State News
South Dakota mourns fallen soldier
Staff Sgt. Robb Rolfing died June 30 of wounds suffered in a gun battle in southern Baghdad
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FarkSIOUX FALLS -- It was enough to make a grown man cry.
Grown men, actually. Lots of them.
South Dakota said a tearful goodbye to its most recent fallen soldier Tuesday morning in a memorial service for 29-year-old Special Forces Staff Sgt. Robb Rolfing, who died June 30 of wounds suffered in a gun battle in southern Baghdad. And no one was spared the emotions that swept across the 1,300 people gathered in the Sioux Falls Arena.
A U.S. senator choked up. So did a Green Beret colonel.
And a family minister momentarily forgot, in an understandable lapse of focus, to introduce South Dakota's only member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Losing a hero is hard on concentration. It's pretty tough on the heart, as well.
That was clear as Sen. John Thune and Lt. Col. Richard Steiner fought, with wavering voices and halting speech, to offer the Rolfing family the gratitude of a state and nation.
Thune struggled the most when he recalled the moment during the frightening turmoil of Sept. 11, 2001, that his sixth-grade daughter asked him if America would be safe and if "we would get the bad guys" who had knocked down the World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon.
"The reason I was able to answer 'yes' to both questions was because of brave, courageous Americans like Robb Rolfing," Thune said. "He decided he wanted to serve a cause that was greater than himself."
That cause was freedom, and Thune and other speakers said during a 90-minute service that no one served it more fervently than Rolfing. The O'Gorman High School graduate was known to many in Sioux Falls as a young man with an iron will and a promising future in science, athletics, business or education. But after the 9/11 attacks, he found that sense of purpose and an enduring interest in the military to his service in the Army and, eventually, the Green Berets.
Rolfing was a demolitions expert with the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Carson, Colo. As deputy commander of the 10th, Col. Steiner spoke for the Green Berets and described the harrowing raid on an insurgents' enclave that led to Rolfing's death.
"He (Rolfing) conducted the breach on the target and was the first man in," Steiner said. "He was unflinching and uncompromising."
Despite chest and arm wounds that would prove fatal, Rolfing continued to fight and do his job with valor, Steiner said. The attack objective was fulfilled and the "enemy combatants" were killed, he said.
And Rolfing did his family, his unit and his nation proud, Steiner said before presenting the Rolfing Family with their son's Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
"The words 'hero' and 'warrior' are not used casually in the 10th Special Forces Group. They have to be earned," Steiner said.
Then, passing on a message from Rolfing's master sergeant, Tommy Myers, Steiner said of Rolfing: "He was a warrior, a hero and an exemplary Green Beret. He was one of us."
The other speakers showed that Rolfing was more than a solider who died in the name of freedom. Chris Parsons, Rolfing's soccer coach at Vassar College in New York, spoke of the drive that made Rolfing the second-leading scorer in school history and led the team to the schools first NCAA tournament appearance in any sport.
Whatever he did, he did it full tilt, Parson said.
"What I can't get out of my head is that Robb was utterly, totally committed to the cause," he said. "Mr. and Mrs. Rolfing, the greatest honor of my life is standing before you today."
Calling Rolfing "the brother I never had," cousin Ryan Flores reflected on the zanier side of the guy he knew best for less-heroic activities, such as plotting Minnesota Viking strategy, roughhousing and poorly sung Karaoke songs.
"Robb lived to be a soldier, and he died for all of us as a hero. But he was so much more than that," Flores said. "Most importantly, he was a goofball extraordinaire."
Flores said the most important recollections he has of his cousin was "just being together."
The group that came together to honor Rolfing on Tuesday included his father, Rex, a Rapid City native, and mother Margie, brother T.J. and sister Tiffany. There were other members of family, friends, schoolmates and acquaintances, and even complete strangers.
Former Gov. Bill Janklow, who served in the Marines, was one of those.
"I didn't even know him, but he was a fellow soldier," Janklow said in an interview before the service. "I want my grandkids to live in freedom. And I won't be here to take care of them. So people like Robb Rolfing are doing the job for me.
"We should always remember them for that," Janklow said. "And we should remember them with more than just a marker in the grass."
Speaking to the audience, Gov. Mike Rounds said the career and educational opportunities enjoyed by U.S. citizens might not exist without the freedoms secured through the sacrifices of people like Robb Rolfing.
"Those freedoms are not free," Rounds said. "Today, we celebrate the life of a young man, of a soldier, who stood in harm's way so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have in America today."
Once introduced, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin thanked Rolfing and his family for their sacrifices to protect the people of this nation, as well as "the children of Iraq."
Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson and his wife, Linda, attended the service, following a week in which Munson made several personal contacts with the Rolfing family. At the family's request, Munson also had a sculpture moved from downtown Sioux Falls to the arena for the service.
The sculpture depicts a fallen solider being carried up to heaven by an angel. The Rolfing family saw the sculpture by chance during a stroll in downtown Sioux Falls. They were immediately moved by it and realized later that the moment they saw it was almost exactly the time that Robb Rolfing was killed.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or jevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
Family members of Staff Sgt. Robb L. Rolfing, including his father Rex, left, mother Margie, second left, and his brother T.J.'s fiancee Jena Grau, right, mourn at the flag-draped casket before the funeral service, Tuesday, July 10, 2007, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Rolfing was shot and killed late last month while leading his unit into an insurgent compound in Iraq, Rolfing, 29, was in the U.S. Army Special Forces out of Fort Carson, Colo. (Lloyd B. Cunningham, Argus Leader)
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