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Closing this chapter grateful for connection, post community

Without a doubt, people are the heart and soul of Fort Campbell. Soldiers, Families, Civilians, contractors – all. Each makes Fort Campbell a place to love and call home. It’s a place I will miss greatly.


Mari-Alice Jasper, managing editor, Fort Campbell Courier

Mari-Alice Jasper, managing editor, Fort Campbell Courier

I’ve spent eight years of my professional career working at the Fort Campbell Courier and as the final print publication hits the racks, it is with bittersweet and mixed emotions that I pen my final Courier article.

I have had the distinct honor of writing stories featuring intrepid veterans of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), resilient Soldiers of Fort Campbell, and the Families who strengthen our warfighters. I have never worked at a job that made me cry more than this one.

A particular story that comes to mind is of Joe Garrett, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient, and two-time All-Army Boxing champion. Garrett, lovingly known as “Tiger J,” is the stuff legends are made of. His Family welcomed me into their Clarksville home and as we sat on the couch together I listened to his stories.

Garret was diagnosed with dementia, so sometimes it was hard to understand what he was trying to communicate. After a few moments of frustration, he took his 101st ball cap off his head, placed it on the coffee table, pointed at the Screaming Eagle emblem and said “That’s stomping grounds. That’s home.”

AT LEFT: Specialist Jensen Griffin, 510th Military Detachment, 716th Military Police Battalion, comforts military working dog Natan, a 4-yearold German Shephard, as he straps himself into the HH-60M Black Hawk before takeoff, June 29, 2017, during a joint training exercise.

AT LEFT: Specialist Jensen Griffin, 510th Military Detachment, 716th Military Police Battalion, comforts military working dog Natan, a 4-yearold German Shephard, as he straps himself into the HH-60M Black Hawk before takeoff, June 29, 2017, during a joint training exercise.

That was something I could understand.

On post, you’re always within a stone’s throw of a Soldier with a story to tell – whether they know it or not – like Pfc. Tanairy Franqui Guzman, whose story took my breath away. I was still relatively new to Fort Campbell and we met to talk about her life as a ballerina before the Army. While amazing, it paled to the harrowing tale of her narrowly beating death during Hurricane Maria, a category storm 4 that pummeled Puerto Rico with 155 mile per hour winds Sept. 20, 2017.

Through her story, I began to understand what our Soldiers here are made of – determination, strength and courage.

Fort Campbell’s civilian employees no doubt have their own share of captivating stories. It was an honor to hear them firsthand and memorialize them in paper and ink.

ABOVE: Strike Soldiers stand beside the 256 sugar maple trees planted at Task Force 3-502nd Memorial Park during the 36th Anniversary Gander Memorial Ceremony Dec. 12, 2022, on post. MARI-ALICE JASPER | FORT CAMPBELL COURIER

ABOVE: Strike Soldiers stand beside the 256 sugar maple trees planted at Task Force 3-502nd Memorial Park during the 36th Anniversary Gander Memorial Ceremony Dec. 12, 2022, on post. MARI-ALICE JASPER | FORT CAMPBELL COURIER

Karyn Oxendine, reading specialist at Marshal Elementary School, completely changed my life with her narrative.

Her father, Pvt. Henry Peter Oxendine Jr., served in the Army three years and Fort Campbell was his last duty station in 1960. Through tears, she told me her father died when she was very young and although she didn’t know him, she’s thought about him every day.

“I feel more like a military child coming back and teaching in these schools than I ever did growing up,” she said. “I feel what these children feel. I’m fighting for them 100%. I’m always in their corner.”

In my time at Fort Campbell, it’s been my job and my joy to cover Easter egg hunts, 4th of July concerts, Christmas parties, trick-ortreating and school functions.

I’ve comforted survivors during Gander ceremonies, prayed with Soldiers during deployment ceremonies and cheered when they came home; volunteered to help assemble the Boots on the Ground display during Week of the Eagles; and felt my heart swell with pride as the newest class of seniors graduated from Fort Campbell High School each year.

AT RIGHT: Gabriella Perez, Fort Campbell High School senior, and Frances Cutler Hahn, Holocaust survivor, look at photos on Perez’s cell phone together April 24, 2017, at FCHS after Cutler Hahn delivered her speech about surviving the Holocaust as a hidden Jewish child.

AT RIGHT: Gabriella Perez, Fort Campbell High School senior, and Frances Cutler Hahn, Holocaust survivor, look at photos on Perez’s cell phone together April 24, 2017, at FCHS after Cutler Hahn delivered her speech about surviving the Holocaust as a hidden Jewish child.

Without a doubt, people are the heart and soul of Fort Campbell. Soldiers, Families, Civilians, contractors – all. Each make Fort Campbell a place to love and call home. It’s a place I will miss greatly.

I would like to thank several people for their mentorship over the years – Brendalyn Carpenter Player, Maria Rice McClure, Michele Vowell, Maj. Vonnie Wright, Laura Boyd and Stacy Daniels. Your guidance and leadership never led me astray.

To the talented journalists I have had the privilege to work alongside, thank you for your contributions to this publication and willingness to entertain the exhausting amount of questions I have asked each of you along the way.