CHATTANOOGA — A representative of Port Angeles will formally deliver hundreds of messages of condolence to Chattanooga, Tenn., city officials at 11 a.m. today.
Leslie Kidwell Robertson of Revitalize Port Angeles reached Chattanooga on Wednesday with the precious cargo.
“It was a smooth trip the whole way,” she said.
‘Best Town Ever’
Robertson led an effort to battle Chattanooga in May when the two cities were finalists for Outside magazine’s “Best Town Ever” online contest.
Chattanooga won the contest, but a relationship was forged between the two cities.
After the shooting deaths of five servicemen in Chattanooga on July 16, the Revitalize group began the effort to demonstrate Port Angeles’ friendship with the Tennessee city with a single sympathy banner at Port Angeles City Hall.
Eventually, 20 banners were completed, and plans were made to send Robertson, with the banners, to take the city’s message to Chattanooga in person.
An anonymous donor provided frequent flier miles for the trip, but there were no seats available, so Robertson paid for the flight herself, she said.
After she arrived in Chattanooga with the signed sympathy banners, Robertson was taken on a tour of the city by Vicki Hawkins, a Port Angeles native who now lives in Chattanooga.
They visited the Chattanooga National Cemetery, where two of the murdered service members — a Marine and a sailor — were buried, and to the two memorials where the July 16 shootings took place, Robertson said.
Four Marines and a sailor were shot and killed by a gunman who later died in a shootout with police.
Marine Staff Sgt. David Wyatt was buried Friday in Chattanooga.
On Saturday, services for Marine Sgt. Carson Holmquist were held in Wisconsin and for Lance Cpl. Squire Wells in Georgia.
A funeral for Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan took place Sunday in Massachusetts.
Robertson said she and Hawkins visited the grave of the Navy sailor who died of his injuries two days after the initial shootings, and while they were there, they met Tracy Smith, father of Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, who was the fifth and final service member to die as a result of the shootings.
The Navy has said Smith was assigned to the Naval Operational Support Center in Chattanooga and was responsible for the training and transportation of active-duty Navy personnel assigned to the area.
During his assignment to Chattanooga, one of Smith’s duties was to take part in special details at the cemetery where he was buried, the Navy said.
100% behind city
Robertson said she told Tracy Smith that Port Angeles was behind him and the city of Chattanooga 100 percent.
“I asked him if the outpouring of love has helped in any way. He said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’
“It validates this project,” she said.
While the visit to the cemetery was emotional, it was the memorials at the recruiting station and the joint Naval Operation Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center where the shootings took place that especially struck Robertson.
The reserve center was off-limits for a long while to those not involved in the investigation, so the memorial at the recruiting station evolved into the primary memorial, she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said, and described the scene.
“There were thousands and thousands of flags and balloons. Someone left their medals. There were Marine Corps and Navy flags, and so many tokens,” she said.
Robertson said that when the public learned that one of the deceased Marines loved good whiskey, bottles of it were added to the memorial.
“It was quite overwhelming,” she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
