Guys and Gals - I know that we all hate the FULL page posting of articles - BUT I think that one warranted the FULL POST
Oct 17, 2006
Soldier, father - a life remembered
By MORGAN C. MOELLER
mmoeller@hernandotoday.com
SPRING HILL — Gerald Lambert Jr. was a U.S. Army Ranger.
A bail bondsman. A private investigator. A high-clearance security professional. Someone a terrorist didn’t want to see at the opposite end of a machine gun.
But he was also a husband. A hero to his kids. A best friend with a great sense of humor. Someone who carried his sick, 6-year-old daughter for two hours so she wouldn’t miss out on trick-or-treating.
On Wednesday, Oct. 11, Gerald was killed in Tikrit, Iraq when an improvised bomb exploded while he was on security duty with an American company. He put his own life in jeopardy to save the lives of two others — Chuck Meier, of Sunrise, and Ajith Tyrell Senarath Grero from Sri Lanka, who both had injuries.
Gerald is survived by his wife, Lisa Lambert and their five children, Tony, 25; Steven, 20; Paul, 17; Nichole, 16; Aireal, 15; and their seven dogs.
On Tuesday, Lisa sat on the sofa in their Spring Hill living room wearing Gerald’s oversized, black T-shirt. In her lap, she held a picture of him, clad in camouflage, sunglasses and brandishing a machine gun. Gerald in his element, doing what he loved, she said. That was him, happy.
So when he left for Iraq as a security specialist for SOC-SMG, a Nevada-based company, Lisa was supportive — even happy for him.
Gerald was worried about people like his own son, Paul, 17, going off to war, Lisa said. He also wanted to protect his family from terrorists.
“That’s what he wanted to do,” Lisa said. “He wanted to help as many people as he could. If he saved just one child from going to Iraq, it was worth it.”
A Gulf War veteran, it wasn’t the first time Gerald went off to war. He grew up a military child, and when he graduated from Robinson High School in Tampa, he joined the Army. Gerald spent five years serving his country before he moved on to high-clearance security, private investigating and bail bonds. But he craved the camaraderie of serving his country alongside the guys.
“He had that itch,” Lisa said. “He was a Ranger.”
So Lisa, his wife of nine years, helped him get back in the game. He was hired by SOC-SMG as a security specialist for the company’s mobile security element in Iraq. Gerald left for the war-torn nation in February, where he was to serve a yearlong tour.
While he was gone, he sent goofy photos to his wife and letters to his children. He called as often as he could, Lisa said. And even though he was in Iraq, nothing really changed. He was there to support his family and show them his love.
His daughter, Nichole, remembered the last letter he sent to her.
“He said, ‘Every night before I go to sleep I feel this warm kiss on me,’” Nichole said.
For Nichole, Gerald was the father her biological dad never was. He constantly encouraged her, even when things weren’t going well at school. He supported everything that she did. She was the little girl he carried for hours so she could go trick-or-treating.
“We always had the relationship that me and my other dad never had,” she said. “I told him everything.”
Nichole’s brother, Paul, got a tattoo to honor Gerald, a man he called his father and best friend. On his back near his right shoulder, a helmet rests atop a machine gun. Above the picture are the words “In loving memory” and below “1960-2000.”
“He treated me like blood didn’t matter with us,” Paul said.
For Lisa and the children, Gerald was a real-life knight in shining armor. Lisa met Gerald when she hired him as a private detective. She had just gone through a messy divorce.
“He rescued us,” Lisa said. “He was always our hero...Even though we all come from different walks, we were all his children.”
The last time Lisa talked to Gerald, he told her that he loved her. Then a bomb went off just 30 feet away from him.
On Wednesday morning, there was a knock on the Lambert’s front door. When Lisa opened it, there was a deputy and a victim’s advocate on the other side. At first she thought the neighbors called the cops because her dogs got loose in the neighborhood.
They handed her a letter. Her husband was dead.
Lisa threw herself into getting the funeral preparations under way. Gerald wouldn’t have wanted them to cry, she said. He would have wanted to celebrate his life. But on Wednesday, Lisa struggled to control the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
Still, given a second chance, she would do it all over again. Protecting people was his passion, she said. And Lisa wanted Gerald to be happy.
Gerald worried that when he left, someone else would take his place — that someone else would walk his daughter down the aisle. That someone else would sleep in his bed, Lisa said.
But that will never happen, she said. She’ll live the rest of her life as Gerald’s wife because no one could replace him. In the 12 years they were together, he was “my soul mate, my everything, my life.” And every day she was with him, she felt like a newlywed.
“I’m still going to wait for him to come home, because I’m going to be coming home to him one day,” she said.
Reporter Morgan Moeller can be contacted at 352-544-5229.
This story can be found at:
http://www.hernandotoday.com/MGB439U0FTE.html
