About two weeks ago, I received a package from Afghanistan. Inside the FRB was a folded American flag and a certificate, presenting the flag to me:
On 10 April 2008, the Paratroopers of The ROCK-
2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment,
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team,
while in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM,
proudly flew this symbol of our great nation
- the United States of America -
in the face of our enemy over Camp Blessing,
a remote camp in the austere and rugged
Hindu Kush Mountains, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan
By chance, nearly a year ago, I happened upon a link to Books for Soldiers. Being an avid reader myself, and looking for a way to offer support to troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan I became an Official Volunteer. Over the next several months I would fill requests from around 20 individual soldiers, sending books, DVDs, snacks and personal hygeine items.
A folder in my inbox contains the many emails I have received from them. For some it is a simple thank you. A few like to chat and there is a glimpse into their lives: hometowns, families, hobbies, and what comes next after the tour ends. Our troops really are some amazing people.
Late last summer, I filled a request for a soldier who turned out to be a young Infantry officer. He was a Captain who was on his second deployment since joining the Army. He served a tour in Afghanistan and had been extended on the tour in Iraq when I filled the request. He was planning on leaving the Army for firefighting, and I couldn't help but admire his attitude:
what I love about my job now is working hard together with other guys, knowing that you can trust them and that everyone's lives depend on each other - that breeds a special closeness and camraderie that I don't think you can match anywhere else. I like working in a job that I feel matters, fighting evil (plenty of that here) and protecting the innocent (plenty of those here too) and I think firefighting has a lot of those similar characteristics - helping people in need, going into danger when no one else will, and working with likeminded folks who are trusting you to carry your own weight because their coming home to their families at the end of the day depends on that.
There was a MP stationed near the Iran border who just wanted some marshmallow fluff for his sandwiches. He has a young family back at home - two boys under age two- and he hoped that
...maybe by me coming here they won't have to
I had filled many requests from soldiers deployed to Iraq. A couple of months ago, I filled a request for a soldier stationed at Camp Blessing, Afghanistan. After he received the book I sent we exchanged a few emails. Based on his mailing address, I thought he was part of the same Battalion as the platoon shown in a Nightline piece and Vanity Fair article that I had seen. Indeed he was:
I think that is a great coincidence that you read those two articles. They are both about my Battalion (2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry) and our actions in the Korengal Valley of Konar Province. It is the most contested area in Afghanistan. Sebastian Junger, who wrote the article for Vanity Fair and that did a piece on "NIGHTLINE" is here with us again. It is important that we have our story told. We know Afghanistan is often forgotten about, as even the Presidential candidates only mention Iraq.
Reported Sebastian Junger of Vanity Fair published the article Into the Valley of Death in the January edition, and many of you may have seen it. If you have not, it is worth the time to get a picture of what these men endured. Links to the Nightline piece can be found here. The story and the images are heartbreaking. Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times published Battle Company is Out There in February that continued the story.
A few weeks after I began corresponding with this soldier I received an email where he told me he was sending a "small token" of his appreciation. I felt a little humbled by that. Here was a soldier who was in the midst of a fifteen month tour in Afghanistan away from his wife and children, whom he called "my heroes" and he was sending me something. About two weeks later that package containing the flag arrived.
I know receiving the flag in and of itself is not a unique thing. Many supporters of our troops have received them. But having received it, it does mean a great deal. I thanked him, and let him know I felt honored to have a tiny piece of his Battalion's history. His reply to me was this:
I hope you understand that you are a part of our Battalion's history now, along with many other great supporters of what we do everyday.
If his gesture was humbling, surely being told I was part of the Battalion's history was even more so. This was the moment the war in Afghanistan truly came home to me. I started volunteering with Books for Soldiers because I wanted to support the troops. I wanted to do something. I wanted to offer some small gesture of support to the people who had borne so much in service to our country. I told him that the most important part of receiving that flag would be telling the story behind it to anyone who saw it.
Their story is one of back breaking labor, combat and loss. Since deploying at the end of last spring, the 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry has lost fifteen of their brothers. Thanks to the dedicated crew of IGTNT they have all been mentioned on this site. On this Memorial Day weekend, I honor a beautiful gesture from one of their own to me by honoring them again. Here are their names (linked back to the IGTNT diaries), in the order they were taken:
PFC Timothy R Vimoto (MsWings)
1LT Benjamin J Hall (monkeybiz)
PFC Juan S Restrepo (twilight falling)
SPC Christopher S Honaker (greenies)
PFC Joseph A Miracle (greenies)
SFC Matthew D Blaskowski (monkeybiz)
SGT Joshua C Brennan (greenies)
SPC Hugo V Mendoza (greenies)
SSG Larry I Rougle (moneysmith)
PFC Joseph M Lancour (greenies)
SGT Jeffery S Mersman (greenies)
SPC Lester G Roque (greenies)
1LT Matthew C Ferrara (greenies)
SPC Sean K A Langevin (greenies)
SFC Matthew Ryan Kahler (twilight falling)
I am grateful to fellow Kossak, StormBear for the work in creating and maintaining
Books for Soldiers. There are many ways to support the troops, but the books are loved. From the soldier who sent me the flag:
Just so you know, I couldn't put the book down last night after working for about 18 hours. I finished about a third of it already. Reading has been my escape from here, and definitely regulates my sanity.
StormBear published a diary a few days ago, detailing the financial obstacles to continuing operations of Books for Soldiers. Please see the diary and help out if you can. For me this started as a simple way to show support. It is not possible for one person to remember the name of every fallen service member in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thanks to the connection I made through BFS to one soldier and a flag, there are fifteen names and stories I will never forget.