The newspaper was on the kitchen table this morning. Six soldiers dressed in colors carrying the dead American soldier’s coffin. The stripes of the American flag showing slightly as it covered the tan coffin. It marched straight towards the viewer as you looked at the photo
A Dead American Soldiers Coffin above the fold in today’s local paper.
I felt sadness and tears.
I felt shame
I felt hope
The photo is here with this article:
http://qconline.com/...
I felt sadness and tears for this soldier who lost his life in an uncertain struggle. I did not know him or his family or friends, but the photo invoked sadness just the same.
I felt Shame: Shame that this was the first coffin carrying a brave fallen American soldier that I had seen above the fold in years. Why hadn’t I demanded louder, longer with more persistence that we see the coffins, the death, the tears? Shame that as a Nation we had allowed our leaders to shield us, like cuddled children, from the horror of wars, war our nation had a part in creating. Shame that soldiers had been dying and coming home in coffins for almost seven years now and I had pushed it from my mind just as our nation pushed it from the front pages.
I felt a little hope. Hope that after years of hiding the truth of dead American soldiers at least now Americans were seeing it.
http://www.qconline.com/...
MOLINE -- A relentless wind sent a sea of American flags snapping as about 400 people gathered Thursday afternoon at Quad-City International Airport when Army National Guard Sgt. Schuyler Brent Patch came home to be buried.
Sgt. Patch, 25, of Galva, was killed in action Feb. 24 in Kandahar, Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device. The explosion occurred while he and another soldier were on a joint patrol with Afghan National Security Forces.
At about 2:20 p.m. Thursday, Sgt. Patch's body arrived from Dover Air Force Base to a waiting crowd of family, friends and about 150 Patriot Guard Riders amid American flags bursting with a sea of red, white and blue that followed the beat of the wind.
Before the charter plane carrying Sgt. Patch landed, 10 private planes taxied in front of the Civil Air Patrol building, creating an honor line of respect for the fallen soldier.
Each pilots stood at attention in front of his plane, awaiting the arriving charter to arrive. When it did, about 100 family members entered the tarmac, some wiping tears, some holding each other, some cradling small children in their arms.
The only sound amidst the wind was a soldier placing blocks under the plane wheels until the American flag-draped casket appeared.
Link to IGTNT diary honoring Army National Guard Sgt. Schuyler Brent Patch
Link