Display marks death of fallen in Iraq

Kyle Whitham combed the thousands of canvas strips hanging in the Memorial Union Quad at Oregon State University Monday afternoon, looking for his brother’s name.

When he finally found the strip for Chase Whitham, who died at 21 years of age while serving in the Iraq war, Kyle saw a visual representation of his family’s loss.

“It’s nice to see it here on campus,” said Whitham, a junior majoring in natural resources.

He thinks the exhibit is probably more beneficial to those who haven’t lost someone to Operation Iraqi Freedom, because families who have don’t need to see the 2,420 pieces of fabric to understand the human cost of war.

Bart and Leah Bolger, a Corvallis couple with 44 years of combined service in the U.S. Navy, conceived this memorial after seeing the “Eyes Wide Open” traveling exhibit in Eugene last year.

Eyes Wide Open displays a pair of combat boots for every U.S. troop member killed in Iraq. Iraqi casualties are represented by civilian shoes.

“For me, it was wrenching,” Leah Bolger said. “It made me feel such sorrow for the deaths — and such anger and shame with our government that these deaths happened in my name as an American.”

The Bolgers spent months copying onto canvas strips the names and ages of all the American soldiers killed in Iraq since March 2003.

The memorial they’ve created has rotated through various local churches, and will continue to do so throughout the summer. The Bolgers eventually hope to find a place where it can become a permanent exhibit. The memorial was be on display in the OSU quad until Friday.

The Bolgers rely on a Web site — http:

//icasualties.org/oif — for information on American casualties.

Iraqi military and civilian deaths aren’t tracked, but are estimated to be between 30,000 and 100,000, Bart Bolger said.

Periodically interspersed between the white fabric strips representing American deaths are 75 tan pieces of canvas, each representing 1,000 Iraqi lives lost.

“I think we are desensitized to the deaths. We hear that three more U.S. soldiers died, or 15 Iraqi police officers. It doesn’t really mean anything,” he said.

Bolger and his wife want to personalize the deaths, and create a visual reminder of the death count. The Bolgers hope seeing the memorial will encourage students to speak out against the war.

Sgt. Dave Evans found the names of four people he saw die in Iraq. Evans, a senior communication major, was stationed in Iraq from October 2004 to December 2005.

Evans stopped at the strip bearing Casey Sheehan’s name. The Sheehans received national media attention when Casey’s mother, Cindy Sheehan, camped in front of President Bush’s Texas ranch seeking an audience with the commander in chief.

Ken Burmeister, a junior majoring in general science, stopped by the memorial looking for the name of his fallen friend, 1st. Sgt. Edward Bamhill. He found what he was looking for, and took a picture of Bamhill’s strip of fabric on his cell phone camera.

“He was the best worst hair cutter there was,” said Burmeister. Bamhill, 50 when he died, would offer to cut his fellow marines’ hair, but he only knew one style.

“He was loud, but he loved us. He always stuck up for us,” Burmeister recalled.

Burmeister served for six years in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was stationed in Iraq for about seven months in 2005.

“It is nice to see that they are remembered. It’s really nice to see that people put a little thought into the sacrifice people make,” Burmeister said.

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.