Fallen Soldiers Memorial Dedicated Memorial Day

Memorial Day 2024 will be a special time for Kearney, Holt and Paradise. Some 106 years after the first of our fallen gave his life for America, a memorial is finally a reality.

Future generations will have a single place to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice made by 17 local men far too long forgotten. Their names make the memorial personal, showing the human impact of war on a community and establishing a physical bond with its residents.

As a tribute to these fallen heroes, KPGZ News will publish biographies of the soldiers as provided by Rich Kolb, Terry Buckler and Frank Johnson of the Kearney-Holt Fallen Warriors Memorial.

Matthew Mason

Matthew grew up in Holt and graduated from Kearney High School in 1992. A 1998 graduate of Missouri Northwest State University, he went on active duty in the Navy on Oct. 25, 1999. He had been married for seven years, leaving behind then-wife Jessica and sons Levi, Logan and Honor Matthew, who was born three months after Matt’s death. His brother, Michael, and parents, David and Betty, resided in Holt.    

Ultimately, Mason deployed seven times to Iraq and Afghanistan. As a member of SEAL Team 1 in Iraq during November 2004, he participated in the second Battle of Fallujah, the deadliest of the war for U.S. troops. While on patrol, one of his arms was seriously wounded in a mortar attack. Losing part of his left arm, his body also absorbed shrapnel and he suffered a collapsed lung. Undaunted, Mason recovered and returned to active duty.

Besides the Purple Heart, Mason was awarded five medals for valor, including three Bronze Stars with a “V” device. His second Bronze Star, earned on March 17, 2010, in Afghanistan, involved rescuing a wounded teammate under heavy enemy fire.

Mason’s death occurred in the deadliest single U.S. hostile loss of the Afghanistan War. On Aug. 6, 2011, his CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter (call sign Extortion 17) took a hit from a rocket-propelled grenade, killing all servicemen in the aircraft. The special operations team aboard was in pursuit of Taliban in the Tangi Valley. Among the 30 Americans killed was an entire troop of Gold Squadron, SEAL Team 6. This was the greatest single-incident loss in naval special warfare history.

In July 2012, his parents donated Matt’s memorial to the town of Kearney, now located in front of the Kearney Historic Museum. “It may have Matt’s name on it, but it’s for all our fallen soldiers – those from around here and all those who died for the United States,” his father David said. Mason is also named on the Navy SEAL Memorial at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce, Florida, as well as the Missouri Military Memorial in St. Louis. Like the other men from Kearney and Holt, his name is etched on the Clay County Veterans Memorial in Anita B. Gorman Park, too.        

The memorial in Jesse James Park will serve as a permanent site of remembrance, a focal point for Memorial and Veterans Day activities. Remembering the names and lives of those who gave all is a sacred obligation, and today all three communities can be proud that this debt has been symbolically paid in full. The Memorial will be dedicated on Memorial Day, 2024.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story