Photos by Frank Varga / Skagit Valley Herald Dr. Dale Abbott stamps black ink images representing soldiers who have died in the Iraq war. He updates the walls of his Burlington office as more soldiers die in Iraq.

Doctors create memorial wall to honor U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
BURLINGTON — Standing on a ladder in the hallway of Burlington Family Practice on Friday afternoon, Dr. Dale Abbott dipped a stamp into a pad of black ink and then pressed it to the wall near the ceiling.

The stamped figure seemed to be standing at attention, like a soldier. It joined a line of identical figures winding through the hallways of the medical practice. Each represents a soldier who died in the Iraq war.

Inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., Abbott has created his own homespun version.

With the backing of his partners, Eric Stark and Michael Dillard, Abbott started the project about a year ago in the office lobby.

“Then I ran out of wall,” he said.

They decided that creating a war memorial for American soldiers in Iraq was a project worth doing. And it will continue to grow as long as the war goes on, Abbott said. “We all agreed we wanted to do something to honor the soldiers, to stimulate conversation and show people the cost of war,” he said.

Until Friday, the last stamp had been marked Dec. 1, and under it was the name Craig Watson, a U.S. Marine from Michigan who was among 10 Marines killed that day by a roadside bomb near Fallujah.

Watson’s stamp was number 2,127, at the end of a long winding line of people stamped in black ink. To represent men and women, Abbott adapted the same symbols used to mark the gender of public restrooms.

Scattered throughout the memorial is the occasional name of a dead soldier and the date he or she died. Some names Abbott chose arbitrarily. Other names were requested by patients or others who heard of the memorial.

In one case, someone who saw the wall sent a newspaper photo of a relative who died and asked that it be taped beneath the figure that represented him.

Abbott tries to mark each death chronologically so that each stamp represents a specific person. Among those are Army Pfc. Kerry Scott, formerly of Concrete, who died in October of 2003, and Spc. Nathan Nakis, an Army National Guardsman from Sedro-Woolley, who died in December of 2003.

Spc. Nathan Nakis, an Army National Guardsman from Sedro-Woolley, died in December of 2003, while fighting in Iraq.

But the point isn’t so much individual recognition for the dead as it is a message about the loss of life the United States has endured since the war began, Abbott said.

The memorial is unobtrusive and simple, which is what they intended. Abbott said he based the idea on his visit several years ago to the Vietnam memorial, a 500-foot-long wall of polished black granite that displays the names of 58,249 U.S. military men and women who died in the Vietnam War or are still listed as missing.

Abbott had gone on a field trip with his son’s eighth-grade class.

“We got to see the wall,” Abbott said. “I remember thinking at the time that this was the most anti-war war memorial I’d ever seen.”

And he said he thought anyone considering war should have to look at it first.

His family is part of his inspiration for creating the memorial.

“I have young men — sons,” he said. “And I have a lot of patients whose sons and daughters are in the military, and a lot of them have been in the Middle East.”

Abbott decided he also wanted to represent individual soldiers, even if he didn’t include all of their names. First, he had to choose a representative symbol.

He considered stars and even a stamp of baby feet to represent human life. But ultimately, he decided the generic gender figure would do it best. The result is sort of like a wallpaper border around the building, something that catches attention but doesn’t jump out.

In fact, Dr. Starks wants more people to see it.

“It just isn’t noticed as much as it should be,” he said.

Abbott gets the count of war dead and their names from an anti-war Web site, www.pigstye.net. The site is updated regularly, and Abbott tries to keep up, though when he climbed the ladder Friday, he was more than a week behind.

Despite growing controversy between people for and against the United States presence in Iraq, Abbott said the reaction of patients who notice the memorial has been largely positive.

“I’ve had several negative comments,” he said. “One said, ‘Doesn’t he have anything better to do?’”

One woman wrote him what he called a thoughtful letter that expressed her concern that his focus on the soldiers who died might undermine support of the war and put soldiers at risk, he said.

But Abbott said he isn’t afraid to hear dissent and that public debate is what the country needs.

“The whole reason that we did this was to stimulate a dialogue in the community,” he said. “I wanted people to see what the decision to go to war has done to American families and to talk about it.”

Medical receptionist Amanda Adkerson said some patients who noticed the memorial have made negative comments, some even belligerent. But most have been positive.

“A lot of people pause, and they’ll ask about it,” she said. “When we explain that it goes around the building, they’re amazed.”

Abbott stresses that his own opinions against the war do not diminish what he sees as heroic efforts by American troops.

“These young people were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for us,” Abbott said. “… All that they ask is that if they’re sent into harm’s way that it be for the right reasons.”

While he supported military action in Afghanistan, he disagreed with the United States’ decision to attack Iraq without world support.

But he also doesn’t think the United States should pull out now and leave Iraq in chaos.

As he looked down one hallway at a row of figures that led to another row down another long hallway, Abbott acknowledged that there’s only so much space left to continue the project.

“I’m going to use the exam rooms next,” he said.

He figures he has room for about 2,000 more figures. Then he’ll either have to change the format, or possibly enlist another physicians’ practice to continue the memorial.

“It’s distressing that I could run out of wall space,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking the war would go on so long.”

© 2005 Skagit Valley Publishing Company