Photo courtesy of the Clowers family

"I know lots of fathers and sons love each other, but none ever loved each other any more than they did," said Joyce Clowers of her son and her husband. The two shared breakfast and "man talk."

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Joyce Clowers (left) and her daughter-in-law Kaytie Clowers visit Darrell Shell Park in Roanoke County on Friday. The football field will officially become Clowers Field at a ceremony at 6:30 tonight. The county also plans to create a memorial garden.

Photo courtesy of the Clowers family

Jesse Clowers Jr. (right) was often called "the gentle giant, the man of great physical and moral strength," wrote the commander of his task force.

Photo courtesy of the Clowers family

Jesse G. Clowers Jr.'s family, including his wife and mother, surround his casket. Clowers, a Green Beret who was raised in Roanoke County, was killed a year ago.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County will name the main football field “Clowers Field” and create a memorial garden at Darrell Shell Park.

Joyce Clowers still remembers the day her son, Jesse G., graduated from Army basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2006.

"The group of guys was standing around, everybody was smiling. But I remember thinking that was because some of them didn't realize that in the next couple of years, some of them would be dead.

"I knew it was dangerous, and I didn't want him to go, but it never once crossed my mind that he would not come home."

But one year ago today, Jesse G. Clowers Jr. and two fellow soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device was detonated near their vehicle in the Nangarahar province of Afghanistan.

Clowers, a Green Beret staff sergeant who grew up near Cave Spring, was driving. He and his crew were part of a unit looking for bad guys -- Osama bin Laden reportedly had been seen nearby -- and carrying humanitarian aid to a nearby village.

Clowers was 27, just a few weeks from coming home to be reunited with his wife, Kaytie, son, Jesse III, and daughter, Dani -- who was born after he deployed and had never seen her dad.

Tonight at 6:30, his wife, children and mother will be the guests of honor at a ceremony at Darrell Shell Park, beside Penn Forest Elementary School, where Roanoke County will officially name the main football field "Clowers Field" and unveil plans for a football-themed garden under the scoreboard.

But the commemoration won't just be for Clowers. In fact, he'll be rejoining his late father, in a way, who since 1995 has been remembered on a bronze plaque at the field for his dedicated volunteer service as a coach and mentor.

Like father, like son

"I know lots of fathers and sons love each other," Joyce Clowers acknowledged, "but none ever loved each other any more than they did," she said of her husband, called Big Jesse, and his namesake, Jesse G.

Their son was the child they weren't supposed to have. Joyce Clowers had heart trouble after their second child was born and was advised not to have another.

She and her husband had been married since 1962, just after she graduated from high school. After living in Germany while he served in the Air Force, they returned to the Roanoke Valley to begin a family and her husband's career with Bell Atlantic.

At 10 pounds and 21 inches, Jesse G. was a whopper when he was born in January 1980, but it would be a while before the promise of his size would be fulfilled. Those who only knew him as a burly, 6-foot-2-inch Green Beret probably would have trouble believing Jesse G. was the smallest guy in his class until his senior year of high school.

But that never held him back. By the time he started elementary school, he was playing several sports in Roanoke County sandlot leagues, and his dad became a coach.

Father and son eventually developed a morning ritual. While Big Jesse went out for a run -- a marathoner, he sometimes ran 10 miles before going to work -- Jesse G. would shower, then watch TV until his dad got back.

Then they went off for breakfast and "man talk" before school and work.

Sept. 30, 1994, started out the same way. Jesse G. heard the basement door close that morning and knew his dad was home. But after a little while, he realized he'd never heard his dad start his shower.

"He was afraid to open the basement door," Joyce Clowers recalled. But he did. His father was lying face down on the floor, dead of a heart attack at 53.

About a year later, Roanoke County honored Big Jesse's contributions to the community by placing a plaque and garden in his memory at the main football field at Shell Park, the place he'd coached so many children.

After his father's death, Jesse G. became the man of the house.

He played sports at Cave Spring middle and high schools, earned his Eagle Scout badge, then headed to Virginia Tech.

Although he wasn't a candidate for the football team there, during his sophomore year an old friend prodded him into looking into cheerleading.

"One practice and he was hooked," his mother said.

As a cheerleader, he got to travel with the Hokies and stay close to sports. "He's probably one of the few men who could say he'd been a Green Beret and a cheerleader," his mother said.

In 2003, Jesse G. graduated with a business degree and headed to Herndon, Va., to live with a sister and try to get a job with the FBI or CIA.

While working as a personal trainer, he learned that those agencies both like experience to go with the degree, and the Army seemed like the place to find it. But even as he was planning on enlisting, he fell in love.

Less than a year after their first date, he and Kaytie O'Dell were married and he was off to basic training. Their son, Jesse, was born nine months later, and Jesse G. would spend the next two and a half years in training to become a Green Beret.

In March 2007, Jesse G. was deployed to Afghanistan while Kaytie stayed near Fort Bragg. She was seven months pregnant with their daughter.

The 'gentle giant'

Over the past year, Joyce and Kaytie Clowers have received consolation and some degree of acceptance, as Jesse G.'s memory has been honored at Tech and at home, including the latest decision to name the field after the son as well as the father.

"I take comfort in my faith," Joyce Clowers said. "I know the minute Jesse G. left this earth, he was with his daddy. What a glorious reunion that must have been."

A steely satisfaction is evident when Kaytie Clowers relates the word she received that her husband's Green Beret comrades discovered and destroyed the factory that made the IED that killed him.

"They killed 80 Taliban and took others prisoner. They told me there would never be another bomb from that place."

And Jesse G.'s compatriots and commanders shared their thoughts in letters and conversations.

"To a man, Jesse's comrades refer to him as the gentle giant, the man of great physical and moral strength, but with an even greater heart," wrote Lt. Col. Mark Strong, commander of Jesse G.'s task force.

He also described the deadly blast and assured the family that Jesse G. was killed instantly.

There was one survivor in Jesse G.'s vehicle -- the man in the vehicle's turret.

"I kept asking, 'Why couldn't that have been Jesse?' " Joyce Clowers said. "He was in a wheelchair. He had a crushed foot, an injured elbow. 'Why is that not my son?' "

But when she learned that the survivor's job had been to look out for IEDs, she knew why.

Although she's convinced the surviving soldier did everything he could have done to try to protect the vehicle, she said Jesse G. couldn't have lived with himself if he'd felt responsible for the deaths of his men.

Contributions to help offset the costs of the Clowers memorial can be made to: Cave Spring Recreation Foundation, P.O. Box 20854, Roanoke, VA 24018, and should be designated for the "Clowers Field Memorial Fund."