In 1918, just months short of earning his degree at Columbia University, my paternal grandfather, a son of privilege, abandoned his carefree life in NY to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. Shortly thereafter, he flew planes over France (without benefit of radar or parachute) in dog fights against the Germans in World War I.
This is the type of plane that he flew then:
That same year, my maternal grandfather, not a son of privilege, gave up the rural life he loved to serve his country on a tin-plated submarine in the North Atlantic. This man, who loved the great outdoors and worshipped its fresh air, served on a submarine like this one:
He hated every sweaty, claustrophic minute of it. But he did his duty.
In his Special Comment tonight, Keith Olbermann talked about duty and sacrifice -- primarily the latter. He asked all of us to consider what sacrifice really means.
During WWII, my parents knew what sacrifice in support of our country meant. They gladly went along with rationing; my Mom remembers rubber drives, rolling bandages, food shortages and the fact that everyone participated. Her older brother, my uncle, served in the War. My Dad went through high school on an expedited schedule, did his first year of college at Princeton when he was 15, and then entered the Naval Academy. A bookworm and night-owl, the rigors of the Academy were a challenge for him, but he was there to serve his country.
More than a decade later, after he had completed his service, but remained a member of the reserves, he was called up to fly surveillance aircraft over the North Atlantic during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was very young then, but I remember that he was gone for many months. He did not say at the time that he had "other priorities," although, at that time, he most certainly did. He did his duty.
My Dad, who served as an instructor at the United States Naval Academy (at the time John McCain was a student), and who was, thoughout his life, a loyal Republican, never trusted Donald Rumsfeld. He never said why. I am sorry I did not ask.
My Mom -- who was very happily married to my Dad for 49 years before his sudden death in January 2000 -- watched Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment with me tonight. Our jaws dropped simultaneously. Literally. Though all the comments made by President Bush were jaw-dropping, those about his "sacrifice" were the most jaw-dropping of all.
There sat my mother -- whose father had served on a submarine, whose father-in-law had flown planes over France, whose brother had served in WWII, whose husband had flown over the North Atlantic -- listening to the President of the United States equate "sacrifice" with the giving up of golf. The President who ordered our military into an unnecessary war, and who has since ordered some of our troops into their 5th deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, actually talked about "sacrifice" in the same sentence as "golf."
We no longer know what to make of our country. But this is what we do know:
We need to thank the families whose lives have been torn asunder by an Administion that has no understanding of national duty, and less than that of the concept of sacrifice. We need to say as often as we can: Bless you for the sacrifices you have made, with such devotion and selflessness.
These are just some of those I would like to remember and thank again tonight.
Thank you to these soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and National Guard, and their grieving families:
Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin, 24, of Batavia, Ohio
(Photo taken 4-1-04)
Staff Sgt. Keith Maupin was captured on April 9, 2004. For four years, his family and community kept vigil. His remains were found; that they were his was confirmed on March 29, 2008.
In this small town, where support for the Iraq war remains strong, residents held to the belief that Staff Sgt. Keith "Matt" Maupin was alive and would return home.
It was something folks spoke of with matter-of-fact assurance, even four years after Maupin was captured, and they grew irate whenever their reasons for hope were called into question. They planned homecoming parties -- backyard barbecues and baseball games and weekend fishing trips -- for the handsome young man who loved the outdoors.
They routinely tied fresh yellow ribbons around mailboxes and telephone poles, staking them across the rolling hills of Clermont County, where they fluttered like daffodils. After all, when Matt came home, it wouldn't do for him to see tattered ribbons.
Then on Sunday, after 1,451 days, word came that Maupin's remains had been identified.
The loss of a soldier, and of a powerful faith, have cut deep into this southern Ohio town of 1,600, where nearly a quarter of the residents are veterans.
Source ~ Los Angleles Times
Diary ~ IGTNT The Long Wait Is Over
Sgt. Bradley J. Skelton, 40, of Gordonville, Missouri
Sgt. Skelton died Feb. 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1138th Engineer Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, Missouri Army National Guard, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Bradley Skelton had already served one dangerous tour in Iraq in 2004 and part of 2005, then retired from the Missouri Army National Guard after a 23-year career. But last year he volunteered to go again because he thought someone with more to lose might be better off staying home.
"He told me he wanted to give someone else a break who was married and had a family," said his uncle, Charles Skelton.
Sgt. Bradley Skelton, 40, of Gordonville was killed in Iraq on Wednesday when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device, the Missouri National Guard said.
Source ~ The Daily Dunklin Democrat
Diary ~ IGTNT He Brought Joy To All of Us
Sgt. Peter C. Neesley, 28, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
Sgt. Neesley died Dec. 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of an undetermined cause in a non-combat environment. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
All soldiers wish for two things: Another day and the chance to come home.
Sgt. Peter Neesley had a third wish: He wanted to bring the stray dogs -- Mama and Boris -- he had befriended in Iraq home with him.
Sgt. Peter Neesley did not get either of his first two wishes. On Christmas Day, from causes still unexplained, he died.
(In February 2008) though, thanks to Best Friends Animal Society, his last wish came true.
Diary ~ A Soldier’s Wish Comes True
Pfc. Danny L. Kimme, 27, of Fisher, Illinois
Pfc. Kimme died Jan. 16 in Balad, Iraq of wounds he suffered in Balad, Iraq when he was attacked by grenade and small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
"Danny wasn't always the guy who lived in an abundance of stuff that you could hold in your hand or keep in your pocket, that guy carried more heart in him than any of our friends carry or I carry and I'll always be proud to call him my friend."
Source ~ WCIA 3 News
Diary ~ IGTNT To Be Anything Like Him Would Be an Honor
Pfc. Ivan E. Merlo, 19, of San Marcos, California
Pfc. Merlo died Jan. 9 of wounds sustained during combat operations in Samarra, Iraq. The incident is under investigation. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Army Pfc. Ivan E. Merlo of San Marcos was supposed to come home in two weeks after finishing a yearlong deployment in Iraq.
The 19-year-old was supposed to reunite with his wife, Nicole. He was supposed to serve as the best man at the wedding of his best friend and brother in combat, Pfc. Phillip J. Pannier, 20, of Washburn, Ill.
But Merlo and Pannier died Wednesday while waging an Army offensive targeting insurgents north of Baghdad.
Source ~ San Diego Times-Union
Diary ~ We Have Died. Remember Us.
Sgt. Shawn F. Hill, 37, of Wellford, South Carolina
Sgt. Hill died Jan. 2 in Khowst Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encontered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 178th Engineer Battalion, 218th Infantry Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, Rock Hill, S.C.
Sgt. Shawn F. Hill loved his wife and three sons and joined the Army National Guard to help provide for them as he studied at Spartanburg Community College for an electrical engineering degree.
He recently was home with his family for Thanksgiving on a 15-day leave, before returning to Afghanistan to complete his second tour overseas.
Hill, 37, of Wellford, died Wednesday in Khowst Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered a bomb.
Source ~ Spartanburg Herald
Diary ~ IGTNT He Was An Inspiration to Everybody
Capt. Maria I. Ortiz, 40, of Bayamon, P.R.
Capt. Maria I. Ortiz, 40, of Bayamon, P.R., died July 10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy indirect fire. She was assigned to the Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
Everybody at Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic knew Capt. Maria Ortiz.
She was the head nurse with the 1,000-watt smile and the ability to instantly calm even the most distressed patients at the clinic on Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army installation in Maryland.
But the 40-year-old Pennsauken native told co-workers last year that while she enjoyed caring for sick soldiers in America, she was volunteering for duty in Iraq because she felt drawn to troops wounded in combat.
(snip)
"If there was a jewel to the clinic, she was the jewel," said Renee Smith, a former co-worker. "But she told us she needed to go to Iraq. She told us: 'I want to save someone's life.'"
Source ~ The Star-Ledger
"She touched everyone's lives and everything about her was positive," her fiance, Juan Casiano, said from her mother's home in Pennsauken, New Jersey. "She always carried a smile."
Source ~ International Herald Tribume
Diary ~ IGTNT She Was the Jewel
Once you have profiled a soldier, sailor, Marine, airman or member of the National Guard, he sticks with you. I have not been able to delete any of the photos of those I have profiled from my photobucket account; and I look at their faces often. I feel as though I know them now; and all of them, always, will be in my heart.
Bless the promise of a new national life.
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