Lance Griffin
Published: November 18, 2008
When the economy soured and our wallets were threatened, the war faded into the background for many.
It disappeared from the front page and the top of the evening news, and lost its place as the most important issue to presidential election voters.
But the war goes on and families still jump when the phone rings. Saturday, Newton resident Jamie Clark got the phone call.
Her husband, CW3 Donald V. Clark, 37, died from injuries suffered in a helicopter crash in Mosul, Iraq. A release from the Department of Defense did not indicate if the crash was combat-related. DoD said the incident remains under investigation. Also killed in the crash was Chief Warrant Officer Christian P. Humphreys, 28, of Fallon, Nev. They were assigned to the 6th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, Task Force 49, U.S. Army Alaska, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
Earlier this year, CW3 Clark e-mailed the Dothan Eagle to let the newspaper know about Jamie, who had written an original song about her experience as a military wife. She titled it “Soldiers Left Behind.”
“It is the story of her life and what she endures every day while waiting for me to return. Beyond that, it is the story of thousands of spouses that wait while the one they love is off to war,” he wrote in an e-mail sent from Iraq in August. “It’s a great song and it is about something real.”
The song describes the challenges military wives face:
The days drag by and sometimes we cry
We don’t understand the fight, but we know why
We are warriors of a very different kind
Proud to be “The Soldiers Left Behind”
Click here to hear the song.
Clark said her song sums up a myriad of emotions wives feel when their husbands are at war — pride, fear, loneliness, confusion, sadness.
Donald Clark was in the Navy when he met and married Jamie in Memphis in 1991, but he always talked about flying. He made the switch to the Army a few years later. He wanted to retire from the Army soon and become an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker.
The Clarks temporarily opened a feed and tack store in Newton. That’s how Newton resident Robert Smith became familiar with Clark.
“He was a friendly guy. Easy to talk with,” Smith said.
According to a database compiled by the Washington Post, other Iraq casualties from Wiregrass towns since the war began include Spec. Curtis E. Glawson Jr., Daleville; CW2 Brian D. Hazelgrove, Fort Rucker; Sgt. Edmund J. Jeffers, Daleville; Capt. Robert C. Scheetz Jr., Dothan; CW5 Jamie D. Weeks, Daleville; Pvt. Justin R. Yoemans, Eufaula; Lance Cpl. Carl L. Raines II, Enterprise; CW Mark S. O’Steen, Ozark; Sgt. Jason D. Jordan, Elba; Sgt. Timothy M. Conneway, Enterprise; Pfc. John E. Brown, Troy.