A Young Wilton Man's Return from War and his Patron Saint

"People reacted with shock when I told them," Denise Walsh said. "Military service in Fairfield County? It was as if I told them he'd been in an accident."

Walsh, a Wilton resident, recently sat down for an interview to talk about what it was like when her oldest son, Corey, joined the U.S. Army. Firstly, there are few military families in Fairfield County. Secondly, his decision came when Iraq as a state veered toward complete failure.

After Walsh broke the news, some people asked whether hers was a military family. Not precisely, or at least not in the way of the Pattons or the Schwarzkopfs. Nevertheless, her father served in the Army Air Corps, her uncle in the Air Force.

Corey Walsh enlisted after he graduated college. He was assigned to the infantry.  He came home on leave for Christmas in 2007. And Walsh and her husband Tom visited Corey for the ceremonies that marked the end of different schools, such as officer candidacy school.

The letters started during basic training. He called three or four times, but writing proved the surest way to communicate. He sent letters and Walsh transcribed them and sent them out in an email blast to her friends. Some of those friends sent them out to their friends, and so on.

"Just reading the letters was just amazing," Walsh said. "You got to view everything through his eyes. It wasn't necessarily seeing the physical transformation taking place, but reading the transformation. He sounded so adult. You never get to have those conversations when you're home. Sure you try to eat dinner together, but everyone's talking. It was like reading his diaries."

Corey Walsh wanted the Tenth Mountain Division. He was assigned to a unit, but they were already in Iraq.  He was slated to go to Ranger School, but instead got the required signatures so he could join his unit.

"It was never if you go," said his mother, "it's when you go."

On July 4, 2008, Walsh left for Iraq from Fort Polk, Louisiana. Iraq skidded toward collapse. Stop Loss was in effect. And her son would be the third lieutenant for his unit - the other two had been killed.

"But he was anxious to go. After training for a year he wanted to use what he had learned," Walsh said.

And so First Lt. Corey Walsh served as Assistant Operations Officer, 3BN, 162nd Infantry Brigade.

All the while the letters and email continued. He wrote about seeing camels in Kuwait, the first stop before heading into Iraq. He wrote about the unique architecture, and the people.

 "I feel so sorry for Iraqi people. They've just been pushed around by everybody," he'd write his mom.

During his deployment, Denise Walsh fashioned a command post of sorts, with a large map of Iraq pinned to the wall. She furiously searched U.S. and foreign news outlets for shards of information. She discovered 'Troop Scoop' and used Google Earth.

"I became an Internet junkie," she said.

There was but one rule during her son's deployment.

"I told friends don't knock on my door," Walsh said. 

However, sure enough one Sunday morning someone knocked on the front door. Walsh turned to her husband and, stomach in mouth, said "I am not getting that," she recalled. "Thank god it was the neighbors looking for a lost dog."

Corey Walsh didn't know Nick Madaras, a Wilton High School graduate killed in Iraq in 2006. But Nick was in class with Corey's younger brother TJ and younger sister Callen.

And though Corey didn't know Nick, he wore a bracelet engraved with PFC Nicholas Madaras, Sept. 3, 2006, Baqubah, every day during his deployment. 

"So many times an IED exploded right before they got somewhere or two hours after," Denise Walsh said. "He [Corey] firmly believes Nick was his patron saint, his guardian angel while he was there."

Corey and his unit also distributed soccer balls through Wilton's Kick for Nick and school supplies donated from Wilton residents. Corey Walsh came home February 2009.

"He was there to protect his guys," Walsh said. "He said 'I want to bring all my Nicks home.'"

Read the first part in the series: A Young Wilton Man's Way to War.