A rocket was launched into the Green Zone on Tuesday. It exploded in the air, killing a Pennsylvania National Guardsman and an American contractor. Another soldier and four other contractors were wounded.
Yeah, I know. No one wants to read about another dead American in Iraq. Fatigue has set in and nobody wants to read another diary about another victim of the war.
And I wasn't even going to write about this because I know it will get just a handful of comments and scroll off the page faster than Tony Stewart at Talladega. And I'm tired of it all too, to tell the truth. I wasn't going to write this until I heard the attack described on CNN this morning by an "unnamed official" as "a lucky shot."
Here's what set me off initially -- Stars and Stripes had a story about the attack that quoted the U.S. embassy charge d'affairs:
"It is with a profound sense of sadness and regret that we announce the loss of a U.S. Government contractor as the result of a rocket attack on the International Zone in Baghdad, Iraq," the embassy charge d’affairs, Daniel Speckhard, said in a news release issued late Tuesday. "On behalf of the U.S. Embassy and the entire American community in Iraq, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of our colleague."
The contractor is not identified. But the soldier who died is not even mentioned. No "deepest sympathies to the family and friends" of the Guardsman.
Surely the full press release must have something about the soldier, I thought.
So I go to the U.S. Embassy website, but the press release isn't even posted there.
The Associated Press quotes the same release and then adds this:
Minutes later the U.S. command issued a terse statement that the soldier was killed and a second wounded. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said all the dead and wounded were victims of the same rocket assault.
Was the soldier still alive when the press release went out and that's why the embassy didn't mention him? Or did they issue the statement and then suddenlt realize they forgot to mention the soldier?
Well, the soldier who was killed in that attack has a name and a hometown and a new baby who will grow up without a father.
HUGHESVILLE (AP) — An Army National Guard member from this north-central Pennsylvania town was killed in Baghdad’s Green Zone when a rocket exploded over his head, his mother said.
The death of Sgt. 1st Class Sean Michael Thomas, 33, on Tuesday was confirmed by Pennsylvania National Guard headquarters in Fort Indiantown Gap.
"He loved his wife, his family and his new baby," his mother, Diana Thomas, said Wednesday. "He was the first person to smile and make a joke and his entire family will miss him terribly."
Thomas is survived by his wife, Carrie, and their 6-month-old daughter, Alexa. He had been planning to attend Officer Candidate School in October and wanted to be a teacher when he returned to civilian life, Diana Thomas said.
Thomas was sent to Iraq last summer, less than a year after he returned from duty in Afghanistan, his mother said.
Lucky shot? Tell that to his daughter when she grows up.
Rant over. Thank you for reading this far. I know it's no fun reading stuff like this. It's no fun writing it either.