The other day I was driving down the road and I passed a car with a small service flag in the rear window. Because I am a snoop of sorts, I slowed a bit as I was passing so I could read it. The flag turned out to be a gold star flag, with the words "Our Private Sacrifice" and the name of the vehicle owner’s lost loved one embroidered on it.
This got me thinking about my own blue star flag I have somewhere in my closet.
I got the flag from another wife whose husband had spent 2005-06 in Iraq as part of a call-up of the Inactive Ready Reserve. She had gotten several as "gifts" from the American Legion (DH and I don’t belong to the AL or the VFW because of their support of Republican politicians) and gave me one of her extras. I had briefly thought about where to hang it, and then more important things came up and the flag got pushed to the bottom of my priority list.
I brought it home and stuck it in my closet. I’m pretty sure it’s still in there somewhere. It will stay there because it’s not terribly important to me to display it. It also brings up emotions I don’t like to think about.
I’ll just say I’m grateful that my service flag still has a blue star on it; because unfortunately, too many families have been forced to swap this:
for this:
Yesterday, the families, friends and loved ones of Rhys Klasno, John Self, Daniel Courneya, and Christopher Murphy learned that their blue star turned to gold. The family of Larry Bauguess learned he'd been killed while on a mission in Pakistan. All their families have my sympathy during this time of sadness and loss.
Yesterday, the Department of Defense also released the names of the missing soldiers:
Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.
Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.
Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.
Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.
Please keep all of them and their families in your thoughts.
According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count the number of names released by the DoD is now 3396 and there are 4 more names of the deceased awaiting notification of the next of kin before being publicly released. The total is now three thousand, four hundred US Servicemen and women.
All of the U.S. fatalities can be seen here or here. They all had loved ones, families and friends. The DoD news releases are here.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind. This series is maintained by i dunno, with the help of Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels and myself.
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