H
t first, it looked like any other fancy ball: glittering gowns, white linens and limousines, until the rock music started to
pound and two oversized video screens showed the guests of honor scaling the rugged cliffs of Afghanistan. Soldiers leaped out of planes and bellied their way over a desert landscape as couples
Above | Military balls are celebrations but sacrifi ce is never forgotten. At the
front of every ballroom is a table set for one, symbolizing fallen comrades.
34|February/March • 2009
Having a ball A
Partying with Fayetteville’s A-list – A for Army, that is By Sonia R. Garza
Above | Maj. Mike Tarpey and Cecilia Martinez share a dance at the 3rd Special Forces Group’s winter formal at the Crown Expo Center.
posed for photos and sipped chilled wine. It could only happen at a military
ball. And not just any military ball, but the winter formal for the elite 3rd Special Forces Group. The next day, 19 of its soldiers would be awarded the Silver Stars, the Army’s third-highest award for combat valor. But tonight was the night for a party. With near constant
deployments, it was the first time in months that all five battalions were home at the same time, and they turned out in full force, about 1,000 soldiers and their dates, dressed to the nines. They stepped out of stretch limos
and into the Crown Expo Center. On the screens, soldiers scrambled through the dust and dirt, but now, those same soldiers were in their best “dress mess.”
