18 Nov 2011
The Herald News
Afghanistan School Dedicated To Fallen Sgt. Robert Barrett
By Michael Holtzman
In the land where he died last year, where the country remains at war, a grade school was named to
honor Sgt. Robert J. Barrett.
Brig. Gen. John Hammond, a base commander in Kabul, Afghanistan, stands beside village elders in
front of a new school coalition forces built in Afghanistan and dedicated this week in memory of Sgt.
Robert Barrett of Fall River, killed in that country last year. Submitted photo
Smiling Afghan boys are shown holding up colorful drawings, and a UNICEF book sits on a desk inside a
small school, which on Monday was dedicated to the young Army National Guard soldier who achieved
acclaim in a too-short life.
The son of Carlene and Paul Barrett of Fall River, Barrett was killed April 19, 2010, by a suicide bomber
while he and eight other soldiers were on foot patrol south of Kabul International Airport.
He was part of a training assignment unit with the Afghan military.
Barrett was the first city soldier killed in Afghanistan. He was weeks shy of his 21st birthday and the father
of a 2-year-old daughter, Sophie. He was also the first of five soldiers from this city to die in a nine-month
period.
Barrett was a member of the 1st Battalion and the 101st Field Artillery Regiment in Fall River. He enlisted
after graduating from B.M.C. Durfee High School in 2007, where he was the commanding officer of the
school Navy Junior ROTC unit. Durfee has named a wing in his honor.
He was also a member of the Massachusetts Volunteer 54th Regiment Honor Guard for two years and
was part of an honor guard at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
The federal government named Fall River’s main post office branch in his memory through an act of
Congress signed by President Obama on Dec. 14, 2010.
Small plaques next to a weeping cherry tree outside the post office by Government Center and inside the
main entry signify the dedication.
At the Barretts’ home in the Flint neighborhood, his mother responded emotionally to the news.
Eager students display drawings in a classroom of a new coalition built school, dedicated in honor of Sgt
Robert Barrett of Fall River.
“That’s so awesome. It’s a wonderful tribute,” Carlene Barrett said, bursting into tears immediately.
Asked about what an honor it is, she said emphatically, “It sure is.”
Robert Mulac, Navy commander assigned to NATO forces in Afghanistan, this week told The Herald
News the small, 10-room school in rural Afghanistan was built by coalition forces “as part of the ongoing
partnership with the Afghan people.”
The school will serve a community of more than 200 school-aged children, Mulac said.
He reported that until now the students met in an abandoned, makeshift hut.
In addition to the classrooms, the school contains a security boundary wall, five bathrooms and a water
well.
A banner affixed to the school reads: “Operation Enduring Freedom” and “Task Force Yankee.”
One photo the military supplied shows Brig. Gen. John Hammond, a Task Force Yankee commander of
the Kabul base cluster, standing proudly with village elders beside the new school.
This summer, when Carlene Barrett enlisted a couple of other Gold Star families to start the “Military
Friends Operation Smiles Project” to help other military families, the impetus was her son’s love of
children.
“Kids made Robert smile,” said his mother. He had asked for toys for the kids of Kabul before he was
killed.
Barrett has an older sister, Rebecca, and his maternal grandmother, Sue Galloway, also lives with the
family.
“I am so proud. My pride is just bubbling out of me,” Galloway said of the school dedication.
The grandmother of 14 said of Rob Barrett, “He was always there for me. He was such a good kid.”
After the family learned their son died, they shared a poem he had written and sent them not long before
from Afghanistan.
It read, in part:
“I am an American soldier deploying to a land of many unknowns. I leave behind family, friends and
freedom. I am a father, a son, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a brother, a mentor, a leader and a
soldier.
“I volunteered to put my life on the line for flag, freedom and country, for my fellow soldiers, for you my
little girl, and for you my weeping mother and father ...”
The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for more than 10 years, attacking the country in a war
on terrorism less than one month after 9/11.
There is now also a place, not too far from the hatred and terror that took Sgt. Barrett’s life, where young
children will learn in a school bearing the fallen Fall River soldier’s name and legacy. There, perhaps, the
children also will grow up to learn of his kindness toward them.
Sgt Robert Barrett of Fall River.