CLAY NATIONAL GUARD CENTER, Marietta, Dec. 11, 2009 – When SFC Gordon Spears does his four-mile morning run in Blairsville’s 
Meeks Park, he makes it a point to stop near the park’s covered bridge and visit an old friend, SSG Bobby Franklin.
Only it’s not Franklin, but a stone Soldier standing next to a small boulder adorned with a plaque dedicating the statue to the late Guardsman’s memory.
You see, Franklin – a military policeman with the North Carolina Army Guard’s 210th Military Police Company – died in Iraq in August 2003 from wounds suffered in an IED attack on the Humvee in which he was ridding. Before his death, Franklinf, who lived in Union County also worked as a correctional officer at Caralton Calwells Detention center along side Spears.
“Bobby was a close, close friend, a great coworker and one heck of a Soldier. Admittedly, it gives me comfort to stop, take a moment and remember him,” said Spears, an infantry skills trainer and officer candidate instructor with the Georgia Army Guard’s Regional Training Institute in Marietta.
Just how the stone Soldier came to be in Meeks Park is a story unto itself. Everyone who knew Franklin wanted to erect a memorial in his honor, Spears said. No one, though, had an idea of what kind of memorial they wanted.
Not long after his friend’s death, Spears, who was attending training at Fort Stewart, came across a stone Soldier like the one in park at the Hinesville Wal-Mart. He recalled how the statue made him think of his friend and fellow Guardsman, and how he’d decided to buy it before leaving South Georgia. Time and training, however, didn’t allow for that, so he’d wait until later.
Hopefully the store would still have them…they didn’t.
It had sold its last one not long after he’d been there – “Not that it had very many in the first place,” he said – and no one knew if the store would get any more. Still, Spears said, that didn’t deter him from trying to find a store that did. “I checked with every other Wal-Mart in the state,” Spears related. “No one had any idea what I was talking about.
“And would you believe it, two years later, I walked into the lawn and garden shop at Stewart’s main PX and there one stood,” he said. Spears put money down so the store would hold the statue for him. He later returned on another assignment to Fort Stewart and picked up his purchase.
With the statue finally in his possession, Spears had to decide where to put it.
Since he passes the spot where the statue now stands during his daily run, “I thought, ‘what a perfect location for remembering my friend and all the others who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice.”
He and his wife, Shari, talked with Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris and Larry Garrett of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, and found them excited by the idea.
“We appreciate Gordon and Shari’s efforts,” said Paris. The hard work, time and money [for the statue] they put into this project paid off in memorial that allows the citizens of this county and other visitors to the park to pay homage, not only to Franklin, but to all our veterans for many years to come.”
Meeks Park, he makes it a point to stop near the park’s covered bridge and visit an old friend, SSG Bobby Franklin.
Only it’s not Franklin, but a stone Soldier standing next to a small boulder adorned with a plaque dedicating the statue to the late Guardsman’s memory.You see, Franklin – a military policeman with the North Carolina Army Guard’s 210th Military Police Company – died in Iraq in August 2003 from wounds suffered in an IED attack on the Humvee in which he was ridding. Before his death, Franklinf, who lived in Union County also worked as a correctional officer at Caralton Calwells Detention center along side Spears.
“Bobby was a close, close friend, a great coworker and one heck of a Soldier. Admittedly, it gives me comfort to stop, take a moment and remember him,” said Spears, an infantry skills trainer and officer candidate instructor with the Georgia Army Guard’s Regional Training Institute in Marietta.
Just how the stone Soldier came to be in Meeks Park is a story unto itself. Everyone who knew Franklin wanted to erect a memorial in his honor, Spears said. No one, though, had an idea of what kind of memorial they wanted.
Not long after his friend’s death, Spears, who was attending training at Fort Stewart, came across a stone Soldier like the one in park at the Hinesville Wal-Mart. He recalled how the statue made him think of his friend and fellow Guardsman, and how he’d decided to buy it before leaving South Georgia. Time and training, however, didn’t allow for that, so he’d wait until later.
Hopefully the store would still have them…they didn’t.
It had sold its last one not long after he’d been there – “Not that it had very many in the first place,” he said – and no one knew if the store would get any more. Still, Spears said, that didn’t deter him from trying to find a store that did. “I checked with every other Wal-Mart in the state,” Spears related. “No one had any idea what I was talking about.
“And would you believe it, two years later, I walked into the lawn and garden shop at Stewart’s main PX and there one stood,” he said. Spears put money down so the store would hold the statue for him. He later returned on another assignment to Fort Stewart and picked up his purchase.
With the statue finally in his possession, Spears had to decide where to put it.
Since he passes the spot where the statue now stands during his daily run, “I thought, ‘what a perfect location for remembering my friend and all the others who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice.”
He and his wife, Shari, talked with Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris and Larry Garrett of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department, and found them excited by the idea.
“We appreciate Gordon and Shari’s efforts,” said Paris. The hard work, time and money [for the statue] they put into this project paid off in memorial that allows the citizens of this county and other visitors to the park to pay homage, not only to Franklin, but to all our veterans for many years to come.”
