| SPC. Clint Gertson Jan. 30, 1979 - Feb. 19, 2005 .JPG)
CLINT GERTSON MEMORIAL/ SCHOLARSHIP FREEDOM FUND Any Questions Call: Barbara Struss 979-758-1399 |
 Gayle & Susan Gertson 1314 Lakeside Drive Eagle Lake, TX 77434 |
Tribute to Clint from Iraq
Picture of Adam & Clint
Houston Chronicle Feature:
Soldier
gave life for cause
Stryker News Tribute:
http://www.strykernews.com
Stryker News:
SPC Gertson
Area soldier's luck runs out in Iraq
09:12 AM CST on Monday,
February 21, 2005
The flags and ribbons have been flying proud around the Gertson property for what seems like forever.
They have never meant more than they do now. "From under the truck I was
working on, I saw a car I didn't recognize. Then I saw their uniforms and I
thought, 'Oh God', " says Gayle Gertson. The Army had come to Gayle and Susan Gertson that their son, 25-year- old
Specialist Clint Gertson died Saturday from a sniper's bullet in the Iraq town
of Mosul. This family had heard from the Army six months before, but that time, it was
a phone call to their home in Eagle Lake, in Colorado County. "We thanked the good Lord and figured that if that was his time, that's when
he would have taken him. We didn't know it was just a warning," says his father. That warning was the suicide bombing of the Army mess hall in Mosul. Clint took shrapnel through his back and the men all around him were killed.
His Captain had been sitting right next to him and two Sergeants were sitting
across the table. "We thought 'whew, that's it, he is gonna be fine'. So when this happened, it
just knocks the breath out of you. You don't understand because they are so
young. He had his whole life ahead of him," says his mother. Just like his
brother Matt, who served a year near Baghdad. "I came back and my brother didn't make it. It's kinda tough you know.
Knowing what he was going through. But it was all for the better cause," his
brother says. The Gertsons' reminders are everywhere, inside and outside. But this family hopes others see what Clint would want them to see in the
yellow ribbons, and the red, white and blue all around. "He said 'Dad, you just tell everybody that freedom is not free', " says his
father. To the Gertsons, it was a price worth paying.
The family has had a steady stream of support from friends and family since
they were notified of their son's death.