This is not a diary about soldiers. It is a diary about workers. Having said that, I should say that I consider the members of our Armed Services to be workers, as well. They chose a career in the military, and if one looks at the recruiting material used by the different branches of the military, they go to great lengths to present service in just that light.
On any given day people have accidents in the workplace, and some of those accidents are fatal. If you are a soldier, the chances are good that the New York Times and other news outlets will acknowledge your passing while performing your job. On PBS, the News Hour will solemnly scroll your picture with a few biographical details in respectful silence.
If you are a construction worker, a farmer, a store clerk, a taxi driver or a commercial fisherman...if you are just a "Working Joe", your passing will likely go unmentioned. If someone you left behind decides to do so, there might be an obit in the local paper. About 12 workers die each and everyday in America in the course of doing their work. Few, if any of them, expected to die that day. They went to work just like they always do, and expected to come home at the end of their day. Until something went terribly wrong.
This diary is draw attention to a few of those people, and to remind us that almost every job carries with it some risk. Every worker is valuable, regardless of what kind of uniform they wear, or whether they wear a uniform on the job at all. And everyone is somebody else's hero. Life, especially these days, requires a heroic effort. And death, whether it be from a roadside IED or a fall from a construction scaffold, leaves the same gap in the lives of those close to the deceased.
Below, I'll introduce a few of the workers who lost their lives just recently.
Mustafa Shaker was a clerk at the Trak Foods store in Philadelphia. Two gunmen robbed the store while he was on duty and shot him in the head when he wouldn't open the cash register, or took too long opening it.
Stephen Breidinger, 53, worked at a Myrtle Beach, SC recycling center. A dumpster fell on top of and crushed him to death as it was being unloaded.
Delvin Roberts, also 53, died in Port Manatee< Florida while working as a temp laborer on the docks. He fell between a load and the wall of a ship.
Andrew Gaston was a police officer in Torrance, CA who was escorting a funeral procession when he was killed in a traffic accident.
Sheila Lindsey was a 48 year old toll road worker. She was killed on the job when a drunk driver lost control of his car at slammed into her.
Donald Schlemmer, 60 years old, had just returned to his job at the Cemex Wampum cement plant in PA after a layoff. He was killed on the job when he fell 20 ft from a rail car while unloading it.
Thomas Otto, 52 year old Lisbon Ohio resident, was electrocuted on the job. He was a supervisor for Thompson Electric Co.
Solin Estrada Jimenez of Chattanooga, TN, was killed while working on a barge underneath a bridge. A piece of concrete was jarred loose from the bridge above and struck him in the head. He was 50 years old.
I could go on...and I will. This is just the first of what will be a weekly series listing the names of those who die while doing their jobs each day. Some of the fatalities are just pure misfortune, some are preventable...some are even the result of unsafe work conditions. Each, however, represents a tragic loss to the families and friends they left behind. And I don't subscribe to the notion that their passing is any less meritorious of mention than that of anyone else, or any other worker. Every hero doesn't necessarily wear a uniform, and not everyone who wears a uniform is necessarily a hero. But nobody should die while doing their job.