SSG Hullender joined the Army Rangers and was later transferred to Alaska to be a part of the 501st. “He was up there for about two years, and he absolutely loved Alaska! It was really good for him.” Not only was he doing something he loved and believed in, Hullender was doing it in one of the most beautiful places in America. It’s easy to see why he loved it so much.

Once 9/11 happened and the war on terror began, Hullender and his team were dispatched overseas. In April of 2007, Hullender and his fellow soldiers were in Iraq. While performing his medic duties and working hard to stabilize a fellow soldier for transport, SSG Michael Hullender was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit.

Gone but Never Forgotten

For a parent, Malmo and her husband at the time were going through the worst situation imaginable. How to deal with something so difficult is never an easy question, and the solution is different for everyone.

“My daughter started making quilts,” Malmo explained when talking about this time in their lives. “My husband had received a comfort quilt from somebody that had been made with patches and different emblems on it. What people would do is just make squares and then they would send them in and someone would put them together.” Her daughter started making these quilt squares, and one of the first patches the family ordered in SSG Hullender’s memory made its way into some of these quilts. “For awhile, those patches were on quilts that went to families of the fallen.”

There’s no one size fits all way to deal with loss. For SSG Hullender’s family, being creative and designing patches and creating quilts was one way to process their grief. For Malmo herself, getting active in a like-minded and sympathetic community was for the best.

It might seem trivial to think that a patch has the ability to carry so much weight and to help someone get through one of the darkest parts of their life, but when you understand the story behind the patch, when you take the time to get to know the people these patches are intended to represent and honor, you see that it’s not trivial at all. “It’s basically a thank you for their effort and their remembrance,” Malmo explained about handing out the patches. “When you think about it, Mike died 12 years ago, and the Thunderbirds just flew for Mike. I mean they remember. And they were so gracious ... they really were very thankful.” Cindy Malmo is working hard to help make sure her son’s memory lives on, and we’re happy and proud to be a part of that journey.

Story above from the website Signaturepatches.com

Also see: "The Last Heavy Footfalls of Doc Hullender" on the Atlanta Magazine website: