Hall-American A publication of
June 30, 2019
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HALL AMERICAN
Hall-American A note from the editor
Contents
Communities across America celebrate In this special publication, you’ll find July Fourth with fireworks and hot dogs, stories of how this community defines thoughts of freedom and opportunity. American. It’s the young soldier who In our community, being survived an IED blast and is American is celebrating those working to help others continue things and more. It’s pride in surviving their own war stories. what this country has built, It’s the single mother from the freedoms its people enjoy Mexico who worked to become and the spirit of optimism that a citizen. It’s the generations propels it forward. of veterans who’ve built Amid division over the community back home. This is country’s direction, we our Hall-American legacy. recognize the incredible And to help you celebrate SHANNON CASAS privilege we have to openly scasas@gainesville that legacy, there’s a full list argue about our leaders, our times.com of events and fireworks along government and what it means with a map of monuments to be American. There are honoring America and those who have places and times in which ideas were fought for it. physically suppressed in pursuit of power As we gather to celebrate our freedom, and people silenced and disregarded. We we also celebrate community, as each one can find common ground in the desire that America provide freedom and justice plays its part in making our country great. — Shannon Casas, editor in chief for all.
Ultimate Fourth of July calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Fireworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Monuments of Hall County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Can you pass our civics test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 An immigrant’s journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 From Afghanistan to Gainesville, a veteran’s tale ������������ 10 American Legion Post No. 7 celebrates 100 years
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Gettysburg Address
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Sunday, June 30, 2019
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com Whether you’re looking to catch some fireworks or listen in on a reading of the Declaration of Independence, Hall County and the nearby area has you covered this July Fourth.
Fantastic Fourth Celebration Stone Mountain’s Fantastic Fourth event is an all-week North Georgia classic around Independence Day. It’s one of the state’s best fireworks displays. When: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. July 1-7 Where: Stone Mountain, 1000 Robert E Lee Blvd., Stone Mountain How much: Daily pass required More info: www.stonemountainpark.com
Recitation of the Declaration of Independence Catch some good old-fashioned liberty and freedom at this simple reading of the Declaration by local public defenders. When: 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 3 Where: Kenyon Plaza outside the Hall County Courthouse, 225 Green St. SE, Gainesville How much: Free More info: 770-718-5523
Daily July 4 events at Margaritaville Margaritaville has prepared a series of cookouts and tunes at its complex at Lanier Islands. What: Events include bands and low country boils When: July 3-7 Where: Margaritaville at Lanier Islands, 7650 Lanier Islands Parkway, Buford How much: $46 general admission More info: www.lanierislands.com
Northwinds Symphonic Band Patriotic Pops Concert Always a good time, the Northwinds Symphonic band will put some pep into the symphonic experience with renditions of classic American songs at this event in Gainesville. When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 3 Where: Smithgall Arts Center, 331 Spring St. SW, Gainesville How much: $16 for students and those 65 or older, $19 for adults, $15 for veterans and immediate family More info: theartscouncil.net/events/thearts-council-summer-musicfest-2019/ northwinds
JEFF GILL | The Times
A veteran’s memorial in Oakwood.
We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — Declaration of Independence
F O U R T H O F J U LY E V E N T S
Your ultimate July Fourth event guide
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HALL AMERICAN
F O U R T H O F J U LY E V E N T S
I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellowcitizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. — GEORGE WASHINGTON, closing his farewell address
We the Runners Half Marathon, 10k/5k & Sparkler Trot Don’t want to wade into Atlanta for the Peachtree Road Race? Get your running time in a little closer to home at this race near the Big Creek Greenway in Forsyth County. When: 7:30 to 11 a.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Fowler Park, 4110 Carolene Way, Cumming How much: $15 for Sparkler Trot, $35 for 5K, $40 for 10K, $65 for half marathon More info: www.totallyrunning.com
Fourth of July Celebration Do wine and Independence Day go together? They do in Dahlonega. When: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Downtown Dahlonega How much: Free More info: www.dahlonegahideawayhavens.com
Fourth of July Celebration If you’re up in Habersham, be sure to check out the cornhole and horseshoe tournaments lined up at the Demorest celebration of July Fourth. When: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Downtown Demorest How much: Free More info: www.cityofdemorest.org/events/fourth-of-july-celebration
July 4th Celebration Check out this Independence Day celebration at one of the nation’s oldest state parks. The day will include a hotly contested sandcastle-building competition.
When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Vogel State Park, 405 Vogel State Park Road, Blairsville How much: $5 per car More info: www.explore.gastateparks.org
Red, White & Rock All Day Music Festival There will be no better place to combine music and freedom than at this all-day concert at the Cumming Fairgrounds. When: 1 to 11 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Cumming Fairgrounds, 235 Castleberry Road, Cumming How much: $5 More info: 770-781-3491
17th-Annual Star Spangled Fourth The mall will have as many food trucks, bands and attractions this upcoming holiday as it does car dealerships. Check it out. When: 3 to 11:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Mall of Georgia, 3333 Buford Drive, Buford How much: Free More info: www.oakwoodoccasions.com
Honoring Freedom Looking for an old-school holiday? Make plans to attend this celebration in the historic Chicopee Mill village, where organizers will have games, food and fireworks. When: 5-9 p.m., Thursday, July 4 Where: Chicopee Baptist Church, 13 First St., Gainesville How much: Free More info: info@chicopeebaptistchurch.com
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Sunday, June 30, 2019
Laurel Park
When: Dusk, July 4 Where: Laurel Park, 3100 Old Cleveland Highway, Gainesville How much: $10 per car
Lanier Islands When: 10 p.m. July 4-6 Where: Margaritaville at Lanier Islands, 7650 Lanier Islands Parkway, Buford How much: $46 general admission More info: www.lanierislands.com
Davis St., Braselton How much: Free More info: www.braselton.net
Helen When: 9 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Downtown Helen, 726 Brucken Strasse, Helen How much: Free More info: www.helenga.org/calendar/ helens-50th-celebration-4th-of-julyfireworks
Lake Burton
Dawsonville When: 9 to 10:30 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Atlanta Motorsports Park, 20 Duck Thurmond Road, Dawsonville How much: $20 for the 4K, $25 on the day of the event More info: www.fivestarntp.com/
What: Boat-accessible fireworks show When: 9:30 p.m. July 6th How much: Suggested donation of $60 per family Where: South end of Billy Goat Island, Lake Burton, Rabun County More info: www.lakerabunfireworks.com Times file photos
Braselton When: 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 4 Where: Downtown Braselton, 9924
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Where to catch a fireworks show
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From left, Jason, Devon, McKenna, Amy and Jacoby Robinson watch the fireworks show at the American Legion Fourth of July celebration in Gainesville, Wednesday, July 4, 2018, at Laurel Park on Lake Lanier.
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HALL AMERICAN
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Lula Veterans Park
Opened in 2019, this local landmark features an interactive fountain and bricks that can be inscribed with the names of veterans. Where: 6007 Main St., Lula
Monuments of Hall County 400
Looking to mark Independence Day with a visit to a local monument? Here’s a list of local places that mark the men and women who died defending American liberty and freedom. Jeff Gill 136
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One of the biggest displays in Hall, this sectioned-off outdoor area at the 129 Center features Northeast Georgia History granite panels with the engraved names of area veterans serving in wars from World I to the War in Afghanistan and global terrorism. Where: 322 Academy St., Gainesville
A stone obelisk honoring veterans and featuring each of the military branches’ seal is in a small landscaped area across from City Hall. The memorial also features a marker honoring John B. McBrayer, a World War II Army Air Corps corporal who died in 2011. Where: 4035 Walnut St., Oakwood
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Dedicated in 1947 and cleaned up in 2010, this stone edifice pays tribute to World War II veterans but particularly New Holland residents who paid “the ultimate sacrifice.” The monument is in front of the 129 Milliken & Co. plant. Where: 1750 Jesse Jewell Parkway, Gainesville
Oakwood
Rock Creek Veterans Park
Sidewalks wind through this park off the Gainesville square, passing by monuments honoring veterans who served and died in America’s wars. The heavily landscaped park is part of a downtown trail system and features an amphitheater. Where: 223 Northside Drive, Gainesville
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HALL AMERICAN
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Sunday, June 30, 2019
How patriotic are you? You’re likely celebrating American independence this week in one way or another — a bit of fireworks here, an afternoon out at the grill there — but how much do you actually know about the nation? We collected five quick questions for a pop quiz from Douglas Young, a professor of political science at the University of North Georgia’s Gainesville campus. He figures graduating high school seniors should know the answers to all of these. Whether they do, of course, is another thing. So if you think you know what made the United States the country it is today, give this quiz a shot.
1. In which document is the phrase, “all men are created equal”? A. the Albany Plan B. the American Declaration of Independence C. the U.S. Constitution D. the Federalist Papers E. All of them.
4. Which type of speech is NOT constitutionally protected by the First Amendment’s free speech and free press clauses, as interpreted by U.S. Supreme Court rulings? A. hate B. controversial C. unpopular D. seditious E. protests on public/government property
2. Who wrote the bulk of the U.S. Constitution? A. George Washington B. Benjamin Franklin C. Thomas Jefferson D. James Madison E. Alexander Hamilton
3. Who wrote the Federalist Papers which explained, endorsed, and helped get the U.S. Constitution ratified? A. Washington, John Adams, and George Mason B. Patrick Henry, Roger Sherman, and Robert Morris C. Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay D. Button Gwinnett, Rufus King, and Charles Pinckney
5. While California presently has the largest number of U.S. citizens and electoral college votes, which U.S. state has the second most? A. New York B. Texas C. Florida D. Pennsylvania E. Ohio
For answers please see page 13
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. — Closing of the Declaration of Independence
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HALL AMERICAN
Single mother paves own path to citizenship and career By KELSEY RICHARDSON
krichardson@gainesvilletimes.com Almost every weekend Lupita Perez starts her day by painting two red hearts on her cheeks and donning a cheery smile. “I love my job,” Perez, who became a U.S. citizen on May 11, 2018, said. “My mother told me to try being a clown. She said, ‘You’re funny, you make parties. Why don’t you start?’” As a single mother of three, Perez lives in Oakwood and supports her children through her clown business and parttime job as a Zumba instructor. She emigrated from Hidalgo, Mexico 19 years ago to follow her parents and to escape a stagnant Mexican economy. Her mother and father first moved to Gainesville in 1995 and told Perez about the opportunities the country provided. Perez said she never imagined leaving her hometown in Hidalgo until her parents shared glimpses of their prosperous life in Georgia. “They wanted to make a better life,” Perez said. “The still live in Gainesville today.” Perez hit the Georgia ground running, getting her first job at McDonald’s and later working at a T-shirt factory. Both were located in Cumming, which she said had more job openings than Gainesville during the time. After settling with her parents and her job, she started pursuing citizenship. While shift work at a factory was paying the bills, it wasn’t the life Perez saw for herself. Looking for a more fulfilling career that also allowed her to spend more time with her three children, Perez went in an unexpected direction: Her own clown business. She dubbed it, El Mundo de Chispita, which translates to “The World of Sparkle.” Donning vibrant wigs and frilly tutus, Perez transforms into her clown persona, Chispita, known by English speakers as Sparkle. At children’s birthday parties and events, Perez unleashes her bubbly personality — piñatas, balloons, games and face paint included. It’s been 17 years since she started the party business, and in that time she’s grown into an area close to her heart: helping kids with special needs. Perez works events catered to children with special needs and is in the process of launching her own foundation. Both efforts were inspired by her own daughter, Brenda Torres. Now 16 years old, Brenda was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, when she was just more than a year old. Two years later, the cancer spread from one eye to the other, causing permanent blindness. Despite her blindness, Brenda strives to live just like her peers. “She can swim, play the guitar, play the piano, she models,” Perez said. “I keep telling her, you’re blind, but you can do whatever you want.” In the upcoming weeks, Perez will have established a foundation dedicated to her daughter called, Fundación Aby Angels y en la Tierra. This translates to Foundation Aby, Angels on Earth. Her daughter’s nickname and
AUSTIN STEELE | The Times
Lupita Perez became a U.S. citizen in 2018, and during her 19 years of living in Gainesville she started her own clown business.
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middle name is Aby, The proceeds raised through individual donations to the foundation will help fund Perez’s events for kids with special needs. Brenda said the foundation’s spirit will reflect her mother’s motto. “She tells me to not give up,” Brenda said. “There are a lot of special needs kids that want to give up on a lot of stuff, and people make them feel excluded. We don’t want that. We want to help them out.” Perez recently reached out to the Mexican-American children’s musician who goes by the stage name, Tatiana. She messaged the singer and asked if she would be interested in helping with the foundation. “I hoped that one day she would see the message,” Perez said. “I couldn’t believe it, but she texted back. She said she’d go for free and fly from Mexico.” Perez said plans for an event with Tatiana will begin as soon as she receives the certification for her foundation. Along with her big-picture plans, Perez works small acts of service into her clown business. Two months ago she hosted a fashion show for her friend’s jewelry line, Naturaleza. Local children with special needs wore the handcrafted pieces and modeled them down a runway. Perez intends to host more events like this with funds raised from her upcoming foundation. Now as a U.S. citizen, Perez’s life, both business and personal, has become easier. “I’m so happy,” Perez said. “I feel safer now that I’m a citizen, and I’m able to vote.” Like many who go through naturalization, she said the process was intimidating. Photos by AUSTIN STEELE | The Times Perez didn’t know much English before moving to the Above: Lupita Perez, third from right, sits with her children, U.S., and spent years learning both English and the history from left , Valeria Torres, Ricky Torres and Brenda Torres, on of the United States. Friday, June 7. Lupita became a U.S. citizen in 2018, and is Brenda said her mother would stay up some nights working on establishing a foundation in honor of her blind studying for the naturalization test. This exam entails two daughter, Brenda. Right: Lupita Perez, right, stands with parts — a civics test and an English reading, writing and her daughter, Brenda Torres, in Mickey Mouse cosutume, on speaking test. Friday, June 7. Bottom Right: Lupita Perez puts on clown Perez’s three children attended their mother’s makeup. naturalization ceremony on May 11, 2018, in Atlanta. “I’m so relieved and happy for her,” Brenda said. “She a permanent resident with a green card for five years works hard for whatever she wants. That inspired me to before pursuing naturalization. never give up and keep doing whatever it takes.” In many cases, Quijano said people’s reservations are Perez said she hopes that the tied to their unfamiliarity with citizens of Hall County realize the English language. ‘Some people say that they that many immigrants like her Quijano said she offers an “are good people.” can’t speak good English and audio recording study guide, “I love helping people and helps people memorize the community,” Perez said. they’re scared. You don’t need which the questions and answers in “People need to know that English. to be scared. You need to sometimes Hispanic people “I like to motivate my clients,” come here because they want study, you need to work hard Quijano said. “I tell them, this to do better with their lives. is the country where you can They’re good, hard working and feel comfortable. Don’t become whatever you want to people.” be. Don’t let fear stop you from Viviana Quijano, immigration give up.’ becoming what you’ve always attorney of Quijano Law Lupita Perez wanted to be.” in Norcross, describes Like Quijano, Perez naturalization as a “beautiful encourages those considering pursuing citizenship to process.” “never say you can’t do it.” From her perspective, Quijano said she doesn’t see the “Some people say that they can’t speak good English steps to reach citizenship difficult or tedious. and they’re scared,” Perez said. “You don’t need to be She said those who are married to a U.S. citizen and scared. You need to study, you need to work hard and feel have remained a permanent resident can apply for citizenship after three years. Everyone else must live as comfortable. Don’t give up.”
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HALL AMERICAN
A journey through war, wounds and recovery BY NICK BOWMAN
nbowman@gainesvilletimes.com
Samuel Walley’s mind was clear as the blast separated the soldier from the earth and two of his limbs, lifting him 20 feet on a cloud of dust and adrenaline and death. He’s younger than he looks, leaning forward over a coffee table in the over-airconditioned lobby of the Martha T. Nesbitt Academic Building at the University of North Georgia Gainesville campus. Covered in tattoos but holding onto the clean-cut military haircut, he navigates life using a prosthetic leg and a head full of experience and memories that most 26-year-olds in Gainesville are blessed to be without. He’s the son of a construction worker father, Kelly Walley, and a mother, Connie Walley, who in his early life worked cleaning churches but now works with Project ADAM, a drug-rehab ministry in his hometown. He’s a former soldier of the 82nd Airborne Division and was very close to being killed while deployed to the Zhari district near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. These days, he’s a student of political science at UNG with hopes of getting into politics to help make life a little easier for veterans. He’s lived in Gainesville since leaving the Army in 2014. “He’s been very instrumental in all of our fundraiser events, and he’s been a big supporter of For The Warriors Foundation,” said Mike Seely, a retired airman and former brigadier general in the Georgia National Guard. “I can’t say enough about him. He’s been very energetic, very dedicated.” Most of all, Walley’s recovered — from his wounds, from the nightmares that followed him home from Afghanistan, from the deaths and suicides of his former squad mates who returned stateside and, for one reason or another, couldn’t find their own recovery. “These are the guys you have to turn back to. You have the biggest commonality with them,” Walley said, describing bonds that form tighter than family in the midst of firefights, bomb sweeps and patrol after patrol. His connection to his fellow soldiers was forged tight in the stress of war: Killing, seeing friends be killed and navigating through a prolonged war in rural Afghanistan. “When you get out, everybody is going to
deal with their demons whether it’s 7 weeks after returning stateside or its 20, 30 years down the road,” Walley said. He paused, and then added: “We’ve lost four guys in my platoon stateside.”
‘I wanted to be in the fight’ Walley was born June 4, 1993. He attended County Line Elementary, Russell Middle and Winder High School. He graduated in 2010. He always wanted to be in the military, though he didn’t know what branch. For about a decade he aimed for the Marine Corps, but his time in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in high school taught him that he’d be more at home following his father, who served as a combat engineer, into the Army. Looking at early enlistment as an upperclassman at Winder High, his choices of role in the Army were whittled down to four: infantry, supply, truck driver, combat journalist. “My mom wanted me to be a combat journalist,” Walley said, chuckling, “but there’s no way I was about to go get shot at and not have a firearm to shoot back.” He wanted a combat role — wanted to “be in the fight somehow,” he added. “The best way to do it was infantry. So I picked infantry.” He wanted not just to serve but to fight because of 9/11. Though he was just a fourth grader, he remembers the “absolute chaos” of the day terrorists flew two jets into the World Trade Center, killing 2,977, and a third into the Pentagon, killing 125. “I remember talking to my parents later that day, starting to understand what just happened,” Walley said, thinking back to 2001, “but you’re still a kid. I don’t think I started to fully understand the concept of America being attacked until probably high school.” Young children don’t think much of the world beyond the confines of their neighborhoods, he said. Your parents know it all, the world works in a fixed, routine way and the bad guys out there are relegated to bedtime frights and TV. But Walley got older, and he learned what being attacked meant for a nation that went from enjoying the Peace Dividend to being the victim of the deadliest terrorist attack on the planet. “You learn that you’re not the only one in this world,” he said.
Ready for war The food was good in Kyrgyzstan, one of the stops along the way from Fort Bragg
SCOTT ROGERS | The Times
Samuel Walley, of Winder, visits the Freedom Garden Friday, June 21, at the Northeast Georgia History Center. The Afghanistan War veteran was wounded by an IED and now is volunteering with PTSD groups while attending the University of North Georgia.
HALL AMERICAN to the Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan. Eating, waiting and sitting through briefing after briefing — jokes about Microsoft PowerPoint forever rumble through the ranks of the Army — punctuated Walley’s days between February and March 2012. But into March, he was in the thick of Operation Enduring Freedom, leaving the huge airfield for a tiny station at Pan Kalay. On the way, he would get his first taste of combat in the form of a few tiny tinking sounds while on board a Chinook bound for the outpost. “We got shot at by a guy in the middle of the desert. He was shooting at us with an AK. That guy, they lit him up. He was dust. He was nothing,” Walley said. “That’s when it hit me. All I heard was like little tinks, that’s it. But after you look out in the field and see this guy and see him get disintegrated, you realize, ‘Oh. This is real. This is no longer on paper. This is no longer a game. This is real s--t.’” He would first enter combat while on patrol at Pan Kalay, a station of about 100 American soldiers and members of Afghanistan’s national army. “I can’t really remember times where we went outside the wire and didn’t get in a firefight,” he said. “The way we did our rotation was three days on, three days off. We would have three days of going on patrol, and those first three patrols — those stuck out to me the most. “After that, you forget what number it is. It just all starts to become a big blur.”
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‘I look in the door, the long part of the L they just went into, and there’s a wire hanging out of the wall. Nobody had noticed it. My heart sank — at that point, you feel like puking.’ Samuel Walley leader ... that would clear the ground with poker chips. You know if you need to move in and out of an area, you go along the poker chips because you’re not going to step near an IED.” On June 6, Walley’s platoon pushed to the north of the compound where the Taliban commander had been captured, crawling over grape rows in the countryside when they happened upon a group of four men in what had been established by U.S. forces as a kill zone. “We pop up out of the grape row and start questioning them. One guy takes off on a bike,” Walley said. “I just spoke a little, tiny amount of Poshtun — enough to yell at people and get by. You could tell they were lying.” Through a translator, the men were told to clear the area or potentially be killed if they were seen again.
The man on the bike “Now, we’re worried on this guy on the bike that had just taken off,” he said. The soldiers followed his trail to a twostory structure with bars on the windows, an unusual find for that area of rural Afghanistan. “It was an L-shaped compound. It was two floors. To get up to the top floor, there was a hill,” Walley said. “That’s where the road was. What we were going to do to get this guy on the bike was get one team on one side of the road and wait for another team on the other side of the road.” They called in a helicopter that would cut off the man fleeing on his bicycle and, hopefully, flush him back toward the waiting soldiers. In the meantime, they cleared the structure and found a dull knife and burn marks on the floor — clear signs that IEDs were being made in the building.
Zhari Walley lost his right leg, his left arm and almost his life because of a bicycle. June 6, 2012, started as a normal day — or a routine day, as there wasn’t much normal to go around for soldiers in the Zhari district near Kandahar. Unlike Pan Kalay, Zhari was just a checkpoint not much larger than a football field. It was home to about 30 soldiers. Two days before — Walley’s 19th birthday — a higher-up in the Taliban had been captured by his platoon within the 82nd Airborne Division. Agitated by the loss, the terrorist group was expected to step up activity in the region. “(We were) going out, going to observe new areas, looking for IED caches, weapon caches, just really getting to know the terrain like it’s the back of your hand,” Walley said. “We just call it presence patrols, going out and showing face.” Navigating new territory in Afghanistan is a stressful, slow process. And out front goes the mine sweeper. He’s “worried about looking at the ground checking for IEDs, that’s their job,” Walley said. “There’s a guy behind him, the team
Photo courtesy Samuel Walley
Samuel Walley on patrol in Afghanistan in 2012.
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“All my Spidey senses are going off. Something is wrong,” he said. Others in his platoon searching the structure had just passed into the main chamber, the longest room of the L-shaped structure. “I look in the door, the long part of the L they just went into, and there’s a wire hanging out of the wall,” he said. “Nobody had noticed it. My heart sank — at that point, you feel like puking.” There was a bomb planted somewhere in the building. His team rushed out of the compound. At the same time, they got word the helicopter they called in cut off their target on the bicycle early and they had only a few minutes to prepare to snatch him on his way back. All the while, they didn’t know where the IED was. With no time to set up an ambush for their target the roadway, Walley looked for the signal from his leader to improvise. “With that amount of time, you had literally seconds to react,” he said. “I remember hearing the bike, and I just looked across at my squad leader. All he did was nod at me. There was no time.” A capture, at this point, felt out of the question. There was too much at risk — a bomb in the area, no time to prepare for a transport and enemy fighters likely in the area. “I’ll be God honest, in my head I was just going to shoot him,” he said. “If something goes bad, it could go really bad and it could be all three of our lives done.” After the signal from his leader, Walley cut wide on the building, doing his best to avoid the edges of the structure where insurgents were known to plant IEDs. He rounded the corner to catch the target as he followed the road down its descent from the top of the structure to the bottom. Adrenaline pumping, heart in his throat, Walley lifted his weapon, ready to track the target as he rounded the road. He felt heat, and a short moment later a weightlessness. His mouth was filled with dirt, and he attempted to stand but couldn’t figure out why his legs weren’t supporting him or his arms lifting him. His medic pulled him from the dust cloud, which the rest of the soldiers back at the Zhari checkpoint saw rise into the sky. Walley’s right leg was severed above the knee, his left arm wrecked and dangling. Shrapnel pocked his left leg, but it remained intact. “(The insurgents) ended up detonating the IED off to the right of me — right beside this trail that we all just walked in on,” he said. “Nobody picked up the IED.” In the aftermath of the blast, someone managed to grab the man on the bike. He was “bagged and tagged,” Walley said, and carted
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off to who-knows-where. The soldier never learned who he was. Walley was medevaced and on the operating table in fewer than 20 minutes. He held it together and didn’t go into shock until the field surgeon removed what remained of his left arm and placed it in a little garbage bag with a biohazard symbol on it. He would have nightmares about that moment for years.
Post-traumatic stress “When I first met him, it’s been over 3-anda-half years, some of that was affecting him a lot,” said Mike Seely, discussing Walley’s wounds both external and internal. He had been through dozens of surgeries at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, D.C. In that time, he was visited by President Barack Obama, senators, congressmen, professional athletes, leaders of veterans groups and advocates — most of them just wanting to express their thanks, some looking for an easy photo-op with a wounded vet. He didn’t walk again until 2013. When he was discharged from the medical center, he was overweight from months of being bound to a wheelchair. “Even though I could walk in the summer of 2013, I don’t think I got (back to normal) until probably a little over a year ago,” he said. With limited movement and a lot of pain, Walley started another fight stateside, this one against bad dreams, isolation and anger. “The military is really great on taking a civilian and converting them into a killing machine,” Seely said. “The one thing they’re not good at is converting them from a killing machine to a productive member of society.” Those early years of civilian life weren’t good ones for Walley, who tried to treat his ailments with the usual salves: Alcohol, misbehavior, resentment. “His attitude wasn’t a good one,” Seely said. “The Sam that I knew when I first met and the Sam that I know today you’d say are two different people. He’s grown a lot in the past almost four years.” Through the work of veterans groups, especially Seely’s own For The Warriors Foundation, the soldier was able to turn his life around through “exposure to another element,” Seely said. He enrolled at UNG, got back into a gym routine and now practices Jiu Jitsu — each new step breaking down walls vets struggling through PTSD erect around themselves. But they haven’t come down easy. He’s been a student at UNG for most of the past four years but is just now making real progress with his education. Initially, he was in so much pain from walking the campus that he couldn’t manage his schedule. And then, the past few years have been
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punctuated by the stateside suicides of soldiers in his old platoon. “Unfortunately, it’s almost separated my platoon a little bit,” Walley said. “We all came together when it would happen, but some guys would slowly distance themselves just because of the pain it caused a lot of us.”
A new way The 26-year-old soldier has held himself together both by being helped and helping others. Emerging from isolation, Walley is now an involved member of three organizations: For The Warriors Foundation, the local American Legion Post 7 in Gainesville and the PTSD Foundation of America. For The Warriors is focused on reintegrating vets back into daily life — helping them form connections that keep them out in the community in order to “fully integrate back into society and live a
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rewarding, fulfilling and productive life,” according to its mission statement. This comes in the form of golf tournaments, networking events and other activities. And then there’s the American Legion, long run by veterans of the Vietnam War, the last war in which men were drafted and the last mass-service war in the nation’s history. Walley has been a member of the Legion since he left the Army, but in recent months has worked to bring younger veterans into the organization. “If they don’t have new people coming in the bottom, they’re not going to survive,” said Seely, himself a Vietnam veteran. “What Sam is doing is very perceptive, very proactive.” In mid-June, Walley helped organize an open house at Post 7 specifically to recruit post-Vietnam vets. “I really want to start getting these Gulf
HALL AMERICAN War, (Operation Iraqi Freedom) — getting these guys into these board positions. I simply came out and started trying to get these guys together,” he said. “I don’t really care to be in a leadership role or anything, I just knew that I knew a lot of people.” His efforts are aimed at helping veterans forge connections with one another and the community at large. “A lot of these guys aren’t encouraged to evolve from their past experiences into their new experiences, their new world,” Seely said. “If you don’t have exposure to healthy, happy lifestyles and you see what the alternative is to isolationism, you’re not going to grow. A lot of these guys who have committed suicide, it’s tragic when you look at what could have been done to prevent that.” For the worst cases, the PTSD Foundation is one of the groups working to fill that void. It handles “more of the nitty-gritty stuff,”
AUSTIN STEELE | The Times
Sam Walley watches other students work on a takedown move at Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Gainesville on Friday, June 21, 2019.
HALL AMERICAN Walley said. “That’s (for) the veterans who are in dark areas. Helping them, sometimes we’ll have to go to the Salvation Army to see if there are vets in there.” The foundation runs an intensive camp, similar to a boot camp, in Houston, Texas, where veterans are broken down and, instead of being turned into soldiers, are turned back into citizens. Despite the wedges of suicide pushed between the fellow soldiers in his platoon, Walley’s connections to his friends remains strong. He knew, he said, that he could pull his phone out of his pocket and dial any of them — just to talk, to vent, to ask for help. He recalled his time in the VA hospital in Washington, when a fellow soldier was
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hassling a down-and-out Walley to get to work on his PT. “My old squad leader used to give me crap in the hospital because he’s a quad-amputee, and he’s walking around,” Walley said, laughing. “He’d always tell me, ‘Walley, you need to get to walkin’.’” His interview with The Times was scheduled after he finished with classes for the day. Toward the end of the talk, Walley’s girlfriend sat down with him. They talked about their plans for the evening, about whether he was going to head to the gym and what they might do for dinner that night. Seven years after a terrorist flipped the switch that almost ended his life, Walley is walking just fine.
AUSTIN STEELE | The Times
Sam Walley works on a takedown move at Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Gainesville.
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One of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence visited Europe and fell in love with pasta. He brought back a machine to make macaroni and later, he became the first president to serve macaroni and cheese as part of an official state dinner. Which Founding Father was this? Circle every fourth letter to find out!
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Parade Puzzle
Can you find the letters L-I-B-E-R-T-Y hidden here?
n July 4, 1776, people living in the American Colonies declared their independence. They wanted to be independent, or free, from the rules of King George III of England. They wanted to form their own country.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.
They wrote a document to send to King George. It was called the Declaration of Independence, written on July 4, 1776. This famous document says that all people are created equal and with certain rights.
MACARONI ENGLAND SIGNERS E I N O R A C A M P PARADE G S C C E L D E A E FATHER R I B H R P N R A O CHEESE GEORGE O G R E H T A F T P PEOPLE E N U E E D L S T L RULES G E L S E A G G T E PASTA F R E E U H N E F A EQUAL O S S Q U I E F I L WORDS KING R T E H K S D R O W FREE Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recongized identical LIFE words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns. Find the words by looking up, down, backwards, forwards, sideways and diagonally.
Unscramble the words to discover the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.
Which two picnic pictures are the same?
BONUS: How many stars can you find on this page? Standards Link: Reading Cimprehension: Follow simple written directions.
Number of hot dogs that are eaten by Americans on Independence Day: million
Amount of money spent on watermelon for the July 4th holiday: $
million
Number of people who signed the Declaration of Independence:
We the People
How many stars can you find below?
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Onomatopoeia describes words that sound like the sound they make when you say them. For example, when you say, “Pop!” it sounds a bit like a pop. Look through the newspaper. Can you find three to five examples of onomatopoeia? Standards Link: Language Arts: Vocabulary development.
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution starts with “We the People …” Find examples in the newspaper of people working together to improve something or accomplish a goal in your community.
Percentage of Americans who own an American flag: %
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Where would you go on a family picnic and what would you bring?
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There never was a good war or a bad peace. — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
American Legion post celebrating 100 years BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com The American Legion was started in 1919 after World War I by a group of war-weary veterans, and it didn’t take long for the patriotic fervor to hit Gainesville. Paul E. Bolding Post 7, named after the second Hall Countian to die in World War I, officially organized Saturday, Aug. 16, 1919, at Hall County’s courthouse. An Aug. 17 celebration is planned to recognize the landmark day. “One hundred years is a big deal,” said Dave Dellinger, former commander of the post, who helps organize the post’s annual Memorial Day parade. Pictures deck the walls of the post at 2343 Riverside Drive. The building, which dates to the 1980s, overlooks Lake Lanier. When Post 7 American Legion organized, it had 17 charter members, some of whom became prominent Hall County citizens: Edgar Dunlap, Leonard Cinciolo, Heyward Pearce, John Pearce, Thomas Pearce, William Longstreet and Claud Barrett. Dunlap was its first commander, but served temporarily until W.P. Whelchel was officially elected. Shortly after its founding, Post 7 opened a “community building” on East Spring Street in Gainesville and allowed
‘Our biggest problem is trying to figure out exactly what we can do to appeal to these younger veterans, to get them involved.’ Dave Dellinger Former post commander other local organizations to use it for its activities. In the mid-1950s, Post 7 bought its present property at the end of Riverside Drive for $13,000, plus another 4 acres on Lake Lanier for $7,000. It had purchased the post home from Riverside Military Academy in 1946. That building, which had been the home of a country club overlooking a golf course, burned in 1985. Post 7 rebuilt on the same site. The American Legion Park started out as Chattahoochee Park in 1901 when Dunlap Dam formed Lake Warner on the Chattahoochee River. North Georgia Electric Co., which operated the dam and park, used it as a camp for employees, as did Georgia Power Co. for many years after
it acquired North Georgia Electric. The park continues as a recreation area, and the Legion rents a restored pavilion for parties, reunions and other activities. The legion has lost some of its past glory, as older members have died and younger members are less inclined to join. “We’re all getting older,” Dellinger said in a 2012 interview. “We have got to have some younger people to start passing it on to. Our biggest problem is trying to figure out exactly what we can do to appeal to these younger veterans, to get them involved.” The 100th anniversary event will serve, in part, “to let the (public) know what we do as far as our post services and programs,” said American Legion member Johnny Varner, leading the organizing effort. “We have a lot of community service programs.” Many people don’t know much about the post, said Wayne Smallwood, helping Varner in organizing the event. “We’ve been working diligently to try to get it out there that we rent this place out to the public, we have events out here, and it’s open to the public,” he said. “We’re trying to duplicate a Mule Camp-style (event),” Varner said. “We’re going to have some local vendors ...and will be kind of our open house.” Retired editor Johnny Vardeman contributed to this report.
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE | The Times
Attendees mingle during a Generation Social Event at American Legion Post 7 in Gainesville on Saturday, June 22. The event brings together veterans across generation in hopes of bringing younger generations to the American Legion.
C e l e b r a t e C e l e b r a t e
C e l e b r a t e Downtown Braselton 5pm ~ Food Trucks Open 6pm ~ Parade on Hwy. 53 6:30 ~ Concert on the green with Kinchafoonie Cowboys After Dark ~ Fireworks Show!!
D o w n t o w n D o Bw nr tao ws ne lB tr aos ne l t o n F a c e b o o k . c o m / D ow n t ow n B ra s e l t o n
5pm ~ Food Trucks Open 6pm ~ Parade on Hwy. 53 5pm ~ Food Trucks Open
6pm ~
6:30 ~ Concert on the green with Parade onKinchafoonie Hwy. 53Cowboys After Dark ~ Fireworks Show!!
6:30 ~ Concert on the green with Kinchafoonie Cowboys
F a c e b o o k . c o m / D ow n t ow n B ra s e l t o n
After Dark ~ Fireworks Show!!
F a c e b o o k . c o m / D ow n t ow n B ra s e l t o n