2 Fallen Soldiers Honored at Warriors Walk

Warrior’s Walk at Fort Stewart has grown by two more trees.

The trees are planted as living monuments for Third Infantry Division soldiers who have lost their lives in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. 

Specialists Jonathan O’Neill and Roberto Hernandez were killed when an IED blew up in Afghanistan.  They were part of the 549th Military Police Company, 385th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Brigade (Airborne).

“Those tears that you saw are just like… I’m overwhelmed with the second family, and how they feel and what they had to say about my son, so I thank them also… He was a good kid,“ said Paulina Richards, Roberto Hernandez’s mother.

“You feel sad, but you feel happy. It’s a little bit of closure. It was nice seeing the Hernandez family. The O’Neill family wasn’t able to make it, but after you spend so much time with a person, you’re pretty much their family,“ said Staff Sergeant Paul Roberts, who was part of the same unit and was injured while in Afghanistan.

There are now 420 trees lining Warrior’s Walk at Fort Stewart.