Allison shares the price of freedom during Memorial Day service

Many words of hope, encouragement, valor and honor are spoken every summer during Memorial Day services all over the nation.

While all of these stories are in honor of those service members who have served, are serving or have passed away defending freedom, Michael Allison’s sharing during the Killbuck and Glenmont Memorial Day Services on Monday, May 27 brought the price of war and the devotion and courage of those who serve to the very hearts of all in attendance.

Allison, a 2006 graduate of West Holmes High School, served with the United States Army from 2009-13 as a combat engineer. On Jan. 12, 2013, he was wounded while serving in Afghanistan, shot through the lower back, but it was the relationships that he made and lost that touched home with those in attendance.

When Allison enlisted to the Army, he went seeking a job that would not get him too close to the front line. His recruiter suggested a combat engineer, a job that required him to seek out IEDs, homemade explosive devices being used by insurgents in the Middle East to disarm U.S. vehicles and harm and even kill troops.

Allison’s journey began in Missouri, where he survived a brutal winter in basic training. He got to know many young people who wanted to serve their country, and among them he met a friend in Pvt. Kenneth Alvarez from Santa Maria, California.

“Alvarez had what I always refer to as a million-dollar smile,” Allison said. “He never let anything bring him down, no matter how dire the circumstances appeared to be. He was truly a source of inspiration for those around him. I have always been drawn to people like Alvarez, people who I felt had something to offer to the world, someone I could learn something from. Most importantly he was someone who could always make you smile.”

Upon completing basic training, Allison, Alvarez and 87 others were assigned to go to Germany to join the 87th Clearance Company. The next two years they were stationed at Warner Barracks, training for deployment to Afghanistan.

Those who were stationed there who had served in Iran said they were engaged in route clearance, part of a military operation that sees some of its troop members clearing the path for the entire troop, securing the route for safe transport.

However, in Afghanistan insurgents had deployed a new type of armor-piercing IED that was far worse than that used in Iran.

“These were bombs that were capable of making our vehicles do back flips or simply tear them in half,” Allison said.

During their training there, Allison, Alvarez and others built strong bonds of brotherhood that would aid them greatly in what he said became the most trying time in his life.

In February 2012 he found himself seated on a Chinook helicopter bound for Afghanistan in the Ghazni Province.

The next six months he said were spent adjusting to a very unique way of life. They had missions every day and some that lasted several days at a time. They became accustomed to taking small arms fire and accepted it as part of their routine day.

They found success, until one day in July when an IED exploded and killed Cpl. Darian Hicks.

“After that you could sense a change in the demeanor of my platoon,” Allison said. “Hicks was a tremendous person. He was physically and mentally tough, and he never complained. He was a natural leader.”

That death changed the way each of the troop members felt.

“The idea of never coming home became all too real,” Allison said. “Hicks was an incredibly strong and courageous person, and the enemy had taken him so easily. I can remember sitting in my turret of my vehicle and resting my head on the handle of the 50-caliber mounted in front of me. I felt like I was on the other side of the world, so far away from home I might never make it back.”

Not long after, Alvarez came up for re-enlistment. Allison assumed he would decide to retire, but Alvarez said he wasn’t ready to leave yet, feeling he had more to do.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s passed, and while fighting slowed during winter, the threat remained all too real.

On a cold morning in January 2013, Allison found himself on a mission with his platoon leader and a pair of Polish fighters looking for IEDs. It was then that a hail of gunfire rained down on them. In the midst of the ambush, Allison had sustained a gunshot to his lower back.

After two months of recovering, Allison began processing out of the Army, ready to head home. He spent as much time as possible with Alvarez and others, knowing their time together was drawing to a close.

They eventually went their separate ways.

“I was never so excited in my life to be coming home for good,” Allison said. “I considered this a real second chance.”

While Allison returned to Ohio, Alvarez went back to New Mexico, eventually finding his way back to Afghanistan.

Allison continually checked the Army webpage, “Honor the Fallen,” believing that sooner or later he could well find a name he knew there, where names and photos of the fallen service members of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn would be listed.

Allison and Alvarez stayed in touch via email.

“He seemed excited that he was right back in Benghazi,” Allison said. "On Aug. 22 of 2013, he sent me an email explaining to me that he had run into some old familiar faces and that things were going well. He said they didn’t do the dangerous missions anymore and were simply escorting missions and it was a lot safer there now. To hear him say that made me feel good. It made me feel like the work we did there had made a significant difference.”

The very next day on a clearing mission, Alvarez's vehicle was struck by an explosive, killing him along with another member of his team.

At 23 years old, Alvarez, the man with the million-dollar smile, was gone, a casualty of war. He left behind a wife and a son.

“It was hard to believe at first,” Allison said. “I had just spoke to him, but that is what death does to a person. It leaves you in a state of disbelief. It took me a while to come to grips with that.”

Losing a close friend who helped him through tough times was a difficult part of the residuals of war. Allison said while he knows there are many who share similar stories, one thing he was always grateful for was the unending support of people from back home.

He said positive support and encouragement always made life a little less miserable there, and he said this day was a day to remember people like Hicks, Alvarez and others who had made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms all Americans share.