Fort Carson – The woman in the peach suit wore a commemorative button on her lapel, not far from her breaking heart.
On the button was a photograph of her son, Sgt. Charles Wilkerson, 30, of Kansas City, Mo., who was honored Tuesday at Fort Carson along with two other soldiers, Sgt. Jacob M. Simpson, 24, of Hood River, Ore., and Spec. Joshua T. Brazee, 25, of Sand Creek, Mich.
Wilkerson’s mother, Tomasa Goodwin, came with her family from Columbus, Ga., to hear a bagpiper’s “Amazing Grace,” a bugler’s mournful taps, and a riflemen’s salute.
“My son died for what he believed in,” she said. “He was excited and he really wanted to go to Iraq because he said there was a lot of injustice in that part of the world, and he wanted to fight. … And I’m very, very proud, because he died for that reason. He died for what he believed in.”
Wilkerson was killed by an unidentified explosive device outside his tent.
In August, Goodwin will send another son, Army Spec. Roberto Wilkerson, 26, to Iraq.
Also honored Tuesday was Simpson, who was killed while guarding an Iraqi hospital. He went inside one of the buildings on the grounds of the hospital and was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Brazee died May 23 of noncombat-related injuries.
In a letter read in the chapel Tuesday, Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Gibby remembered him as a quiet man known as the platoon’s resident computer geek and who had “enough equipment to contact NORAD.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
