It Is Finished: Good Memories, Strong Bonds and Grief Mark the Closure of Fort Monmouth

The final at Fort Monmouth Thursday got underway beneath a foreboding grey sky, heavy with rain clouds. And as the rain began to fall softly, the chaplain prayed, "We come with heavy hearts...saying goodbye to an old dear friend."

As his prayer rose with fervor, the halyard of the great flagpole began a resonating clang, like that of a drum, or a heartbeat, the kind you hear in your ears when you have been crying too long.

And then it came, the wind, as if on a mission, to drive everyone away and the cold rain with it, wetting the faces of so many gathered there who would soon have cheeks streaked with hot tears.

"It's the end," said Barbara Folk, through tears, almost unable to get the words out. "I've been coming here for 22 years. This is home and home is gone."

And so the stories flowed, like they do when loved ones gather at a funeral.

"I worked here for 30 years," said Lois Gellman of Wall. "This is where I met my husband. This has been my family."

Gellman spent her career here in human resources for the garrison. She was one of the lucky ones to get a job at Fort Dix, something she is thankful for. It's just not the same.  

"These were the best years of my life," she said. "I grew up here. I came here when I was 20. These years have been a blessing."

Now cold and shivering in their damp clothes, the women were happy to share memories of this place, walled off from the world for almost a century. The cloistered community was a refuge of commraderie. One after another, the people say, "It was like family."

The great lawn here with its enormous tree and towering flagpole, even in the grim weather, is beautiful with stately brick buildings and a long drive encircling it. But clearly that is not why these ladies are sad to be moving on.

"You can walk away from the buildings, but not the people," said Sharon Dugan. She is retiring after 34 years of service as director of logistics here.

There is no escaping the metaphor of death today. The ceremony could not have felt more like a funeral. And this last year, Dugan recalled a friend saying, was like hospice.

For the actual Retreat ceremony, the flag was lowered and folded 13 times, each fold symbolizing the values of faith and trust in God, the belief in death and resurrection, love of country and more. You can read exactly what each of the folds mean here. Narrator, Mike Ruane, read the meaning of each fold with resolve, until he got to the sixth, the pledge of allegiance. His voice quavered just a little as he got to "and to the Republic for which it stands." The ceremony wording says of the pledge, "This is where our hearts lie."

One older gentleman among the crowd wasn't here to chat or trade stories. Throughout the ceremony he kept his eyes fixed on the flagpole, waiting for those strains from the bugle. He grumbled a bit to himself during the speeches. He didn't seem to care too much for the talk of hope and faith and looking to the future. He photographed the flag on it's way down.

He watched as it was folded and presented to Major General Randolph Strong CECOM commanding general at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Then Ruane announced that the ceremony had concluded.

And with that, the man in the black Army cap, said out loud, "Good bye old friend," and walked away, never looking back.

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