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Gold Star families honored at Maui’s Memorial Day

Ceremony held in person at veterans cemetery for the first time since pandemic began

By Colleen Uechi 5 min read

Kraig Vickers of Maui was one of 30 American military service members killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011.

Mary Vickers remembers the night she got the phone call -- she'd woken up 10 minutes earlier and couldn't go to sleep when her daughter-in-law called shortly before midnight with the news.

"I tried talking to her and she was sobbing and wasn't expecting it. We never expect death, right?" said Vickers, who lives in the Camp Maui area of Haiku.

Kraig Vickers was 36 years old, a Maui High graduate with a wife and three kids. He'd surprised his parents when he decided to enlist in the Navy after graduating from high school in 1992, but his mother says it was clear that her son had found his calling.

"That's why I think about all our veterans and the ones that have given all, that it's in their hearts to do that, to serve a great nation such as ours," she said Monday at the Maui Veterans Cemetery in Makawao, where Memorial Day services were held in person for the first time in two years.

This year, organizers chose to honor Gold Star families like the Vickers ohana, the ones left behind when a member of the military dies in service to their country.

"Because I have been in touch with so many Gold Star families, it's just, my heart just wanted to do something for our Gold Star families," said Janna Hoehn, president of the Maui County Veterans Council. "And that's where the monument came in mind."

The Gold Star Family Memorial is one of the newest features of the cemetery, a rock monument mounted with a plaque paying "tribute to our Gold Star Families, in honor of their loved one that paid the ultimate price for our freedom, proudly serving our nation." It's nestled in a rock garden in the shape of Maui alongside a plaque honoring donors of the roughly $2,000 memorial, which was finished a week ago, and dedicated Monday.

Hoehn, who donated to the memorial and worked with cemetery staff on the design, has a special place in her heart for Gold Star families -- for the past 11 years, she's been on a mission to locate photos of more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers who died in the Vietnam War and says she's now down to the final 11.

Another recent addition to the cemetery is the Memorial to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was dedicated in November and also placed in a small garden as "a place to remember why millions of Americans have fought and died for our liberty and our freedom," the memorial's inscription says. Hoehn credited the Daughters of the American Revolution Maui Chapter with funding the memorial.

Hoehn was glad to have people back in person at the cemetery for Memorial Day, which prior to the pandemic often drew a standing-room-only crowd for speeches, floral tributes, a 21-gun salute and the reading of names of veterans who died over the past year. On Monday, the cemetery's pavilion was again packed with officials, service members and families.

"We did a virtual program last year and it just broke my heart," Hoehn said. "You know usually there's just so many people, and people really attend this well. So I'm just really thrilled that we're back to having in-person events."

Keynote speaker and National Guard Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi Jr. said that while he doesn't come from a Gold Star family, "I have felt the loss of fellow soldiers in combat and see the effects that it has on families."

In 2005, Kaoiwi was serving in Iraq as part of a special unit formed by the Army and the Air Force to hunt down information on terrorists. They were based out of LSA Anaconda, also known as Balad Air Base.

"We jokingly nicknamed it Mortarville, because of the constant bombardment of mortar rounds of the terrorist groups and the insurgents," Kaoiwi said. "We could more or less predict the time of night, day or week."

Their job was to gather intelligence and seek out the leaders of terrorist groups who were attacking convoys and U.S. patrols in the area.

On July 8, 2005, one of Kaoiwi's soldiers, Deyson Cariaga, was killed by an IED blast outside the village of Al Shahabi.

"Deyson was only 20 years old, and it was devastating for myself and for our unit," Kaoiwi said, adding that he couldn't imagine how much worse it was for Cariaga's family.

"Like all Gold Star families, they live with this loss every day," he said.

For Mary Vickers, she found comfort in her faith and other families who knew what they'd gone through.

"Besides God comforting us, meeting the families of other Gold Stars and the siblings, we found out that as special as Kraig was, I realized a lot of these guys were like him," she said. "They all had something special about them, willing to go off to leave their families and do what they did."

Vickers remembers her son, an explosive ordinance disposal technician assigned to a Naval Special Warfare unit, as a likable guy who played football and wrestled at Maui High. The third of five children, he was protective of his siblings, preferring to be the one who served instead of his three brothers or sister. He loved God, he loved his family and he loved his job.

"A lot of people don't really realize what this is all about," she said of Memorial Day. "It's our opportunity to thank people, even the ones that aren't even here, but their families, for their sacrifices."

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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