explains he is here “out of respect to Danny. Respect to his family.” Four terrible wounds suffered 40 years ago in Vietnam helped put Guerrero, 63, in that wheelchair, but “you gotta play the cards they give you.”
Still, he knows there are some soldiers who are willing to gamble even when they know the deck is stacked against them.
“Most people have no idea what Rangers and SEALS, Special Forces, go through; the kind of courage it takes to go in there. Danny had that kind of courage.”
Every mother’s son
Maybe Thomas Caulfield can’t quite understand that kind of courage yet. Then again, he’s only 12. But as he waits for the ceremony to begin, he knows why he came, why he’s wearing a Danny Dietz T-shirt with “Honor Courage Commitment” on the front. He knows that “Danny Dietz helped fight for our freedom.”
“He could be anyone’s son. He could be my son,” says Linda Sasse, 54, who is, in fact, the mother of a Marine, Lance Cpl. Jason Sasse, ready to deploy to Iraq.
True, Danny Dietz could be any mother’s son, but he was Cindy Dietz’s child, her oldest, but one of her babies. The one she will never hug or kiss again. She, too, is waiting for the event to begin.
Behind her a forest of American flags is spreading as the crowd thickens. Here is a Marine, an Army Ranger, a sailor. Over there is a man with tattoos cascading down his arms like ivy, a ring through his nose and hair past his shoulders. Between them is an old woman in a chair, tucked under an umbrella. A stew of people. Americana in all manner of red, white and blue.
Cindy Dietz, hugging people and graciously accepting their good wishes, is, for the moment, too busy to notice the crowd. Too busy to notice what others see – a bald eagle that is carving majestic arcs against the blue sky.
But even if she saw the bird, Cindy Dietz might not be surprised. She might think it was the same eagle she saw flying over Fort Logan the day she and her husband and two remaining children buried Danny. The eagle that “was a sign from Danny that he was there with us.” Which is why she insisted that there be an eagle atop the flagpole that stands behind the statue that is still shrouded in navy-blue taffeta; a present to be unwrapped, but not just yet.
Acts of valor
Standing near his wife, Dan Dietz smiles behind dark sunglasses and says, “It’s an honor to be here. This is a celebration.” He talks about how the statue may be bronze and the base may be limestone, but what really holds it all together is his son’s steel.
“It’s all about Danny,” he says, reverence and defiance in his voice. “The character. The integrity. The bravery. The guts.”
He talks of the 16 wounds that finally killed his son, the one he swam and ran and lifted weights with to get him ready for the SEALS. He talks of the courage that his son displayed, refusing to stop firing at Taliban attackers despite being dragged away by a comrade. Refusing to back down despite being vastly outnumbered because “Danny would never quit on his buddies.”
Now it is 11 a.m. The Littleton Community Band has finished a series of jaunty marches. It launches into a spirited Star Spangled Banner as the crowd stands.
Pastor Larry Herrera, Danny’s godfather, delivers the invocation. Then he turns the microphone over to Donald C. Winter, secretary of the Navy, someone who never knew Danny Dietz but likens him to America’s first patriots, men who had an “irrepressible spirit of rebellion,” men who committed an “audacious act of defiance” by founding this country.
“Danny’s Dietz’s soul belongs to God,” says Winter, “but his acts of heroic valor belong to history.”
Suddenly, the sky’s random clouds are split by four roaring F-18 jets honoring a fallen comrade with a flyover. The air has barely stopped humming when Winter is succeeded by Rear Adm. Joseph D. Dernan, the head of the SEALs. After wondering “If I could be as brave as Danny Dietz,” the admiral affirms that the “tragic loss” of Dietz will be an “enduring inspiration to generations of patriots to come.”
The crowd cheers. Old men in Marine uniforms; young men in Navy whites. Middle-aged men who have never served but wish they had. Young men about to. Young men like Steve Mutchler.
Memorial Day forever
Earlier, as he helped shepherd his four much younger siblings along, the 21-year-old college student explained how he and Eric Dietz, Danny’s younger brother, are “good friends. We went to middle school and high school together.” He explains how, next year, when he’s finished with college, “Eric and I plan on going into the SEALS together.”
Next, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo speaks, followed by Mike Thornton, a former SEAL. Forty-four years ago, Thornton earned the Medal of Honor – the nation’s highest tribute – in Vietnam. In a voice both passionate and muscular, he thunders that “Every day should be Memorial Day for America,” and warriors like Dietz “should be thanked and blessed every day of our lives.”
Loud inspiration gives way to poignant reflection when Tiffany Bitz, Dietz’s sister, steps forward. She may be thinking of the DJ who was “freakishly strong.” The DJ who read encyclopedias and dictionaries when he was 9 years old. The DJ who would “think this kind of event for him was so silly.” The DJ who was so modest he would never tell people he was a SEAL, but, when asked his occupation, would reply “milkman” or “ice cream truck driver.”
She may be thinking of these things, but she does not say them. As her parents and brother listen with tearful eyes, Bitz speaks in a voice that quivers but never cracks, recalling how she and DJ had often walked in this park. How she hopes the statue will leave an “imprint on the minds of all who pass it.” How her brother was “a great man who gave the noblest sacrifice a man can give,” a man who “lived and died for us.”
Behind Bitz, alongside the family, Maria Paz Leveque Dietz – “Patsy” – Dietz’s widow struggles with her emotions.
For her, the day started as a cruel trip through time, back to July 4, 2005, “the day I got the knock on my door telling me Danny had been killed.”
It will get better. She will be buoyed by how “the people of Colorado have made Danny part of their history; part of their lives.” But for now, she quietly weeps and listens to her sister-in-law.
A heartbeat and a breath
Soon, after the playing of the Navy Hymn, it’s time to unwrap the gift. The taffeta comes down and the sun caroms off the brownish-gold patina, throwing up dazzling glints, shrapnel of light.
Five days earlier, when the statue was installed, Cindy Dietz had watched and said, “Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful. It looks just like my boy! The lips are perfect. The cleft on the chin is just right.”
So, too, were the B+ (for blood type) and NKA (for “no known allergies”) that were on the uniform’s right sleeve, inscribed into the statue’s clay mold by a mother’s hand, a link to the flesh and blood she brought into the world.
But now that flesh and blood is gone. Now, the statue that shines is no longer just hers or Dan Sr.’s. Now it is not just a statue of their son, it is a statue of a native son. Slowly, people walk around the 370 pounds of bronze that depict a kneeling Danny Dietz in combat gear, a warrior in brief repose.
Some people, Navy SEALs, lay their golden trident pins on the base. Others, civilians, softly lay red or white roses at the foot of the base. Some take photos. Some, like Tamra Glore, 46, come away feeling that, “It makes your heart beat a little faster. It makes you tear up. It takes your breath away. It’s the spirit of America.”
And some are overcome.
Weeping without restraint, Debra Anderson, of Longmont, removes a trembling hand from the crouching bronze figure, steps back and folds into her husband’s arms.
“Another young man, another young man,” is all she can say. Another young man like her son Christopher, a sailor killed in Iraq seven months ago to the day.
“It’s an honor to be here,” says Rick Anderson, a former SEAL himself. “We wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”
The sun is floating higher in the sky. A soft breeze riffles the American flag that hangs overhead. The family of Danny Dietz has left. So have the officials. But many remain. Strangers who feel they owe a debt of respect.
They continue to walk around the statue, looking at the recesses and folds. At the steely, no-nonsense expression on the face of the sentinel that crouches before them now. That will crouch before them forever.
In the midst of this slow-motion procession a young boy stops. Stands there for a long minute. Serious. Like he might know already he belongs to the next generation of patriots. He stares up at the unblinking eyes. Then at the perfect bronze lips. It’s almost as if he can hear a wisp of eternal breath coming from a fellow native son who was willing to play the cards he was given.
meadowj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2606
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November 20, 2007 at 06:07
Jessie
Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !
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November 20, 2007 at 12:54
This is a very touching and heartfelt record of the life and dedication of this young hero. Thank you for sharing it with us. It makes me proud to know we still have these types of heros, and it makes me reflect on our military with fondness and pride.
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November 27, 2007 at 23:43
Ma’am, there will always, I mean always be strong young men that are hero’s. We call them Americans.
God Bless You and yours.
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December 7, 2007 at 20:58
Nigella Lawson Cookware
Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !
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August 9, 2008 at 13:59
my daughter lives in littelton, I live in boston. I go out to see her once a year. the first year the monument was put up I told her I wanted to go see It. we took the whole family and went to see it. It was very impressive. her son climed all over it. checking out the equipment. his gun,knife and asked a hundred questions. he is only six. he was very impressed, maybe a seal when he grows up.:-)
I have a picture of us on my blog, that was deciated to seal team 10.
http://mickmck707.wordpress.com
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August 9, 2008 at 15:54
It almost didn’t happen mickmck. The anti-gun crowd of usual suspects very nearly got the memorial derailed.
Then, just a few short weeks ago I found out that Danny had cross trained with my son. So, there was also a personal connection that I didn’t even know about.
See if there is a Devil Pups unit near you. That would be the “Junior Marines” in this day and age. Your son would do well being a part of the American Brotherhood. Or was that your Grandson? Much to Tom Mauser’s dismay, there are several Junior Marines units here in the Denver metropolitan area.
Danny Deitz was one in a million. An American Warrior to put that in simplistic terms.
Wind, Steel, and Honor!
SUA SPONTE!
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