Georgia Gold Star Mothers hold Run for the Fallen

He was, “Just a good old Southern boy. He loved to fish and hunt and watch the Braves and the Georgia Bulldogs.”

That was how Linda Lamie began to describe her son, Jean. He was an Army sergeant who was killed in action on July 6, 2007.

He was 25, continued, the tears a steady flow now down her cheeks and getting choked up: “He had a ten-month-old son that’s going to be 21 in October. He had a three-year-old daughter who now has three babies.

“So he would have had such a good time with those grandbabies. Um, he just he had a heart of gold and I always say that Alan Jackson said it best in that song, ‘God has a place up in heaven for a small town country boy’. That was Bubba.”

Lamie was speaking at the Georgia Gold Star Mothers Support 2026 Georgia Run for the Fallen held at the Museum of Aviation Saturday. The annual event was to honor Jean as well as all the other more than 800 fallen military members with ties to Georgia.

“The tribute keeps the names and stories of Georgia’s fallen service members present in the public memory while surrounding their families with visible support,” reads a release on the event.

It unfolded Saturday with the singing of the National Anthem, a prayer and runners pacing out a designated route around the museum proper. It ended with the names of the fallen being read aloud, along with their branch of service and date of death, as well as a small marker being symbolically placed in the ground in their honor.

Jean was of course among them.

“When he wanted to go (into the service),” Linda said. “I was proud of him. You know, we weren’t at war. That was expected (that he would enlist), 911, you know. My daddy served (Air Force). My husband’s father served (Army).

“So, when he wanted to go, it was a little scary. But he loved his country. And we raised him to believe God, family, country. That’s the people we are. And so, he just felt led to do it. And he loved it. I say of all the things, there’s two things I want people to know. He died doing what he loved, fighting for a country that he loved.

“And secondly, the worst thing is not dying for the country that you love. The worst thing would be to be forgotten by the country that you love. So as long as I’m able, I’ll make sure his name is said.”

And remembered in other ways.

She’s a self-professed “puzzle lover”. So, the idea occurred to her: “Why not?” She turned to someone she knows who is smart in “technology” and now Jean is not only in puzzles, but using photo software, he is in photos – puzzles – with his wife and son and the rest of the family.

She also hasn’t forgotten the unit he was in at Fort Stewart.

“There are 469 trees planted in honor of every fallen hero who deployed from that base,” she said. “So, every Friday before the Run for the Fallen ceremony across America, me and some volunteers, since 2008, have decorated every one of those trees.”