“It’s Gunnery Sergeant Simmons now, thanks to your Dad,” he said. “But Rich to you.”
“Yes,” Claire breathed. “Yes, I knew it!”
A pained look came over the man’s face again.
“Your father died for me, Claire.” He looked again at his feet. “Because of me,” he whispered softly.
Claire looked away as if she hadn’t heard him somehow. Her voice was still pitched with excitement.
“You used to send me presents every year,” she said and squeezed the calloused hands in hers. “You sent me the beautiful necklace with Marine Corps eagle, globe, and anchor!” She let go of one of his hands and fumbled under her coat, pulling out the gold necklace for him to see. “See? I still wear it every day! You were WITH him!” her voice took on a childlike quality and she practically bounced up and down. “You were with my dad, just like Uncle Chad!”
The Marine gripped her hands firmly and looked her again in the eyes. Claire stopped bouncing and looked back at the stranger she felt she knew.
“Mom used to always invite you over, but you never came,” she said. There was no judgment in her words—more of a question.
“Claire,” the man swallowed and clenched his jaw. Then he started again. “Claire, your daddy is dead because of me. He died saving me.” The man let go of her hands and pressed one fist to his forehead. “Casey died for me,” Simmons started to sob uncontrollably and sixteen years of grief and guilt came out as it likely did every year on this day. Claire reached up, taking the Marine by his wrists so she could see his face again.
“I was raised believing that Daddy died for all of us, Gunny,” she said simply. “He was a United States Marine.”
The man looked at her again, smiling now, his cheeks red and wet. Claire suspected that the man knew, just as she did, that was exactly what Sar’n Stillman would have said. He hugged Claire back and then together they turned and faced his stone.
Engraved at the top was a reproduction of the Medal of Honor. Below it:
Sergeant Casey Jack Stillman, USMC
May 1978 – November 2004
Fallujah, Iraq
Beneath was inscribed an excerpt from his award citation:
…After saving the life of one member of his platoon, and while still under heavy enemy fire, Sgt. Stillman was mortally wounded while trying to rescue another…
Claire and Rich Simmons, Gunnery Sergeant, United States Marine Corps, stood hand in hand at the foot of the grave, each lost in thought about the man they loved.
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